Chapter 151: The Price of Blood

The night wind swept through the alley, carrying with it a deep, chilling tremor.

Su Mian’s fingertips dug deep into her palms, a faint sting barely keeping her tethered to a fragile thread of consciousness.

The scene before her transcended mere ‘awe.’ It was a repulsive, reality-shattering truth.

She had once imagined a blood race’s ‘feeding’ as perhaps a delicate kiss imbued with decadent beauty, as told in ancient legends, or the tearing of skin by fangs during combat.

But it was nothing like this. This was raw, brutal violence—a savage piercing, the dying gurgle from a throat as life rapidly drained under sharp fangs, and the horrifying, wet sounds of swallowing.

Shen Zhixia was hunched over the man’s neck, greedily sucking. Her crimson eyes gleamed with an inhuman, hollow light in the shadows.

Her slender figure, once elegant, now exuded a ferocity completely dominated by primal desire.

The moonlight outlined the profile of her face. The once vibrant and captivating lines were now reduced to pallor and distortion.

Su Mian’s stomach violently convulsed, bile rising in her throat.

She bit down hard on her lower lip, suppressing the whimpers and dry heaves that threatened to escape. Her body, however, trembled like a leaf in the wind, cold sweat instantly soaking through her clothes.

Just as she felt herself about to collapse, an arm reached out from the side, firmly encircling her waist. Another warm hand gently covered the one she had pressed over her mouth, its reassuring steadiness a comforting anchor.

It was Xiao Moyuan.

He didn’t look at her, his gaze still sharp as a blade, fixed on Shen Zhixia deeper in the alley. Simultaneously, he vigilantly sensed any abnormal spiritual energy or aura fluctuations around them.

Yet, his body leaned slightly, shielding her from some of the most direct visual impact. The warmth from his palm permeated her skin, silently conveying the message: ‘I am here.’

“Breathe.”

His voice, barely above a whisper, was spoken close to her ear, carrying a commanding calm.

“Control your demonic energy. Don’t leak your aura. She’s in her blood race form now and is extremely sensitive to the aura and emotional fluctuations of living beings.”

Su Mian jolted, realizing that her demonic energy, fueled by extreme shock and fear, was uncontrollably surging within her. Her fox ears and tail were subtly threatening to manifest.

She immediately followed Xiao Moyuan’s usual teachings, forcefully reining in her mind and suppressing the agitated demonic energy. She took several deep breaths of the cold, blood-scented air, desperately trying to calm herself.

Complex emotions churned within her like boiling water as she looked at Shen Zhixia—fear, revulsion, disbelief, but more profoundly, a sharp, piercing sorrow and pity.

How could the proud, brilliant Shen Zhixia have become like this?

A few minutes passed, yet it felt like hours.

The man’s convulsions gradually ceased. His body slumped to the ground, soft and lifeless, eyes wide open, retaining a final look of terror and bewilderment. He was gone.

Two deep fang marks on his neck gushed dark red blood, soaking a large patch of the ground.

Shen Zhixia slowly lifted her head, releasing her grip.

The man’s corpse slid to the ground like a rag doll.

She leaned back against the cold wall, tilted her head, and closed her eyes, a long sigh of what sounded like both satisfaction and pain escaping her throat.

With the tip of her tongue, she slowly and meticulously licked clean the lingering blood from the corners of her mouth. The action held an eerie beauty, yet it was profoundly chilling.

After all this, the crimson in her eyes did not immediately fade; instead, it intensified.

She lowered her gaze to the rapidly cooling man on the ground. Her face showed no post-mortem panic or remorse, only a numb coldness and, deep within her eyes, a fleeting glimpse of self-disgust that even she didn’t seem to notice.

It wasn’t disgust for her prey, but rather for the act she had just performed.

Just then, she seemed to sense something. Her crimson eyes snapped towards the alley entrance!

Su Mian’s heart stopped cold! ‘Were they discovered?’

Xiao Moyuan’s arm around her waist instantly tightened. His other hand had already discreetly gripped a pale golden talisman, his aura reined in to the extreme, as if he had merged with the shadows themselves.

However, Shen Zhixia’s gaze did not focus on the shadowy corner where they hid, but instead swept towards an old house across the alley, further down.

Her eyes suddenly sharpened… then transformed into a difficult-to-discern emotion before a nearly imperceptible dark shadow, almost one with the environment, flashed and vanished.

Shen Zhixia made an extremely subtle gesture towards that window, so small it was almost invisible.

Then, she no longer looked at the corpse on the ground. She reached out to adjust the collar of her somewhat disheveled trench coat, the numbness and coldness on her face rapidly replaced by an empty calm.

She turned, stepping over the spreading blood, her footsteps echoing a clear and solitary “clack, clack” in the small alley. She walked steadily towards the other end of the alley, quickly disappearing into the deeper darkness.

She neither dealt with the body nor cleaned the scene.

It was as if it were merely an insignificant piece of discarded trash.

It wasn’t until Shen Zhixia’s footsteps completely vanished, and a full two minutes had passed, that Xiao Moyuan’s taut body slightly relaxed. Yet, the gravity in his eyes remained undiminished.

