Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3245: Chapter 3246: Turuga City

The Purification of Bloodline Power, with no restriction placed on the tier of the bloodline, means that those already powerful bloodlines can also be purified.

This effect is, without a doubt, very strong.

Especially for those Lifeforms whose bloodline is inherently strong—such as the Wild Gods of the Wild Realm—every Bloodline Purification demands a huge price and often ends up not worth the gain. Now, this kind of Bloodline enhancement with no upper limit is absolutely a blessing for Them.

But for Pili...

This not only fails to give any enhancement, it even hands her a negative buff out of nowhere.

The reason for saying this is that Pirush’s bloodline, even if purified once or twice, will not undergo any qualitative change.

What’s more, the condition for Purification is—Pili must travel one percent of a unit of Void spacetime distance to trigger it.

Don’t think that ”one percent” of a unit of spacetime distance is short.

In the Void, spacetime distance is a massive metric unit that fuses spatial distance and temporal variation, and its base unit is ”Wei”.

Using the ”Wei” of ”dimension” to name the unit of spacetime distance is itself a side indication of how enormous that unit is.

To give a few simple examples: the plane closest to the Southern Domain is the ”Dwarf Grave Plane”. An ordinary Wizard, even with a clear Path Mark, needs to drift in the Void for nearly a month to reach it.

Yet the spacetime distance between the Dwarf Grave Plane and the Southern Domain is actually less than one percent of a Wei.

Also, the Manluo Plane, made famous by the Fragrance Appreciation Conference and most favored by Witches, has roughly the same spacetime distance from the Southern Domain—about one percent of a Wei.

The Majestic Plane, renowned for its many races, is about one-tenth of a Wei away from the Southern Domain.

The Ancient Asia World where the Mysterious Object ”Reincarnation Casket of the Undead” is located lies roughly between one and two Wei away from the Southern Domain.

In other words, measured in the walking steps of a Wizard, traversing one Wei in the Void might take around eight years.

Of course, in practice it won’t take that long, thanks to the existence of Teleportation Arrays. Moreover, various Void Layers can be used to detour, speeding up the journey.

But even so, this is enough to show how exceedingly long a unit of spacetime distance represents in the Void.

Furthermore, Pili’s Blessing explicitly states: ”Only after traversing one percent of a unit of spacetime distance can you obtain Bloodline Purification,” which means she can’t use things like Teleportation Arrays; she can only grit her teeth and walk through the Void.

In addition, the Blessing Pili received has a validity period of one month.

Pili’s strength is inferior even to a Wizard Apprentice; how is she supposed to walk one percent of a Wei within a month?

What leaves Pili most helpless is that, at the very moment she received the Blessing, her sense of direction was lost along with it. This is also why, despite clearly being in the same square as everyone else, she kept getting lost before.

Imagine it: if she really went strolling in the Void, got disoriented, and wandered into a Void Magical Creature’s lair—would she still be able to return?

Even if she were lucky and didn’t encounter any Void Magical Creatures, once she got lost and couldn’t find the way home, what then?

In short, this Blessing has not brought Pili any benefit. Instead, it slapped her with a negative effect of ”getting lost”.

So, the Evil Wizard Blessing Magic is not pure Blessing; sometimes it bestows ”side effects” as well.

Of course, according to Piu, these side effects are never too severe. But that’s only Piu’s own view. For Wizards who spend years traveling in the Void, a negative effect like ”loss of sense of direction” is outright malice of the highest order.

Truly worthy of the ”Evil” in Evil Wizard Blessing Magic.

Aside from the two cases above, Evil Wizard Blessing Magic has other examples.

Some are good, some have very strong side effects.

For instance: so long as you kill a Lifeform with a tangible body, the hair on your legs will grow thicker; as long as you kill a Lifeform whose arms are longer than yours, your own hands’ Bloodline Power will be strengthened; losing the ability to see can amplify eye-related abilities; bathing in magma for many consecutive days can grant Water Element amplification; being struck by Thunder from the natural world without any human interference will enhance your Thunder perception... and so on.

From these Blessings you can see that Evil Wizard Blessing Magic also contains a mechanism similar to ”equivalent exchange”: you must do something in order to gain something.

Anyone who wants something for nothing will find the Blessing’s effect quite limited.

Still, calling it ”equivalent exchange” doesn’t mean it is harsh enough to require true ”equivalence”.

Take ”losing the ability to see” in exchange for amplification of eye-related abilities—this one is actually pretty decent... If the naked eye can’t see, you can just use spiritual power to perceive.

Besides, this ”losing the ability to see” isn’t permanent, whereas the buff you receive is permanent.

As long as you endure a period of darkness, you can gain amplification of eye-related abilities; that’s actually not a bad trade.

Judging from the examples Piu gave, the negative effects manifested so far by Evil Wizard Blessing Magic do indeed fall within certain limits, and are bearable for the vast majority of people.

And the Blessings you get, if you are lucky, can be quite good.

