Her arch tensed reflexively, the tips of her toes pressing against the demon's throat.
His teeth caught her protruding ankle bone, biting down with just the right amount of pressure. A crisp, tingling sensation instantly spread through her.
The incubus's tongue traced the contours of her joints. The webbing of his hand gripped her Achilles tendon tightly, his long, powerful fingers locking around the young woman's ankle.
A faint blush rose on her tightly gripped skin.
Saliva mixed with traces of blood spilled from the corners of his lips, trailing down his jaw, sliding past her heel, and dripping onto the floor.
Su Cheng: "...Blood."
The demon's movements faltered.
Su Cheng silently pulled her foot back.
The demon sat stiffly in place, feeling her slightly cool skin slide past his teeth, the shape of her bones and veins seemingly clear to the touch.
Su Cheng stared blankly at the wet traces left on her ankle, completely at a loss for words over the sheer absurdity of the situation.
Su Cheng: "I am afflicted with a death curse, and your blood can alleviate it. When I asked you for something, what else could it possibly be other than your blood?"
He had mentioned that drinking his blood once could keep the curse at bay for a couple of weeks. That might be true, but he was likely referring to an ordinary curse.
The one she carried, however, was unpredictable and defied common sense. The effects of his blood might be significantly diminished, so she had to prepare a few backup plans.
The demon fell silent for a few seconds before casually wiping the corner of his mouth. "I thought humans were all—"
Su Cheng's face darkened with exasperation. "Stop with the stereotypes! You incubi are the ones who actually have that kind of problem!"
Annoyed, she hopped off the table, rummaged for a few clean, empty bottles, and slammed them onto the tabletop, ordering him to start donating blood.
The demon did as he was told without a word.
After filling several bottles, he collapsed onto the sofa in exhaustion.
Su Cheng sat down beside him and once again touched the chains around his neck, continuing to ease the power of the binding seal for him.
The demon shuddered violently.
The chains around his neck rattled. The broad muscles of his shoulders and back tensed, their sculpted lines undulating in the dim candlelight.
The flush spreading across his skin looked like berry juice seeping into pristine white snow.
Su Cheng's fingers lingered on his collarbone for a moment, her gaze inevitably drawn to his chest and abdomen.
Su Cheng: "..."
What a massive wound.
Su Cheng: "You are still bleeding. Do you want me to clean it up for you?"
As she spoke, she reached out. Her fingertips brushed against his firm, rock-hard abs, gently touching the gash that stretched across his waist.
The wound was sharp at both ends and slightly wider in the middle. Its edges were clean but curled with cauterized flesh, a testament to the swift, decisive strike of the swordsman.
The demon let out a ragged breath and narrowed his eyes at her. "I offered myself to you just a moment ago and you refused, but now you are starting up again? Do you have some kind of—"
Su Cheng looked up, noticing the slight trembling of the wings on his back. She could not resist reaching out to touch the base of the wings where they connected to his shoulders.
The demon drew in a sharp, low breath, his sturdy chest rising as his lean abdomen spasmed uncontrollably. "If you want to do it, then—"
A fine layer of sweat quickly broke out over his muscles, glistening with an alluring sheen in the candlelight.
His supple, powerful tail wrapped around her thigh once again, attempting to pull her closer.
Su Cheng placed a hand flat against his chest to hold him back. "...Do you not think the timing is a bit inappropriate right now?"
They were mere inches apart.
The demon stared at her in silence, a dark fire surging in his ice-blue eyes, as if trying to carve the image of the human before him into his very mind.
"Mage, what is your name?"
He asked in a low voice.
Su Cheng shook her head. "I have no desire to get to know you, nor do I want to exchange names. In fact, it would be best if we stopped talking altogether."
The demon glared at her, then let out a cold sneer. "You think—hmph, mere human!"
The chains around his neck suddenly loosened a fraction. Having regained some of his strength, he abruptly released his tail and stood up.
He rose like a towering mountain, casting Su Cheng completely in his shadow.
