Bleeding

In their several clashes with Silver Lantern, Yaxiu and his companions hadn't always been at a disadvantage. On the contrary, guided by Mercury Trojan's prophecies, they had caught Silver Lantern off guard and dealt her severe blows on multiple occasions. In the battle at the food factory town, Tamaxi had pierced Silver Lantern's heart with a Grey Fox blade—not almost; Black Crow wouldn't make such a mistake. If not for Silver Lantern possessing a life-preserving miracle, Yaxiu and the others would have long since accomplished their mission and prepared to return to the Gospel. Although Silver Lantern constantly disguised herself with miracles, there was one trait she couldn't hide: when wounded, she bled silver blood. Only after Mercury Trojan explained it did they learn Silver Lantern had used a Grey Fox legacy—the "Dragon Blood Cultivation System"—which condensed extraordinary blood by absorbing the life energy of nearby living beings. In theory, this system could not take effect on humans, but as "unofficial citizens," they didn't qualify as human under the Dragon Blood Cultivation System. The blood seeds inside Yaxiu, Igola, and Harvey absorbed their vital energy to condense Silver Dragon Blood cells, trickling toward Silver Lantern bit by bit. If they couldn't replenish their life energy in time, they would eventually be drained into mummies. "A few drops of your Silver Dragon Blood actually came from me," Yaxiu said. "Since you know that, I don't need to explain much," Weise said. "Though Silver Dragon Blood is blood, it's actually a phantasm creation. Because Silver Dragon Blood is too potent, even with every precaution taken, rejection is inevitable. Thus, Grey Fox sorcerers exploited the mutual interaction between body and soul, using the soul to increase the compatibility of the Silver Dragon Blood." Yaxiu nodded repeatedly, but one look told Weise he didn't understand at all. She rolled her eyes at him testily and said, "To put it simply, the Silver Dragon Blood contains my soul. That not only completely resolves the rejection reaction, but also lets me increase my mastery over my body and enhance my blood sorcery faction talent. "Of course, this only uses the normal metabolic byproducts of the soul without harming the intact soul. For a sorcerer, an intact soul is more important than anything." At this point, Silver Lantern also showed a trace of curiosity. "I read in other people's sorcerer manuals that the Blood Saint clan of the Blood Moon disperses their souls completely into their blood, claiming that 'blood is the currency of the soul' to achieve immortality. I wonder how they manage that..." Yaxiu mused, "Your blood contains your soul... and then?" "In dominating a sorcery spirit, physical contact merely acts as a medium for the soul," Weise said. "The true way you dominate a sorcery spirit is by abducting it into your soul palace." Yaxiu recalled dominating sorcery spirits in the Void Realm and thought it was indeed true. Still, the word 'abduct' sounded bizarre; thinking about it that way, sorcerers were like Beast Mastery hunters roaming the streets capturing stray dogs and cats, summoning a sorcery spirit was like adopting a newborn pet, and sorcerer battles were equivalent to superpower pet wars... "You want to use your blood as a medium to dominate the Square-Round Cicada?" Yaxiu frowned. "But that would require us to close the distance between us and the cicada." "No need." Weise pointed at the Square-Round Cicada. "Look, it's not only eating them, but also drinking the Flowing Gold River water every second." Yaxiu looked closely and noticed that although the Square-Round Cicada was using its mouthparts to suck up yogurt, its entire body was absorbing the Flowing Gold River water. Any river water that splashed onto it quickly seeped in. Though it looked very much like a cicada, it was ultimately a legendary spirit. Eating with its mouthparts was merely a matter of ritual; in reality, its entire body could absorb energy. Just like that Orc Legendary at the beginning, who had been sucked dry while sprawled on its back, mouthparts weren't such an inconvenient limitation—its whole body could act as mouthparts. Flowing Gold River water... Silver Dragon Blood... Yaxiu's eyes widened, staring blankly at the fox mask. "Without getting close, perhaps we can still dominate the Square-Round Cicada." Weise's tone was brisk. "I can control