He released his hand from Su Mian’s mouth but did not immediately let go of the arm around her waist.

“She’s gone.”

He spoke in a low voice, with an almost imperceptible tension, “Just now… there was someone behind that window. It could be a monitor, or it could be…”

“Xia?” Su Mian’s voice trembled, carrying the exhaustion of a narrow escape.

“Uncertain, but highly possible.” Xiao Moyuan’s gaze swept over the rapidly cooling corpse on the ground, his brows deeply furrowed.

“Being monitored while feeding implies either that a superior is uneasy, or they are assessing the ‘tool’s’ efficiency and loyalty.”

“Shen Zhixia’s state… is very wrong.”

“Her feeding process had a certain… impatience and compulsion. It didn’t seem like enjoyment, but more like completing a painful task, and being eager to finish it.”

“This aligns with the speculation that after her source blood was forcibly reclaimed, she needs frequent replenishment of low-grade blood to sustain herself. However, her emotional reaction… was too intense.”

He paused, then looked at Su Mian’s pale face:

“Did you see it?”

“Her eyes before and after feeding. That wasn’t just disgust for her target; it was more like… self-disgust.”

Su Mian recalled Shen Zhixia’s twisted expression just before she bit down, and the empty numbness beneath the coldness after it ended. She nodded with difficulty.

Her throbbing pain felt as if it had been plunged into ice water, heavy and cold.

“She… how could she…” She spoke incoherently, the immense shock of information leaving her mind in disarray.

“Let’s leave here first.”

Xiao Moyuan decided instantly, pulling Su Mian’s hand. “This place will be discovered soon. We cannot get entangled in a normal human murder investigation.”

He quickly took a small spray bottle-shaped artifact from an inner pocket of his trench coat and carefully sprayed several streams of colorless, odorless mist into the alley, including the area where the body lay.

Wherever the mist passed, the faint demonic energy, blood scent, and traces of their own auras lingering in the air were rapidly neutralized and masked.

This was one of the Demon Extermination Bureau’s standard procedures for handling such ‘supernatural scenes,’ aimed at minimizing panic and investigation in ordinary society.

Having completed these tasks, he pulled Su Mian, swiftly and silently retreating from the death-laden alley, melting into the still-bustling crowds of the main street.

It wasn’t until they were once again under the bright streetlights and amidst the city’s noisy backdrop that Su Mian felt some sensation return to her stiff limbs.

Yet, the heavy scent of blood and Shen Zhixia’s crimson eyes remained etched in her mind like a brand, refusing to fade.

She instinctively tightened her grip on Xiao Moyuan’s hand, her fingertips icy cold.

Xiao Moyuan offered no words of comfort. Instead, he simply turned his hand, completely enveloping her slightly cool fingers in his palm, warming her with his steady body temperature.

The two got into the car.

The car interior was stiflingly oppressive.

Su Mian turned her head, watching the dazzling lights of the city blur past the window. The vibrant street scenes appeared as nothing more than distorted, hazy colors in her eyes.

The other side of the world was so dark, so bloody, and so close.

And Shen Zhixia, the person she had once seen as a beacon, was struggling and sinking into the deepest part of that darkness.

“What… will happen to her?”

After a long silence, Su Mian finally found her voice, dry and hoarse.

Xiao Moyuan didn’t answer immediately. He gazed at the fleeting lights ahead, his eyes profound.

“If my conjecture is correct, Xia, to punish her for her previous failure and to control her more firmly, not only reclaimed most of her source blood but is also likely using this method—forcing her to hunt, feed, and even be monitored—to constantly trample her remaining humanity and dignity, until she completely submits and becomes a perfect tool that only knows how to execute orders, without any self-will.”

His voice was steady, yet every word was like an ice pick, piercing Su Mian’s heart.

“Then… what can we do?”

Su Mian turned to him, her eyes filled with helplessness and a faint glimmer of hope.

“Are we just going to watch her… watch her turn into that?”

She couldn’t bear to stand by and watch her childhood friend head towards complete destruction.

Xiao Moyuan met her gaze, clearly seeing the complex emotions within it.

He reached out, gently stroking her cold cheek, his touch tender and reassuring.

“Su Mian.”

He spoke her name, his tone solemn.

“Saving Shen Zhixia is far more difficult than dealing with Xia himself.”

“This isn’t a problem that can be solved by simply defeating an enemy. The connection between a blood servant and their master runs deep in blood and soul, especially for a blood race of Xia’s caliber; his control is almost irreversible.”

“Forcibly severing the connection could lead to Shen Zhixia’s immediate death, or her collapse due to the loss of her power source.”

“Moreover, is she even willing to be ‘saved’?”

“Does she still possess a strong enough will to break free?”

“These are all unknowns.”

He paused, then continued:

“What we can do now is, first, ensure our own safety and that our plans are not disrupted.”

“This hunt conducted by Xia through Shen Zhixia, seemingly accidental, could also be a test or a provocation.”

“We must be even more cautious.”

“Secondly, we need to gather as much intelligence as possible about Xia and about Shen Zhixia’s current situation.”

“Only by understanding enough will we have a chance to find a crack to intervene at some point in the future.”

