Chapter 146: A Futile Effort!
"Hey, pretty boy over there—lend me your sword."
Jiang Zhe: ???
When I put out a question mark, it's not because I'm confused. It's because I think you're the one with issues.
The horned girl merely gave a casual heads-up before trying to snatch the Blood-Melting Divine Blade from Jiang Zhe's hand with her genetic force.
Jiang Zhe's eyes darkened with displeasure.
But since he was interested in pure-blood demon kin, he chose to tolerate it. He loosened his grip, letting the blade fly over to the horned girl, who caught the dark-gold hilt.
She twirled the blade into a few dazzling patterns, then ran her fingers along its blood-red edge, openly admiring it. "Excellent material! What a fine blade! If only this was my life-bound weapon..."
She looked up, eyes locking on List, a sharp killing intent erupting from her that sliced straight toward him.
It was a test of the blade.
And also... the start of a hunt.
Among demon kin, relationships were refreshingly simple: they saw each other as walking blood meals. Life-or-death struggles needed no other justification.
Although they were both Counts (Domain Lords), the other was a pure-blood demon. How could List dare to fight? In an instant, he turned into a beam of golden light and fled hundreds of kilometers away.
"Low-grade blood food should obediently stretch out their necks. How dare you resist?" The horned girl raised the Blood-Melting Divine Blade and slashed.
A pitch-black spatial rift tore open before her. With blade in hand, she stepped into it.
Behind Jiang Zhe, the Primordial Umbrella quivered slightly. The Candlelight clone dwelling within had sensed a spatial anomaly about 1,200 kilometers ahead.
"Master, roughly 1,200 kilometers away, a spatial rift just opened. That girl stepped out of it and blocked the male demon Count."
As a World Lord with a body-world diameter of 300 billion kilometers, Oriana's perception stretched extremely far. She promptly reported the situation.
Jiang Zhe stroked his chin. "Was that teleportation?"
Oriana thought for a moment, then offered a more precise answer. "A type of teleportation innate secret art."
"Did she attack? Can you estimate her life gene level?"
"Master, once a Domain Lord forms a life core, their thought and energy fluctuations become completely restrained. It's hard to gauge an accurate multiplier just from her power bursts. To get precise data, I'd need to invade her body with world force, or at least get a drop of her blood."
She added, "But it's certain she's above a hundredfold life gene level."
Jiang Zhe nodded slightly.
Life cores and origin cores were very different before reaching Domain Lord level.
Before that, the origin core only helped conceal thought force fluctuations. With technological means, one could clearly read a person's energy levels.
Take himself for example: the force fluctuation in his dantian was that of a normal peak universe level, multiplied by 1,810.
"Just based on these two points, her flesh alone would drive most who wish to cultivate clones mad."
"Ori, go deal with those demon Viscounts."
After a sigh, Jiang Zhe flicked his finger. A droplet of blood flew out, exploding into a mist that coalesced into a hazy blood shadow.
"Yes, Master."
This clone, at peak World Lord combat power, sped after the fleeing golden-red beams at tens of thousands of kilometers per second.
Meanwhile, Jiang Zhe rose into the sky, leisurely heading toward where the two demon Counts were battling.
By the time he arrived, the fight was already over.
The horned girl held the Blood-Melting Divine Blade, slicing off List's head and digging out a heart like a red crystal, which she cradled in her left hand.
Because the blade hadn't recognized her as master, its first two seals hadn't activated—it was just a high-grade weapon.
With her striking, regal features, a pair of blood-red horns, and a white dress adorned with flame patterns—holding a bloody blade in one hand and a heart in the other—she looked, for a moment, like an Ashura princess from the Nether Blood Sea.
Two streaks of blood light flew toward him.
Jiang Zhe came back to himself, catching them with his thought force. It was the Blood-Melting Divine Blade and half of the crystalline heart.
His eyebrow rose. "This is for me?"
Crunch—crunch—
The horned girl bit into the remaining half of the crystal heart, nodding. "Mm. It's yours. We share at first meeting. From now on, you're my little brother. If I have food, you'll never go without."
'Interesting.' Jiang Zhe's mind darkened with playful thoughts.
"You're not planning to eat me? Or just keeping me as emergency rations?"
