Chapter 461 Garden Advancement <TOC> Chapter 463 Attack Spell
Translator: SumTLMan
Angel approached a wizard and carefully read the contract text on the scroll.
After reading it, Angel felt a cold sweat running down his spine.
The text on the contract was shocking to him; just one word could encapsulate the core content of the entire contract.
What Rosen had mentioned before, that a little “boost” would be enough to advance the Purification Garden to the intermediate level, turned out to be such a cruel word.
—Blood Sacrifice!
Just like when Sanders built the Gravity Garden, he drove a group of phantom beasts from Phantom Island into the designated area. When the Purification Garden was formed, their flesh and blood became part of the magic garden.
This time, the Purification Garden was doing the same thing.
Absorbing the flesh and blood of extraordinary beings with different attributes, once a certain number was reached, the Purification Garden would undergo a qualitative change, pushing it to a higher level.
Moreover, this number was not small. The contract didn’t specify how many people needed to be sacrificed, but it did provide an estimated value: 90%!
This blood sacrifice was a true representation of “nine deaths and one life”!
Back on the Cloud Whale, Sanders had promoted the “Nine Cabin Blood Fights,” which could also be considered a nine deaths and one life situation. However, the scale of that event was nothing compared to this one!
Keep in mind that the condition for Sky Mechanical City to open the Purification Garden this time was to reach the top of the Sky Tower!
There were countless Sky Towers set up by Sky Mechanical City, and they had been in place for over thousands of years. In these thousands of years, disregarding the dead, how large a number of people would meet this condition?!
Even if various reasons made those who had already surpassed the third-level apprentices or those who were too old not choose to participate in this “grand event” of the Purification Garden, Angel believed that there would still be many people willing to come, and the number would definitely be in the five digits!
Rosen’s casual “boost” was to cut down 90% of the tens of thousands of extraordinary beings, which was undoubtedly a blatant massacre.
He suddenly looked up at Rosen in the center and then at the expressions of the other wizards around him. Almost none of them felt that this was inappropriate. Although they were communicating with each other privately, Angel could tell from their expressions that they were discussing how to maximize their benefits, not the lives of the apprentices.
An unprecedented silence fell upon the conference hall.
After a long, long time, finally, someone spoke up, and this person was… Canter, Like the Night.
Angel thought of Canter’s Wizarding World organization – House of Lilith, which had always been sparsely populated. If they slaughtered 90% of the apprentices without any deviation, how would such a small Wizarding World organization cope?
Moreover, if Angel remembered correctly, Canter only brought one apprentice this time: Cherie.
Considering Canter’s care for Cherie, it’s normal for him to speak up at this time.
“Killing 90% of the apprentices would cause too much damage to our small Wizarding World organizations. I think this contract is unreasonable,” Canter spoke up, and all the wizards in the room, including those who were whispering privately, became silent and focused their attention on Canter and Rosen.
Canter, Rosen, and Sanders were the three strongest people in the room, all of whom had stepped onto the path of true knowledge and had reached the second level of wizards. Rosen was from Sky Mechanical City and was leading this matter, while Canter and Sanders were essentially representing everyone else. When Canter spoke, no one dared to ignore him, and his statement was certainly for the benefit of everyone.
“Lord Night, I understand your point. However, I want to say that there is a difference between large and small organizations, which is indisputable. But large organizations have dispersed resources, leading to many apprentices who don’t live up to their names; small Wizarding World organizations have concentrated resources and produce many elites,” Rosen said as he glanced around the room. “The people we removed from the Purification Garden this time are those apprentices who don’t live up to their names. For those truly elite apprentices, they can gain great benefits, and even… possibly make great strides in their pursuits.”
“So, I’d like to ask Lord Night, are you asking me this because you don’t have confidence in your own juniors? I’ve heard that the teaching quality of the House of Lilith is even better than many large organizations,” Rosen’s gaze finally returned to Canter, questioning him first and then gently praising him.
Canter stroked his white beard and said indifferently, “I naturally have confidence in my juniors, but our small organization doesn’t have many juniors, and each of them is an important indicator. So I have to ask clearly whether the pros and cons of this situation are worth the risk for us.”
“Lord Night is right. The death of 90% of the apprentices is definitely more harmful than beneficial to the juniors. How big does this ‘benefit’ have to be for us to willingly let our juniors take the risk?” Canter’s words were supported by most of the wizards present. The majority of the seats at this meeting were actually from small Wizarding World organizations, and many of them couldn’t even be considered small organizations but rather wizarding families.
It was only then that people began to discuss the matter.
Angel watched closely. If it weren’t for Canter raising the issue, perhaps this group of people wouldn’t care about the deaths of their juniors at all. What they cared about was how much benefit they could get for themselves. Even at this point, they weren’t really fighting for what was right, but rather trying to use Canter to pressure Rosen and gain more benefits.
