As soon as Louisa stepped into the stone chamber, Lin Jun’s Voice-Puji got straight to the point:
“Have you heard of the Blood Seizing Ritual?”
He used the Voice-Puji deliberately, so the Yellow Book wouldn’t overhear.
“Blood Seizing Ritual?” Louisa frowned and shook her head.
It sounded like so kind of vampiric magic circle, but she had never heard of it.
“Nothing turned up from the humans either…”
The Yellow Book had spoken of a “promotion ritual.” Lin Jun had sent Aiden and Inanna to investigate through their channels, but nothing ca back. And now, even Piggy—herself a vampire viscount—knew nothing.
He didn’t think the Yellow Book was lying, not in this situation. But it still needed clarifying.
Marshal Puji’s tendril stroked the thin single page, back and forth.
[Boss! I didn’t lie to you! Don’t go tearing up unjustly!]
The page quivered violently, the writing slanting across.
[If everyone had heard of it, how could it be called an “unknown ritual”?]
[I’d wager, counting the Emperor and the two princes, no more than five living beings know it exists!]
[Do you know why?]
Lin Jun didn’t reply—he just tugged at the page.
[Wait, wait! No secrets! I’ll tell!]
With only a single page left, the Yellow Book was far too precious. It spilled the truth instantly.
[The current vampire promotion ritual works like this: a higher-bloodline willingly gives their origin blood essence to help the lower one break past their rank barrier!]
[It only works within the sa bloodline branch. Different branches can’t assist.]
[The higher the rank, the more blood essence required—condensed over centuries.]
[And most crucial of all—during the ritual, the higher one holds absolute life-and-death control over the lower!]
[That’s how it works today.]
Louisa nodded subconsciously. Everything matched what she knew.
Now she realized what Lin Jun and the Book were discussing—and her fists clenched tight. Did this an she still had hope of rising higher?
The Book continued:
[But the Blood Seizing Ritual is different.]
[It ignores bloodline branches! Ignores the higher one’s will! If you capture a vampire of higher rank, you can forcibly draw their origin blood essence!]
[Now you understand why it must remain hidden.]
“If it leaked… the infighting would never end,” Louisa muttered, a chill running down her spine.
Under the current system, competition within the sa line was fierce, but loyalty to the bloodline duke was absolute.
Betrayal ant no hope of promotion—one reason vampires produced so few traitors.
But if this ritual spread? Selling out one’s duke for a rival’s promotion? Hunting one’s kin for blood essence?
Louisa didn’t dare imagine the chaos.
[Of course, it’s not simple,] the Book added quickly.
[It requires massive amounts of high-grade mana crystals. And it’s dangerous.]
[The greater the gap in rank, the higher the risk. Different bloodlines can be seized from, but that risk multiplies.]
[In fact, since its creation, it’s only ever been officially used once.]
“Who created it? Who used it?” Lin Jun asked.
The Book didn’t stall.
[It was created by the previous Vampire Archduke, as a failed attempt to improve the promotion ritual. A botched byproduct.]
[The poor fool wanted to empower his kin—but instead birthed this. Worse, it was used on him!]
[And the only one ever to use it formally is the current Archduke of the vampires, now the Empire’s Emperor—Mortis Drakon!]
Louisa was stunned, utterly speechless.
Lin Jun, however, had no interest in vampire secrets. He couldn’t exactly use so half-whispered “royal black history” to threaten Mortis into welcoming the Mycelium Carpet.
If he were emperor, anyone daring to blackmail him with this would be flattened instantly, truth or lie.
No, what mattered was whether the ritual worked.
“This thing’s only been used once. Reliable?”
[Oh, it’s reliable,] the Book replied.
[It was officially used once, but the Archduke did plenty of experints before that.]
[But as I said, the risks are real. And in this case, your subordinate’s… condition is special.]
Different? Of course—because Louisa was half-mushroom now.
“You sure know a lot of secrets,” Lin Jun remarked.
Cores, hidden rituals—always sothing.
[Ah, well… I did once serve by the Demon King’s side, for a short while…]
“Oh? Planning to free your ‘master’ soday?”
[Forr master, Boss! Forr master!]
[My life and death are yours alone! I am your most loyal hound!]
[But if soday, when your greatness reaches its peak, you happen to pry so knowledge about my soul from that ‘forr master’… I would be eternally grateful!]
“You’re thinking way too far ahead. You haven’t even atoned yet.”
[Yes, yes! Whatever Boss decrees! Fire and blades, no complaint!]
“What do you think?” Lin Jun finally turned to Louisa.
The one gambling her life would be her.
Emperor, Demon King, forbidden ritual—the weight was dizzying. For a mont, Louisa was stunned.
But Lin Jun’s words lashed her awake.
“Using Uniel for the ritual, right?” She lifted her head, eyes blazing near-madness. “I’ll do it! Of course I’ll do it!”
“Even if it ans death! I’d rather die on the road to power—than rot in the mire!”
Her voice was hoarse with passion. Her face showed not fear, but burning ambition.
…
A fanatic of ambition, huh.
Marshal Puji quietly shuffled aside, not wanting to catch her fever.
For Lin Jun, the risk was absurd. Gambling one’s life, again and again, for every future rank? Even with a fifty-percent chance, reaching level 90 ant four trials—only one in sixteen surviving. The real odds were surely worse.
It sounded like suicide.
But since it was her choice—and her life—and since success ant a stronger ally—Lin Jun had no objections.
A tendril patted Louisa’s shoulder. “Go with confidence. If you fail… I’ll send the Yellow Book down to keep you company.”
[???]
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