As Ling Yue said, the blood tofu soup at dinner was indeed very light.
After finishing it, Feng Ling curled up on the sofa and continued playing games.
Ling Yue still sat beside her, flipping through that endless book.
Occasionally, she would reach out and smooth down Feng Ling’s hair, which the cushion had ruffled.
Everything looked the same as usual.
However, Feng Ling noticed something different tonight: Ling Yue was turning the pages faster than normal.
Her fingers kept rubbing back and forth along the edges of the pages.
She would pause for a long time on the same page after turning just a few, then suddenly flip through several pages in quick succession.
Hmm…
‘Sister Ling Yue must be worried about something, right? Or maybe she saw something unsettling while clearing out intruders outside.’
“Sister Ling Yue, who exactly are those rats outside?”
Feng Ling pressed the pause button and turned her head to ask.
“I told you before. They’re scouts from the Eternal Blood Prison.”
Ling Yue turned a page, her tone flat.
“Why do they have to take you back so badly?”
“Because I’m the Progenitor. If the Female Progenitor isn’t at the Blood Prison, the Vampire clan will remain in a state of division. Basically, the lords won’t submit to each other. Without the Progenitor to suppress them, those guys would dismantle the council hall and burn it for firewood. So they want me to go back and be that boring Arbiter again, sitting on the throne all day listening to a bunch of old geezers argue.”
“What happens if you don’t go back?”
“Nothing. They’ve argued for nine hundred years and haven’t gotten anywhere. Let them keep arguing if they want… I’m going to the third floor to handle something. You play first.”
With that, Ling Yue closed her book and stood up.
“Oh, okay.”
Feng Ling picked up the controller again and nodded.
But after Ling Yue’s footsteps disappeared up the stairs, Feng Ling immediately put down the controller, closed her eyes, and used the barest minimum of Reverse Perception to track her location.
Ling Yue entered the locked door on the third floor.
This time, she saw it clearly.
Sister Ling Yue stopped at the door for a moment, then traced a pattern over the Rune with her finger, and the door opened.
The moment the door swung open, Feng Ling’s Perception Field caught the energy fluctuation inside the room.
It was a form of energy that was older and thicker at the same time.
Then the door was shut.
The perception image turned back into a blurry red mist.
Feng Ling opened her eyes.
Now, she could be sure of one thing.
What was hidden in that room was definitely more than just a Barrier Core.
And as for what Sister Ling Yue was handling inside there, it absolutely wasn’t routine maintenance like reinforcing the Barrier.
Something was changing inside that room…
And that change was probably connected to the increasing number of intruders outside.
The next day, Feng Ling was awakened by a stinging pain on the sole of her foot.
When she opened her eyes, she saw Ling Yue sitting directly at the foot of the bed.
One hand was holding her left ankle, while the nails of the other hand gently traced across the sole of her foot.
The tip of the nail pierced the soft skin of her instep, and beads of Blood oozed from the wound, rolling down the curve of her foot.
“Welcome to the waking world, little Xiao Fengling.”
After Ling Yue finished speaking with a smile, she pressed her thumb against the wound, letting the Blood pool in the center of her foot, and then stuck out her tongue.
“Sister Ling Yue… what are you doing so early in the morning?”
Feng Ling asked in a trembling voice.
“I’m having breakfast~”
As she spoke, Ling Yue lightly bit the top of Feng Ling’s foot again.
“Hiss… ah… Sister Ling Yue, shouldn’t you be drinking from a glass for breakfast? Or biting my wrist or neck? What are you—”
Feng Ling clutched the edge of the pillow with one hand and grabbed the bedsheet with the other.
Her toes instinctively curled up inside Ling Yue’s palm.
Ling Yue let go of her instep, then turned her foot over and pressed her thumb up and down her arch.
“What are you looking at those for…”
Feng Ling said, both embarrassed and annoyed.
“Of course, I’m choosing the next spot to bite.”
The moment Ling Yue finished her sentence, her fangs pierced the next spot.
The sensation there was a bit stronger.
The moment the teeth sank in, Feng Ling almost shot up off the bed.
But Ling Yue had already pressed down on her knee with her other hand, pinning her entire leg to the sheet so she couldn’t move.
A faint sound of flowing blood rose between Ling Yue’s lips and the sole of Feng Ling’s foot.
The feeling was completely different from having her neck bitten.
Being bitten on the neck was mostly a dull ache combined with heat, but being bitten on the sole of her foot was a sharp, needle-like pain mixed with a tingling, itching sensation that made her scalp crawl.
“Mmm… ah… Sister Ling Yue… enough…”
Feng Ling twisted the pillow into a knot, and her other unheld foot kicked the sheet several times, bunching it up into a wrinkled mess.
“Enough? But the blood vessels in your sole are still pulsing.”
Ling Yue pointed her index finger right next to the healed fang hole on her arch.
“That means this spot hasn’t had its fill yet.”
Next, she moved to the inside of her ankle.
When the fangs sank into the blue vein above the ankle bone, a sharp, aching pain shot up Feng Ling’s calf all the way to her knee.
But before the sensation even reached her knee, a wave of warmth enveloped the area around the wound.
Feng Ling’s toes completely lost control.
They spread open and curled up, curled up and spread open.
Then her five small toes kicked wildly in the air.
At one point, her arch even spasmed violently.
“Ah… waaah… I can’t… I really can’t anymore… Sister Ling Yue, please stop, please…”
By now, Feng Ling had curled herself up like a shrimp.
She completely covered her face with the pillow, and the sound coming from underneath was impossible to tell whether it was sobbing or moaning.
Finally, Ling Yue released her ankle.
Ling Yue got up from the foot of the bed and walked to the headboard.
But before Feng Ling could even breathe a sigh of relief, Ling Yue propped one hand on the pillow beside her ear, leaned down, and stared at her face, still buried under the pillow, asking:
“So, little Xiao Fengling, are you going to use your Right of Refusal today?”
Hearing this, Feng Ling pursed her lips tightly and curled her fingers.
She still hadn’t used her permission for today.
If she said no, Ling Yue would stop right now, and the Silk Ribbons, clips, Needles—all of it would be canceled.
But she knew Ling Yue too well at this moment.
If she used her Right of Refusal now, Ling Yue would absolutely make her pay double in other ways.
And that was often much harder to endure than what was happening right now.
“…No.”
She pulled the pillow away from her face, revealing a pair of eyes bloodshot in an unnatural way.
“Mm, very good girl~ Then let’s continue.”
Ling Yue smiled, pushed her slightly toward the center of the bed, and pulled something out of her pocket.
When Feng Ling saw that thing, her pupils contracted.
It was that Crimson Ribbon from last time that could change color based on body temperature.
“This is… this is…”