Chapter 1031: Massacre and Blood Sacrifice?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1031: Massacre and Blood Sacrifice?
Night gradually shrouded the land.
The vast, ornate castle was no longer as glorious as it once was. Half-collapsed buildings leaned powerlessly against their foundations, their jagged breaks exposed like open wounds.
The blood mist permeating the air gave the entire city a faint, metallic sweetness.
With the frantic flapping of wings, several bat-like shadows darted past. The "Blood Bats," once whispered of as mysterious entities on the Blood Slave Peninsula, had become like rats scurrying across a street, hunted by all.
The Blood Slave Academy differed from the Witch Academy; its relationship with the common folk was incredibly intimate. Using local families as a nexus, their influence radiated outward until they controlled the entire region.
On the Blood Slave Peninsula, ordinary people took pride in donating blood, and a clandestine blood trade flourished in the shadows.
Had the Witch Academy not launched its invasion, no one would have realized that the vast majority of families on the peninsula—even those who weren't students—had been converted into blood slaves.
Though blood slaves occupied the lowest rung of the vampire hierarchy, they were not without transcendent power.
Blood regeneration, self-healing, extended lifespans... these boons were far too enticing for those unable to join the academies.
The primary reason the academy war launched by the Witch Academy against the Blood Slave Academy had dragged on for so long was that the vampires had entwined themselves too deeply with the local families through their unique methods.
In the beginning, the "Blood Slave Liberation" events were essentially a conflict between the lower classes and the high-and-mighty families. Under the guidance of the Witch Academy, that resentment was redirected toward the Blood Slave Academy.
But weren't the families also trying to use these commoners to pressure the Blood Slave Academy?
Once the families had tasted the sweetness of the transcendent, they were no longer satisfied with the status quo.
The Blood Slave Academy was nothing like the Witch Academy; they couldn't maintain an absolute separation from ordinary people. Furthermore, they required a massive supply of blood.
Where there is a supply-and-demand of interests, there is the possibility for negotiation—and the exchange of bargaining chips.
After all, the Blood Slave Academy was merely a dog for the Lord Vampire Academy. They had their own quotas to fill. To make their lives easier, why wouldn't they lower themselves to cooperate with the local families?
It was simply a matter of sucking the blood of the lower classes. In their eyes, this was much easier than trying to earn money from them.
But no one expected that this entire operation would directly draw the attention of the Witch Academy!
And in the end, it had come to this.
The actual combat strength of the Blood Slave Academy was pathetic. There was no such thing as "aptitude" or "genius" among blood slaves; most were chosen simply because their blood tasted excellent, eventually being transferred to the vampire academies to become the pampered slaves of some vampire noble.
Thus, the academy war initiated by the Witch Academy should have been a landslide victory. However, under the unique bloodline suppression of the vampires, the blood slaves were forced to throw away their lives in waves. The act of massacring these blood slaves placed immense psychological pressure on the members of the Witch Academy's Combat Sequences.
If they were facing well-matched enemies, they would crave the battle, perhaps even hoping to replicate the feat of the Morose Wasteland, where corpses piled into mountains and blood flowed like rivers.
But those they were killing now were unarmed, weak, and filled with terror—a sea of people forced to charge at them by the weight of their own bloodlines.
Not everyone could cast aside their conscience to commit wanton slaughter.
Even back at Sun Rock Elf Academy, the witches had merely breached the school and allowed the students to flee.
Adjusting one's mindset takes time. Convincing the students that they were killing "blood slaves" rather than "people" took even more time.
The United Club had never considered including discipline and ideological work for the Combat Sequences in their plans. At the end of the day, they were all just students.
Their bloodlust was a castle in the air, built upon the safety net of Immortality and Resurrection Spells. They hadn't even truly stepped out of the framework of arena matches.
But ultimately, the Blood Slave Academy fell to the witches.
This battle would inevitably expose many things. An unjust war always carries a certain backlash. The numerous massacres on the Blood Slave Peninsula—harvesting lives like drowning ants—were destined to rewrite the perceptions of many.
The various Combat Sequences involved in the Blood Slave War were being closely watched by other transcendent academies.
Their internal disagreements and contradictions were also laid bare for all to see.
