Trial Host Yaxiu Heath

Red Mist Research Institute, Laboratory 13. Lann shoved open the laboratory doors with a pushcart, transferred the three body bags on it onto the long table, and exhaled a breath. "Teacher, all the new materials have arrived!" "Coming." Lorence stepped out from the inner room. His copper-bell fish eyes glanced at the ten body bags on the long table. With a slight twitch of his nose, he caught the rotting stench thick with the scent of death, and he nodded. "Where's the dolphin?" "The female dolphin you specifically requested has already been delivered in a water tank, but because the tank is too large, it's hard to haul up here. Teacher, do you want to study a freshly deceased dolphin? When do you need her?" "Not for now. You take care of her." "Okay. Teacher, do you want to study a live dolphin? Do I need to bring the water tank up?" "No need to bring it up." Not used as research material, and not brought up to the laboratory either? Lann blinked. "Teacher, are you really planning to study the dolphin?" "Mm, of course," Lorence replied impassively. "Just remember to send her to my home later." Fuck! As a human graduate student of exemplary character and scholarship, Lann felt his worldview shaken to its core—the rumor that blue-scaled fishmen had a thing for dolphins was actually true! "Come over and unbox them," Lorence said. "You're lucky. Back in the year of my internship, where would we have found so much research material? Watch closely, and learn well." "Yes!" Lorence opened the first body bag. "Human, male, obese youth, non-sorcerer, Tier 1 common material. Take it for practice." "Beastman, male, robust youth, non-sorcerer, Tier 3 common material. Take it for practice." "Human, female, average youth, non-sorcerer, Tier 3 common material. Take it for practice." "Elf, male, robust middle-aged, non-sorcerer, Tier 7 rare material. Mine." "What is the hospital doing over there... whatever. Dog, male, robust adult, non-sorcerer, Tier 2 common material. Take it." Having opened the final body bag, Lorence could not help but shake his head. "Eight common, two rare, and not a single sorcerer corpse. Not great luck this time." "Teacher Teuton, this is already very good," Lann could not help but chime in. "Normally, the hospital only sends about twenty corpses a day to the entire research institute, and they're mostly Tier 1 common corpses from severe illness, old age, and the like. Even so, the whole institute has to divide them up. When I was studying under Teacher Osram, sometimes we went a whole week without new research material. "It's only over the past few days that materials have flooded in. In fact, due to the rule that 'death aura dissipates in seven days,' we can't even get through them all despite working overtime." "Yeah, blub," Lorence was actually in a pretty good mood, his speech carrying the bubbling cadence unique to fishmen. "We really owe it to those foreign sorcerers. They ought to visit Kaimeng City once every year... no, once a month." "Teacher!" Lann gasped, startled. "Watch your words! The Sovereign won't be pleased!" "Relax. We are of the Blood Saint clan, beloved by the Sovereign. We won't lose the Sovereign's favor just over careless chatter." "Still, you can't! What if someone overhears and reports you—" "Alright, alright. Do you think I'm wrong, then?" "Of course you are! Once a month would ruin the economy. Kaimeng City couldn't take devastation that frequent," Lann declared with utter solemnity. "It would make much more sense if they visited neighboring Feimeng City once a month. One-third of the newly produced materials here in Kaimeng City were shipped off to the research institutes in Feimeng City anyway." Lorence glanced at his new student—as expected of a former human, his heart was far blacker than a fishman's. A light screen suddenly popped up, notifying Lorence that his reserved appointment time had arrived. He told his student, "Well then, Lann, you handle the pretreatment of the materials first. I have some business to attend to outside." "Yes, Teacher." Taking off his outer robe and spraying perfume to dispel the stench of corpses from his body, Lorence stepped briskly out of the laboratory. Passing by the water tank downstairs, his eyes went wide as he admired the dolphin's graceful curves and exceptionally alluring eyes. Wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth, he stepped onto the campus pathway bathed in the blood moon's glow. It had only been a few days since he returned to the institute, yet the leadership had already swiftly allocated him a laboratory. Although Lorence considered himself weak and incompetent, within the entire research institute, his source blood aptitude ranked in the top five. Therefore, even though he had offended a "big shot in reserve" among the Four Great Research Institutes, the institute still spared no effort in showering him with resources. Lann was also a graduate student assigned to him by the institute. Though Lorence had been reluctant at first, mentoring graduate students was a mandatory requirement for young researchers, and research involved so many menial chores that he genuinely needed a graduate student to do the grunt work. Lorence had been someone else's graduate student once. It was a necessary step prior to the "blood transfusion," equivalent to a "probationary period" or "internship" before transitioning races. Although prospective blood scions had passed the graduate exam and possessed guaranteed aptitude, many projects in the institute clashed with universal moral values. The institute needed to ensure that newcomers were "clever people" capable of fitting in, rather than "model citizens" domesticated by public propaganda. Of course, the "probation" was nominally intended to give graduate students an early taste of sorcerer research and elevate their faction realm to Silver rank as quickly as possible. But if a newcomer failed to blend into this "big family" of an institute, their end was generally not pretty—there was a running joke within the institute: "Today you are my student; tomorrow you are my material." The institute would not deliberately break the law, but the law could not reach the institute either. Incidentally, the Red Mist Research Institute's primary research projects were centered on the "blood sorcery faction" and the "necromancy faction," both of which demanded vast quantities of corpses as research materials. Lorence majored in the necromancy faction. Thanks to the plentiful supply of materials, his experimental progress over these days had advanced by leaps and bounds; he had even summoned a new sorcery spirit, and his necromancy faction was nudging against the ceiling