Sharon's Blood

Luo Lun noticed that the man lying collapsed on the ground before him looked somewhat familiar.

"Ah, it's that guy."

Seeing the familiar brown round hat lying off to the side, Luo Lun finally remembered. When they had first entered the city, this man had approached Xia Lun and the others, introduced Dawn City to them, and then tried to sell Xia Lun on a hotel.

He had even warned Xia Lun and his group to stay away from the West District if possible.

Back then, they had just dismissed him as an odd character and paid him no further mind.

Now, however, this guy had ended up crossing paths with him again in a rather unexpected manner.

Since the blood bat Aina had given him had already merged into the man's body... Luo Lun naturally couldn't just ignore the situation.

Luo Lun crouched down to check the man's condition. The tiny blood bat had now completely sunk into the man's chest, sealing the wound like solidified gel.

Not bothering with the blood and grime clinging to the man, Luo Lun carefully helped him up, hoisted him onto his back, tensed his legs, and hurried toward Aina's residence.

...

"Yo, Luo Lun, back so soon..." Liyana, who had been chasing butterflies in the courtyard with Mo Lini, was taken aback when she spotted Luo Lun. But when she saw the blood-soaked man on his back, her smile froze instantly. "Wait, why did you bring someone back?"

"Where's Aina?" Luo Lun asked urgently.

"Upstairs. I'll go call her." Seeing the trail of blood still dripping from Luo Lun's back, Liyana knew this was serious. "Mo Lini, go boil a pot of water."

"Oh... okay!" Mo Lini replied and immediately rushed into the house.

Though Liyana had no idea if boiling water would actually help, it at least made Mo Lini feel like she was doing something.

As Luo Lun carried the man inside, he ran straight into Aina, who was coming down the stairs.

"Put him in that room. I'll handle it."

Aina said calmly, as if she already knew everything.

Luo Lun did as she said and carefully laid the man down on the bed in the guest room.

With a wave of Aina's hand, the blood bat inside the man flew back out and landed on Luo Lun's shoulder, seemingly unchanged from before.

But the moment the bat left the man's body, the sealed wound split open again. Dark red blood gushed out, quickly soaking the bedsheet beneath him.

"What is this..."

Luo Lun stared at the five horrifying, flesh-tearing claw marks on the man. They didn't look like human-inflicted wounds—more like the talons of some kind of demonic beast.

But this was Dawn City, a prosperous, orderly city-state. Where could a demonic beast have come from?

What's more, there was no trace of magical energy in this man's body. He was just an ordinary person. If he wasn't being targeted as prey, what purpose could a demonic beast have in attacking him?

"Xia Lun, give me a drop of blood." Aina poked Xia Lun on the arm.

"My blood?"

Xia Lun held out his hand, and a single drop of blood emerged from his fingertip.

Aina took out a clear glass tube of reagent and mixed the drop of blood into it.

"What's that for?"

"Your heart is the heart of the Tree of Life, Xia Lun. Every drop of your blood is brimming with immense vitality." Aina explained as she gently shook the tube. The drop of blood rose and fell inside like a ruby, but it didn't dissolve into the reagent.

Xia Lun noticed that something seemed to separate from his drop of blood and blend into the surrounding solution.

The clear liquid in Aina's hand quickly took on a visible emerald-green hue.

"Easy Life Elixir, done."

Aina looked quite pleased with the tube in her hand, then poured the elixir directly onto the man's body.

The wound, which had been gushing blood, began to heal at a visible rate. Fresh new flesh, like sprouting vines, rapidly grew and interlaced, covering the once-gruesome injury. In just a few breaths, the deadly claw marks had already crusted over with a thick scab.

"My blood can do that?" Xia Lun was astonished, staring at his own fingertip in disbelief.

"You didn't know, Xia Lun?" Aina gave him a suspicious look.

Xia Lun: ...

How was he supposed to know? Since being resurrected, he had never been injured or bled.

Still, Aina had mentioned before that his current body had a fairly strong regenerative ability, but Xia Lun hadn't really thought about it.

If his blood had this kind of effect... then couldn't he save a lot of people? The thought flashed through Xia Lun's mind, and his eyes lit up.

Aina, as Xia Lun's wife, immediately sensed what he was thinking.

"Even if you drained every drop of blood from your body, how many people could you actually save? Besides, do you really think that if Life Elixir were distributed, it would reach everyone who truly needed it? It would only be hoarded by greedy merchants and nobles, becoming another tool to exploit the weak." Aina shook her head, laying out the truth.

Xia Lun fell silent, abandoning his naive idea.

The man's deathly pale face gradually regained some color.

"It's him." Only then did Xia Lun take a good look at the man's face, recognizing the strangely dressed man in the round hat from yesterday. "What happened to him? How did he get hurt so badly?"

Xia Lun turned to Luo Lun, who had brought the man back, but Luo Lun simply shook his head. "When I found him, he was already at death's door. There was no one else around, and I didn't see the attacker."

"We can just ask him when he wakes up."

Aina didn't seem the least bit worried. She hooked her arm through Xia Lun's, as if there was nothing in this world worth rushing for.

The man's wounds had stopped bleeding, his breathing had steadied, and he seemed to be out of danger... If it weren't for the dark, blood-soaked stains still on the bedsheet, anyone might have thought he was just asleep.

Xia Lun couldn't help but marvel that just one drop of his blood could have such a powerful effect.

It probably also helped that this man was an ordinary person, without even a trace of magical energy in his body, so the potency worked that much better.

Xia Lun shot Aina a knowing look.

She seemed to know something.

Catching his gaze, Aina stared right back at him, undaunted.

"What are you looking at me for?"

"Because you're beautiful."

"Don't be silly." Aina gave a playful scold, then turned serious. "Alright, I know what you want to ask... No matter where you go, every organization inevitably breeds some shady 'filth' that can't see the light. So every so often, it needs a good cleaning. That's why I came to Dawn City."

"Huh?" Xia Lun wasn't quite sure what she meant.

"Even the Dawn's Wings are no exception." Aina added quietly, a cold glint flashing in her crimson eyes. "Where there is light, shadows are sure to follow... After all, humans are creatures driven by desire."