This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!
Chapter 451: The Second Method to Acquire Spiritual Energy

Chapter 451: Chapter 451: The Second Method to Acquire Spiritual Energy

Chen Ke once again entered the courtyard and turned to lock the iron gate.

As far as the eyes could see, everything about the mansion seemed normal, with no strange fog hovering about, nor any nauseating smells.

He strolled around the courtyard; the lawn had started to yellow slightly, and leaves on the walkway had not been tended to for several days. A basket for collecting leaves was placed under a tree, from which a pair of feet protruded from the dry grass pile.

Chen Ke approached and saw the Baron’s gardener lying on his back on the lawn, his blue shirt soaked in blood.

He squatted down to examine the body, pulling back the eyelid to observe the dilated pupils, which had long lost their shine, the whites filled with severe blood congestion as if in an instant all the blood had rushed to his eyes.

Chen Ke then opened the gardener’s shirt to reveal several fatal wounds on the chest, each about two fingers in length and half a finger wide, clearly stabbed by a dagger.

The body had been dead for several days, but the place of death was not very obvious, and people outside the gate could not see it.

However, Chen Ke found it odd, this mansion was located on a busy street. Surely, someone passing by and glancing inside would have noticed something unusual.

He stood up, left the body on the lawn, and slowly walked towards the gate. Now closer to the house, his Spiritual Vision still couldn’t see anyone; there was only one possibility—the people inside were all dead.

Sir Howard had acquired that suit of armor just a few days ago, and coincidentally, such a major incident had occurred at home. It was unrealistic to say these two events were unconnected.

This year of 1859 was far more bizarre than 2009. Although Opportunity City had a higher number of stranger and more complex incidents than Langdon, it seemed particularly orderly and regularized, thanks to the presence of the Administration Bureau and Spiritual Business.

But in Langdon, mysterious Secret Keepers and strange events seemed out of place in this era of industrial surge.

For some reason, Chen Ke felt that the suit of armor might decidedly belong to An Helei.

A person without Spiritual Power could not use the Holy Relics; without being summoned by a Spiritual Ability User, they were just a bunch of pretty diamonds.

Yet, in Katherine’s dream, she had summoned Mrs. Qiong’s suit of armor.

This made Chen Ke curious about the nature of Spiritual Power, as even the slowest should realize that blood was crucial.

After infusing some sort of blood, Katherine’s dreams extended into reality, where she was granted powers akin to Spiritual Power.

While it appeared more like a mutation outwardly, Chen Ke believed this mysterious blood was probably very popular among the upper echelons, and Howard should not have had difficulty obtaining it.

Of course, this was purely Chen Ke’s irresponsible conjecture. The suit of armor might not have been summoned unintentionally by Howard after gaining blood power. Buying it for a collection might just be an excuse, most likely a cover-up.

Chen Ke suddenly remembered Yasla’s deformed group, and recalled what Bader had said.

"I am a perfect union with Spiritual Power, no need for drainage anymore..."

Injecting strange blood into oneself did indeed seem like the perfect union he spoke of, and Katherine’s transformative appearance in her dreams showed little difference from Yasla’s deformities.

If Katherine were to awaken, would she still possess the abilities she had in her dreams? The answer could no longer be revealed, but in this era, blood transfusion was clearly more convenient than injecting Spiritual Energy into the spinal cord.

If this method could genuinely harness Spiritual Power, then the world would undergo revolutionary changes.

Without the constraints of a drainage mechanism, those with higher Spiritual Ability Levels would be increasingly difficult to control, and once these people united, they could spark a new revolution...

Thinking about it now seemed dangerous. Since blood transfusions existed as early as 1859, why hadn’t Chen Ke seen or heard about such practices in 2009?

Perhaps the mutants of Yasla really gained their power through blood transfusions; after all, their mode of combat looked no different from Katherine’s in his dreams - not relying on any Holy Relics, but grotesquely morphing their bodies to attack their opponents, looking both abhorrent and terrifying.

"What am I, then?" Chen Ke couldn’t help but ask himself.

After arriving in this world, no one provided him with answers. In the initial month and a half, with no clues and his life hanging by a thread, Chen Ke had naively believed that the countdown to his life was a tool used by Si’s consortium to control assassins.

However, as he continued to unlock more abilities, it became clear that such a thing couldn’t possibly be administered by a consortium to its disposable human tools.

The life countdown could itself open doors and, with the unlocking of abilities, could control time, resurrect the dead, instantly self-heal, enhance skills...

If Si’s consortium really had the technology to do this, they wouldn’t need to bother with the Blasphemous Dagger or the creepy entanglements with Yasla’s mutants - perhaps they should have ruled the world already.

This technique, which turned people into neither human nor ghost, might be better lost to the future...

Chen Ke used An Helei’s ashes to melt the lock of the great door and quietly entered, only to find a servant who looked like a butler lying on the carpet.

He too had a dagger wound in his back – densely stabbed many times; whoever killed him must have particularly hated him.

Chen Ke turned the body over, finding a revolver under it. He picked up the gun, which was of the same model as those offered in the Foundation’s café.

He flipped open the cover and poured out the brass-colored bullets – before his death, the butler hadn’t pulled the trigger.

Immediately following, the Divine Blood Bullets gradually filled the magazine, and a bullet-shaped indicator appeared in the upper right corner of Chen Ke’s field of view, just like the ammo display in an action shooting game.

Since they were called Divine Blood Bullets, they must have been made from divine blood, right? After all, this world had deities.

But on closer consideration, Chen Ke inexplicably felt an indescribable fear – how could divine blood be in his body? Could it be that he also received a transfusion when he came over with Xu Jing?

"No, no... a transfusion would have changed the body, but I..." Chen Ke tried to comfort himself; at least he hadn’t turned into a monster.

Yet, Chen Ke thought again, recalling that last night at Jacob’s was indeed the first time he had slept since he time-traveled, which was strikingly similar to Katherine’s condition.

He couldn’t remember exactly what had happened to him, but as soon as he thought about having someone else’s blood in his veins, even if it was divine, Chen Ke felt nauseated.

This revolver had six shots, and with the boost from the Divine Blood Bullets, Chen Ke didn’t have to worry about running out of ammunition or carrying bullets on him.

He stood in the entrance hall of the mansion, considering which direction to explore first, when creaking footsteps came from upstairs. Clutching his gun, Chen Ke moved towards the staircase.

Several servants lay on the staircase, dead, like the gardener, with their eyes rolled back white and bloodshot, expressions blank, then killed by stabs with a dagger.

It seemed they had seen something horrific before dying.

"It’s either a memetic infection or an attack on sanity..." Chen Ke assessed, a flash of orange light surrounding him as Florence’s set of Holy Relics replaced his clothes.

This set of Holy Relics gave 100% immunity against sanity attacks, indicating that Florence, too, must have been a formidable figure once.