Sorcerer’s Handbook

“If hurt enough, use both hands, joyfully sever…”

Igor, sleepless for the night, let out a long sigh and hopped out of bed, intending to leave the room. But as he reached the door, he suddenly stopped.

“Why am I in such a hurry? Wouldn’t it be better if he were dead?”

Shaking his head, Igor reverted to his usual routine and went back to take a bath. This time, however, he was devoid of the usual comfort and relaxation, and soon hurriedly dried himself off, then went to brush his teeth, preparing to invoke the Revelation spirit.

But the premise for resonating with the Revelation spirit was to maintain a natural and calm state of mind, something Igor found impossible amidst his inner turmoil. Against all expectations, the spirit was still invoked, and the toothpaste foam on the mirror left a line of words:

“Do not be too surprised.”

Surprised about what?

Could it be that Ashe really died?

A chill ran through Igor’s heart. Seeing how Gerard, the Hunter Captain, was so focused on Ashe yesterday made him realize that the Captain was here for the offbeat Cult Leader.

Although escorting prisoners and assisting in the setup of the Blood Moon Tribunal was part of a Hunter’s duties, it certainly didn’t warrant the mobilization of the Enforcement Squad Captain. Given Gerard’s status, he could easily refuse jobs that didn’t interest him. Therefore, his presence at Shattered Lake meant someone had piqued his interest!

If it were just that, it might not be a big deal—Ashe could just sacrifice his shell. But what Igor inadvertently found out was that people like Gerard had legal immunity!

In the Blood Moon Kingdom, the law is the will of the gods, and the rules are the desires of the gods—irrefutable and inviolable! If you are proven guilty, whether you are an executive secretary, the mayor of Kaimon City, or a wealthy merchant, you must be tried according to the law, with no room for negotiation!

Igor could never forget the sight from thirteen years ago in the Nursery, watching the annual national Blood Moon Tribunal on the Holographic Screen, the composed and elegant man being torn to shreds by the Executioner!

That man was the legendary Sorcerer, ‘The Silent Maestro’ Tares Geraldo! A legend of the Blood Moon Kingdom for nearly a century! A Sorcerer with Quadruple wings fully spread, almost touching the divine realm!

Yet, even such a mighty being, as a price for defying the law, still had to endure the punishment of the Tribunal’s hammer!

It was from that day on that Igor firmly decided on his own path.

In the Blood Moon Kingdom, true strength lies in understanding the rules, exploiting them, and dominating them. Otherwise, no matter how strong you are, in the face of laws set by the gods, you are nothing but a slightly stronger ant!

However, during his many years as an ‘Insurance Contract Agent,’ Igor unexpectedly learned that a small number of people had legal immunity—even if they committed illegal acts, the law would not sanction them. Instead, the council and the Church had to protect them, control public opinion, and quell any disturbances.

These individuals were extremely rare and had to meet two conditions: first, they must belong to the sacred bloodline or the moon-shadow kin; second, they must hold an important position!

The former is easy to understand; the sacred bloodline and moon-shadow kin are the favored races of the Blood Moon Sovereign, and most of the preferential treatment falls on these two races. There’s little dissatisfaction—after all, if you’re envious, just take the test. Any Race can become part of the sacred bloodline or moon-shadow kin if they pass the assessment, and both the Research Institute and the Beloved Church recruit new members of these kin every year.

As for the latter, this ‘important position’ is somewhat debatable, because in the eyes of most ordinary people, the positions of mayor in the Government Affairs Hall and councilor in the council are considered important. However, this isn’t necessarily the case.

The Blood Moon Kingdom’s three most important institutions are the Sin Hunter’s Hall, which has the right to enforce the law, the Warzone, which is responsible for suppressing the Abyss in various places, and the Beloved Church, which governs all the Nurseries, specializes in maternity hospitals, and is in charge of population statistics.

The three most important positions are the Bishop of the Church, the Commander of the Warzone, and the Captain of the Sin Hunter’s Hall.

Among them, the Bishop of the Church must be from the moon-shadow kin, the Commander of the Warzone can only be from the sacred bloodline, and the Captain of the Sin Hunter’s Hall could be from either kin. Therefore, it is these three categories of people who have legal immunity!

Gerard Wessminster is one such privileged class member who can ignore the law!

This means that even if Gerard and Ashe were to go into a dormitory together and then only Gerard came out, he would not be subject to any punishment and could act as if nothing had happened.

However, many in the Prison believe that Gerard was probably just catching up with Ashe, at most engaging in a friendly spar—the kind where Ashe couldn’t fight back—and then it would be over.

After all, for Ashe in prison, it was a dead end, and Gerard had no need to tarnish his reputation for a death row inmate. To put it bluntly, killing Ashe would only dirty Gerard’s hands.

