Chapter 1068: The Primal Bloodline Processing Plant
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1068: The Primal Bloodline Processing Plant
"Al... Alright."
Cleveland nodded hastily. Although things were developing beyond her expectations, they hadn't veered off course.
Even though I told her to get straight to the point, Cleveland still handed over a folder of organized information regarding recent events.
"I am a Body Cultivator. Body Cultivation has granted me a certain level of sensory discernment, so there's no need to be hesitant or waste time with preambles in front of me. If there's something on your mind, just tell me directly." As I spoke, I took the documents from Cleveland and began flipping through them.
Not much had happened recently, though the Magic-Draining Armament was indeed a significant matter.
"I understand." Cleveland nodded quickly, making a mental note of my preference.
"The main reason I sought you out, Sister Xiao Han, is because of a matter that might require your assistance. It's regarding the underground facilities on the Blood Slave Peninsula mentioned at the end of those documents."
"The situation on the Blood Slave Peninsula hasn't been resolved yet?" I flipped to the final pages and saw what Cleveland was referring to.
Blood slaves, underground bloody breeding farms... and abnormal movements by Wizard apprentices.
"Not yet. The Blood Slave Peninsula is simply too vast. Furthermore, because we haven't been able to establish a clear path between the Witch Territory and the peninsula for a long time, it's difficult for us to thoroughly integrate the peninsula's forces without the assistance of external family powers."
I didn't press further on that issue, instead cutting straight to the chase: "Let's talk about why you came to me. What do you need me to do?"
"I came to you primarily because of a massive underground facility beneath the Blood Slave Academy. Its scale and complexity are far beyond our imagination. According to the Wizard apprentices we captured, these facilities seem to be linked to some sort of secret. We didn't want to risk a forced entry."
"A secret?" I continued scanning the documents.
The records showed that many underground facilities across the Blood Slave Peninsula had been sabotaged by Wizard apprentices. The scenes were left in shambles, as if they were trying to cover something up.
"Are those Wizard apprentices really that tight-lipped? You didn't use any... extraordinary measures?" I asked casually.
"We did. The apprentices we've captured have been interrogated to within an inch of their lives; we've even used Resurrection Spells on them several times. Our preliminary conclusion is... they don't actually know what it is either. They were simply fulfilling infiltration and sabotage missions issued by their academy."
"Missions from the academy?"
I set the documents down, my interest piqued. "Did you clarify if these were student-commissioned requests or missions issued directly by the academy?" I asked.
"I heard they were posted at the Wizard Tower. Wizard Tower missions are equivalent to our academy's official missions. If they were student commissions, they would have been picked up elsewhere."
"I think I get the gist of it... So why come to me? Is the facility inaccessible to everyone else?"
"Entry is possible, but the uncertainty is too high. The Combat Sequences are already busy dealing with various harassments across the peninsula, and we don't have the manpower to spare enough exploration teams to scout such a massive underground complex."
"I recall planting an Omni-Link Main Network Tree there, didn't I? It's been quite a while—can't the information gathered by the root network render a structural framework of the facility?" I asked curiously.
"We attempted to generate data via the root network immediately," Cleveland said quickly. She then used a Great Knowledge Seed to project a three-dimensional magical image.
It was a massive underground facility, but it looked like... a "hollow shell"?
Cleveland displayed a cross-section; the internal structure was a void of pitch black.
"This was the result. It's very unsatisfactory. Moreover, the architectural composition of this massive facility incorporates special Transcendent Materials acting as energy circuits for specialized Transcendent Protection Arts. This makes a violent breach extremely difficult."
"Did the Wizard apprentices attempt to destroy this specific location?" I asked.
"They did, but since our Combat Sequence was already stationed at the Blood Slave Academy, we were able to protect it immediately. They failed to get through and haven't made any further moves since."
"I see. Fine... I'll go take a look." I agreed to the request.
The reason I agreed so readily was mostly curiosity about the nature of the place, and the fact that it seemed to involve the Wizard Academy.
I didn't mind spending a day or two on this.
After all, I was in an excellent mood. My path regarding Fool's Dream was clear, and my experiments were progressing smoothly.