of the Silver realm. Had he remained stuck in prison banging his head against source blood, he never would have caught such a golden opportunity. Truly, destiny worked in mysterious ways. Arriving at the bar-café, Lorence greeted Boss Snake. Boss Snake smiled. "Hiss, back again? I got in a lot of fine blood lately. Care for a cup of 'Elven Song'?" "You even have elven blood? What proportion?" "Sixty percent!" Boss Snake glanced around and lowered his voice. "Hiss, besides Elven Song, I'm also selling 'Wolf's Kiss.'" Lorence's fish eyes popped wide. "I never heard anything about the church being attacked!" "A Moon Shadow priest happened to be in the outskirts back then and ran right into the main force of attackers. May the Sovereign pity that unlucky soul... Want one? Ten percent concentration!" "One cup of Elven Song, and one cup of Wolf's Kiss!" "Hiss, you sure know how to drink." Lorence returned to his usual seat from last time, quietly awaiting the start of the Blood Moon Trial. For some reason, after watching one broadcast of the Blood Moon Trial, he had developed a sudden fondness for the program, even though he had never bothered to spare it a glance back when he was stationed at the prison. Perhaps it was because he had been kicked out of the prison. Perhaps it was because he knew he would be trampled under 222's boot for the rest of his life, while the other party wouldn't even notice him. Perhaps it was because he had accepted his own mediocrity. Throughout his school years, his internship, and his time conducting rituals in prison, Lorence had always maintained burning fighting spirit. He could satisfy himself purely on self-righteous striving, without needing any entertainment to enrich his spiritual life. Yet now, he had placed the sexual desires he once dismissed right back before him, dropped by the bar-café every night for drinks, and even come to enjoy watching the Blood Moon Trial... The underlying reason was simply that he could no longer derive pleasure from "striving." To Lorence, study, research, cultivation, and Void Realm Exploration had all turned into chores he was "forced to do." He had seen his own ceiling, and he knew that no matter how hard he worked, it would be useless. Confronted by an insurmountable wall, all he wanted was to lie flat and coast through his days. It was funny, really. When he first arrived at the research institute, Lorence had often looked down on the researchers who were just coasting by, thinking they were no different from corpses in coffins and swearing he would never become one of them. *Perhaps on the night I was tossed into Shattered Lake, I had already died,* Lorence reflected calmly. *Without ambition, all I have left is a heart that doesn't beat.* Suddenly, a clamor arose outside the bar-café. Someone sprinted in, shouting excitedly, "Something happened at Shattered Lake Prison! Death row inmates broke out!" "Real or fake? How did they escape? What about the prison guards?" "The guards were supposedly locked up! The death row inmates hijacked the transport ship that arrived at the prison today and made a break for it! The harbor noticed the transport ship never returned, and after reporting up the chain of command, they finally realized something had happened at the prison!" "Shattered Lake is going to be humiliated across the entire country this time! Isn't this the first ever jailbreak by death row inmates?" "Wait, aren't there healers in the prison? Could they have..." "Pfft, hahahaha! This is killing me! Come, a toast to the escapees! Here's hoping they bring the Bloodmad Hunters some entertainment!" "Cheers!" Another person shouted, "A toast to our recently increased materials! These past few days of materials are worth months in the past!" "Cheers!" "To the foreign sorcerers..." "Whoa whoa whoa, we don't dare toast to that!" "Then a toast to the casualties!" "Cheers! Woohoo~" Lorence raised his glass in delight as well, drinking the Elven Song down in a single gulp. Although it had nothing to do with him, Healer 222 was definitely still inside Shattered Lake Prison right now. For this jailbreak incident, the medical team within the prison could hardly escape blame—in fact, their liability was even greater than the guards'. After all, the guards were targets standing out in the open, while the healers were bats concealed in the dark. Lorence even felt secretly glad that he had been kicked out ahead of time; he could never stomach the disgrace of a proud Blood Saint sorcerer being taken hostage by death row convicts. "So that means there's no Blood Moon Trial to watch tonight? How boring." "Boss Snake, why not open a betting pool on the escapees? Bet on when they'll be caught, or whether they'll be gunned down on the run. I have a friend in the Sin Hunting Hall who can pass news along right away!" "Hiss, hiss..." Boss Snake said. "Let me think about it..." Right at that moment, eight light screens suddenly flickered to life in the center of the bar-café! Everyone froze, turning to Boss Snake. Boss Snake remained calm. "I set the light screens to turn on at eight o'clock sharp to watch the Blood Moon Trial, but now that the program is canceled—" *"If you have suffered enough harm,* *Use your own two hands* *To cleanly cut away yesterday's curse..."* There was even intro music?! Amidst everyone's bewildered, astonished, and expectant gazes, a guard clad in uniform appeared on the light screens. In his hands, he held the *Sinner Directory*. The book concealed his mouth, revealing only a pair of indifferent eyes. "Greetings, everyone. I am Yaxiu Heath, the host of tonight's Blood Moon Trial." Yaxiu Heath? Yaxiu Heath! No one could possibly forget that name in just a few short days, not to mention that many people had been eagerly waiting to see him take the stage once more in this edition of the Blood Moon Trial! "Since this trial could end at any moment, without further ado, let us introduce this round's list of the redeemed." The scene shifted as the camera panned to Shattered Lake outside the prison. Eight slender, crimson stone pillars had emerged from the waters of Shattered Lake, each topped with a stone seat, and seated upon each throne was a prisoner. "This is Edmond Mencken, former executive secretary of the Tax Bureau." "This is Bernard Lydor, former director of the Administrative Hall's Project Office." "This is Ernest Andere, former councilor." When the camera turned toward the final contestant, inside the bar-café, the research institute, the church, the rearing institutes, the Sin Hunting Hall—everyone watching the Blood Moon Trial leaped to their feet in sheer shock. "This is Alandor Financier," Yaxiu said. "Current mayor of Kaimeng City."