Mage Manual
Chapter 434 - 362 ’Family Rankings’_2

Chapter 434: Chapter 362 ’Family Rankings’_2

"If there’s such a convenient method, then—"

"The only drawback is that the Abyss Channel often shifts," Hanna said. "A stable abyss like the mermaid scent grass farm is unique to Gospel City. Other abysses don’t have so many ’living’ inhabitants to keep them in check, and their terrain tends to be complex and variable, which means the Abyss Channel can’t be used as a regular means of transport."

"Additionally, before Mages had fully suppressed the Abyss, they couldn’t freely use the Abyss Channel; by the time Mages could enter and exit the Abyss at will, they had already invented transport technologies that rivaled the Abyss Channel."

"Also, many people can’t accept the time compression feature of the Abyss Channel. Like us walking here for a few minutes, hours have passed in the outside world. Overall, using the Abyss Channel doesn’t save ’real-time’, but we certainly feel hours younger."

"Wait, isn’t this time travel?" Ash’s eyes lit up. "If I stay here for a year, decades would have passed outside—"

"Setting aside the danger, but your body is aging according to the outside world’s time. That means you might feel like only a year has passed, but your body would have aged by decades," Hanna explained. "If you just want to travel to the future, Mages have plenty of alternative solutions to delay aging, there’s no need to come to the Abyss."

"Here, I highly recommend the Coffin Hibernation Method." After leaving the mermaid scent grass farm, Harvey became much more lively. "You’d be preserved as a corpse, then restored to a normal person after a hundred years, with just 30% life loss of your current life. Interested in trying it?"

Ash: "Has anyone tried it?"

"Yes, lots of wealthy people on the brink of death have tried it. But when they wake up, they all become poor," Harvey laughed. "The Blood Saint Clan’s research facility has a department for this business, called the ’Hibernation Department,’ specifically for harvesting the money from rich, short-lived breeds. The hibernation clients seem to think that future society’s healthcare will let them live forever for free."

"People who dare not face time will inevitably be abandoned by time," Igula said calmly. "The synonym for ’hoping for the future’ is ’giving up the present.’"

Up ahead, Banjee suddenly said, "We’ve arrived."

It was like passing through an invisible veil; they left the natural dark cave and suddenly came into the well-lit underground ruins.

Ruined but not ancient brick buildings, a torch on the wall every ten steps, and narrow corridors just wide enough for four people to walk abreast—they felt as if they had traveled from a modern city to a feudal medieval setting.

"Is this another Abyss?" Ash looked around the corridor. "Why are there no monsters?"

"It means the Bluebeard here has already completed his daily tasks," Hanna removed her protective gear and mask, saying, "Even the Abyss, fertile as it may be, needs to rest and recuperate... Now that we’ve left Vatican Mura, let’s first perform the Demon Extraction Surgery to completely remove the influence of Beauty Mist."

The Demon Extraction Surgery can thoroughly eradicate the addiction caused by Beauty Mist, but only the addiction itself; it merely allows the patient to physiologically stop craving products related to Beauty Mist. The heightened threshold will not diminish.

In theory, everyone from Vatican Mura could undergo the Demon Extraction Surgery and leave the city of white mist. However, for the people immersed in dreams there, withdrawing the demon from the body is easy, but removing the demon from the heart is hard. Except for necessary business trips, they almost never leave Vatican Mura for travel.

Banjee took six white cups out of his briefcase, then revealed the back of his hand, stamped with an Emblem, stuffed a ball of flame into the white cup, and slammed down his hand!

With the flame burning the air, atmospheric pressure suctioned the white cup tightly to his hand. At the same time, spots like insect eggs appeared all over Banjee’s body, streaming towards the white cup as if students rushing for the canteen, looking as though they were being sucked away by the white cups!

"Artifact Spirit· Demon Extraction," Hanna introduced. "In addition to eradicating addiction, it also has effects like clearing heat, detoxifying, beautifying, energizing, ensuring dreamless deep sleep, and enhancing sexual vitality, among others. This thing is pricey, a major Mage-tech export product of Vatican Mura. Using it just to get rid of addiction is actually a waste, as ordinary people would go to a hospital on the edge of the city to find normal Medical Practitioners for Demon Extraction Surgery."

Since the surroundings were safe, they took a break there and proceeded with the Demon Extraction Surgery. The white extraction cups seemed as though they would painfully suction the skin, but Ash found the sensation surprisingly pleasant. There was a slight itch, like being suckled on by hundreds of mosquitoes, as it pulled away all sorts of gunk like fat, blackheads, and acne...

"Hahaha, Daddy, you’re so dirty!" Liss pointed at Ash, with the various spots appearing on him, and laughed loudly.

Ash glanced at Liss and noticed that she was very clean; the white cup couldn’t suction much from her at all. In contrast, his own body was showing a ton of dirty spots, which looked almost as if hundreds of roaches were crawling on him.

"Oh...?"

Seeing a mischievous curve form at Ash’s mouth, Liss got a bad feeling and started to retreat, "What, what are you laughing at... No, don’t come over here!"

"Watch my Secret Terrifying Assault!"

Ash just grabbed Liss and rubbed against her like petting a cat. Liss, scared senseless by this aesthetic terrorist, failed her sanity check, rolled her eyes, and foamed at the mouth, managing to pull out a hand mirror only after much effort: "Help, save..."

Feeling the ’Liss’ in his arms stop trembling, Ash blinked and carefully let her go.