Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

  Moonlight poured through the ceiling-to-floor window, cutting through the semi-transparent satin nightgown that the Duchess had put on. The moonlight’s trajectory ended up on her supple skin. Her every arch, flex, jut, and slit combined into a figure that could easily pierce through every restriction that man had imposed upon themselves in the hopes of being separated from beasts.

  Under the moonlight, the belle seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep. When she turned her body, the symbol of her feminity — a woman’s most vulnerable secret, her most primitive gift, and her most potent weapon — was left bare to the intruder.

  After a while, however, fleeting dark clouds rushed over to block the white moonlight. The latter’s rays descended lower and lower into the room until darkness had rendered voyeurism impossible.

  That was when the Duchess suddenly opened her eyes.

  She stretched her arms and her body, crossing her lean, soft legs to assume an inviting posture. She said to an empty chair, “Seen enough, Master Hope?”

  “Not for a beauty like yours, my lady.”

  His silhouette slowly but surely appeared on the chair. He crossed his legs, and then he crossed his hands and placed them on top his knees — just like an art aficionado enjoying a woman just one satin away from complete nakedness.

  “You truly are beautiful, my lady,” Baiyi couldn’t hold back his sincere comment.

  “Well then, for such an experience, Master Hope — what are you willing to pay?”

  The Duchess retained her posture — a posture that could incite every primal instinct of men. Her countenance, however, differed from how it was during the day; no longer was she the graceful and chaste Duchess, who had guarded herself against wily men, staying by her dying husband. On this very night, her actions and expressions were that of a seasoned harlot.

  “Well, that would depend on what you want to see,” Baiyi replied, feeling impassioned.

  She shook her head in dissatisfaction. Her delicate hand — which looked like it had been carved from ivory and jade — pressed lightly against her forehead as if she had suffered a headache. She cooed softly but calmly, “I’m disappointed with Vidomina’s choice of mentors. Such a disappointment. The price of being a voyeur can only be repaid with your life. ”

  At the last echo of her words, the same soft hand that had been supporting her forehead made a sweeping gesture at Baiyi, as if trying to shoo away a nuisance.

  However, what she had flung weren’t metaphorical woes, but a flying dagger made of pure flame, making a crimson trail as it sped unobtrusively towards Baiyi’s mask.

  The Fifth Walker raised his left hand at the right time and caught it. Then, with a hard press, the flame dagger crumbled into shimmers and sparks of flames, which got engulfed by the darkness that had enclosed the room.

  \r \r \r

  “My, my! You erased a fully-formed sixth-grade magic with just your psychic energy? Master Hope really is quite formidable! Are you sure you’re only Master-level?” Duchess Harllott’s face was colored by a sudden admiration as she exclaimed.

  To any common sorcerers, this scene alone would have made them cheer in awe. If someone was able to catch magic using their bare hands and destroy it with psychic energy upon contact — especially when the magic was something as complicated and highly damaging like a Flame Dagger — it becomes obvious that the feat was not the work of special effect; it was as a result of true power. It was suicidal to touch attack magic with your their own hands. Those that managed to live through the ordeal, albeit with one limb gone, would tell other how dangerous the stunt was, hoping that the others wouldn’t make the same mistakes that they did.

  If Mia and Tisdale dare pulled off a stunt like this, Baiyi was sure to wallop them hard!

  Yet, the Duchess was not the slightest bit perturbed by Baiyi’s display of skill. She even had the composure to make a remark about Baiyi’s technique, with an apparent dismissal of what the feat had implied of his power.

  This meant that the woman had the confidence to face even an opponent with Baiyi’s level of power.

  “Being able to cast a sixth-grade magic in an instant…… you’re more adept than normal Legendary-level beings, my lady. I suppose I’ll have to do more to make a mess out of you,” Baiyi replied in a boorish manner.

  “Oh, Master Hope, are you forcing yourself in?” the Duchess chuckled as an icy blue formation manifested behind her.

  Baiyi simultaneously leaped up from his chair and performed a backward somersault in mid-way, as deadly icicles burst out from the floor and pierced through where he had been a millisecond ago.

  “Hmph. So, you want to take the lead,” he sneered.

  The Saint Quartz staff had already appeared in his hand, whisked out from the storage pouch, and in the next instant, the staff caught and deflected a large, incoming fireball out of the window. The deflected fireball slammed into the courtyard at max speed, causing a loud racket.

  “Not so loud, Master Hope! Do you really want Vidomina to wake up and see your savage state?”

  “Don’t you worry. I watched her before I came to see you. She’s sleeping so soundly that I doubt that she would awaken from the noises we’ve made.”

  “Oh, so my sweet, impressionable daughter is also a target. Have you already dreamed of playing with the two of us together?”

