The man was stabbed several times, white smoke rising from his body due to the erosion of holy light, and he leaned weakly against a tree trunk.
Before he could make his next move, Duoluolisi flashed in front of him, raising her sword blazing with golden flames and thrusting it at him.
He hurriedly commanded his familiar, a crow, to dive down and block in front of him.
“Ahhh!!!”
The instant the crow touched the flames, it turned into a golden fireball, quickly burning out upon landing, leaving only a pile of ashes.
Taking advantage of this gap, the man rolled to the side, barely dodging the thrust, but before he could stand up, Duoluolisi’s next strike followed.
He waved his hand in desperation, and the last few Blood Birds flew out from nearby, crashing into the sword.
As they were consumed by the golden flames, they slightly altered the sword’s trajectory, deflecting it upward.
The blade grazed past his head.
Seeing that he had escaped danger, he scrambled to his feet and put distance between them, leaning against another tree, gasping in pain.
Every breath he took made the wound on his shoulder feel like it was being scorched by fire.
‘Damn it, how is this white-haired girl so strong?’
The man originally thought she was only slightly stronger than that brown-haired girl, at most knowing a bit of swordsmanship.
Moreover, to be safe, he had even prepared to ambush the brown-haired girl and use her as a hostage.
Who would have thought this white-haired girl was so fast?
Every time he tried to raise his hand to cast a spell, she would quickly close in and interrupt him, never giving him a chance to act.
‘No good, I need to get my minions to come and help tie down this white-haired girl.’
The man secretly moved his right hand behind his back, spreading his five fingers.
Wisps of dark red blood threads extended from his palm, silently reaching into the darkness.
He silently chanted a spell, wanting the Blood Fowl to come to his aid, but he couldn’t sense any connection with them at all.
‘Huh? What about the minions he sent to encircle that black-haired kid? Why isn’t there any response?’
‘Those were minions he spent a whole month infecting. Could they all have been taken out?’
The man’s expression changed.
He suppressed the pain and tried to push himself up to stand, but the injury on his leg made him collapse again as soon as he exerted force.
He braced himself with his hands just in time to maintain a kneeling posture.
“Who the hell are you?” the man asked with difficulty.
Duoluolisi did not answer.
She simply walked up to the man and pointed her sword at him.
By the moonlight, the man could see her face clearly—silver hair, golden eyes, and that cold gaze, which reminded him of a portrait he had seen.
‘Silver… Silver Radiance Sword Maiden?’
The white-haired girl in front of him looked too much like the Silver Radiance Sword Maiden in that portrait, as if she had stepped right out of it.
He immediately panicked, never expecting to have provoked Lady Silver Radiance Sword Maiden.
He was dead for sure.
‘No, impossible. The Silver Radiance Sword Maiden died long ago.’
The man frantically tried to convince himself that this white-haired girl could not be the Silver Radiance Sword Maiden.
“I know what you’re after.”
Duoluolisi spoke, interrupting the man’s thoughts.
“You captured sacrifices to revive a woman named Wei Luo, didn’t you?”
Hearing that name, the man’s body stiffened.
‘How does she know I want to revive Wei Luo?’
“I’ve read your diary. I know what you’ve been through and what you plan to do next. I know it all,” Duoluolisi explained, trying to appeal to the man’s reason and have a proper talk with him.
“What…”
The man felt his pocket and realized the diary in his pouch was gone.
‘Where’s the diary? Where did it fall?’
He remembered that when he left the cave, he had hurriedly pulled something out of his pocket; the diary must have fallen out then.
‘Wait, since this white-haired girl has read his diary, doesn’t that mean she’s been inside his cave?’
‘Then could Wei Luo’s body have been…’
The man suddenly lowered his head, his shoulders trembling.
“Wei Luo, Wei Luo, Wei Luo…”
He began to repeat the name in a low voice, faster and faster, sounding like an unsettling whisper.
Duoluolisi felt something was wrong with the man.
Her body also sensed danger, and she unconsciously took half a step back.
The man jerked his head up, his eyes flickering with a red light even more piercing than before.
“No one can stop me from reviving Wei Luo! Not you, not the Silver Radiance Sword Maiden, not anyone!”
He shouted toward the sky, and in his hand, a dark red blood sphere had somehow formed, expanding at a visible rate.
‘Not good!’
Duoluolisi sensed the mana in the blood sphere rapidly condensing, about to explode.
She immediately leaped back, landing beside Dailina, and wrapped an arm around her waist.
“Watch out!”
With that, she leaped into the air, carrying Dailina with her.
“Huh? Duoluolisi?”
Before Dailina could react, her body was already lifted off the ground.
She instinctively wanted to struggle, but found herself firmly supported by Duoluolisi.
Silver strands of hair brushed against her cheek in the air current, carrying a faint scent of lily that lingered at the tip of her nose.
‘So close.’
Thinking this, she realized she was pressed tightly against Duoluolisi’s body.
Through their clothes, she could feel the warmth of Duoluolisi’s arm.
“Guh…”
The arm holding her suddenly tightened for some reason, and Dailina’s body trembled.
