Chapter 103:

Tris threw harsh words at the scout knights of the Blood Pact Knights, then quickly returned to her own tent and packed up everything she could use. But this time, she wasn’t planning to escape, but rather to go rescue her little Murphy. She summoned Bonnie to call over Miriam and Lieutenant Frayzer, who had been resting at the time and came over with sleepy eyes. “Huh, Tris, you changed your hairstyle?” Rubbing her eyes, Miriam looked at Tris in surprise, her long braid now hanging over her chest. She curiously looked at Tris in this style. Compared to her previous long, loose hair, she looked less delicate and charming, but had gained a sense of capability and coldness. Especially when her hair didn’t cover the corners of her eyes, unexpectedly giving Tris’ charming face a somewhat uncomfortable chill. Making one instinctively stand up straight in front of her, not daring the slightest impropriety. “I just suddenly missed the old days, does it look good?” Tris picked up a bottle of wine beside her and gulped down a few mouthfuls, squinting her eyes as she asked. This familiar action immediately dispelled all of Miriam’s doubts. Well, alright. This was still the same unreliable Tris as before. “Listen, Murphy discovered an opening sub-dimension rift deep in the Blood Vulture Halls.” As soon as Tris opened with that, Miriam and Lieutenant Frayzer’s bodies tensed up as if struck by lightning, instantly shaking off all their drowsiness. It was clear they had heard of this term before. “How could there be a sub-dimension rift in Transia?” Miriam widened her eyes and said: “The last time this thing appeared was during the end of the Second Night War two hundred years ago, right? According to the stories, the Blood Dread Clan performed evil rituals to summon a sub-dimension rift in a small town in the Ice Bay region, wiping out an entire small kingdom overnight. It directly led to the annihilation of the Blood Dread Clan too. In our history textbooks, it’s criticized as a negative example.” Lieutenant Frayzer didn’t say a word. But as one of the heads of the Goldflower Kingdom Pioneer Army’s intelligence system, he clearly knew more details that ordinary people weren’t privy to. Which was precisely why he was more wary of what Tris had just said. “We must immediately report this to the Circle Tower!” The lieutenant said sternly: “This isn’t something the remnants of the Blood Vulture Clan can handle on their own!” “Say that again, young man of the Carpe family, who are you planning to report this to?” Tris narrowed her eyes and glanced at Lieutenant Frayzer. The aura gradually awakening from the “Crimson Witch” made the lieutenant’s heart skip a beat, and quickly sobered him up, only to leave him chilled to the bone. “Got it now?” Tris gave a cold laugh and said: “Do you know why that sub-dimension rift was able to secretly operate deep in the Blood Vulture Halls for ten days before being discovered? It’s because the massive Astral Breach ritual performed by the Circle Tower mages in Kadman City perfectly masked the chaotic spirit resonance that would be emitted while the sub-dimension rift was building up. I even suspect this whole thing was planned by the Circle Tower! Who’s to say those crazed human spirit mages didn’t intend to create this very sub-dimension rift here from the start? Listen carefully, Frayzer of the Carpe family! I knew your grandfather. The first pot of gold he earned when he was young and wandering in the Cato region, I gave it to him. He helped me out a small favor, I don’t know if he wrote about this in his memoirs, but he was something of an old acquaintance to me. And you’re an acquaintance after him, so I’ll say a bit more. If you want to make it back to the Goldflower Kingdom alive and keep living your life, then keep this incident rotting in your heart! You can investigate it privately on your own. But you’re smart enough to know that confronting them directly will only backfire. Alright, I need you two to bring at least 30 Computation Beads with me into the Blood Vulture Halls. Since Frayzer is an intelligence expert, he should be familiar with these. You’ll be in charge of linking the 30 Beads into a computation matrix. Miriam will assist me in calculating the Kadman City’s current Astral projection coordinates.” “But...but I’ve never learned any of this. I’m just an administrative student, completely ignorant of spirit matters.” Miriam flustered, but Tris shook her head: “It’s just a matter of plugging in a series of complex spirit formulas, the rest is just mechanical, massive calculations. That matrix will help you through the process. And you’re a university student, if I don’t ask you, should I randomly grab a farmer from the camp to do this instead?” “Swish” The tent flap was lifted and the panting young lady rushed in. She must have just finished washing up, her long hair still damp with droplets, pale cheeks flushed red. But she didn’t have time for anything else, staring at Tris and asking: “I just received Murphy’s transmission, what’s this about a sub-dimension rift appearing underground? Why would a sub-dimension rift show up here? The material world and Astral mapping here aren’t nearly chaotic enough for that! The Astral Breach ritual in Kadman City was certainly shocking, but it’s still at least ten times short of the energy needed to tear through to the Astral boundary! This is simply impossible!” “Good news is your general Astral knowledge is solid. Bad news is what use is yelling all this at me? Why are you shouting so loudly? If you’re