Chapter 23: The Memories of the Past Surface

Outside the bunker, Liya and her team were locked in a bloody battle.

Liya swung her scythe, the massive blade reaping the crimson branches attacking from all sides.

The warriors around her were shouting and screaming in agony, mingling with the shrill screeches of the flower monsters.

To her horror, she noticed that these monsters, with their flower-shaped heads, were getting stronger.

“Young Miss! These monsters are getting stronger by devouring our comrades!”

The leader of the warriors took advantage of a brief lull to retreat to Liya’s side, shouting through gritted teeth.

He had discovered that every time a vampire warrior’s limbs were bitten off, the flower monster’s branches would become thicker, and the veins inside would swell even more.

The large force Liya had brought had all become fodder for these monsters.

No sooner had he finished speaking than the warrior was ensnared by a branch and dragged toward the flower monster’s gaping maw.

“Enough!!” Liya stomped her foot and raised her scythe, slashing at the flower monster.

“Swish!”

The flower monster’s head was severed, and that warrior narrowly escaped death.

But the other warriors were not so fortunate.

Some were swept up to their thighs by the branches, while others were swallowed whole by the flower monsters.

The flower monster Liya had cut in half spattered her arm with its oozing slime.

“Hiss…”

The corrosive liquid made her forearm sting with a prickling pain.

It had been a long time since she’d felt such pain.

Although her body could regenerate on its own, she still had to endure the torment of flesh regrowing—an experience she hadn’t felt in ages.

That was because she had lost Lin Shu, and with her, “Healing Arts.”

If Lin Shu were here, she would rarely be injured, and even if she was, her wounds would quickly heal thanks to the Healing Arts.

If only Lin Shu were by her side…

Liya planted her scythe in the ground, supporting herself.

Watching her warriors be reborn again and again, only to be swallowed over and over by the flower monsters, the hellish scene made her mind blur for a moment.

“Master… Master…”

She remembered the sound of Lin Shu calling out to her.

Back in battle, Lin Shu would bite open her own hand, condense her blood into a sharp sword, and charge ahead of her.

When the sword was shattered by a powerful enemy, she would unhesitatingly use even more blood to create a new weapon.

Even though overdrawing too much blood would leave a human body frail and weak.

That time, Liya had used “Healing Arts” to awaken Lin Shu, who had fallen unconscious after the battle. When she awoke, she lowered her head and said,

“Thank you, Master.”

Facing that weak but desperately determined human who stood before her, Liya’s heart softened for a moment, but she never spoke the words “well done.”

Now, what she once had had been taken by another vampire.

Sefina!

A blaze of fury erupted in Liya’s crimson eyes.

“Young Miss, should we retreat for now?” the warriors asked her anxiously in the chaos.

“More and more monsters are pouring out of that underground bunker, and many of our people can’t hold on…”

“No, no…” Liya gripped the scythe handle tightly.

She could sense Sefina and Lin Shu’s auras inside the building ahead.

She absolutely could not back down here.

Just one more step forward, and she could see Lin Shu.

Liya suddenly swung her scythe high and charged ahead, cutting down a dozen flower monsters that leapt at her.

*****

“It’s her.” Sefina sensed the intense magical fluctuations.

That powerful and violent fighting style—it had to be the Young Miss of the Tepes family.

“The Tepes family—they’re here for the Scarlet Stamen too?”

“But so are we, so why are all the flower monsters heading toward them?”

Lulu observed for a moment. “Hmm… There are a lot of people up there. Besides that really strong one, there are at least twenty or so all packed together.”

“Maybe it’s because there’s more to eat up there?”

“I think so,” a vampire warrior said, shaking slime from his huge sword. “Looks like the monsters have all rushed up for a buffet.”

A black line appeared on Lin Shu’s forehead—this description was a bit too hellish.

“Anyway, we have to hurry and not let them get ahead of us,” Sefina brought the topic back.

As she spoke, she kept glancing at Lin Shu. She really wanted to know what Lin Shu was thinking right now.

Lin Shu didn’t notice Sefina’s gaze, but slowly withdrew the vines blocking the path, looking deep into the passageway.

“There were so many flower monsters around just now. I think we’re getting close to the target.”

The group pressed onward.

Lulu used her special eyes to scan the bunker hallways, carefully stepping over the raised branches on the floor.

“Found it,” she suddenly said. “The target’s just ahead.”

Following the squad, Lin Shu ducked under a low stone door and entered a spacious cavern.

Inside was as large as a cathedral’s nave, dimly lit, all the light coming from the gigantic presence at its center.

It was a massive flower, its scarlet petals blooming wide, sprawling across two-thirds of the cavern.

The flower’s stem was thicker than an adult’s thigh, coiled beneath the petals, its veins pulsing like a beating heart.

Just as the book described, it looked like the flower monsters, only several times larger.

“Damn, is this the Scarlet Flower?”

The teammates barely dared breathe, whispering their awe.

“But it doesn’t seem as violent as the other flower monsters…”

“Although it’s in full bloom, it looks pretty calm right now,” the witch doctor’s even voice came through the mask.

Lin Shu noticed that beneath the roots of the Scarlet Flower, a thick branch was curled around a small rose.

It was the same rose picked off by the first flower monster they encountered.

“Hey, hey, there’s a stamen in the center of the flower,” Lulu bounced twice as she spoke.

Everyone’s eyes focused on the heart of the blooming Scarlet Flower.

Sure enough, several golden stamens clustered in the center, glowing faintly.

That was their target.

“So, how do we get the stamen? Use magic? Or do we have to slaughter this big thing?”

“No need for anything so complicated,” Sefina smiled. “It’s in bloom right now. We just need to pick it.”

“Miss, you’re not joking, are you?”

“If we pick the stamen, isn’t it like plucking its last few hairs? When it finds itself bald, won’t it swallow us whole?”

“That won’t happen. What’s important is how you pick it,” Lin Shu recalled a key point from the books. “Just be careful. Don’t hurt it.”

The vampire warrior nodded in sudden understanding.

“So, we pick the flower gently, not roughly.”

“The real question is, who goes?” a teammate raised the most crucial point.

To cross those massive, tooth-lined petals to reach the center and precisely cut the stamen—only someone who’d seen the records with their own eyes would know how to do it.

Lin Shu steeled herself and spoke up.

“I’ll go.”

“No.” Sefina was the first to object.

“No, no, no, Lin Shu! If the Scarlet Flower eats you, you’ll be gone for real!” Lulu rushed over to hold Lin Shu back.