Chapter 5: The Symbiotic Disciple

Lilith’s faint heartbeat was transmitted to Bai Jin’s fingertips through the cold metal of the dagger.

Teardrops continuously fell on Bai Jin’s chest.
The despair and plea in Lilith’s eyes were like a searing hot iron, stinging Bai Jin’s heart.

‘Why? Why did it turn out like this?’

‘She imprisoned me, tortured me, nearly scattered my soul, and even mocked me with venomous words…’

Bai Jin’s mind was a battlefield.
A residual ember of anger burned in her heart, this anger reminding her of Lilith’s madness and cruelty.

‘Kill her, and maybe I’ll be free…’

‘This body, this power, this damned contract…’

‘Perhaps it will truly belong to me.’

‘In this strange, different world, only power matters most, doesn’t it?’

But…

Bai Jin’s gaze couldn’t move away from Lilith’s pale face, which carried a resolute will to die.

Deep within those eyes was a void devoid of all meaning, as if nothing mattered to her anymore.

Bai Jin remembered Lilith crying in her arms before the cross, remembered her vulnerability as she spoke of a hopeless salvation.

‘No, it’s not like that. Possessing power doesn’t mean you can easily trample on life. Besides, in his past life, he was just an ordinary, law-abiding person who had never even killed a chicken.’

Besides…

Bai Jin felt the contract tightly linking the two of them.

This contract of unknown effect bound their lives and souls together.
If she were to kill Lilith just like this, Bai Jin couldn’t even guess what would happen.

Bai Jin’s fingers went limp.
The dagger fell to the cold stone slab with a clang, making a piercing sound.

“Can you tell me why?”
Bai Jin looked directly into Lilith’s eyes but couldn’t see through what was buried deep within those eyes that had lost their light.

Lilith slowly sat up straight, her head tilted back.
The crimson crest on her forehead flickered continuously.
Power from the Holy Blood Royal Court poured out, mending Lilith’s weak body.

“This was the closest I’ve ever been to true death, and yet…”
Lilith tilted her head, looking askance at Bai Jin.
“You actually used reversal on my and Sister’s contract.”

Lilith punched Bai Jin in the chest.
The cross-shaped chains tightened again, and Bai Jin couldn’t help but let out a couple of pained coughs.

“I will never forgive you! If this is your choice, hehe…”

Lilith’s small hand clasped Bai Jin’s head.
A stream of images was transmitted into Bai Jin’s mind through the contract connecting them.

“Then let me have you feel my despair too.”

Boom—

Bai Jin felt as if her head had been brutally smashed by an invisible giant hammer.
All her senses were instantly stripped away, and her vision went black.

Her vision re-coalesced amidst intense dizziness and a tearing sensation.
Bai Jin found herself bound in a hall that was both magnificently vast beyond imagination and eerily sinister.

The ground was not made of stone bricks, but some kind of writhing, dark-red substance, like the inner membrane of a giant creature.

The towering dome was hidden in the roiling, thick-as-blood-plasma mist.
The air was filled with the sweet, fishy smell of rust and decay.

And her gaze was uncontrollably captured by the being that occupied her entire field of vision in front of her.

It was a writhing mountain of flesh, a tapestry of decay and rebirth!

Its immeasurably large body filled the end of the hall.
Huge chunks of flesh were constantly cracking and festering, and viscous, filthy blood gushed out like fountains.

This blood didn’t even have time to form pools before it turned into a thick, bloody mist upon contact with the ground, absorbed by countless opening and closing pores on the mountain of flesh.

Bai Jin was deeply shaken by this scene, her heart filled with only the fear of the unknown.

She tried to escape, only to find her hands and feet were bound by slimy, slender, tentacle-like tissues, unable to move.

A tentacle, its end spread open to display a scarlet four-pointed star crest, reached before Bai Jin’s eyes and then fiercely pierced into her forehead.

A grand yet fragmented will, as if mixed from the wails of billions of living beings, exploded directly in Bai Jin’s mind.

“Contract… is made, you… are… the Royal Court’s Saintess.”

