"Identify yourselves!"
A loud shout blasted into Leonardo's face when he, Zaylee, and Victoria suddenly appeared on an elevated altar stationed at the peak of a barren, red mountain.
Seven elderly men with long silver hair and crimson eyes housing vertical pupils bore down on them with a heavy aura of peak divinities.
"Elders, I am Zaylee from the 83rd branch family," Zaylee quickly stepped forward and slit her wrist, a drop of lustrous blood that diffused a martial intent resonating with the smudged clots of ruby on the dry mountain path.
"So it is that child Zay, why did you return so early?"
Asked one of the female elders, though her tone didn't care a hint of warmth— it was more accurately defined as derision and rebuke.
Zaylee didn't seem to mind as she bowed, "I came to report in regards to my task— I've found someone who might be able to rid our blood essence pools from the contamination derived from the mixed bloodlines…"
Buzz!
The elders had yet to react when an authoritative voice transcended space and echoed above the altar, "Bring the guests over to my residence."
The elders who were shocked and dubious immediately reacted, bowing in the direction of the voice, "Of course, clan lord!"
Of course, this quick response from the rebirth realm cultivator was due to Leonardo specifically isolating out his bloodthirsty martial intent while conserving the fluctuations of the heavenly retribution lightning, desolate, and eternal night martial intent.
Looking all around, Leonardo had the urge to immediately devour every drop of blood essence this hidden dimension had to offer to progress his bloodthirsty armament, as it had already incorporated the powers of his four martial intents under the influence of his former cultivation technique; Fourth Dimension Immortal Scripture.
It was only that the bloodthirsty armament was at too low of a level to withstand the might of the heavenly retribution and his innate martial intent at once, destabilizing the bloodthirsty armament's full body armor form.
If he could absorb all of this blood essence that wound in rivers and pooled into 108 separate points of concentration, that wouldn't be a problem anymore.
Sadly, only the bloodthirsty territory offered a meticulous enough area of control over blood to segregate the polluted blood essence from the original bloodline, not to mention that Rosaline was in urgent need of this much blood essence to rebuild her body.
Leonardo could only watch but not touch, causing his heart to bleed with remorse and empty desire.
"Let's go," Leonardo nodded at Zaylee and Victoria before following in the trail of the seven elders who led the way with reverence and anticipation on their faces, indicating just how difficult it was to meet with the clan lord nowadays as he struggled to maintain his bloodline from regression in the absence of a pure-blood essence pool.
…
Blood Warlock Siegfried was the current clan lord of the vampire clan, and he was currently pacing back and forth in his imperial study in the Warlock Castle, muttering excitedly to himself.
"It's definitely the aura of the Blood Sovereign, albeit very diluted, I'm certain of it…" The clan lord was very certain of the feeling that martial intent provided him with, especially since he was a very erudite man in recent years.
After all, he couldn't leave the hidden dimension nor could he cultivate in the blood essence pool, he had little to pass the time other than browsing through ancient tomes of past history, especially the chronicles of the Three Progenitors and Seven Sovereigns.
How could he not get excited? But he was also confused about how someone from that lineage— no matter how diluted, arrived at such a far corner of the multiverse like the Core Mainland.
If Leonardo had a glance at these ancient records , he would finally understand why the Interstellar Supreme Court went through so much effort to lock down on a virgin female from House Hestia, to the point of plotting against the pure blood males such as the house lord and his son.
However, even without knowing why, he wouldn't just stand by and allow them to bully the mother of his child and her family without retaliation.
Soon, he smiled faintly as the door to the study parted open, Leonardo and the other two walking through with Zaylee taking the lead to kneel piously in front of the clan lord.
"Good child, you did well! You did well! Haha," a formless ripple of energy picked up Zaylee gently, a look of excitement on her face.
However deep inside, she was a bit shocked as this power— although mysterious, was leagues below the impression she received from Junior Brother, and that person wasn't even one of the higher-ups of the brotherhood, at least according to him and Leonardo.
With that thought, she shuddered out of fear that the clan lord might do something unfavorable to Leonardo, hence she quickly sent a mental message to the clan lord about Junior Brother.
She didn't mention anything about Memento Mori, only saying that Leonardo comes from a very mysterious and powerful organization and that there was a star lord rebirth realm cultivator together with him when they first met.
This message stunned the clan lord into getting rid of every conspiracy he had in mind.
Meanwhile, Leonardo was conversing with Rosaline's embryo which had already awakened.
"How positive are you about this?"
"I'm very positive I can take control of this hidden dimension and immediately refine it as a star core the moment I make my breakthrough— I already need to find myself a sub-dimension to advance my cultivation, and this place is just perfect for me."
"Won't this rebirth realm cultivator feel anything off about it?"
"You're underestimating my bloodthirsty territory a bit too much, aren't you? This hidden dimension is kept together based on the 108 blood essence pools and since they're already polluted, the laws are on the verge of fragmentation. I can simultaneously connect with them while I draw out the pollution, so by the time I cleansed the blood essence pools, this hidden dimension would be no different from my personal domain."
Leonardo felt glad, as he didn't think for one second that the clan lord would be so easy to talk with, as he immediately noticed the weird light in the man's eyes.
After receiving Zaylee's message, Siegfried's attitude immediately shifted as he approached Leonardo and patted his shoulders, "You must be the helper Zaylee talked about, aren't you? Haha, come, come and have a seat!"
He enthusiastically led Leonardo to a comfortable and lavish chair before going around the heavy desk, taking a seat himself whilst gesturing for Zaylee to hurry and bring over some wine.
"How do you plan to help my clan? What do you want in exchange?" Siegfried immediately cut to the chase, his face the mask of anxiety as his hands clenched on the surface of the table.
This anxiety was authentic, as the hidden dimension was the lifeline of their vampire clan— his lifeline.
Leonardo's eyebrows raised, but since the other party was as straightforward, he didn't need to hold back and said, "I need ether fragments, be it pure or raw ones— a lot at that. As long as I have ether fragment at hand, I can continuously purify the blood essence pools."
Leonardo painted an image that as long as he had to run his martial intent to refine the blood essence pools, he would require the exhaustion of an equivalent amount of his worldly energy.
Hence, the more ether fragments he had, the better the results.
Of course, this was a lie.
Nonetheless, Leonardo required an astounding amount of resources to revitalize his sub-dimension and fix the fragmented laws, and he couldn't be so shameless as to request these resources from the Memento Mori brotherhood.
Since this vampire lord stretched out his neck, Leonardo wouldn't be polite about slicing it clean.
With that thought in mind, Leonardo smiled brightly.