the Silver Dragon Blood to flow downstream and be absorbed by it along with the river water." "But you also said your blood only contains your soul's metabolic byproducts, and the Square-Round Cicada might not even be a dominatable sorcery spirit—not to mention that even if it is a sorcery spirit, it's a Four-Wing sorcery spirit!" Yaxiu said. "How much blood would you need to dominate it?" "Do we have a choice?" Weise released Yaxiu's hand, took off her chainmail gauntlet, and held her wrist out before him. "Go on." Yaxiu looked at her fair wrist, not moving for a moment. After waiting a bit, Weise seemed to have a sudden realization: "Right. If it's just blood you want, there's no need to fixate on the artery in my wrist. My chest, abdomen, thighs... leave as many wounds on me as you like. You don't have to use a sword either; last time, you bit a bloody hole in my neck with your teeth. "Or is it," Weise pinched the zipper of her combat suit and pulled it down, "that you want me to take off my clothes before—" Yaxiu yanked Weise's hand over and sliced a shallow cut across it with his sword. Silver blood condensed into a trickle and fell into the Flowing Gold River, shimmering against the gold and mingling as it drifted downstream. Silver Lantern hadn't lied; she truly could subtly control the flow of the blood, directing the Silver Dragon Blood precisely into the Square-Round Cicada's body. "Feel anything?" "It hurts a little." "I meant your connection to the Square-Round Cicada!" Yaxiu said in annoyance. There was no way Silver Lantern didn't know what he was asking. "Nothing at all." Weise looked down at her wrist, where the flow had already stopped. "It healed." Not just the Square-Round Cicada—in the Flowing Gold River, pseudo-temporal life forms like them also had peculiar properties; for instance, on the scale of protracted time, their injuries healed rapidly. Yaxiu drew another cut on her wrist. After bleeding for twenty-odd seconds, it healed again. When Yaxiu placed his blade against her wrist a third time, Weise suddenly clamped down on the blade and pressed it down hard! The sword nearly severed half her wrist. She lowered her hand, and silver blood flowed continuously down her fingers into the river. If before the silver had merely mingled with the gold, now she had overturned a bucket of silver paint; a silver river poured downstream into the Square-Round Cicada's mouth. The Square-Round Cicada paused slightly, as if noticing the water tasted different. But Weise's blood seemed palatable enough, or perhaps out of novelty, it didn't mind and bowed its head to continue slurping yogurt. "With the little nick you made, the cicada would probably reach us before I even bled out," Weise mocked. "It's not your blood being spilled, so why be so stingy?" Yaxiu wanted to say something, but held back. Yet Weise seemed to hear his unasked question anyway. "It hurts. How could it not? But... after all, you were the one who made the wound." *What does it matter if I was the one who made it?* Yaxiu was silent for a moment before saying, "The people dragged down by you feel pain too." "I don't care." Weise fixed her eyes on him. "Yaxiu, if you think facing death will make me 'repent' or 'mend my ways,' you might as well just quietly watch me bleed to death. In my eyes, you are the ones who are wrong, and I am the only one who is right. "Even if the whole world opposes me, it doesn't matter. Since I can swim upstream in the Flowing Gold River right now, I naturally won't care about swimming against the current in reality. Those who stood in my way, those who merely passed by, the innocent..." The voice beneath the fox mask grew even chillier. "I have never cared about their feelings. "Yaxiu, I'm no mind sorcerer or necromancer," she said. "I won't change who I am because of someone or something." Yaxiu: "Then what do you actually care about?" "In the past, I only cared about myself," she said. "Now..." *Thud!