Chapter 27: The True Holy Sacrament

Her consciousness floated up from the source of the contract, sending the soul that had been roaming the ocean of consciousness back.

Bai Jin’s eyes snapped open, her heart pounding in her chest like a drum.

The viscous darkness, the painful memories, and the final dreamscape of a sea of flowers enveloped in a blood-red cage, all quickly dissipated, leaving only an indescribable melancholy.

No, there were also those memories, shining like stardust, slowly flowing around Reversal in the sea of Bai Jin’s consciousness.

Outside the window, the sun was bright.
It was clearly almost noon.

“Grrr—”

The rumbling in her stomach tore apart the last remnants of sleepiness.
Hunger hammered at Bai Jin’s skull.

Bai Jin struggled to sit up, her bones groaning.
She had slept very deeply, but Bai Jin still felt tired.

She vaguely caught the discomfort from her body.
The blood-stained novice nun’s habit clung wrinkledly to her.

The smell of sweat, blood, and the dust of the wilderness mixed together, forming a nauseating odor.

Her skin was being rubbed by the coarse cloth, itchy and sticky.
It was extremely uncomfortable.

“I need to wash up…”
Bai Jin muttered, getting out of bed and pushing open the wooden door.

“Thump!”

A muffled sound came through.
The thing leaning against the outside of the door lost its support and fell heavily to the floor.

It was the thick Holy Blood Bible.

Bai Jin was stunned for a moment, then bent down to pick it up.

‘Where’s Maria? Didn’t she say she would just read it outside and return it when I woke up?’

A slight annoyance welled up in her heart, but then she thought that she must have been dead asleep, and the door was locked.

‘Perhaps that little nun had something urgent to do and left the book at the door…’

Never mind, it wasn’t a big deal.
Bai Jin casually placed the book back on the small table in the room.

The top priority was to get herself clean.

She dragged her sore and weak body, picked up the wooden basin from the wooden rack in the corner, and walked towards the well in the backyard of the church.

The cold well water was drawn up and poured into the wooden basin with a splash.

Bai Jin scooped up a handful of water and splashed it on her face.
The refreshing coolness made her shiver, and her muddled brain instantly cleared up a lot.

Carrying the basin of water back to her room, she locked the door from the inside.

There was no mirror in the room, only the clear water in the wooden basin reflecting a blurry image.

Bai Jin took a deep breath and began to clumsily unbutton the blood-stained nun’s habit on her body.

The buttons were a bit tight, and even harder to unbutton after being stained with blood.
It took her some effort to take it off.

Her fair skin was exposed to the air, and small goosebumps appeared.

However, what met her eyes was not smooth skin, but the cross-shaped chains deeply embedded in her flesh.
The dark-red ligature marks left by the chains stretched from her neck and shoulders all the way to her waist and abdomen.

On the edges of some deeper wounds, dark brown scabs had already formed, clinging to her skin.

Bai Jin frowned and carefully rubbed them with her fingers.
The hard, dry scabs fell off with a rustle, revealing the new, tender white skin underneath.

‘The recovery ability of this body, under the influence of the contract and life force, has become a bit fast.’

Although it had only been a few days since she transmigrated, and she had been forcibly cleaned several times in the first three days under Lilith’s “care.”

But every time she faced her naked body like this, Bai Jin’s heart would still beat uncontrollably faster.

Her cheeks also felt slightly hot.
A strong sense of incongruity and shyness enveloped her heart, refusing to dissipate.

“Calm down…”

Bai Jin said to herself in a low voice, trying to suppress the embarrassment in her heart.
She shook her head, trying to shake out those distracting thoughts.

A few wet strands of hair flew up with her movement, flicking water droplets directly onto her own face.

“Tsk.”
Bai Jin raised her hands in annoyance and pushed the wet hair away from her face.

Her movement suddenly froze.
In the blurry reflection in the basin of water, the strand of bangs she had pushed aside from her forehead seemed a bit off?

