Chapter 421: Blood Race Blood Seal, the True Name Rule in Sacred Artifacts

"The bodies of the Blood Race can move because their power source is their blood."

"This is why the Thin Blood Clan, the outcasts, have liquid blood—they are born through natural procreation."

"The other clans are different. They are created through the Embrace, not born from a human body, which is how they maintain their orthodoxy."

"This allows them to possess a complete lineage and a True Name, and also gives them gaseous blood that resembles black mist."

'So... what's the deal with the Son of the Dragon?'

Qi Suian looked at the blood in his hand—the blood of the Son of the Dragon, which he had obtained through the Blood Cup.

It was normal for the Daywalker's blood to be liquid; after all, he had half-human blood running through his veins.

But the Son of the Dragon's blood was also liquid.

He had originally thought the Blood Cup forced the blood of the Blood Race to become liquid, but after trying the blood of a different member of the Blood Race, he discovered that wasn't the case.

The blood of other Blood Race members remained a black mist inside the Blood Cup.

It would appear and then settle at the bottom of the cup, flowing out when the Blood Cup was tilted.

If consumed, one could gain the corresponding power. But if not consumed, it would gradually dissipate after leaving the Blood Cup.

It couldn't last long like the blood of the Son of the Dragon and the Daywalker.

'If I'm not mistaken, the Son of the Dragon was likely born naturally, not through the Embrace.' Qi Suian knew the Son of the Dragon was special, but he hadn't expected him to be *this* special.

This made him wonder: who exactly was the Son of the Dragon's mother?

'To possess such a unique quality...'

'I used two anomalies from a single race to figure out the normal data.'

'Does that mean there's something wrong with me...?' The thought suddenly struck Qi Suian, his mind taking a strange turn.

After all, if the problem is correct and the answer is correct, but the process is a complete mess, whose fault could it be but his own?

While mocking himself, Qi Suian began to separate the black-mist blood.

He wanted to study the Blood Race. The Son of the Dragon and the Daywalker were outliers; they weren't representative.

That didn't mean they had no research value, however. They would just serve as supplementary subjects.

Only after he finished analyzing the majority could he move on to the minority.

From within the black mist, he stripped out a trace of a blood-red seal.

"A receiver," Qi Suian said in a low voice.

It was common knowledge that the source of a Blood Race member's power was a Sacred Artifact. Since blood was the power source, it must have a way to receive that power.

After the Blood Seal appeared on Qi Suian's hand, it quickly transformed into the shape of a crimson bat. However, because the quantity was small, its frame was about the size of a normal bat, but the lack of material made it look like a stick-figure drawing.

Qi Suian took out the Rot Bracelet and waved it in front of the Blood Seal bat, which showed a distinct ripple-like reaction.

'As long as I have the Blood Seal bats for the corresponding Thirteen Clans, I can use the fluctuations to indirectly observe and control the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts.'

'This... seems to be some kind of curse.'

Based on the reaction between the two, Qi Suian formed a new set of observational data.

A connection formed between the Blood Seal and the Sacred Artifact. As this connection grew stronger, a distorted image flashed before Qi Suian's eyes.

It was fast and extremely blurry—even blurrier than a mosaic—so Qi Suian couldn't make out what it was at all.

But it didn't matter. Since he had the components in his hands, if he could replicate it once, he could do it a second and third time.

"Time to switch to the blood of a third-generation Blood Race member, one who's a Blood Prince." As he spoke, Qi Suian once again used the Blood Cup to obtain the blood of another member from the clan corresponding to the Rot Bracelet.

The experiment continued. Because he used a larger quantity this time, the resulting Blood Seal was no longer a stick figure, and it came from a Blood Race member of higher status.

As a result, the memory that flashed by this time was much slower, and the image became clear.

Qi Suian saw the contents: a human sacrificing another human, with the target being the sky, or perhaps the entire world.

'This couldn't be the scene of Cain sacrificing his brother Abel, could it?'

'Then where's God?' Qi Suian knew that this act had led God to turn Cain into a monster that craved blood and feared the light.

But this world wasn't the Old Testament. It was debatable whether God even existed here.

If He did, how could He allow the Blood Race to raise His flock as livestock?

Qi Suian was more inclined to believe it was some kind of unique ritual.

'I can confirm this is the origin of the Blood Race.'

'The only drawback is that it's just a single image, nothing else.'

As he spoke, Qi Suian switched to the blood of a third-generation Blood Prince from the clan corresponding to the Blood Cup and repeated the experiment.

He wanted to see if he could get a different image, but the result was the same—it was still that single scene.

Next, he refined the blood from the clan corresponding to the Poison Bottle.

At this point, he held three Blood Seals from third-generation Blood Princes.

'The rule-based abilities and immortality of the Blood Race both come from the Blood Seal. It combines with the death inherent in a corpse and ultimately becomes the blood flowing in their bodies.'

'And the root of all this is the Sacred Artifacts.'

'If I could use a unique frequency to sever the connection between them and their Blood Seals, then the blood in their bodies couldn't be replenished.'

