"Inside the Secret Realm, the blood battle is a fight to the death with each party bearing their own risk. Do you want to break the contract?"
Under the massive lightning formation, Duolote stepped forward. Behind him, faint outlines of gray beast claws appeared.
"Enough!!!"
The black-robed figure standing before the three academy heads spoke directly. A massive jade-green hand reached into the sky and grasped. Buzzing!!! The enormous lightning was scattered by the hand as though it were nothing.
"I said, the rules must be followed!!!" The black-robed figure's voice was deep and cold.
At the same time, the blue-bearded old man across from them vomited a huge mouthful of blood. The anger on his face was completely replaced by terror. He immediately dropped to his knees: "Please forgive an old man who just lost his nephew, my lord!!!"
"Just this once! Otherwise, I will rip your soul out and roast it in the flames of the abyss for ten thousand years!!!"
The black-robed figure spoke again.
The blue-bearded old man retreated back to his academy's group and shot Jiamen a vicious glare.
The hatred and the unyielding resolve in that look made even Duolote's head ache. His skeletal frame crackled with a series of popping sounds.
"Even though nothing happened this time, unless Jiamen hides inside the academy forever, he will definitely be hunted by the blue-bearded one!!!"
Leilin's eyes turned cold.
Just moments ago, the Chip had detected several fluctuations of probing spells from the other side.
Clearly, they were searching for the person who killed their talented apprentice! If Leilin still had those marked items on him, his fate would be no different from Jiamen's right now.
For the instructors of the opposing academy, their painstakingly nurtured student and successor was dead — and killed by an enemy faction at that. They absolutely had to pay a price in blood!!!
As for Black Bone Forest Academy's casualties, which were ten times or even a hundred times greater on their side, those were simply ignored.
Although there were the constraints of the contract and the supervision of the Dark Night Lighthouse, for wizards, as long as they were willing to pay the price, they could easily circumvent the contract and carry out their revenge!!!
For instance, they could refrain from acting themselves but hint for wizards outside these two academies to strike, or simply post a bounty on the black market.
...
Late at night, Leilin had already returned to his dormitory. He was reclining on his bed, lazily playing with a pale-yellow test tube.
The tube was made entirely of pale-yellow crystal and was surprisingly heavy, giving off a dense, weighty feeling in his hand.
This crystal was a precious material — Nitrogen Crystal. Even spells below the twentieth degree were completely powerless against it.
Test tubes made of Nitrogen Crystal were often used to preserve extremely valuable potions.
According to historical records, potions stored in Nitrogen Crystal tubes had been known to retain their full potency for over a thousand years.
Inside the pale-yellow tube, there was now a mass of translucent liquid.
Leilin casually shook the tube. Under the reflection of the lamplight, the liquid inside began to refract a prismatic radiance, constantly shifting and swirling. It was quite beautiful.
"The legendary Geling Water, which can help apprentices break through the bottleneck to becoming official wizards!" Leilin stared at the tube and murmured to himself.
Earlier, under the overwhelming pressure of the Dark Night Lighthouse lord, the heads of Gothic Sage's Cottage and White Forest Castle had been forced to submit, leading their remaining apprentices away from the area.
Even Torresas's instructor had been foolish enough to enrage a high-level wizard once more, and didn't dare do it again.
Leilin and the others had been led back to Black Bone Forest Academy by their own instructor.
Leilin had taken a careful look. At this point, all of Black Bone Forest Academy's remaining apprentices numbered fewer than fifty.
A typical academy would have at least a thousand apprentices!!!
It could be said that Gothic Sage's Cottage and White Forest Castle had nearly accomplished their mission of severing Black Bone Forest Academy's generational lineage — if not for the fact that a few talented apprentices had died in the Secret Realm!
Even so, out of the two hundred-odd apprentices they had sent in, over a hundred had successfully survived until the blood battle ended.
Compared to Black Bone Forest Academy, that was quite a significant victory.
"But... none of that has anything to do with me!" Leilin stared at the dreamlike potion in his hand.
"As long as I get the Geling Water, that's all that matters! And the academy is even using an anonymous exchange system — they really do think of their apprentices!"
After returning to the academy, Leilin and the other surviving apprentices had been informed that the contribution points earned from killing enemy apprentices, as well as subsequent redemption matters, could all be handled privately.
Furthermore, the person handling the exchanges was an alchemical creature created by Headmaster Sly — one completely devoid of human emotion, incapable of leaking any apprentice's private information.
It had to be said that while Black Bone Forest's rules were extremely brutal and steeped in a survival-of-the-fittest philosophy, their protection of truly talented and capable apprentices was actually quite excellent.
Leilin simply gathered fifty contribution points and redeemed a standard dose of Geling Water.
The redemption list, with its various rare materials, first-level spell models, and spiritual power potions, dazzled his eyes.