The Bloodline Swallowing Toxins

Silence enveloped the gold-plated bedroom, leaving only the sound of storm winds roaring outside the smashed window frame. The girl braced her hands sitting up on the vast feather mattress bed, her deep purple eyes swirling deep into the thin wisp of smoke slowly rising up from the jade-inlaid porcelain bowl.

Her chapped lips burst out a cold, sneering laugh amidst the black night. Behind the sweet wrapping of honey herbal scent emanating from the porcelain bowl, her wild instinct had long helped her sniff out the bitter-astringent magic-poison waiting to swallow her internal organs.

The Church wanted to use the Ice Tear Poison to extinguish the name "Wench" right before Kieran returned. But they had too greatly underestimated the impudence of a creature driven into a dead end.

"Tonic medicine?" The girl whispered to herself, her sound dry-raspy like the sound of gravel stones rubbing together.

She reached out her emaciated hand bleeding because of the Dark Gold iron shackles, slowly raising up the jade-inlaid porcelain bowl. The thin wisp of smoke coiled bearing a gentle honey scent, but right beneath that scent layer was an extremely light spicy-pungent, bitter-astringent and foul-stinking flavor. That was the smell of the Ice Tear Poison — the most ruthless magic-poison on the continent held by the Church, possessing the ability to seep into blood vessels and melt the internal organs of mortals in just a few breaths.

The girl tilted her head admiring the amber-colored liquid stream, her lips curving up into a mocking smile. Outside the thick, heavy wooden door, the light footsteps sound suddenly froze. The dark shadow of the Church servant had not left at all; she was standing lurking outside the door crack, holding her breath waiting for the sound of a shattering bowl.

"Still standing outside there?" The girl spoke up louder, letting the sarcasm transmit through the door gap.

"Want to see with your own eyes me drawing my last breath?"

The dark shadow outside the door flinched freezing for a beat. The trembling voice of the young female attendant sounded through the crack-opening:

"Mil... Lady, you have not drunk it yet? The medicine left to cool down will lose all its effect..."

"Your Church is thoughtful indeed." The girl brought the porcelain bowl close near her nose, whispering in a bone-chilling tone.

"This good-heartedness makes me surprised."

The female attendant outside swallowed her saliva with an ahem, trying to keep a calm voice but unable to hide her panic:

"Lady Hester already knows her mistake... The Church only wants you to quickly get well to serve His Majesty. Please drink it while it is still hot!"

"Knows her mistake?" The girl burst out laughing, her dry-raspy laugh echoing amidst the empty room. "She wants to apologize by sending me down to hell?"

"You... you keep teasing..." The female attendant's voice trembled shivering uncontrollably through the wooden door crack. "His Majesty Kieran is about to return! If you do not receive the Church's heart, we will be blamed and punished!"

"Blamed and punished?" The girl lowered the bowl of medicine, her deep purple eyes flaring up with a wild light. "Or are you people afraid of being unable to hand over this corpse before he returns?"

Outside the door immediately fell into a dead, deadly quiet. The female attendant caught her word, not daring to reply even just one sentence. The girl lowered her head staring dead-straight at the fluid sloshing under the flickering candlelight. Her memory was a desolate blank space, her present was shackles and humiliation. Kieran confined her like a toy, the Church viewed her as a thorn needing to be pulled out. The thought of committing suicide to escape from the shackles, or testing the ultimate limit of this body erupted fiercely.

"Tell your High Pontiff..." The girl raised her head up, rasped a voice colder than even the Border snowstorm. "This heart, I receive."

Without a bit of hesitation or panic, she tilted her neck backward pouring clean the bowl of Ice Tear Poison into her throat. The sweet water stream passed through her dry-rasped throat, immediately transforming into a bitter-astringent cold vapor stream shooting straight down into her stomach.

Crash!

The porcelain bowl fell from her hand, shattering completely to pieces into small fragments on the granite floor. Outside the door, a satisfied deep-inhalation sound sounded alongside rapid footsteps running away to report the glad news to the High Pontiff. The room returned to a dead silence.

