Chapter 425: Northern Mary Town, the Strange Man, the Spirit Staff, and the Monster

Things hadn't been very peaceful in the northern Mary Town lately. A giant, dark shadow could always be seen wandering at night.

Sometimes it was by the sea, and sometimes it was even spotted inside the town itself.

The town's Discipline Priest had once gone to investigate, but he was never seen again. Rumor had it he was devoured by that giant, dark shadow.

This cast a pall over all of Mary Town.

However, an outsider in town named Victor stepped up. He formed a patrol team and protected Mary Town at night alongside the able-bodied young men.

The town mayor praised this strange middle-aged man profusely, then decisively went to the nearest church to seek help.

He soon returned with a Discipline Priest. The mayor had stayed at the church the entire time, finally managing to get a good night's sleep.

"Your Excellency, what do you think? Is it a demonic invasion?" the mayor asked fawningly.

Qi Suian scanned his surroundings. "We'll see when I get a look at the shadow tonight."

His gaze then fell upon the slightly disheveled, middle-aged Victor.

Although he was the captain of the patrol team, no one wanted to get close to him.

This was because he exuded a strange, foul odor.

Qi Suian could tell what it was. The pungent smell was none other than formalin.

In the mainstream of human technology in the Blood Race World, this colorless liquid used for preservation, disinfection, and bleaching did not yet exist.

Therefore, it was highly likely that Victor had produced it himself.

When Victor saw Qi Suian, a 'Discipline Priest' from the Church, arrive, he showed no signs of panic or hatred.

Instead, his expression was perfectly calm.

"With His Excellency the Priest's help, we won't have to patrol at night anymore, right?" a young man asked nervously.

It wasn't just the shadow that worried him. More importantly, he had to go on patrol at night with the patrol captain, Victor, which was something he found hard to stomach.

"Well..." The mayor looked toward Qi Suian, not daring to make the decision himself.

"Of course," Qi Suian agreed with a smile. "However, I'll need someone to explain the details about this shadow to me."

"I imagine someone from the patrol team would know the most." Qi Suian's gaze fell on Victor.

It was obvious to anyone with eyes who Qi Suian was choosing. At this point, Victor was expected to step forward and volunteer.

But he acted as if he didn't understand, wearing an expression that said he knew nothing.

"In that case, allow me to explain it to His Excellency. After all, I am the mayor of this town." Seeing this, the mayor stepped in to smooth things over.

"I'm delighted that the mayor is willing to explain, but you must be busy with official duties and rarely have the chance to inspect the front lines yourself, I assume."

Qi Suian first offered a compliment, then delivered his rejection.

"Why don't we have the captain of your patrol team, this Mr. Victor, help me? As the captain, he must know more."

He had given the man a chance to be diplomatic, but since Victor wasn't playing along, he would just use his authority to appoint him directly.

"My apologies, Mr. Priest, but I'm afraid I don't have the time." Victor had no intention of cooperating.

"As long as *I* have time, it's fine. It won't take too much of your time, Mr. Victor." Qi Suian didn't leave room for argument, moving right up beside him. "Let's go, Mr. Victor."

Caught in his grasp, Victor had no way to break free and could only follow Qi Suian away.

"Have the townsfolk stay on alert. There's something wrong with Victor." The mayor's eyes narrowed. 'This Priest wouldn't target Victor for no reason.'

On the way here, he had seemed very affable and easy to talk to, not the type to deliberately make things difficult for people.

Besides, Victor was already an oddball, which naturally made people dislike him. That kind of prejudice didn't disappear easily.

"I suspect he might be a servant of a demon. His Excellency must have sensed it, which is why he's deliberately taking him away."

"It's to prevent Victor from going berserk and attacking people after his identity is exposed." The mayor offered his own explanation.

He hadn't even finished speaking before the townsfolk sprang into action. An outsider and an oddball—he wasn't someone they were concerned about.

If not for the dark shadow haunting the seashore and the fact that Victor was the first to suggest forming a patrol, they would have run him out of town long ago.

"But can His Excellency the Priest really defeat that shadow? Looking at his health, I'm not very optimistic," the militia captain beside him said with a worried expression.

When this question was asked, the mayor's eye twitched. "Don't you worry about that. His Excellency just has a naturally sickly appearance. He's healthier than you are."

He had his doubts at first, too. But that was until he saw this 'Discipline Priest' personally pulp a large wild boar on the road. Then he knew he'd found the right man.

"He can catch a wild boar with his bare hands. I saw it with my own eyes." The mayor didn't even dare to tell the whole story, watering down the truth. Otherwise, no one would have believed him.

Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but gasp in silent amazement. As expected of a Discipline Priest from the Church, to be so powerful.

Meanwhile, Qi Suian led Victor far away from the crowd.

"Victor Frankenstein, a Transylvanian, I presume," Qi Suian said calmly.

Victor's expression changed slightly before he replied, "Yes, that's me."

"It's no big deal that I escaped from the Transylvania Kingdom. Anyone who knows the truth either resists, flees, or dies."

"As a Priest of the Church, you should know this better than anyone, shouldn't you?"

He was trying to justify his escape.

In fact, he wasn't wrong. Any Transylvanian who knew they were being raised like livestock by the Blood Race only had those three choices.

As for pretending not to know? Impossible. The moment you began to seek the truth, you would inevitably come into contact with the Blood Race, and they would surely silence you.

"I'm not interested in how you escaped. I'm only interested in your creation," Qi Suian said bluntly. "Tell me, is the Spirit Staff, one of the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts, in your possession?"

These two sentences left Victor bewildered.

'Is this man in front of me really from the Church?'

'If he were, he would never say something like that.'

'But if he isn't, then how can I explain who he is?'

"It is in my possession, but first, you must help me kill that monster." Victor intended to use Qi Suian for his own ends.

"Alright. I don't suppose you'd mind telling me about the process of creating this monster, and why you want to kill it." Qi Suian found a deserted spot before finally letting go of Victor.

Victor was just an ordinary person. He wasn't of the Blood Race, nor did he possess any Divine Technique. He had no chance of escape.

"I have always been passionate about researching the origin of life, trying to conquer death and create a new form of life."

"To me, science is the collection of knowledge that can grant humanity god-like power."

"Later..."

After that, by a stroke of luck, he obtained the Spirit Staff, one of the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts. With the help of this Extraordinary Artifact, he gradually started down the path of stealing corpses for his experiments.

Until one day, from the corpses he had collected, he pieced together a stitched-up body that stood two and a half meters tall.

On a dark and stormy night, using the Spirit Staff and a bolt of lightning, he brought the stitched corpse to life.

And so, his ill-fated connection with this stitched monster began.

Fear made him terrified of his own creation, and it also caused him to miss the monster's nascent, ignorant infancy.

Because of his revulsion, the stitched creature turned into a true monster.

The monster killed his friends, his family, and even his fiancée. He, in turn, swore to turn this damned monster back into a corpse.

Victor came into contact with the training methods of the folk School Demon Hunters left behind by the resistance and began a years-long life-and-death struggle with the monster.

The two were evenly matched, with victories and defeats on both sides. Now, their tandem chase has brought them to the seaside Mary Town.

After hearing the story, Qi Suian fell silent.

"Corpses, the Spirit Staff, and lightning... and you created a new life?" Qi Suian's expression was one of sheer disbelief.

He couldn't believe it could actually be true.

"Yes. I have no reason to lie to you."

"Just bring me the stitched monster's head, and I will give you the Spirit Staff," Victor said plainly. "The rest of my life has been consumed by hatred."

"Science is no longer my pursuit."

Qi Suian composed himself. Although the situation was bizarre, in the Blood Race World, logic didn't seem to matter much.

"Wait, have you been to Villerlis Town?" Qi Suian suddenly thought that Dracula's three brides seemed somewhat similar.

"The Church's intelligence network is truly impressive," Victor remarked with a sigh. "I have indeed been there. I almost died."

"If a gentleman from Villerlis Town hadn't saved me, I would have been killed by the monster."

"Later, he asked me for the secret of life. I told him that lightning could bring the dead back to life," Victor said, also somewhat surprised.

"He succeeded. And he created three monsters, said to be his brides." Qi Suian hadn't expected the two to be connected.

Victor's expression froze. "Monster" and "bride"—few people would ever connect those two words.

"Let's not talk about him. The situation over there is complicated." Qi Suian decided not to bother with Dracula in Villerlis Town for the time being. The matter at hand was more important.

Victor felt no guilt about this. He could barely take care of himself, so how could he spare a thought for anyone else?

"I accept the deal. But I also want all of your experimental records and this technology," Qi Suian demanded further.

"You want to create a monster, too?" Victor frowned.

In his eyes, that was the act of a madman.

"No. Why would I create a monster for no reason? I just thought I'd collect it. It might be useful later." Qi Suian wasn't lying about that.

'This technology of his would probably stop working the moment I leave the Blood Race World anyway.'

"I don't care what ambitions you have. I just want to see that monster's corpse, or its head."

"Bring it to me, and I will have what you want ready for you," Victor said.