The next morning, Lorevil took a ride to Vivian’s office.
Coincidentally, Teacher Catherine was also there. When she saw Lorevil arrive, her ice-blue eyes showed a hint of surprise.
Ever since Lorevil advanced to the third tier, aside from managing her combat class students, Catherine had taken to spending time in front of Vivian’s bookshelves, specifically searching for ancient texts related to the Blood Lake. She had just arrived earlier than usual today.
She hadn’t expected to run into Lorevil and couldn’t help but feel a bit of joy.
“Teacher Catherine, Mentor Vivian.”
Lorevil greeted them softly.
Her gaze swept over the room piled high with books and, sure enough, she spotted Vivian tucked deep within a mound of them, only a small tuft of snow-white hair visible.
Hearing the voice, the little loli tried to burrow deeper into the book pile.
But then she caught Catherine’s icy glance from the side, gave a shiver, and obediently went back to flipping through the ancient text Catherine had asked her to find.
It was a document about ancient Vampire legacies that Catherine had specifically asked her to look for yesterday.
Lorevil walked over to the bookshelf, remembering something Crassus had mentioned in passing.
After hesitating for a moment, she spoke up. “Teacher Catherine, I heard from Teacher Crassus before that your family is having some trouble?” Having reorganized Jingji and gained support from people like Ira, Lorevil spoke with a bit more confidence now.
She had always remembered the incident at the dance where Catherine was framed. Now that she had some ability of her own, she naturally wanted to ask if she could help.
“Yes.”
Catherine’s expression turned troubled. “After Madam Sharon took me back after the dance incident, the family elders wanted me to resign from my position as an academy teacher. Even my mother tried to persuade me.”
“They believe the Vampire who framed me deliberately was after an important family treasure I possess.”
“Family treasure?”
Lorevil asked curiously, “What is it that’s so important?”
Catherine fell silent for a moment, seeming to hesitate about whether to say more.
She looked up at Lorevil, saw the sincerity in her eyes without a trace of prying intent, and slowly began to speak.
“It’s a piece of Blood Jade.”
“I’m not entirely sure of its specific use either. I only know that the previous family head…”
“That is, my grandfather, entrusted it to me specifically on his deathbed. He repeatedly warned me to keep it safe and never let it fall into the hands of outsiders. It’s extremely important.”
Lorevil nodded and didn’t press further.
She could tell Catherine didn’t want to discuss it more. Everyone had their own secrets.
Lorevil turned to look at Vivian, who was hiding in the book pile. She pulled out a small, exquisitely wrapped bag of crimson candies from her pocket and handed it over. “Mentor Vivian, I brought these especially for you. You said you liked this sweet-and-sour kind last time.”
“Thank you, Lorevil.”
Vivian’s dark red eyes lit up. She immediately crawled out of the book pile and nommed down on a candy.
She even accidentally got a bit of drool on Lorevil’s finger.
“Sorry about that.”
Vivian said apologetically, using a secret art to clean it off, her small face slightly flushed.
“Tsk.”
Catherine couldn’t help but frown. She lowered her head to continue reading, her lips pursed slightly.
She suppressed the inexplicable irritation rising in her heart.
She tried her best to maintain a composed, unaffected front in front of Lorevil, yet she also wished Lorevil would pay attention to her feelings too. But…
They were both her students.
Surely she couldn’t just be considerate to Vivian and only polite to her, right…?
The office fell quiet again.
Unaware of Catherine’s thoughts, the silver-haired girl leaned against the bookshelf, flipping through an ancient text in her hand, stretching lazily as she pondered Catherine’s situation.
Blood Jade, family crisis, the one who framed her…
It seemed like a significant conspiracy was hidden behind it all.
However, her current strength wasn’t sufficient. Even if she wanted to help, she might not be of much use.
“Phew, finally found the key part.”
Suddenly,
Vivian jumped up from the book pile, her cheeks bulging, excitedly reading the text from the ancient book.
“Look at this,”
Vivian pushed the ancient tome, which was larger than half her body, in front of the two of them.
“In the ancient texts, the Blood Lake isn’t an ordinary energy gathering place, but rather… the primordial source of Vampire bloodline energy.”
“No matter which family a Vampire is from, their bloodline can be traced back there.”
“Then, is the red-dressed girl I saw during my awakening related to the Blood Lake?”
Lorevil’s eyes flickered as she leaned in, remembering the scene from her awakening and couldn’t help but ask.
She hadn’t just seen the Blood Lake; there was also a red-dressed girl beside it.
