Chapter 125: Dark Queen's Ceremony
The woman's light green eyes showed amazement as she smiled and said, "You two exceeded Lady Lilith's expectation and mine by a large margin."
'How did they manage to break into the second realm of their affinity this quick?' the woman was internally amazed, and anyone would be shocked if they found out that Rin and Erix had just started their path of power recently and made such progress in their affinities.
But their rapid progress in affinity was thanks to their hard work and their spiritual art, the Way of Unfettered that allowed them access to Limitless Plane.
"Who are you?" Rin warily asked while she checked the woman's level.
'Level 184…well, she is no threat to me as long as I don't attack her first.'
"I am a member of Dark Troupe and the strongest assassin in the town," the woman lightly chuckled and stretched her hand towards Rin, "You can call me Lily. Nice to meet you."
"If you two had failed, I was supposed to complete the task."
"I see. So, what now?" Rin asked as she took a sip from her juice glass.
"You two will follow me to partake in Lady Lilith's ceremony."
Rin and Lily left while Rin called Erix with her comm card.
On the other hand, the four Noble-order powerhouses made a rational decision.
They didn't inform the Vampire King and just left, or rather, escaped to a new life.
If they told the Vampire King that his son died while he was under their protection, the four of them would get the worst of torture before dying, not by the Vampire King himself because of the 10-level rule, but by his other stronger subordinates around their levels.
After all, the other party was clearly around the young master's level, which was why their attack managed to hurt and kill him.
That also meant four of them were stronger than their opponents but couldn't do anything.
The four of them knew they were powerless to prevent the tragedy due to the nature of the attack they received, but the vampire king wouldn't listen to the reason they felt, and so they scurried away to new paths of their lives, leaving the town and disappearing shortly.
…
Erix and Rin stood inside the mansion before Dark Queen Lilith, who wore a v-line black dress with ample bosom showing a tempting cleavage.
Her eyes faintly shone with praise as she nodded while smiling, "You two did a good job. More importantly, your progress in reaching the next realm of your affinity was unforeseen."
"It seems that you two have a very high level of affinity with Metal and Lightning."
"Perhaps," Erix politely smiled.
"Are you two practicing any spiritual art? If not, I can give you one. Usually, people should start practicing their spiritual art after reaching the Noble-order plane, but you can also start early."
Lilith waved her hand as a scroll flew towards Rin and Erix, stopping between them a meter away before it opened.
"This is Bloodforge Surge Art, a spiritual art that can empower your blood and allow you to create Blood Qi as you practice it. You can use Blood Qi to boost your physical parameters or boost physical attacks, and if you practice it long enough, you will eventually acquire Blood Affinity."
Rin and Erix were surprised. They could also see the scroll showing steps on how to practice the art.
'This is way different than the Way of Unfettered art,' Erix thought. 'It seems that the one we got is a unique spiritual art.'
"Thank you very much for the gift," Rin took the scroll with a smile. 'Who will refuse such a delicious free lunch?'
Erix also thanked her.
After all, the spiritual art they got was precious, no doubt.
"The scroll is usable twice. Infuse your mana into it, and it will give you complete steps and knowledge on how to practice this art. After two people infuse mana and take the knowledge, the scroll will turn into dust and vanish."
"We won't use it now as we have another spiritual art, but we'll definitely make use of it," Erix said.
"No problem, do as you see fit because the scroll is now yours," Lilith nodded, stood up, and appeared a meter away from Erix and Rin by turning into a faint stream of red mist.
The speed she displayed was ten times faster than sound. Naturally, there were means to travel that fast without producing the usual loud bang despite breaking the sound barrier.
"Follow me. It's time to begin the ceremony," Lilith walked past them from the middle with the usual alluring smile hanging on her lips.
As she walked ahead, the floor parted magically and revealed wide stairs with illuminating crystals on the wall.
It was an underground passage!
Rin and Erix followed her.
As the trio descended the stairs, they arrived in an underground cave with a sparkling blue pond. A crimson three-meter-tall tree was in the middle of the pond, oozing out a mysterious aura.
Around the pond, five meters away from its edge, were seven spots with magic circles carved on them with some unique material as they faintly glowed in black.
"Stand on the empty circular spots around the pond."
Five people were already present in the cave chamber before them: three women and two men. One man was a vampire; another was a human. One woman was an elf, and the other two were demoness bearing dark red curvy horns and looked similar as if they were twins.
They were the members of Dark Troupe, already standing on five different spots, so Erix and Rin stood on the remaining two empty spots.
"Is everything ready?" Lilith asked without pausing her walk as she continued moving towards the pond.
"Everything is ready, my lady," Lily answered with a faint smile.
Lilith nodded while walking and finally stopped at the edge of the pond. She then turned around and faced Rin and Erix with a smile.
"This ceremony is for a Demonic Embryo attached to my soul. I have to borrow seven different types of blood to use a Witchcraft Spell and suppress the embryo from corrupting my soul and slowly shave it away every month," Lilit informed them as Rin and Erix finally knew why she had such a ceremony.
"Kindly cooperate, and don't resist the spell from taking your blood," Lilith smiled. "I will only take 10% of your blood, so bear it for a while."
Rin and Erix nodded.
"Once we are done, we'll have a party and a feast."