Chapter 36: Blood Nourishment
The night was deep. In a remote district southeast of Garman City, a small shop opened for business today—a tavern.
This tavern was funded by Aichi. After helping Sia Soya resolve her family's troubles, Aichi received another payment.
Aichi quit his job at the hotel and, together with his four companions, began operating this quiet, laid-back tavern. Whether it turned a profit didn't matter; this place was more like a base for the five of them. The white-haired young man was the bartender, Aichi kept order, Nainini was the waitress, Doyle Mu handled supplies, and the mature lady Manli pretended to be a patron—commonly known as a "shill"—which was her guilty pleasure.
"This is the life," Nainini said, slouching back in her chair like a salted fish, while the other four focused on their own tasks.
Knock, knock, knock.
The tavern door was rapped. The five exchanged puzzled glances. Why would someone knock on a tavern door? Usually, people just pushed it open and walked in.
A man in a black suit and a round black top hat entered the tavern. After he sat down, Nainini, dressed as a waitress, approached him.
"Sir, what kind of drink would you like?" Nainini asked with a sweet smile.
The black-clad man pressed down on his hat brim and said in a deep voice, "Don't you have any gratitude in your hearts?"
"?"
Nainini looked at the man in surprise and made a gesture behind her back to Aichi, signaling: Troublemaker, Aichi, take him down!
"You five should have been in body bags days ago," the black-clad man said.
This statement drew the attention of the white-haired young man, Aichi, and Doyle Mu.
"Five reckless young people, investigating the bombing of the Thorn Flower News Agency on your own. Do you know who did that?" The man's voice was cold. On the side of his neck was tattooed a black ring, like a solar eclipse, with a white number 1 at its center.
"Sir, what are you talking about? We don't understand. If you're not here to drink, please leave," Nainini said, her expression turning cold, though she was actually quite nervous inside.
"The Thorn Flower News Agency was bombed because it reported on matters related to mermaids, which angered the Alliance Council. The most likely outcome of you five investigating this is that you'd be found lying in a sewer ditch by dawn. But given the looks of you two women, I won't speculate on what would happen to you before you died." The man let out a cold laugh. At some point, a bottle of liquor had appeared in his hand, and he poured himself a glass.
"This is an arrest warrant specially approved by the Alliance Council a few days ago. Once it takes effect, you five will no longer be protected by Alliance law... but this warrant was held back. Is that your good luck?" The man tossed a document onto the table.
The tavern fell silent. The tall Doyle Mu blocked the door and quietly locked it.
"Who is secretly protecting you? Who is behind you?" The man downed his glass of spirits, a hint of sadness in his eyes.
Slap!
Suddenly, the man backhanded Nainini across the face. She stumbled back two steps, blood seeping from the corner of her mouth. Seeing this, the other four were enraged.
"This slap is from the Leader, teaching you a lesson. He's been too 'indulgent' with you. Maybe because he sees potential in you, he protects you at every turn. As his subordinate, what can I say? After having a son, the Leader has changed—he actually shields you little brats."
The man's tone remained icy, but his displeasure was obvious to anyone.
Nainini signaled the other four not to act rashly. She had only taken a slap, and he hadn't used full force. Given the pressure he exuded, if he had intended to kill, her head would have been torn off.
"Investigating the Thorn Flower bombing can be chalked up to your youth and ignorance. But... who gave you the guts to steal the Blood of Descendants from the office in Yoke City? The Legion Commander of the Execution Agency, Kukulin Bai Ye, was guarding it. Let me tell you the truth: it wasn't your stealth skills that were good—it was that esteemed sir who arranged for you to do all this."
The man laughed in exasperation and continued, "The Southern Alliance is run by three factions: the Alliance ruling faction, the Containment Institution, and the Eclipse Organization. You've offended two of them, only missing us, the Eclipse Organization. What baffles me most is that you still dared to return to Garman City and open a tavern here. Do you really think that just because you didn't seize the mermaid, no one knows what you did?
"If you don't want your families to vanish into thin air tonight, go here. An esteemed sir wants to see you. Whether you live to see tomorrow's sun depends on his will."