She was not particularly short, possessing an average height for a human. However, the demon was incredibly tall, and she only reached his chest.
Su Cheng crossed her arms and tilted her head up to look at him. "See yourself out."
The demon shot her a fleeting glance before his figure blurred. He slipped out the window like a bolt of lightning, his wings snapping open as he launched himself into the air and vanished into the vast night.
Su Cheng immediately began to change her clothes and wash up. She quickly tidied the room, making sure everything was exactly back in its original place.
There was an even more troublesome matter she had to deal with next.
This demon had escaped from the Holy Church's prison, so naturally, there were pursuers on his tail. It would not be long before they arrived.
A few minutes later, a commotion indeed broke out in the courtyard.
Soon, a knock came at the door.
Su Cheng walked over. The moment she pulled the door open, she was met with a courtyard full of fully armed knights.
They wore white-gold armor adorned with the Cross Flame Holy Emblem of Chunri on their chests. They held shields in one hand and wielded weapons such as longswords, maces, and hand axes in the other.
A faint golden light radiated from these men, enveloping their armor like a translucent film and flowing along the sharp edges of their weapons.
In the gloomy night, the lights converged into a shimmering ocean of wandering golden threads.
The Holy Knights of the Church.
Their formation was impeccably neat. No one spoke a word, yet an overwhelming sense of oppression washed over her.
The servants of the Lin family estate stood far in the distance, not daring to step any closer.
A Holy Knight Captain stepped slightly forward.
Her armor was finely crafted with more intricate patterns. Three seal chains hung from her cloak's epaulets, symbolizing her rank as a Grand Captain.
The Holy Knight rested a hand on the hilt of the saber at her waist. "We are tracking an extremely dangerous wanted criminal who has entered your estate."
Su Cheng put on a bewildered expression. "...I have not seen anyone enter the courtyard, but I will fully cooperate with your duties, officers. What do you need me to do?"
In the original plot, Lin Yun had blackmailed the demon into sleeping with her. The ordeal took much longer, and the two were still in the middle of the act when they were startled by the commotion outside.
The female supporting character had managed to recover a bit of her strength and hastily teleported away. By the time the door was smashed open, only Lin Yun was left to crawl out of bed, scantily clad.
In the end, it was entirely thanks to the old man residing in the bracelet that the situation was smoothed over.
Su Cheng: "..."
Now, she could only rely on herself.
Su Cheng looked at the Holy Knight Grand Captain standing before her.
Despite the concealing armor, judging by her voice and the absence of an Adam's apple on her neck, this person was undoubtedly female.
Just like in the original novel.
Evidently, not everyone outside of the Lin family relatives—or rather, not all the characters with significant roles—had been gender-bent. Her nominal uncle was an exception, and so was the woman standing in front of her.
The Holy Knight Captain paced a circle around her room before turning back to look at her. "...It is already quite late, Miss. Have you not gone to bed yet?"
Su Cheng shook her head. "I have a lot on my mind."
As if she would lie.
She knew the woman before her was a master martial artist who could hear her breathing from afar and determine whether the person inside the room was asleep just by standing in the courtyard.
Therefore, she could not afford to lie about such a thing.
The captain gave her a profound look but did not press the matter further, merely stepping back out into the courtyard.
Before Su Cheng could even react, the dozens of Holy Knights filling the courtyard suddenly turned in unison. They parted swiftly down the middle and dropped to one knee.
Their movements were incredibly sharp and synchronized, the clanking of their armor overlapping into a single, unified sound.
Suddenly, a long, piercing cry echoed from high above, resounding through the heavens like a clap of rolling thunder.
The clouds in the night sky seemed to shatter from the sheer force of it.
The entire Lin family estate, and even a few surrounding mansions, were completely enveloped in a massive shadow.
Su Cheng looked up.
A gigantic figure, carrying a fierce gale, swooped down from the clouds, then abruptly stopped and hovered in mid-air.
