Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3127: Chapter 3128: Bloodline Essence

Angel noticed that the bottle containing the pale yellow liquid had the same design as the one that had held the memory fragments earlier.

Memory fragments needed to be extracted, which meant that this bottle could not have been washed out of the Sea Eye; it had to be something Laplace had prepared herself.

And now this pale yellow liquid was also in a bottle Laplace had prepared—why was that?

Could it be that this liquid too had been extracted by Laplace and deliberately stored in this bottle?

If that was really the case, then the liquid in this bottle might not be suitable for him either.

While Angel silently speculated in his heart, Laplace also shifted her gaze to the other glass bottle. She paused a moment, then said, ”What’s inside here is the bloodline extracted from the remains of that Wild God’s subordinate.”

Roughly half an hour before Angel’s Awakening, the first physical object Glaipnir found near the Sea Eye was a corpse missing everything below the waist and half its head.

Judging from the remains that were left, this was the owner of the memory fragments Laplace had extracted—a subordinate of a Wild God from the Wild Realm.

No one knew what calamity it had encountered; not only was its body shattered, it had even been dragged into the Sea of Void Mirror.

In the end, a portion of its remains was captured by Glaipnir.

When the remains were discovered, the Bloodline Power in its body had not yet completely dissipated, and since they didn’t find any additional remains, in order to avoid wasting the bloodline, Glaipnir had extracted the bloodline that still lingered.

Laplace said, ”Most of the supernatural organs on its body were shattered and of very low value. The only thing worth anything was its bloodline.”

Thus, to avoid waste, they had to seize the moment while the Bloodline Power still retained activity and extract the essence within.

For this reason, what Angel was seeing now was a glass bottle containing Bloodline Essence, rather than that mangled body.

Angel naturally had no objections to Glaipnir’s choice to extract the bloodline. After listening to Glaipnir’s account, what he cared about most was not her decision, but rather...

Glaipnir actually knew how to extract bloodlines?

”Just a few minor techniques,” Laplace said calmly. ”If you encounter some Magical Creature you can’t deal with in the future, I can help you extract its bloodline.”

Looking at Laplace’s tranquil expression, Angel didn’t inquire further.

Their time together had been overly relaxed, to the point that he had almost forgotten that Laplace’s true body was a Heavenly Destiny Life that had lived for ten thousand years. Moreover, her Temporal Bodies were mostly in human form, and she had deep ties with the Wise Sovereign; it was perfectly normal for her to know a few Wizard methods.

”What value does this bottle of Bloodline Essence have?” Angel changed the question.

Extracting a bloodline was indeed not some highly difficult technique, but not every bloodline was valuable.

When a mutant bloodline entered the human body, it would inevitably trigger rejection. So, generally speaking, after integrating a bloodline, one had to rely on various auxiliary methods to gradually accept and digest it.

Sometimes, even if a bloodline came from an extremely rare Magical Creature, if there was no way to digest it, its actual value would not be that great.

Just like the ”Azure Bloodline” that had appeared at the Twilight Auction back then—after fusing that bloodline, there was a chance of mutating into a Sage Body. The effect of the Sage Body was to comprehensively enhance a Wizard’s logical thinking, and those with a Sage Body might even Awaken a terrifying Talent close to a Law: ”Sage Time.”

One could say the Azure Bloodline was exceedingly precious.

However, its starting Price at auction was only 1000 Magic Crystals, and few people continued to bid afterward, allowing Serum to pick it up cheaply. The reason was easy to understand: the risk of fusing the Azure Bloodline was very high, and in the Southern Domain no one knew how to assist in its Fusion. Anyone wanting to inject the Azure Bloodline could only force a Fusion, relying on their own physique to withstand unknown risks.

This could very likely lead to a situation of nine deaths for one slim chance of survival.

So when facing Bloodline Essence of this sort, one couldn’t just look at how rare it was; one also had to consider its Fusion risk.

Only by weighing both could one properly evaluate the value of a given bloodline.

At the moment, Angel still didn’t know what kind of Magical Creature this bottle’s bloodline came from; ”Wild God’s subordinate” was far too broad. Still, anything that could be called a Wild God’s subordinate should count as a rare bloodline—but without a corresponding method of Fusion, its value would not be especially high.

”What you really want to ask about is its Fusion method, isn’t it?” Laplace had clearly seen through Angel’s little train of thought.

Angel didn’t hide it; he nodded in acknowledgment.

Laplace said, ”No special Fusion method is needed. The power of the Sea of Void Mirror has already scoured most of the impurities inside. Even if you just fuse it the usual way, the chance of success exceeds seventy percent.”