The horned girl tilted her head, puzzled. "Why would I eat you? Sure, you smell nice, but you're definitely not on my menu. My bloodline genes tell me you're completely non-nutritious."
"Gilded on the outside, rotten within."
That's how it translated from demon language.
She waggled the leftover half of the crystal heart. "This is the best nourishment for pure-blood demon kin."
Crunch—crunch—
After finishing it, her aura surged slightly. Oriana informed him mentally that she had advanced to Domain Lord level 2.
Clearly, devouring a fellow demon's heart was like humans soaking in nutrient baths—an energy-accumulation method.
In fact, consuming kin also advanced life gene levels... The Abyss was a cruel place. Just as cultivation mission logs described, it was a "gu breeding ground."
With no hint of ladylike grace, she let out a satisfied burp and wagged her finger at Jiang Zhe.
"I'm a pure-blood demon—an embodiment of desire. I will become the King of Desire, not a slave driven by it."
"So I have to control my craving for you."
"Only by mastering my desires can I reach ultimate power, instead of ending up like countless unlucky predecessors—driven mad, slain, thrown back into the blood pool to nurture the next generation."
Jiang Zhe's brow twitched. So ultimately, you still want to eat me.
It's just that the benefit from consuming him wasn't great enough. Keeping him around to tempt her hunger was actually better for her growth.
Also, all her flowery words boiled down to one meaning— whether he agreed or not, he was her little brother now.
Jiang Zhe was very curious about pure-blood demons, so he was happy to play along for a while.
Suddenly, the horned girl appeared right before him as if teleporting, lightly stepping in the air. At 1.6 meters, she still stood a head taller than him. Her pale fingers hooked under his chin.
"What? Not going to eat it? It's delicious."
"Maybe you'll break through to Count level from it?"
"With your handsome looks and extremely high life gene level... just imagine, if we had a child together, wouldn't it still be a pure-blood demon?"
"Hahaha! Then we'd build a pure-blood demon family, raising little brats to rule all nine layers of the Abyss. We'd be Abyssal royalty!"
Jiang Zhe: ???
Wait. This is not how the plot was supposed to go.
Where was the mutual deception? The hidden schemes?
Turns out, you just really want my body?
"Master, she's spouting utter nonsense!"
Jiang Zhe: ???
What the—someone else lost their cool?
"Master, she has an innate 100x life gene level. You're an innate 3x. Even ignoring the fact you're different species—suppose there were no reproductive barriers, or we found a way to remove them—the original universe's will still wouldn't allow offspring from such a union."
"Master, just kill this shameless little sword girl. I want to taste her heart—see if it's as scandalous as she looks!"
Jiang Zhe: …
After more than two centuries together, this was the first time he realized Oriana actually had a temper.
He stepped back, widening the distance from the horned girl. Without replying to her, he soothed Oriana mentally, then broke off a tiny piece of the crystal heart and popped it into his mouth.
As he did, a bit of crystal dust fell on his stone armor, quickly dissolving. Actually, it was Oriana absorbing it.
The fingernail-sized shard melted instantly on his tongue.
It split into two energies—one blood-red, one black.
The blood energy spread through his body, while the black energy, infused with chaotic will, shot toward his brain.
Sinister, violent, maddeningly tempting, the chaotic will was easily crushed and erased by Jiang Zhe.
Meanwhile, the blood energy tried to diffuse through him, but his 181 "stars" all erupted with light, promptly driving this low-grade foreign force from their domains—just as they had done with bloodlo crystals before.
Jiang Zhe spat out a blood-colored arrow, which pierced into a boulder, leaving only a thumb-sized hole.
He felt frustrated.
At his level, increasing his life gene multiplier was extremely difficult.
His gap with the future Luo Feng primarily came down to—Golden Hollow Bloodlo Crystal.
'First Thunder Beast God, just where did you die?' Jiang Zhe wondered.
Looking up, he found the horned girl wasn't surprised at all. Instead, she smiled knowingly.
Tossing her the remaining half of the crystal heart, she caught it and crunched it down.
Jiang Zhe asked curiously, "You already knew it would turn out this way?"
"Half and half," the horned girl replied. "I knew a Count's heart would be useless to you—but I didn't expect you couldn't even absorb the demonic power inside."