The man placed a slip of paper on the table, stood up, and walked out. At the door, he paused and turned his head to say, "Think carefully. Why did you search so hard for the mermaid? Every time you hit a dead end, clues about the mermaid appeared right in front of you. Once or twice might be coincidence. But in the end, who got the mermaid? Was that also coincidence?"
Leaving these words, the man pushed open the door and left. The five in the tavern wore grim expressions. They had thought they were about to enjoy a period of peace, but instead, the consequences of the mermaid incident had caught up with them.
"Aichi, White Hair, what do we do?" one of them asked.
"Let's get out of here first."
"Alright."
The five didn't have time to pack. They hurried out of the tavern. As the white-haired young man passed the wooden table, he picked up the slip of paper.
The tavern door was pushed open, and figures filed in, sitting down in silence. Within seconds, the tavern was full, yet it remained quiet.
Nainini swallowed hard, cold sweat soaking through her clothes. No one had threatened her with a single word, yet she felt her heart racing.
"What do we do?" she asked.
"We have no choice but to go to the slums written here," the white-haired young man said, feeling a sense of powerlessness. This was the second time he had experienced this feeling. Right now, he wanted to know who had secretly driven them to find the mermaid and who had been protecting them in the shadows.
It was as if the white-haired young man could see two figures standing in the black fog of fate: one trying to harm them, and the other protecting them for a long time. Otherwise, as the black-clad man had said, they would have died at the very start of their investigation into the Thorn Flower bombing.
A slouching, roguish man sitting with his back to the white-haired young man spoke up: "White-haired brat, do you want to know your name?"
"Yes."
"You're Number 5. The reason? Your mother's container was Number 5. Don't look at me like that. When you get there, you'll understand everything."
"You..."
The white-haired young man calmed himself and finally left the tavern with the others.
The five ran all the way to the slums written on the slip of paper. They entered a dilapidated house with a lift platform, descended into the underground, and after passing through tunnels and spiral staircases, they were about a hundred meters below the surface.
A half-damaged metal door blocked their path. Beside it knelt a bloodied figure—it was Ring 8·Watzworth of the Eclipse Organization. His upper body was bound in chains, and he looked half-dead.
"You little ones, come closer," Watzworth said with a smile, revealing blood-stained teeth.
The protagonist team of five didn't recognize Watzworth. They hesitated for a moment before approaching.
"After the mermaid incident, you've all grown up. The innocence is gone from your faces. I'm relieved."
"You... sir, who are you?" the white-haired young man asked, moving to help Watzworth up. Watzworth shook his head, signaling not to touch him.
"Does it matter who I am? You're alive, which means the mission the Leader entrusted to me didn't fail. I'm content. Falling into Mr. Bai Ye's hands... I won't live to see tomorrow's sunrise. I just hope I'm not chopped up and fed to dangerous creatures. That would be too ugly a death."
Watzworth laughed, blood trickling from his ears.
"Were you the one secretly protecting us?" the white-haired young man asked, his gaze complex—guilt mixed with emotions he couldn't express.
"How could I have that ability? You've offended the Alliance Council and Mr. Bai Ye. Either one could crush me. You don't need to thank me. Just remember the Leader's kindness. I'm done for. Backtrack little girl, don't waste your energy. My wounds were inflicted by Mr. Bai Ye's blade. Every cut reaches the soul."
Watzworth leaned against the doorframe and finally slumped over, unconscious. To be fair, after this was over, Watzworth deserved an extra chicken leg for his acting skills.
The white-haired young man pushed open the half-damaged metal door. A light membrane appeared ahead, bearing an imprint—the 'Holy Father' imprint.
Suddenly, golden light surged from the 'Holy Father' imprint. Two streams of bloodline energy shot into the chests of the white-haired young man and Aichi. This was all the Fate Blood Su Xiao had obtained.
In Su Xiao's view, this Fate Blood, though pure, lacked vitality. Due to long-term storage, its overall activity was only about 10% to 12%, with about 90% of it appearing lifeless and stagnant.
This kind of Fate Blood was barely usable, but it fell far short of the level needed to form a 'Holy Father' imprint that could be used in other worlds.
