052 Friendship and Bonds

Outside the Breeding Tree, Qi Lin’s expression grew increasingly anxious.

“Why hasn’t it been born yet?”

She muttered to herself, “Could it be a difficult birth?”

“That doesn’t make sense…”

Qi Lin paced back and forth. The later it got, the worse the situation became for her. Just as she was contemplating whether to perform a cesarean section to forcibly extract it…

There was a stir from the Breeding Tree.

Qi Lin’s face lit up with wild joy, but that expression lasted only a few seconds before twisting into incomprehensible horror and confusion.

“Why?!”

Qi Lin screamed, “Why? My Breeding Tree, it…”

“Died in childbirth???”

Yes, the Breeding Tree had suffered a difficult birth.

It had utterly failed to bear the fruit Qi Lin desired. Worse still, the embryo it nurtured began to violently perish in an instant.

It was as if the embryo was rejecting birth itself.

The unused life energy, having nowhere else to go, flowed back through the branches and leaves of the Breeding Tree into the original host’s body.

It was like a vast, green ocean.

After all, with the fetus dead, how could breeding waste life?

Qi Lin broke down in despair, her loli-like frame crying and screaming on the ground. “Where is my child? Where has my child gone???”

“The child who was supposed to merge with me—where is it?!!”

“Yeah, I’m looking for the answer to that question too.”

The outer bark of the Breeding Tree cracked open, and a shadow stepped out, dusting off nonexistent dirt and looking at Qi Lin with a mocking smile.

“Where do you think it went?”

Mo Bai chuckled darkly, “Of course, I killed it, idiot.”

“It was brutal, let me tell you. The blood and flesh exploded everywhere. Forget about the embryo—it was like a cockroach that got stomped on, oozing pus all over the place.”

Beneath the strands of hair hanging down, a pair of crimson eyes stared at Qi Lin.

Like a scarlet moon, their color was dazzlingly vivid.

“Let it be dyed with my color.”

Qi Lin froze, whispering, “You awakened… the Blood Source?”

“In such a short time?”

Mo Bai admitted calmly, “Yeah, got a problem with that?”

“I’m a genius, after all.”

“That’s impossible!” Qi Lin grew desperate. “Even if you awakened it, it would only be at the primal stage. How could you possibly kill the embryo I painstakingly prepared?”

“That embryo was carefully cultivated, capable of even attracting the Breeding Moon, containing countless life energies!”

In Qi Lin’s eyes, it was unthinkable that a weakling like Mo Bai could kill it.

Even if he had awakened the Blood Source.

But Mo Bai only looked at Qi Lin with sarcasm and replied:

“Because it was just an embryo.”

He stated matter-of-factly, “It never made it to birth, never possessed its own soul or existence.”

“Just a lump of flesh obsessed with being born.”

Mo Bai stroked his crimson eyes like a red moon. Within that red hue was etched Qi Lin’s astonished face.

“To invert concepts, to oppose existence, to distort rectitude.”

“To curve what was straight, to shrink what was large, to complicate what was pure, to degrade what was noble.”

“From black, to white.”

“This is my unique Blood Source, the most profane origin in this world.”

“Viewed with utterly defiled eyes.”

These eyes, which he should have had long ago, finally returned to his body today.

They were now thoroughly dyed with the color of the Red Moon.

“Outside, I might not even be able to bend a single chopstick, but inside that [womb], using my Blood Source on an unborn embryo is as effortless as performing a thousand-year kill on someone urinating in a restroom.”

“Under the gaze of these eyes, reversing the consciousness that wanted to be born from the womb—what do you think…”

Mo Bai’s face twisted into madness: “What fun things will happen?”

Qi Lin was stunned.

After fully realizing her child had died in childbirth, sorrowful tears streamed down her face as she sobbed in a helpless, pitiful, and… hateful loli voice.

“My child, sob… my child…”

The demon cloaked in a loli’s guise cried out in anguish.

“I understand.”

Qi Lin wiped away her tears and her expression gradually turned icy. “It was my negligence that killed my child.”

“I will start over.”

She looked coldly at Mo Bai. “Thank you for bringing me failure.”

“I won’t make the same mistake again.”

It was her fault.

She shouldn’t have treated Mo Bai so gently, because he was her future other half, so she wanted to pour her love into him.

But he didn’t appreciate it.

There was nothing else she could do.

Countless tendrils crawled out from Qi Lin’s skin like snakes, twisting toward Mo Bai, attempting to bind him.

Mo Bai’s vision was soon filled with these disgusting tendrils.

If caught…

Mo Bai shivered, recalling some things children should never see. He was scared.

But even so, he did not flee, instead watching as the tendrils approached him.

Not a single step.

