Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 31 Battle of Extreme Realms
Yodl instinctively sensed something was wrong.

After a brief standoff and probing, the white-haired vampire, who had been launching fierce attacks, along with his two juniors, suddenly became passive!
They no longer attack, charge, or blink wildly and dangerously, nor do they manipulate blood slaves with undetectable sounds.

Until Gilbert's anxious voice rang out:

"Yordle!"

Although they didn't usually get along well, Yodl immediately understood what he meant!
The masked guard looked up and saw Thales push open the door from the balcony to the interior and disappear into the darkness inside.

Thales, why?
As the mechanical gears behind the crystal lens began to turn, Yodl's vision rapidly zoomed in on the third floor; however, the room was so dark that he couldn't see anything inside.

Yodl's heart began to stir.

His figure disappeared instantly.

In an unknown gray world, a gray moon gradually emerges. Then, a gray iron gate appears out of thin air, followed by a gray garden, gray exterior walls, gray windows, gray houses, and so on.

Before long, a gray-white manor, identical to the real-world manor except for its eerie color, appeared out of thin air in this world.

After an unknown amount of time, it was as if the sky had been pulled apart. A point in the void, like the surface of water touched by a dragonfly, suddenly rippled outwards in visible layers!

Finally, a normal-colored Yordle emerged gently from the center of the void ripples into the gray-white world, stepping onto the equally gray-white creeping manor.

Following a desolate, gray path that was almost identical in shape and structure to the real world, yet devoid of any human life, the masked guard skillfully leaped from window to window in the shadows, rapidly ascending to the third floor of the Mangrove Manor.

He needed to get from the world of shadows to his room on the third floor!

However, just a few meters away from stepping onto the stone railing of the third-floor balcony, Yodel suddenly paused.

Because Yodl clearly felt that, just a moment ago, this gray and shadowy path had been struck hard from every corner by a heavy hammer!
Resonance.

These two words popped into Yodl's mind.

What a familiar feeling.

He frowned slightly and then gave up climbing.

In the next instant, Yodl's left foot swiftly pushed off the gray exterior wall of the gray house, launching him into the air like a swallow and tumbling backward!

Just a few meters below the gray-white balcony, where Yodel had just stepped, a strange ripple of space appeared, spreading out in a shocking manner and causing the outer walls of the surrounding gray-white houses to collapse!
The ripple was a breathtakingly blood-red color.

This crimson hue instantly spread across the entire gray-white shadowy path!
As the Yordle tumbled through the air, he let out a silent sigh, and transparent spatial ripples appeared all over his body.

The spatial ripple of the Yordle neutralized the incoming crimson ripple.

Within seconds, his figure disappeared into the void.

In the real world...

Below the observation deck on the third floor of Mangcao Manor, a blood mist shrouded a large area of ​​space in mid-air, contracting and expanding as if it were vibrating rhythmically!

Yodal suddenly appeared amidst this strange vibration!
The Yordles who appeared rolled around, looking at the blood mist surrounding them, and frowned in mid-air—twelve years had passed, and once again, he had been artificially forced out of the Shadow Path.

They used the same method as back then.

What awaited him was a pre-prepared ambush.

The blood mist stopped vibrating, and a suffocating aura, carrying countless blood droplets, rushed towards it.

The blood mist condensed in the air to form an old, blood-red right hand, which struck out with a seemingly light palm towards the Yordles who had nowhere to get a foothold in mid-air.

It went straight for the chest and abdomen.

But before the palm could even get close, Yodl's clothes on his chest and abdomen made an ominous "sizzling" sound and shattered one by one in the air!

If you look closely, you will find that the area around the blood-red hand is covered with tiny blood mists, which corrode everything that it encounters!
For example, the heart of a yodel.

He was suspended in mid-air, unable to dodge.

Even the shadow path can no longer provide him with shelter.

In mid-air, Yordle, facing imminent doom, could only calmly retract his chest and abdomen, curling his body into a strange shape to delay the time it would take to meet the palm head-on.

A little over a second.

Many things happen in just over a second!
In an instant, a dark-colored short sword appeared in Yodl's right hand.

In the blink of an eye, the Yordle's sword flashed, unleashing three consecutive strikes!
Of the three sword strikes, none were aimed at that dangerous, blood-red palm.

But behind Yodel's crystal lens, gears spun rapidly, and the countless tiny blood mists were revealed in his eyes as if they had nowhere to hide: the terrifying blood mist was shaken out by Yodel's short sword, creating three ripples invisible to ordinary people!

