Volume 5, Chapter 86 – Relationship

Riding the immense propulsive force generated by the air currents, that streak of blood-light swept across hundreds of thousands of kilometers in one breath. Along the way, it carefully avoided several layers of Sky Sea breaches, afraid of alarming the returned demon creatures hiding inside them.

He was not actually afraid of fighting them if it came to that, but doing so would inevitably create energy fluctuations. With the Federation’s current technology, that would be enough for them to detect and trace him back, and he did not want too many people to know what state he was currently in.

So he could only be as careful as possible.

Grumbling inwardly, the streak of blood flew above Federation territory. Tens of thousands of meters up in the sky, it used the cloud cover to conceal itself while continuously searching for something within it.

“One of the emergency escape pods I launched back then should be nearby.”

“It’s here… found it.”

The clouds parted, and he caught sight of a somewhat blurry transparent layer. That was actually the optical camouflage attached to the surface. After the blood-light pounced on it, it turned into a puddle of mangled blood-mud, then barely gathered that blood-mud into the shape of a hand and, with great difficulty, opened the hatch before wriggling his body inside.

“The first layer’s been stained with blood. The camouflage definitely won’t hold.”

“Red! Retract the outer armor of this pod, activate the second-layer armor, and keep the disguise going.”

A man’s voice came from the blood-mud, and as soon as he finished speaking, a mechanical female voice sounded inside the pod.

[Retracting outer armor, activating second-layer armor and optical camouflage. Understood.]

Rumble…

A burst of vibration ran through the pod. After a while, the shaking subsided, and only then did the Blood Lord let out a breath.

[Detected: your DNA is collapsing,] the mechanical female voice continued. [Structural body rupture: 98%. Energy down: 87%. First- and second-tier power furnaces destroyed. Recommendation: enter the genesis pod for printed restoration.]

“I’m out of strength. Do it for me.”

[Understood.]

Clack, clack!

Several mechanical arms and injection needles extended from the side. The Blood Lord first received a drug injection, and his horrifying mud-like body finally became somewhat more solid because of it. That allowed the mechanical arms to restrain him, lift him up, and carry him into the cylindrical chamber that had opened ahead.

“Wait!” As he was going in, the Blood Lord hurriedly called out to stop them. “There should still be another strand of DNA inside me. Find it for me, then print him a body according to the data copied last time.”

[Detected: residual incompatible DNA,] the mechanical female voice replied. [Please select a print mode.]

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“…What modes could there possibly be in this dump?” The Blood Lord was fed up. “I prepared this place for myself in the first place. I don’t need a purely biological body. Aren’t the only materials here bionic steel?”

[Completely correct.]

“Then why the hell are you asking me? Get on with it, you artificial moron!”

[No fusion records detected between this DNA and the bionic alloy.]

“Exactly.” The Blood Lord sneered. “Even I turned out like this… How could there possibly be power without a price?”

“Continue. If you don’t do it, he dies. We’ll see whether he can endure it.”

[Understood.]

Weng, weng—

The hatch closed, and the Blood Lord was plunged into darkness at once.

Something was pumped into the chamber.

Cold. Burning hot.

His blood-mud remains reacted to it with extreme greed. In more scientific terms, “his DNA and the other party’s DNA read each other’s past fusion records, and so both sides quickly let down their guard and began a grand, happy, and delightful mingling.”

The printed restoration continued for about two hours. After that, the hatch opened again, and the first thing that spilled out was a burst of freezing mist.

Slap!

A blood-red hand with a metallic sheen stretched out from within, braced itself against the chamber wall, and pushed up a body, revealing the Blood Lord’s face once more.

[Structural body rupture: 42%. Energy deficit: 45%. Insufficient number of “Blood Jade” power furnaces. Without replenishment, natural recovery time is one hundred and thirty-six standard years.]

“It’s already a blessing that it patched me up this far.”

The metallic luster rapidly receded from that body. Very soon, the Blood Lord’s skin returned to the flesh tone of a human. He raised both hands and inspected them, then commented, “At least those idiots won’t be able to tell there’s a problem.”

“But one hundred and thirty-six years…”

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“I wonder how much that’d be reduced if I threw all my stock into it.”

After sighing and lamenting for a while, marveling at how badly he had been ripped off on this outing, the Blood Lord raised his head and saw that beside the cylindrical chamber he had just emerged from, there was another identical one. Through the transparent glass at the front, he could see an irregular lump of soft mud-metal struggling inside.

