Cthulhu America, I can see the kill line.

"Mina's here? Young man, do you have some kind of reconnaissance ability?"

Although Father Urban was indeed intimidated by Mina's name, he was not so easily frightened by a few words from a newcomer that he would run away with his tail between his legs.

Kong Jiu ignored the priest, his eyes fixed on the end of the alley, his heart sinking.

It's too late to escape.

Two hundred, one hundred and seventy, one hundred and thirty...

Mina approached at a speed of nearly 30 meters per second!

Did she fly here? How could she possibly outrun someone on just two legs?

The figure of the blood mage, whose attributes were as high as 42 points, appeared in the detection range and within just a few words, he was already nearby!

Kong Jiu's heart jumped into his throat. He gripped the knife and gun he had just put down tightly in his hands once more.

The emblem on the palm of his hand was growing hotter and hotter, and the alluring, enchanting temptation was becoming more vivid and intense!

One hundred and thirty meters!

Even Father Urban, standing to the side, couldn't help but furrow his brow, clearly feeling the pungent, sweet-smelling bloody odor pressing down on his face.

At the end of the alley, in mid-air, a beautiful figure in black and red suddenly appeared.

A bat.

A bat with a jet-black body, tightly wrapped in a crimson blood mist, spun rapidly around the corner.

Then, the bat gracefully twirled in the air, a layer of black mist rising around it, before steadily drifting down to the ground.

As the black mist dissipated, a double-sided umbrella appeared before Kong Jiu and the priest.

The umbrella's surface was jet black, while its inner lining was as vibrant as blood.

The black umbrella was slightly raised, revealing a pale, yet breathtakingly alluring face.

Mina Stewart.

This young and beautiful short-haired woman of blood was as beautiful as a fleeting ephemera, like fireworks bursting in the summer night sky.

But her bloodless, pale face, with the rouge on her lips and the crimson light flowing deep in her eyes, made it seem as if blood might be about to seep out at any moment, warning everyone who approached her: getting too close to her was definitely not a good idea.

However... her black hair and her East Asian features, which were somewhat similar to those of Kong Jiu, clearly declared to others that she was actually a person of Asian descent.

Descendants of Asian descent?

"Which of my sworn brothers are you?"

His ruby-like eyes swept over Kong Jiu's face, a hint of confusion in them. "No, Red Rain Fortress never had someone like you before. Who are you?"

"Um, I am Urban Grandi, Miss Mina. We met yesterday..."

Before poor Urban could finish speaking, Mina spun around with her black umbrella, creating a gust of foul wind that rushed straight to his face.

The enthusiastic priest's eyes rolled back, he collapsed to the ground, convulsed a few times, and his body turned into specks of red light and vanished.

"That talkative old man,"

Mina glanced at the spot where Urban had disappeared, then her gaze quickly returned to Kong Jiu, who was gripping his sword and spear tightly.

"Aren't you going to introduce yourself? My friend with the Stuart family crest? Perhaps we don't have to draw our swords?"

Her sweet, melodious voice was like a soft whisper, and an alluring scent seemed to lick at Kong Jiu's eardrums. Mina, holding a black umbrella, slowly approached Kong Jiu, step by step.

But Kong Jiu did not relax in the slightest; he gripped his weapon even tighter.

"You're Mina from Red Rain Keep? The Mina who left the Hillsia space node five years ago?"

The black muzzle of his Beretta gun was pointed at the newcomer, but it brought Kong Jiu no sense of security. "Eller said his children are all human, but you are a blood descendant?"

"Ah, about my body, there's a bit of a history to it."

Mina gracefully removed her black silk gloves, her gaze lingering on the crimson bottle pattern on her palm.

"Looking back now, I was such a complete idiot five years ago. I actually thought that the old man adopted me just so he could enslave and humiliate me in the future... In a fit of pique, I left Red Rain Fortress."

The emblems on both palms were now radiating a captivating allure, causing Mina and Kongjiu's gazes to become slightly hazy and ambiguous.

"But when I actually stepped into human society, I discovered that my father, as a bloodline, was actually so generous and kind."

"I attended Hills High School No. 1, and easily ranked first in the entire school in academic subjects. The reason was simple: my dad required everyone to have a basic knowledge base, like the 'nine-finger counting method' he taught, which many of my peers had never even heard of!"