* Silver Lantern suddenly collapsed. Fortunately, the river's flow was slow here at the front, and Yaxiu supported her immediately, keeping her from being swept away. "I'm fine," she said, struggling back to her feet at once. Yet Yaxiu could feel how cold her hand was—a symptom of acute, excessive blood loss. The Silver Dragon Blood she had lost had reached the point where she could no longer maintain her bodily functions. This wasn't like the river testing willpower. With willpower, you could fake it or deceive yourself, but the body was the body: without enough blood, oxygen deprivation would set in, followed by cerebral hypoxia, coma, or even myocardial infarction. Right now they had no miracles, and everything was bound by physical law... "The Square-Round Cicada—" "Not enough, not yet," Weise's voice was hurried. "I'm fine." Yet most of Weise's weight was leaning against him. It had nothing to do with the river's wash; she was simply running out of strength. If this continued, she would lose consciousness long before all her silver blood drained out. Watching the silver blood pour from Silver Lantern's wrist, Yaxiu suddenly felt a thrumming inside his own body. He looked down at his hand; though nearly imperceptible, specks of silver shavings were indeed drifting from him toward her. It was only natural. Because he was too close to Silver Lantern, the blood seed inside him redoubled its efforts, wringing out his life energy to transport it into her body... "Right." Weise turned her head toward Yaxiu, who murmured, "I'm the blood seed you cursed." With that, he reached toward Weise's fox mask— *Smack!* Weise slapped his hand aside with force and shoved him away. "You have to take off your mask to drink my blood," Yaxiu said. "I'm not a vampire," Weise lowered her eyelids. "I have no interest in your blood. And don't touch my mask. I hate people touching me the most." *Where did the Silver Lantern who was willing to strip just now go...?* Yaxiu swallowed the urge to retort and said, "I'm your blood seed. Drinking my blood will let you replenish blood rapidly. If you pass out from blood loss right now, all hope of dominating the Square-Round Cicada is dead! "You were willing to bleed just to survive, but now you won't even drink blood?!" Without waiting for her answer, Yaxiu drew his blade and slashed his own wrist. Crimson blood ran down his arm and fell into the Flowing Gold River. "If we don't deal with the Square-Round Cicada, I can't escape either." He held out his hand. "Your turn." Weise stared coldly at him, looking down. "Decisive of you now." Seeming to recognize reality, Silver Lantern took Yaxiu's wrist. Yet she still refused to take off her mask and insisted on facing away from him. Pressing her back against Yaxiu so he couldn't see what she was doing in front, she ended up looking as though she were held in his embrace. A shiver ran through Yaxiu. He felt the tip of Silver Lantern's tongue repeatedly licking the wound on his wrist, drawing the blood into her mouth. That strange, sticky sensation combined with the throbbing pain in his wrist produced an unsettling feeling. A moment later, Weise said, "You're stingy with yourself too, making such a shallow cut." "Then I'll cut deeper this time." Yaxiu tried to pull his hand back, but Silver Lantern held on and wouldn't let go. "You gave up your chance to hurt me earlier, but I don't intend to miss mine." Weise bit directly into his finger, her voice brimming with demonic malice. "I've wanted to hurt you to my heart's content for a long time!" "Ugh!" The fingers connected straight to the heart; Yaxiu felt his fingertip bitten fiercely open by Silver Lantern. This hurt far more than his wrist, to say nothing of how she used her teeth to grind and widen the wound. Although Yaxiu was a battle-hardened sorcerer who had long ceased to fear ordinary pain, he couldn't tolerate such gratuitous malice—especially when he hadn't intentionally hurt her earlier! Yaxiu tried to yank his hand back, but Silver Lantern somehow still had strength, her hands clamping his wrist like a vise. Since he still needed her to keep bleeding, he didn't dare injure her recklessly. And with her back to him, she provided a prime target where he could strike back freely— *Smack!* Silver Lantern gave a full-body jolt, then behaved much better, no longer intentionally tormenting him with her teeth. Just as Yaxiu breathed a sigh of relief, he realized she wasn't done yet. Silver Lantern's tongue glided gently over his finger. A finger was far more sensitive than a wrist, and much easier for a tongue to swirl and wrap around, coupled with the faint, lingering throb of the wound... Amid the sluggish loss of blood, between the tearing wound and the gentle caress, an indescribable sensation hid within the tingling numbness and pain, seeping into the depths of Yaxiu's heart both violently and tenderly.