Chapter 9: The Holy Blood Contract

“The Holy Blood is like the sun, its grace showering all living beings…”

Bai Jin scanned the sanctified history, embellished with flowery language, ten lines at a time, searching for useful information amidst a pile of meaningless praise.

This world was called Zetcruyheim.
Five hundred years ago, a great cataclysm had swept across the entire world.

It ultimately led to the disappearance of the gods and the rampant spread of monsters.
It was the God of Holy Blood who granted power to the believers and saved this world.

Recalling the writhing, rotting mountain of flesh from Lilith’s memory, Bai Jin felt a wave of nausea.

This was no world-saving deity; it was clearly an unspeakable, horrifying monster.

She patiently continued to flip through the pages.

Finally, she found the substance.
The wording in the book was still grandiloquent, but Bai Jin used her past life’s knowledge to painstakingly extract the core logic.

The fundamental source of supernatural power in this world was “Contracts.”
It was not acquired through talent or cultivation, but by concluding some form of binding agreement.

The contractor would offer a price to the source of a certain contractual power in exchange for corresponding abilities.
The core was equivalent exchange.

‘Power is not a river without a source; every use requires a price to be paid…’

And the core contract system of the Holy Blood Royal Court used “faith” as its price.

Believers had to piously worship the Holy Blood, offering absolute spiritual loyalty and a sense of belonging.
In return, the Holy Blood granted a power with strong life force.

This power could rapidly heal wounds, eliminate physical fatigue, and greatly enhance the body’s endurance and resilience.

The book even cryptically mentioned that pious and powerful contractors, their life force blessed by the Holy Blood, would have their aging process greatly slowed or even halted, achieving a state of near “immortality.”

Ah… immortality, the ultimate gift coveted by countless beings.
But Bai Jin’s brows furrowed tightly.

This so-called blessing of “immortality,” in Lilith’s case, had become a curse from which she could not be freed, unable to die, only able to watch herself be eternally loyal to the Holy Blood…

Although the book did not specify the price of immortality, Bai Jin felt it probably didn’t lead to a good end.

As the pages turned, Bai Jin extracted more useful information.

The divine art of the Holy Blood Royal Court was the 「Holy Blood Contract」, also known as the Blood Contract by the people of this world.

The Blood Contract required consuming the contractor’s own life force to drive the contract.
This process often needed to be accompanied by chanting, prayer, or specific rituals.

Whether the spell was successfully cast or not depended on whether the contractor could persist through the pain and consumption of continuous life force drain to complete the entire process.

If it was interrupted midway due to life force depletion or a collapse of will, the contract would be declared a failure.

The most crucial point was that regardless of whether the contract’s attack was ultimately released, the life force consumed for this contract would not be returned!

This meant that every attempt to use a Blood Contract was a burning of one’s own life source!

The scene of Lilith coughing up blood and her body tearing apart when she launched Soul Annihilation instantly flashed before her eyes.
This Blood Contract was truly a double-edged sword!

The book was vague about the contracts of other factions, full of belittlement and vigilance, but it acknowledged their existence and that they followed the core law of “equivalent exchange.”

It was just that the price paid and the nature of the power obtained were completely different from the Blood Contract.

“Equivalent exchange…”
Bai Jin muttered the core law of contracts.
She seemed to be understanding Lilith’s motivations a little better.

Lilith had signed a contract with the Holy Blood and became a Saintess, thereby gaining a nearly infinite life force.

Normally, this should have been the ultimate reward that countless people yearned for.

If Bai Jin had been unaware of the terrifying and twisted true nature of the Holy Blood, she might have thought it was an incredibly worthwhile deal.

But now…

Bai Jin’s gaze involuntarily drifted to the small, sleeping figure on the bed.

Bai Jin couldn’t forget the despair and madness settled in those azure eyes, couldn’t forget her hysterical pleas for death in the dungeon, and certainly couldn’t forget the pathological gleam in her eyes as she conducted various experiments on her own body to absorb that tiny wisp of death energy.

Possessing a nearly endless life force, yet regarding it as the most vicious curse.

Wielding the powerful Holy Blood Contract, yet irreversibly burning herself out.

The Saintess, revered by countless believers, yet deep in her soul, she only wanted to embrace eternal death.

Bai Jin closed the heavy book and let out a long breath.
Her mind was a mess right now.
What had Lilith gone through to become like this?

Moreover, in these few days of interaction, Bai Jin had never truly understood Lilith from beginning to end.

Sunlight streamed through the windowsill, falling on Lilith’s peaceful sleeping face.
Her long, golden eyelashes cast fine shadows on her fair skin.

The tranquility of this moment formed an incredibly sharp contrast with all her previous actions.

Bai Jin couldn’t imagine what a long and arduous torment that must have been.
The humiliation and torture she had experienced now seemed fleeting and insignificant in the face of the eternal despair Lilith shouldered.

“So… is this what you wanted? Lilith…”

Just then, the seemingly sleeping figure on the bed moved ever so slightly.

Bai Jin’s heart skipped a beat.
She held her breath and observed carefully.
Lilith’s breathing rhythm was a little disordered.
Although her eyes were still closed, her thick eyelashes were trembling slightly.

‘Is she… awake? Or, was she not sleeping at all just now?’

Bai Jin looked at the sunlight shining on Lilith’s face and confirmed this thought in her mind.

‘Lilith is just pretending to sleep. Who can sleep with sunlight shining directly on their face!’

The air in the room seemed to solidify.
The afternoon sun was incredibly warm, and dust motes floated slowly in the beams of light.

Bai Jin withdrew her gaze and reopened the heavy book.
The rustling sound of pages turning started again.

The chaos in Bai Jin’s heart had not subsided; on the contrary, it had become even more jumbled.
She had actually developed a trace of pity for Lilith.

She couldn’t take in the book’s content at all.
Bai Jin didn’t want to sort out this tangled mess either; she just sat there quietly.

In the lazy afternoon, she accompanied the Saintess who was also silently feigning sleep, feeling the silent contract that connected them.

Time flowed by in the silence.
After an unknown amount of time, Lilith on the bed finally “slowly woke up.”

She let out a light hum with a lazy, nasal tone, and slowly sat up.
The collar of her white chemise was askew, revealing the delicate lines of her shoulders and neck.

She rubbed her eyes, her azure pupils looking at Bai Jin with scrutiny.

“Finished reading?”
Lilith’s voice was hoarse from just waking up.

Bai Jin held up the book in her hands as a gesture.
“Are you kidding me.”

Lilith stared at Bai Jin for a few seconds, the corner of her mouth slightly upturned.
She didn’t press the matter, just threw back the thin blanket and stepped barefoot onto the floor.

“As long as you’re reading it seriously, I’m relieved. You can keep the book for now. Remember to learn the rules properly.”
Lilith said as she walked towards the only remaining luxurious piece of furniture, starting to pick out a pretty little dress she liked.

Bai Jin’s skip-reading had only just managed to finish two chapters.
She estimated that was only about a tenth of the book.

She hadn’t seen any of the content regarding the Royal Court Laws at all.
She had a lot to learn next.

“Tidy up. There are still things to do this afternoon. Your job is not just reading books.”
Lilith’s tone returned to that placid accent, but her movements as she picked out the little dress were incredibly light and cheerful.

Bai Jin felt that Lilith seemed to be in a good mood.
She hoped this wasn’t just an illusion.