Camon City, Red Mist Research Institute.
“Regarding your matter, the Broken Lake Prison has already sent a notification. Since that person has punished you, the institute naturally won’t defy her request.”
In the office, a young scholar with red eyes in a white robe looked at the blue-scaled fishman covered in blood stains in front of him and calmly said, “Lawrence, how is your progress in Blood Embrace?”
The blue-scaled fishman lowered his head and said, “I have condensed two drops of silver source blood and two drops of gold source blood, but there has been no progress in condensing the third drop of silver source blood for more than ten days… This should be the limit for a student.”
“You were so close to condensing the Rainbow Source Blood. It’s a pity. But don’t be discouraged, maybe you will have a chance to purify your bloodline in the future.” The red-eyed scholar sighed first, then became serious. “So, are you sure that you don’t need to stay in Broken Lake Prison for the Blood Embrace ritual, and that’s why you took the risk to steal other people’s techniques?”
The blue-scaled fishman remained silent and did not refute.
“You were lucky this time, encountering someone with a soft heart. But you might not be so lucky next time.” The young scholar sighed. “You should stay in the institute for the next ten years and focus on research. After ten years, the person you offended will probably have condensed the Seven-colored Wings, and it will be impossible for you to meet her.”
“Yes.”
“Go back and rest. I will arrange your office tomorrow.” The young scholar knocked on the wooden desk. “Remember to organize your research results and give me a report in a few days.”
“Thank you, teacher. Goodbye, teacher.”
The blue-scaled fishman respectfully left the office and quickly left the research institute.
It was already late at night, with the night sky hanging a blood moon. There were not many people in the research institute’s campus. Lawrence’s footsteps became faster and faster. When he passed by a tree, he suddenly punched it!
Crack!
The trunk was deeply dented by his punch, and the wound bitten by his fingers burst open again, even the scales cracked.
His hand hurt, his whole body hurt, but these tangible wounds were far less painful than the invisible wound in Lawrence’s heart!
He was the medical staff 【176】 who was thrown out of Broken Lake Prison last night.
His original name was Lawrence Jiedeng, a blue-scaled fishman, and a scholar at the Red Mist Research Institute.
After a night and a day, he finally escaped from the hunt of Finger Sharks and returned to Camon City. After crawling back to the land, he didn’t even have time to treat himself. He went straight to the institute to inquire about his future. If 【222】 wanted to investigate further, the institute would not only revoke his scholar status but also take back the ‘Holy Blood’ inside him!
Lawrence also thought about whether he should escape directly.
But the chip check during the security inspection instantly dispelled his foolish idea.
Unless he paid a high price in the black market to find a sorcerer to remove his chip and then live as a wild creature, there was no place in this fully chip-ized era that could accommodate criminals.
In the Blood Moon Kingdom, after offending the Blood Saint Clan, there were only two paths: begging for mercy or waiting for judgment.
Fortunately, 【222】’s punishment for him ended here. Lawrence still had a bright future, still the most promising scholar in the Red Mist Research Institute, and could still live for one or two hundred years.
However, it was precisely because he no longer had to pay any price that made Lawrence feel inexplicably resentful!
Perhaps others would think this was kindness, but he only felt deep contempt!
But the other party did have the qualifications to look down on Lawrence. Just as the teacher said, in ten years, the other party would definitely be able to condense the Seven-colored Wings, while Lawrence could barely manage to condense the Golden Second Wing!
Both being members of the Blood Saint Clan, the gap in their bloodline aptitude was like heaven and earth!
Yes, bloodline!
Lawrence was originally just a blue-scaled fishman raised in a poor district’s orphanage, but because of his outstanding learning ability, he was admitted to the Comprehensive University of Camon City. Before he even graduated, he was recruited by the Red Mist Research Institute and obtained the qualification to undergo the ‘Blood Embrace Ritual,’ becoming a coveted Blood Saint Clan!
The Blood Saint Clan, like the Moon Shadow Clan, could not reproduce through normal mating rituals. The only way for the Blood Saint Clan to develop their own kind was to absorb other races through blood exchange.
Although different races would exhibit the same characteristics after the blood exchange, such as crimson eyes, theoretically speaking, the Blood Saint Clan was not a concept of a race but a concept of culture – everyone recognized themselves as a superior race separated from the lower races.