Then, in flashes of cold light, the tendrils were sliced apart by sharp threads the moment they neared Mo Bai.

It felt like slicing fruit.

Qi Lin’s eyes widened in disbelief as she looked at the sudden presence floating above Mo Bai.

It was…

[Name: Azure Rhapsody]

[Concentration: Blue]

[Effect: Summons a surrogate from the sister; injuries to the surrogate will be shared by the original.]

[Surrogate Stats: Destructive Power B, Speed A, Stamina C, Precision A, Range E, Growth Unknown]

[Surrogate Abilities: Blooming Thread (Threads from the Alaya-Vijnana, lost ability to replicate but extremely sharp), Furnace of Hatred (The more the original is injured, the more the surrogate’s power and speed increase)]

[Note: This surrogate’s abilities can evolve with increased yandere concentration from the source.]

“Onii-chan, your surrogate is the most useful!”

Yes, it was a surrogate!

Saikyu surrogate, Azure Rhapsody!

“Ha↑ha↓ha↑ha↓!”

“Didn’t expect that, did you? I’m actually a surrogate user!”

Under Mo Bai’s manic laughter, the tendrils surged forward but were shredded into pieces by the surrogate sister, turning into writhing lumps of twisted flesh like maggots on the ground.

The shimmering threads danced around Mo Bai like a sheer skirt, blocking anything that sought to harm him.

At the same time, they prevented Mo Bai from leaving her side.

The surrogate floated gently on Mo Bai, whispering inaudibly in his ear.

She said:

“We will always be together.”

“Muda muda!”

Mo Bai tapped his temple with a finger. “Azure Rhapsody is the strongest surrogate. Your tendrils are useless, Qi Lin!”

“Bastard, Mo Bai!”

Seeing her tendrils were futile, Qi Lin closed in on Mo Bai. As she moved, her body began to mutate; the loli form vanished, replaced by an armored shell that made her look like a monster from Kamen Rider.

Self-modification was a power of the Breeding Followers, allowing them to adapt their bodies to various environments.

Now, Qi Lin’s form was unmistakably born for battle.

Her arms instantly transformed into something resembling a pea shooter, ready to unleash terrifying power on Mo Bai.

Previously, she used this move to knock down Mu Sheng, who was hiding in a tall building sniping.

Mo Bai showed an enlightened expression: “As expected, you’ve completely dropped a tier.”

“Having lost your Blood Source, you’re left only with the power of a Breeding Follower. You should have eaten me and awakened a new Blood Source, but…”

Mo Bai smiled mischievously, “I caused a difficult birth and killed it.”

“Now, you’re just a blank slate.”

“So what?”

Qi Lin sneered, “Even if I’ve lost my former power, so what?”

“Just because I’m weaker doesn’t mean you’re stronger.”

“You just awakened your Blood Source; what will you use to fight me?”

The pea cannon was fully charged, aimed at Mo Bai.

She planned to overwhelm him and his surrogate.

But Mo Bai only chuckled: “Use what?”

“Of course, my friendship and bonds.”

Qi Lin’s eyes snapped open.

Two piercing sounds cut through the air, breaking through the outer shell of the Breeding Tree and reaching them inside.

Bullets and a sword.

The Hook Sword, filled with ruthless killing intent, stabbed before Mo Bai. The crimson lines softened when facing him.

It actively took Mo Bai’s hand.

The bullet was black and curved oddly in the air, striking Qi Lin’s heart directly.

Then, a terrible explosion erupted inside.

Qi Lin: “?”

Wasn’t she wrapped by the roots outside the Breeding Tree? No outsider should have been able to approach. Where did this sword and bullet come from?

How did it hit her?

No, wait!

Qi Lin realized this was… the power of the ritual outfit!

The bullet was enchanted by the outfit, a guaranteed-hit bullet!

And the sword…

“Of course, it came from the tacit understanding between brother and sister.”

Mo Bai picked up the Hook Sword. The terrifying, monstrous killing intent directed at Qi Lin made even this death-defying Breeding Follower instinctively recoil.

Why? She wasn’t supposed to fear death.

“It’s not over yet.”

Mo Bai looked at the surrogate floating before him and activated his only purple concentration ability: [Bonded Magic Armor].

Yes, he transformed his surrogate into a magical girl.

Who said surrogates couldn’t be cute, beautiful girls?

The surrogate’s bond undoubtedly came from Mo Mo, meaning it was a max-level bond.

Combined with the enhancements from the Hook Sword and the Goblin’s fury…

He was now terrifyingly powerful.

“Come, let’s start over.”

The magical girl surrogate floated over Mo Bai’s head as he raised the Hook Sword and quietly said to Qi Lin, as if it were just another ordinary day,

“Let us happily and thoroughly…”

“Get to know each other once more.”