The girl still sat slumping on the vast feather mattress bed, her eyes dazed looking at the splendid gold-plated ceiling. One breath... two breaths... then three breaths passed in the lonely space.

BOOM!

An unprecedentedly violent pain in her life erupted right in the center of her chest. The girl curled her body up, her two hands hugging tightly onto her belly then fell tumbling from on top of the bed down onto the ice-cold stone floor. The Ice Tear Poison began to break out brutally. It was like a boiling acid stream flooding into each blood vein, corroding and melting each internal organ from the inside.

"A... AAAA!"

The suppressed agonizing scream shot up through her blood-oozing teeth gap. Her slender body twitched continuously on the granite base. Salty sweat mixed with blood from the thorn-whip wounds soaked her expensive silk clothing.

"Hot... so painful...!" She scratched hard at her neck, her fingers bleeding because of the Dark Gold iron shackles digging deep into her flesh to seek distraction from the brutal pain.

Her internal organs were as if being sliced into small pieces by countless dull blades then brought to be baked on a fire hearth. Fresh blood from her mouth-corner squirted out, gushing across her chin, splashing into horrifying bright-red streaks on the ice-white stone base.

"Is it finished...?" The girl lay face-glued down on the icy stone floor, her eyes blurring due to blood-fog, uttering a mournful whisper.

"Freedom... is simply like this?"

The pain became more violent with each moment, destroying every single cell. The Ice Tear Poison swirled flowing through blood vessels, aiming straight at her heart to finish off mortal life. But right at the moment the magic-poison just touched the ventricle, a miraculous and horrifying thing erupted.

Thump!

The beat of her heart sounded echoing like the sound of an ancient war drum. An invisible pressure stream from deep inside her spinal marrow suddenly awakened. That was the Ancient Dragon bloodline — an ancient power that had slept peacefully throughout millennia beneath her pale skin. The instinct of the overlord species did not allow any low-grade toxin to violate its dignity.

"What... what is this...?" The girl muttered obscurely, feeling a horrifying energy source rising up inside.

Instead of melting her body, the Ice Tear Poison upon colliding into the ancient bloodline became enclosed by purple magic-power chain-links. The Ancient Dragon bloodline began to open its mouth, swallowing clean each molecule of magic-poison! It viewed this most ruthless toxin on the continent as a nutritious dish, an extreme fuel source to burn down and break apart all seals.

"It... it is swallowing the toxin?" The girl tremblingly raised her shackled hand up.

Beneath her paper-thin skin, veins bulged up brilliantly, emanating a glaring dark-purple light and flowing rapidly like lava. The pair of Dark Gold iron shackles personally sealed by Kieran began to vibrate violently. The sound of dark magic-power being incinerated sounded with cracking, trembling noises.

"So hot... So hot!" The girl roared a dry sound.

The pain due to the toxin completely vanished, giving way to a violent fire fever. The girl's body temperature spiked up to a terrifying degree. The entire amount of snow-water surging in from the window immediately sizzled evaporating into thick white smoke. From her pores and the blood-oozing thorn-whip wounds on her skin, a pure light stream erupted. That was not an ordinary red flame, but a snow-white flame — the Ancient Emperor's Fire.

"This power... This truly is... me?" The girl braced her two hands down onto the floor, blue veins bulging violently on her neck, her eyes shifting completely to a brilliant purple color with continuously rotating dragon patterns.

BOOM!

The pure snow-white fire erupted from her body, transforming into a giant light aura sweeping through the room. The expensive brocade curtains immediately dissolved into ash-dust. The gold-plated feather mattress bed transformed into a pile of ash remnants in just one-quarter of a second. The fierce fire continued to lick across the stone walls, incinerating all luxury furniture inside the Emperor's bedroom.

In the eye of the snow-white fire storm, the girl slowly stood up. Deep cracks appeared on the pair of Dark Gold iron shackles on her hands. Tonight, the Church's toxin could not take away her life, but on the contrary, it had just ignited to awaken an ancient monster.