At its core, Fate Blood was a rare blood nurtured by the World's power blessing a World Child.
As pseudo-World Children, Aichi and the white-haired young man also received the World's power blessing, but not as much as a genuine World Child.
So, what if two pseudo-World Children each nurtured 50% of the Fate Blood? The answer was that the Fate Blood would reach an unprecedented level.
The genuine World Child of this world had been essentially used up by Kingsley. As a result, a large portion of the World's power that should have blessed the genuine World Child was transferred to Aichi and the white-haired young man.
Individually, Aichi and the white-haired young man couldn't match the luck of the genuine World Child. But together, the World's power they bore exceeded that of a single genuine World Child.
This was why Su Xiao agreed to Kingsley's plan. He wanted to use the two pseudo-World Children to nurture an unprecedented batch of Fate Blood, then use alchemy to refine the 'Holy Father' imprint to its limit, ultimately creating a lightning-attracting device.
Of course, releasing the Fate Blood carried the risk of not getting it back. But without risk, there was no possibility of creating the ultimate lightning-attracting device.
The Fate Blood entered Aichi and the white-haired young man's bodies. Initially wary, they soon realized they felt better than ever.
"Go in. We only rescued Number 0. The Number 5 mother body... couldn't be saved," Watzworth said weakly, suddenly "reviving." He deserved criticism for forgetting his lines at a critical moment. Fortunately, Bubu Wang, who had blended into the environment, kicked him.
"Excuse me, who is the Leader you mentioned? Is it Mr. Kingsley?" the white-haired young man asked urgently.
Watzworth's eyes rolled back, and he "fainted," thinking to himself, "I forgot my lines again. Will my colleagues tease me about this later?"
The white-haired young man, getting no answer, fell silent. He had actually suspected this for a while, but he had always remained vigilant, afraid it was all a trap.
"White Hair, Mr. Kingsley might really be our benefactor. Remember on the fishing boat when Manli said there were too many coincidences in what we experienced? At the time, I was actually deliberately interrupting her," Nainini said, avoiding eye contact.
The other four's hearts trembled. Their instinctive thought was that Nainini was an enemy spy. They didn't want to accept this.
"Nainini, you..." Aichi's expression was pained as he spoke.
"You guessed right."
"Nainini, we... forget it. You were forced too."
"Huh? What are you talking about? I mean, I had vaguely guessed this possibility before, but I was afraid that knowing too much would get us killed faster."
Nainini looked around at her four companions indignantly. As the clever one, she had thought of many things the others hadn't.
"Uh... we thought you were a spy."
"Pfft, nonsense."
Nainini kicked Aichi in the shin with her toe. Aichi winced in pain. The sourness was unimaginable.
The five entered the research institute, their expressions solemn. When the white-haired young man saw an empty glass cylinder, he rushed over, trembling as he pressed his hand against its outer wall. Tears streamed down both sides of his face.
The white-haired young man felt that the person who had been trapped in this glass cylinder was like a brother or father to him.
"L-look," Nainini said, looking as if she had seen a ghost, pointing ahead.
The white-haired young man followed her gaze, and his pupils contracted to their limit. In that moment, he understood everything. He had been born here.
Rows of glass cylinders lined both sides of the corridor. Inside many of them were white-haired experimental subjects who looked strikingly similar to the white-haired young man. Some had animal limbs grafted on, others were just heads with numerous tentacles below the neck.
The scene before him stimulated every nerve in the white-haired young man's body. He walked forward with his head bowed, pushing open the metal door at the far end of the research institute.
Creak~
The two metal doors slowly swung open, revealing a long corridor ahead. The protagonist team of five walked to the end of the corridor and stopped.
In the hall ahead was an open space, ethereal whispers, and thin white mist drifting.
A metal chair sat in the center. On it sat a figure, legs crossed, with a sheathed longsword resting with its tip on the inside of his elbow and its middle section slanted across his thigh.
As if sensing the arrival of the white-haired young man and his group, the man on the iron chair opened his eyes. A faint red glow flickered in the depths of his pupils. A sense of impending battle with a final boss surged in the hearts of the five.