Igor originally felt the same way, but in the middle of the night, he suddenly realized a problem.

The key point wasn’t whether Gerard wanted to or not, but whether he could—why did Gerard request to stay with Ashe? He was assessing whether Ashe had any value that would make him commit a crime!

By that time, Igor felt that Ashe was doomed. With Ashe’s low emotional intelligence, underdeveloped brain, and infant-level expression management, Gerard might have just chopped him down if he found him annoying.

But this was good, wasn’t it? If Ashe were dead, Igor wouldn’t need to fulfill his wishes after all…

As Igor was convincing himself and walking into the restaurant, he saw an unimaginable scene: Ashe and Gerard were having breakfast face to face, even sharing a laugh.

Ashe seemed to have told a terrible joke, and the aloof White-haired Hunter actually burst into loud laughter, the decibel level even exceeding the “Public Place Management Regulations.” Had it been a death row inmate, the Chip would have surely silenced them immediately.

“Ah, Igor, over here!” Ashe spotted Igor at a glance and waved him over.

At any other time, you wouldn’t be so observant… Igor, who had hoped to stay on the sidelines to observe the situation, was forced to go over with his breakfast in hand, “Good morning to you both. Did you sleep well last night?”

“Very well,” said Gerard. “The accommodations here are even better than at my home. I haven’t slept in years, but fortunately, having Ashe here kept me from getting bored.”

“Oh?” Igor raised his eyebrows.

“I had a lot of fun playing with Gerard last night,” Ashe shrugged. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had such a good time.”

Playing? Igor and the nearby people showed subtle expressions.

“Why don’t you stay another night? I’ll give you a chance to turn defeat into victory. However, you need to change your impatient habits. I didn’t even use my full power last night, and you already took yourself out.”

The expressions of the nearby death row inmates became even stranger, and their looks towards Gerard changed—was Gerard unable to withstand a hit in front of Ashe?

Hiss, the ‘Demon’ Ashe is so terrifying!

“No, no, I’ve been urged to go back to the city. I actually came to the prison as a vacation, and if I don’t return now, the department head will start looking for me.”

At this point, Gerard and others seemed to have received a message. The Blood Mad Hunters dining in the restaurant stood up simultaneously, and Gerard waved his hand: “The ship has arrived, so I’ll see you next time, Ashe.”

“Leaving so soon? Have a safe trip, and don’t forget to write to me when you have time.”

“No problem.”

Once the Blood Mad Hunters left the restaurant, the death row inmates looked at Ashe with respect.

To be able to establish a deep friendship with Hunter Captain Gerard, could the ‘Black Beast’ do it, could ‘Diamond’ do it, but ‘Demon’ Ashe did it!

They knew that Ashe was personally captured by Gerard, but just after spending one night, Gerard was already conquered by Ashe!

No wonder he could become a saint favored by the Four Pillars, no wonder he could be the only madman to form a Cult in the Blood Moon Kingdom in nearly a century!

Indeed, it’s Ashe Heath, easily doing what we can’t!

Quietly, the ‘Demon’ Ashe has become the king of death row inmates in Shattered Lake Prison—although he’s still a death row inmate.

Igor directly dragged Ashe to the Sea-view Terrace, just as the Transport Ship carrying the Blood Mad Hunters was leaving the harbor. It broke through the waves of Shattered Lake and headed north, with many finger sharks active early in the morning, greeting the ship with their teeth, and the sunlight shining on their scales gave off a sparkling glow.

“What did you play with him last night?”

Ashe was slightly startled—your first question is this?

“What else could it be? Of course, it was cards.”

“Cards?” Igor was confused for a moment: “What kind of cards?”

As a highly developed fantasy society, the Blood Moon Kingdom naturally also had playing cards, although there were some differences in detail, but they were largely the same. Ashe found out that there was no ‘Blackjack’ 21-point game here, so he modified it a bit and taught it to Gerard, and the two played Blackjack all night.

Although Gerard learned quickly, his playstyle was unexpectedly aggressive, often busting by accident, and Ashe had a field day beating him all night.

After hearing about the game, Igor’s eyes lit up: “That’s a good game. If the casinos knew about it, it would definitely become a gambling sensation for a while… But Gerard didn’t plan to do anything to you? I thought he came for you on purpose.”

Ashe looked at Igor: “Are you worried about me?”

“Of course, you still owe me a favor,” Igor said calmly. “Who would I ask for it if you’re dead? In this world, I’m the only one who owes others; no one can owe me.”

“Indeed, even the loneliest person has someone who cares about them—like the taxman and the debt collector,” Ashe quipped, then added, “It was Professor Sylin who asked him to come and kill me.”

