Night was like spilled, thick ink, mingling with the never-fading dark red of the Cloud of Blood Erosion and staining this abandoned industrial district on the distant outskirts of Jiangcheng with an especially sinister air.
Ruined walls stood like the skeletons of enormous beasts, casting menacing shadows beneath the faint moonlight.
The air reeked of rust, dust, and a faint, nauseatingly sweet metallic odor.
Luo Li pulled his old jacket tighter around himself-the one he had dug out for "ease of movement"-and felt his heart hammering against his chest faster than ever before.
He followed closely behind Castorice, his palms slightly sweaty with nerves.
Castorice, walking ahead, presented a stark contrast.
She still wore those somewhat oversized casual clothes, but the ornate, dark-purple scythe in her hand, wreathed in the chill of the River of Souls, utterly transformed her presence.
Aloof and deadly, like a wanderer stepping out of the underworld.
Her steps were light, her toes touching the broken concrete almost soundlessly. Her purple eyes glimmered in the darkness as she calmly surveyed everything around them.
"Luo Li, there's 'something' on the second floor of the third factory building on the left."
She suddenly stopped, her voice calm and even.
Luo Li looked in the direction she indicated. Most of the building's windows were broken, their black openings like eyes waiting to devour someone.
He saw nothing and heard nothing unusual.
But Xiao Hong instantly grew excited inside his mental space. "(☆▽☆) Yes, yes, yes! Right there! I can smell it! It's faint, but it's very 'fresh'! Get in there, Master!"
Get in there, my ass!
Luo Li cursed inwardly. He could not even make out where the enemies were.
"D-rank Bloodthirsty Beasts. Two of them, dormant."
Castorice spoke again, reporting the targets' number and rank with precision, as though stating the simplest of facts.
She turned to look at Luo Li, her eyes seeming to ask: Should I attack?
Luo Li took a deep breath and nodded firmly.
We've come all this way. We can't go back empty-handed.
With his confirmation, Castorice hesitated no further.
She lightly pushed off with her toes, rising as though weightless, gliding gracefully over the rubble-strewn ground and slipping silently into the abandoned factory.
Luo Li hurriedly crouched low and found a relatively concealed corner behind a broken wall, where he squatted and nervously watched the factory's second floor.
Through the broken windows, he could vaguely see two indistinct black shapes curled in a corner.
The next instant, a dim purple light flashed and vanished like butterfly wings unfurling in the night.
Fast! So fast that even Luo Li's Super-Speed Reaction ability could catch only an afterimage.
He did not even see how Castorice attacked. He heard only two extremely faint sounds, like cloth tearing.
Then everything fell silent.
The two curled shadows did not even have time to roar before they rapidly shriveled and dispersed like punctured balloons, leaving only two inconspicuous dark-red stains on the floor.
Castorice reappeared at the window, moonlight outlining her slender figure. A dark-red drop of blood slowly slid down the scythe's edge, but before it could fall, the chill of the River of Souls surrounding the weapon froze it. It shattered into powdered ice crystals and dispersed in the air.
She lightly flicked her scythe, the movement as graceful as brushing dew from a flower petal.
The entire process took no more than three seconds.
Clean, decisive, and so quiet it was as though nothing had happened.
Luo Li's mouth fell open, and he could not close it for a long while.
He knew Castorice was strong, but he had never imagined... she was this strong!
Though D-rank Bloodthirsty Beasts were the lowest rank of vampire, their strength and speed still far exceeded those of ordinary people, requiring trained soldiers or low-level ability users to handle them carefully.
Yet before Castorice, they were as fragile as paper.
"(★ ω ★) Wow! The pretty lady is so cool! So powerful!"
Xiao Hong cheered wildly inside his mental space.
"Look, Master! That's the difference in strength! Learn something!"
Luo Li had no reply. He could only swallow silently.
Castorice leaped lightly from the window and landed beside Luo Li, her expression as calm as ever. "Done."
"Uh... yeah, I saw."
Luo Li answered dryly.
"The energy... was very weak."
Castorice frowned slightly, seemingly dissatisfied with the "nourishment" the two Bloodthirsty Beasts had provided.
Xiao Hong immediately complained too. "(;´д｀)ゞ Exactly! There was so little! Not even enough to fill the gaps between my teeth! Master, we need something 'fatter'!"
Looking at Castorice's expression of wanting more and listening to Xiao Hong's dissatisfied clamoring, Luo Li suddenly felt that perhaps bringing them out had not solved their food problem, but instead... flipped some dangerous switch?