Struggling, truly struggling. Under the computer’s control, it was in the middle of being reconstructed into Qingjiang’s bone marrow and fleshly outline, but because his conscious mind was resisting, the reconstruction frequently collapsed.

The resulting effect was rather horrifying. Every so often, the newly formed face would explode in great sprays of metallic blood-plasma, exposing the gleaming silver skull inside. It looked a lot like a classic character from an old-era time-travel movie.

“What’s the point of resisting?”

“People only understand, when they’re caught between life and death, that the things they once despised were never really that unbearable.”

“If you don’t even have the most basic will to survive, then there’s no point talking about avenging yourself on her.”

“You might as well die like this. For you, that would be a release.”

As he spoke, the Blood Lord opened the cabinet beside him, took out a shirt and suit and changed into them, then somehow produced a bottle of champagne from who knew where. After pouring himself a glass, he even remembered to ask the intelligent assistant to add ice.

When he looked back again, his brow lifted.

The situation inside the chamber had stabilized.

That brand-new Sacred Weapon Clan body was no longer showing any rejection at all, and the success-rate figure on the computer was steadily climbing.

“So I’m being forced to raise somebody else’s kid…”

The Blood Lord bared his teeth, his expression somewhat complicated.

“Raising a kid.”

“That isn’t exactly a fond memory.”

“Forget it. I did screw Fang Yang over, in the end. I’ll count this as making it up to him.”

“This kid’s mind is remarkably pure. Maybe he really can be of use.”

After resting for a while, the Blood Lord began operating the photon screen, browsing through some of the information that had updated while he was away.

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“There’s new research on the Star Tower side… They’re saying several special ores have been discovered within Eastern Xia territory, and that a new element refined from one of them, something called ‘bluestone ore,’ can interfere with fusion experiments and greatly increase stability and success rates?”

“The earliest record in the archive is from half a year ago. It got reported this late—more pointless internal infighting.”

“Reject it.”

“Good thing it was reported late. I have no intention of provoking her again in the short term.”

“As for those special ores, Dr. Gate might be able to find substitutes. There’s no need to mine them from Eastern Xia specifically.”

After doing some calculations, the Blood Lord suddenly clutched his hair, a vexed look appearing on his face.

“Resources… damn it, that demon god body!”

“That thing was treasure from head to toe!”

“If I could have devoured it and used it as feed for the ‘Red Queen,’ it definitely would’ve advanced far beyond its current base! It might even have opened the door to another round of innovative evolution!”

But now all of that was hopeless.

That desert lay in the borderland between the Federation and Eastern Xia. In theory, it did not count as the territory of either side.

But the problem was, that was old history, a division made before the Xia Emperor returned.

If one went by historical claims, that land had originally belonged to the Xifeng Circuit under Eastern Xia’s former dynasty.

Add in the Xia Emperor’s personal martial deterrence, and even if someone gave the Blood Lord a hundred extra guts, he would not dare scheme for anything over there right now.

[Master.]

The camera above rotated toward him.

[There is a communication request on the encrypted channel.]

“…Which channel?”

[Channel Zero.]

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“Channel Zero… Zero?”

His head snapped up. The Blood Lord’s expression turned so savage it was hideous. He lunged forward and fixed his eyes on the light-screen, the skin around his eyes bulging with layers of sinew. He looked as though he wanted to grind his teeth apart and devour the person on the other end alive.

“It’s him…”

“So it really is him…”

“He actually didn’t die either.”

“But how does he still have the nerve to call me?”

“That wretched beast!”

[Would you like me to reject it for you?]

“No. Put it through.”

The Blood Lord calmed down with astonishing speed.

“I want to hear what he has to say to me.”

Beep—

The call connected.

A somewhat blurry figure appeared on the photon screen, only gradually sharpening into focus after a few seconds.

It was none other than the mysterious handsome young man who had appeared before, the one who had plotted to seize Jiuli’s body and had come within a hair’s breadth of succeeding.

“I should be grateful that you were willing to give me this chance to speak.”

The handsome young man fixed the Blood Lord with a deep, shadowed gaze.

“Although I suspect it is because you felt such a powerful threat from her that you can no longer uphold and carry through certain convictions from the past, I still have to say this.”

“Thank you, Father.”