The bloody hand struck without hindrance, just a second off.

The gears behind the Yodel lens instantly changed direction, the color of the crystal lens changed, and his vision changed accordingly: three ripples vibrated the surrounding blood energy, and behind the blood-red palm, a special drop of blood spun irregularly during the vibration.

The next moment, Yordle's short sword flashed with incredible speed, leaving afterimages as it pierced the irregular drop of blood.

"Hey!"

The sword tip lightly touched the palm formed by the blood mist, then swiftly withdrew, wasting neither a single ounce of strength nor a single drop of energy.

Within the palm formed of blood mist, a drop of blood, neither too big nor too small, shattered.

Then, the originally menacing blood-red palm, which was about to imprint itself on Yordle's chest in a fraction of a second, instantly disintegrated and became invisible!
Yodl landed lightly. On his left chest and abdomen, a piece of clothing that had been severely corroded and torn by the blood mist turned to ashes, revealing a hidden muscle. The skin on the surface had long since been corroded away, and blood was flowing out.

The blood mist that filled the sky gathered backward along with the disintegrating bloody hand, and reassembled into the lifeless figure of Chris Corleone in front of Yordle, but failed to condense his right hand.

Yodl didn't even look at the wound on his chest and abdomen, letting the blood soak the hem of his robes until his muscles automatically contracted, stopping the bleeding from the corroded wound.

Chris frowned, then swung his right arm, and a crimson new hand bone grew from his lost right wrist, mixed with blood mist, and at a speed visible to the naked eye, it re-condensed into muscle and skin.

Yodl's chest and abdominal wounds appeared to be much more serious, while Chris's right hand had regrowed completely unharmed.

But a shadow fell over Chris's heart: he knew that in the perilous battle where the ultimate experts had decided life and death in an instant, the proud long-lived species had already lost to the short-lived species behind the mask.

At first, the Yordle disappeared into his own shadow path, vanishing from this world, but continued his journey on the other side of the world.

But then, Chris used the omnipresent blood mist to create tens of thousands of blood droplets, which, with a sudden, powerful, and synchronized resonance, forcefully shook the masked guard out of his solitary shadow.

The Yordle, whose path was abruptly cut off, fell into Chris's trap in mid-air. The blood mist, which was covered with a weak corrosive power, condensed into a more concentrated palm with the attraction of the source blood and attacked the Yordle.

With no way to gain leverage, no way to dodge, and no way to disappear into the shadows, the Yordle is at a complete disadvantage.

But in an instant, Yodl used a sharp turn of his body to gain a little over a second.

In that brief moment of just over a second, Yodel located the source blood within millions of tiny droplets of blood, destroyed it, and incidentally shattered Chris's right hand.

The outcome of a battle between masters of the highest level is determined by this.

Yodl only lost a small patch of skin, about the size of a palm, and some of the outer walls of his veins.

Chris, on the other hand, lost a drop of the essence of the vampire race's vigorous life force under the Yordle's sword. It takes more than a hundred years to condense a single drop of the source blood.

Chris sighed. What an outstanding young man, a formidable successor.

“What beautiful skills and amazing intuition—it seems I was ignorant to compare you to ‘Kingdom’s Wrath’ before.”

As Chris spoke, he flashed again, dodging the Yordle's ghostly sword strike. "Even 'Kingdom' wouldn't have done better than you."

Yodl ignored him, stomped her foot, and rushed toward a second-floor window.

But Chris stood in his way again.

“But you can’t turn the tide.” Chris swayed, dodging Yodl’s attack while stopping him from heading to the third floor.

The old man, a long-lived being, kept talking, but his words were filled with chilling insights from someone who had lived a long life: "At that boy's age, he is probably the most intelligent and calm short-lived being I have ever seen in my six hundred-plus years of life."

Having lost a drop of his source blood, Chris no longer expected to kill or even defeat his opponent—ultimate masters are all dangerous individuals with immense power and lofty realms, yet they can control their power at will. In just a few moves, they both understood the direction of the battle.

But he couldn't let the other party disturb His Highness's meal—especially that short-lived cub, which might be the key to His Highness's awakening.

"Unfortunately, his curiosity and sense of crisis were too strong—even knowing that reinforcements were on the way, he couldn't help but take the initiative to fight back and defend himself—he probably couldn't stand the feeling of having his fate in the hands of others."

"We had only made a few feints when he keenly noticed that the third floor might be our weakness."

"Curiosity and a sense of crisis compelled him to push open that door."

Little did they know, that was the place we wanted him to go.