There were many benefits to becoming a Blood Saint Clan member, and the greatest benefit was naturally that the body completely broke free from the limitations of lifespan, never aging, and forever young, making them an immortal race.
However, although the body did not age, the soul would wither. Each race’s soul had a lifespan limit. For example, a human Blood Saint Clan member would have their soul disperse at around 150 years old.
In addition to this, the Blood Saint Clan had another advantage that made sorcerers flock to them: Blood Healing!
By drinking blood, the Blood Saint Clan could accelerate the body’s recovery speed and soul’s recovery speed!
Sorcerers needed to cool down for several days after dying in the Virtual Realm to replenish their soul energy. The Blood Saint Clan, who could replenish soul energy through Blood Healing, could greatly reduce the death cooldown time and increase the frequency of exploring the Virtual Realm.
Blood Healing and immortality were the racial advantages that established the Blood Saint Clan’s dominant position in the Blood Moon Kingdom.
Such outstanding racial advantages, but the Blood Saint Clan’s drawbacks were also severe.
Besides needing to follow many taboos, the biggest drawback of the Blood Saint Clan was that sorcerers could not absorb Artificing in the Virtual Realm.
Yes, they could not absorb Artificing!
The Blood Embrace Ritual essentially deepened the connection between the soul and blood, which allowed the body to gain the characteristics of immortality and eternal youth, and allowed blood consumption to heal the body.
But because of this, an incomplete soul could not absorb Artificing in the Virtual Realm, which meant that the sorcerer’s future was completely ruined.
However, the Blood Saint Clan sorcerers had long figured out a solution, which was why Lawrence had to go to Broken Lake Prison as a medical staff – the Blood Embrace Ritual for newborn blood descendants required the use of death row prisoners as sacrifices to condense Source Blood!
Source Blood was the medium for absorbing Artificing instead of the soul. Depending on the level, it was divided into Silver Source Blood, Gold Source Blood, Rainbow Source Blood, and Colorless Source Blood, corresponding to the four types of Artificing in the Virtual Realm.
Every three drops of lower-level Source Blood could be synthesized into one drop of higher-level Source Blood. And the Blood Saint Clan had to possess the corresponding or higher-level Source Blood to absorb the corresponding Artificing. For example, Silver Source Blood could absorb Silver Artificing, and Gold Source Blood could absorb Gold Artificing.
If one wanted to summon a higher-level Artisan, they had to possess a higher-level Source Blood!
A Blood Saint Clan without Gold Source Blood could not even summon a Second Wing Artisan, let alone promote to a Second Wing Sorcerer.
This was why the teacher thought Lawrence was a pity – if he could condense one more drop of Silver Source Blood, he could synthesize Rainbow Source Blood, and then the door to the Three Wing Sanctuary would be wide open for him!
And now, with only Gold Source Blood, Lawrence would stop at the Gold Second Wing in the future.
When could he purify his bloodline and condense Rainbow Source Blood? Only then would he have the possibility of entering the Three Wing Sanctuary!
In addition, the higher-level Source Blood, the more efficient it was at absorbing Artificing.
In the Knowledge Sea, compared to normal sorcerers, the basic absorption efficiency of one drop of Silver Source Blood was only 30%, and each additional drop increased it by 10%.
This was why the teacher said Lawrence only needed to hide for ten years – Lawrence had a total of two drops of Gold Source Blood and two drops of Silver Source Blood, totaling 3+3+2=8 drops of Silver Source Blood with 100% absorption efficiency;
While the new scholars from the four major research institutes could at least condense one drop of Colorless Source Blood, which could be synthesized from 3*3*3=27 drops of Silver Source Blood, with an absorption efficiency of 290%!
A three-fold difference. Even though this was only a temporary advantage in the Knowledge Sea, it was enough to make the other party grow into someone Lawrence could only look up to after ten years of accumulation.
For the other party, Lawrence was just a fart that could be easily dismissed, not worth paying attention to.
Nothing made Lawrence angrier than this – perhaps it was pathetic, perhaps no one cared, perhaps he was ridiculed by others, but for this blue-scaled fishman who had struggled from the slums to the research institute, dignity was the only wealth he possessed.
Without dignity, he truly had nothing.