Chapter 73: Blood-Drawing Maiden
Countless thoughts raced through Hao Mei's mind. She glanced at Baha not far away and decided not to flee for now. In her current weakened state, she couldn't even defeat a common soldier. Stabilizing the enemy and waiting for her body to gradually recover was the wiser choice.
"Actually, it doesn't matter if you report us. That mark has already been reclaimed."
Baha wasn't lying. This was the characteristic of the [Apocalypse] title. Within this title was an "Initial Mark," which was originally a disguised mark. But after being promoted to a Battle Angel (Reserve) mark by Apocalypse Paradise, it became genuine.
After being processed by Reincarnation Paradise, this mark became an "Initial Mark." It was "attribute-less" and couldn't directly serve as a disguise, but it could temporarily fuse with the marks of other Apocalypse Paradise contractors.
That was what Su Xiao had been doing before. For example, if he encountered an Apocalypse Paradise contractor A and dragged them into a Sealed Domain, as long as he defeated contractor A within the domain and rendered them completely powerless to resist, he could use the [Apocalypse] title and Reincarnation Paradise's assistance to seize contractor A's mark.
Through experimentation, Su Xiao discovered that he didn't necessarily have to kill contractor A. Defeating them within the Sealed Domain was sufficient.
Afterward, the "Initial Mark" within the [Apocalypse] title would temporarily fuse with contractor A's mark. This way, Su Xiao could temporarily possess contractor A's mark by equipping the [Apocalypse] title.
If he didn't kill contractor A, while he held their mark, contractor A would be trapped in the Sealed Domain, which was a fair zone of Reincarnation Paradise and absolutely inescapable.
The final outcome had two possibilities: 1. Su Xiao killed contractor A within the Sealed Domain. In that case, when Su Xiao deactivated the [Apocalypse] title, contractor A's mark would separate from the attribute-less mark. Contractor A's mark would be collected by Reincarnation Paradise and decomposed.
The resources gained from decomposition had nothing to do with Su Xiao. Reincarnation Paradise would use these resources to reshape them into a Reincarnation Paradise contractor mark, which would be given to a new contractor when one was selected.
In Reincarnation Paradise's previous prompts, it strongly encouraged Su Xiao to temporarily seize marks by killing contractor A.
Don't underestimate a mark. The various functions of a mark meant its construction cost was exorbitantly high. Before the eighth rank, a contractor's entire net worth couldn't match the value of the mark itself.
This was also why, although Gray Gentleman came from Reincarnation Paradise and should only be a violator of Reincarnation Paradise, he was also a violator of Apocalypse Paradise, Holy Light Paradise, Sanctuary Paradise, Death Paradise, and Watchful Paradise. As a violator of six paradise factions, Su Xiao had only ever seen Gray Gentleman.
If ordinary violators were fugitives of a single country, then Gray Gentleman was an international fugitive.
Besides killing contractor A within the Sealed Domain, Su Xiao had a second option: spare their life. Defeat contractor A within the Sealed Domain, temporarily seize their mark, complete his plan while equipping the [Apocalypse] title, then deactivate the title and open the Sealed Domain.
At that point, contractor A would escape the Sealed Domain, and their mark would separate from the [Apocalypse] title and return to them.
Everything Su Xiao did while using contractor A's mark would be attributed to contractor A when they regained their mark, making them take the fall.
The two usage methods of the [Apocalypse] title each had their pros and cons. Su Xiao used the second method this time.
He had also considered using Hao Mei's mark to collude with Kaisa in farming reputation, but after deliberation, he abandoned the idea. During that process, he would have to frequently enter and exit "Kvab Ring City," the capital of the Vassal Alliance. The risk of frequent visits there was too high.
Inside the main command room, Hao Mei sat on the sofa, seemingly resting with her eyes closed, but her mind was racing like an eight-core processor. Various escape plans were being conceived, replayed, and corrected in her mind. Amid this mental storm, she fell asleep, emitting faint snores.
Clearly, Hao Mei had comprehended the truth of the universe—everything she dreamed of could be found in her sleep.