Don’t think seventy percent is low; under normal circumstances, the chance of successfully fusing the bloodline of an Apprentice Level Magical Creature was only fifty percent.

Moreover, Bloodline Wizards had all sorts of means to increase Fusion success rates, plus Spell Technique assistance. For something with a baseline success rate already over seventy percent, adding certain special methods could even push that chance close to one hundred percent.

Such a high success rate struck Angel as almost unbelievable.

Was it that the Wild God’s subordinate was too weak, or...

”Does the scouring of the Sea of Void Mirror actually promote bloodline Fusion success?”

If that was really the case, then the scouring of the Sea of Void Mirror was not entirely a bad thing.

He had the Heart Space—did that not mean that in the future he could purchase some rare bloodlines that were difficult to fuse, give them a ”Sea of Void Mirror Scouring Big Package,” and then resell them at a higher price after boosting their success rates?

As this thought took shape, Angel’s eyes began to shine.

Unfortunately, before his Beautiful Dream Bubble could even rise, Laplace mercilessly popped it.

”The tides of the Sea of Void Mirror can indeed sometimes Purify bloodlines, but for many bloodlines, what makes them rare lies precisely in those so-called ’impurities,’” Laplace said coolly. ”A bloodline with no special trait is nothing more than a slight enhancement of bodily attributes.”

In simple terms, if the ”impurities” of the Azure Bloodline were scoured away, not only would the chance of Awakening the Talent ”Sage Time” vanish, even the enhancement to a Wizard’s logical thinking would disappear. After fusing this Purification of Bloodline–treated Azure Bloodline, at most one would gain some bodily enhancements—no different in effect from many other bloodlines.

Angel said, ”So, in that case, this bottle of Bloodline Essence isn’t all that valuable?”

Laplace nodded. ”More or less. However, the mutant Energy inside hasn’t been completely extinguished, so after Fusion you should be able to undergo partial异化.”

This ”异化” could also be understood as beastification.

After beastification, one might gain some Talent or ability in a specific aspect due to alterations in body structure.

Therefore, although this bloodline’s value had taken a heavy hit, compared to a completely purified bloodline, it was still somewhat better.

By Angel’s estimation, it should still be worth several thousand Magic Crystals.

If later appraisal showed that the异化 granted a corresponding ability boost, its value might be even higher.

All in all, this could be considered the only decent item in this ”blind box” haul.

But...it still wasn’t of much use to Angel.

Because of the existence of the Projected Bloodline, he could not fuse other bloodlines. He could only set it aside for someone else...Nausicaa definitely wouldn’t want it; Serum and David had already fused bloodlines and weren’t lacking in that regard. Perhaps he could consider giving it to Dororo?

As Angel was pondering, he suddenly noticed that the always-composed Glaipnir had abruptly stood up.

Her gaze, however, was still fixed on the Sea of Void Mirror beyond the Heart Wall.

Had she discovered something new?

Angel subconsciously followed Glaipnir’s gaze and looked outside, and with that one glance, he actually saw a physical object.

It was a pitch-black object, looking like a stone or some kind of ore, slowly rising up from within the Sea of Void Mirror’s memory image.

In just a few moments, it was floating on the ”sea surface.”

If the Sea of Void Mirror could really be considered a ”sea,” then this object was like a reef.

”It looks like some kind of stone?” Laplace muttered under her breath.

Even with her vast knowledge, just judging its type from the appearance of this ”reef,” even she couldn’t do it.

”There seem to be holes on it? Could it be some sort of giant coral?” Glaipnir was also guessing: ”No matter what type it is, its sturdiness is extremely high; it should possess very dense Transcendent traits.”

Ordinary physical objects in the Sea of Void Mirror would be washed away by the surging tides in no time, shattered into fragments.

Only Transcendent entities could persist a bit longer.

If this reef was blasted up from beneath the Sea Eye, then drifted for a while and only reached here after more than an hour, and it could still maintain such an intact shape after so long, it was very likely a Transcendent object.

It might be some kind of Extraordinary Material.

Although as for exactly which material, Glaipnir, like Laplace, couldn’t make an accurate judgment; but in her heart she had some guesses.

This time, the reason they were able to fish up a large number of physical objects in such a short time was, first, the Sea Eye’s eruption, and second, perhaps a coincidence in reality.

From the items they had salvaged so far, it could be seen that they all came from one place—the Wild Realm.

Then this reef was, with high probability, also a specialty of the Wild Realm.

Among the Transcendent ores abundant in the Wild Realm, those that were overall black in color, and had holes... that range immediately became much narrower.

