Chapter Eighty-Three: The Dawn Decision

Yi Yi and I were escorted to a room at the top of the ancient castle known as the Hall of Morning Stars. Unlike the rest of the castle, its eastern wall was a vast floor-to-ceiling window fashioned from a peculiar crystal, allowing an unobstructed view of the night sky outside.

I did not rest. Instead, I sat quietly by the window, my consciousness flowing like liquid silver, enveloping the entire castle.

Deep within the castle’s underground chamber, a heated debate was unfolding.

“No! Absolutely not!” roared a blood clan elder, his voice ancient and violent. “The Heart of Cain is a gift from our forebears! It’s our glory! How can we surrender it to an unknown man from the East?”

“Elder Valerius, it is not a gift—it is a curse!” Alistair’s voice was calm and powerful. “We have been trapped in the night for thousands of years, skulking like rats in the shadows, fleeing sunlight! Is this the glory you speak of?”

“We are kings of the night! Mortals are our sustenance! You would have us become like them?”

“No, I would have us become freer—not enslaved by our desires!”

Arguments, debates, and howls—emotions surged through the chamber. Some elders, like Valerius, stubbornly clung to their so-called “blood clan dignity”; others, deeply moved by Alistair’s proposal, revealed exhaustion and longing; many more wavered, uncertain.

I could feel the immense pressure on Alistair.

I did not intervene. This was their choice to make. I offered opportunity, not coercion.

The debate lasted the entire night.

Until the first light of dawn approached the horizon. A blood clan member reported to Alistair the confirmed news regarding Senior Wang Jiang and the Tears of the Holy Grail from the Church.

At last, Alistair made his decision, ending all argument with a single statement.

“I, Alistair Thorne, as the current patriarch of House Thorne, will bear the full responsibility for this decision. Those willing to follow me and embrace new life, stay. Those unwilling, you are free to leave—I will not hinder you. But from this day forth, you will no longer be members of House Thorne.”

The chamber fell into a dead silence.

After a long while, the most radical Elder Valerius let out a resentful snort, transformed into a flock of bats, and flew away through the secret passage. A few other elders departed as well.

Yet the vast majority chose to stay.

They chose to trust Alistair, to believe in that distant yet alluring hope—the hope of walking in sunlight.

As the first ray of morning sunlight streamed through the crystal windows of the Hall of Morning Stars and bathed me, the door to the room was pushed open.

Alistair entered. His complexion remained pale, but his violet eyes seemed to burn with flames.

He knelt on one knee, pledging his loyalty and his choice to me.

“Esteemed Mr. Jiang, we—House Thorne—are willing to accept your bargain.”

I followed Alistair to the core sanctuary in the castle’s depths.

There, upon a black obsidian altar, lay a heart.

It was not flesh and blood, but appeared to be made from the purest dark red crystal, glistening and radiating an ancient, sinister, and powerful energy. It beat in a steady rhythm, each pulse resonating with the darkness across all of Europe.

This was the Heart of Cain.

I could clearly sense within it two entirely different powers. One was the immense origin of life—the spiritual stone core I needed. The other was saturated with resentment, madness, and unwillingness: the power of the curse, which had caused all the flaws of the blood clan.

“Let us begin,” I said to Alistair.

He nodded, and together with the other elders, sat around the altar, commencing a venerable ritual. They linked their power to the Heart of Cain, preparing for the coming transformation.

I reached out, pressing my hand into the void above the Heart of Cain.

My consciousness, like an invisible scalpel, penetrated its core with precision.

“Separation!”

I silently intoned.

The immense curse was instantly torn out from the origin of life. It emitted a silent shriek, becoming a dense black mist, attempting to resist and invade my soul.

“Hmph, a mere flicker.”

I snorted coldly. My Dao heart was steadfast; such resentment could not shake it. I blew upon the black mist, and it dissipated like smoke, utterly purified.

Freed from its curse, the core of the Heart of Cain—the dark red spiritual stone—shone with dazzling brilliance.

I took it and placed it into my pouch. The seventh spiritual stone was mine.

At the same time, I fulfilled my promise, infusing the empty shell of the heart with pure, balanced life energy and, using the laws of my Dao, reconstructed its cycle of yin and yang.

A gentle hum resonated.

The transformed heart radiated a soft, ruby-like glow, full of vitality and devoid of any sinister aura.

The blood clan gathered around the altar let out a collective groan. Deep in their souls, the hunger that had tormented them for millennia vanished. An unprecedented sense of ease and freedom washed over them.

Alistair rose slowly, walked to the edge of the sanctuary where a skylight was set. With trembling hands, he opened the window.

A strand of golden sunlight streamed in, falling upon the back of his hand.

No burning, no pain.

Only a long-lost warmth.

Alistair gazed at his hand, bathed in sunlight, stunned. Two silent trails of bloody tears slipped from his violet eyes.

He turned, and offered me the most ancient and exalted blood clan salute.

…

With the seventh spiritual stone in hand, I did not linger in London. After bidding farewell to the grateful Alistair, I took Yi Yi and headed straight for our next destination—ancient India.

The eighth spiritual stone, the "Eye of Brahma," was said to be enshrined in the forehead of a statue in a venerable Buddhist temple.

Yet, when I arrived with Yi Yi in this land of curry and Sanskrit chants, for the first time, my brow furrowed in genuine concern.

For as my spirit swept over the legendary temple, I sensed an extraordinarily uncanny force, one that even unsettled me.

It was a power interwoven with faith, will, reincarnation, karma, and even…inner demons.

Entangled with the spiritual stone, it formed a domain unlike any I had ever encountered—almost an “area” unto itself.

What truly startled me was when I looked at Yi Yi and saw that the center of her brow seemed to respond faintly and ominously to that force.

It was as if the statue’s Eye of Brahma was gazing from afar at my daughter.

Things, it seemed, were becoming far less simple.