The sound of tapping on the coffee table reached Hao Mei's ears. She frowned, curled up on the sofa, and changed her sleeping position. But soon, she felt someone pushing her.
"Stop it, let me sleep a little more..."
Hao Mei's eyes snapped open as she recalled that her current environment was wrong. When she opened her eyes, she saw a minotaur holding a long-handled battle axe, looking down at her as if ready to chop her at any moment.
Hao Mei immediately snapped awake. She changed from a curled sleeping position to a proper seated one, looked around for her shoes, and found one on the coffee table. The other, for some reason, was hanging on the minotaur's horn.
"S-sorry about that."
Though Hao Mei was very confused, apologizing first was always the right move. Hearing this, Amu, who was about to give her an axe, took the shoe off his horn and tossed it into the trash bin.
"Hao Mei, are you awake yet?"
Baha was a bit speechless. It had seen people with big hearts, but not this big.
"Give me a moment."
Hao Mei took out a bottle of wine, opened it, and chugged several large gulps. With a "pop," droplets of wine mixed with saliva splattered. She let out a long breath and said, "I'm awake now."
"..."
Su Xiao, sitting on the sofa opposite Hao Mei, put down a mechanical heart. He had already figured out how Hao Mei stored lightning. There was no need for dissection or anything like that. Treat Hao Mei like a battery, shock her with a stun rod, then detect the circuit path to see which organ she used to temporarily store the World Lightning.
It was the heart, one of the two vital organs of the human body. Su Xiao hadn't expected that. After in-depth research, he discovered that Hao Mei first let the World Lightning enter her bloodstream, then used some secret method to merge the lightning into her blood. The heart acted as a "World Lightning extractor," pumping blood while gathering the lightning.
The secret to why the World Lightning didn't harm Hao Mei lay in the fusion of lightning and blood. After completing this process, that portion of World Lightning would enter the same "frequency" as Hao Mei. Subsequent extraction and release through the heart naturally wouldn't affect her.
Ultimately, this was some kind of occupational bloodline of Hao Mei's. Su Xiao couldn't replicate this bloodline power onto himself. Even if he got extremely lucky and succeeded, this bloodline might conflict with his own body energy, leading to unknown adverse effects.
For Su Xiao, an alchemist, this bloodline power was essentially the fusion of World Lightning and blood, creating a shared "frequency." Since conducting this process inside his body would be counterproductive, why not perform the exchange externally?
Su Xiao had blood energy. A large amount of blood energy could be condensed into blood. By using blood energy as a base to condense into blood, he could achieve "co-frequency" with World Lightning externally. This way, the portion of World Lightning that achieved "co-frequency" wouldn't affect Su Xiao and could be used to harm enemies.
This detour fundamentally solved the root of the problem. Sometimes, that's how it is with anything—just change your approach.
The only challenge left was how to make the World Lightning and the blood condensed from blood energy achieve "co-frequency." Once this problem was solved, Su Xiao's application of World Lightning would reach a new level.
He always believed that this lightning, imbued with World Force, wasn't just for attacks. It must have other wonderful uses.
Having thought this far, Su Xiao signaled Gangya to go to the kitchen area and bring over the blood-nourishing medicinal meal. This medicinal meal was an improved version Su Xiao had created by combining Xia's cooking methods with various nourishing techniques from alchemy.
A moment later, a stone pot of medicinal meal was placed on the coffee table in front of Hao Mei. An exotic aroma wafted over. Not just Hao Mei, but even Bubu Wang, Beini, and Baha felt a bit hungry. Amu wasn't there—seeing but not being able to eat was too painful for him.
Hao Mei swallowed her saliva. To be honest, she was starving. Her main concern was that the enemy might have poisoned the food. The moment this thought appeared, she almost laughed out loud. She had been unconscious for hours. If the enemy wanted to poison her, they would have done it long ago. Why wait until now?
Hao Mei began to enjoy the soup, unsure what ingredients it was made from. After eating half the stone pot, she felt a warm current surging through her body. Her originally weak body, with cold hands and feet, began to warm up.