"His Highness needs his blood, needs his strength."

"Young man, it's too late for you."

“That short-lived boy has, at this very moment,” Chris’s eyes gleamed, and for the first time, there was respect and admiration in his tone when he addressed Thales, “becomes His Highness’s strength.”

Yodel's short sword trembled slightly.

————————————————————————————————————————

When Thales saw the charred, withered hand emerging from the eerie black coffin, he froze for a full five seconds.

Intense flashbacks assaulted every cell in his brain once more, tearing back familiar images from the void:

All that could be heard was that same sweet and gentle voice, but this time it spoke without any politeness:

"Wu Qiren—you're hurting me! It's just rewatching a classic, why are you so scared!"

In Thales' ears, his voice from his past life was filled with fear and trembling:
"I thought it was something like 'The Godfather'—but who knew you'd want to watch 'Ju-on' in the middle of the night!"

"This is a true timeless classic, okay? Look how cute Kayako is—hey, be gentle! My skin is so delicate!"

"Holy crap, she's here! You have big breasts, quickly cover them up for me!"

"You think my breasts are bigger now? Normally they're like this—oh, if you're scared, just close your eyes!"

"I just can't help it. By the way, can we turn on the light? — Oh no, she's climbed down!"

"Wu Qiren! You sit back down in your chair right now!"

"Hey, Grandma, please don't pause this scene! I have to go up and down these stairs every day, okay?!"

The moonlight was obscured by dark clouds, and in the darkness, the inexplicable flashbacks of past life memories were interrupted by a terrifying roar.

"Hoah——"

The sound was like a drowning person suddenly waking up from a state of apparent death.

But to Thales, who was deeply tormented by his past life memories, it sounded exactly like the mournful howl of a thousand-year-old vengeful ghost that had been resurrected overnight!

Thales snapped back to his senses and was stunned to find that the ghostly hand that was gripping the edge of the coffin suddenly yanked outwards with that terrifying roar!
A wrist that was as withered and rotten as a dried-up corpse.

His forearm was charred black, as if it had been burned by hellfire.

It looked like a mutilated shoulder that had been gnawed by countless ants.

One by one, they emerged from outside the black coffin, following that hand!
This ghostly hand, and the almost inhuman "body" connected to it, seemed to be slowly crawling out of the black coffin!

Until a chilling head slowly emerged from the rim of the coffin in the dim moonlight!

This withered "head" has long, dry, white hair, a face that is charred and rotten, a disproportionately large black mouth, and the area where the nose is located is a bottomless black!

Thales felt goosebumps spreading from his scalp to his fingertips.

Hidden beneath its white hair, "it" opened its pitch-black "mouth," a gigantic black maw that stretched all the way down to its ear!

"Ho-"

A piercing roar reached Thales' ears head-on.

Thales felt a chill run down his spine and almost collapsed to the ground!

The monster didn't stop; it slowly but rhythmically crawled out of the black coffin, as if it were groping its way around.

From head to torso, from left arm to right arm, the "head" finally crossed the edge of the coffin, and the entire upper body fell towards the ground.

Finally, the withered, ghost-like left hand gently touched the ground.

Thales' mind went blank. He trembled slightly as he slowly inhaled a breath of cold air.

At that moment, the head that was pressed against the ground seemed to sense something.

It paused for a moment, then slowly raised its head in the direction of Thales.

Its dry white hair fell to both sides, gently revealing its "face," which was facing Thales.

And the place that should have been the eye socket.

But Thales saw it—

Two irregular, large black holes.

The boy was so frightened he almost fainted.

This looks like an unburnt, mummified corpse?

But it seems that after his transmigration, his extensive street experience has greatly increased his courage. Despite his fear, Thales trembled as he managed to salvage what little rationality he had left.

Whatever that thing is—Thales shuddered and muttered to himself, I must run!

Although it looks scary, it's not fast. I just need to—

Thales tried his best not to think about the plots of those horror movies from his past life. He turned his foot and twisted the comfortable children's leather shoes that Gilbert had prepared for him (although they were already worn out from running around), preparing to get away from this dangerous place by speed.

Just wait for Yodl's rescue—that's what Thales was thinking, but the moment his shoes turned, that demonic monster suddenly leaped out of the coffin!

Like a headless demon that had been wandering aimlessly, suddenly awakening!

"Hoh—ah!" The shrill scream rang out again!

Terrified, Thales turned and ran away!
"Thump thump—" Thales, pale-faced, took two steps and ran towards the balcony!

(End of this chapter)