“How should I use it?” Ashley asked, shaking the small bottle with her fingers. The blood was as viscous as oil.
“Do work for us. Based on your loyalty and contributions, we’ll reward you with some usage methods and more Primordial Blood. We might even accept you into the family, but only as a pet or servant—the Blood Nobles don’t intermarry with outsiders.”
Screw Horn’s response was exactly as Ashley had expected. In this way, as long as they controlled the blood technology and Primordial Blood, they could keep driving her.
This wasn’t cooperation; it was domestication, dripping with arrogance and contempt—like pure-blood wizards bossing around Muggles. But forced by circumstances, they had to grovel to the Tribunal. It was extremely awkward.
After Screw Horn left, Ashley examined the Primordial Blood. The more she looked, the more familiar it seemed. She recalled that Promush had drunk it, causing his body to swell and turn into a monster—even dying ten minutes late was impressive.
It seemed that the core competitiveness of the major powers was all about monopolizing unique technologies.
Compared to the Tribunal’s Undying Potion, Primordial Blood was more like raw material. Drinking it directly was just a superficial use, and the resulting monster wasn’t that powerful.
–
Ashley brought the Primordial Blood back to the workshop and discussed it with Little Black Feet.
“This definitely isn’t ordinary biological blood. Its extraordinary reaction is very strong. And according to you, after the enemy drank it, their body swelled dramatically, forming new limbs and bones. Clearly, this is an editable concentrated basic organic substance,” Blackfoot Loli analyzed.
Ashley suddenly thought that in the ‘First Cycle,’ corpses extended mycelium to absorb nutrients, but afterward, they lost interest in nutritional substances. She and Little Black Feet had researched it back then, speculating that ordinary food had too little nutrition and too much metabolic waste. Maybe this concentrated Primordial Blood had little metabolic waste and could pique its interest.
She pulled a Rat Head Fruit from her pocket—not from a ferocious rat, but from the first ordinary brown house rat corpse crushed by cart wheels.
“It’s decided—you! From now on, you’ll be different from the millions of ordinary Rat Rats. You’ll be my lucky Rat Rat! Go, explore the path to the ‘Second Cycle’!”
Ashley brought the small, exquisite fruit—where the rat head shape was faintly visible through the glossy transparent skin—close to the bottle.
She focused intently, and suddenly, the fruit, which had been dormant, awakened!
Soft mycelium extended from the bottom, wrapping around the glass bottle containing the Primordial Blood. It probed everywhere, seeking gaps to drill into.
Ashley unscrewed the cap.
“Hey! You’re being too reckless. How can you so casually let two unknown substances touch?!”
Little Black Feet jumped to her feet in fright, grabbing a pump-action shotgun from the wall and aiming it at the fruit.
“It’s fine. I recorded four copies of ‘Rose Blood Drain.’ Even if something goes wrong, I can make it spit it out.”
The mycelium crawled into the bottle mouth, and heavy, viscous blood droplets surged into the fruit one by one, dyeing the translucent spore sac a vivid, dripping red.
“Is the ‘Second Cycle’ starting?”
Ashley tensed up, not daring to look away for a moment.
However, even after absorbing all the Primordial Blood, the Rat Rat fruit showed no changes. The blood was still visible inside the spore sac, as if it had merely been transferred to a new container.
“Wasting it on drinking was such a shame—this dead rat!” Little Black Feet complained.
“Don’t say that. An ordinary Rat Rat struggled to survive in filthy, stinking sewers, only to be tragically crushed by cart wheels. Yet I selected it, used what’s suspected to be King Insect’s Insect Shedding to complete the First Cycle, and now it’s drunk its fill of Primordial Blood, reaching heights countless rats could never dream of. That proves it has strong luck!” Blue-Haired Loli cradled the Rat Head Fruit, her eyes sparkling.
Little Black Feet shrugged noncommittally, placed the fruit on a tray, and tested its computing power.
“How could… computing power be zero… It’s just a stupid rat with no spirituality!” she complained.
Ashley, however, was overjoyed upon hearing this. Then Little Black Feet realized it too.
