A moment later, Lin Muci let out a deep sigh as she looked at the item placed on the table before her.
The blood-red divine artifact lay on the table, its mere sight enough to send shivers down one's spine. Ling Kuang had previously mentioned a curse upon it, and she had wondered if he had exaggerated. However, upon seeing it herself, she realized his words were not an overstatement.
This object – just by its presence, it was clearly an ominous thing!
Ling Kuang, however, seemed unfazed by any curse. He even held the blood-red divine artifact in his palm, turning it over with intense focus.
A moment later, Lin Muci heard Ling Kuang speak.
“The Blood Clan sacrificed their entire race for this item. I didn’t believe it at first.”
“But there is indeed a unique aura about it.”
“Look!”
As he said this, he snapped his fingers.
Then, wisps of red smoke rose from the blood-red gemstone, gradually forming the portrait of an extremely pale man!
It was a face of striking handsomeness, yet so pallid it seemed drained of all color. His features were sharp, giving the impression he could materialize at any second and pounce on them. The bloody smoke condensed into his countenance, and he gazed at Ling Kuang and Lin Muci with eyes filled with venom, as if he would spew forth cruel words at any moment.
Then, he let out a cold laugh.
He sneered at Lin Muci and Ling Kuang.
“Are you the ones who awakened the great Blood Clan Emperor, Cain?”
“You will receive the most terrifying punishment in this world!”
“Cain’s wrath is not something you can bear! I will make you live in endless fear for generations to come!”
Anyone else might have felt fear, but unfortunately for this self-proclaimed Blood Clan Emperor, he had encountered Lin Muci and Ling Kuang.
These two were individuals who never played by the rules.
Lin Muci glanced at Ling Kuang. She wasn’t scared, only curious about his reaction.
And Ling Kuang’s reaction certainly didn’t disappoint. He let out a cold laugh and spoke without hesitation.
“Punishment? Fear?”
“Don’t you know your entire Blood Clan has been wiped out?”
“You who have no descendants for generations to come, what fear are you talking about? Isn’t this just a joke?”
“Your resentment barely lingers thanks to this Blood Clan artifact, but if I destroy the Nocturne of Night, you will vanish completely. Even this trace of resentment will be gone.”
The Blood Clan Emperor across from them, his face contorted, looked at Ling Kuang in disbelief. He simply couldn’t accept it.
“You… what are you saying?”
“How can you say that–”
“Our race is extinct, it’s impossible, absolutely impossible!”
Ling Kuang knew exactly where to strike.
“If your Blood Clan wasn’t extinct, there wouldn’t be the Nocturne of Night!”
“Furthermore, I intend to destroy the Nocturne of Night now.”
Hearing this, the other party’s eyes widened in further disbelief, and in that instant, he let out a silent roar – his gaping mouth revealed his madness and despair!
“No—impossible!”
“How could you bear to destroy the Nocturne of Night… this is a divine artifact! No one in this world can resist the allure of a divine artifact, damn it… you absolutely cannot… resist such temptation!”
Ling Kuang looked at the Blood Clan apparition with the gaze one reserves for a madman. He chuckled lightly.
“Oh?”
“Is that so?”
“In your eyes, no one can resist the temptation of a divine artifact?”
“Then I apologize, but I am that person who can resist the temptation of a divine artifact. Is a divine artifact so remarkable? I have one too.”
After saying this, he faced the disbelieving gaze of the other party and directly summoned his mecha, Fenxin.
“Moreover, my divine artifact is a mecha. Far more advanced than yours.”
“Your Blood Clan couldn’t defeat the Insectoids – but Fenxin is stained with the blood of the Insectoids.”
Upon seeing Fenxin, the Blood Clan apparition trembled as if a special condition had been triggered, his expression freezing.
After a long moment, he let out a sigh, filled with resignation and emotion.
“It’s Fenxin…”
“You are Fenxin’s master… I believe what you’ve said now…”
His smile turned incredibly bitter. He sighed wryly, and after a long pause, slowly shook his head.
“Our Blood Clan is indeed extinct…”
“Yes, in the face of the Insectoids, even the longest of lifespans is useless. After all, what they desire most is our life force. The more vibrant our life force, the greater the temptation for the Insectoids.”
“Their Mother Nest issued a kill order upon us. Almost all Insectoids frantically sought us out, offering us to the Mother Nest so it could drain all our life force.”