As she spoke, Mina gently lifted her shoulder and leaned the black umbrella against it. She then cupped her hands around her two mounds of rotting flesh.

"But although my classmates were all good-for-nothings, they were incredibly interested in my skin tone that hadn't been exposed to the sun for sixteen years, and my beautiful body that my dad had carefully fed and cared for."

Kong Jiu frowned.

The pregnancy rate at Amerigo High School was so high that it was unimaginable to the once naive Kong Jiu.

"So, after you were... you swore to take revenge, and by chance you became a bloodline?" Kong Jiu cautiously speculated.

"No, it's not that complicated."

Mina shook her head. "Before those beasts dragged me to the toilet and tore off my clothes, someone kindly told me, and I immediately dropped out of that stinking ditch school."

At this point, Mina looked up again, gazing at the surrounding high-rise buildings made of steel and concrete.

"The old man found out about it that day and wired me a large sum of money so I could transfer to a better private school. Damn it, I still suspect he planted some kind of 'bat sentinel' around me."

"I don't think so, after all, it took me a lot of effort to find you."

Kong Jiu interrupted Mina's grumbling, "So, you really are Mina from Red Rain Fortress, right... How did you get to Xinxiang?"

"Yes, yes, of course I am." Mina raised her face, a hint of melancholy in her eyes, staring helplessly at the concrete jungle around her.

"After dropping out of high school, I was lucky enough to meet a talent scout on my way back to my rented room. I went with them to Broadway and became a rising opera star."

"Everything is great. They praised my voice as a 'gift from heaven'; my figure made the men in the audience stare wide-eyed, almost to the point of popping out of their sockets; especially my complexion, my agent exclaimed that my stunningly beautiful face, like the 'son of the red dragon,' paired with snow-white, jade-like skin, would make even the president lose his mind!"

"Everything was going so well. I became a big star and a beautiful woman in Xinxiang, the apple of everyone's eye... If it weren't for that night, when that fat, greasy pig boss tried to take advantage of me while I was relaxed and molest me..."

Mina raised her slender, snow-white hand, her red eyes gazing at the emblem with rapture.

"I fought back desperately, and my fingernails slashed a bloody gash across his greasy, fat face, the blood falling right into my palm."

"That dead pig was enraged and tried to force himself on me, but I was like I was bewitched, and in a daze I... bit his neck."

Having said that, Mina glanced lightly with her dreamy eyes and fixed her gaze on Kong Jiu.

"Alright, I've told you everything that happened to me. Now, it's your turn to tell me how the old man got the Stuart family crest on your hand."

Kong Jiuping's solemn expression relaxed slightly.

He lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then slowly lowered the knife and gun.

He also raised his face, mimicking Mina's posture, and looked around at the towering buildings that surrounded him.

"This ceremony in Lixin Township is to destroy the Iron Curtain, right?"

Mina nodded slightly.

He turned his gaze to Mina: "So... do you really understand what the 'Iron Curtain' refers to?"

Mina scoffed: "Of course I know, the rules and regulations that suppress all extraordinary beings."

She raised her hand, and streaks of blood-red spiritual energy gathered at the tips of her dark red fingernails.

"I've heard those politicians in ties say that as long as the Iron Curtain is torn down, we, the descendants of the bloodline, can walk openly in the world."

Crimson spiritual energy flowed lightly between her fingers, instantly coalescing into a human-shaped phantom.

That kind and gentle face belonged to her "father," Eller, who had raised her for many years.

"Not just for myself, but also for the old man," Mina said, a hint of tenderness creeping into her eyes as she gazed at the portrait of Eller that she had created with her own blood magic.

"I'm willing to stake everything to shatter that Iron Curtain and make the name of the Stuart bloodline resound throughout this land."

"I'm not sure if your father would agree to what you're doing." Kong Jiu raised his hand, the insignia on his palm facing Mina.

"But there is one thing I must tell you: this emblem, the family crest on your palm, the source of your blood magic, the reason you became a bloodline, comes precisely from a small piece of the foundation of the Iron Curtain of Hills."

"What has made everything you are today comes from the Iron Curtain itself in your homeland."