Rosen coughed twice, drawing everyone’s attention back to him, and then said, “As I said before, we are only eliminating the bad and leaving the truly excellent. For those who can survive the Sacrificial Blood Rite, the true elites, we will not be stingy with our rewards.”
“What exactly are these rewards?” Canter asked.
“When the lower garden leaps into the intermediate garden, the purification laws will expose the core code to the greatest extent. Do you not believe that the elites you value will reap great benefits from this? If one can comprehend the lines of purification, that is truly a step into the sky. Even if one’s luck is slightly worse and cannot comprehend it, immersing oneself in the dense purification power is enough to increase the chances of advancing to an official wizard.”
Rosen pointed out the substantial benefits this time. If one could really comprehend the lines of purification, it would be a power that even their group would flock to, and it would not be an exaggeration to say “a step into the sky.”
Of course, they were well aware that comprehending the lines of purification was not easy, with a probability as low as one in ten thousand. But as Rosen said, even without comprehending the lines of purification, the power of purification was enough to push up the chances of advancing to an official wizard, which was also worthwhile.
Everyone fell into thought.
“I believe that everyone present does not want their juniors to always be in swaddling clothes, protected in an ivory tower, right? Killing and cruelty are, after all, the main themes of wizards, aren’t they?”
Rosen continued to incite with his words on the side. But the people present were not naive and could naturally hear that there were huge flaws in Rosen’s words. Even Angel understood that Rosen was playing a word game. Killing and cruelty were indeed the main themes of wizards. But this time, the apprentices were forced to kill in a confined space, which could be said that they were just pawns abandoned on the chessboard. There was no main theme to speak of.
“Moreover, for the beloved apprentices, you can directly tell them the trickery involved. Let them make their own choices, and as for the other apprentices who are not worthy of their reputation, I hope you can keep this secret.” Rosen continued to raise the stakes.
Perhaps it was the temptation of the pie drawn by Rosen, or Canter’s confidence in Cherie, that he voluntarily withdrew his formation and no longer argued with Rosen. Obviously, he had tacitly accepted Rosen’s words.
“How about it? If you have no objections, why not sign this contract?” Rosen urged.
Of course, the contract would eventually be passed, which was the choice made by everyone present when they saw the contract. But Canter only talked about the benefits of the apprentices and did not mention the benefits of the wizards present. Naturally, no one chose to sign.
Everyone looked at Sanders, the strongest person present, who represented a party other than “Sky Mechanical City.” What would Sanders have to say?
Even Rosen looked at Sanders, knowing that whether he could seize more benefits depended on Sanders’ words.
Sanders had been pretending to sleep for a long time, not speaking during the previous conversation, and only slowly said at this moment, “I have no objection.”
When Sanders said this, Rosen breathed a sigh of relief.
Angel was not surprised by Sanders’ choice. Sanders would not care about the life and death of unrelated people.
“However, the scale of the wizard organizations is different, and even some wizard families are present. According to the contract, each wizard organization is allocated two fixed quotas, which is not fair for large wizard organizations.” Sanders said indifferently.
The power of laws absorbed by wizards is, of course, vastly different from that absorbed by wizard apprentices. The wizard apprentices, numbering in the thousands or even tens of thousands, can dilute this power of laws, but for official wizards, perhaps one person can equal hundreds of apprentices. That’s why the quotas they allocate are so few.
But as Sanders said, giving two spots to large organizations and two spots to small organizations or wizarding families is not fair.
Regarding this point raised by Sanders, Rosen agreed quite readily: “This can be discussed.”
Thus, for the next day and night, the meeting hall was occupied with discussions about this matter.
Sanders quickly skipped through this part of the scene, showing Angel the final conclusion. Since the strengths of the wizarding organizations varied, the conclusion Rosen came up with was not fixed. Each time the Purification Garden was opened, large wizarding organizations would be given 10 or more spots, medium-sized organizations would be given 4 or more spots, and for the remaining small organizations and wizarding families, Rosen said he would have detailed discussions with them before making a decision.
After the illusion ended, Angel returned to the dining table.
He still held a fork and knife in his hands, but they were trembling slightly. A piece of Shaman Milk Cake was laid out on the plate in front of him, cut in half and exuding a rich milky aroma.
“Now you understand, don’t you?” Sanders had no desserts in front of him, only a cup of steaming hot tea.
“Can’t other species be used as substitutes?” Angel asked Sanders.
“Would it make a difference?” Sanders’ thin lips approached the delicate porcelain cup, his nostrils inhaling the white steam as he gently sipped the tea.
Angel lowered his head, indeed there was no difference. Humans were life, and other species were also life.
Sanders had anticipated that Angel might be troubled by this due to his character, but surprisingly, Angel quickly came to terms with it.
The Wizarding World is not as idyllic as ordinary people imagine; this is reality. Angel’s ability to accept this reality so quickly shows that he is gradually integrating into this world.
Chapter 461 Garden Advancement <TOC> Chapter 463 Attack Spell