* * *
"It seems the results are quite good."
Among a group gathered in a secret meeting, a wizard apprentice spoke up.
The people gathered here were students from the Three Top Academies, those who had been intimidated by the Witch Academy's lightning-fast methods and dared not intervene directly.
"So many people died, and you think this is 'quite good'?" A Holy Angel, who found the wizard's words particularly distasteful, spoke up.
It was true; the wizards pushing the blood slaves to be slaughtered by the witches had indeed caused internal friction within the witches' Combat Sequences. However, the Holy Angel Academy could no longer stand by and watch the process!
One had to remember the population density of the Blood Slave Peninsula; it was a key region for the Holy Angel Academy to spread its faith.
How many believers and potential followers had they lost in this massacre? How could the Holy Angels not feel the sting?
For the current situation in the Main World, the mentors of the Holy Angel Academy had given only one instruction: ensure the foundation of faith while promoting the Holy Light Faith in lands of suffering to expand its influence.
But before they could even act, the very foundation of their faith had been shaken. The academy would surely hold them accountable!
"Then tell me, Holy Angel, do you have a better way? If your side is willing to take the field and use your Holy Light Faith to redeem those suffering people, I think that would be an excellent proposal."
"You!" The Holy Angel was left speechless by the wizard's retort.
Go over there? That wouldn't be a divine manifestation; it would be a death sentence.
The witches over there would likely swat them out of the sky the moment they appeared! They wouldn't leave so much as a feather behind.
This representative seemed to have experienced something similar before, as the wings behind his back instinctively twitched and retracted.
"Do not underestimate the evil of the witches. A mere massacre won't shake their hearts for long; they will adjust soon enough. But what about you wizards? Have you given up on the vampires so easily?" The Holy Angel forcefully turned the topic back to the wizard apprentice. It was an open secret that the vampires were the wizards' underlings.
Not long after the Earth-Sun Tragedy, the wizards had slunk back in disgrace, allowing the witches to seize the Blood Slave Academy and the entire peninsula. It made them a laughingstock.
Such a heartless move by the wizards would surely create a rift with the other subordinates who relied on them.
However, the wizard apprentice didn't care.
The subordinate relationship between academies was a matter for the institutions themselves. What did it have to do with the students?
Among students, helping was a favor; not helping was the norm.
This was the mindset of most wizards. Unless the mentors ordered them to act, nothing would change. Those small transcendent academies would still have to cling to the top academies regardless.
"Give up? When did we ever say we were giving up? Has the Witch Academy truly won? Who can say for sure that those brainless, busty witches haven't walked straight into our trap?"
"You have a trump card? When did you prepare it?" Aphra, the Hemisen Elf who had been quiet until now, finally spoke.
"..."
"What, you're unwilling to say? Or are you worried someone here will leak the news?" Seeing the wizard apprentice remain silent, the elf spoke again.
"What does it matter if it leaks? There are many things that cannot be changed even if they are known. How could the Witch Academy ever give up a springboard like the Blood Slave Academy?"
"Tell us. You wizards didn't have the chance to set up such a countermeasure, so it must be a hidden hand already present within the Blood Slave Academy, right?"
"The Blood Slave Academy is just a massive blood processing factory. Even the transcendent mentors are just vampire academy mentors on rotation. What kind of hidden hand could such a place have?" the Holy Angel asked, frowning.
"You're right about one thing," the wizard replied. "The Blood Slave Academy is a massive blood processing factory, but it is also a bloody slaughterhouse! On one hand, it serves as a means to sacrifice all the blood slaves in an emergency to provide a massive amount of blood energy. On the other... as the lifeblood of the vampires, if the academy is truly invaded and all is lost, they have the capital to sacrifice the invaders along with them!"
"Sacrifice them together?!"
"The Blood Slave Academy itself is the core of a blood sacrifice ritual?"
Hearing the wizard apprentice's words, the representatives of the other two academies immediately realized the possibility.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How could there be a blood sacrifice ritual that covers an entire transcendent academy? Do you know how large the Blood Slave Academy is? Think of the sheer amount of transcendent energy required to activate such a ritual, the lag in the ritual nodes..."