"You're treating me, a prisoner, this well? Have you not lost all conscience?"
Hao Mei joked bitterly as she ate.
"You could say that. We drew 4000 milliliters of blood from you earlier, so we have to replenish you. We're not devils."
Hearing Baha say this, Hao Mei's spoon fell into the soup. She froze in place. She estimated that she had about 4300 to 4500 milliliters of blood in her body at most. Having 4000 milliliters drawn all at once—no wonder she was so weak.
She had been wondering why she was so weak that she fell asleep while thinking, and why her hands and feet were cold. It turned out she had lost too much blood.
"Don't stop. We'll need to draw another 2000 milliliters later. Don't worry, we've prepared a full set of blood-nourishing packages for you. You'll definitely hold up."
Baha "reassured" her.
"Ah, this..."
Hao Mei didn't know how to respond. Everything she had experienced today was unprecedented. She never dreamed that a Reincarnation Paradise hunter would catch her and draw her blood. This...
"You're replenishing my blood. Aren't you afraid I'll take the chance to escape?"
Hao Mei began to probe, trying to find out if the enemy had a way to control her, like poisoning her.
Seeing this, Baha tentatively asked, "Hao Mei? Don't you remember what happened in the past few hours? You cried quite miserably..."
"Bullshit! I would never submit. I'm a Sword Grandmaster. My willpower is very strong."
"Your willpower is indeed impressive, which is why you lasted through the first two hours. The next three hours..."
"Hmph, a means of sealing memories, huh? Don't waste your effort. I won't be fooled by you."
Hao Mei insisted that the blurry memories of the past few hours were due to memory sealing.
In reality, this was her psychological rejection reaction and self-protection measure, automatically erasing those hours of memories from her brain.
"Whatever makes you happy. We're not worried about you escaping. You've already signed a contract with us."
Hearing Baha's words, Hao Mei frowned. She didn't remember signing any contract recently. But when she opened her contract list through her mark, she was dumbfounded. The contracts before her weren't one or two, but a full 483 contracts.
That's right, Hao Mei had signed 483 contracts notarized by Reincarnation Paradise. Why so many? Actually, this was normal. The more stringent the terms of a contract, the higher the drafting cost.
For example, if Su Xiao drafted a contract with contractor B stating that if contractor B breached, they would lose 100 points of True Strength attribute, this contract would have strong binding force and severe penalties, so the drafting cost would be high.
Conversely, if the penalty for breach was only losing 1 point of True Strength attribute, the contract cost would be very low.
Don't underestimate these low-penalty contracts. If too many are signed, the effect is equally exaggerated. Moreover, signing hundreds of these low-penalty contracts was cheaper than drafting one heavy-penalty contract.
This was why Hao Mei had signed 483 contracts. It was more cost-effective.
"The contracts I've signed from the first rank to the eighth rank don't add up to what I signed today."
Hao Mei picked up the stone pot with both hands, her expression complex, and began to drink heartily. This wasn't a matter of wanting or not wanting. She guessed the enemy wasn't joking. If they were going to draw more blood later, she needed to replenish quickly and try to produce more blood. If she died during the blood draw, she might become the first eighth-rank contractor to die this way. She couldn't afford that embarrassment.
"Is there anything else? Say it all now. I can take it."
Hao Mei was indeed strong-willed. Back then, when Yueshitu was caught by Su Xiao, she doubted life for a long time and even secretly cried without dignity. Hao Mei was far more composed.
Baha cleared its throat, covered its beak with its wing, and whispered, "Hao Mei, have you heard of farming reputation?"
"Farming... reputation? Isn't that just gaining faction reputation? What's wrong with that?"
"That's right, it's gaining faction reputation. We want you to help us get a little bit of faction reputation. This is crucial."
Hearing this, Hao Mei sneered. She thought it was something major. It was just getting a bit of faction reputation.
Clearly, Hao Mei didn't understand that this "little bit" of reputation was actually a "huge bit" of reputation.
More importantly, it was the word "farming" that Baha had said. That was the essence of it.