Chapter 50 – The Source Blood of the Sacred Bloodline

Caimon City, Red Mist Institute.

“The Shattered Lake Prison has already sent notice regarding your matter. Since she has decided your punishment, the Institute will naturally not go against her demands,” said the white-coated red-eyed young scholar calmly as he looked at the bloodied fishman before him. “Lorens, how goes your Blood Embrace progress?”

The fishman lowered his head and said, “I’ve condensed two drops of silver source blood and two drops of golden source blood, but I haven’t made any progress on the third drop of silver source blood for over ten days now…this is probably the limit for a student like me.”

“Just a bit more and you could have condensed the rainbow source blood, what a pity. But don’t be too discouraged, who knows, you may have a chance to purify your bloodline in the future,” the red-eyed scholar first sighed, then became serious, “So you made sure you didn’t need to stay in Shattered Lake Prison to perform the Blood Embrace ceremony, which is why you recklessly stole and peeked at someone else’s spell formula?”

The fishman remained silent, not refuting him.

“You got lucky this time, running into someone soft-hearted. You won’t be so lucky next time,” the young scholar sighed. “Stay obediently in the Institute doing research for the next ten years. Don’t participate in any academic activities during that time. After ten years, the one you offended will likely have condensed the Seven Color Wings, so even if you wanted to see her, it would be impossible.”

“Yes.”

“Go rest, I’ll arrange your office tomorrow,” the young scholar tapped the wooden table. “Remember to organize your learning achievements and give me a report in a couple days.”

“Thank you teacher, goodbye.”

The fishman respectfully left the office and strode quickly out of the institute.

It was late night outside, the blood moon hung high in the night sky. There weren’t many people in the institute campus. Lorens’ footsteps grew faster and faster. As he passed a tree, he suddenly punched it!

Slap!

The tree trunk caved in deeply where he had punched it, and the bite wounds on his fingers split open again, even his scales cracked and fell off.

His hand hurt terribly, his whole body hurt, but these physical wounds were nothing compared to the invisible wound in his heart that stabbed at Lorens!

He was the medical mage thrown out of Shattered Lake Prison last night [176].

His original name was Lorens Tauton, a fishman of the blue scales tribe, a scholar at the Red Mist Institute.

After spending a night and a day barely escaping from the jaws of the sharks, he finally made it back to Caimon City. As soon as he crawled onto land, he hurried straight to the Institute to ask about his future – if [222] wanted to pursue this to the end, not only would the Institute revoke his scholar status, they might even take back the ‘sacred blood’ in his body!

Lorens had also considered just running away.

But the chip scan at the security checkpoint instantly dashed that foolish thought.

Unless he went to the black market and spent a fortune for a mage to remove his chip, then lived as a feral creature in the wild, cutting himself off from society, there was no place that would harbor a criminal like him in this era of ubiquitous chipping.

In the Blood Moon Kingdom, if you offended the Sacred Bloodline, you only had two paths left: beg for mercy, or wait for judgement.

Fortunately, [222]’s punishment ended there. Lorens still had a bright future ahead of him, still the most promising young scholar of the Red Mist Institute, still able to live for one or two hundred years.

But it was precisely because he no longer had to pay the price, that Lorens felt even more indignant and aggrieved!

Perhaps others would see it as merciful,

But he only felt deeply insulted!

But the other party did have the qualifications to look down on Lorens. As the teacher said, in ten years the other party would surely attain the Three Wings Saint domain, while Lorens was struggling to even get the Golden Two Wings.

They were both of the Sacred Bloodline, yet the difference in their bloodline talents was like heaven and earth!

Yes, bloodline!

Lorens was originally just a fishman from an impoverished upbringing district orphanage. But due to his exceptional learning abilities, he tested into Caimon City University, and was recruited by the Red Mist Institute before even graduating, obtaining the qualification to undergo the ‘blood transfusion ceremony’ and become one of the coveted Sacred Bloodline!

The Sacred Bloodline, like the Moonshadow, could not propagate through normal mating rituals. The only way the Sacred Bloodline grew their numbers was by absorbing other races through blood transfusion.