"Then what do you think we are waiting for?" the wizard interrupted the Holy Angel. "The Blood Slave Academy is likely already shrouded in blood mist by now."
"Blood mist? The ritual has been activated?"
"Heh..." The wizard looked at the birdmen and gave a short, mocking laugh, letting them figure it out for themselves.
Activating the blood sacrifice ritual in the Blood Slave Academy was indeed difficult, especially when transcendent beings were barred from direct intervention.
However, the blood slaves who had been driven to the slaughter—their blood soaking into the earth—was the very preparation needed.
A blood sacrifice ritual of such magnitude, using the blood and Soul Essence of the blood slaves as the medium, would definitely teach those witches a lesson!
It would be best if they all died there.
After all, the Witch Academy had caused the Earth-Sun Tragedy. As the only party not "affected," the Wizard Academy had effectively widened the gap between the wizards and the other two sides. Though not stated openly, an alliance was already forming between the elves and the birdmen.
This meeting was practically an invitation for them to watch the Wizard Academy make a fool of itself. They simply didn't want to see the wizards prosper.
The wizards, naturally, had to maintain a facade of harmony. The easiest way was to use the Blood Slave Academy to exact revenge on their behalf.
Admittedly, a blood sacrifice ritual couldn't match the peerless might of the Earth-Sun Tragedy, but it was more than enough to kill those trainee witches.
"Everyone, the main forces of the Witch Academy's No. 1, No. 2, and No. 7 Combat Sequences are currently stationed there, using the academy as a base to plunder the Blood Slave Academy's resources. We wizards are helping you avenge the Earth-Sun Tragedy. Can you not feel our sincerity?"
The others looked at the wizard representative. Amidst their shocked gazes, a flicker of joy appeared.
Suddenly, the actions of these wizard apprentices didn't seem so unacceptable anymore.
* * *
Meanwhile, at the Witch Academy.
Just moments ago, the unstable spatial channel between the Witch Academy and the Blood Slave Academy had disconnected for unknown reasons.
The preliminary assessment was that this was caused by spatial instability. There are many reasons for material space to become unstable, ranging from powerful energy fluctuations to periodic spatial movements.
Of course, it was also possible that someone had sealed the space.
But now that the entire Blood Slave Academy was in the hands of the United Club, no one should have been able to seal the space right under their noses.
The United Club didn't pay it much mind, as they maintained constant communication with the other side.
With the Knowledge Seed as a guarantee, they had never encountered a communication failure. They were very confident in this.
However, before the spatial channel disconnected, they had received reports from the Blood Slave Academy.
Many of those who had followed the invasion were experiencing psychological issues due to the large-scale massacres and required counseling.
Some had even applied to return immediately.
Originally, this matter wasn't intended for the United Club's meeting, but because these special temporary applications were becoming so frequent, and because Cleveland, the representative of the Baking House, had proactively raised the issue, it was brought to the floor for discussion.
The reason Cleveland took this seriously was that Teaching Assistant Xiao Han had mentioned the issues of Combat Sequence discipline and psychological counseling during the post-war summary of a previous battle. Although it had only been a passing remark that no one else cared about, Cleveland had taken note of it.
The meeting was originally supposed to discuss the management of the Blood Slave Peninsula. The reason the local families were reacting so violently was that the Witch Academy had destroyed their path to obtaining transcendent power from the vampires—even if that path was technically the illegal leakage of transcendent materials, which was strictly forbidden by all major academies.
Despite this, for the sake of transcendent power, those families remained extremely uncooperative. Even with the Blood Slave Academy overturned, they still firmly believed the Vampire Academy would not abandon them and would return to rebuild.
The United Club wanted to leverage these families' desire for transcendent power by replacing the old system with the Power Network.
This would both promote the Omni-Link Main Network Tree and strengthen control over the local families.
After all, the families from the Witch Territory couldn't reach that place. There was a regional blockade between the two sides, and the families didn't have access to spatial channels. They were effectively out of reach.
The United Club intended to focus on winning over the families of the Blood Slave Academy.
Promoting this would meet with massive resistance. However, before discussing that, they didn't mind giving the Baking House representative some face by briefly addressing the issue of the temporary withdrawal applications from the frontline Combat Sequences.