The pure impact of will, carrying a suffocating chaos and madness, almost tore her consciousness to shreds!

Lilith’s soul in the memory let out a scream of ultimate despair.
Bai Jin felt it as if it were her own.

It was a cry of being completely crushed by this terrifying scene, by the shackles of this contract that penetrated to the bone, and by this inescapable, desperate fate!

The scene came to an abrupt end.
Bai Jin was violently thrown back to reality from the torrent of memories, like a drowning person finally pulled from the water.

She gasped for breath violently, her pupils dilated from extreme fear.
Her stomach churned, and a strong urge to vomit rose in her throat.

The mental impact of that brief scene brought a pain far beyond any physical torture.

She finally understood where Lilith’s bone-deep despair came from, understood why her hatred for the “curse of immortality” was so deeply ingrained!

To form a contract with such a terrifying, twisted being, she gained power but was also branded with its mark, dragged into a nightmare from which she could never wake!

Bai Jin raised her head and looked at the nearby Lilith.

At this moment, Lilith’s face held only a coldness tinged with endless fatigue.
“Do you understand now…”

Lilith’s voice was dry and hoarse.
“Understand why I only want to embrace Sister’s death forever, to escape this eternal shackle?”

The dungeon was deathly silent.
The dim candlelight flickered restlessly, illuminating two faces that were equally pale, equally shrouded in the shadow of despair.

Just then, the despair and pain that pierced Bai Jin’s soul were absorbed by 『Reversal』 and transformed into pure death energy.

Although the amount was far less than what Bai Jin had brought from the Underworld, this change was noticed by both of them.

But what was even stranger was that as soon as this wisp of death energy was born, it didn’t even have time to linger in her body for a moment.

It was immediately and forcibly extracted by the [Soul Contract · Life and Death Conversion] and transferred into Lilith’s body.

“Hmm?”
Lilith let out a confused nasal sound.
She was puzzled as to why there was still death energy in Bai Jin’s body, when it should have all been absorbed before.

Although this familiar, cold power was immediately neutralized by the majestic torrent of life force in her body upon entering.

Like a drop of water falling into lava, it vanished in an instant, not even causing her a single trace of harm.

However, the life force that neutralized this death energy was not replenished by the Holy Blood Contract.
Instead, the upper limit of life force she could contain was reduced.

Lilith was stunned.
She looked down at Bai Jin, who was frowning beneath her, and an idea emerged in her mind.

“Interesting…”
Lilith murmured to herself.
She extended a finger and, with her nail, viciously scratched a line on Bai Jin’s exposed arm!

“Hiss!”
Bai Jin sucked in a sharp breath.
A sharp pain came from her arm, and a bloody mark appeared.

At the same time, Lilith clearly perceived that due to the pain and injury, another wisp of death energy was born in Bai Jin’s body.

Then it was instantly siphoned away by the contract, transferred into her body, and then easily annihilated by her life force.

And a stream of life force was also drawn from Lilith into Bai Jin’s body, quickly repairing the bloody mark on her arm.

Lilith’s eyes lit up.
It was a morbid excitement, like discovering a new toy.
She began to conduct more refined “experiments.”

She pinched Bai Jin’s flesh with her nails, observing the speed of power generation and the efficiency of the transfer.

She tried using less force to create more sustained pain, observing if the death energy was continuously produced.

She even tried to stimulate and humiliate Bai Jin with words, attempting to see if mental pain could also produce a similar effect…

In the dungeon, only Bai Jin’s suppressed groans of pain and Lilith’s occasional confused, dawning, or cruelly smiling whispers remained.

“Here… the pain is stronger, and more is generated?”

“Sustained… seems more stable?”

“Mental pain? It seems… the effect isn’t very obvious? Or is it… not painful enough?”

Bai Jin endured the dual torment of body and spirit, a mixture of humiliation, anger, and helplessness.

She gradually understood Lilith’s intention.
She wanted to turn her into a “death energy converter”!
This was more horrifying and despairing than simple pain.