novelraw Chapter 206 : 【Phantom Demon Bloodline】
Chapter 206 : 【Phantom Demon Bloodline】
Chapter 206: 【Phantom Demon Bloodline】
Yam looked grimly at the corpse of the Invisible One in the prison cell, whose heart had long been pierced by a sword and who had been dead for quite some time. All of his blood had already dried up, yet the dead man still wore a faint smile on his face.
It appeared particularly ironic.
Two guards stood with their heads bowed in fear, not even daring to breathe.
Footsteps echoed outside the cell; clearly, many personnel were moving around.
Moments later, Aches returned, carrying the Demonic Sword.
"Second Uncle, nothing found."
Yam nodded without saying anything.
But his attitude and reaction only made the two guards, who had previously been in charge of watching the Invisible One, tremble even more.
Soon, Akar also hurried back.
"Found five corpses."
"Though their faces were destroyed, based on comparison, three of them were guards, and two should be those assigned to watch over that prisoner couple."
"Looks like it’s just as I suspected." Yam nodded gravely. "Is the city sealed off?"
"It is," Akar replied, nodding. "But I think unless they’re fools, they definitely won’t linger in this fortress any longer."
Yam knew what Akar said was true.
Since the enemy was willing to expose their infiltration into their forces just to kill this captured impostor, it clearly meant the secret of their disguise was far more important than they had anticipated—so important that it couldn’t be leaked under any circumstances. Moreover, anyone who had even brief contact with the impostor would realize the Soderbell family might possess the means to see through such disguises. Therefore, there was no chance the enemy would take the risk of staying behind.
Yam turned to the two guards and finally spoke:
"This matter isn’t your fault. These people even managed to fool me. If not for some coincidence, we wouldn’t have discovered their trail. So I won’t punish you this time. ———But there will still be disciplinary action. After all, you left your posts early, and that was your biggest mistake."
The two guards, relieved they wouldn’t be executed, hurriedly vowed to be more diligent in the future.
Yam nodded and had all the guards dismissed.
After everyone left the room, Yam took the Demonic Sword from Aches and, holding a mindset of "just in case," thrust the blade into the corpse.
The source of a Bloodline User’s power was the heart.
So, in most cases, families with special bloodlines would destroy the heart to prevent enemies from analyzing or exploiting their bloodline. That was why this Invisible One’s heart had been pierced.
However, even if the heart was destroyed, it was still sometimes possible to extract trace amounts of bloodline abilities from active blood if collected in time.
But in this case, all of the Invisible One’s blood had completely dried and coagulated, making any analysis impossible.
This was precisely why Yam only held a faint hope.
After all, the Demonic Sword had repeatedly demonstrated mysterious properties. Most importantly, every member of the Soderbell family who had received the Demonic Sword’s 【Bestowment】 had to let the sword absorb their bloodline power upon death. But they couldn’t guarantee that their blood would still be active at the time of death. If the corpse had to remain less than 24 hours old, that would be difficult to ensure.
The blade quickly pierced into the Invisible One’s body.
Then, in the next instant, an unbelievable sight appeared!
The dried, clotted blood around the corpse’s heart began to return to a liquid state—
And rapidly reversed its flow. The Demonic Sword’s blade began to emit a faint crimson glow, and a unique sweet yet bloody scent emanated from it.
Next, the corpse began to dissolve at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Like a balloon suddenly deflated, the sight was eerie and unsettling.
Within just a few seconds, the body had turned into a dried husk with all blood drained and muscles melted away.
Yam exchanged glances with Akar and Aches—they all saw the horror in each other’s eyes.
Robin looked at the drop of True Blood condensing before him with a subtle expression.
Because this bloodline—or rather, the entire bloodline advancement sequence—was a product he had once developed!
The Sixth-Tier Bloodline 【Phantom Demon】 belonged to one of the Eight Golden Bloodlines: the 【Demon Bloodline】.
The original bloodline sequence began with the Second-Tier 【Blood Demon】, skipped Third-Tier, and directly advanced to the Fourth-Tier 【Shapeshifting Demon】, then the Fifth-Tier 【Heart-Eater Demon】, and finally the Sixth-Tier 【Phantom Demon】.
Robin had created this route because the People of the Abyss lived incredibly difficult lives. At that time, he had fallen into their hands, and to fulfill their wish of one day seeing sunlight again, he designed this path to allow them to disguise themselves and live openly in the surface world.
