Mage Manual
Chapter 462 - 383: Little Bat and Meiwa

Chapter 462: Chapter 383: Little Bat and Meiwa

Ash had thought Valcas had something to tell him, but unexpectedly, he was met with a counter-question. However, Ash indeed had many questions he wanted answers to: "Starting from after your death?"

Valcas seemed to have no intention of keeping secrets and calmly said, "After being killed by the Titan Executioner, my soul left my body, pulled downward by gravity."

"It was like sinking into the Deep Sea, drifting down unknowingly. But in the deep sea, there were sieves. As my soul flowed into these sieves, many impurities were filtered out, and then my soul was able to continue falling. After passing through six layers of sieves, I arrived in the Time Continent, constantly tumbling and floating without even their consciousness having emerged."

"But 72 hours after my death, a drop of blood in my soul started to burst and spread, binding me while also awakening my consciousness."

Valcas opened his black robe, revealing a Blood Lotus on his collarbone.

For some reason, this Blood Lotus gave Ash the impression not of a tattoo, but rather something blooming from within his body, like the livor mortis Harvey had often described to him.

"Then I became the Tomb Guardian Commander of the Blood Tomb."

Ash blinked, "Wait, where did that drop of blood in your soul come from? Why would there be blood in a soul?"

"I don’t know, only that this drop of blood must have been implanted in Shattered Lake Prison. Or rather, anyone who dies in the Blood Moon Judgement as a redeemer is bound to have Blood Seeds in their souls."

Valcas continued, "After I became a Commander, I also came to understand the mystery behind it. Us Blood Moon convicts, after dying for more than seventy-two hours, the Blood Seed erupts within our souls. If it discovers that we possess the talent of a Commander, the Blood Seed immediately activates our consciousness, turning us into Tomb Guardian Commanders."

She paused: "All Tomb Guardians are born this way."

The Commander selection mechanism!

Ash immediately perceived the intention of the Extreme Master of Blood Moon—the Blood Moon Judgement wasn’t just an outlet for the public, a deterrent guillotine for criminals, but also a job interview orchestrated by the Extreme Master!

In fact, Ash had previously discussed with the Sword Maidens how the Divine Lord specifically selected the Commanders needed. With Two-winged Mages dying every day, it was unlikely the Divine Lord could personally test each one. Moreover, Ash and his group speculated that the creation of Commanders might consume resources, it wouldn’t be feasible to mass-produce them; otherwise, the Time Continent would have been overcrowded by Heroic Soul Commanders, like a congested subway transfer station.

Thus, the Divine Lord must establish an efficient selection mechanism, using as little time and investment as possible to obtain a Commander who could grow in strength. At that time, Ash and his group thought the most likely method of the Divine Lord was to use the miracles of the Prophetic Faction to directly select Mage projections with the potential to be Commanders.

It’s normal for Mages not to know the Prophetic Faction, but the Divine Lord surely must?

But whether he didn’t know the Prophetic Faction or found this method more effective, the Extreme Master of Blood Moon used a brilliant selection method—the Blood Moon Judgement!

The threshold to get into the Blood Moon Judgement is actually quite high; after all, redeemers executed by public vote for merely killing a few people wouldn’t qualify. They would need to stand against the vast majority, like Ash, a well-loaded Cult Leader, or Fernand, a highly influential conspirator. Such individuals are more likely to have the talent for being Commanders.

Simply by implanting Blood Seeds during the Blood Moon Judgement, once they die, they automatically awaken as Commanders in the Void Realm.

The entire process required little to no effort from the Extreme Master of Blood Moon, yet reserve Commanders would continuously become a talent reserve for the Blood Tomb. Ash no longer knew whether the Blood Moon Judgement was established to select Commanders or if after its establishment, it was discovered to be the best talent market. Either way, within the industrialized system of the Kingdom of Blood Moon, death also became part of the production cycle.

The dead serve the living, not the other way around... Blood Moon is indeed the Holy Land of Necromancy that Harvey both loved and hated!

"Then, as a Tomb Guardian, do you still have your memories?"

"I do," Valcas nodded. "But I am left with only memories; Hell has stripped me of all emotions."

"What does that feel like?" Ash was very curious, since living people are always intrigued by death.

"My memory is equivalent to a series of books," Valcas said. "All written in the first person, narrating various stories. While I can flip through these stories at any time, they are just stories to me—I never walk into the books."

"Anger, joy, sorrow, emotion... these words can’t touch my soul. My soul is empty," she pointed to her chest. "I don’t have a heartbeat, can’t comprehend anything in my memories, but ironically, our consciences are born of these memories. Thus, our only wish as Commanders is to accumulate Merit, to plead with the Divine Lord to retrieve our soul fragments from Hell and regain a heartbeat."

"With every additional soul fragment, I can understand a bit more of the memories. Once I gather all the soul fragments..."

Ash: "You’d be resurrected?"

"I don’t know," Valcas shook her head. "And I don’t care. Besides wanting to understand my memories, we have no other desires."

Ash exhaled heavily; even he found it hard to resist the temptation of ’resurrection’. Though the path was filled with countless difficulties, there at least seemed to be a glimmer of hope.

He even wondered if he should try to make a big impact in reality so that he might be reborn as a Commander on the Time Continent one day.

However... moving from reality to the Void Realm, from life to death, Ash realized they had never escaped the control of the Divine Lord. Even though he never knew any teachings about the Divine Lord, he could vaguely grasp the different thoughts of various Divine Lords. Blood Moon’s ’selfishness’, Gospel’s ’listening’, were subtly influencing everyone in the community, thereby generating different societal tides.

