Professor Tone’s signature icy, clear voice echoed in Wang Yue’s ears.
“The Blood Demon is a common creature found within the Evernight Realm. In its larval stage, it resembles a coelenterate, rooted firmly to the ground… The surface portion consists of sixteen conical tentacles with high elasticity. The inner skin is lined with cnidocytes that secrete a paralyzing venom… At the center is a retractable proboscis ending in a mouth, surrounded by three lobed lips. The subterranean portion consists of accessory tubules with expanded ends and cephalic filaments; the small central opening serves as the excretory pore…”
Wang Yue listened intently.
Put simply, a larval Blood Demon was a carnivorous organism similar to a sea anemone. It was immobile, with a hunting radius ranging anywhere from twenty to a hundred centimeters.
Once it reached maturity, it would grow roughly humanoid limbs, uproot itself, and begin to roam.
Blood Demons lacked a respiratory system and had no need for oxygen. This meant they could lie in wait within water, marshes, or deep soil, launching sudden ambushes when prey passed by.
Wang Yue leaned down to face the adult Blood Demon lying on the dissection table, which measured 2.13 meters in length.
The dissection began with the arm.
The Blood Demon’s arm was exceptionally soft. The end split into three digits arranged in an opposing fashion, perfectly suited for gripping. Its skin was a vivid, slimy red, through which deep blue veins were faintly visible. It felt heavily mucosal, looking much like a skinned frog.
Under Professor Tone’s guidance, Wang Yue used a finger-pressure grip to guide the blade across the creature’s arm.
Cutting into a Blood Demon’s skin was a strange sensation. The blade seemed to want to escape, constantly sliding off course as if she were processing a particularly slimy fish.
“The scalpel is inscribed with a ‘Sharpness’ rune,” Professor Tone reminded her. “Inject your mana to activate its properties.”
Wang Yue attempted to channel her mana, and the edge of the blade glowed faintly.
Her first cut was light, leaving only a shallow mark.
The second cut successfully parted the epidermis, revealing the internal longitudinal and circular muscles, as well as two layers of fascial mesh—one shallow and one deep.
The Blood Demon’s vascular plexus was extraordinarily developed, woven into a dense, alien network. However, no blood flowed out when cut; it seemed to be held in place by a mysterious force, condensed within the vessels themselves.
The tip of the blade continued downward, slicing through the muscle fibers to expose tiny blood crystals that shimmered like gems between the folds of flesh. As she tried to go deeper, she struck something hard—an internal chitinous shell similar to that of a squid.
Blood Demons lacked an internal skeleton. Their limbs and torsos were composed entirely of entangled resilient tissue and striated muscle.
Following the professor’s instructions, Wang Yue extracted an irregular calcified plate. It had rounded edges and was covered in a porcelain-like membrane—smooth and hard on the outside, but rough on the inside where it was firmly anchored to the muscle fibers.
Beneath the Blood Demon’s skin, in addition to the various fascia, were hundreds of these calcified plates providing formidable defense.
Wang Yue’s movements grew increasingly proficient. The enchanted scalpel was peerless in its sharpness, gliding through flesh and bone like a hot knife through butter. She worked with the precision of a master chef filleting a tuna, deconstructing the anatomy with clinical clarity.
While she handled the dissection, Medeili stood by to hand over tools, and Professor Tone provided guidance and commentary. The three of them worked in perfect synchronicity, delivering a comprehensive demonstration to the young witches in the classroom.
Fifteen minutes later, Wang Yue gripped the handle firmly and drove the blade vertically into the Blood Demon’s chest. With a sharp pull, she splayed the thoracic cavity wide open!
The chest was held open with retractors, revealing a mess of interlocking dark-green veins, a dull-colored stomach, and organs submerged in a black fluid.
Professor Tone warned her not to puncture the stomach. If she did, the stench of rotting corpses would explode like a gas grenade. If the digestive fluids touched her skin, the smell would be impossible to wash off, leaving her so foul-smelling that people would avoid her for at least a month.
Wang Yue slowed her pace, cautiously avoiding the stomach. She pivoted the blade upward, cutting through the junction of the head and thorax. Amidst a raspy, sanding sound, she sliced open the esophagus, only for a mass of tentacles to block her path.
Medeili stepped forward to help, using both hands to pull the obstructive tentacles aside so the blade could move smoothly.
These blood-red tentacles extending from the head sac were terrifying to behold; they were the creature’s primary weapons. Once they coiled around a human, they would immediately inject paralyzing venom to neutralize their prey before starting to feast from the head down. After consuming the head, the tentacles would reach into the chest cavity to pick out the tender organs.
If they captured multiple people at once, they would tear off the humans’ limbs and stuff them into their own excretory pores to create a fermented delicacy similar to stuffed tripe.
