Chapter 440: Daywalker, Hang in There, I'm Coming to Kill You

Following the data model deduced by the AI, Qi Suian circled back to search.

He eventually found a field of desiccated corpses.

There were too many dead, and each one bore church-style remnants, so their origin was clear at a glance.

'Completely wiped out. They definitely ran into the Piercing Demon.'

'The good news is that I didn't find the Daywalker's body, which means he's still alive.'

'He's the protagonist, after all. He wouldn't die this quickly.'

'However, this means you're worthless now.' Qi Suian's gaze suddenly fell upon Britney.

The last scion of the Villeries family was a bargaining chip, but from the signs at the scene, he was highly confident he could kill the Daywalker himself.

In that case, there was no need for this burden to live.

The plan had been to fulfill a promise, and in return, the Daywalker would accept his death.

But that was no longer necessary, so he promptly disposed of Britney.

She certainly had plenty of secrets, but she herself didn't even know what they were.

Keeping her with Qi Suian would only be a liability; it was better to kill her and be done with it.

As for the Daywalker's immortality? That was indeed a problem, but since the Daywalker was weaker than Qi Suian, it was a very easy one to solve.

He could just chop him into pieces and toss him into the Melting Furnace. Problem solved.

The Melting Furnace, enhanced by a set of Legendary Equipment Stones, had already seen a massive increase in its power.

If the Daywalker's immortality was actually strong enough to work even inside the Melting Furnace, that would be a huge boon for Qi Suian.

As long as he remained in the Blood Race World, he would have an inexhaustible supply of fuel.

'Alright, where to find him now.' The enemy hadn't cleaned up after himself, but he came and went like a shadow, leaving no trail.

As for things like auras, the Blood Race here wasn't the kind from a xuanhuan or fantasy story. They couldn't even level up, so there was naturally no such thing as an aura to track.

Any lingering scent had also been cleared away by the environment, so there was basically no chance of finding him that way.

'Let me think... without a Blood Race Sacred Artifact, how would the Piercing Demon handle the Daywalker?'

Qi Suian naturally understood that the Piercing Demon hadn't captured the Daywalker to kill him, but to obtain the secrets of the Cursed Child from him.

'Lightning!' Qi Suian immediately locked onto how the enemy would handle the Daywalker.

Victor Frankenstein had told the Piercing Demon that lightning could bring the dead back to life.

He had also adhered to this concept and successfully created the Blood Race brides.

So, if nothing went wrong, the Daywalker was definitely about to get zapped.

The Blood Race lacked creativity. Perhaps the Piercing Demon, a second-generation member, had some, but he couldn't deny that he'd used lightning before and it had been effective.

So there was a high probability he would use this method again.

What else could he do? He was just taking things for granted and hadn't conducted much substantial research.

"AI, check the weather map. Find areas with high lightning frequency or where lightning is currently striking," Qi Suian asked.

The AI immediately mobilized satellites and provided Qi Suian with numerous locations via meteorological detection charts.

"Map out a search route," Qi Suian said.

Searching such scattered areas one by one would be too troublesome for Qi Suian.

Soon, the AI completed a route map. Qi Suian then summoned his Fei and had it carry him forward.

[It is recommended that you use fiber bodies for a distributed search to further increase efficiency.]

The fiber bodies were mostly used for feeding; using them for other functions would make them much less effective.

But at a time like this, Qi Suian didn't refuse. He followed the AI's proposal, aggregating the fiber bodies into the shape of birds, which then began flying off in all directions under the AI's control.

It was a good thing he had satellite, signal, and communications modules; otherwise, it would have been difficult to make the fiber bodies perform such tasks.

"Let's go. We shouldn't be idle either," Qi Suian said. The Fei carrying him also began to move, following the route planned by the AI.

Although the Daywalker possessed the Blood Race's signature immortality and, like the Piercing Demon, lacked their weaknesses, theoretically, he couldn't be killed.

But a theory was just a theory. The same went for the Blood Bath Queen, and she had been killed by Qi Suian all the same.

Even if the Blood Bath Queen's death was her own fault, one must always prepare for the unexpected—even if the Daywalker was supposedly the protagonist.

The power gap between the two was too vast; the Daywalker had no chance of resisting.

Unless Adam, Eve, Abel, Cain, and Lilith—the five of them—appeared, only Qi Suian could rescue the Daywalker from the Piercing Demon's clutches.

This was probably why something was constantly prompting Qi Suian to go and save him.

This meant that if Qi Suian were even a step too late, the Daywalker might actually die.

Qi Suian didn't care if the Daywalker died, but it had to be by his own hand. After all, he needed the protagonist's halo for his own enhancement.

It was one of the few ways he had to get stronger.

And it was a method that would never become obsolete, so he treasured it greatly.

'I hope you can hold on until I get there to kill you,' Qi Suian offered his sincere blessing.