Besides, there was no point in rushing back. Inside the dungeon world, the four little ones—Yulan and the others—needed time to gradually adapt to and master the power of Dreamification.
This was a perfect opportunity for me to see if there were any practical issues to watch out for when using Dreamification in a real combat environment.
"Sister Xiao Han, you're agreeing to this?" Cleveland was genuinely surprised. She had already prepared herself to be rejected.
In her eyes, Sister Xiao Han was usually busy with a thousand things at once; why would she care about such a minor matter?
Cleveland had mostly come just to give the others an explanation. After all, it was just an underground facility. If they chipped away at it slowly, they would uncover its secrets eventually.
"Yes. No time like the present; I'll head over directly. Arrange the rest of the details. It's best if the Combat Sequences on the Blood Slave Peninsula fully cooperate with me."
"Yes! I'll get right on it!" Cleveland nodded immediately. She knew that efficiency was paramount right now.
She immediately contacted Lin Xian on the Blood Slave Peninsula. As someone who had expressed a desire to follow me, Lin Xian was naturally given a position of importance by Cleveland. Even without her, Cleveland would have chosen a few reliable and trustworthy individuals from the Combat Sequence to entrust with the task.
While Cleveland was handling the communications, I had already arrived at the Blood Slave Peninsula via a Teleportation Spell.
When I had accompanied Ning here previously, I had left a Teleportation Mark behind. I hadn't expected to use it so soon.
As soon as I arrived, Lin Xian came forward to greet me.
"Sister Xiao Han, I've received Cleveland's orders. I will be fully coordinating with your mission from here on!"
"No need to be so formal. Just act as usual. Follow me to the Omni-Link Main Network Tree; I want to take a look." I looked up at the massive silhouette of the tree in the distance. I had planted it with my own hands.
Even though Cleveland said the root network was of no help, I needed to see it for myself. At the very least, I wanted to understand why a method like the root network would fail.
Standing beneath the Omni-Link Main Network Tree, I pulled up a massive information light screen. The preliminary results were indeed consistent with what Cleveland had shown me.
"Take me to the entrance of that underground facility," I said to Lin Xian, mostly just to have her accompany me.
The entrance to the massive facility beneath the Blood Slave Academy wasn't a standard walkway. Instead, it was a sinkhole that had been violently bored straight down from the surface.
After jumping down, I couldn't help but let out a small sigh of admiration.
This was clearly a violent excavation achieved through magical means. There were severed roots along the earthen walls—and these were just the tip of the iceberg of the Omni-Link Main Network Tree's root system.
Once I reached the exterior of the massive facility, I finally confirmed its defensive capabilities. The root network indeed found it difficult to extract much information.
I then directly utilized the Ley Lines to perform an Identification Art.
However, the results were still underwhelming.
This was a monolithic casting—a massive facility that encompassed the local Ley Line nodes!
While the Ley Line Identification Art wasn't perfect, it at least provided some useful data. I could see many marks on the facility's exterior; it looked like Lin Xian and her team had tested several violent methods of entry.
"Since you know this place exists, you must have found the official entrance, right? How is it?" I asked.
"We did find it, but the situation there is even more complex. Trying to enter through there would be harder than just blasting a hole through here," Lin Xian answered honestly.
"Alright, it seems I shouldn't get my hopes up. Lin Xian—you leave first. Leave the rest to me. I'll keep in touch with you via the Great Knowledge Seed, and you can pass the information to Cleveland as needed."
"Understood." Lin Xian nodded, realizing she was no longer needed on-site.
After seeing Lin Xian off, I was the only living thing left in the area.
Then, my form rapidly shrank, transforming into my Fool's Dream stance.
In this Dreamified state, I phased right through the indestructible walls of the underground facility.
Before Dreamification, all physical obstacles in reality were nothing more than a joke.
"So this is the interior of the facility?" Feeling that I had successfully entered, I shifted back to my original form without hesitation.
It was clear that I was currently at the edge of the underground area.
I moved through a relatively narrow corridor and began to head deeper inside.
Even the information from the Ley Line Identification Art became blurred here. It was certain that this place possessed the ability to interfere with Ley Lines.
