Mage Manual

Chapter 88: Chapter 81: It Was You Who Brought the Blood Saint Clan Here (Eighth Update)

Watching the scar-covered Swordfish Dragon hastily flee into the fog, Siflin fell into deep thought.

This was already the fourth knowledge creature she had encountered tonight.

Generally speaking, Siflin’s nightly explorations in the Void Realm involved only one special event—most of the time she would wander all night, mainly because the Sea of Knowledge was too vast, and the fog too thick, and unless there was a fateful life-or-death encounter, it was hard to meet anyone in the vast sea.

However, she had continuously encountered four knowledge creatures tonight, leading Siflin to wonder if it was the breeding season for these creatures, causing them to gather around their community in heat…

But Siflin actually understood why she kept triggering battle events.

She transformed into a small bat again and waited in the same spot for a moment, and sure enough, she heard the familiar “plop” sound again! @@novelbin@@

...

There it was again!

Having heard this sound five times in a row, Siflin could no longer deceive herself into thinking it was an illusion.

She could even foresee that, if she flew in the direction from which the sound came, she would definitely encounter another knowledge creature! Just like the previous four times!

What in the world was going on?

The books “Hundred Years of Illusion, Ten Years of Sea”, “Poor Mages, Rich Mages”, and “Ten Thousand Miles of Navigation” didn’t mention anything about this situation!

The most similar situation was the legendary “Mermaid’s Call.” It was said that in the Sea of Knowledge, there was a knowledge creature known as the Lamplight Dragon, which was extremely ugly, but its tentacles were beautiful mermaids with sweet voices and enticing figures. When a Mage couldn’t resist the temptation and got close to a mermaid, the lurking Lamplight Dragon would suddenly appear and devour the Mage completely.

However, Siflin had neither seen a mermaid nor encountered any traps; it seemed as though the ‘plop’ sound was simply guiding her to the nearest habitat of a knowledge creature.

She also considered the possibility that some other Mages were playing a prank on her, but upon reflection, it seemed unlikely—her ultrasonic detection was one of the best reconnaissance miracles at the silver level. Even so, she could only detect the terrain within three meters around her; any further and the ultrasound would be blocked by the fog.

And the sea area she had flown over before robbing the Swordfish Dragon spanned nearly a hundred meters.

Even the miracles of the Prophetic Faction or the Fate Faction couldn’t penetrate dozens of meters of fog. And if it were possible, it definitely wouldn’t be within the capabilities of a Silver Mage.

Once Mages advanced to Two-winged Gold or Three-winged Holy Realm, the Gate of Truth they opened could not lead to the Sea of Knowledge. The path of a Mage was a road of no return; there was never a possibility of turning back, and the Sea of Knowledge could only contain One-winged Silver Mages.

Moreover, she couldn’t fathom why the other party would guide her—if they truly could see through hundreds of meters of fog, their abilities would be more than enough to overpower Siflin. Wouldn’t it be easier to capture Siflin and take what they wanted?

This was the Void Realm, and as long as the other party concealed their identity, the Blood Saint Clan could not find anyone to seek revenge on even if they wanted to.

Therefore, Siflin felt it was more likely that she had triggered some mechanism in the Void Realm that actively guided her to the nearest knowledge creature.

Like the Vortex, there were many mysterious mechanisms in the Void Realm that could not be deciphered—some appeared randomly, but others were accidentally triggered by Mages.

For example, the Sea of Knowledge’s “Path of Greatness.” Although the research institute had not yet found a feasible way to trigger it, by integrating various data, they discovered that Mages who specialized in Earth Magic were most likely to encounter the “Path of Greatness.” It was highly probable that the actions of Earth Magic Mages triggered changes in the Void Realm, causing the Path of Greatness to emerge.

