This is not purification!No!This is like grinding the soul with a whetstone!Viridian felt as if every drop of his blood was being ignited and frozen at the same time!The holy light sought to steam him into sanctified vapor, the abyss to rot him into writhing muck!Two extreme forces used his body as a millstone, colliding and annihilating with ferocity; the pain they produced exceeded any punishment's scope![Warning! Warning! Your HP is fluctuating violently in an uncontrollable manner!][HP: 789/2000 -> 1899/2000 -> 23/2000 -> 1788/2000...]However, at the very moment his consciousness was about to be torn apart.The [Luminous Heart] within him, this newly promoted monarch-tier talent, let out a greedy, brutal roar!It was no longer affinity! It was plunder![Ping! Your talent [Luminous Heart] has begun actively plundering external holy light energy... Judgment successful!][Your maximum HP temporarily +500!][Your Holy Light resistance proficiency +5888!]At the same time, the

The system's cold warning, like a bone-maggot, burned a pale blue fire deep in Veridian's soul.Seven days.This was a death ultimatum from the elders of the Thirteen Clans of the Bloodline.Just as that pressure, enough to shatter any bloodline, had not yet dissipated—Bang! Bang! Bang!The manor's heavy gates were struck with the steady, forceful cadence of military ceremony.The sound seemed like a death knell from another world, forming a lethal resonance with the death beacon within."Come in."Veridian's voice was so calm it showed not the slightest ripple, as if the countdown burning through souls were nothing more than a tedious joke.The main gate opened.Marcus, captain of the Holy Guard clad in heavy armor, strode in briskly, carrying with him the lingering scent of rust and holy light.His gaze was sharp as an eagle’s, cutting over the blood-slumped Claude on the floor and locking precisely onto Viridian.Not a word wasted.Marcus produced a scroll from his bosom and offer

Reginald Castle, like a malformed beast stitched together from obsidian and the skeletons of giant creatures and perched on the edge of a cliff, crouched quietly beneath the blood-red moon, exuding an ancient malice.When Viridian and his party arrived, the drawbridge—wide enough for three carriages abreast—had long been raised, and the deep moat churned with viscous black mist, severing all ties to the outside world.Behind the crenellations of the castle, streaks of crimson shadows flickered, looking down from above."Oh? Look, a bunch of Sun God's lackeys dressed in tin cans." A sharp female voice laced with undisguised contempt came from the city wall, echoing across the valley."That one beside him, is he their leader? What a pretty little lapdog—wonder if his blood tastes as sweet as his face.""Hee hee hee... don't scare the poor thing, can't you see he's still got a suckling pet with him?"Obscenities and jeers rose and fell like basins of filthy water, splashed down at the Ho

Those words made every surviving vampire noble in the courtyard's hearts constrict at once!They stared in horror at the paladin kneeling on one knee, then at the "saint" bathed in holy light who had just drained his own kind in the most brutal way.Madness!These humans' brains are completely fried!They actually believe that devouring their own kind is a form of "purification"!A fear deeper than facing the holy light, more viscous than confronting death, crazily breeds from the deepest recesses of their hearts.The man before them called Viridian is neither a saint nor of the bloodline.He was an enigma that could not be understood, could not be defined — a monster cloaked in the mantle of holy light!Viridian did not answer Marcus's fervor.He simply stood there serenely, his crimson eyes sweeping over every blooded creature in the courtyard, all frozen in fearful silence.His gaze was no longer one of scrutiny; it was the appraisal of a butcher selecting livestock.Every vampire

Deep in the cavern, Viridian’s five fingers had already closed tightly around the cold, throbbing core inside the corpse abomination.He didn’t crush it right away.Over the past ten or so minutes, this killing machine—painstakingly stitched together by the butler—had become his most perfect sparring partner.Each swing of the great arm, each spurt of venom, each frenzied charge was exploited to its utmost by Viridian.He was like the most precise instrument, testing every metric of his body.Dodge, leap, block, counter.[Ding! Your talent [Damage Reduction] has been tempered by the continuous heavy blows. Proficiency +310!][Ding! Your basic skill [Dodge] proficiency +450! Leveled up!][Ding! Your [Hit Resistance] proficiency +420!]Until every proficiency on the panel that could be raised hit a bottleneck and could no longer budge an inch.Only then did Viridian finally lose his patience.His cold voice sounded like a death sentence handed down to that monster.The next second, the