Although all races took on the same traits like crimson eyes after the transfusion, in theory the Sacred Bloodline was not a racial concept, but a cultural concept – they all recognized themselves as a higher race that had transcended the lower races.

There were many benefits to becoming the Sacred Bloodline. The biggest benefit was of course that their bodies completely transcended the limits of lifespan, remaining forever young and undying, practically an immortal race.

However, even though their bodies did not age, their souls still had a lifespan limit. For example, a human of the Sacred Bloodline could only last about 150 years before their soul dissipated.

Aside from this, the Sacred Bloodline had another benefit that drew mages to them like flies to honey: blood healing!

By drinking blood, the Sacred Bloodline could accelerate the recovery of their body and soul!

The reason mages had to wait many days to re-enter the Virtual World after dying in it was to replenish their soul energy. The Sacred Bloodline who could replenish their soul energy through blood healing, could greatly shorten their death cooldown and increase the frequency at which they explored the Virtual World.

Blood healing and undying were how the Sacred Bloodline established their ruling status in the Blood Moon Kingdom.

With such outstanding racial advantages, the disadvantages of the Sacred Bloodline were also severe.

Aside from having to obey many taboos, the biggest downside was: mages could not absorb arcane energy in the Virtual World.

That’s right, they could not absorb arcane energy!

The blood transfusion ceremony essentially created a miraculous deep fusion between the soul and blood. That was why the body attained the undying trait, and why drinking blood healed the body.

But because of this, an incomplete soul was unable to absorb arcane energy in the Virtual World, essentially destroying a mage’s prospects.

But the Sacred Bloodline mages had long ago devised a solution. This was why Lorens had gone to Shattered Lake Prison as a medical mage – newly born members of the bloodline had to use death row prisoners as offerings to conduct the ‘Blood Embrace ceremony’ and condense source blood!

Source blood served as the medium to absorb arcane energy in place of the soul. Based on the level, from lowest to highest, there was silver source blood, golden source blood, rainbow source blood, and colorless source blood, corresponding to the four types of arcane energy in the Virtual World.

Every three drops of lower source blood could be synthesized into one drop of higher source blood. And the Sacred Bloodline had to possess the matching or higher level source blood in order to absorb the corresponding arcane energy. For example, silver source blood absorbed silver arcane energy, golden source blood absorbed golden arcane energy.

If they wanted to summon a spirit one level higher, they had to possess source blood one level higher!

A member of the Sacred Bloodline without golden source blood could not even summon a two-wing spirit, naturally they could not advance to a two-wing mage either.

This was also why the teacher felt Lorens was so pitiable – condensing just one more drop of silver source blood would have allowed him to synthesize the rainbow source blood, and the gates of the Three Wings Saint domain would open for him!

And now, with only the golden source blood, Lorens’ future prospects were limited to the Golden Two Wings.

Only when he managed to purify his bloodline and condense the rainbow source blood would he have a chance at entering the Three Wings Saint domain!

Additionally, the higher the level of source blood, the greater the efficiency of absorbing arcane energy.

In the Sea of Knowledge, compared to normal mages, one drop of silver source blood only had a base absorption efficiency of 30%. Each additional drop increased it by 10%.

This was why the teacher said ten years would be enough for Lorens to hide – Lorens had a total of 2 drops of golden source blood and 2 drops of silver source blood, adding up to 3 + 3 + 2 = 8 drops of silver source blood, for a total absorption efficiency of 100%.

Whereas the new scholars of the four major Institutes could at least condense one drop of colorless source blood, synthesized from 3 * 3 * 3 = 27 drops of silver source blood, for an absorption efficiency of 290%!

A whole three times more! Even if this was only a temporary advantage in the Sea of Knowledge, accumulating it over ten years’ time would still allow the other party to grow into someone Lorens could only gaze up at from afar.

For that person, Lorens was merely a fart not even worth paying attention to, much less harboring resentment towards.

How could a future Three Wings Saint possibly care about the petty grudges of a Golden Two Wings?

Nothing made Lorens more furious than this – perhaps he was trash, perhaps no one cared, perhaps others ridiculed him, but for this fishman who had struggled his way from an impoverished district to a prestigious institute, dignity was the only wealth he had left.

Without dignity, he would truly have nothing.