However, the bloodline back then had significant flaws.
For example, transformation into others wasn’t possible before reaching Fourth-Tier. And even then, without reaching Sixth-Tier, a Fourth-Tier user could only maintain the disguise for no more than twelve hours and had to wait twelve hours before changing again. Even worse, they couldn’t access the target’s memories, making identity replacement impossible.
But now—
The drop of True Blood before Robin revealed a completely different reality.
Over what must have been many years, this bloodline had not only been completed but also optimized and improved!
The current 【Phantom Demon】 path began with First-Tier 【Deceptive Bloom】, followed by Second-Tier 【Imitation Worm】, then Third-Tier 【Brain-Eating Worm】, Fourth-Tier 【Shapeshifting Demon】, Fifth-Tier 【Heart-Eater Demon】, and finally Sixth-Tier 【Phantom Demon】.
While the final three tiers remained the same, the first three were entirely different from the original route Robin had developed.
With this improved version, Bloodline Users could transform into others as early as Tier Two and maintain the disguise for around thirty days. To continue beyond that, they needed about ten milliliters of the target’s blood.
In other words, ten milliliters sustained a thirty-day disguise.
At this stage, memory acquisition was still impossible, and they couldn’t impersonate other Bloodline Users—only ordinary people.
Because of this, the bloodline went largely ignored for a long time. Other than copying someone’s appearance, it had no real value. The formula was eventually lost to history.
That was until the 【Duke of Blood】, one of the Three Dukes of the Aust Empire, stumbled upon the formula and recognized its unique strategic potential. He began cultivating this special group of Bloodline Users.
After advancing to Third-Tier, the situation changed.
【Brain-Eating Worm】 granted the ability 【Memory Theft】.
This allowed the shapeshifters to acquire their target’s memories, enabling perfect disguise: mimicking behaviors via 【Imitation Worm】, and personality and memories via 【Brain-Eating Worm】.
And that wasn’t all—
Third-Tier users could now disguise as other Bloodline Users, replicating roughly 50% of their power through 【Memory Theft】. This included not just martial skills but even bloodline abilities. Apart from being limited to half the original strength, there were almost no restrictions.
Fourth-Tier was even more terrifying.
Impersonators could now permanently take on an identity without drinking more blood and access up to 80% of the target’s power. The only limitation was that they could impersonate only one person at a time. Switching identities required new blood samples.
Fifth-Tier allowed full replication.
Sixth-Tier users could maintain up to three different identities.
Still, these powers came with a price.
All 【Demon Bloodline】 paths had side effects.
For 【Phantom Demon】, First and Second-Tier users needed to regularly drink fresh blood—or they’d bleed out and mummify. Third-Tier added a requirement to eat raw liver. Fourth-Tier developed a raw meat craving. Fifth-Tier demanded periodic consumption of human hearts. Sixth-Tier involved emotional, psychological, and identity issues.
Robin had halted further development after realizing how dangerous these side effects became at higher tiers.
He feared creating some kind of horrific monster.
Back then, the 【Phantom Demon】 bloodline he developed for the People of the Abyss had far milder side effects: blood drinking at Tier Two, raw meat at Tier Four, and emotional disorders at Tier Six.
But now, this improved 【Phantom Demon】 bloodline was clearly designed to breed demons!
Robin’s expression at this moment was indescribably complicated.
Because 【Phantom Demon】 wasn’t the only Demon Bloodline he had created.
After all, “Demon” was a category. If there were only one, it wouldn’t be called the 【Demon Bloodline】.
In particular, Robin now recalled another bloodline also belonging to the Eight Golden Bloodlines: the 【Calamity Bloodline】.
Perhaps the only good news was that these bloodlines were extremely selective.
Just like how only Cindy had resonated with him and gained the ability to "communicate" with him—awakening the 【Demon Bloodline】 or 【Calamity Bloodline】 required individuals with "special talents."
For the 【Phantom Demon Bloodline】, the requirement was that one’s body must contain blood of the People of the Abyss, and it had to be in an active state. Otherwise, awakening would be limited to Tier Two at most.
From what Robin currently knew, such people were extremely rare on the surface.
The People of the Abyss had been stripped of their humanity. All surface nations considered them demons, monsters, or beasts—anything but human. Because of this worldview, every surface human nation had worked hard to block the People of the Abyss from entering the surface world.