The ears that had just started to cool down instantly burned up again.
Boom!!!
The blood sphere exploded behind them, a dark red light engulfing the spot where the man had been.
The shockwave from the blast swept through the surroundings, carrying a bloody wind, shaking wood chips and spraying mud in all directions.
The two landed.
Duoluolisi turned to shield Dailina in her arms, using her own back to block the flying debris.
Her defense was high, and the fragments didn’t harm her at all.
A few seconds later, the light dissipated.
She let go and looked down at Dailina in her arms.
“Are you okay?”
Dailina didn’t respond.
Her face was buried in Duoluolisi’s chest, and her hands had somehow clutched Duoluolisi’s clothes.
“Dailina?”
“Ah!”
Dailina suddenly let go and stepped back half a step.
The blush on her face became even more obvious under the moonlight.
“Sorry! I… it’s not… that… I I I…”
She started to ramble, her voice sounding strange, and her index fingers nervously twirled around each other in front of her chest.
‘Why, why is she reacting so strongly!’
‘After all, they’re both girls…’
Seeing Dailina in a state of shutdown again, Duoluolisi, realizing what she had just done, also shyly turned her head away, a slight blush on her cheeks.
But now was not the time to dwell on that.
She saw the man had already raised his hands and was condensing another huge blood sphere.
‘Is he going to detonate it again?’
“I can collect more blood later, but you two sacrifices must stay here!”
The man raised the blood sphere high, and at the same time, a bright red magic circle spread out beneath him.
Duoluolisi looked at the symbols on the magic circle and realized it seemed to be a sacrificial array.
‘What is he going to sacrifice?’
“Noble Origin of All Blood, Supreme Being Who Commands Blood, Ruler of the Scarlet Night…”
The man rattled off a long list of titles, making Duoluolisi dizzy.
‘What the hell? How many people are you sacrificing to?’
‘And also, where has she heard that string of titles before?’
‘Whatever, I’ll just go up and interrupt the spell. Who cares who he’s sacrificing to.’
Just as Duoluolisi was about to make a move, Meiluodi’s voice sounded in her mind again.
‘Kid, I advise you not to try to interrupt him. That sacrificial array has a protective mechanism.’
Duoluolisi had wanted to ask Meiluodi why, but when she opened her mouth, it unconsciously came out like that.
‘Oh~ really? The Demon God sure cares about me~’
‘Hah, I do not care about you, kid.’
Meiluodi sneered.
‘Feel free to charge in and try. When the array sends you flying, don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
‘Okay~ Thank you for the Demon God’s concern.’
Duoluolisi smiled slightly, returning to reality.
The man had finally finished reciting the sacrificial incantation.
“…Your most loyal servant hereby offers all the blood I have collected. Please, noble Blood Demon God, grant me the Crimson Power!”
‘Wait! He’s sacrificing to Meiluodi?’
‘Meiluodi is sealed. How can she give you power?’
Duoluolisi thought to herself, but then she saw the magic circle respond.
The blood sphere in the man’s hand poured into the array, transforming into several red pillars of light that shot upward, converging high in the air into a huge orb of light.
Then a beam of crimson mana shot down from the orb, straight into the man’s body.
‘Huh? How did that work?’
Duoluolisi stared in surprise, her mind full of confusion.
She couldn’t help but ask Meiluodi:
‘Demon God, weren’t you sealed? How can you secretly give him power?’
‘What do you mean secretly give it? You kid don’t think that sealing me is the same as sealing my power, do you? That damn white-haired girl only sealed my physical body; she didn’t seal my origin power in the Demon Realm. Of course he can obtain my power through sacrifice.’
Meiluodi’s tone was full of disdain.
Duoluolisi couldn’t hold it in anymore.
‘What the hell? What do you mean only sealed the body without sealing the origin?’
‘Sealed, but he can still borrow the Demon God’s power. Isn’t that the same as sealing nothing?’
‘Seriously, if he gives it, you take it?’
Duoluolisi couldn’t help but complain.
‘That glob of blood is mixed with blood from all kinds of chickens, ducks, geese, and wild birds. It’s so dirty. Aren’t you disgusted, Demon God?’
‘Why should I be disgusted? Although he’s just a lowly vampire, and the blood he offers is very inferior, even nauseating to smell, he is still my minion. Since he sincerely offers blood to me, I am naturally willing to grant him power.’
Meiluodi’s tone was matter-of-fact.
‘Hmph~ I suspect you’re doing it out of spite, deliberately giving him power.’
Duoluolisi snorted softly.
‘Hah~’
Meiluodi let out a light laugh.
‘You think too much. I wouldn’t stoop to being spiteful with a kid like you.’
Duoluolisi didn’t reply, just smiled.
‘And she says she wouldn’t stoop to being spiteful with me? Who was it that went red and left me alone in the consciousness space all night?’
‘And who kept mocking me when I couldn’t talk back during the fight with the Blood Eagle?’
‘This tsundere Demon God has such a hard mouth.’
But for now, she had to face the vampire who had obtained the Demon God’s power.
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