Liora's gaze first shifted to the remains of the Blasphemer, whether it was his lifeless, cold body or his unconscious soul floating in the air.

These two were the most basic things she obtained during her battle with him.

"Unfortunately, although the Blasphemer is quite strong, his essence is still not good enough to enhance the defenses of my Myriad Devils Armor.", Liora murmured as she placed these things aside.

Then, her eyes moved to the side, to the only other thing she obtained in the "Holy" City.

It was a golden, semi-transparent orb, whose surface glowed with a variety of colors, as if a rainbow was sealed inside.

Despite being a dead thing, the orb exuded an oppressive aura that contained a trace of holiness, bathing the area around it in pure holy power.

As soon as Liora's gaze landed on it, she seemed to see a vast white expanse hidden within it. Unfortunately, that space was somewhat broken, covered in fissures and cracks.

Waving her hand, she controlled the orb to fly into her hand.

Then, she played with it in her palm while closely inspecting it, trying to find its functions.

"This orb appeared next to me the moment I was thrown out of the white expanse. If I'm not wrong, it should be the core supporting the Holy Domain that the Blasphemer had constructed."

Even though the orb felt cold upon touch, Liora soon sensed an extreme heat coming from it.

Her fingers and palm turned red while a fierce pain assaulted her mind as if she had dropped her hand into lava.

However, she understood that this was simply not true.

The source of the heat was not a high temperature, but stemmed from the orb's holy power.

"It seems that this thing will be difficult to research in the future.", Liora couldn't help but sigh as she carefully placed the orb away.

The moment it left her hand, the skin of her palm and fingers darkened before breaking off, transforming into black ashes and dissolving in the air.

Instantly, new skin grew back at an extremely quick pace, this time even smoother and more flexible.

Ignoring this process, Liora turned her eyes to the last item in front of her. Unlike the previous objects, this item was neither the remains of a Devil nor an unusual item with unknown functions.

Instead, it was a thick, leather-bound book. As Liora picked it up, her fingers brushed off the dust that had accumulated on its cover, revealing the title hidden behind it.

"A Brief Explanation of Puppetry."

The title piqued Liora's interest.

Curious, she couldn't help but open the thick book and flip through its pages, quickly skimming through its contents.

But the more she read, the more obvious the headache became.

This was not because the book carried a strange power that could affect its reader, but because of the huge amount of information contained in it.

Although the title mentioned "Brief Explanation", the book's actual contents were anything but brief.

It contained a large amount of knowledge, ranging from how to forge materials and assemble their parts to how to imbue souls into puppets and grant them life.

Clearly, this book had been written by a master of puppetry. Most likely, the Unknown.

"In any other world, such a book would be considered a treasure."

"If someone in a low-level world were to obtain it, they would be able to reach the apex of their world and dominate it for the years to come.", Liora judged silently.

But she showed no excitement.

This was not only because this was the Demon World, but also because, despite the book's value, it was completely tasteless to her.

Liora was already very busy.

She not only had to develop her awakened abilities, but also had to study Devil Runes, master more arrays, and, most importantly, research the mysterious blood.

Thus, she had neither the time nor the willingness to study puppetry.

"Perhaps I can give this to Alpha. As a mechanical creation, it would make sense for her to create puppets, right?"

Thinking of this, Liora closed the book and casually threw it to the side.

With it, the process of counting her harvest was finally over.

In fact, she had gained quite a few other things, but these four were the only ones that piqued her interest.

After all, her current vision was far beyond what it was in the past.

"Overall, it seems that fighting against the Blasphemer and the Unknown was somewhat of a loss."

Of course, that was only if one took just these items into consideration.

If one took into account her reaching first place on the Crucible Ranking, the Evolution Points she gained, and even the improvement of her status, the past few days were absolutely worth it.

Thinking of this, Liora suppressed the annoyance that had just arisen in her.

Glancing to the side and estimating that Alpha's transformation would take a few more hours to complete, Liora didn't choose to remain idle.

Taking out a familiar wooden chest, she slowly lifted its lid, revealing the mysterious blood droplet lying inside.

Then, Liora began to study it.

Inexplicable pieces of information immediately entered her mind as she stared at the blood, bits of information that seemed completely unrelated to each other.

Yet, when Liora pieced these bits together, she felt that she had gained a lot.

Knowledge about shadows, darkness, weapon mastery, and Devil Runes constantly emerged in her mind, as if she were receiving the lecture of a famous teacher.

As this knowledge was slowly integrated, Liora felt that her control over her current abilities had further improved, while Tongue of the Abyss—her self-created skill—was also growing stronger.

Just when Liora was immersed in the sea of knowledge, though, the drop of blood within the wooden chest suddenly shook on its own.

Before she could react, the blood shot out like an arrow, rushing toward a certain corner of the hall.

That corner did not seem to be chosen at random, as it was the place where the Blasphemer's corpse and soul were stored.

Arriving before them, the tiny droplet of blood rippled and grew bigger, transforming into a sea of blood that directly engulfed the Blasphemer's remains.

Wave after wave of blood washed over the Blasphemer's body, and despite his superb strength and defense, it began dissolving.

In mere moments, both the corpse and the soul had vanished, becoming nourishment for the sea of blood.

Then, as if it had lost its target, the sea of blood rippled again.

In an instant, the sea turned back into an individual droplet before flying straight into the wooden chest.

Lowering its altitude, it dropped down and remained still within the chest, seemingly having fallen into slumber.

If anyone were to take a look at it, it would have been impossible to guess that just mere moments earlier, this ordinary-looking drop of blood had devoured an entire Devil.

Having watched this scene unfold, Liora should have been shocked, or at the very least, alarmed.

However, she showed no change in expression. Or to be more accurate, she couldn't show any change.

The moment the blood devoured the Blasphemer's remains, Liora's vision went dark and she fell unconscious, leaving only an empty shell behind.

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