unhappy, go complain to the Circle Tower that caused all this!” Seeing the flustered and discomposed Femis, Tris berated her: “The fact is it has appeared! Right in the Blood Vulture Sacred Pool Hall, old Finoch has confirmed the Sacred Blood Pool is serving as an anchor, providing a beacon into the material world for the sub-dimension rift, and your father has become the physical projection vessel for the chaotic shadow in the material world. He has become the ‘sacrifice’! I now suspect the Circle Tower’s Astral Breach ritual was only to mask the tremors when the sub-dimension rift opened, thereby blinding other forces from monitoring the chaotic spirit energy. “Good, it seems you’ve finally become resolved. At least I didn’t waste the chance at life I sacrificed everything for to obtain for you back then.” Tris nodded in satisfaction and handed her a sealed scroll, saying: “This records how to sever the Blood Vulture Lord’s connection to the Sacred Blood Pool. Don’t ask me how I obtained such a terrible secret. Just learn it, and of course, keep this forbidden knowledge rotting in your heart! If others find out you’ve learned this... Believe me, not even Lord Payne could protect you. We set out in 10 minutes!” Femis nodded and turned to leave the tent, but at the entrance she suddenly turned back to look at the braided Tris, softly asking: “So this is the true face of the ‘Crimson Witch’? Sharp, decisive, wise, cold and merciless. Back then you must have put immense pressure on my father, even made him feel severely threatened, otherwise he wouldn’t have given up such an outstanding blood descendant just to obtain me, someone not particularly outstanding.” “Not at all, you flatter me. You’re actually better than you imagine, but still can’t compare to me back then.” Tris waved her hand and said: “My current self has only a tenth of the flair I had back then. Otherwise this little incident would have been handled by me alone. The astral void threat is nothing new to me. What we played with back then was far more formidable than this. As for the Crimson Witch... That was over a hundred years ago. I buried her long ago. To be honest, after over a hundred years of suffering and depravity, I actually prefer my freer, more comfortable current self.” “If you’ve already buried her, why let her resurrect tonight?” Femis squinted and said softly: “Is it for Murphy? You two are really something. Murphy dared charge into a city invaded by Astral spirit energy for you, and you’re even more outrageous! Daring to directly face the Void threat just for him, what enviable affection.” “Mind your own business!” Tris snapped: “Hurry up and prepare!” “Yes, Madam Witch.” Femis gave a slight bow. Having made her decision, she seemed to have loosened up, no longer as restrained and uptight as before. As she stepped out of the tent, she murmured: “Perhaps I shouldn’t be the one to remind a senior like yourself, but vampire society does indeed have certain taboos between elders and blood descendants. I think you understand these better than I do, so...good luck to you both.” —— “Bang” A muffled gunshot echoed through the dim area, the scorching direct bullet grazing the forehead of the gray-haired witch hunter Natalie as it flew out of the muzzle. It wasn’t that the shooter hadn’t aimed properly, the witch hunter had instinctively dodged. This was clearly abnormal. Especially at this range. So Lady Adele had sufficient reason to believe the dual blade-wielding witch hunter before her must have employed some special technique. But she no longer had time to ponder this. The straight longswords “Guardian” and “Punisher”, wreathed in Purifying Flames, slashed through the gales, the first one cleaving Lady Adele’s rapier in two, the second slicing down her neck, parting her long hair from beneath her chin. Outside this deadly duel, Maxim was already drenched in blood. He was at a disadvantage against the three ferocious witch hunters before him, but still battled on like a bloodthirsty hyena, unwilling to retreat. All because of Lord Murphy’s orders! They had to guard this self-destruct core to complete Lord Murphy’s two-birds-one-stone plan. But both sides had already fought tenaciously for nearly twenty minutes, fueled only by willpower and terrain advantage. Even the mightiest couldn’t hold out much longer, not a single one of the six remained unscathed, the blood spilled on the ground already enough to form a pool. It was almost over. Both sides were nearing their limits, victory and defeat about to be decided... “Swish” A crimson spirit transmission portal opened silently at the edge of the chamber, and Tris led in a large group of people. The Tris beneath the “Crimson Witch” glanced this way, shook her head and made a gesture. Lieutenant Frayzer behind her drew an astonishingly large trench gun and fired a shot upwards, the buckshot shattering debris from above and interrupting the deadly duel in that moment. Natalie and Adele almost simultaneously turned their heads back. The former’s blades at the latter’s neck, the latter’s gun against the former’s heart. “Are you done yet?” Tris said coldly: “If you’re done, come over here! I need you all to cooperate now. Hopefully you’ve warmed up enough just now, because nobody in this area will have time to rest from this point on. Hopefully you can last until we resolve this trouble... Or we can all hold hands and die together. I’m taking over here now, everyone follows my orders! Maxim! Raise that self-destruct core! Begin modifying it immediately, it must be done within six hours!”