“That’s not certain yet, but the ancient texts don’t mention any ‘people’ within the Blood Lake.”
Vivian frowned, analyzing with a serious expression.
“The legends only mention the Blood Lake as the ‘Origin of All Things.’ They never mention any other entities existing there.”
Catherine, sitting on a nearby sofa with an ancient book in her hands, added, “The fact that you could see the Blood Lake, and even see a terrifying red-dressed girl, suggests your bloodline is more special than we anticipated.”
“Special?”
Lorevil was full of confusion, muttering to herself subconsciously.
Was her family special?
“I haven’t heard of other Vampires from the Lorevil family having special talents.”
Lorevil answered after some thought.
From her memories, although the Lorevil family had good aptitudes, there was nothing special about their bloodline.
The talents awakened were all sorts of strange things.
Some excelled in speed, some in strength, others in illusion arts, but all were within the common range of Vampire abilities.
No one had ever been able to see the Blood Lake during their awakening.
Let alone a red-dressed girl.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Vivian scratched her messy white hair, puzzled.
She dug out another scroll from the book pile.
It was a bloodline chart Vivian had compiled, detailing the bloodlines of Vampires after awakening.
“Look, for awakenings like mine and Catherine’s, at most we can only touch the ‘Plains’ level.”
When she and Catherine awakened back then,
they could only see a vast, mist-shrouded plain with a blood moon hanging in the sky, not even a hint of a lake.
Awakening situations similar to this are classified as the Plains level.
“Theoretically, only descendants of ancient noble families, or Vampires whose bloodlines contain special imprints, can touch the edge of the Blood Lake during awakening.”
Vivian pointed at the complex Vampire bloodline chart as she spoke.
“Your family is neither an ancient noble family, nor does it have any related special legacy, so how could you…”
She didn’t finish her sentence, but the meaning was clear.
Lorevil’s situation completely defied the known laws of Vampire inheritance.
Lorevil recalled, “When I advanced to the third tier, I saw her. She seemed to be waiting for something.”
“It seems you’re not a bloodline mutation, nor is it a legacy awakening.”
Catherine said gravely. “Combined with what you said, it’s more like… you were actively watched by the Blood Lake’s origin. She chose you.”
She ventured a bold guess: Lorevil had been targeted by that girl.
“Watched?”
Lorevil remembered the red-dressed girl’s intensely crimson eyes.
That chill that pierced deep into her soul seemed to return.
Could the strange anomalies on her body be because she was watched by the red-dressed girl?
Or was it that her own special trait—her soul being unique—allowed her to enter the Blood Lake and see the red-dressed girl?
Just what kind of special existence was the red-dressed girl?
Lorevil’s thoughts were in a jumble, stirred up by Catherine’s words.
“Don’t worry, it doesn’t seem like a bad thing for now.”
Seeing Lorevil’s confusion, Vivian patted her arm, her small face full of earnest reassurance.
Even if it really was as Catherine said, and Lorevil had been targeted by the red-dressed girl, it might not necessarily be a bad thing.
Vivian, who could only see the Plains level during her awakening, was already at the sixth tier now.
Catherine, with her not-bad talent, had also reached the fourth tier.
For a Vampire like Lorevil, who could directly gaze upon the Origin of All Things during awakening, her future achievements would likely not be below theirs.
Thinking this, a rare smile appeared on Vivian’s adorable face.
“So, the blood threads you awakened are actually the ability most aligned with the Blood Lake’s origin.”
Vivian overturned her previous understanding of Lorevil’s ability and explained, “The Blood Lake itself is the master of energy control. Your ability is equivalent to borrowing a sliver of its primordial authority.”
“So my ability isn’t weak, but has great potential?” Lorevil asked.
“Of course! It was a misunderstanding of your ability by me and Catherine back then.”
Vivian explained.
“When your bloodline energy accumulates to a certain level,”
“the blood threads should be able to extend their control duration, lock onto multiple targets simultaneously, and even transmit your own energy through them.”
“By then, forget third-tier, even a fourth-tier Vampire could be restrained by you.”
Vivian outlined various future possibilities based on Lorevil’s ability.
Lorevil, momentarily unable to process so much information, fell into deep thought. The potential of the blood threads was even more terrifying than she had imagined.
“The Vampire tiers extend far beyond what we see now. If you have any questions, you can ask my teacher.”
Catherine looked at Lorevil with concern in her ice-blue eyes.
The reason she had recommended Lorevil to Vivian was that, aside from being proficient in awakening rituals, Vivian was also extremely knowledgeable about the Vampire tier system and bloodline secrets.
