Chapter 152: Methods of a Wizard

"Aren't you afraid I'll kill you right now?" Anderson growled.

Greem smiled at the words. "You are more than welcome! I have already given up resistance, so you can go ahead and kill me directly. However... if you do that, how will your Tier 2 Wizard plan be executed? By dragging so many apprentices here, I'm afraid the only way to aid your breakthrough is to turn a few of us into wizards. If you are afraid we might rebel, you could just kill us right now and spend tomorrow cowering and flattering the envoy of the Sarubu family. Perhaps you could still remain Wizard Anderson, but your sweet dream is destined to be shattered!"

"Since you understand my plan so clearly, did you really think I would let you ruin it?"

"So what if I understand? You have to turn us into wizards today and then devour us. This is the path you chose for yourself, and it is a destiny we cannot break free from! At this point, it is impossible for you to change your plan casually, and as for us, we can only fight desperately for our lives!"

"Then you shouldn't be so blunt and honest about it! Could it be you have some other plan?"

"Ha ha... What kind of plan could I possibly have? There are only three companions present today. You were truly careless when you crafted that puppet minion, actually leaving his core consciousness intact. Now he doesn't even seem to have entered with us, which looks like you were treating me as cannon fodder. Since that's the case, why should I bother covering for him?"

"It really was him! Hmph, I never imagined that half-bug body would have such tricks up its sleeve, actually managing to evade the shackles of the Soul Blood Pact. Besides these, is there anything else?"

"Of course there is! My only helper, Mary, has now become a bargaining chip in your hand. Counting it all up, it seems I am the only one left today willing to risk my life with you! I hope you'll be careful!" After saying this, Greem closed his eyes and completely ignored Anderson.

Anderson silently gazed at Greem, who wore a resolute expression, feeling a secret sense of astonishment in his heart.

He truly never expected that an obscure little fellow who had endured under his command for seven years would possess such an unyielding and arrogant personality, daring to openly challenge him.

If it had been a month ago, had Greem dared to be this arrogant and despotic, Anderson would have retaliated with even more cruel and terrifying methods. He would have used terrifying facts to teach this kid a lesson: in this world, wizards are the absolute masters who control everything!

Unfortunately, over this past month or so, he had done nothing else, spending most of his time on the modification of the blood altar. Three quasi-wizards were the three crucial nodes of the blood sacrifice, and not a single one could be missing. Only when everything operated successfully according to his wishes could he attain that long-awaited, perfect conclusion.

As for that foreign quasi-wizard Alice, because he could not ascertain her background, Anderson had merely arranged her as a backup sacrifice. Now, however, the wanton dissemination of the puppet minion's remaining consciousness had given all these sacrifices advance preparation.

Alice had not entered the secluded space, which also indicated that not a single one of the three quasi-wizard sacrifices before him could be missing; otherwise, the blood sacrifice ritual could not be operated.

Once the blood sacrifice ritual began, the first stage would involve draining the lives, souls, and flesh and blood of the numerous wizard apprentices, using them to sacrifice and nourish the three selected quasi-wizards. Driven by this bizarre and distorted vitality, they would each have a seventy to eighty percent chance of advancing to wizards.

And once they became wizards, the second stage of the blood sacrifice ritual would truly begin. At that time, the powerful and surging flesh, blood, and soul powers of the three newly advanced wizards would become his bait and food, helping him break through the shackles of a Tier 2 Wizard in one fell swoop.

Greem had made it very clear that his counterattack would arrive at the end of the first stage of the blood sacrifice ritual and the beginning of the second stage. This timing was undoubtedly the best moment for a counterattack—if he had the ability to strike back!

Faced with a fearless young quasi-wizard, Anderson smiled grimly and traced his hand repeatedly through the void. As a black spell rune materialized and then vanished, a patch of shadow beneath Greem suddenly came to life.

The black shadow was not large, as thin as a piece of parchment. Yet it possessed extraordinary agility, climbing onto Greem's chest like a paper figure, drawing a small dagger resembling a scrap of paper from its body, and fiercely plunging it into Greem's chest.

Greem let out a muffled groan of pain, and the splashing blood drenched the entire body of the paper figure.

The paper figure, acting like a true living being, extended its slender little hand, dipped it into Greem's unceasingly flowing golden blood, and smeared it evenly across its own body. Once this was done, soul fluctuations identical to Greem's suddenly emerged on the paper figure. Then, grinning hideously, it climbed toward Greem's mouth, pried open his teeth, and vanished deep into his throat.

Although he had already anticipated Wizard Anderson's potential methods, facing such a bizarre scene, Greem still felt his hair stand on end with horror. "The butcher is the knife, and I am the fish"—knowing full well that the other party would adopt certain measures to control his consciousness, when the moment finally arrived, Greem was still shaken to the core by the bizarre methods of wizards!

Before Greem's thoughts could even finish turning, his body suddenly began to struggle violently. Ignoring the wind shackles that tore open his skin and flesh, all the muscles in Greem's body tensed up, and thick, earthworm-like blood vessels bulged out, revealing the intense struggle of consciousness within his body.

Unfortunately, with his apprentice-level spiritual force, he could never contend with a veteran wizard. Before five fingers could be counted, his upwardly arched body suddenly slammed back down, his throat rattling incessantly, unable to utter a single word.

A moment later, Greem finally grew completely still, lying motionless in place. If not for the faint rise and fall of his chest, Greem would have looked precisely like a corpse.

