The Blood General stood tall as Damon entered, his crimson armor gleaming in the torchlight. The man's presence alone commanded attention. His aura was heavy and disciplined. When he bowed, it was shallow but proper, more courtesy than submission. "Lord Blood God," he greeted. "I come bearing an offer from the Karaken family."

After a brief pause, the man continued, "We heard of your… need for a soul-restoration formula. Our family indeed has a few potions that are capable of achieving such a miraculous feat, but we paid a heavy price to obtain these potions. Please don't misunderstand my words. The grand elder is still willing to give you these potions. It's just that we need a small favor in return."

Damon smiled. "Go ahead. Name your price."

After a few minutes, Damon walked out of the chamber. For the next hour, he was pretty much hearing the same thing again and again. Well, the same thing but in different terms and conditions.

Soon, he had about ten requests. Each family was looking for something different, and all of them offered their own version of soul healing potions, pills, recipes, and items. One asked for a unique item only found in a light faction dungeon. Another asked for the assassination of a priestess. Another one asked for a weapon blueprint that only a specific blacksmith had.

There were all sorts of requests, but the one thing they had in common was that they all could only be accomplished by someone in the light faction. The old foxes knew very well that he would have many connections with the light faction, so they did not hold back.

Damon as well simply accepted their proposals and did not bother haggling. Now was not the time to do anything like that. He silently walked out of the last meeting chamber and then headed straight to the training area.

Varnyx rushed over immediately. "My lord, did you call for me?"

"Set up a 1: 10 time dilation training room for me. Don't disturb me for the next five hours."

Before heading out, Damon wanted to first consolidate what he had gained from the battle. He gave Varnyx a few minutes to set up everything and quietly entered the secluded training. The first thing he did was pull up his system screen. The next second, a bunch of system notifications popped out.

[Ding! Niera City Blood Hall has successfully defended the Purification Raid]

[Ding! You have been promoted from Blood Hall Lord to City Lord]

[Ding! You have gained a new title]

…

…

…

Damon let out a deep breath as he briefly skimmed over the system rewards. He had received a couple of unique titles, which gave him a 20% stat boost in total. This was pretty impressive and not many titles gave this much effect. The reward truly reflected the difficulty of the task.

He also received more fame points, notoriety points, and gold coins. These were not too staggering. At this point, 1 million gold coins were pretty much nothing to him.

Then there was the war chest reward. Damon opened it, and immediately the war chest dissolved into a swirl of crimson motes. When the motes disappeared, three items lay in front of him.

Damon frowned. This was something unexpected. He had never heard of anything like this before in either of his lives. There were all kinds of treasure chests but war chests were definitely something unique and rare. Even his first victory did not net him something like this. There should definitely be some good things inside.

Damon quickly took out the first item.

It was a map of some kind. Promptly, a system notification appeared.

[Ding! You have received the Treasure Map to Beluga Isle.]

Damon let out a sigh and tossed it into his spatial ring. The next thing looked like a gem of some sort. He picked it up and examined it closely. It was a crimson crystal, roughly the size of a thumb, pulsing faintly like a beating heart.

[Ding! You have obtained Crimson Heartstone (Unique – Bloodline Artifact)]

Description: A crystallized heart core of an ancient Blood Monarch. Can be fused with your Blood Core to permanently increase vitality, regeneration, and bloodline potential.

Warning: Fusion may awaken dormant bloodline traits or trigger a Bloodline Trial. Success rate: 65%. Failure will result in bloodline instability for 30 days.

It was a good item, an item Damon even desperately needed at this point, but it came with its own drawbacks. Damon could only bitterly laugh at this point. He already had so much instability in his body that he definitely did not care about a little more of it.

However, that did not mean he could blindly use it. That little bit more instability could push him over the cliff he did not know he was standing on. So he did not activate it immediately. Everything needed some preparation.

"Blood Reign? Are you there or are you still sulking?" Damon called out.

"I am here, my liege. I am always here with you." Came the response.

"So you are sulking." Damon chuckled, but then his expression turned serious. "Do not ever repeat what you said. People are not disposable items. Kate, Mark, my family, Aurora, and even you. All of you are precious to me, and I will not give up on any of you that easily. Do you understand? I can be the ruthless villain you want, and I can still love you all very much."

Blood Reign became quiet. She then slowly murmured. "Forgive me, my liege. I… spoke out of turn."

Damon did not bother saying anything further on that matter. "What do you think about this Crimson Heartstone?"

"Hmmm… I am sorry to say this to you, my liege, but I don't think that the item is strong enough to affect your bloodline. A mere Blood Monarch's heart crystal wouldn't be able to bring out anything from your bloodline. It will only be wasted if it's used on you."

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