“We, the Blood Clan, never experienced such a nightmare – to be completely drained of all life essence, to die withered and in agony…”
“What a soul-crushing pain that was…”
His voice was steeped in bitterness.
“We never knew before that a long life could be such a terrible torment – watching our kin die one by one…”
“Later…”
“Later, we all went mad…”
His voice was ancient and full of lament.
Lin Muci had not expected that the doom of the Blood Clan would be such a desolate end.
The Blood Clan had once been immensely powerful within human society. Their long lifespans and robust vitality allowed them to live exceptionally long, granting them significant influence among human elites.
Furthermore, they possessed special inherited memories, enabling them to create lesser blood thralls for their service, making them incredibly formidable.
However, once they were targeted by the Mother Nest—
They became a primary target for the Insectoids.
It turned out that a powerful life force was a double-edged sword.
They prospered because of it, and they perished because of it when the Insectoid cataclysm arrived.
Lin Muci sighed silently in her heart. She could understand the source of this resentment. Moreover, it sounded as if these high-ranking Blood Clan members had even been kept by the Mother Nest for a period, treated as food? Being raised by insects, just as they themselves raised blood thralls – no matter how one thought about it, it wasn’t a good situation for these thralls.
The Blood Clan phantom before Lin Muci trembled, the blood mist composing his body shaking with agitation. After taking several deep breaths, he murmured.
“I recognize your mecha, Fenxin…”
“It belongs to someone named Jiang Yu Ye, doesn’t it?”
Lin Muci had not expected to hear the name Jiang Yu Ye from the residual resentment of the Blood Clan progenitor, Cain, within this divine artifact!
Her spirits immediately lifted, and she found the situation becoming interesting.
“Jiang Yu Ye?”
“You know him?”
The figure before them swallowed several mouthfuls of blood mist before stabilizing.
“Yes.”
“Not only do I— I not only know his name, but I have also seen Jiang Yu Ye with my own eyes.”
“Back then, he held a very high position among the Insectoids. He could communicate with the Mother Nest’s consciousness, something many damned Insectoids couldn’t do.”
“He was an… extremely intelligent and incredibly brave person… many humans disliked him, and we Blood Clan members also disliked his iron-fisted approach. Especially after he defected to the Mother Nest, his methods became even more… more terrifying.”
“But later, he betrayed the Mother Nest and was the one who died the most miserably. I was killed by the Mother Nest after him, but I saw the Mother Nest’s fury then – she actually revealed her true form to punish Jiang Yu Ye, showing how enraged the Mother Nest was!”
“Her true form is hidden in another dimension. She never reveals herself, even when draining our life force, she does so remotely.”
“It’s like there’s a long tube in the air, one end on us, and the other end on her, rapidly siphoning our life force towards her.”
Hearing this, Lin Muci became even more curious.
“The Mother Nest’s true form?”
“What does it look like? Is it frightening?”
Cain was clearly terrified. His extreme fear prevented him from even recalling, and he could only desperately shake his head. Then, as he looked at Ling Kuang again, his expression was exceptionally complex.
“You managed to subdue the mecha Fenxin… The curse on Fenxin is absolutely no less than that on our Blood Clan’s artifact. Since you can be Fenxin’s master, if you wish to be my master…”
“I can reluctantly agree to your terms.”
But after Cain said he could reluctantly agree to Ling Kuang.
Ling Kuang, however, raised his eyebrows again. A cold smile played on his lips, his voice chilling.
“You think I can be your master, but I have no interest in things like you that possess a spirit of an artifact. I was merely curious because everyone else was vying for you.”
“When the time comes, I’ll find a place to discard you, where you’ll never see the light of day, and that will be it!”
The pale, blood-colored face across from him became instantly flustered.
“No!”
“You can’t do this— you can’t treat such an incredibly precious divine artifact like this— wait!”
“I am willing to exchange it for a monumental secret!”
The pale face became exceptionally agitated.
“When Jiang Yu Ye was on the verge of death… he told me a secret himself. He said he might know the Mother Nest’s weakness!”
“This is such a crucial secret for humanity. As long as you treat me well… I can tell you!”
“This concerns all of humanity!”
“And the Mother Nest might not be dead…”
“Aren’t you concerned about the future of humanity?”