“If you've been hurt enough, use a pair of hands to cut clean through the pain…”
Having not slept all night, Igola let out a long breath and hopped out of bed, intending to head straight outside. But just as he reached the door, he came to an abrupt halt.
“Why am I in such a rush? Wouldn't it be better if he were dead?”
Igola shook his head and retreated to the bathroom for a soak, following his usual routine. Only this time, he felt none of his customary ease and comfort. After soaking for just a short while, he hurriedly dried himself off, then brushed his teeth and prepared to activate the Revelation sorcery spirit.
Yet the prerequisite to resonating with the Revelation sorcery spirit was keeping an unperturbed, tranquil state of mind. With Igola's thoughts tangled in knots, he held no hope at all. Yet for some reason, the Revelation sorcery spirit activated nonetheless. The white lather of toothpaste left a line of words across the mirror:
“Don't be too surprised.”
Surprised by what?
Could Yaxiu really be dead?
A chill ran through Igola's heart. Seeing Gerard pay so much attention to Yaxiu yesterday, he had realized the hunter captain had come specifically for that unreliable cult leader.
Although escorting prisoners and assisting the prison in arranging the Blood Moon Trial were part of a hunter's duties, they would never warrant deploying the captain of a Law Enforcement Brigade. Given Gerard's status, he could easily refuse any assignment that didn't interest him. Thus, his arrival at Shattered Lake meant someone had undoubtedly piqued his curiosity!
If that were all, it wouldn't be so bad—at most, Yaxiu would have to sacrifice his body. But Igola happened to know something else: people like Gerard possessed legal immunity!
In the Blood Moon Country, the law was the divine will and rules were the divine desire—neither could be broken, neither could be defied! So long as a crime was proven, whether you were an executive secretary, the mayor of Kaimeng City, or an ultra-wealthy tycoon, you had to be tried according to the law, with zero room for negotiation!
To this day, Igola could never forget watching the annual National Blood Moon Grand Trial from his rearing institute thirteen years ago: on the light-screen, that elegant man with a tranquil expression had been torn to shreds by the Executioner!
That man was the Legendary Sorcerer Tyers Goldo, the 'Silent Virtuoso'! A legend of the Blood Moon Country spanning nearly a century! A sorcerer whose four wings had fully unfolded, nearly touching the realm of the gods!
Yet even a powerhouse of that caliber had been forced to endure the punishment of the trial's iron hammer as the cost of breaking the law!
It was also from that day forth that Igola had firmly determined his path.
In the Blood Moon Country, true power meant discerning the rules, exploiting the rules, and dominating the rules; otherwise, no matter how great your strength, you were nothing more than a slightly burlier ant before the laws laid down by the gods!
Yet over his many years as an 'insurance underwriter,' Igola had inadvertently learned that a select few held legal immunity. Even if they committed illegal acts, the law would not penalize them; on the contrary, the council and the Church were obligated to protect them, control public discourse, and suppress any fallout.
Such individuals were exceedingly rare, and two conditions had to be met: first, they had to belong to the Blood Saint clan or the Moon Shadow clan; second, they had to hold a key position!
The former was easy to understand. The Blood Saint clan and Moon Shadow clan were the Blood Moon Sovereign's favored races, receiving the vast majority of privileges. Nobody harbored resentment over it—if you weren't satisfied, you could just take the test. Any race could transition into the Blood Saint or Moon Shadow clan by passing the examination, and the research institutes and the Church recruited new clan members every year.
The latter condition, a 'key position,' was where the catch lay. Most ordinary folk assumed that the mayor in the municipal hall or councilors in the council held the key posts, but that was far from the truth.
The three most vital institutions in the Blood Moon Country were the Sin Hunting Hall with law enforcement authority, the War Zones tasked with suppressing Abysses across various regions, and the Supreme Love Church, which managed all rearing institutes, held a monopoly over maternity hospitals, and was responsible for census tracking.
Church Bishops, War Zone Commanders, and Hunter Captains were the three most critical offices.
Among them, Church Bishops were invariably Moon Shadows, War Zone Commanders could only be held by Blood Saints, and Sin Hunting Captains could hail from either race. Hence, these three categories of people were the ones who possessed legal immunity!
Gerard Westminster was a member of that very privileged class that could disregard the law!
In other words, even if Gerard and Yaxiu went into the quarters together and only Gerard came back out, Gerard would face zero repercussions—he could act as if nothing had ever happened.
Even so, many in the prison assumed Gerard had simply wanted to reminisce with Yaxiu, or at worst engage in a friendly exchange of pointers—the kind where Yaxiu couldn't strike back—and leave it at that.
After all, Yaxiu was a dead man walking in prison anyway; there was no reason for Gerard to tarnish his reputation over someone awaiting execution. To put it bluntly, killing Yaxiu would merely dirty Gerard's hands.
Igola had thought the same at first, until he woke in the middle of the night and realized a problem.