“Mentor Vivian, you are a sixth-tier Vampire. What comes after the sixth tier? Before, you only talked about third-tier awakening abilities and didn’t finish explaining the subsequent tiers.”
Mentioning tiers, Lorevil quickly asked.
“Oh right, the tier system. It’s quite complicated to explain.”
Vivian simply sat down on the floor, waving her small hand.
A red energy screen materialized in the air, clearly displaying the Vampire tier divisions.
Third tier is ‘Blood Seal Master’, fourth tier is ‘Blood Domain Lord’, fifth tier is ‘Blood Core Venerable’, sixth tier is ‘Blood Authority Envoy’, seventh tier is ‘Blood World Prince’, eighth tier is ‘Blood Origin Saint Monarch’, ninth tier is ‘Night Ancestor’.
“As for the tenth tier…”
Vivian said blankly, “I’ve searched through all the ancient texts, and there’s no record of a tenth tier. It’s as if it’s a taboo, or perhaps no one has ever reached it. In history, it seems only the Vampire’s Primordial Progenitor might have been a possibility.”
“Are there any existences beyond the seventh tier in Holy Blood City now?” Lorevil asked curiously.
“Holy Blood City hasn’t seen a seventh-tier Vampire in nearly a thousand years. The highest known level currently is the City Lord, at the peak of the sixth tier. He’s been stuck at the bottleneck between Blood Authority Envoy and Blood World Prince for several hundred years.”
Catherine shook her head, continuing to answer Lorevil’s questions. “But don’t worry, the City Lord doesn’t interfere with anything in the city. He’s been in closed-door seclusion for a long time.”
Lorevil asked a few more questions about the tiers, clearing up many of her doubts.
She gained a general understanding of the Vampire tier system from the first to the tenth tier.
Although some of it was difficult to grasp, it was all conceptual.
It wasn’t of much practical help to her.
Aside from the third-tier blood threads, the fourth tier was also crucial, being able to condense a blood domain formed from bloodline energy.
It was simply terrifying.
Lorevil didn’t even dare to imagine how terrifying the abilities of Holy Blood City’s City Lord, as a Blood Authority Envoy, must be.
Afterwards,
silence fell in the office.
Lorevil was also thinking about her future cultivation plan.
Her proficiency with Blood Flash still needed improvement, and the attack range of her blood threads needed to be extended. The strength of a third-tier Vampire was ultimately not top-tier in Holy Blood City.
“Lorevil, have you looked at the secret art chart I gave you last time?”
Catherine brought it up.
That secret art chart covered various general secret arts for attack, defense, support, and even healing types.
Lorevil had chosen a rather special third-tier speed-type secret art from it.
An upgraded version of Blood Shadow Step.
Blood Flash.
Remembering her test in the Blood Hunting Grounds, Lorevil added, “I tested it practically in the Blood Hunting Grounds. Applying bloodline energy to both feet, whether for dodging attacks or increasing movement speed, the effect is far stronger than Blood Shadow Step.”
Although this secret art wasn’t the Three Thousand Lightning Movement from the Battle Through the Heavens she’d read about before her transmigration, this kind of extreme speed-type secret art already satisfied her greatly.
After all, in this perilous world, being able to run away was the hard truth.
“The attack secret art ‘Blood Flame Slash’ and the defense secret art ‘Blood Shield’ in that chart are very practical. Why did you specifically choose…”
Catherine covered her face, saying helplessly, “Blood Flash is actually a quasi-fourth-tier secret art.”
After becoming a Blood Seal Master, most Vampires wouldn’t choose speed-type secret arts.
The reason was that using attack-type secret arts allowed for quick transitions to defense-type or healing-type secret arts. Speed-type secret arts had a natural disadvantage.
“I think it’s quite good.”
Vivian, who had been hiding in the book pile, poked her head out, still chewing on candy, her words slightly muffled.
“Your awakened talent, blood threads, is already good at restraint. Combined with extreme speed,
as long as the opponent isn’t a fourth-tier Vampire expert, even if Lorevil can’t win, she can retreat unscathed.”
Lorevil nodded deeply in agreement.
“Mentor Vivian is right. My biggest goal right now is to survive.”
Having experienced being stabbed to death by his wife and being dismembered by Mahina in a dream, Lorevil’s obsession with preserving her life was far stronger than her desire to increase her attack power.
“By the way, Mentor Vivian, I’m a bit curious about what the Vampire final exam is.”
Lorevil suddenly remembered Holy Blood Academy’s final assessment and couldn’t help but feel some trepidation.
She really didn’t want to encounter any accidents during the test.