Chapter 45 Black Cat, White Cat

Salaherk waited silently outside the room, completely unconcerned that Chen Zi'ang might die inside and waste his time.

After an unknown period of time, Chen Zi'ang finally pushed the door open and emerged.

At this moment, he was in a wretched state, covered from head to toe in fragments of corrupted flesh and blood, making him look as though he had just been hauled out of a vat of jam. His exposed skin had turned entirely crimson, as if something had digested his entire outer layer of epidermis.

"A flawless application," Salaherk said in a tone of praise. "A flawless application of the blood-stained brooch, combined with the Mandala Dharma Sword... You truly are the best candidate to resolve this problem."

Chen Zi'ang offered a bitter smile, which in turn pulled at the pain of the wounds on his face.

Indeed, having the blood-stained brooch consume the spark of fire to forcefully lock down his injuries meant he would not die in the short term; coupled with the indestructible nature of the Mandala Dharma Sword, it was equivalent to pairing the ultimate spear with the ultimate shield—truly worthy of Salaherk's praise.

"You should have some healing methods, right?" Chen Zi'ang asked for confirmation.

"Of course, of course," Salaherk nodded repeatedly. "For a hero returning in triumph, our race will naturally grant the finest treatment."

He lowered the scepter in his hand, pointed it directly at Chen Zi'ang, and muttered some eerie and terrifying spell.

Soon, Chen Zi'ang noticed that the wounds on his body surface were healing rapidly... at the cost of an unbearable, intense itchiness across nearly every part of his body.

However, since he was in front of Salaherk, he could not show any weakness, so he had no choice but to bite his teeth together and endure it fiercely.

In this operation, the blood-stained brooch's consumption of the spark was exorbitant, burning through more than 800 points of his spark in a short span of time. Yet the flesh and limbs he continuously slaughtered with the Mandala Dharma Sword only yielded a little over 600 points of the spark in return... So, from the perspective of loot, he had suffered a net loss.

Fortunately, it bought the cooperation of the Ghoul race and opened the opportunity to join the Flesh and Blood Faction, so it could not be considered a total loss.

"Why is your spell so itchy?" Chen Zi'ang asked, trying his best to sound casual.

"This set of spells is used to repair corpses," Salaherk replied. "Some corpses might have suffered severe injuries before death and become incomplete, which doesn't look very nice. Therefore, this spell allows necrotic flesh and blood to regenerate, making the corpse aesthetic and elegant."

"As for the itchiness... I can only say you are the first living person to receive this spell. Previously, we had no idea what side effects it might have."

Chen Zi'ang: ..................

So you were treating me like a lab rat, is that it?

"Then can I learn this set of spells?" he probed once more.

Itchy as it might be, considering the rapid healing of wounds and flesh regeneration, those side effects were basically negligible.

"Certainly," Salaherk let out a low, eerie chuckle. "As long as you willingly serve my master and dedicate your body and soul to the Ghoul King, you can borrow His authority to cast this spell."

"I see," Chen Zi'ang changed the subject. "Now that I've eliminated the monster inside, as for the matter of the Flesh and Blood Faction..."

"Please follow me." Salaherk made a gesture of invitation.

The two traversed the long corridor once more and arrived at the entrance of the black altar.

In the center of the cellar-like hall, a brazier had appeared at some point, within which orange-red, vibrant flames danced, possessing a tenacious vitality as they continuously licked the edges of the brazier with tongues of fire.

"Congratulations," Salaherk said with pleasant surprise. "The Flesh and Blood Mother Goddess has been pleased; you have successfully been approved to join our Flesh and Blood Faction."

"From now on, you can acquire merits from the blood-stained brooch by killing individuals of the hostile faction. Of course, our war altar will also be open to you. You can use merits to advance your military rank or exchange for corresponding authorities."

Chen Zi'ang cast his attention toward the brazier and indeed saw the authority exchange list unfold before his eyes.

His military rank remained a Lamb, and promotion required 100 merits. After all, the Flesh and Blood Faction could not share military rank tiers with the Shadow Faction.

There were three items on the authority list:

[Scythe of Frigid Yin] (Evolution direction: Matrix). Continuing to upgrade requires 1,000 merits.

[Plague Walker]: Summons a terrifying giant insect carrying pathogens, which will spread plague and death in all directions. The exchange price is 500 merits.

[Name of Pan]: You will gain the favor of Pan, possessing extremely strong vitality and male reproductive capacity. The exchange price is 200 merits.

Chen Zi'ang silently browsed the authority list. He currently had a little over 500 merits, which was not enough to continue upgrading the Scythe of Frigid Yin, while the Plague Walker and the Name of Pan... honestly, he wouldn't even want them if they were given away for free.

Then let's upgrade the rank.

After choosing to upgrade his military rank, the list predictably blurred out again, so he could temporarily ignore it.

"Now that I have the qualification to accept war missions, please provide me with intelligence on the Saintess of Takano," Chen Zi'ang continued.

"The Saintess of Takano is a witch of the Drowned Nest," Salaherk explained in detail. "According to our understanding, her ability should be 'Song of the Drowned,' which can summon a special individual called a 'Drowned One.'"

"This Drowned One is composed of a certain water-like mysterious liquid. When motionless, it is completely optically invisible, and its silhouette is only revealed when it moves and attacks."

"Her method of attack is to swallow the victim into her body. Because her entire body is liquid, the victim usually has nowhere to leverage their strength, and thus most of them are directly drowned inside."

"Then the Drowned One will slowly digest the corpse within its body, transforming it into a certain neither-living-nor-dead desecrated existence—namely, the living dead."

"Do the living dead have any special characteristics?" Chen Zi'ang asked, frowning.

"Aside from not needing to eat or drink, knowing no fatigue, and possessing infinite strength, their most troublesome characteristic is that they are not easily killed," Salaherk replied. "Because they are not truly alive, who can kill an individual that is not alive?"

"However, this is not a problem for you, because you possess the Mandala Dharma Sword. As long as you pierce the body of a living dead, you can erase the concept of their 'existence'."

"Still, I do not suggest that you entangle yourself too much with them, because theoretically, the Saintess of Takano can not only summon the living dead servants she personally created, but she can even summon the living dead that originally exist within the divine kingdom of the Drowned One, and the latter are virtually endless."

"Spending any more time destroying the living dead is merely a waste of time. The key is to kill the Saintess of Takano."

"Evade her servants, beware of her Drowned Ones, and then kill her."

"I understand," Chen Zi'ang nodded and said.

Having obtained the intelligence on the Saintess of Takano, he bid farewell to Salaherk, left the realm of lingering twilight, returned to the mortal world, and went back to his home.

Of course, he had no intention of making a move against the Saintess of Takano just yet.

Unlike Nishikawa Mie, who only intended to indiscriminately destroy the entire North Pole City, Lady Takano was carrying out targeted "elimination of evils."

As for these special-meaning evildoers—whether they were the so-called "Federation citizens" stirring up trouble and creating crises, or those "lackeys" taking money to serve as accomplices—under the current social legal framework, ordinary means simply could not touch them. This was the truly suffocating part.

Therefore, Chen Zi'ang's current thoughts were now similar to those of Tsukimiya Suzuna and Xia Qingyu: let's sit on the fence for now and see just how far she can go.

Whether it is a legal cat or an illegal cat, any cat that can kill mice is a good cat!