The crux was never whether Gerard was willing, but whether he could. Why had Gerard insisted on sharing quarters with Yaxiu? He was assessing whether Yaxiu was worth committing a crime for!
At that moment, Igola felt Yaxiu was doomed. Given Yaxiu's emotionally tone-deaf eloquence, underdeveloped brain, and toddler-level facial control, Gerard might cut him down on a whim just for rubbing him the wrong way.
Still, wouldn't that be great? Once the wishmaker died, Igola wouldn't need to fulfill Yaxiu's wish...
Just as Igola was convincing himself and stepping into the dining hall, an unimaginable scene greeted his eyes: Yaxiu and Gerard were sitting opposite each other, eating breakfast, laughing and chatting.
Yaxiu seemed to have cracked a terrible joke, and the aloof, arrogant white-haired hunter was actually laughing out loud—his volume even exceeding the limits of the *Public Area Management Regulations*. Any death-row inmate would have been instantly silenced by their chip.
“Ah, Igola, over here!” Yaxiu spotted Igola immediately and waved his hand in greeting.
*Your eyesight is never this good any other time...* Igola, who had wanted to hide to the side and observe, was forced to carry his breakfast tray over. “Good morning, gentlemen. Did you sleep well last night?”
“Good. Excellent, in fact,” Gerard replied. “The accommodations here are better than my own home. That said, I haven't slept in years; fortunately, Yaxiu was here, so I didn't find it boring.”
“Oh?” Igola raised an eyebrow.
“Gerard and I played until quite late last night,” Yaxiu said with a shrug. “It's been a long time since I've had so much fun playing.”
*Play?* Igola and the inmates nearby wore subtle, peculiar expressions.
“Why not stay another night? I'll give you a chance to turn the tables. But you really need to work on being so impatient. Last night, before I could even bring out my full strength, you went and finished yourself off.”
The death-row inmates in the vicinity looked increasingly disturbed, and their gaze toward Gerard shifted dramatically. *Gerard was completely defenseless before Yaxiu?*
*Hiss—the 'Evil Fiend' Yaxiu is truly terrifying!*
“No, no. The city is pressing me to return. I basically treated this prison trip as a vacation; if I don't get back to work, the director will be giving me grief.”
Just then, Gerard and the others seemed to receive a message. The Bloodmad Hunters dining throughout the hall stood up in unison. Gerard waved. “The boat has arrived. Until next time, Yaxiu.”
“Leaving so soon? Safe travels! Remember to write to me when you're free.”
“No problem.”
Once the Bloodmad Hunters exited the dining hall, the death-row inmates looked upon Yaxiu with eyes full of reverence.
To build a profound friendship with Hunter Captain Gerard—could the 'Black Beast' pull that off? Could 'Diamond' do it? But the 'Evil Fiend' Yaxiu had done it!
They knew Gerard had personally captured Yaxiu and brought him in. Yet after just one night together, Gerard had been utterly conquered by Yaxiu!
No wonder he was a saint blessed by the Four Pillar Gods! No wonder he was the sole madman in nearly a century to establish an evil cult in the Blood Moon Country!
As expected of Yaxiu Heath—so easily accomplishing what we never could!
Quietly and imperceptibly, the 'Evil Fiend' Yaxiu had become an awe-inspiring king among death-row inmates in Shattered Lake Prison—even if he was still a death-row inmate.
Igola dragged Yaxiu straight to the Sea-Watching Rooftop. At that moment, the transport ship carrying the Bloodmad Hunters had just departed port, cutting through the winds and waves of Shattered Lake as it sailed north. Plenty of early-rising finger sharks actively greeted the hull with their teeth, sunlight gleaming off their scales.
“What did you play with him last night?”
Yaxiu was slightly taken aback. *That's your first question?*
“What else could we play? Cards, of course.”
“Cards?” Igola was momentarily dazed. “What kind of cards?”
As an exceptionally advanced fantasy society, the Blood Moon Country naturally had playing cards as well. Though different in the finer details, they were largely the same. Yaxiu had discovered that the 21-point game of blackjack didn't exist here, so he tweaked the rules slightly and taught it to Gerard, and the two had played blackjack all night.
Gerard had learned quickly, but his play style was surprisingly aggressive; he constantly went bust by accident, allowing Yaxiu to trounce him all night.
Igola's eyes lit up upon hearing how it was played. “A fine game. If the casinos got wind of it, it would surely become a wildly popular gambling craze... But Gerard didn't try to do anything to you? I thought he came deliberately for you.”
Yaxiu looked at Igola. “Were you worried about me?”
“Of course. You still owe me a wish,” Igola replied calmly. “If you die, whom do I collect from? In this world, only I owe others; nobody owes me.”
“Right, no matter how lonely someone is, there will always be someone thinking of them—like tax collectors and creditors,” Yaxiu quipped before continuing, “Professor Xilin asked him to come kill me.”