  “An exciting suggestion, but I don’t want the Duke to come after me.”

  The two continued their flirtatious exchange as they threw dangerous magic and spells at each other, and one seemed to dominate the battle. The Duchess was nowhere as weak as she had proclaimed, for her speed in shifting elements and spell-casting was so seamless and rapid, there was just no way she was an ordinary Legendary-level fighter.

  She was pushing Baiyi into corners the entire time.

  The weirder part of their battle was the fact that, even with the entire room being torn apart under loud rackets, no one came to see them, let alone offer the Duchess help. It was as if everyone was already privy to the woman’s plan for a secret meeting.

  The two exchanged devastating sixth and seventh grade magic at each other, and eventually, their fight moved from the Duchess’s room to the garden outside. Jolts of electricity and flames had marred the delicate decoration of the garden, leaving it complete disfigured. The garden now looked as though a behemoth had trampled it.

  Shards of broken pots and disturbed leaves scattered. The air was filled with fleeing pieces of petals—inadvertently creating an ambiance of elegance.

  For some reason, the two had been very discreet in the choice of their magic. So far, their attacks had been confined to singular-target, local-area projectiles instead of attacks that could have easily decimate an entire large swathe area.

  After putting some distance between them, the Duchess could no longer contain her curiosity, and she spoke loudly, “What are you holding back for, Master Hope? At least show me the same power that captivated the Church!”

  “Because I don’t want Vidomina to lose both her father and her mother,” Baiyi replied gravely. “That would be too much to ask of the girl. Please, ma’am, turn yourself in.”

  “And, what makes you suspect that it’s me, hmm? Why do you think that it was me who cast that curse?” the woman implored, apparently interested enough to dispel the icicles hovering beside her, looking as if she was ready for a negotiation.

  “There is a difference in the ‘curse’ within you, Vidomina, and the Duke.” Baiyi stuck his Saint Quartz uprightly on the ground in front of himself. “It’s a very, very minute difference, to the point that no one else noticed it. More importantly, despite the legends, no one had ever seen a real Blood Curse in practice. It’s simple; it’s not a curse any common man would be able to meet in their lifetime. I would have been fooled, too, if not for the odd reactions that my formation had displayed.”

  “That curse detecting formation?” the Duchess’s mesmerizing eyes narrowed a little. “How dangerous, being able to detect a difference that small. Moving close to that formation was a foolish mistake! But alas, women and their lethal curiosity……”

  “You were already on my list before that,” Baiyi replied. “I heard stories from the maids. You were too perfect and too calm. Even if your beloved husband is in dire danger, you still act as if it causes you nothing more than a ripple. That isn’t normal.”

  “I didn’t want my suspicion to be spot on. I didn’t want that reality for Vidomina, so I spent the entire evening, trying to find other leads. I couldn’t. But of course, you must have noticed my discovery, didn’t you? And to welcome me, you set up a large area Drowse Formation. It works so well that no one has even woken up, yet.”

  It was a deliberate mental trap. The Blood Curse was an infamous curse that no one, not even someone with as much resources and power as the Duke, could cure. Thus, when the Duke was inflicted with an incurable disease, everyone naturally imagined the worst-case scenario, attributing his disease to the curse that can never be remedied.

  Then, the Wright family went quiet; they were even absent from the important banquet earlier. This reinforced the idea that the curse was worsening.

  However, the truth was that no one had seen a real Blood Curse, not even the Voidwalkers. The demons had always been a bunch of death-fearing cowards who only dared to harm the weak. The possibility of them even cursing a mortal had always been low!

  So when Baiyi, through his formation, determined that the curse on Vidomina and the Duke was not the same, he had finally gotten proof that he was not dealing a Blood Curse at all. Even the data from his formation seemed to support that too. The detector that was set up to pinpoint the source of the curse did not go haywire. It did not point to any direction because the caster was in the same house.

  Thus, Baiyi pretended to leave, only to come back to make one last confirmation. By that time, his opponent was waiting for him.

  “You’re truly amazing, Master Hope.” a contented smile formed on the Duchess’ lips. “Do you know why didn’t I want you to alert everyone else?”

  “Because I’m such a ladykiller?”

  The Duchess chuckled at his words. Her jaunty laughter was like a moonflower blooming in a quiet night.

  “You’re right! You really are a ladykiller, Master Hope! I think I’ve fallen in love with you. Won’t you work together with me? All I ask for is just your sincerity — and in exchange, me, my daughter, it doesn’t matter; we’ll both be yours to take. Isn’t that what you desire?”

  The moon was finally freed from the shackles of the dark cloud, and its light engulfed the sky and the earth once more. The Duchess’ supple body was once again visible under her see-through satin nightgown’s soft caress.

  What a fatal, yet primal, attraction……