Zhou Yi took Selina to a hotel.
He couldn't possibly take Selina to his mother's house, so naturally, a place like this became his primary choice.
Although not discreet enough, with him there, discretion was completely unimportant. As long as it was comfortable and could accommodate one person, it was actually perfect.
This hotel met all of Zhou Yi's requirements, even if the front desk staff gave him a strange look. But for Zhou Yi, it wasn't something he couldn't understand. He had seen such looks many times before and was now completely accustomed to them.
Entering the room, Zhou Yi sat down on the sofa first, then gestured to Selina.
"Make yourself at home. Until those people come looking for us, this should be your residence."
Selina sat rather stiffly on another sofa. She carefully watched Zhou Yi, her eyes filled with wariness and fear. In her eyes, she was a rabbit, and Zhou Yi beside her was a dozing lion. A rabbit sitting next to a lion, even if the lion promised not to harm her, would not be at ease.
This was a gap in biological Rank, not something that could be resolved with a few words.
Zhou Yi saw Selina's mood, but it wasn't important to him. He only needed to clarify what he wanted to know; whether Selina feared him had no bearing on it. Lighting a cigarette, he stared at the Vampire woman through the smoke with sharp eyes, and said to her.
"I've given you the explanation I promised. Now, can you tell me where the holy blood is?"
"I don't know, My Lord," Selina said, head bowed. This answer was clearly not what Zhou Yi wanted. He frowned, looking at this spirited short-haired beauty, his fingers tapping crisply on the wooden armrest of the sofa.
"Lady, this isn't part of our agreement. Am I to assume you're playing games with me?"
Although the tapping sound was not loud, to Selina, it was like war drums beating in her heart, almost making her heart jump out.
How many years had it been since she experienced such fear? She herself had forgotten. But now, suddenly recalling the taste of fear, this feeling became exceptionally difficult to bear. Time seemed to stretch endlessly, yet Selina felt as if her thoughts had completely stiffened. In this long period, she didn't know how to explain herself.
Fortunately, Zhou Yi was very patient; he had been waiting for Selina's answer.
"My Lord, I only have a guess. If that thing really still exists, then this is the only possibility." After a long while, Selina timidly gave Zhou Yi an answer. Zhou Yi raised an eyebrow, giving her one last chance.
"Speak!"
"Our Family's treasures are generally held by the three Elders. After the Elders awaken for a hundred years, they will hand over their authority and awaken another sleeping Elder to take charge of the Family's power. Our Family's two Elders, Victor and Marcus, were forcibly awakened and killed by the Dark Council while they were in slumber. But they did not get what they wanted. So there is only one possibility: the item is in the hands of the awakened Elder in power. And the Elder currently awake is Emilia. She rarely contacts us; only her trusted confidantes know her whereabouts."
"Perhaps, because of this, she took that Divine Artifact and avoided the Dark Council's sight, escaping a calamity."
Zhou Yi was naturally not satisfied with this explanation. He thought for a moment and pressed on.
"Do you know where that Emilia is now?"
"I don't know!" Selina shook her head in response.
"Elder Emilia has her own faction within the Family. She never concerns herself with internal Family matters. Even during her time in power, she delegated authority to the Family's administrators. She only cares for her original group of people, no one else."
He had listened to so much, yet there was very little useful content. Aside from knowing that the holy blood might be in the hands of this Elder named Emilia, he knew nothing else. Zhou Yi suppressed his impatience and continued to interrogate her.
"Then do you know any other clues about this Elder?"
Selina thought for a moment, and her ice-blue pupils suddenly brightened.
"The Elder's handover day is in one month. Elder Emilia might not yet know what has happened within the Family. She must have secretly begun her return. If we wait for her at the Family's stronghold, there might still be hope of finding her whereabouts."
Waiting, waiting. Zhou Yi now found this word particularly distasteful. Could nothing be done but wait? How was this different from wasting time? As he thought of this, his expression grew increasingly gloomy.
And seeing Zhou Yi's grim expression, Selina was filled with trepidation. She had personally witnessed Zhou Yi's thunderous methods. Fellow Vampires were completely burned to ashes by a mysterious flame. Werewolves, whose bodies were much sturdier than theirs, were drawn to death by an invisible force. Although Selina considered herself an elite warrior, she still felt fear towards this invisible power; it was simply not a force she could contend with.
Fortunately, Zhou Yi had no intention of making things difficult for her. He calmed the fluctuations in his heart, stood up, and tossed a mobile phone into her hand.