Its outspread wings were like heavy dark clouds, churning up a roaring, majestic tempest.
The trees in the courtyard swayed violently in the fierce wind. The horses in the stables neighed uneasily, and some had even collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth.
The behemoth in the sky held its head high. Its scales gleamed with a cold, metallic luster across its robust body. Its broad wings flapped slowly, controlling the surging air currents.
"...A dragon?!"
In the distance, the servants dropped their jaws in shock. "Is that a dragon?!"
Among the ancient Dragon race, the most common and numerous were the sub-dragons, which possessed various animalistic traits and physically resembled dinosaurs.
Next were the wyverns with wings and two legs. They looked like giant reptiles, a combination of lizards and crocodiles, with wings closely resembling those of bats.
Wyverns were huge in size, varying by breed, but even the smallest adult was at least ten meters long.
As for true dragons—
Their body shape was similar to wyverns, but they had two wings and four legs. They were larger, stronger, and more intelligent, innately capable of mastering more magic.
The Dragon race had five growth stages: infancy, childhood, adolescence, maturity, and the perfect stage.
Any adolescent dragon possessed magical power rivaling an Archmagus and physical strength matching a Battle Venerable, equivalent to an eighth-tier dual cultivator of magic and martial arts.
Following this logic, a mature dragon was equivalent to a tenth-tier mage and warrior, while a perfect stage dragon surpassed the eleventh tier, wielding demigod-level power.
"...That's a dragon knight!"
Someone spotted a swaying figure on the dragon's back.
—Dragons were immensely powerful, fiercely proud, and possessed intelligence no less than that of humans. Becoming their contractor was extremely difficult.
Most of the time, the dragon knights people spoke of were actually contractors of wyverns and sub-dragons.
Looking across the entire Silver Moon Empire, true dragon knights could be counted on one hand.
Su Cheng also feigned a look of surprise on her face.
This dragon knight was a big shot in the Holy Church. He had appeared in the original novel, but only flashed across the sky before heading elsewhere.
He didn't make his official debut until much later.
She remembered it being a beast-eared girl commander.
Su Cheng looked up at the dragon in the sky. However, after watching for a long time, it showed no signs of leaving, which took her somewhat by surprise.
Suddenly, a figure leaped down from the dragon's back!
Ignoring the drop of over a hundred meters, the person landed in the silent courtyard.
Logically speaking, falling from such a height, even if the person was fine, should have left a crater in the ground.
Yet the newcomer landed as lightly as a feather. His leather boots stepped onto the paving stones without leaving so much as a scratch.
Su Cheng: "?"
The dragon knight came down?!
Wasn't he just supposed to make a cameo in the sky and leave?!
"What a lively scene—"
The newcomer strolled forward casually.
The Holy Knights in the courtyard remained kneeling; not a single one dared to look up at him.
He walked right through them until he stood before Su Cheng.
Su Cheng: "???"
The man was tall with dark red curly hair, fair skin, and an incredibly handsome face. A diamond-shaped white stud adorned his ear.
He wore a light, dark-colored hunting suit. Underneath his pitch-black short leather jacket was a matching inner shirt, while his breeches and knee-high boots accentuated his long legs.
Leather suspenders clung tightly to his sturdy physique, crossing over to outline the full contours of his chest muscles, with a few silver buckles gleaming brightly.
However, the most eye-catching feature was the pair of beast ears perked up on top of his head. They were pointed and triangular, covered in short reddish-brown fur on the outside, with fluffy down sprouting from the inside.
This was the symbol of a half-beastman.
On the Northern and Southern Continents, the most populous intelligent races were humans and beastmen, followed by the half-beastmen born from their union.
Beastmen had obvious animalistic traits. Half-beastmen resembled humans much more, with fewer beastly features, perhaps only retaining ears, tails, claws, and the like.
"Good evening, Miss Mage," the red-haired man said casually. "What could be weighing on the mind of a young person like you, keeping you up so late?"
Su Cheng: "..."
Alright then.