“What?” Igor was shocked. “Professor Sylin actually… How did you escape? If Gerard wanted to kill you, no one in Shattered Lake Prison could protect you!”

Ashe proudly said, “It was, of course, thanks to my sincere eyes, kind heart, and my gift of the gab! I reasoned with him, appealed to his emotions, and then he gave up on killing me and played cards with me all night instead.”

“Don’t joke around, I’m serious.”

“I’m not joking! I really did talk him through it and moved him with emotion, and then he just gave up on killing me and we played cards all night.”

Igor looked at Ashe for a while, making sure he wasn’t lying, and his face couldn’t hold back his astonishment.

A Tri-wing of the sacred bloodline who had lived for over a hundred years was easily persuaded by Ashe?

Could it be that Ashe is also a Mind Sorcerer? Otherwise, it’s hard to explain how he managed to master a hypnotic technique capable of controlling the strong-willed in the Sanctuary.

Or could it be the power of the Four Pillars? Allowing Ashe to subtly change others’ will?

Igor, looking at the Transport Ship disappearing over the horizon, suddenly remembered something: “You’re saying Gerard played Blackjack with you all night and mostly lost?”

Ashe shrugged: “Yeah, I didn’t expect Gerard to be so weak.”

Igor wanted to say something but closed his mouth instead.

In his opinion, although the gameplay of Blackjack is varied, the computational power required is trivial for a Tri-wing Sanctuary sorcerer. Theoretically, Gerard could simply rely on memory and computational ability to keep track of all the cards on both sides and even calculate the optimal strategy.

Even if it was his first time, he should have become proficient quickly, not losing more than winning.

But maybe Ashe is just really good at Blackjack, Igor thought.

On the Transport Ship, a group of Blood Mad Hunters were playing cards together.

“Aha,” Gerard revealed his hole card. “Right on twenty-one, I win, five silver coins from each of you.”

“No way, Captain, you can’t play!” one of the hunters shook his head. “You’re cheating!”

“You shuffled the cards, you dealt them, I didn’t use any spirits, how am I cheating?” the White-haired Hunter feigned ignorance.

The hunter couldn’t help but curse: “Your memory and computational skills are better than ours. You’ve analyzed all the scenarios as soon as we get our cards, how could we possibly win? You’re basically crushing us with your Sanctuary powers!”

“Alright, alright, we won’t play,” Gerard whistled and walked to the railing, looking through the glass wall at the Shattered Lake Prison growing distant.

A scrawny Orc Hunter approached. Unlike most hunters, he was thin and short, at first glance, one might mistake him for a Goblin.

However, like Gerard, he too had ruby-red blood eyes.

“Captain, I’m curious,” he leaned on the railing and asked. “What exactly did Ashe Heath do to make you spare him?”

Gerard chuckled, “Bass, how did you know I came for Heath?”

“You’re not new to this kind of thing,” Bass replied. “The Captain of the Enforcement Squad is often the one who breaks the law the most. Don’t think I’m unaware of who was behind the assassination of Councilor Wil. Every time you want to do something, the entire Sin Hunter’s Hall has to clean up after you. It wouldn’t be that hard to just follow the procedure…”

“However, this is a duty bestowed upon you by the supreme deity, and there must be a profound reason for it.”

“That’s why I’m curious, because you have too many reasons to execute Ashe Heath. Just being the Cult Leader of the Four Pillars Cult is enough to warrant your action. Plus, you must have received some intelligence that Heath still poses a threat, so you made a special trip to Shattered Lake, right?”

Gerard spoke leisurely, “Indeed, it’s comfortable to work with one of our own, someone who has keen insight and intelligence. Compared to them, Emma is really not up to par…”

Bass raised an eyebrow, “Captain, with that single sentence, you’ve violated regulations against gender discrimination, racial discrimination, and you’ve even touched on stirring up conflict between the two races of the Blood Moon. If others heard you, the Kaimon City media wouldn’t need to look for other news this month; they could fill their pages with nothing but scathing articles about you.”

Gerard smiled and then said, “As for Ashe Heath… You’re right, he has given me too many reasons to act, like him reading the romance manga that I hate the most.”

“So what did he do to make you change your heart, Captain?”

“He didn’t do anything, or rather, nothing he did swayed me. The reason I spared him is because I had to save face for someone.”

Bass was taken aback, “…There’s someone you need to save face for?”

“Of course.”

Gerard looked towards the distant Shattered Lake Prison, which was disappearing from view, recalling the Crow Uniform hidden under the bed in Ashe’s dormitory, and the sweet, fishy scent emanating from Ashe’s blood.

“I smelled the scent of Colorless Source Blood.”

“Being from the same Grand Research Institute as the other newly anticipated races, I wouldn’t dare to take the Sacrifice they’ve been longing for.”

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