Just then, Castorice's gaze abruptly shifted deeper into the factory district, toward an area shrouded in thicker darkness.
"There's a stronger 'presence' over there." A sharp gleam flashed through her purple eyes.
"At least C-rank. Possibly more than one."
Luo Li's heart tightened.
C-rank predators already possessed basic intelligence and the ability to cooperate. They were far more dangerous than D-ranks.
"Should we... go over there?" he asked hesitantly.
Castorice did not answer immediately. She quietly sensed the area for a moment, then nodded. "I can handle it."
Her tone carried a matter-of-fact confidence.
Looking at her calm profile, Luo Li gritted his teeth. "All right! I'll follow your lead!"
Like ghosts in the night, the two continued sneaking deeper into the industrial district.
The farther they went, the thicker the bloody stench became. Signs of human activity also began appearing around them-piles of bones, dried bloodstains, and crude nest-like structures built from discarded materials.
Soon, they found their targets in a relatively open space that appeared to have been an old warehouse's unloading area.
Three humanoid creatures were wandering there.
They looked more human than the D-rank Bloodthirsty Beasts, but their pale skin had an unhealthy bluish-gray tinge. Their nails were sharp, dark-red blood lingered at the corners of their mouths, and bloodlust and cunning glittered in their eyes.
C-rank predators!
They seemed to notice the intruders as well. Immediately stopping their wandering, they let out low, threatening growls and spread into a fan formation to surround Luo Li and Castorice.
"Careful! They work together!"
Luo Li warned her nervously, instinctively tightening his grip on a rusty iron pipe he had picked up somewhere-a thing no different from a toothpick against vampires.
Yet Castorice remained composed.
She did not even adopt a fighting stance. She simply watched the three approaching predators quietly, her scythe hanging naturally from her hand, its blade touching the ground.
When one of the predators could no longer restrain itself and lunged first with a roar, Castorice moved.
Her movements were still as graceful as a dance.
With a slight turn of her body, she evaded the predator's seemingly certain pounce by a hair's breadth.
At the same time, she gently rotated her wrist. Her dark-purple scythe traced an elegant, lethal arc, like butterfly wings fluttering through the night, sweeping soundlessly across the predator's neck.
There was no violent collision, no piercing noise.
The predator's forward rush stopped abruptly. Its head, still wearing its vicious expression from a moment earlier, slowly separated from its body. Dark-red blood gushed from its severed neck like a fountain, but before reaching the ground, the chill of the River of Souls froze it into scarlet ice crystals that shattered and clattered across the floor.
At the sight, a flicker of terror passed through the other two predators' eyes. But their bloodthirsty instincts soon overpowered their fear, and they attacked Castorice simultaneously from either side.
The one on the left thrust its claws straight at Castorice's face, while the one on the right ducked low and swept at her legs, coordinating remarkably well.
Yet against an absolute disparity in strength, such cooperation seemed laughable.
Castorice lightly pushed off with her toes, her body drifting half a step backward like a boneless wisp of willow fluff, evading both the high and low attacks with perfect precision.
As she retreated, she swung her scythe again.
This time, rather than cleaving straight down, the scythe traced a fluid zigzag as though it had come alive!
The dim purple blade light resembled violets blooming in an instant, weaving a net of death in the air!
"Slash! Slash!"
Two soft sounds rang out, almost overlapping.
The left predator's claws were severed at the wrist, while the right one's lower leg was cut off at the knee.
Before they could even scream, Castorice had closed in like a phantom. The butt of her scythe shot out like a venomous snake emerging from its hole, striking their chests with precision.
"Thud! Thud!"
With two dull impacts, the predators' chests visibly caved in. As though struck by a speeding truck, they flew backward into the concrete pillar behind them. The cracking of their bones was clearly audible. They struggled twice before falling silent.
The entire battle flowed seamlessly, a pleasure to behold.
There was not a single unnecessary movement, not a trace of wasted strength.
Against the moonlight and the dark-red sky, Castorice's figure seemed to perform a dance of death. Every turn and every swing of her scythe carried a cruel, exquisite beauty.
She had not even let a single drop of tainted blood splash onto her.
As the last predator died, she landed lightly, her scythe angled toward the ground, strands of silver-purple hair brushing softly across her forehead.
She tilted her head slightly toward Luo Li's hiding place, her purple eyes clear and calm in the darkness, as though asking: Did you see that clearly?
