Chapter 443: The Glory of the Villeries Family

Villerlis Town was deathly quiet, devoid of any sign of life.

The Piercing Demon's curse had erupted when Britney left, wiping out all the townspeople.

Then Qi Suian had taken it over. After all the turmoil, it had now become a veritable ghost town.

Fortunately, it didn't matter whether there were any living people. Qi Suian's goal wasn't Villerlis Town, but the Villeries family and their grand castle.

"We're here. Do you have any clues?" Qi Suian asked, holding the head of the Piercing Demon.

The castle was massive and deserted. Although not much time had passed, it already had a faint air of decay.

If it continued to go without proper upkeep, it wouldn't fall into ruin, but it would certainly become desolate over time.

"I only know it's here. I don't know anything else."

"Otherwise, why would I have only possessed three Sacred Artifacts: the Corpse Hand, the Demonic Puppet, and the Illusion Mirror?" The Piercing Demon didn't know either.

It could only be said that his old man was truly wary of him.

"According to my speculation, the raw material for the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts should be your father, Cain."

"So now here's the question: if your father has become a Blood Race Sacred Artifact, how did he place the Evil Key and your uncle's body inside the Villeries family's castle?"

Qi Suian had raised a very crucial question.

The Piercing Demon was also dumbfounded. How had his father become a Blood Race Sacred Artifact?

He knew his father's hand was one of the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts, which was already shocking enough. Now Qi Suian had to drop an even bigger bombshell.

"This... I don't know." The Piercing Demon couldn't understand it either. He hadn't even known the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts *were* his father. "Do you have any proof?"

"Proof? I don't have any," Qi Suian said bluntly. "It's just a guess."

'You have nothing, and based on just a guess, you equate my father with the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts? Are you kidding me?' Those two sentences nearly made the Piercing Demon break down.

"That's why I suspect a third person is involved."

"First, let's rule you, your sister, and your son out."

"The three of you simply don't have the capability."

"Next, let's rule out your mother. She's in the Red Sea and can't get out without the Evil Key."

"After that, your uncle is also unlikely, since he's a corpse."

"So, we can narrow the scope to your grandparents—the legendary Adam and Eve." Qi Suian had logically identified the suspects.

The Piercing Demon was actually very quiet, especially when Qi Suian mentioned the Red Sea Witch.

This Red Sea Witch had, so to speak, been a 'kindred spirit' across three generations, making her identity a tad complicated.

Fortunately, the ultimate victim wasn't him, but his father and grandfather. After all, the Red Sea Witch had started out as his grandmother before becoming his mother.

Later, her generational standing dropped another level. By the same token, the generational lines of three generations could, in some respects, be considered a single generation.

"It wasn't them." The Piercing Demon was silent for a long time before finally speaking. "They weren't of the Blood Race. They didn't have eternal life and died a long time ago."

"Then let's follow your line of thinking. If it wasn't them, does that mean you have another uncle, aunt, or sibling?"

"Otherwise, we can't explain your father's situation," Qi Suian said, making small talk with the Piercing Demon as he searched the entire Villeries family castle.

As for whether he could find any clues, Qi Suian wasn't very confident.

This time, he was relying entirely on luck.

After all, he had already searched last time relying on his own strength, even prying up the floor tiles, but had found nothing.

He estimated that to find Abel's body and the Evil Key, it would most likely require the Daywalker, the native protagonist of the Blood Race World.

Now that Qi Suian had the Daywalker's 'protagonist halo,' he could be considered half a native protagonist, giving him half of the home-field advantage.

The difficulty of finding it shouldn't be too great.

As he passed a corner, he glanced at an oil painting on the wall but didn't look closely before turning.

But after instinctively comparing it with his memory, he realized something was wrong.

He then turned back and studied the oil painting carefully.

The painting's subject was, in fact, the Villeries family's grand castle.

It was a strong resemblance, but due to the passage of time, the castle in the painting remained unchanged, while the real castle had undergone many changes.

"'The Glory of the Villeries Family' is the name of this painting," the Piercing Demon spoke up. "Back when the Villeries family was at its peak, they commissioned a famous artist to paint it."

"Its origin is not important. Don't you feel like there's something wrong with this painting?" Qi Suian asked.

The Piercing Demon looked at it carefully but saw nothing amiss.

Qi Suian, however, pulled up the data his system had recorded last time.

He remembered it, but a good memory is no match for a written record. Being able to call up the data for a direct comparison was much more intuitive.

"Last time it was day, but this time it's actually turned to night." Qi Suian's gaze fell on the celestial body in the upper left corner of the painting.

What was originally a full circle had become a crescent.

"Such an obvious change, and you didn't notice it?" Qi Suian hadn't spent much time in the Villeries family's castle at all.

