The Humiliation of the Blood Saint Clan

Shattered Lake Prison, Healers' Activity Hall. All twenty-five healers of the prison medical team had gathered here, seated around a large table. Every one of them wore a crow mask and black robes, so none could see another's face. Yet from the heavy atmosphere where the air seemed nearly frozen solid, it was plain enough that their minds were far from calm. "Team Leader." Healer 201 broke the silence. "Is there really nothing you can do either?" Though no one knew who the team leader was, generally speaking, the leader of any Blood Moon Prison medical team was a Two-Winged Gold Sorcerer who had exhausted their potential, while the healers who came to the prison for the Blood Embrace ritual were mostly One-Winged Silver Sorcerers. Thus, the team leader was the strongest person here. "Nothing," the team leader said bitterly. "Inside the 'Black Coffin' lies a Three-Winged Saint. Both his bloodline strength and power far exceed mine. The 'Blood Lock' he unleashed simply isn't something I can contend with." One healer couldn't help but chuckle in anger. "Who would have thought that the Blood Lock our Blood Saint clan used to shackle inferior races would one day be turned back on us by them?" Miracle: Blood Lock was originally a binding miracle used exclusively within the Blood Saint clan. Back then, the Blood Saint clan did not operate under the current 'Institute System,' but rather a crude, highly inefficient 'Clan System.' Propagating kin and expanding the clan relied entirely on high-ranking Blood Saints seeking out suitable candidates and performing the 'First Embrace'—an ordeal with an uncertain success rate—to convert the other party into a low-ranking blood scion. The Clan System carried massive flaws. Not only did the bloodline concentration diminish significantly with each generation of scions, but the 'First Embrace ritual' also consumed the high-ranking Blood Saint's 'true blood.' More importantly—the recipient of the First Embrace had to genuinely love the high-ranking Blood Saint. To become a member of the Blood Saint clan, you had to truly fall in love with a Blood Saint. One could imagine how rare the Blood Saints were in that era, and how... united. No matter how long the lifespan of a Blood Saint, over the long run their numbers would only dwindle and their strength wane. Not to mention that such 'clan bonds' built upon love often drove the Blood Saints mad over the injury or death of a single family member—they would willingly mobilize their entire clan for the sake of one member, fighting any enemy to the death. In contrast to the love they held for their clan members, the Blood Saints were utterly cold and merciless toward other races. Thus, the Blood Saints' way of coexisting with the world was either wiping out all enemies, turning an entire region into a paradise for Blood Saints and a purgatory for other races; or the enemies wiping out all Blood Saints, thoroughly exterminating this monstrous race bound by love. Until the Blood Moon Sovereign took dominion over the Blood Saints and Moon Shadows, revolutionizing their former way of life and ordering both races to accept the 'Institute System' and the 'Church System.' Only then did both races flourish and expand over the brief span of a millennium to what they were today. Under the Institute System, the Blood Saint clan no longer needed to search for suitable descendants themselves, because top talents from every race yearned to become members of the research institutes to attain ageless, immortal life. The 'blood-exchange ritual' that replaced the 'First Embrace ritual' merely converted these lucky individuals into candidate blood scions. To become true Blood Saints, they still had to go to the prisons for the 'Blood Embrace ritual,' drawing their own sustenance from death. Thus, the Blood Saint clan did not have to pay any price for reproduction—because the dead had already paid it in their stead. As for the original Blood Lock, because low-ranking blood scions had the 'true blood' of high-ranking Blood Saints flowing within them, a high-ranking Blood Saint only had to activate the Blood Lock to sense the scion's location, and even control the scion's actions. If the high-ranking Blood Saint died, they could even be reborn within the blood scion's body! Once freed from the shackles of love, the Clan System crumbled, and naturally there was no longer any 'First Embrace.' Consequently, the Blood Lock derived from the First Embrace should have been tossed into the garbage heap of history to rot. Yet after being refined and perfected by the Blood Moon Sovereign, the Blood Lock leaped to become the most important miracle of the Blood Saint clan, because the scope of its binding was no longer limited to Blood Saints, but extended to everyone in the Blood Moon Country! Every infant admitted to a rearing institute had a miracle chip implanted, and each miracle chip contained a drop of 'true blood.' As the infant grew into an adult, the true blood would meld into their bloodstream, bone marrow, interstitial fluids, and even reproductive cells, spreading throughout the entire body! One could say that any child raised in a rearing institute in the Blood Moon Country was a reserve blood scion! The modern Blood Lock miracle was a Three-Winged miracle. Thus, as long as a Three-Winged Blood Saint activated the 'Blood Lock' miracle, they could control any citizen of the Blood Moon whose strength was lower than their own—whether that person was a human, elf, orc, or Blood Saint or Moon Shadow! Though there was no proof whatsoever, many within the Blood Saint clan believed that if a legendary Blood Saint activated the Blood Lock, they could even manipulate everyone in an entire city, even commanding them to die! Yet compared to the terrifying authority held in their hands, the Blood Saint clan remained remarkably low-key. Although the outside world knew of the Blood Saint clan's existence, they only knew that Blood Saints were immortal, and that to become a Blood Saint, one had to take the graduate entrance examination and pass it to join an institute, and so forth. Some Blood Saints would become councilors, but Blood Saints held no government offices. Most