"Heh heh heh... Now all your consciousness and soul are under my control. What will you rely on to resist me later? Hmph, yet another pathetic wretch who relies on crude books and scattered legends to imagine how terrifying wizards are! If you had the slightest understanding of a wizard's might and methods, you wouldn't be so arrogant in front of one!"

"The world of wizards is not something you mere broiler chickens can imagine! Heh heh heh..."

Controlling Greem's soul and consciousness was not the end of it. With a wave of Anderson's hand, all the magical equipment and strange items carrying elemental auras on Greem's body detached themselves, flying toward the altar like a long snake. However, one piece of magical equipment particularly caught Anderson's attention.

This was a spellbook that Greem had tied to his waist with a silver chain. Under Anderson's manipulation, the moment it left Greem's body by less than ten meters, it flickered, broke free from control, and reappeared at Greem's waist.

Oh? Soul-bound armament?

Even Anderson couldn't help but feel a great surge of curiosity toward Greem at this moment. Judging by the characteristics exhibited by this book, it should be the soul-bound armament recorded in ancient texts—a type of magical equipment bound together with the host's soul.

Such soul-bound armaments invariably possessed immense might far exceeding ordinary magical equipment, but the growth of every soul-bound armament required extremely harsh external conditions. Without massive resources and painstaking effort to nourish it, a soul-bound armament could not unleash its might, rendering it no different from ordinary magical equipment.

At most, it would yield a few special tricks!

And these apprentice-level tricks, when facing a wizard, were probably no more terrifying than a mosquito bite!

Faced with a rare soul-bound armament, Anderson had no time whatsoever to study and explore its mysteries, and could only simply apply an energy seal, leaving it hanging at Greem's waist. There was no help for it—every soul-bound armament was like this! Before completely killing the host, it was utterly impossible to separate it from them.

Having dealt with Greem, Wizard Anderson finally turned his gaze toward Mary.

At this moment, Mary had frantically devoured the blood of four apprentices, her lower abdomen slightly distended, her pupils as scarlet as blood, and her face, with bared fangs, covered in blood stains.

Anderson gave a soft command: "Come here!"

Hearing the voice, Mary's body shook violently, and a struggle of pain surfaced on her face. On one hand, the information transmitted by a hidden consciousness imprint deep within her soul ordered her to obey, but on the other hand, her violent and restless vampire instincts subconsciously resisted the command.

Seeing that the efficacy of the consciousness imprint was far inferior to before, Anderson's expression turned somewhat gloomy.

In order not to hinder the possibility of her vampire talent evolving, Anderson had not erased Mary's instinctive consciousness. While this had indeed allowed Mary to rapidly grow into a sacrifice that satisfied him, it also meant that after advancing to a quasi-wizard, she was no longer entirely subject to his control.

However, as Anderson intensified the strength of the soul fluctuations, Mary finally walked up to him, albeit unwillingly and with reluctance.

Anderson slashed through the void, and a bloody gash immediately ripped open across Mary's neck, sending a powerful jet of blood spurting out. Before this blood could hit the ground, Anderson cast a spell to collect it.

Having suffered this attack, Mary instantly went berserk. She retreated a few steps, baring her teeth and hissing at Anderson in intimidation, yet she never dared to pounce.

Anderson's mood was gloomy, and seeing this, he grew even more furious, using a wind vortex to sweep Mary high into the air. When she finally screamed and broke free from the wind-blade-filled whirlwind, the surface of her body looked as though it had been put through a blender, covered everywhere in ragged wounds of all sizes, with white bone visible in several places!

Having suffered trauma to her body, Mary immediately emitted a sharp, mournful shriek, running far away like an injured puppy and crouching on the ground to gently lick her wounds.

"Suck him to heal your injuries!" Anderson propped up an apprentice with his staff, tossed him to Mary, and warned her coldly: "This is a warning to you. Remember this for next time: I am your master! If you ever dare to disrespect me again, next time I will drain all the blood from your body!"

The apprentice tossed away by Anderson was none other than the newly appointed apprentice leader, Alan. Yet at this very moment, he could only watch helplessly as his body flew toward that terrifying fiend. Mary leaped forward in a flash, grabbed Alan in her grasp, and then lunged onto his neck to bite down fiercely.

Although Alan was fully conscious, his body was completely out of his control. He only felt two cold, sharp fangs pierce silently into his blood vessels, followed by a dizzying, world-spinning vertigo. Amidst a chaotic, hazy, and trance-like mental state, he felt a sudden brightness before his eyes, finding himself abruptly in a crowded, bustling magical hall.

All the familiar and unfamiliar apprentices and wizards lined both sides of a red carpet, gazing at him with smiling faces, while thunderous applause and cheers were deafening. As for him, he was wearing a noble and magnificent wizard robe, holding an exquisite and flawless wizard staff, smiling and nodding to the crowd as he strode toward the conspicuous, magnificent high platform...

Upon the towering ceremonial platform, a woman in red was smiling sweetly at him.

Who was she? Ah, right, she was the intimate lover he had sworn to accompany for a lifetime!

Thinking of this, Alan couldn't help taking a few hurried steps, eager to reach the high platform and grasp the fair, slender hand slowly extended by his lover.

Yet for some reason, the red carpet beneath his feet seemed to stretch endlessly. No matter how hard he ran and shouted, the distance to his beloved's slender hand only grew further and further away...

Finally, all the scenes around him grew more and more chaotic, and his consciousness grew increasingly blurred.

Amidst Mary's hair-raising sucking sounds, Alan's arm finally hung down limply!