Chapter 188: Bloodline Purification and the Demon's Tear (26)

"Haa…"

"Mm, Herbert, eat, I can't eat anymore…"

"No, no, let me eat this…"

"Haa…"

Herbert watched Valentina mumbling in her sleep and couldn't help shaking his head, reaching out to pinch her nose.

"No wonder they say you live so happily."

"Truly nothing but eat, sleep, eat, sleep… That kind of talent is really enviable!"

Able to eat and sleep — how wonderful.

And the most infuriating part was, Valentina wasn't wasting her time — one of the dragon's innate gifts was to slowly grow stronger during sleep.

The gluttonous dragon Young Lady looked like she was lazily sleeping — well, in fact she really was — but… not entirely.

Her strength would slowly rise during sleep, past the peak of Legend, steadily pushing toward the threshold of breaking through to Epic.

Especially after going through several rounds of "exercise" with Herbert, some wondrous changes had come over her body.

Valentina couldn't be sure yet, but she vaguely felt that her bloodline seemed to have become… purer?

In Herbert's words, this should be called "purification"?

Valentina didn't quite understand what that meant, but she knew that following his advice to eat more was good for her.

A few days ago, the bloodline had even given off a faint, indistinct summoning to her!

Inheritance?

At this point, am I also going to receive an inheritance?

Dragon inheritance generally awakened during the wyrmling stage, instilling a portion of ancient knowledge into the clan's young.

But Valentina, as a special specimen, had always been a defective product unacknowledged by her bloodline, and had never received any inheritance.

That she was driven out of the nest back then was partly because she couldn't obtain the bloodline inheritance.

Yet now, long after reaching adulthood, when she had already grown to the peak of Legend, she had suddenly felt the bloodline's care.

And this unexpected discovery made Valentina quite delighted.

Although she didn't much care whether she could obtain the power of inheritance, she was very interested in the wisdom that came with the instilled knowledge.

The dragon Young Lady also wanted to become smarter!

This also made her more insistent about the two of them "exercising," and gave her more proper reasons for it…

"Come and fight!"

"Hey! Follow me inside!"

"Yes means yes, no means no — what does 'take a break' mean?"

"Come on!"

"If you don't cooperate, you just don't want me to get smarter!"

"Let me eat—"

……

Recalling the various grueling bouts before, Herbert shook his head and sighed softly.

"Still have to work hard on improving the body… not just strength, but also flexibility and endurance."

The task is heavy and the road is long.

The path is blocked and far!

Thinking these thoughts, Herbert sat down beside Valentina, tilted his head back, and lay down into her embrace.

And Valentina, showing no resistance to his presence, instinctively shifted in her sleep, gently wrapping her arms around his head and letting him rest against the softness.

Herbert felt the Evil Dragon Young Lady's slightly higher body temperature, nuzzled against it comfortably, causing her to shiver faintly in her sleep.

Once everything was calm, Herbert took out his earlier harvest from his embrace.

The crystalline Demon's Tear shimmered with a crimson luster, looking especially gorgeous under the faint light.

This was something he had tricked from Flora… no, obtained from her through his own strength.

Compared to blood, a Demon's Tear was extremely rare and extremely difficult to obtain.

Demons were chaotic and mad creatures, knowing only slaughter their whole lives; crying was simply not an option in their innate instincts.

Only high-ranking demons would possess true joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, and would gain their own will after resisting the Abyss's will.

But most of them were still little different from before — still mad and chaotic.

Blood was easy to obtain — one only needed to kill a demon to get it easily.

But tears were different.

Especially tears shed from the heart — they were almost impossible to obtain by force.

"If you want to get them, you can only trade sincerity for sincerity!"

Herbert sighed in admiration, gently placing the tear on the tip of his tongue.

The crystalline teardrop melted the instant it met his tongue, transforming into a drop of crimson blood that spread through his mouth.

Herbert kept his mouth closed, feeling its strange stirrings within, savoring its taste.

"A demon's tears are also this salty — no different from a human's."

Thinking this, the scene before Herbert's eyes changed.

Although he still kept his half-reclining posture, the place he was in was now a blood pool filled with scalding blood.

Herbert stretched his arms out to rest on the edge, soaking the lower half of his body in it as if it were a hot spring.

And in the blood pool there was not only him — there was also a pile of grotesquely shaped, giant blood-colored worms churning endlessly within.

As if terrified of Herbert, the worms were desperately trying to stay away from him; not a single one dared approach him.

"..."

He looked at the surrounding lava landscape, breathed in the sulfurous scent flooding his nostrils, took a deep breath, and sighed, "That's the smell."

"Great, I'm back again!"

When he first obtained Flora's blood, Herbert had also entered this space.

But that time hadn't lasted long; he had only experienced it briefly, and before he could even observe his surroundings, he had already broken free from the illusion.

He rose straight to his feet, lifted his leg, and stepped out of the blood pool in a single stride.

Splash.

Where his foot landed, a worm that couldn't dodge in time was stomped to a burst by him, letting out a wretched wail.

"Ah—"

That miserable voice didn't sound like a bug at all; rather, it sounded like a middle-aged nobleman, fat-headed and big-eared, who had been throwing his weight around for years.

However, Herbert felt no pity for the worm's death, and made no acknowledgment of its death.

Why did you have to block my way? Trying to scam me?

Besides, this place is just an Illusion anyway.

Herbert lowered his head to examine his reflection in the blood pool and found that his current appearance was somewhat strange.

"Hmm?"

His looks were largely the same as the last time he had transformed into a male succubus, but now his body had undergone tremendous changes.

The outer sides of his limbs jutted out, transforming into sharp blades; his entire body was covered in spikes.

Herbert reached out his hand, and with a thought, his fingertips also transformed into sharp blades.

He clenched his fist tightly, and three half-foot-long crimson spikes thrust out from the knuckles.

This is...

He had tutored alongside Flora and picked up quite a bit of demonology, gaining some understanding of the varieties of demons.

The varieties of demons were bizarre and countless, possessing all manner of abilities.

And among all the most famous and typical types of demons, there was one especially rare special breed.

"A Blade Demon?"

And among demons, the Blade Demon had another malicious nickname.

These demons, who knew nothing but slaughter throughout their lives, called the Blade Demon—

The Slaughter Demon.

(End of this chapter)