This is also why even the Elders of the Crystal Eye Clan are willing to come receive the Evil Wizard’s Blessing.

However, Angel also noticed something: ”It seems that most of the examples you gave are Bloodline and Element-type Blessings. Are there no Mysterious-type Blessings?”

If Angel were to choose, he would definitely opt for a Mysterious-type Blessing. After all, the Illusion Techniques he excels at, the Spatial Ability he has been researching recently, and the Mysterious Alchemy he yearns for—all fall under the Mysterious category.

Yet in the examples Piu had given earlier, very few were related to the Mysterious, which made Angel quite concerned.

Piu: ”It’s not that I’m deliberately avoiding them. It’s just that very few people opt for Mysterious-type Blessings.”

”Why?” Angel was taken aback. Aren’t many Mirror-related abilities also part of the Mysterious category?

For Mirror Domain creatures, Mysterious-type should be the first choice, shouldn’t it?

Piu: ”Because the Mysterious category is all-encompassing, many Mysterious-type Blessings are actually useless. Bloodline and Element-type Blessings, on the other hand, can directly lock onto a specific range, which is why most who come seeking Blessings choose Bloodline and Element types.”

”Of course, some do choose the Mysterious type. It’s just that, so far, none of those who came for Blessings have been able to match up with any Mysterious-type Blessing.”

For example: as long as you can beat someone until they vomit milk, you can enhance the effects of cheese-type Spell Techniques.

Setting aside the bizarre precondition of ”beat someone until they vomit milk”, simply ”enhancing the effects of cheese-type Spell Techniques” already limits its usefulness to Gourmet Witches alone.

Yet Gourmet Witches are an extremely rare existence even in the Southern Domain Wizard World.

And in the Daylight Mirror Domain, those who actually know cheese-type Spell Techniques could probably be counted on one hand.

The Evil Wizard’s Blessing still offers such an enhancement—this is basically making things difficult for everyone.

”Besides that, some who chose Mysterious-type Blessings ended up with side effects stronger than the rest.” At this point, Piu turned to glance at the Pika Sage and softly asked, ”May I talk about that matter?”

”You’ve already led it up to this point, and now you’re asking me?” The Pika Sage said irritably, nodding: ”Go ahead, it’s nothing major anyway.”

Piu scratched his temples awkwardly, then looked at Luigi, who was already snacking on gossip right in front of them, and said softly, ”For the sake of running a test, my Lord Sage once requested a Mysterious-type Blessing from me, and the effect that Lord Sage received was...”

—As long as he kills undead, he can rapidly enter a deep meditation state.

From Angel’s perspective, this effect is not bad for Wizards who find it hard to enter deep meditation.

But overall, it’s fairly ordinary. After all, the Wizards’ Realm already has tools that help one enter deep meditation, and they share a common trait: just because you managed to enter deep meditation this time doesn’t mean you’ll be able to do so the next.

If he could permanently enter deep meditation, then that effect would be really strong.

But judging from the description, this is only a short-term effect, and it also requires killing undead as a precondition.

Does the Pika Sage have the strength to kill undead? Most likely not.

So in Angel’s view, this blessing was probably just wasted. The Pika Sage is impossible to go hunt undead, he might not even try to look for undead at all.

However, Piu gave an answer that was completely the opposite.

”This blessing has a side effect that isn’t written openly. As long as you receive this blessing, then for as long as the blessing lasts, the blessed one’s attraction to undead will increase.”

This also means that even if the Pika Sage doesn’t go looking for undead, the undead will come looking for him on their own.

During that period, the Pika Sage was practically unable to find peace day or night.

After all, undead don’t only choose the nighttime; they come in broad daylight just the same.

Luckily, the Pika Sage stayed in Pipi Castle the whole time, with the Thunderous Eye assisting, and occasionally Baba Ragon would step in to help. That was the only reason he managed to endure the month.

The Pika Sage: ”But then again, although those days were hard to get through, once I killed undead I could enjoy deep meditation, and during that meditation I made major breakthroughs in many of my research topics and in my inventive spiritual thoughts.”

”So, if you’re prepared beforehand, this blessing’s effect isn’t bad.”

”But it can’t be denied that these side effects that aren’t stated openly sometimes ruin big plans.”

The above is roughly the reason why there are fewer blessings of the mysterious type.

First, mysterious-type blessings cover everything under the sun. The odds of randomly getting one that’s useful to you are too small. Second, mysterious-type blessings sometimes play little tricks: when you don’t know it, the side effects lurk in the dark and ambush you.

With these two points, naturally when everyone chooses blessings, they lean more toward bloodline and element types; at least the odds of problems with those two categories are relatively small.

”I said before, to help you understand the Evil Witch’s Eye better, I can let you experience it personally.” As the Pika Sage said this, he looked at the crowd: ”Piu has already rested up; why don’t you pick someone to give it a try?”

When the Pika Sage said this, his gaze deliberately or unintentionally fell on Luigi.