“No computing power means the spirituality has been consumed—the Second Cycle has begun!”
Everything suddenly became crystal clear.
“Spirituality and highly concentrated basic organic substances are the conditions for completing the cycle! They’ll cluster together and propel the Rat Rat to ascend to heaven!”
After the excitement, Ashley fell into thought again—now she had Primordial Blood, but where would the spirituality come from?
She suddenly remembered that bottle of Family Spirit Elixir. She hadn’t dared to use it yet, but given its brain-activating effects, it might be related to spirituality.
Ashley pocketed the Rat Head Fruit, called a carriage, and headed along Fourth Avenue toward the East District, planning to retrieve the elixir from the family secret room and test if it could catalyze the Rat Head’s Second Cycle.
Night had fallen. The crescent moon like a horn hid behind the deep indigo curtain of the night sky. Pure white stars flickered with cold, illusory light, like the myriad eyes of gods gazing upon the world.
From a high rooftop, Moracha Hazlit watched Ashley’s carriage turn the street corner. He lifted his duckbill cap and tossed it aside casually.
His pitch-black pupils swirled with inhuman light, like two vortices. His right hand covered his face, fingertips sinking into the left side of his magician’s curtain-like skin along a diagonal line. He tore off half of the soft, sagging face, revealing a crystalline skull beneath!
The crystal skull seemed empty, yet also contained some transparent liquid. Blue fluorescent particles rotated and danced along mysterious tracks. Countless thread-like white lights descended from the starry cluster, connecting to this enigmatic brain!
“It’s time…”
“To offer you a grand performance…”
“So you can gain inspiration that transcends the mortal dust…”
“And become one who comprehends ultimate wisdom…”
Moracha’s language and tone gradually departed from human phonetics and range, like countless sharp, chaotic insect chirps converging from all directions…
–
The carriage pulled over to the roadside.
Ashley asked puzzledly, “Isn’t this still Fourth Avenue? I said Lodanmi Street.”
“Miss, there seems to be some trouble ahead. Look…”
No need for more words—the clamor and chaos surged in like a tide. Ashley jumped off the carriage and tossed a pound coin to the driver.
Though she didn’t know what had happened, as a Tribunal cadre, she couldn’t just turn tail and run. So Blue-Haired Loli stood on a road pier and looked ahead.
She saw a four-limbed, prowling ‘person’ with its head held high and neck unnaturally elongated chasing residents on the street! Like a tiger charging into a flock of sheep, it pounced and bit with its mouth!
From its clothing, it had been a normal person not long ago. Now its lips split to the ears, blackened teeth flipped outward, sharp tooth roots forming a terrifying, centipede-like mouthpart!
Its impact and pounce speed were so fierce that even the most agile athletes seemed sluggish and clumsy!
In an instant, it felled four or five people. The victims’ bite wounds didn’t bleed but writhed with black substance—like clustered tadpoles. Then their bodies convulsed, limbs twisted and deformed, and they lunged at more people…
Ashley’s pupils flickered as she observed and thought rapidly—this was clearly a parasite with extreme reproduction speed. It might not have mouthparts itself, so it used the host’s teeth to inject into bodies.
Though it looked eerie and terrifying, since it could proliferate, it was just an ordinary parasite.
Because extraordinary power couldn’t be copied through reproduction—only partially or fully inherited, with total quantity unchanged.
Whether a terrorist attack or accident, this wasn’t something ordinary police could handle.
Ashley kicked off with her toes, charging straight ahead, speed building. At the same time, she twisted the spiral bone hilt of her shortsword, adjusting the octopus toxin secretion.
The octopus toxin’s components matched pufferfish toxin, acting on nerves. A certain dose was fatal, but properly adjusted, it caused only mild poisoning—symptoms of muscle paralysis and limb weakness.
Zombies were fierce, but they couldn’t defy biological laws.
Blue-Haired Loli’s figure moved like a nimble cheetah, weaving and dodging. Light, swift slashing arcs flowed through the crowd, and the zombies she struck swiftly lost mobility, unable to catch the fleeing people.