The strength of the Divine Lord was not reflected in the deterrence of power, but in the enforcement of will. Whether Mages were foolish or wise, rebellious or loyal, they would inevitably implement the will of the Divine Lord, becoming a force that drives societal changes.

"Take this."

Ash looked up and hurriedly caught the Technique Spirit and map.

"Valcas’s Hand-drawn Map"

"Soul Summoning Technique Spirit"

Ash opened the Void Realm Map, and the system immediately popped up a message, "Map information has been updated."

However, compared to the Star Hall Map drawn by Demilo, which depicted one-sixth of the area, Valcas’s map was notably poorer, recording only one-twelfth of the Time Continent area, possibly because she had only recently joined the company and hadn’t yet familiarized herself with the local terrain of the Blood Tomb company.

The most noticeable part of the new map was the three main cities of Blood Tomb. Noticing that there was one fewer main city than Star Hall, Ash asked why. Valcas replied, "Star Hall was the victor of the last Six Nations Grand Seal, so it has the most main cities. If nothing unexpected happens, Star Hall will become the target of the five major powers this time."

"What is the Six Nations Grand Seal?"

"It’s a massive melee that occurs every fifty years. I don’t know the reason for the war, only that it is bound to happen. A large amount of soul power, followers, even commanders will perish in this war until the final victor is decided."

Fifty years... Hearing this familiar interval, something stirred in Ash, "How long until the next Six Nations Grand Seal?"

"Very soon," Valcas said. "By real-world time, just over seventy more days."

...

...

Void Realm, first layer, Sea of Knowledge.

A small bat flew through the fog, suddenly sensing something and swiftly moved toward the area to her right. Soon, an island emerged in front of her, where a Beastman Gun Master was stationed.

When the bat transformed into a humanoid upon landing, the Beastman Mage immediately armed his heavy sniper, attempting to use heavy firepower to kill this invader. But the intruder simply raised her hand lightly, and then the Beastman Mage stiffened, blood blossoms appearing one after another on his body without seeping through the skin, looking vibrant yet nauseating.

Snap.

With a sound like a pustule bursting, the Beastman Mage exploded into a firework, leaving behind a Technique Spirit and a Mage’s Handbook.

"Does necromancy-based miracle really have to be this repulsive...?"

Although it wasn’t her first time, Siflin still struggled to accept this scene—even as a member of the Blood Saint Clan and one who majored in the Blood Magic faction, she couldn’t understand the necromancers’ love for livor mortis.

Siflin had just used a Technique Spirit to instantly kill the projected Beastman Mage. This Technique Spirit, called the ’Death Flower’, was a privilege available to all members of the Blood Saint Clan.

The ’Death Flower’ has only one effect—activating the soul blood seed within ten meters. Once activated successfully, the blood seed will kill the host, allowing the Blood Moon Mage to win effortlessly.

The creators of these soul blood seeds were not others, but their very own Blood Saint Clan. Or rather, what is called the soul blood seeds were actually by-products of the ’Blood Embrace Ritual’ performed by the Blood Saint Clan.

In the ’Blood Embrace Ritual,’ the Blood Saint Clan had to disguise themselves as medical practitioners and infiltrate prisons, embedding their soul blood into selected executionees. When these convicts die during the Blood Moon Judgement, their magic power would be drained by the soul blood, which the Blood Saint would then reclaim to nourish their own Source Blood.

However, because the souls and blood of the Blood Saint Clan were integrated, the soul blood would also invade the convict’s soul. When the convict was alive, their strong soul could prevent the penetration of the soul blood, but during the Blood Moon Judgement, the soul blood gained unprecedented enhancement. Plus, as the convict’s soul would stagnate upon death, the soul blood would burrow into the convict’s soul like a centipede, rapidly growing until it became a ’blood seed’.

Even in the Void Realm, Blood Saint Clan Mages could smell the blood seed’s scent within 100 meters. By using the ’Death Flower’ Technique Spirit, they could easily instantly kill these mages’ projections harboring the blood seed.

Although these mages’ projections are just a drop in the ocean in the Void Realm, the core Blood Saint Clan members had fast flying speeds in the Void Realm. Plus, accumulating over many years of Blood Moon Judgments, Siflin had already encountered it three or four times, which were exclusive benefits for the Blood Saint Clan.

While alive, you serve as fuel for society, our materials; after death, you’re the fertilizer of the Void Realm, our nourishment.

Having lived in the Blood Moon for many years, Siflin still struggled to accept such values: everything had a clear price tag, all objects should be reprocessed, and so-called emotions, memories, and meanings weren’t recognized. Extracting the last bit of value from life was seen as the greatest respect for life... This extreme pursuit of maximum benefits exhausted Siflin, who enjoyed meaningless pleasures like traveling, photography, and playing cards.

’Speaking of which, Ash must now be living in other nations... What are those nations like? What races exist there? What are their characteristics? Do they have such feudal dregs as blood relations? Do their Divine Lords care for the people?’ While packing up her spoils, Siflin let her thoughts wander, transforming back into a small bat and continuing her exploration of the Void Realm.

Gulp.

The small bat hovered in mid-air, her ultrasonic detection picking up strange vortex noises next to her in the ocean.

A vortex?

Siflin’s Silver Wings had already formed, and she was now awaiting her promotion to the Golden Level as a Two-winged Blood Magic practitioner. Although she had been in the Sea of Knowledge for several months, she hadn’t yet encountered a vortex and decided to fly over to see the world.

Just as the small bat prepared to fly into the vortex, she happened to encounter a small boat emerging from the vortex. She couldn’t dodge in time and collided directly with the person on the boat!

"Ah? I’m so sorry, did I hurt you?"

The small bat fluttered her wings, finding herself in the arms of a Mage named Meiwa.