Swoosh!
Splurt!
Emily appeared behind the last early-stage Four Star demon of the group and beheaded him with a swift slash.
Ha!
After glancing around, she saw the Fullers were killing the remaining demons and took a deep breath, calming down her blood flow and agitated mana.
After that, she started digging out the cores of the demons she had killed.
Right then,
Swoosh!
She noticed Lily and Sera rushed toward someone. When she looked over, she realized Max had returned.
However, when she took a good look at his face, especially his eyes, which had turned faded crimson pink, her brows furrowed in worry because the last time she saw his eyes change color like this was when he was suffering from his bloodline backlash.
Her fists clenched tight, and her jaws set. ‘He had to push himself to the limits again?’
After taking a deep breath, she walked over to him, and while Lily and Sera asked if he was alright, she asked, “Are you able to suppress it?”
His words surprised the duo, while Max was confused for a moment when he saw her looking at his eyes and understood what she meant.
“It’s not an issue.” He answered somewhat awkwardly.
“Good.” She nodded before turning around and continuing to dig out the demon cores.
…
Lily and Sera looked at Max in confusion before Lily asked, “What did sister Emily mean, young master?”
Max pointed to his eyes and said, “She thought I had bloodline backlash.”
“Is that why your eyes look like that?” Sera asked, becoming more worried.
Max shook his head. “It’s not because of the backlash but because I don’t have any bloodline energy left. Until I recover some energy, they will stay like that.”
The ladies sighed in relief but then became worried again.
Max let out a sigh, and before they could say anything, he said, “No need to worry. I can use mana stones to recover it.”
The duo’s expression eased before Lily waved her hand.
Fwoosh!
Ice elemental mana gushed out of her core, covering her in a cloud of white mist, which then followed her will, froze the nearby area, and created a small igloo-type structure around them.
“Young master, you recover your bloodline energy. We will make sure no one disturbs you.” Saying this, she grabbed Sera’s hand and walked out of the ice dome.
“These girls…” Max shook his head, smiling.
Then, wasting no time, he sat down cross-legged, and since recovering bloodline energy with mana stones would take quite some time—the time he couldn’t afford to waste too much right now—he took out one of the mana crystals.
Logically, since Monarchs and Supreme Mages used them to cultivate, lower realm magus shouldn’t be able to use them, like those below Five Star realm couldn’t use high-grade mana stones.
However, despite having purer and more concentrated mana, the mana crystal could be used by anyone as long as they were careful and didn’t absorb more mana than they could handle at a time.
In addition to this, the fact that they could help in resolving cultivation bottlenecks made them the most sought after cultivation resource.
Unfortunately, they were so rare that even King Magus usually didn’t have them, and even if they got hold of some by some lucky coincidence, the number wouldn’t exceed a dozen.
This was why he was caught off guard when Leo said the spatial ring had mana crystals.
‘Did he find some inheritance?’
The thought crossed his mind. Then, as he recalled how he had managed to kill the Peak Four Star demon that had stopped him, he felt his guess should be more or less right.
‘Well, it’s his fortune.’
With this thought, he stopped thinking about everything and focused on the mana crystal in his hand.
…
The capital city… Royal Palace…
One hour after Magus left the city for the battlefield…
Sitting high on his throne, Azaroth was deep in thought, his gaze distant, while in front of him, a middle-aged man knelt on his both knees, cold sweat running down his back.
This man was none other than the silver-masked ghost who attacked the Garfield family with Dean and Count Wiley.
After returning to the palace, he tried to find the reason why Max hated his family and soon found one of the members of the Royal family had attacked Max’s family, almost killing his father.
After a few moments, Azaroth looked at him and sighed, “If you hadn’t forced Viscount Ashton to use extreme measures and suffer irrevocable damage, things would have been manageable. But now…
I’m sorry to say, but you have to sacrifice your life in apology to that kid.”
When the masked ghost heard these words, his heart chilled, but he didn’t raise his head or say anything in protest.
“Are you willing to do that?” Azaroth asked.
The masked ghost took a deep breath. “My King, if it can help the Royal family and you promise to protect my family, I am willing to do it.”
“Good. You go and spend your remaining time with your family.” Azaroth said.
The masked ghost stood up and bowed before leaving the palace.
When he was some distance away, he took out his communication crystal and sent someone a message before continuing on his way.
Meanwhile, Azaroth, sitting on his throne, rubbed his temple, “How troublesome!”
Right then, a graceful lady, almost as beautiful as the elegant elven city lord, Elena, appeared in front of him.
Taking a step forward, she turned her body and sat on his thigh before gently asking, “What is worrying you now, my king?”
Azaroth, noticing the teasing and somewhat exasperated tone in her voice, smiled wryly, “It seems one of the grand elders has either overcome with greed or has made some deal with those scums in the central plains.”
“He has targeted the special bloodline boy who you must have heard about in the last few days.”
“I don’t understand.” The lady, who was Azaroth’s first wife and Eric’s mother, shook her head. “What’s the exact problem? Is it the grand elder contacting those people or him targeting the boy?”
“It’s the latter.” Azaroth sighed.