He squeezed her hand, his voice low and firm:

“But the prerequisite for all of this is that you cannot act impulsively, nor can you act on your own. You saw tonight how direct and cruel that world is, far beyond what you imagined.”

“Promise me, no matter how much you want to help her, you must first protect yourself and listen to my arrangements.”

Su Mian looked into his undeniably serious eyes, laced with deep concern. The surging powerlessness and impulsiveness within her gradually subsided.

She knew Xiao Moyuan was right. Rash actions would not only fail to save Shen Zhixia but could also drag them both into an abyss of no return.

“I… I promise you.”

She lowered her head, her voice very soft, yet carrying the weight of a pledge.

Her fluffy ears had somehow quietly emerged, drooping listlessly behind her, revealing their owner’s low spirits.

Xiao Moyuan looked at her like this, his heart softening. He reached out and gently stroked her soft hair:

“Don’t overthink it. Get some good rest tonight.”

“As for Shen Zhixia’s matter… we’ll plan it carefully.”

***

Back home, the warm, bright atmosphere of the apartment somewhat dispelled the external chill and gloom.

But Su Mian was still somewhat absent-minded. The hot water in the shower washed over her body, yet it couldn’t wash away the bloody images in her mind.

She changed into soft pajamas and walked out of the bathroom to see Xiao Moyuan already in his loungewear, standing by the living room’s floor-to-ceiling window, gazing out at the night, a cup of warm water in his hand.

Hearing her footsteps, he turned and handed her the warm water:

“Drink some water to calm your nerves.”

Su Mian took the cup and drank a few sips. The warm water sliding down her throat brought a little warmth, and her mood calmed slightly.

She walked to the sofa and sat down, hugging her knees, curling into a ball.

Xiao Moyuan sat beside her, not too close, giving her adequate space, yet still within arm’s reach.

“Xiao Moyuan,” Su Mian suddenly spoke, her voice muffled, “You said… if, back then, I hadn’t misunderstood what happened between you and her in the classroom, if I hadn’t appeared, would she have…”

She didn’t finish, but her meaning was clear.

“No.”

Xiao Moyuan cut her off, his tone unequivocal, “There are no ‘ifs.’ First, regardless of whether you appeared that night, I would not have let her succeed. I would have even killed her then!”

“Secondly, Shen Zhixia chose this path herself, at least initially.”

“She might have had difficulties, or she might have been tempted, but choosing to accept Xia’s embrace and become a blood servant—that step was hers alone.”

“All the subsequent consequences—Xia’s manipulation, punishment, degradation… while undeniably cruel, their root lies in that initial choice.”

His analysis was calm and objective, cutting through emotional layers to reach the core.

“Do not take responsibility for what is not yours.”

He looked at her, his gaze profound, “Everyone must be responsible for their own choices. What you need to do now is not to dwell on past ‘what ifs,’ but to clearly think about how you want to face the current predicament, and what you can do in the future.”

Su Mian stared at him blankly. His words were like a basin of cold water, extinguishing the unrealistic self-blame and fantasies in her heart, yet also allowing her to see the hard, cold edges of reality more clearly.

‘Yes, there are no ‘ifs.’

Shen Zhixia chose her path, even if that path was now strewn with thorns and blood.

And she, too, had her own path to walk.

This path might be equally dangerous, but she had Xiao Moyuan by her side and a new conviction in her heart.

She took a deep breath, put down her water cup, and actively shifted closer to Xiao Moyuan, resting her head gently on his shoulder.

“I understand.”

She closed her eyes, drawing comfort from his reassuring cedar scent, “I will… slowly figure it out. And I will listen to you.”

Xiao Moyuan’s body stiffened slightly, then relaxed. He raised an arm and gently wrapped it around her shoulders.

“Mm.”

He responded softly, saying nothing more.

The night deepened, and outside, the city lights twinkled.

The apartment was quiet and warm. They nestled together on the sofa, sharing a rare moment of tranquility before the storm.

The road ahead remained shrouded in mist, fraught with danger, but at least for now, they relied on each other, facing the unfathomable darkness together.

***

Meanwhile, in another corner of the city, on the top floor of a luxurious yet silent apartment building.

Shen Zhixia stood before the enormous floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the sparkling city nightscape below, her face devoid of expression.

She had just showered and changed into a silk nightgown. The strong scent of blood on her body had been masked by expensive perfume, but the metallic taste of rust seemed to linger in her mouth.

The window’s reflection showed her still-pale face, with a trace of indelible sorrow and emptiness in her eyes.

She raised her hand, her fingertips unconsciously tracing her smooth neck, where Xia’s fangs had once pierced, leaving the eternal mark of master and servant.

Suddenly, the shadow behind her subtly stirred. A low, pleasant, yet inorganic and icy voice slowly resonated:

“Your performance tonight was still not pleasing enough, my little Zhixia.”

Shen Zhixia’s body trembled almost imperceptibly. She did not turn around.

“It seems more… practice is needed.”

The voice continued, with a hint of playfulness.

Shen Zhixia’s fingers quietly tightened, her nails digging into her palms, leaving crescent-shaped white marks.

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