'The result would be obvious.'

'But this would only work on third-generation Blood Race members, and it wouldn't include the Son of the Dragon.' Qi Suian was nothing if not thorough.

The Son of the Dragon was a third-generation Blood Race member, but in every respect, he couldn't be classified among them.

The Blood Race Sacred Artifacts had limited influence on him.

'So, how to sever the connection?' A massive amount of data flooded Qi Suian's mind as he began running simulations.

These were one-of-a-kind experimental samples; he couldn't just jump in and try things. Qi Suian had to run his own calculations first and come up with a few plans before proceeding.

If he had even one spare, Qi Suian definitely wouldn't have bothered with simulations and would have just started experimenting directly.

Finally, he settled on a plan.

He would use the black mist as a springboard to create a physical barrier with the Blood Seal.

Severing the connection would probably be difficult. The simplest proof of this is that a Blood Race member's True Name holds power; if you obtain it, you can control them.

That's why a Blood Race sire has absolute authority over their childe.

Even a human who learns a True Name can gain this absolute authority.

And the source of this power, the True Name, comes from the lineage bestowed by the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts.

Qi Suian had no intention of controlling the Blood Race. To him, they were fundamentally unimportant.

What he was thinking about now was how to destroy this world and then leave this fruitless place.

The World Core? He didn't even know what it was. He could only take things one step at a time.

Through constant probing, Qi Suian finally managed to use the Blood Seal to extract some internal data from the Rot Bracelet.

This wasn't pure data, but more like an aggregate of numerous rules.

Every rule was a True Name. As long as Qi Suian deciphered it, he could control the Blood Race member corresponding to that True Name.

'A True Name is a rule.'

'That makes much more sense.' The moment Qi Suian saw the True Name rules, he instantly understood the cause and effect.

The source of the Blood Race's power was indeed the Sacred Artifacts, but that didn't mean the Sacred Artifacts were fools, letting the Blood Race take and take without asking for anything in return.

Every member of the Blood Race was a resource for the Sacred Artifacts. The power they drew from the Sacred Artifacts was nourishment.

While alive, they strengthened their True Name. After death, the rule was reclaimed.

The ultimate beneficiary of it all could only be these so-called lost Sacred Artifacts.

Don't be fooled by how happily the Blood Race used their powers. It was just like farming; you can't just toss seeds in the ground and be done with it. You have to fertilize and water them.

How else would they grow?

Moreover, it was a self-sustaining cycle. By now, it could run on its own without any human intervention or correction.

'The problem now is that these Sacred Artifacts have stockpiled a massive amount of resources, but no one is coming to collect.'

'Did something big happen that made the farmer forget to harvest his crops?' Qi Suian couldn't quite understand it either.

'The candidates can't be the second-generation Blood Race, so is it only the Blood Race Ancestor, Cain?'

'Doesn't seem likely.'

'The thousand-year blood war of the Blood Race was a conflict that arose because of Cain.'

The ancestor who lorded over them all had vanished. His eldest son and youngest daughter had numerous 'descendants,' but neither of the two elders managed their affairs.

Naturally, what followed was war.

Thus, the Thirteen Clans emerged, and they fought until they were beating each other's brains out.

Then, the eldest son, Dracula, could no longer bear to watch and brought forth the Death Clan to act as mediators.

Later, the Blood Bath Queen took control of the Secret Faction. To maintain the balance, the Son of the Dragon, a 'grandson' in terms of generation, became the leader of the Demon Faction.

Only then did the clans achieve a state of balance.

So, from every angle, it was highly unlikely that Cain was the one pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

An extreme theory even suggested that the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts were made from the Blood Race Ancestor, Cain, himself.

The simplest piece of evidence was that one of the Sacred Artifacts was called the Corpse Hand—Cain's left hand.

If his left hand was one, it was reasonable to assume that the rest of his body was divided into twelve other parts to create the remaining Sacred Artifacts.

As for how you turn a body part into a Poison Bottle Blood Cup... Qi Suian didn't want to apply logic to this world.

If you insisted on logic, Qi Suian still had no idea how one member of the Blood Race could transform into a swarm of bats.

It was as if a thought activated a rule, skipping the entire intermediate process and jumping straight to the result.

Therefore, a person turning into a cup or a bottle wasn't something that was impossible to comprehend.

'Severing and shielding is a no-go, but I found something much more valuable.' Qi Suian guided out a large amount of rule data.

'With this data, I can try to generate my own ecosystem and world rules.'

Qi Suian had never given up on his goal of becoming a world himself.

The power of the Ghost World's will had left a deep impression on him.

If he succeeded, there was a high probability he could turn around and devour the Doomsday Game.

This might be a bit fanciful, but for Qi Suian, it was a possible path.

'After deciphering the True Names, I'll be able to obtain the rule data of the Blood Race World. Even if I can't use it in the short term, I can save it and use it slowly over time.'

'Furthermore, it will be of great help in my research of Enhancement Stones, Refining Stones, and Enchantment Stones.'

'It seems collecting all the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts is absolutely necessary.'