It wasn’t pure silver-white.
It was like a strand of black hair that had been carefully highlighted, standing out conspicuously among the head full of silver threads.

“…?”

Her mind was full of question marks.

‘When did this happen? She had only heard that staying up late and being anxious would cause white hair. In her case, was it the other way around?’

‘What kind of ridiculous constitution is this?!’

Bai Jin scratched her hair in frustration, looking at the strand of black hair on her hand stubbornly declaring its existence.

‘Never mind, who cares. I’ll wash up quickly and go eat!’

The feeling of hunger came again.
She no longer dwelled on the abrupt strand of black hair and quickly scooped up clean water, starting to scrub the blood and sweat stains on her body vigorously.

The cold water stimulated her skin, and her movements inevitably touched the taut chains, sending waves of stinging pain.

After quickly drying her body, she changed into a clean novice nun’s habit.
Although it was still simple and plain, at least it was free of bloodstains and odor.

Bai Jin didn’t even bother to comb her wet hair.
She pulled open the door and rushed impatiently towards the refectory.

At the entrance of the refectory, the aroma of food mixed with the noisy voices of people was caught by the just-arrived Bai Jin.

She forcefully pushed open the refectory door, but the scene before her made her stop in her tracks.

The atmosphere in the refectory was strange.
The nuns were not sitting quietly at the long tables eating as usual, but were gathered together, discussing something.

Many people were covering their mouths, their shoulders slightly shaking, letting out suppressed dry heaves.

Bai Jin cast her gaze towards the central long table, and her pupils shrank when she saw what was there.

The burly Cain was sitting majestically in the main seat, holding up his bleeding right hand as if to show off to the nuns.

“Hmph! Is this clear soup and watery stuff what believers of the Holy Blood should eat? Do you guys usually rely on this stuff to strengthen your faith?”

Cain’s tone was full of contempt and dissatisfaction.
“What a land barren of faith. Let me open your eyes, you country bumpkins!”

“What is truly a holy sacrament! What is the grace granted by the Holy Blood!”

With a violent wave of his bleeding right hand, a majestic life force mixed with a crimson blood mist was sprinkled on the table like ink.

The life force was like the most fertile nutrient, and the fresh blood was the seed of germination.
Under the horrified gazes of everyone, a strange and terrifying thing was happening before their eyes.

Dark-red flesh buds writhed and grew crazily at a visible speed!

In the blink of an eye, a large piece of flesh tissue, about the size of a washbasin, grew out of thin air.

Its surface was covered with irregular blood vessel patterns, and it exuded a thick, bloody smell.

Dark-red juice seeped from the edges of the meat, dripping onto the ground with a light “drip-drip” sound.

And in the large wooden basin containing the vegetable soup, the clear soup water was dyed a striking blood-red!

Viscous blood plasma roiled, filling the entire wooden basin.
A thick, rusty smell assaulted their nostrils.

The entire long table seemed to have turned into a slaughtering block!
The atmosphere instantly became bloody and blasphemous, completely out of place with the sanctity of the church!

“Retch—!”

Finally, a young nun could no longer bear it and bent over, vomiting violently.

Then, one after another, dry heaves were heard from all over the refectory.
Even the older nuns were pale, tightly covering their mouths.

“A bunch of ignoramuses!”
Cain scoffed at everyone’s reaction.

He stretched out his large hand and directly tore off a large piece from the still-writhing flesh!

He opened his bloody mouth wide, revealing his stark white teeth, and without hesitation, stuffed the piece of meat into his mouth and began to chew vigorously.

“Squish… squish…”

The teeth-grinding chewing sound was exceptionally clear in the silent refectory.
Bloody foam spilled from the corners of his mouth, dripping down his scarred jaw.

He enjoyed it, his face showing a primitive, wild satisfaction.

“The holy sacrament nurtured by the majestic life force granted by my Lord. This is the true holy sacrament! The true divine grace!”