Siflin had once read a book called “Phantom World Chronicles,” which recorded many of these impossible-to-falsify mechanisms of the Void Realm. For instance; throwing a One-winged Technique Spirit into the sea, a masked Mage would appear from the sea holding a Two-winged and a Three-winged Technique Spirit, asking you which Technique Spirit you had just dropped. If you honestly answered “neither,” you would receive a reward… Most of the stories in there were absurd, effortless, and had bizarre triggering conditions.

Although such mechanisms were hardly replicable, Siflin still tried as hard as she could to recall what exactly she had done that triggered this mechanism.

Could it be that her earlier statement “I hope to encounter a knowledge creature” was overheard by the Void Realm?

“I wish to encounter a mystical island… I wish to encounter a vortex… I wish to encounter golden fish… I wish to eat truffle lala fatty… I wish to gather seven or eight more drops of colorless Source Blood…” Siflin muttered her wishes as she flew, hoping that the Void Realm would hear her desires once again.

However, the Void Realm seemed to have not heard her prayers, instead, she heard the intermittent screams of the Swordfish Dragon, as if it were being brutally beaten not far from her.

This was not the first time, the few creatures from the Sea of Knowledge that had been defeated by Siflin also screamed tragically from afar after escaping.

Could the new miracle “Blood Reversal” that she had learned really be so powerful, causing the creatures to mourn throughout the night, unable to heal even after escaping?

If Siflin had flown ten meters to the right, she would have seen the escaped Swordfish Dragon being double-teamed by a nasty couple. It glared at the two in front of it, an expression of fury on its face as if to say “It’s you who brought the Blood Saint Clan here,” before letting out a resigned cry of ‘a tiger bullied by dogs when down,’ and then exploded into a heap of spoils.

After collecting the spoils, the small boat stealthily followed Siflin’s flight path.

…

…

Kingdom of Blood Moon, Shattered Lake Prison.

Siflin woke up from her bed and couldn’t resist stretching lazily, her bones making crisp sounds — for the Blood Saint Clan, due to the slow flow of blood, their bodies easily stiffened.

If they wanted to explore the Void Realm for an extended period, the Blood Saint Clan had to lie in coffins to reduce air and slow down oxidation; otherwise, their bodies would stiffen up by the time they woke up.

First, Siflin took a warm bath, then brushed her teeth and washed her face, ensuring all water sources remained static during the process. One of the taboos of the Blood Saint Clan is not to come into contact with flowing water; though contact wouldn’t cause injury, the flowing water was as repulsive and frightening to the Blood Saint Clan as a steak squirming when being eaten.

The taboos required by the Blood Saint Clan could fill a thick book, in comparison, the well-known ‘fear of the sun’ was merely the most trivial.

Despite many restrictions, the numbers desperately wanting to join the research institution to become blood descendants continued unabated, not just because of the powerful natural talents of the Blood Saint Clan, but also because the Blood Saint Clan was the darling of the Extreme Master of Blood Moon, one of the only two ruling races of the Kingdom of Blood Moon!

“Reporting last night’s adventure to the research institute should earn me quite a few research points… but then I’ll have to talk to the teacher; he will definitely nag and ask all sorts of questions, super annoying…”

While lost in thought, Siflin dressed in a loose black robe and put on her crow mask and headed to the Medical Practitioner’s exclusive restaurant.

“Good day, Your Excellency.”

Seeing yet another Medical Practitioner preparing to salute her, Siflin hurriedly stopped him, saying, “Haven’t I said it? Just treat me as a normal Medical Practitioner here, a simple greeting will do, this isn’t the outside.”

“But…”

“You keep doing this, and if it gets back to the research institute, Teacher will scold me for sure. Your badge number is [137], right? I’ll remember it. And if Teacher scolds me, I’ll remember to find you.”

[137] now panicked, started to bow again, “I’m sorry, Your Excellency, I just—”

“Hmm? Still using formal language?”

“…Good morning, [222].”

PS: Although subscriptions haven’t reached ten thousand yet, I’ll still add 2 more updates as a thank you for all the support.

Never thought there would come a day when I’d make eight updates in one day, an unprecedented and possibly never-repeated feat…