Nightmare’s Call

“I’m sorry, Sir. I overslept,” Lin Sheng said apologetically to Professor Auldmandiller.

Auldmandiller was originally giving out a lecture on the general knowledge of dark powers with a cold face to the apprentices in the class.

The moment Lin Sheng appeared at the door however, his coldness disappeared and in its place was an extreme warmth and gentleness.

“Don’t worry about it. Come in, it was I who did not allow the Unseen Servant to wake you up. You must’ve studied till late last night right? You’re sure hardworking. How about you go back and catch up on some sleep?”

*Crack.*

One of the apprentice’s pencils suddenly cracked.

Mylissa simply sat in a corner as she lowered her head, not daring to look at either Auldmandiller or Lin Sheng. She was afraid that if she looked at them a little too much, the raging flames inside her would take over, and she would punch someone.

Lin Sheng too was amused by what the professor said.

He spent the whole morning meditating, and the purification effect was top-notch, and much of the impurities of the Crag Dragon blood within him were discarded.

He could feel that, while the Crag Dragon blood’s volume had lessened due to the purification, and its effects weakened, his body felt like it had been thoroughly cleansed.

Compared with before the purification process, his body was much lighter and cleaner now.

However, the purification technique actually needed to consume spiritual energies.

In just a short two-hour meditation span, Lin Sheng could feel the strength of his soul being sapped a little. It was about the level of summoning a vault guard.

If it was to be applied to a normal human, that meant at least half of one’s soul would be consumed.

And now, he somewhat understood the records left behind by those giant hawks.

One choice was to succumb to the nightmare, and one was to use their soul in search of a more purified primordial blood, and perhaps they could gain the hope of escaping their fate there, however minuscule that was. Especially when death was all but certain in both scenarios.

“No need, Sir. I will attend the class with the rest.”

Lin Sheng replied and went to his seat.

The class then restarted.

Auldmandiller’s lecture was very thorough, as he gave out at least three examples for the understanding of everyone for every theory and formula. Such as the crystal training method, or how to create a perfect Crystal Warrior, or what sort of problems or roadblocks one would face during their training…

How to identify and resolve such problems, or how to react when there was an unexpected change and the like…

The class lasted until lunch.

After class, Lin Sheng went back to his room to take a nap. But in actuality, he continued meditating the purification technique.

The consumption of soul was to others, probably a massive problem, but for him, this little bit of loss was no issue.

Perhaps it was that the Crag Dragon blood within him was too weak, or the meditation process was too effective, and just within an afternoon, Lin Sheng felt that the Crag Dragon blood within him had almost been purified to its purest form.

He had absorbed the memories of the giant hawks, and the hawks dared not spend his soul like currency without thought, or to speed through the meditation process. They only meditated a little bit every single day, before letting their soul recover, and with time, and the length of the purification only did they reached the perfect result.

Late in the afternoon, Auldmandiller commenced his practical class, as he requested his apprentices to formulate a potion for him. Lin Sheng was, of course, exempted from that, and simply just performed an assessment of his dark powers.

It was five hundred something now, much higher than the first assessment. That growth had Auldmandiller in all smiles, and he did not even bother to fret on how Lin Sheng used his time.

Without anything better to do, Lin Sheng went back to his room to meditate again.

His soul was powerful, and he could replenish it by killing monsters, thus he was not concerned by this minor consumption of his soul.

The meditation lasted all the way to six in the evening, and he finally felt that the Crag Dragon blood within him had been purified to its limits. Now, if he could strengthen the blood, then his body would be immensely strengthened as well.

Lin Sheng had been long envious of those highborn bloodlines of the Steel and Night Lords, especially the Night Lord…

Plus, if he could enhance his body, then the holy power bottlenecking would not be a problem any longer.

Then, reaching Level 8, Level 9, Level 10, and councilor level holy power would no longer be just a dream. It was just like that Night Lord who neither needed nor did any training…

After dinner, Lin Sheng went back to his room and no longer meditation, instead, he tested out his body’s strength.

Under his half-dragon state, his defense fell by a significant amount, and his flaming breath shrunk too.

While the flames had shrunk, its potency had greatly increased, and the originally crimson flames were now faint black.

Though most importantly, his dragon eye and dragon aura had undergone changes due to his now pure black blood.

However, the changes were still ongoing and had yet to stabilize.

Later in the evening, Lin Sheng noticed that he was out of some bathroom items. As he had already spent the whole day meditating, and now that his Crag Dragon blood had already stabilized and could no longer be further purified, he decided to go for a walk.

The Soul Fortress, or the Baine University, all these institutions were the realms of the Transcendents. But Lin Sheng preferred to relax in the simpler world of the common folks.

No matter how supernatural the world was, the common folks were still the majority.

…

“Thank you for your visit, the total bill is $15.75. Forget the cents, $15 will do.”

The young convenience store staff smiled as he passed Lin Sheng’s his items.

Lin Sheng took them and walked out of the shop.

Next to the store was an Internet café, and on top of it hung a blindingly colorful neon signboard: “Genesis Net Café”.

A few youths with dyed hair and ear piercings came out from the shop in a row, boasting about their performance in the game they had just played.

“I haven’t gone online in a while now…” Lin Sheng looked at the time on his phone. It was only seven.

“Let’s do some web surfing.”

After he came over to Miga, he a lot less stressed out.

There was the Night Lord looking over things in Xylond, the Steel Lord developing a branch of the Holy Sanctum in the desert area, Sarroux had gone missing and could not be contacted. That Palatinate from the Heaven’s Spire was badly wounded and probably would not reappear any time soon.

While he was afraid that the Heaven Spire would try to hit him with numbers, with official Xylondian backing, that situation would not happen.

Xylond had their own trump card and could stand tall in the world of the Darksiders, and they were not that afraid of the Heaven’s Spire.

While what sort of trump card they had, Lin Sheng had no idea, but if they are capable enough to protect the Holy Sanctum, that was more than enough.

“I should give myself a break sometime.”

Lin Sheng went into the net café and went up the second floor.

The air within the café was stale, as the smell of cigarette permeated all over, everyone sitting inside was no different than smoked meat, as they focused on their games amidst the cigarette smoke.

“I want a unit.” Lin Sheng handed his passport over.

“A dollar an hour, is that okay?” the counter staff asked as he wrote something down.

“Okay.”

As he took the activation card, Lin Sheng found a unit by the window and sat down after activating it.

He had not gone online for a long while now, ever since he left Xilin. At most what he did was to check something using his phone.

As he sat down looking at the screen full of icons, he suddenly felt lost.

Upon becoming a Transcendent, he had long left behind the life of a normal person. For far too long now.

Games?

PVP games, RPGs, or MMOs, all of these barely even interested him any longer.