“What?” Igola was shocked. “Xilin actually... Then how did you escape? If Gerard wanted to kill you, no one in the entirety of Shattered Lake Prison could protect you!”
Yaxiu declared proudly, “Naturally, it was by virtue of my sincere gaze, my kind heart, and my glib, eloquent tongue!”
“Quit joking. I'm serious.”
“I'm not joking! I truly reasoned with him and appealed to his emotions, and then he gave up on killing me and played cards with me all night.”
Igola stared at Yaxiu for a long time. Once he confirmed the latter wasn't lying, his expression completely broke.
A Three-Winged Blood Saint who had lived for over a century had been persuaded by Yaxiu with such ease?
*Could you be a mind sorcerer too, Yaxiu? Otherwise, it's hard to explain how you managed to master hypnosis capable of controlling a Sanctuary powerhouse.*
*Or is this the might of the Four Pillar Gods? Capable of invisibly altering another's will?*
Igola gazed at the transport ship about to vanish beneath the horizon, when something suddenly crossed his mind. “You said Gerard played blackjack with you all night and lost far more than he won?”
Yaxiu shrugged. “Yeah. Who knew Gerard would be so bad at it?”
Igola opened his mouth to say something, but held his tongue.
To his mind, though blackjack offered endless permutations, that level of calculation was utterly trivial to a Three-Winged Sanctuary Sorcerer. In theory, Gerard could rely purely on memory and processing power to grasp every card in play on both sides, and even compute his own optimal strategy.
Even if it was his first time encountering the game, he should have quickly mastered it to perfection; there was no way he should have lost far more than he won.
*Then again, maybe Yaxiu is just exceptionally good at blackjack,* Igola thought.
Aboard the transport ship, a group of Bloodmad Hunters was playing cards together.
“Aha.” Gerard flipped over his hole card. “A perfect count. I win—five silver coins from each of you.”
“No way, Captain! You're banned from playing!” one hunter said, shaking his head. “You're cheating!”
“You shuffled the deck, and you dealt the hands. I didn't even use a sorcery spirit. How am I cheating?” The white-haired hunter played dumb.
The hunter couldn't help but grumble, “Your memory and computing power are leagues above ours! The moment we get our cards, you've already analyzed every possible scenario. How could we ever win? You're practically crushing us with your Sanctuary abilities!”
“Fine, fine, no more playing then.” Gerard whistled, walked over to the railing, and stared through the glass curtain wall at Shattered Lake Prison receding into the distance.
A frail beastman hunter walked over. Unlike most hunters, he was scrawny and short—at first glance, one might easily mistake him for a goblin.
Yet, like Gerard, he possessed a pair of ruby-like crimson eyes.
“Captain, I'm curious,” he asked, leaning against the railing. “What on earth did Yaxiu Heath do to make you spare him?”
Gerard chuckled. “Barth, how did you know I came for Heath?”
“It's not your first time doing something like this,” Barth said. “A law enforcement captain is often the one who breaks the law most frequently. Don't think I don't know who was behind the assassination of Councilor Will. Every time you want to do something, Captain, the entire Sin Hunting Hall has to wipe your ass for you, when going through official procedures wouldn't even be that much trouble...”
“Still, this is the duty granted to you by the Sovereign; there must be profound meaning behind it.”
“That's precisely why I'm curious. You had far too many reasons to execute Yaxiu Heath; being the leader of the Four Pillar Cult alone was plenty of justification for you to act. Furthermore, you must have caught wind of some intel suggesting Heath still posed a danger, which is why you made a special trip to Shattered Lake, isn't it?”
Gerard mused leisurely, “As expected, working with one's own people is so much more comfortable—sharp-eyed and clever. By comparison, Amy really is hopeless...”
Barth raised an eyebrow. “Captain, in a single sentence, you've managed to violate regulations against gender discrimination and racial discrimination, while also stirring up conflict between the Blood and Moon clans. If anyone overheard that, the Kaimeng City media wouldn't need to look for other news this month—their front pages would be filled solely with condemnations of you.”
Gerard smiled and shifted the topic: “As for Yaxiu Heath... you're quite right. He gave me far too many reasons to act. For instance, he reads romance manga, which I despise most.”
“So what did he do to make you change your mind, Captain?”
“He did nothing—or rather, nothing he did swayed me in the slightest. The reason I spared him is that I had to give a certain someone some face.”
Barth was taken aback. “...There's someone who requires you to give face?”
“Of course there is.”
Gerard looked toward Shattered Lake Prison as it neared the edge of his vision, recalling the crow uniform hidden under the bed in Yaxiu's quarters, as well as the sickly sweet scent radiating from Yaxiu's blood.
“I caught the scent of colorless source blood.”
“As fellow brethren who emerged from the Four Great Research Institutes, I wouldn't dare snatch away a sacrifice that a new clan member has looked forward to for so long.”
Chapter 100