"From now on, you'll live here. Also, the task of monitoring Emilia's return is now yours. Contact me immediately if anything happens. I will come over at the first opportunity."
"I understand, My Lord." Selina lowered her head, carefully putting the phone into her pocket. Watching her actions, Zhou Yi suddenly said.
"You should know that right now, besides me, no one else has the ability or the inclination to protect you. So, I don't need to teach you what to do, do I?"
"Yes, My Lord." Selina experienced the pain of having her fate not her own, but she had no other choice but to humbly submit. And that was what Zhou Yi needed her to do for now.
"I only want the holy blood. Once I get that item, I will give you the freedom you desire." With these words, Zhou Yi silently vanished from the room. It was a long time after he left before Selina dared to raise her head.
She looked at the empty room, finally letting out a long breath. Then her entire body seemed to lose its bones, collapsing onto the sofa. Theoretically, Vampires don't sweat. But at this moment, she felt a cold sweat drenching her. Communicating with Zhou Yi was, after all, too terrifying for her.
And just as Selina was astonished and somewhat drowsy, a blood moon quietly rose over an ancient castle on the European continent.
The moonlight fell upon the castle, almost dyeing the entire structure a faint reddish-brown. The castle looked eerie, like a haunted place often seen in horror movies.
In fact, this place was indeed haunted. But it wasn't by ghosts, but by anomalies like Vampires. At this moment, below the castle, a group of people in black cloaks sat in a circle around a huge pool.
There were men and women among them. There were Vampires, Werewolves, and also Wizards with extraordinary talents who wielded magical powers. They had lived on this continent for over a dozen centuries, always hiding in the darkness where normal people would never find them. They managed the darkness, so they named themselves the Dark Council.
However, even they were merely managers. These alien race (anomalous races) beneath the darkness actually had other Masters. And at this moment, their Master was awakening.
When the blood moon shone through the opening above the castle onto the pool surrounded by the Dark Council's leaders, the entire pool suddenly began to boil and churn as if it were alive. The originally clear pool Water became murky and gradually emitted a sickening bloody smell. And very quickly, the entire pool transformed into a pool of blood.
Crimson blood surged in the blood pool, then slowly subsided. Until finally, the pool Water completely returned to calm, as if a blood-red gem had been polished into a mirror and inlaid into the pool.
And this was only the beginning. As the blood moon's light grew stronger, a soft, jade-like red glow began to appear in the blood pool. Seeing this light, everyone surrounding the blood pool knelt down. They raised their arms and began to chant praises in an ancient language whose content no one knew. As their chanting grew louder, the light in the blood pool also intensified.
Finally, a hoarse and seductive female voice emerged from the blood pool.
"Enough!"
As soon as this voice spoke, everyone present bowed their heads deeply, daring not to utter a single sound. From the depths of their hearts and Souls, they revered the being who spoke, so much so that after she spoke, and before she gave an order, they dared not make their own voices or have their own thoughts.
"How have the tasks I assigned you progressed?"
The enchanting female voice echoed again from beneath the blood pool, but her words made most of the people tremble, filled with trepidation. However, no one dared not respond to her question, and finally, someone stepped forward.
"Your Majesty, please forgive our incompetence. We annihilated that Family of non-our-kind, but the clues we obtained were stolen by an outsider."
"Hmm?" The enchanting voice immediately became authoritative and domineering. Even though it was still a female voice, it gave a sense of imposing and inviolable majesty. "So, the task I gave you... you failed?"
The blood pool instantly boiled. Crimson blood, like living snakes, writhed and crawled out, quickly coiling around the person who had spoken. And as these blood snakes coiled around him, wisps of green smoke immediately rose.
His body was being melted and corroded, little by little, yet he was completely unable to stop it.
"Forgive me, Your Majesty. Forgive me!"
The corroded man cried out in pain. He dared not resist, only begging bitterly like this. After a few breaths, the blood snakes suddenly turned into blood Water, quickly receding from his body and returning to the blood pool. At this point, the majestic and enchanting female voice rang out again.
"This is your last chance. Next time, I will not show mercy. Now, tell me why you failed? Was it due to incompetence? Or was there some other reason?"
Glancing at his companion, who was barely clinging to life on the ground, another fellow swallowed hard and began to answer the Queen's question.
"Your Majesty, a powerful person intervened in our operation. Our subordinates were no match for him. He took the only person who held the clues and wants us to tell him the purpose of the holy blood!"
"Interesting, truly interesting. Daring to seize my holy blood, yet not knowing its purpose. It seems he's not from Heaven? Who could it be? I'm suddenly intrigued."