The remains of some Transcendent-level coral-type creature, or perhaps corrosive Magic Blood Ore, or maybe ore that coexisted symbiotically with ant-like insects?

With these questions in mind, Glaipnir skillfully operated the Physical Collector, quickly encircling the reef and bit by bit pulling it closer to the Heart Wall.

Because the portion of the reef protruding from the ”sea surface” alone was three meters high, if it were whole, it might be even larger.

To avoid damaging it during the salvaging process, even with the Physical Collector, she needed to proceed slowly.

While Glaipnir was carefully hauling it up, Laplace looked over at Angel.

”You seem to know where this stone came from?” Laplace asked.

She wasn’t striking blindly; the reason she judged that Angel knew this stone was because earlier, when Angel saw the complete stone, his expression had been very strange.

She and Glaipnir had been guessing what this stone was, but Angel’s expression gave off the feeling of—why would this stone appear here?

That was why Laplace posed the question.

Angel was silent for a moment, then nodded: ”I’m not sure if it’s what I think it is... but from the outside, it looks very similar.”

”That? Which one?” Laplace asked curiously.

Angel didn’t immediately explain, instead saying: ”Let Glaipnir bring it in first. I’ll confirm once I’ve checked it.”

Laplace thought about it and didn’t press; after all, it wouldn’t be long before this stone was hauled inside.

It took Glaipnir five minutes to pull the stone in through the physical outlet on the inside of the Heart Wall.

The overall shape of this stone was irregular; upright, its tallest point was close to four meters, with a maximum width of two meters. It couldn’t be called a boulder, but it was definitely not small.

Previously, Laplace had still been puzzled as to why Angel insisted on waiting until the stone entered the Heart Space before identifying it.

Now she understood.

Because this stone was emitting a very peculiar energy fluctuation.

When it was outside, this fluctuation couldn’t be sensed; but once it entered the Heart Space, the fluctuation became very obvious.

Through this special energy fluctuation, even without Angel’s explanation, Laplace was able to determine its origin.

—Mare Stone.

Laplace also now understood why Angel’s expression earlier had been so odd.

Mare Stone, as the name implied, was stone from the Nightmare Realm.

And many of Angel’s Spell Techniques carried the fluctuations of the Nightmare Realm.

Although the nature of the energy was another matter entirely, the traces of the fluctuation had similarities.

For instance, the little house Angel had simulated with an Illusion Technique in the Heart Space carried a trace of Nightmare Realm fluctuation. And that fluctuation happened to be similar to the one from the Mare Stone.

Laplace wasn’t going to directly ask Angel about the source of those Nightmare Realm fluctuations, but she already had some guesses in her heart... Angel was definitely connected to the Nightmare Realm.

So it wasn’t surprising that Angel recognized the Mare Stone.

What he clearly hadn’t expected was to see Mare Stone here in the Sea of Void Mirror, hence that strange expression.

However, all of this was Laplace’s speculation.

In reality, the reason Angel showed that strange expression wasn’t because he was shocked that Mare Stone would appear in the Sea of Void Mirror... but because he was shocked that this piece of Mare Stone was actually this large.

Angel also carried Mare Stone on him, but the largest piece was only about the size of a knuckle.

However, Angel didn’t need Mare Stone to release Nightmare Illusions, so there was no need to pursue size; carrying some Mare Stone on him was purely to use as consumables for light-and-shadow channels.

But as far as Angel knew, even Sanders, the largest piece of Mare Stone he possessed wouldn’t be bigger than a baby’s fist.

And the Mare Stone before their eyes, even if it had been affected by the Sea of Void Mirror and its energy somewhat diminished, was so large that its size alone was enough to make up for all its shortcomings.

Angel even felt that, looking across the entire Southern Domain, there probably wasn’t a larger Mare Stone than this.

One had to know, Mare Stone wasn’t only needed by the lineage of Illusion Demon Island; Wizards of other branches also needed it. Because Mare Stone was an excellent research material; even just directly activating a Mare Stone could release a powerful Illusionary Realm and be used as a portable Illusion Technique consumable.

Back when Angel was still a mortal, he had traveled to the Flourish Continent aboard the Bauhinia Vessel. The figurehead of this ship was a praying maiden, and inlaid on the maiden’s forehead was a Mare Stone. The function of this Mare Stone was that, when encountering a Magical Creature they couldn’t contend with, they could activate it to release the Illusionary Realm sealed inside.

Thus, because of its powerful effects, the Price of Mare Stone remained sky-high in the Southern Domain.

A Mare Stone of this size was enough to be called... a priceless treasure!

For this reason, when Angel saw such a piece of Mare Stone, even with his usually calm expression, he couldn’t quite keep it together.