The beast-eared girl had been drastically changed into a beast-eared guy.
"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Ling Yang, the Supreme Commander of the Eastern Jurisdiction of the Silver Moon Empire, under the Holy Church's Knight Order stationed in the Northern Continent—"
The red-haired man said in a relaxed tone, "I'm chasing an escaped heretic."
The term heretic broadly referred to various pagans, as well as the dark god and the familiars of his subordinate gods.
Su Cheng lowered her head. "It is an honor to meet you, Your Excellency the Legion Commander."
The head of the Lin family hurried over from afar. Just as he reached the courtyard gate, he heard these words and slipped, nearly losing his footing.
The Holy Church's garrison across the entire Northern Continent was divided into a total of nine major jurisdictions, corresponding to nine legion commanders. The man before them was one of them.
This was already a figure at the very top of the clergy's pyramid.
"A pleasure, Mage," the red-haired man nodded. "What happened to your forehead? Are you hurt?"
"Oh," Su Cheng touched her slightly red and swollen forehead. "I hit myself because I was so angry... Sigh, I might as well tell you. My fiance wants to break off our engagement."
"Is that so?" Ling Yang frowned. "He truly lacks good taste."
"Thank you, but I'm not angry because I like him. I just find it humiliating. I was even mocked by my cousins over this..."
Su Cheng said dejectedly, "I even fainted from anger over this during the day. At night, I tossed and turned, unable to sleep, so I hit my head with a book. Sigh, honestly, now even your Holy Knights know about it."
Ling Yang looked at her for a few seconds before suddenly laughing. "You are truly adorable, my lady. Don't worry, I promise they won't leak a single word."
Su Cheng sighed. "Actually, it doesn't matter. It'll probably spread soon anyway. Let them say what they want. If it entertains everyone, that's fine too."
The red-haired man nodded. "By the way, a fugitive passed through here. Of course, he has already left by now."
He spoke nonchalantly, but his eyes suddenly flared with golden light.
The light was incredibly dazzling, like two clusters of burning flames, carrying an intense sense of intimidation.
"So I need you to undergo a test of the Spell of Truth, Miss. Answer a few of my questions, and please do not lie, or you will be reduced to ashes by the holy fire."
Su Cheng feigned bewilderment, revealing a hint of fear. "Alright, I promise to tell the whole truth."
Ling Yang curled his lips into a smile. "First, regarding the fugitive who entered your estate. Do you know who he is, Miss?"
Su Cheng: "No."
She didn't remember the name of that demoness supporting character anyway; it seemed to be something like Renee Reina.
Lin Yun had slept with too many people, and their foreign names were easy to mix up. Even the author often wrote them wrong.
Su Cheng had long known there would be such questions, which was why she deliberately angered the demon away just now, avoiding exchanging names with him.
"Good," Ling Yang seemed quite satisfied. "Do you know where he went?"
Su Cheng shook her head without hesitation. "I don't know."
"Very well," Ling Yang clapped his hands, the golden light in his eyes fading away. "You have passed the Truth Spell's lie detection. Since everything you said is the truth, we have nothing more to ask."
Su Cheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Originally, this Truth Spell interrogation was supposed to be carried out by that captain.
Lin Yun had exchanged names with the demon and said a lot of things to it. In reality, he wouldn't have been able to pass the test; he still had to rely on the old man acting as his cheat to help him bluff his way through.
"However—"
The red-haired man tilted his head and sniffed, as if trying to catch a scent in the air.
The animal ears on top of his head twitched slightly. They looked like two tufts of reddish-brown feathers, their fine, soft fuzz trembling continuously.
"There is a certain scent on you..."
Ling Yang suddenly bent down and leaned in close.
Unable to dodge in time, Su Cheng watched as the man's tall figure abruptly closed in, the tip of his high, straight nose brushing against her shoulder.
Even through the layers of her jacket and undershirt, the heat of his breath was seeping into her skin.
It was the exact spot where the demon had bitten her to drink her blood.
