Chapter 22: The Fledgling Flies in the Storm

Inside the old apartment.

Under the dim yellow light, the air was filled with the smell of old wooden furniture, mixed with a heavy tobacco scent.

The dilapidated wooden door was suddenly pushed open with a loud bang.

A man covered in blood stumbled in, his breathing rapid and heavy, as if he had just been through a fierce battle.

The man sitting in the chair slowly turned around.

The tobacco was ground back and forth between his yellowed teeth, making a fine chewing sound.

“Jason?”

His gaze fell on the newcomer, a flash of surprise in his eyes, but it quickly returned to calm.

“Why are you back so late?”

His voice sounded low and hoarse, as if squeezed from the depths of his throat.

Jason didn't answer immediately.

Instead, he pulled over a rickety wooden chair and sat down heavily.

The wooden chair let out a pained creak, as if it could fall apart at any moment.

He reached for the block of tobacco on the table, unceremoniously stuffed it into his mouth and chewed it vigorously, letting the nicotine fill his entire mouth and nasal cavity.

“Did you think the people from the Fifth Department were pushovers?”

Jason's voice sounded full of sarcasm and exhaustion, a trace of undried blood still on the corner of his mouth.

“Crunch——”

The tobacco was crushed between his teeth, and the bitter juice spread in his mouth.

His eyes became dazed, as if he were recalling the encounter from just now.

The seated man narrowed his eyes, his fingers unconsciously tapping on the armrest of the chair.

“What about the stronghold?”

“Just shaking those guys off was troublesome enough, how could we possibly save the stronghold? Forget about it.”

Jason then pushed a lock of blood-soaked hair behind his ear, his voice sounding full of frustration.

“They found everything.”

He said, then spat out a mouthful of saliva mixed with tobacco residue.

“Some guys couldn't stand the interrogation and directly confessed what we were planning to do. Damn it, that waste Banner even blabbed about us using cerebrospinal fluid for ink!”

“Thump!”

The seated man suddenly slammed his fist on the windowsill, making a dull sound.

After a moment's pause, he seemed to think of something else and quickly looked up at the other man.

“The Quintessence, what about the Quintessence?”

He asked anxiously, “The brains are gone, so be it, but what about those people's Quintessence, the Quintessence of thirty people! You couldn't have just given that away for free too!”

“The Quintessence was gone even before the stronghold.”

Jason leaned back in his chair.

The man opposite him was stunned for a moment, then looked at his companion, his eyes suddenly becoming fierce.

“Don't tell me you took all that Quintessence for yourself?!”

“The Quintessence of thirty people, even if I wasn't afraid of the Omniscience Society's retaliation, I'd still have to worry about whether I'd burst from it, right?”

Jason sneered and shook his head, “If I had that kind of ability, I would have become a Sub-seat long ago. How could it be your turn to order me around?”

“Then who was it?!”

“Jessica was in charge of the Quintessence, remember?”

Jason reminded him.

“Where is she?”

“Dead.”

As Jason's words fell, the room fell into a dead silence.

The bitterness of the tobacco congealed in the air, and the dim yellow light cast shadows on the man's twitching brows.

He slowly stood up.

The old floorboards groaned under his feet, as if the apartment itself was trembling in anticipation of the coming storm.

“She's dead?”

The man's brows furrowed tightly, “Who killed her?”

“Someone from the Red Moon.”

“Are you kidding me!”

The man slammed his fist on the table again, “Since when did the madmen of the Red Moon team up with the Fifth Department?”

“It wasn't a team-up, it was just a Shepherd of the Red Moon, a little girl who just became a Shepherd three days ago.”

Jason said, “She was originally the shepherding target chosen by Jessica, but for some reason, Jessica was killed by her in return, right in an alley near Iris Street. Her body was sacrificed to the Red Moon, nothing was left.”

“A fledgling?”

The man narrowed his eyes in disbelief, “Jessica's Mystical Art could even control a Bishop”

“That's where the problem is.”

Jason suddenly leaned forward, “We spent a chance to rewind and replayed the scene. Guess what happened?”

“Don't keep me in suspense, Jason.”

The man frowned.

“At the final moment of her transformation, that girl said something blasphemous.”

Jason stared at him and said, “She said the moon is——”

He did not voice the second half of the sentence, but said it with his lips.

Hearing this, the man stumbled back half a step, knocking the empty wine bottles on the wooden cabinet, making them clatter.

“Blasphemous words.... The Red Moon didn't crush her into a bloody pulp?”

“Not only did she not die, she even used Jessica's body to complete the sacrifice.”

Jason's voice was almost a whisper, “Otherwise, we could have at least recovered her brain, instead of wasting a rewind.”

“Are you trying to say the Quintessence was taken by the Red Moon?”

“No, the Red Moon only took Jessica's body, not the Quintessence.”

Jason shook his head.

“That Quintessence from thirty people is all inside that girl——she ate it all.”

The man's pacing suddenly stopped, as if frozen in place by Jason's last sentence.

A suffocating heaviness filled the air.

“You're saying.... she ate all that Quintessence?”

His voice was filled with disbelief, his Adam's apple bobbing violently.

“The Quintessence of thirty people, even a Sub-seat would need to take a moment to recover from that amount! And she's a Shepherd who's only been one for three days.”

As he spoke, the man suddenly paused, then fell into deep thought.

Then, his eyes gradually lit up.

“No, this is fine too. Let's leave that Quintessence with her for now, let her keep it for us. If she can consume the Quintessence of thirty people, it means the upper limit of Quintessence she can contain is definitely more than that. When the time is right, we'll bring her over.”

“But she's a Shepherd of the Red Moon, will that.”

“The Shepherds of the Red Moon are just a bunch of beasts led by instinct and desire. Besides, she's not one of those mad dogs, the Scarlet Apostles, so what is there to be afraid of?”

Hearing his words, Jason was silent for a moment.

“Then what do you propose we do?”

“Get close to her, observe her. She is still in the Stress Phase, that Quintessence is at most just being stored in her body. Unless she reaches the Development Phase, she can't use that Quintessence, so don't worry.”

The man said.

And if nothing unexpected happens, at her age, she should still be in school.

Perfect.

We'll use the school she attends as the ritual site.

That way, we don't even need to retrieve the Quintessence from her body.

Using a school that teaches and nurtures as the site of the ritual, with the knowledge in the minds of the teachers and students as the sacrifice.

As he spoke, a hint of fanaticism and joy suddenly flashed in the man's eyes.

“I think It will like it very much.”

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