novellhall Chapter 48: Immortality and the Holy Water of the Sun
Chapter 48: Immortality and the Holy Water of the Sun
After the attack ended, Ivan looked down at the ground.
The shattered pieces of flesh were still slowly wriggling in the moonlight.
Heart tissue, liver lobe, half a finger—each piece writhed among the blades of grass like an independent life.
*Splat*
Ivan stepped on it.
It was a piece of shattered atrium tissue, crushed like mud under his boot.
But when he lifted his foot, the piece of flesh was still twitching on the ground, the muscle fibers trying to reconnect at a visible speed.
"They're still alive?"
Evan frowned.
Hong leaned against an old birch tree and pulled a tin cigarette case from the inside pocket of his postal uniform.
He skillfully tore off a piece of cigarette paper, poured out the tobacco, rubbed it with his thumb, and rolled it into a long, thin cigarette.
He lit a cigarette and took a puff.
"The essence of being extraordinary is to transcend the mundane."
The smoke swirled around his mouth before being dispersed by the night wind.
"If it could be killed by ordinary means, it wouldn't be called extraordinary."
"The core extraordinary characteristic of the Bloodthirsty Clan is immortality."
"This means that even if they are ground into mincemeat or burned to ashes using conventional methods, they can still be restored."
"The only difference is the length of the recovery time."
Evan scratched his head.
"Then wasn't blowing her up with a tuning fork just now also an extraordinary feat?"
Hong Si smiled and took another drag of his cigarette.
"My methods are extraordinary, but they do not contain the extraordinary power to shatter immortality."
Ivan immediately understood: "It was a magical method, but what was fired was an ordinary lead bullet without any enchantment."
Hong Si nodded: "Yes, that's a very apt analogy. Different characteristics have different advantages and disadvantages."
"The Bloodthirsty Species excel at survival, but are much weaker in other areas, such as their soul and their capacity for inclusion."
He pointed with his cigarette butt at the still-wriggling bits of flesh on the ground.
"My methods are very useful for other professions that are not good at survival, but for Bloodthirsty Species, pure physical destruction can only create wounds, not death."
He paused for a moment, then exhaled a smoke ring.
"But don't worry. Let it drag on until dawn, the sun will take care of her for us."
Ivan breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that there was still a trump card.
He nodded, then turned to ask about something he was more concerned about.
"By the way, is my senior brother alright?"
Hong Si took a drag of his cigarette and coughed twice as usual.
"It's alright. That guy's only downside is that he's slow."
The two of them stayed there on the hillside in the countryside for a full two hours.
Every half hour, Hong Si would attack with a tuning fork, blasting the chunks of meat that the female assistant had painstakingly gathered together apart again.
Each time, the frequency was precisely controlled just before the critical point of her rebirth progress, never giving her a chance to regain her mobility.
A cold wind blew in from the sea, and even though Ivan had broken through to a physique of 3.4, he could still feel the hem of his shirt sticking to his back in the wind, which was a bit chilly.
Until 8:40 p.m., a series of hurried, panting footsteps came from the distant hillside.
Richard finally arrived.
But what appeared before Ivan was someone else.
Brown buzz cut, chestnut eyes, and a square face.
He was a little over 1.8 meters tall, with broad shoulders but normal body proportions. He looked like the kind of retired sailor or dock foreman you could see anywhere on the street.
When Evan saw the body, he instantly understood.
The exaggerated, comic-book-style inverted triangle physique that Richard previously sported was not his usual form.
That was his extraordinary state, a result of his demon-hunting heritage, similar in nature to his secondary brain.
It appears in combat and retracts at other times.
Richard, who had run up the hillside, was bent over with his hands on his knees, panting heavily.
Sweat streamed down his temples and the back of his neck, and when the night wind blew, it evaporated into wisps of white vapor on his skin.
The blood rushed to the surface of the person's skin, making it as red as a freshly cooked shrimp.
"Senior brother, are you alright?" Ivan hurriedly went over to him.
Richard waved his hand and squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth.
"It's nothing. Just a side effect of residual potion."
He raised his head, took a few deep breaths, and his chest heaved violently.
"Just sweat more and drink more water."
He straightened up, circled around Ivan halfway, and carefully examined his junior brother who had just completed his transformation.
Silver-white tousled hair, golden vertical pupils, and a body covered in mud and blackish-red bloodstains.
A relieved smile slowly appeared on Richard's face.
"Good lad. Digestion went very smoothly."
