Chapter Fifty-Six: Test Subject

With a loud clang, the sound of the cabinet door closing snapped Lilith back to her senses. She turned around in haste, only to see Gu Zhongyan, now dressed in a yellow cloak with black trim, holding a white dragonbone wand, strolling in leisurely.

Anyone who has seen the Fantastic Beasts films would surely have been impressed by Newt Scamander’s suitcase. Inside that seemingly small case were dozens of magical creatures, each with its own unique habitat—jungles, deserts, rainforests, caves, burrows, grasslands, snowy fields, lakes, skies—a miniature world, rivaling a vast animal sanctuary.

Countless viewers, after seeing the film, must have dreamed of owning such a suitcase themselves.

After regaining his magical power, Gu Zhongyan created a similar space within his wardrobe. Yet, due to the lack of suitable magical materials, the space was currently only as large as it was. This was already an improvement thanks to his collaboration with Egghead Nick Fury, from whom he managed to wrangle a fair number of materials.

Clearly, although that man was unfamiliar with the arcane, he possessed a surprising amount of mystical objects.

Ignoring Lilith’s astonished gaze, Gu Zhongyan gave his wand a gentle shake. In the corner, a pile of stones stirred and stacked themselves into a platform the size of a single bed.

Having done all this, Gu Zhongyan turned and looked at Lilith.

“What are you planning to do?” At this moment, Lilith finally felt a sense of unease, an instinct that being rescued by Gu Zhongyan might not be any better than dying at the hands of Blade.

Gu Zhongyan smiled, lightly flicking his wand.

“Binding Spell!”

With a swish, several iron chains shot out from a heap of discarded objects, winding around Lilith like living serpents, binding her tightly to the stone platform.

“What are you doing? What do you want? Let me go, let me go now!” Lilith cried out, terror wide in her eyes.

Gu Zhongyan smiled maliciously and spoke.

“I’ve seen many vampires, but this world’s vampires are a novelty for me. Miss Lilith, if you don’t mind, may I observe what makes you different from the others?”

“What are you talking about, this world, that world? I don’t understand! What do you want?” Lilith’s terror grew, her body shaking as if afflicted by Parkinson’s.

Gu Zhongyan gave no answer, simply waved his wand again and uttered,

“Severing Slash!”

A piercing scream echoed through the space; Lilith’s chest seemed to be sliced open by an invisible blade, exposing the vivid red organs within. Blood flowed in streams, soaking the stone platform.

For an ordinary person, such a wound would be fatal or at least crippling. But a vampire is a vampire. Despite the gruesome scene, aside from her screams, Lilith showed no signs of grave injury.

Not that it had no effect at all. Severing Slash was a dark spell, not only as deadly as a blade but also preventing the wounded area from healing by any means.

Vampires possess remarkable healing abilities; in a sense, they cannot be killed except by their specific weaknesses. Yet, as the saying goes, expect the unexpected. Their seeming immortality is simply because they recover too quickly; ordinary methods, however devastating, cannot kill them, giving the illusion of invincibility.

Now, faced with the unhealable effects of Severing Slash, the vampire was hardly faring better.

At first, the wound only caused Lilith to scream incessantly, her life force keeping her from more severe reactions. But as her blood continued to pour out and the injury remained unhealed, even her vampire constitution could not keep her unharmed.

Lilith’s cries grew more agonized, her already pale face draining of color, a palpable aura of death beginning to envelop her.

Gu Zhongyan observed, thoughtful. “It seems a vampire’s immortality is not as formidable as imagined.”

Seeing that Lilith was truly on the brink of death, Gu Zhongyan finally waved his wand and recited the counter-curse.

The gaping wound quickly closed and healed, and Lilith’s ghastly pallor gradually eased.

She stared at Gu Zhongyan with overwhelming terror; at that moment, even if the most fearsome demon in the world stood before her, he would not inspire the dread that Gu Zhongyan did.

Gu Zhongyan sneered, his gaze icy as he looked at Lilith.

“Don’t look at me like that, Miss Lilith. When you and your filthy breed feed on the blood of ordinary people, do you ever consider what they feel?”

“You should be grateful. You still have value as a subject for my dark magic experiments, and can barely cling to life, rather than dying with the rest of your kind at Blade’s hands.”

“Now then, let’s try another spell. How about this one?”

“Cruciatus!”

The increasingly shrill screams reverberated through the space, growing louder and more relentless, like waves rising to a tsunami—each cry more piercing than the last.

If ever there was a sound to chill the soul and terrify those who hear it, these anguished screams would plunge ninety-nine percent of sentient beings into sleepless horror.

Cruciatus, Severing Slash, Shatter, Stupefy, Petrify, Fiendfyre...

With a subject possessing such a powerful healing ability, and as a vampire providing Gu Zhongyan with no moral compunction in his magical experiments, Lilith, for the first time, felt that death would be a blessing.

If Blade appeared before her now, she would, without hesitation, kneel and beg him to end her life.

Compared to one spell after another, Blade’s clean, swift execution was merciful—like that of a benevolent saint.

Moreover, Gu Zhongyan’s experiments were not limited to magic alone; he also tested other things, such as potions.

When he first experimented with Severing Slash on Lilith, besides observing the effects of the spell, Gu Zhongyan also analyzed her physical structure using magical means.

Perhaps because Lilith was not a pure-blooded vampire, her anatomy was much like that of a regular human; the only difference lay in her blood.

In ordinary humans, platelets are shaped as biconvex discs, but Lilith’s platelets were biconcave.

This difference in blood composition made Lilith more akin to a patient with a blood disorder than to the vampires of the Harry Potter world.