His search had been thorough, but it had only taken two hours.

When he didn't find anything, he went off to do his own thing.

The Piercing Demon, on the other hand, had occupied the Villeries castle not for a month or two, but for years.

So it was strange that he hadn't noticed.

"No. After I obtained the life-creation techniques gifted to me by Victor Frankenstein, this entire hall was occupied by placentas, umbilical cords, and the like."

"So I didn't notice the painting's changes," the Piercing Demon said frankly.

Hearing this, Qi Suian understood.

"It seems the painting's changes don't happen in a short period but follow a specific time cycle."

"In that case, deciphering it won't be easy." Qi Suian looked at the painting, certain that it must be a special item, similar to a Blood Race Sacred Artifact.

"Perhaps only a member of the Villeries family knows the secret hidden in the painting." At this, the Piercing Demon shot a sarcastic remark at Qi Suian. "A pity the last scion is already dead."

With that snide tone, how could Qi Suian tolerate it?

SLAP! SLAP! He gave the Piercing Demon two hard smacks across the face.

"You have the gall to talk? I only killed her because it was too troublesome. You, on the other hand, coveted her body and wanted her to bear your child."

"At your age, you're the younger brother of her ancestor, and you still have the nerve to say that to me."

"When it comes to depravity, you still take the prize. I'm just brutal, at worst," Qi Suian said with contempt.

After those two hard slaps, the Piercing Demon immediately straightened up.

Seeing this, Qi Suian casually tossed the Piercing Demon into the Melting Furnace.

The Piercing Demon was worthless now. Tossing him into the Melting Furnace to be used as fuel was a good alternative.

As for keeping him around to harvest repeatedly like a leek, Qi Suian had considered it. But he found that as he burned more and more parts, the returns diminished.

By now, the returns were minimal.

Since that was the case, there was no need to keep him around. Killing him would settle the matter.

'The Daywalker plus the Piercing Demon only amounts to two module slots.'

The last time, the Blood Bath Queen had yielded three module slots at once, but that was only because of the groundwork laid by burning the other Blood Race members beforehand.

Without that prior boost, she would have only provided two module slots.

With the subsequent diminishing returns, it was already quite efficient for these two to provide Qi Suian with one module slot each.

'I'll have to wait until the Piercing Demon finishes burning to get them. It's not quite done yet.'

The Daywalker was too weak to yield a module slot on his own, but combined with the Piercing Demon, it would be two slots.

Qi Suian didn't think about what modules to choose for his next upgrade. There was nothing particularly amazing available at the moment, so he was just sticking to the plan.

Then, he took down the oil painting that the Piercing Demon had called 'The Glory of the Villeries Family'.

'Since it's the moon, does that mean I have to wait until night?' Qi Suian didn't know how to uncover its secret.

So he could only rely on luck.

Carrying the oil painting, he made his way to the castle roof, found a relatively clean spot, and casually set it down.

Then he began to study the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts and the Blood Race Blood Seal on his own.

Although he had studied them before, reviewing old knowledge can lead to new discoveries.

This was mainly because his current research projects, aside from the Blood Race, were limited to his Virus Talent.

The progress on his Virus Talent was stable—which is to say, still at a turtle's pace.

Perhaps he could finish it in the next Doomsday World, but that was only a possibility.

After all, he didn't have a proficiency metric or a progress bar to look at; he could only rely on his own estimates.

The Blood Race Sacred Artifacts, on the other hand, were most valuable within the Blood Race World.

Once he left, their power would drop to its lowest point. If Qi Suian wanted to study them then, it would be a losing proposition.

So he might as well take this opportunity to squeeze them for all they were worth. When they were completely wrung dry, he could use them as fuel or for modules.

Time trickled by. The sun soon set, and the moon climbed above the clouds, casting down its light.

When the moonlight fell upon the oil painting, a ripple, like the surface of water, appeared on its surface, making the whole thing look even more real.

It was as if someone had shrunk the Villeries family's castle and placed it inside the painting.

'A sun icon needs sunlight, and a moon icon needs moonlight. It's perfectly logical.'

"Simple and crude, but no one would ever think of it," Qi Suian grumbled.

After all, inside the castle, the only light the painting would be exposed to was lamplight.

'The painting doesn't contain a space. Rather, it serves as an entrance to a pocket dimension. Only at a specific time and in a specific environment can this entrance be opened.'

'Luckily, it doesn't require a specific location; it's a portable model. Otherwise, I really might not have been able to find it.'

Qi Suian looked at the painting and reached out to touch it. It was just as the data he had collected had predicted.

The next step was simple: just go in.

"I just don't know what kind of pocket dimension this painting leads to," Qi Suian said, stepping into it.