He reached out and patted Ivan on the shoulder, quite forcefully.
"Except for the master's big head, everything else has been passed down. Not bad."
Hong Si, who was next to him, finished his cigarette, stubbed it out, and spoke with a smile.
"Charlie, your junior brother is no ordinary person. He took down this Bloodthirsty Seed without me even lifting a finger."
"Oh?"
Richard turned his gaze to Ivan, a clear look of surprise flashing across his face.
"How did you do that?"
Ivan scratched the back of his head and gave a modest smile.
"It was just a coincidence. A few days ago, I accidentally got my hands on two bottles of medicine that could suppress the Bloodthirsty race. I used a special method to trick her into drinking them."
Richard nodded and did not ask any further questions.
The old Witcher's rule is that everyone has their own trump cards they don't want to reveal.
They kept some secrets from each other to prevent the entire faction from being wiped out if one person betrayed them.
Hong Si stuffed the cigarette paper back into the cigarette case and straightened his postal uniform.
"The matter is resolved, so I won't bother you any longer. I still need to go back to the post office to cancel my order."
Richard patted him on the shoulder, his tone sincere.
"Thanks this time. I'll treat you to drinks in a couple of days."
Hong Si smiled, turned around and walked down the hillside.
He rode the bicycle with the brass bell hanging from it, and the jingling sound of the bell gradually faded into the dark countryside, finally disappearing at the end of the path leading to the south of the city.
Ivan watched him disappear, then turned to look at his senior brother.
"Senior brother. How's Pris doing?"
Richard's smile faded somewhat.
"I gave him a good beating. Unfortunately, he still managed to get away in the end."
He sighed.
"There's nothing we can do. This guy is too good at escaping."
"And I'm the worst at running."
Ivan frowned.
"Will he cause me trouble again in the future?"
Richard patted his chest, his tone resolute.
"Absolutely not. This guy isn't feeling well himself right now."
"In order to get to you, he has secretly broken too many of his contracts with those capitalists in the past two days."
At this point, Richard's voice carried a hint of sigh.
"Capitalists give him status and position, not so he can figure out how to gain freedom."
"If nothing unexpected happens, in a couple of days, maybe even tonight, he will...disappear forever."
"Permanently disappeared?"
Ivan's eyes widened.
Richard's expression turned serious.
"Yes. Because of the breach of contract with the financier, the judge will enforce it completely. Even your extraordinary abilities will be lost."
He stared into Evan's eyes and spoke slowly and deliberately.
"So remember this, junior brother."
"Even if you can't survive, even if you starve to death, even if you jump off a cliff, don't sign any extraordinary contracts with those capitalists."
"Especially so-called special loans. Otherwise, you'll never be able to get out of this mess for the rest of your life."
Ivan swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing.
Even a bloodthirsty type like Pulis, a professor at the University of the Wise and clearly of noble birth, cannot resist the contracts of the capitalists of this era.
The world is crazier than he imagined.
He pointed to the slowly writhing remains of his female assistant on the ground.
"What about her? Should we stay up all night?"
Richard grinned.
"That's easy."
He pulled a small glass bottle, about the size of a thumb, from the inside pocket of his jacket.
The bottle has an antique appearance, with a sun emblem embossed on the cap.
The bottle contained a small amount of golden liquid, which shimmered in the moonlight with a warm glow, like amber being pierced by winter sunlight.
Richard handed him the bottle, saying, "Here, you do it yourself!"
Ivan took the bottle and asked curiously, "Senior, is it just a matter of dripping it on?"
Richard smiled and nodded: "Yes! Three drops are enough, don't add any more!"
Then Evan unscrewed the cap, tilted the bottle, and let the golden liquid drip onto his female assistant's chest.
Sizzle. Sizzle. Sizzle.
The instant three drops of liquid come into contact with the flesh.
The meat scraps that were slowly wriggling looked like white phosphorus that had come into contact with the air.
Wherever a drop of golden liquid fell, a wisp of white smoke quickly rose.
Skin, muscles, internal organs, and bones all burned violently from the point of contact, turning into grayish-white powder.
Flames erupted from inside the body parts.
That wasn't ordinary fire; it was a cold, bright, golden flame that barely generated heat.
It seemed to have its own will, spreading along the veins and igniting everything tainted by the vampire's filthy blood.
Even the bloodstains of the female assistant that had splattered on the surrounding grass, and the dark red bloodstains left on Ivan's body, were ignited by the flames.
This is extraordinary power, not extraordinary means!