Luo Li was utterly transfixed.
He crouched behind the broken wall, his mouth open wide enough to fit an egg.
This... how was this a fight? This was the ultimate expression of the aesthetics of violence!
His heart pounded, not from fear, but from an indescribable sense of awe and... a flutter of feeling.
Looking at that aloof figure standing beneath the moonlight with her scythe, Luo Li felt his breathing stop.
"(≧∇≦)ﾉ Amazing! Amazing! The pretty lady is invincible! Energy! I can feel rich energy!"
Xiao Hong was so excited it almost bounced out of his mental space. "Quick, Master! Let me out! It's mealtime!"
Only then did Luo Li recover from his shock. Taking a deep breath, he left his hiding place and approached Castorice.
Looking at the three C-rank vampire corpses on the ground, rapidly losing their vitality and beginning to emit stronger Remembrance Energy, Luo Li hesitated briefly. Still, following Xiao Hong's guidance, he focused and summoned it.
The red chibi energy ball instantly appeared in the air. Giving off cheerful mental fluctuations that only Luo Li and Castorice could hear, it eagerly pounced on the corpses.
Rippling rings of red light spread across its spherical surface, enveloping the vampire corpses like waves of water.
The next moment, wisps of dark-red energy, seemingly interspersed with fragmented images, were drawn from the corpses and flowed continuously into Xiao Hong's spherical body.
Xiao Hong's color visibly deepened and grew more solid. The red light on its surface became brighter and steadier, and even its size seemed to increase slightly.
"(๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧ Delicious! Delicious! That's the flavor! Memories filled with chaos, brutality, and despair! So exciting! Energy fully replenished!"
Xiao Hong let out a satisfied "burp," clamoring inside Luo Li's mind.
Watching the vampire corpses rapidly shrivel beneath the red light and finally turn to drifting ash, Luo Li felt conflicted.
On the one hand, Xiao Hong's food problem seemed temporarily resolved.
On the other hand, witnessing this kind of "bloodsucking" firsthand still made him physically uncomfortable.
Castorice showed no particular reaction. She simply watched Xiao Hong "eat" quietly, then told Luo Li, "It seems to have... grown a little."
Luo Li felt it too. Xiao Hong's mental fluctuations were much stronger than before.
"We... should head back, right?"
Luo Li checked the time. They had been out for almost an hour.
"Yes."
Castorice nodded and put away her scythe. Her imposing presence instantly withdrew, and she became that quiet, taciturn girl from another world once more.
The two retraced their steps.
Only after leaving the oppressive abandoned industrial district and seeing the city's sparse but warm lights in the distance did Luo Li truly breathe a sigh of relief.
Tonight's experience had been an enormous shock to him.
At the same time, Castorice's elegant, precise fighting form, filled with the aesthetics of violence, had branded itself deep into his mind.
They returned home and closed the door, shutting out the danger and darkness outside.
Watching Castorice change her shoes in the entryway, Luo Li could not help asking softly, "Castorice... back in Amphoreus, did you often... fight like that?"
Castorice paused and looked up. A trace of recollection passed through her purple eyes before she gently shook her head. "Not often. Most of the time... the banks of the River of Souls were very quiet.
"Battle usually meant... the balance had been broken."
Her tone was very flat, as though she were discussing an ordinary little matter.
Yet Luo Li could imagine that every instance of this so-called "broken balance" probably came with unimaginable devastation and... death.
Looking at Castorice's calm profile, he felt an indescribable emotion rise within him-tenderness, admiration, and also a certain... inexplicable sense of distance.
Was there really a chance for them?
[Ding! The host witnessed the target "Castorice" in her heroic battle form, experiencing intense awe and admiration, while also feeling a trace of inferiority and distance due to the disparity in strength. The target "Castorice" felt reassured by the host's safe return. Overall assessment: affection +2. Current affection: 83%!]
The system notification brought Luo Li back to his senses.
He looked at Castorice, who had already headed toward the living room to get some water, and shook his head hard, casting aside those jumbled thoughts.
Whatever the case, her affection was still rising. That was a good thing.
He hurried after her, a smile returning to his face. "Castorice, thanks for all your hard work tonight! Want something warm? Shall I make you a cup of milk?"
Perhaps he really was weak.
But at least he could work to become stronger and do everything he could to treat her well.
Castorice stopped and glanced back at him. Seeing that familiar smile on his face, tinged with eagerness to please and concern, she froze slightly, then gently nodded.
"All right."