The Trial

In the corridor leading from the treatment room to the common breakroom, a trial was underway. The other medical sorcerers looked at the slightly petite 222, their eyes behind their crow masks brimming with tangled emotions. Not a single one of them questioned the charge of "theft of sorcery procedures" brought against 176; in fact, they found it entirely reasonable. A sorcery procedure was not merely a set of operations—it was also a method for mastering a miracle. Unlike combat sorcerers, healing sorcerers and creation sorcerers did not engage in PvP, so their miracles could lower the difficulty of casting by extending the cast time. Combat sorcerers did not have that luxury—an enemy would blow you to pieces right while you were channeling. Because of that, healing sorcerers and creation sorcerers broke miracles down into multiple steps, and stringing these steps together formed a miracle. These steps were sorcery procedures. Therefore, so long as one mastered the sorcery procedure, mastering the miracle was only a matter of time. Sorcery procedures were naturally treated as vital intellectual property. When a sorcerer created a new sorcery procedure, no matter how narrow its application or how unviable it was commercially, the licensing royalties alone from other sorcerers studying it were enough for them to order a fifty-year lifespan extension package from the four major research institutes. This was also why Yaxiu found only a single medical sorcerer in the treatment room every time he woke up—medical sorcerers were forbidden from having onlookers present during treatment to prevent others from stealing their healing sorcery procedures. The medical sorcerer looked toward 201. "Were you sent by my teacher?" "I'm a graduate student studying under your senior sister. She is my boss." 201 chose his words with extreme care, revealing no names. "The warden of Shattered Lake Prison is friends with the boss... but the boss instructed me not to disturb you under normal circumstances. If this scumbag hadn't gone too far and actually stolen property belonging to the institute, I wouldn't have shown myself at all." The medical sorcerer asked, "Now that my identity is exposed, does that mean I have to leave this place?" 201 chuckled. "You joke, Miss. Of those who come to Shattered Lake Prison to carry out the Blood Embrace ritual, which of them isn't a candidate clansman from an institution subordinate to the four major research institutes? How could we betray you? How would we ever dare betray you?" The other medical sorcerers bowed in unison to show their respect. They had no choice but to bow their heads. There were thirty-six research institutes in the Blood Moon Country: twenty-four minor institutes, eight intermediate institutes, and four major institutes. Most of them were merely candidate blood kin from minor institutes, whereas the young lady before them was a new clansman from Blood Weep, one of the four major research institutes. The gulf in status between them was vast as heaven and earth. To put it bluntly, even after completing their Blood Embrace and leaving the prison, the best outcome for them would merely be becoming Golden Blood kin, gaining a two-hundred-year lifespan increase, and remaining stalled at Two-Winged for the rest of their lives. Meanwhile, new clansmen from the four major institutes were almost all Sanctuary Blood kin with five-hundred-year lifespans, or even Legendary Blood kin with thousand-year lifespans! A Three-Winged Sanctuary was the baseline they had to achieve; a Four-Winged Legend was nothing unusual; and they might even touch the domain of the divine, becoming demigod saints elevated above all living beings in the Blood Moon Country! "Miss, how would you like to handle this scumbag?" 201 asked. The medical sorcerer fell silent for a moment, then looked at 176. "Do you have anything you want to say?" 176 raised his fish head and glanced at the medical sorcerer, the crimson glow she was most familiar with shining in his enormous eyes. "Insolent!" 201 snorted coldly and popped one of the Vein Bubbles. 176 shuddered all over, his pale fish face turning as white as a sheet of paper. "I don't accept this." "What don't you accept?" "I don't accept that you get to become a new clansman of the Blood Weep Research Institute while I have to claw and scrape in a minor institute." 176 nearly ground his fangs to dust. "I was clearly a favored prodigy among fishmen too! I was clearly capable of becoming a supreme blood kin! So why is there such a massive gap between your resources and mine?" "I don't accept it! The chance at a Blood Embrace that I racked my brains to earn, you obtained with effortless ease. The sorcery procedures I begged for in vain were common knowledge you could grab at will. I don't accept why the best convict materials pass through your hands, while I can only get tasteless scraps..." "What I accept least of all is why your talent had to be so incredible too!" 176 grew increasingly hysterical. "I couldn't just stand by and watch you surpass me... I couldn't!" "Truly an unrepentant scumbag." 201 popped another Vein Bubble, leaving 176 on the verge of fainting. "There's no need to listen to his garbage any longer... Miss, how do you wish to dispose of him?" 201 paused. "Normally, it's summary execution." The medical sorcerer quietly watched 176, who had collapsed almost limp on the floor, and pondered for a long while. "He hasn't annoyed me to the point where I want him dead, but if he dies, I wouldn't care all that much either." "So your meaning is..." "Find a geoduck-shaped soft club, beat him black and blue, forbid anyone from treating him, and kick him out. Oh right, isn't he a blue-scaled fishman? Finger sharks shouldn't be able to kill him. Throw him into the sea tonight and let him swim back on his own." 201 was taken aback. "But Miss—" "That is my decision." The medical sorcerer looked at 201. "If you don't agree, do as you see fit. I don't mind." "I didn't mean that." 201 bowed his head deeply. "Your will shall be carried out." "Then I'm going back to rest." The medical sorcerer walked briskly through the crowd, seemingly eager to escape the stifling atmosphere. Soon, however, slow, heavy footsteps quickly caught up to her pace. She stopped in front of her quarters and looked at 201, who had caught up. "Is there something else?" "Since I've already disturbed you, I thought I might take this opportunity to offer a few words... of reminder." 201 weighed his words. "Just a few reminders." "Speak." "I noticed that the time you spend with convicts in the treatment room is slightly... against regulations. Of course, that's completely fine. I guarantee no one will use that regulation to offend you, and I haven't come to warn you." "If not to keep the Human Rights Association and the Racial Rights Protection Association from causing trouble, we wouldn't need to disguise ourselves as medical sorcerers to carry out the ritual here in the first place. Those rules exist merely to reduce the likelihood of running into trouble, but you don't need to worry about trouble, Miss." Every word 201 uttered stressed his humility. "I am only concerned that while you are playing around, Miss, you might develop unnecessary feelings for those materials and delay the Blood Embrace ritual. If something goes wrong with your Blood Embrace progress, the boss will hold me accountable." The medical sorcerer shook her head. "I haven't forgotten the Blood Embrace ritual. Set your mind at ease." She paused. "Every convict I've treated has already been implanted with a Blood Embrace seed. Once they die in the trial, the Blood Embrace seeds will naturally condense their knowledge and sorcery power, transforming it all into my source blood." The medical sorcerer stepped into her quarters and reached up to take off her crow mask, revealing a pair of supremely feral crimson eyes. She gazed at 201 like a predator, sending a shiver running down his spine. "We of the Blood Saint clan never develop feelings for our bread."