people had only two impressions of the Blood Saint clan: doctors and scholars. As for using the Blood Lock recklessly and willfully, such a thing had not occurred in hundreds or thousands of years. The applicable scope of the Blood Lock was limited strictly to prisons and war zones; only criminals and adventurers were subject to its restrictions. Even a Bloodmad Hunter like Gerard was not permitted to use the Blood Lock to control prisoners while carrying out missions. Theoretically, the only people who could legally use the Blood Lock miracle were the 'Saints' lying inside the 'Black Coffins,' while living people could only activate the Blood Lock indirectly through the 'Black Coffin.' There were many reasons why the Blood Saint clan was forbidden from revealing their authority: to keep arrogance from taking root within the clan, to prevent inferior races from harboring thoughts of rebellion, to maintain social stability... But the most fundamental reason was that the Blood Moon Sovereign did not permit it. The Social Rearing System, the Institute System, the Church System... These rules personally set down by the Blood Moon Sovereign were never to be violated, nor even tested. If the 'Blood Lock' on death row prisoners was tangible—allowing them to know what was forbidden through testing—then the 'Blood Lock' on the Blood Saint clan was invisible; they would not even conceive the thought of testing it! That was why the healers were so shocked and furious—after all, when not even they knew the precise location of the 'Black Coffin,' how had outsiders managed to control the 'Saint' inside it? "A necromancer!" someone said through gritted teeth. "That's the only possibility... Those wretched mongrels must have used necromancy to control the Saint... Can't we use necromancy to seize control of the Saint back?" "We're forbidden from channeling sorcery power, forbidden from attacking—how are we supposed to cast necromancy?" "Wait, I remember that entering the Black Coffin requires a key. How could an outsider know the key? Is there a traitor among us?" "Right! The only people who know the key are the team leader, the warden, and the Chief of the Sin Hunting Hall. Could it be..." Seeing everyone looking at him, the team leader immediately grew frantic. "The key is sealed with a miracle! There is no way I could leak it by any means!" "But the warden is never at the prison, and the Chief is far away in the city center. Through what channel could death row inmates get the key?" the other healers questioned bluntly. 201 suddenly spoke up: "Come to think of it, I heard that a few years ago a killer known as the 'Control Master' appeared in Kaimeng City and carried out multiple murders. Because the murder method seemed to involve the Blood Lock, my boss was invited by the Sin Hunting Hall to conduct an internal review. Although the matter was ultimately dropped, it was confirmed that the key hadn't leaked from the secret keepers." After the incident where 176 was expelled, everyone had vaguely guessed that 201's boss was probably that mind faction Saint. Unlike memory masters, who could be deceived, a mind Saint examined the soul itself. Even if a suspect drove themselves mad, a mind Saint could still shatter their soul and find the desired information among the fragments—just as simple as smashing a Rubik's cube and assembling it again. Before a mind Saint, forgetting could not keep a secret. "If even Senior Sister says it wasn't leaked, then it truly wasn't leaked." Everyone turned to look at Healer Xifulin, badge number 222. The latter said calmly, "So that leaves only one possibility—the death row inmates have a way to find the real Black Coffin key. With such a massive incident occurring, the key system is no longer secure, though that's none of our concern. By the way, I have bad news and good news. Which do you want to hear first?" "What's the bad news?" "The bad news is that we're bound to lose face this time. Tomorrow, all thirty-six research institutes will know that our group of blood scions was taken captive by a few death row prisoners in a prison." "And the good news?" "The good news is that we're wearing masks, so nobody knows who we are. Everyone can disgrace themselves all they want; no one will know the Blood Saint clan was humiliated." Everyone was struck speechless. No one expected this young lady to be in the mood to joke. Still, as a blood scion from the Four Great Research Institutes, she had the capital for arrogance. To them, this might be an indelible stain that could even ruin their prospects, but to the young lady, it was merely an inconsequential interlude. "Is there really no other way?" someone asked, unwilling to accept it. "Bloodline resonance," the team leader said. "A sliver of consciousness should remain in the Saint within the Black Coffin. If we can reach him through bloodline resonance, we can dispel our Blood Locks." "How do we generate bloodline resonance?" "I don't know either—intense emotion? Burning desire? Praying to the Blood Moon Sovereign? Although the success rate is extremely low, that is all we can do right now." Everyone exchanged glances, feeling that this was indeed a measure born of helplessness. And so, some drew circles on the floor cursing the death row inmates; some lay flat on the floor trying to contact the Black Coffin through vibrations in the ground; and what almost made Xifulin laugh out loud was that someone actually hung upside down from the chandelier like a bat—claiming to be mimicking the meditation posture of the ancient Blood Saint clan to increase the possibility of bloodline resonance. Right at that moment, the door to the lounge was shoved heavily open, and a prison guard poked his head in. "Excuse me, everyone. 222, please come with me to the Treatment Room." "Yaxiu Heath?" Xifulin said in surprise. "What do you want with me?" "There's something I need you to do." "Can't it be done here?" 201 stood up, blocking the way in front of Xifulin. "Besides, if work needs doing, I can take her place." Yaxiu shook his head firmly. "No, I only want 222. And there isn't even a bed here; it's not convenient to do it here." The healers: "Huh?" Oh no, the Blood Saint clan was about to be humiliated!