The air felt a bit strange, likely due to a lack of circulation, and there was a faint scent of fresh blood lingering in it.
An hour passed.
I gradually mapped out the general layout of the place and established an exploration model.
Unlike the smaller underground facilities described in Cleveland's reports, which were structured like blood slave breeding farms, I found no trace of large-scale blood slave activity here.
As someone extremely sensitive to life signatures, I could tell there was no "ranch" here.
The space was filled with massive equipment, though it was currently non-operational.
I kicked open a large warehouse I had reached. Inside, I discovered a vast quantity of... Blood Crystals!
There were even records nearby. Looking at the contents, they seemed to track where these Blood Crystals had been transported from.
Analyzing the data, these locations partially matched the hundred or so small underground facilities Cleveland had mentioned.
Finally, I could confirm: this was a massive terminal facility used to process those finished Blood Crystals!
Combining the information I had gathered, I understood the purpose of this place.
If "Blood Crystals" and similar items were semi-finished Transcendent Materials made from blood, then this place was a processing base that used those semi-finished goods to create something else entirely.
"Interesting... The Blood Crystals from the Blood Slave Academy didn't end up in the mouths of those vampires at the Vampire Academy. They had another purpose?"
I followed the machinery further down. This wasn't a research base; it was a production base with a mature, streamlined assembly line.
Whether it was concentrated blood or semi-finished materials like Blood Crystals, they were processed through a series of steps to be turned into a specific finished product: "Primal Bloodline."
At least according to the records, the final product was called "Primal Bloodline Essence."
The only pity was that I didn't find any finished "Primal Bloodline," nor did I find a single soul in this massive facility. I only saw traces of long-term human habitation.
Eventually, at a damaged section of the facility, I found the reason it was deserted.
It was a damaged teleportation spell, seemingly designed to destroy the spatial coordinates immediately after use.
The people who were here had all fled.
Even with my Space Sense, it was difficult to track their spatial trail.
The place had been empty for a short while.
Such a massive facility, though seemingly intricate, likely required very few people to maintain its operations.
Because, viewed as a whole, it was a singular, giant piece of processing equipment built for a unified purpose!
Furthermore, it was a massive apparatus built directly upon the Main World's Ley Lines, using the vast Ley Line energy to power its basic operations while passively filtering Ley Line information.
No wonder my Ley Line Identification Art hadn't worked well earlier.
I calmed down and organized my thoughts. First, one thing was certain: the raw materials for this massive machine were the blood provided by the people of the Main World.
So, what exactly was the "Primal Bloodline" it produced?
The primal bloodline of humans?
After a long silence, I looked at the massive processing plant, which was still in a semi-operational state driven by Ley Line energy, and an idea formed in my mind.
I went back to the warehouse filled with Blood Crystals, gathered them up, and brought them to the raw material intake.
Since I couldn't find a finished product... I would just make one myself.
As for how to operate such a massive machine... that was no problem for me.
My earlier wandering wasn't just aimless; I had thoroughly mapped the entire place.
Operating it wasn't difficult; otherwise, they would have needed permanent high-level personnel on-site. The reality was that this was a very mature processing plant that only required a few technicians who knew which buttons to press.
As I set things in motion, the entire underground facility suddenly roared into high-speed operation.
The massive thrumming of the machinery turned into vibrations that traveled up to the surface.
The people above immediately felt the anomaly beneath the earth, as if something under their feet had "awakened."
Lin Xian rushed to the entrance of the tunnel, only to find that there was still no way inside.
Just as her heart began to race with anxiety, a message suddenly popped up on her Great Knowledge Seed.
"I am safe. I have activated the equipment in the underground facility. It may cause short-term tremors."
Seeing this message, Lin Xian breathed a sigh of relief.
She immediately sent a reply, hoping nothing would go wrong.
While waiting for a response, she hurried back to the Combat Sequence to calm everyone down. After all, a blood sacrifice ritual had occurred here not long ago. Even though they had personally destroyed the ritual, such bloody methods still left a lingering, unknown fear.
She had a duty to inform them of the situation.