He actually hoped Luigi would be the one to experience it. If they randomly hit upon some ’interesting’ side effects, it would absolutely become a talking point for him for the next several decades.

Luigi knew the Pika Sage well; beneath that kindly gaze lurked ill intent, and Luigi saw right through it.

He refused without hesitation: ”I’ll pass. I still have big things to do next; I can’t afford any accidents at all.”

”Big things?” The Pika Sage froze for a second. ”You mean the apoc... ahem, the puppet business?”

The Pika Sage originally wanted to ask if it was about the apocalypse, but then remembered Piu was right here. For secrecy’s sake, and also not to make Piu feel anxious, he changed his wording.

In his opinion, the biggest matter right now was that doomsday was approaching. If Luigi was preparing for that, then indeed he couldn’t afford any missteps.

However, Luigi simply shook his head: ”Of course not. The big thing I’m talking about is performing the new musical score. This concerns my examination—if Uriel isn’t satisfied when the time comes, I’m done for...”

The Pika Sage: ”...”

Though he didn’t know who Uriel was, just hearing that it was a music exam already made it sound extremely uninteresting.

Still, the Pika Sage didn’t show it. Everyone has their own internal ranking of what matters most, and he was very clear that Luigi loved art.

He even suspected that Luigi, as the ”Temporal Body” of that existence, had a fundamental core that was—artistic performance. In that case, it was perfectly normal for him to put art first.

After Luigi made a firm statement, Laplace also shook her head: ”I’m not interested in this kind of flawed blessing. Angel, you go.”

Laplace was handing the opportunity to Angel not only because she wasn’t interested in a blessing that might have ’problems’, but also for one crucial reason: she knew Angel wanted to refine a Mysterious Object.

Although she also didn’t know how one should go about refining a Mysterious Object, letting Angel come into contact with different Mysterious Objects and perceive the corresponding Mysterious Power definitely wouldn’t be wrong.

So, having Angel do it was the best choice.

Angel didn’t decline either. He really did want to experience the effects of the Evil Witch’s Eye; however, before receiving the blessing, Angel asked: ”As the master of the Evil Witch’s Eye, you should know a lot of its information. Then do you know if there is such a thing as an absolutely perfect blessing?”

The Evil Witch’s Eye was in the ”Only Me” state, and its master was Piu—this was beyond doubt.

Once it’s in the Only Me state, Piu would certainly receive feedback information from the Evil Witch’s Eye.

By compiling that feedback, perhaps Piu might find a way to a perfect blessing?

”A perfect blessing?” Piu thought carefully, then finally shook his head: ”There’s no such perfect blessing. However...”

Piu paused and didn’t continue.

Luigi leaned in immediately: ”However what?”

Piu took a step back and said softly: ”Ever since the Evil Witch’s Eye merged into my brow, it’s basically been in slumber. But there was one time when it suddenly became abnormally excited.”

”Although I don’t know why it suddenly got excited, I have a vague feeling that if it had bestowed a blessing at that time, we might have gotten some unexpected effects.”

”Excited?” Luigi and the Pika Sage both let out a simultaneous ”Huh.”

Luigi looked at the Pika Sage in puzzlement: ”You didn’t know?”

The Pika Sage shook his head: ”Piu never told me.”

With that, the Pika Sage turned his head to Piu: ”This ’excited’ you’re talking about—what was the situation?”

Piu shook his head: ”Actually, I don’t really know what the situation was either. At the time, Sage sir’s research on the Evil Witch’s Eye was almost finished, and I’d been assigned to do an internship with Duke Pishu...”

During that period, Piu often bestowed blessings on some ’foreign guests’ who came to Pipi Castle.

Once, Turuga City sent some diplomatic commissioners to cooperate with Pipi Castle on infrastructure.

It was then that Piu felt the Evil Witch’s Eye in his brow become excited.

”The envoys from Turuga City, meaning they were Turul?” the Pika Sage asked in a low voice.

Piu nodded: ”I have a feeling that the Evil Witch’s Eye might be very interested in those Turul. But at the time, the Turul left without choosing to receive any blessing.”

After that, Piu never felt the Evil Witch’s Eye’s excitement again.

At this gathering, Piu had also seen quite a few Turul on his way here, but this time the Evil Witch’s Eye showed no reaction to them.

Piu also had no idea what was going on. Maybe the Evil Witch’s Eye differentiates between people? Or perhaps among the Turul who came to see Duke Pishu back then, there was one very special Turul who caught the Evil Witch’s Eye’s interest?

Because the Evil Witch’s Eye only had that single abnormal episode, Piu didn’t know the specifics either. He had originally thought about secretly researching it on his own. But after such a long time with no further anomalies, Piu gave up and gradually pushed the matter out of his mind.

Now that Angel asked, he suddenly remembered that past anomaly and mentioned it.

But whether that anomaly back then had any connection to a so-called ”perfect blessing”, Piu himself had no idea.