Chương 114: Chapter 113: The Elders' Bloodline Test

The cipher opened the bloodline-gated shaft beneath Castle Lilith's sealed vault. It carried Lucian alone through a black-stone transit passage to the Floor 20 tomb complex; Eleanor, Carmilla, and the others were stopped at the gate by the archaic inheritance lock. The sacrificial chamber deep beneath the Ancient Demon Tomb reeked of scorched sulfur and the rusty stench of dried blood. At the center of the stone chamber lay an octagonal pool, twenty meters wide.

Inside it, a thick, dark red liquid — the Blood Pool of the Underworld — churned and boiled, continuously releasing bursts of corrosive acid bubbles that dissolved the granite steps around it. Around the pool's edge stood the Seven Elders of the Ancient Clan — isolated tomb custodians sealed away for thousands of years, not part of the current Twelve Demon Lords' ordinary chain of command.

Their bodies were withered like mummies, wrapped head to toe in black bandages, gripping dragon-bone staves that glowed with an eerie purple light. The lead Elder — High Elder Gorgon — pointed his bone staff at Lucian's chest, his voice rasping like metal scraping stone.

"Bearer of mixed mortal blood! This is the Blood Pool of the Underworld, left behind by the first Ancient Demon Lord! Whoever carries pure shadow blood shall step in and awaken boundless power — but whoever carries lesser blood shall be reduced to ash in a thousandth of a second!" He fixed his deep, bloodshot eyes on the ten-year-old boy.

"Step into the blood pool to prove your claim as heir to Lady Valeria's legacy! Refuse, and we seven shall carry out your execution, immediately!" Lucian stood on the stone ledge, hands in his coat pockets. He didn't draw his dagger, didn't step back. He activated Read the Fine Print Lv. 1, threading a razor-fine strand of mana perception straight into the composition of the boiling liquid at his feet. A sample he pulled into a warded glass vial turned an alchemical test strip violently red.

[SAMPLE ANALYSIS: BLOOD POOL OF THE UNDERWORLD] Nature: corrosive ritual brine with acidic alchemical residue and suspended metal contaminants. Hazard: unsafe for contact; reaction vents require containment and ventilation. Actual function: a pre-war corrosion rite, later disguised as a bloodline test. Lucian watched the purple bubbles rising, his mouth twitching slightly.

"Heavily contaminated, full of toxic acid and heavy metals, and you people make someone jump in and bathe in this? Do you dogmatists have zero knowledge of basic sanitation and safety?" Gorgon slammed his staff down onto the ground in fury.

"Insolent! You dare desecrate this sacred site—" Lucian didn't bother letting him finish. He reached into his spatial ring for Evelyn's alkaline neutralizer, lime, test strips, and a compact ventilation ward. He fed the reagents in calculated batches, first into a small isolated section of the pool, then widening the treatment only when the test color changed as predicted. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. FIZZZZZZZZZZ! A violent acid-base fizzing erupted.

White CO₂ bubbles surged up like foaming soap while the ventilation ward pulled the dangerous vapor through the shaft. Lucian used Layered Focus and fine Spell Control to keep the reaction from boiling over, separate the dark sediment, and skim the loosened contaminants into a sealed disposal block. Several tense minutes later, he tested the water again. The strip held steady in the safe range, the heat was controlled, and the remaining liquid was a clear, mildly mineralized spring rather than a death trap.

Lucian crouched down at the edge of the pool, took off his leather boots, rolled up his pant legs, and dipped both bare feet into the warm water. Splash. He let out a long, satisfied breath, patting the surface of the water with his hand.

"Forty-two degrees Celsius. Perfect natural mineral content. Ideal for a relaxing foot soak after a long day of work." Ting! Ting! A Unified System V2. 0 notification burst into view before him. [APPLIED CHEMICAL TESTING, CONTAINMENT, AND MICRO-CONTROL!] [BLOOD POOL HAZARD REDUCED TO VERIFIED SAFE CONTACT LEVELS!] Safety check: test sample passed. System assessment: no longer qualified to dissolve an heir in a thousandth of a second. [NEW TITLE UNLOCKED: 'DARK PURIFIER' LV. 1!] The seven dragon-bone staves in the hands of the Seven Elders slipped from their grips at once, clattering onto the stone floor. Fourteen bloodshot eyes, behind their bandages, bulged wide enough to nearly fall out. High Elder Gorgon's jaw dropped down to his chest, his whole body trembling as if struck by lightning under a clear sky. The Blood Pool of the Underworld... which had incinerated thousands of intruders across ten thousand years...

had just been turned into a foot bath by a ten-year-old boy with industrial neutralizer and an alarming lack of respect for sacred tradition. THUD! THUD! THUD! The Seven Demon-race Elders all dropped to the ground at once, pressing their foreheads to the marble floor, voices trembling with utter reverence.

"The Absolute Purification Art of the Creator!"

"He needed not a single drop of blood... he used holy water of salvation to wash away ten thousand years of the ancestors' curse!"

"The Young Master is the very incarnation of the Supreme Origin!" At High Elder Gorgon's order, the custodians opened the sealed archive access behind the chamber. Sylvia was admitted through the upper archive gate as Lucian's designated translator and records aide; the bloodline lock remained closed to everyone else. Lucian lifted his feet out of the water and gave a light kick to a mechanical black bronze drain valve set into the bottom of the pool. GLUG GLUG GLUG...

All the mineral water automatically drained through a hidden pipe, revealing the dry marble bottom of the pool. At the center of the now-empty pool, a half-meter black metal box, sealed with an ancient numeric combination lock, sat abandoned in the mineral silt. Lucian jumped down into the pool and bent to pick up the metal box. Carved deep into the black steel lid, in Ancient Demonic handwriting, read a line of text.

'Personal expense log and private slush fund of the Third Ancient Demon Lord — Valeria is absolutely forbidden from opening this.' Lucian looked at the inscription on the lid, the corner of his mouth slowly curling into a bright smile.

"The Demon Lord's slush fund..." He tapped his silver dagger against the lock.

"Let's see just how much private money this old man from ancient times hid from my mother."