Lord of Prayer - Chapter 244 178: An Itch to Cause Trouble

The Li Family banquet hall.

The magnificent main reception hall was in shambles. The air was thick with the lingering smell of gunpowder. Walls and floor were riddled with bloodstains and bullet holes, and the ground was littered with gruesome corpses.

The moment they learned of the Blood Race invasion, the Li Family reacted swiftly: they opened the hidden armory in the reception hall to distribute firearms, dispatched the guard team as reinforcements, and sent a distress signal to the Star Association…

When a large number of the Blood Race rushed into the banquet hall, the Li Family had intended to hand over the experimental reports for the Eternal Life Project to appease them. However, the Blood Race launched into a slaughter without a word, making communication impossible.

A tragic battle had unfolded, but it was a completely one-sided massacre.

Among the Li Clan, only Elder Li and Uncle Thirteen were Ascenders. Along with two hired Ascenders from the guard team, that made for a total of four. But everyone else was an ordinary person. Even armed with guns, they were no match for the Blood Race. What’s more, their weapons were ordinary firearms—they were neither Alchemy Weapons nor had they been enchanted. Although suppressive fire could slow the Blood Race’s advance, it could hardly inflict fatal damage.

An injured member of the Blood Race only needed to rest for a moment, and wounds that would have been fatal more than ten times over for a normal human would completely heal.

The entire battle was a complete rout, a one-sided slaughter by the Blood Race.

If the Blood Race hadn’t been wary of reinforcements from the Star Association, they probably would have turned the Li Family Manor into a river of blood in less than an hour.

By the time Li Xiye and Xia Lan hurried back to the banquet hall, they saw medical personnel from the Star Association systematically treating the wounded. The scene was somewhat chaotic, with people coming and going everywhere.

“You two…”

Uncle Thirteen, wrapped head to toe in bandages, walked over. He studied the wounds and bloodstains on Li Xiye and Xia Lan, his expression changing slightly.

Li Xiye looked like she had been in a huge brawl—the kind where she fought dozens of people by herself. She was covered in bruises and cuts. Her fists were a bloody mess, bone visible beneath the mangled flesh.

Xia Lan’s appearance was even more frightening. Her neck was covered in blood, and her white dress was almost completely dyed red, still dripping. At a glance, you would have mistaken her for the ghost of a woman in red.

“We were attacked by the Blood Race in the back garden. Sister Lan almost didn’t make it,” Li Xiye said in a low voice, her heart still pounding with residual fear. ‘If Zhou Chen hadn’t arrived in time, I would have lost the person most important to me forever.’

She handed over the potion. “This is a Healing Potion from Zhou Chen. Uncle Thirteen, please share it among the wounded.”

But with the Star Association’s medical staff on site, the Healing Potion seemed less critical.

“Mr. Zhou saved you? Where is he?” Uncle Thirteen asked, taking the potion.

“He said he had other business and left… Are my parents okay?” Li Xiye asked.

“They’re alive, but it’s not looking good. They’ve been sent to the hospital.” Uncle Thirteen sighed, looking at the potion. “Elder Li is gone. Seventh, Fifteenth, and Eighteenth are gone too. The Li Family suffered a heavy blow this time. We lost a lot of people… By the way, I sensed an Essence Fluctuation in the back garden earlier…”

“I awakened,” Li Xiye admitted without hesitation.

‘Awakened…’ A flicker of joy sparked in Uncle Thirteen’s heart. For the Li Family, this was a blessing in disguise. Although many high-ranking clan members had died, they had gained a young Ascender with limitless potential. ‘To put it bluntly, the combined value of everyone who died, including Elder Li, probably doesn’t measure up to Li Xiye’s.’

Youth is an asset.

With the full resources of an entire family poured into her, no one knew how far Li Xiye could go in the future.

Just then, a woman in a uniform walked over. It was the leader of the special operations team Li Xiye had met before.

“I experienced what was in the drawing.”

Li Xiye said to her, “Those chaotic lines were swarms of bats. They were transformed from a Blood Race Saint Child named Pansi. It claims to be from the ‘Ring of Authority’ clan and is very powerful. Besides Pansi, there was also a Blood Knight named Molei, who is even stronger.”

“‘The Ring of Authority’ clan…”

Gong Su, the leader of the Hong City special operations team, frowned. Among the Blood Race, the Ring of Authority clan was one of the most difficult to deal with. They held an absolute hostility towards humans, valued the honor of the Blood Race more than life itself, and had an extremely strict internal hierarchy. Their superiors gave the orders, and their coordination and cohesiveness were exceptional, making them incredibly troublesome.

If the Blood Race that had been gathering in Hong City recently were from the “Ring of Authority” clan, then things were about to get tough.

“We will handle the matter of the Blood Race. However, since you encountered a Blood Race Saint Child, how did you return unharmed?” Gong Su asked, sizing up the two of them with suspicion, especially Xia Lan.

Slitting a neck and watching their prey drown in a pool of its own blood is a favorite hunting method of the Blood Race. Xia Lan had undoubtedly been targeted as prey, yet here she was, standing completely unscathed. There were no visible injuries, nor any signs of excessive blood loss. It defied all logic.

“Report! We’ve found dozens of Blood Race corpses in the manor’s back garden!”

Suddenly, a sharp intake of breath came from the walkie-talkie on Gong Su’s shoulder. The Operator on the other end was clearly shocked. “They’re… truly dead. Cellular decay, spiritual annihilation, no possibility of self-healing. There are burn marks from silverware at the wounds, but most of the burns seem to be from some kind of flame…”

“And the signs of battle here… Chief, you have to come see this for yourself.”

Hearing this, Uncle Thirteen was also stunned. All of them together couldn’t even take down a single member of the Blood Race, yet Zhou Chen had killed dozens by himself, and probably fought the Blood Race Saint Child on top of that… ‘Is this the fucking combat power of an Alchemist?’