-----------------

When the Daywalker awoke from his stupor, he found that both his Divine Technique and his dark power were bound by an even stronger dark power.

He was inside a sealed room, surrounded by many peculiar and somewhat familiar structures.

He soon recognized where he was.

'The Queen's Bell Tower in the Transylvania Kingdom Capital.' The Daywalker felt the massive, patterned iron chains coiled around his body, stretching continuously toward the top of the bell tower.

The Piercing Demon had brought him back to the Transylvania Kingdom Capital, but he didn't understand why.

"Correct. Because its construction attracts a great deal of lightning."

"It's second only to Villerlis Town in the amount of lightning it receives." The Piercing Demon stepped out from the shadows. "Ironic, isn't it? The Transylvania Kingdom built it to glorify the Blood Bath Queen."

"So what is it you want?" the Daywalker asked calmly.

"Victor Frankenstein said that lightning could bring life back to the dead." The Piercing Demon had become more talkative, perhaps because he was confident of his victory. "He wasn't wrong."

"That's how the Blood Race brides came to be."

"So, I will use it to bring the half-Blood Race bloodline within you to life, and then I will devour it and make it my own power."

The Piercing Demon gave a grim smile. He looked like a handsome, world-weary middle-aged man.

The Daywalker frowned. He knew about this; Qi Suian had told him.

But he remembered Qi Suian saying it wasn't the lightning that brought the dead back to life, but a Blood Race Sacred Artifact that resurrected the corpses.

The lightning was incidental.

"You don't have a Blood Race Sacred Artifact, do you?" The Daywalker's brow smoothed, and a smile appeared on his face.

He believed Qi Suian. After all, the Piercing Demon really wasn't all that impressive.

"You seem to know something. Care to share it with me?" The Piercing Demon suspected the Daywalker was just bluffing, as he had a history of doing so.

But he was waiting for lightning anyway, so he might as well ask.

"Fisher said that Victor Frankenstein was able to successfully create his stitched-together monsters not because of lightning, but because he possessed one of the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts: the Spirit Staff."

"So he wasn't creating new life. He was using the Spirit Staff to resurrect human corpses as members of the Blood Race."

"And according to his research, the Blood Race *are* just corpses. It's only because they have the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts as a power source that they appear no different from ordinary people."

"Lightning... if it truly possessed such power, why hasn't the Queen's Bell Tower come to life?"

"The Queen's Bell Tower is also a dead thing, and it's taken its fair share of lightning strikes." As the Daywalker said this, his tone dripped with mockery.

These few sentences completely shattered the Piercing Demon's composure.

Thinking back carefully, every one of his past successes had been with the help of a Blood Race Sacred Artifact.

But the problem now was that he didn't have a Blood Race Sacred Artifact.

Twelve of the thirteen Blood Race Sacred Artifacts were in Qi Suian's hands. The last one, he only knew, was held by his nominal uncle, Abel.

And Abel's body was rumored to be in the Villeries family castle.

However, in all the years he had occupied that castle, he had become familiar with its every inch.

Abel's body was nowhere to be found.

This had led him to a dead end.

"You're right..." The Piercing Demon said, then suddenly chuckled in a low voice. "But that only applies to the third-generation Blood Race."

"Your power doesn't come from the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts, does it?"

"So, following Fisher's line of thinking, you don't need a Blood Race Sacred Artifact to achieve the same effect."

"What do you think?" The Piercing Demon was no fool; his mind quickly turned.

The Blood Race was the Blood Race, and the Daywalker was the Daywalker. The origin of his Blood Race bloodline was mysterious, and his power didn't come from the Sacred Artifacts at all.

The Daywalker had no true name and also possessed a human bloodline. These special traits were enough to substitute for a Blood Race Sacred Artifact.

"Is that so? Then I can only hope your guess is correct." The Daywalker truly didn't know his own situation.

Qi Suian had offered to research him, but after hearing what the research process involved, he had refused outright.

The whole process was less "research" and more "torture." It was just too terrifying.

'If I really went through with it, I'd definitely be left with psychological scars.'

Besides, none of Qi Suian's test subjects had ever survived.

Even if there were survivors, they would be disposed of afterward.

"Then I thank you for your well wishes, Alex Villeries."

"My great-great-great... nephew," the Piercing Demon said.

The Daywalker's expression didn't change in the slightest. He had grown up an orphan; he didn't even know if he was a member of the Villeries family.

The Piercing Demon was just trying to break through his mental defenses, deliberately pinning the Villeries family name on him.

And if it were true? So what if it was? What difference could it make?

After everything he had been through, how could he possibly be someone who was mentally fragile?

"Is that so? I'm quite fortunate then. With these words from you, my great-great-great... uncle, my legitimacy to rule the Blood Race has been established," the Daywalker retorted without hesitation.