One year later.
Meng Yan slowly rose from the long, narrow, classical coffin.
In the space of his mind, the Blood Core was situated in the exact center.
On the surface of the pale red blood bead, a crimson line faintly appeared, flickering in and out of sight.
After absorbing the Green Evil Spirit, Meng Yan's control over his divinity increased, allowing him to release more pure energy.
After more than a year of continuous absorption, his physical strength and Blood Core energy level successfully reached the peak Blood Clan Baron tier, and he could not improve further in a short time.
Once the crimson line on the surface of his Blood Core fully manifested,
It would signify that he had officially reached the Blood Clan Viscount tier.
However, the transition from Baron to Viscount was a qualitative change.
It was not so easy to achieve.
Meng Yan called John in.
It was time to feed.
In fact, for the current Meng Yan, with the pure energy supplied to his physical body and Blood Core by his divinity, not feeding would not be a major issue.
But after prolonged periods of slumber, the body would always produce some hunger.
At this time, feeding was needed to alleviate it.
When he first arrived in this world, Meng Yan was quite repulsed by the act of blood-sucking as a method of feeding.
Later, due to extreme hunger, eating ordinary things provided very limited relief.
Thus, his first blood-sucking occurred.
After many times, he grew accustomed to it.
The people kept in the dungeon of the ancient castle were all heinous death row inmates, scum among scums.
Meng Yan had no psychological burden in consuming their blood.
Ryan was considered a relatively gentle type among the Blood Clan, having committed almost no evil deeds.
The Blood Servants he kept were also carefully selected villains.
On one hand, this was due to Ryan's character; he was unwilling to harm innocent ordinary people.
On the other hand, it was also because he dared not.
In this world, if a transcendent creature killed innocent ordinary people, and the number reached a certain stage,
Resentment would gather around its body.
Too much resentment could easily attract the attention of Demon Hunters.
Of course, killing villains among ordinary people might also lead to the gathering of resentment.
However, Demon Hunters possessed an extremely special ability to easily distinguish whether the source of resentment came from innocent people or those who deserved their fate.
As for how Demon Hunters judged the line between innocent people and villains, only they themselves knew.
Nevertheless, according to universal values, the people kept in Ryan's ancient castle dungeon were certainly considered great evildoers.
After feeding,
Meng Yan walked out of the room.
John stood by the door, gently opening the master bedroom door.
Outside was a long, dim corridor.
It was already the dead of night.
Yet, there was no light in the ancient castle.
Blood Clan hated light, and Blood Clan Barons even more so.
Although ordinary sunlight could not harm a Blood Clan Baron, it could make him extremely uncomfortable.
Now that Meng Yan had become a Blood Clan, he inevitably adopted some Blood Clan habits.
He hated light, loved the night, and was active at night and dormant during the day.
Even when sleeping, he preferred to lie in that long, narrow coffin.
If he were to sleep in a bed, he would feel some discomfort.
Meng Yan walked slowly through the empty long corridor, with John following behind.
In this ancient castle, besides Meng Yan and John, there were only the death row inmates being kept.
Previously, Ryan's ancient castle also had a considerable number of Blood Servants.
After Ryan's soul dissipated, those Blood Servants also died.
Blood Servants were controlled by the soul of a Blood Clan Baron; their souls had a contractual link.
If a Blood Clan Baron died, the Blood Servants would naturally die with him.
However, the death of a Blood Servant would not affect the Blood Clan Baron in the slightest.
Blood Slaves, on the other hand, were different; they were controlled by the Blood Energy of a Blood Clan Baron, with no soul connection, only a Blood Energy connection.
The power and lifespan of a Blood Slave came from the Blood Clan Baron's Blood Energy.
If a Blood Clan Baron died, although the Blood Slave would not die, he would lose all his power and most of his lifespan, experiencing premature aging.
John was a Blood Slave personally cultivated by Meng Yan six years ago, not long after he first arrived in this world.
The reason Meng Yan did not use the Blood Slave ritual was that performing the Blood Slave ritual required establishing a connection between the two souls.
However, Meng Yan's soul had already merged with his divinity.
The Blood Slave contract of this world simply could not link to his soul.
Therefore, Meng Yan naturally could not use the Blood Slave contract to cultivate Blood Slaves.
Moreover, he did not want to establish any messy soul connections with others.
A Blood Servant was sufficient.
Upon arriving at a hall, Meng Yan sat on a noble chair of red sandalwood with gold trim and said to John, who was standing below:
"John, I asked you to try and collect information about Evil Spirits and demons. Did you find anything?"
A year ago, after Meng Yan absorbed the Green Evil Spirit, he instructed John to pay more attention to relevant information to see if any useful data could be collected.
This was to prepare for his subsequent hunting of transcendent creatures and absorption of transcendent souls.
If Ryan hadn't been extremely reclusive, knowing almost no other Blood Clan or transcendent creatures,
And if the Green Evil Spirit he absorbed, despite having lived for over eight hundred years, hadn't been sealed more than six hundred years ago, leaving no valuable memories,
Meng Yan would not have had to rely on John, a Blood Slave who could only be considered a half-transcendent creature, to gather information about Evil Spirits and demons.
As for why he didn't collect information on werewolves or other transcendent creatures:
Werewolves mostly gathered in tribes, rarely alone.
Other transcendent creatures were not as common as Evil Spirits and demons.
That's why he decided to focus his targets on those solitary Evil Spirits and demons.
There were still nine years until the date he had to offer Blood Energy to Viscount William.
Within nine years, he had to reach at least the peak Blood Clan Viscount tier to be unafraid of Viscount William's threat.
Viscount William belonged to the Victor Family.
And the Victor Family was one of the six great Royal Families of the Blood Clan.
Even if Viscount William was just an ordinary member of the Victor Family,
He would certainly possess many powerful blood implements.
Therefore, even within the Blood Clan Viscount tier, Viscount William was a relatively powerful existence.
Meng Yan had no blood implements on him; without the strength of a peak Viscount, he would be unable to contend with that old fellow.
"Baron, these are the materials I've gathered on several areas where Evil Spirits might exist."
John handed the prepared materials to Meng Yan.
Then he took out a stack of old parchment papers of various sizes and colors.
"These are ritual manuscripts that might summon ordinary demons.
There are twelve in total.
I investigated them with Blood Energy, and these parchment manuscripts all contain some magic.
They all have a high probability of being connected to ordinary demons.
However, it's not ruled out that some of them might be traps intentionally set by high-level demons.
The specific situation still requires the Baron's careful investigation.
Please take a look, Baron."
Meng Yan first took the Evil Spirit materials, casually glanced at them, and then set them aside.
Regarding the areas described in these materials, he could only determine if Evil Spirits were present once he reached the specific locations.
Picking up the stack of parchment manuscripts, a hint of surprise flashed in Meng Yan's eyes.
Each manuscript in this stack contained magic.
Some of the parchment manuscripts still had remnants of demonic aura.