Wizard: I have ten trillion nanomachines

The sky at an altitude of 10,000 meters is a desolate and harsh place that is hard for ordinary people to imagine.

The extremely low temperatures below minus fifty degrees Celsius, low pressure, and lack of oxygen act like an invisible noose, creating a harsh environment.

However, as a creation of wizards, the airship's interior has long been modified by magical arrays to make it suitable for survival. As long as one stays obediently in the cabin, there is no need to worry about the dangers outside.

The scene inside the lower deck was quite different.

Hundreds and thousands of ordinary people, acting as "cannon fodder," were crammed into a small space, shoulder to shoulder. Sweat mixed with body odor and the sour smell of rotten food fermented in the enclosed environment, making the entire cabin stuffy, hot, and nauseating.

"How long is it going to take? This place is unbearable!" someone finally couldn't stand it anymore and complained.

"Who knows... let's just leave it to fate," the person next to him replied listlessly, his tone utterly numb.

Complaints rose and fell, but no one dared to take any drastic action.

This wasn't because the people were particularly well-behaved, but rather because the pill they had taken earlier had an invisible deterrent effect.

Nobody wants to experience the feeling of parasites gnawing at their internal organs.

If it weren't for these drugs, this group of "thieves and convicts" would probably have already gone into chaos.

Luo Kunlun leaned against the corner, closing his eyes to rest, while isolating himself from the surrounding odors and stuffiness.

"It went quite smoothly."

I initially thought the wizards would use harsher methods to control them, such as mass-producing bomb collars, but then I realized it wasn't so bad.

A group of cannon fodder who could die at any moment are not worth the huge expense of equipping them with such control devices; a single pill would suffice.

The airships travel at speeds far beyond imagination, hurtling through the air.

Half a month later, Luo Kunlun suddenly felt a violent tremor. The ship swayed like a small boat in a stormy sea, and he heard a buzzing sound in his ears.

This was not a malfunction of the ship, but rather a spatial oscillation caused when passing through a space tunnel.

"Looks like we're almost there," Luo Kunlun thought to himself. The ship was already traversing the spatial passage, and the airship would soon reach its destination.

Sure enough, around noon the next day, the feeling of a slow descent began to appear.

Soon, shouts came from outside the cabin: "Salan Fortress has arrived! Prepare yourselves, disembark immediately!"

Saran was the very wizard who led the wizard legion to destroy the original rule of the Secret Martial World and conquer this land.

The Saran Fortress, named after him, is the largest and most important stronghold established by the Four Elements Tower in the Secret Martial World.

The airship slowly descended onto the fortress's vast plaza. The hatch opened, and blinding sunlight flooded in, causing those accustomed to the dimness of the cabin to squint.

Luo Kunlun followed the flow of people out of the cabin and scanned the surroundings. He saw that the fortress was built against the mountain, with walls made of black boulders, hundreds of feet high, and covered with dense defensive runes.

That was the fortress's most important defensive force.

Including wizard apprentices and mortal cannon fodder, the total number of people who arrived this time was a full three thousand.

Soon, soldiers in standard armor arrived to assign tasks. Their expressions were cold, and they spoke rapidly, "This hundred-man squad, come with me! Tomorrow we're heading to Blackrock Fortress to reinforce the defenses!"

"Hey you over there, go to the warehouse and get your weapons! Quantities are limited, so if you don't get any, head to the front lines empty-handed. No more nonsense!"

"The rest of you, come with me to the logistics area. You'll be responsible for moving supplies and doing repairs. Anyone who dares to slack off will be thrown into the blood-feeding zone!"

Teams were quickly split up, some sent to the front lines, others assigned to labor, all escorted by a ten-person squad.

Luo Kunlun noticed that the escorting soldiers were all wearing black armor and had obvious signs of modification.

Some have arms covered in scales, while others have vertical pupils, exuding the ferocity of wild beasts—this is the basic form of bestial transformation.

Even more extreme, the metallic-looking bone protrusions on the body surface clearly indicate that they have undergone a more advanced physical transformation.

In addition, the Saran Fortress also contains the highest-level modified beings known as "Tower Vanguard".

They undergo brutal modification surgeries, such as implanting a second heart to enhance blood circulation, adding bone-strengthening organs to increase bone size, stimulating muscles to grow wildly through muscle-strengthening organs, and further optimizing blood composition with blood-regenerating organs, etc.

They may even implant bio-armor and energy cores.

If the Black Orc Legion of the Rogue Encampment transformed humans into orcs, then these Tower Vanguard soldiers were transformed into Astartes.

After the transformation is successful, an ordinary mortal can easily tear apart an armored vehicle with his bare hands, becoming a demigod walking among mortals in their eyes.

Not only are they incredibly strong and resilient, but they are also extremely loyal to the tower.

However, the mortality rate for this advanced modification is as high as 80%, making them extremely rare.

There are no more than a hundred such elite tower soldiers in the entire Saran Fortress, but each one is worth an entire legion of beast-modified soldiers and is one of the core combat forces of the fortress.

The realm beyond this is beyond the reach of mere flesh and blood modification; only bloodline sorcerers with extraordinary bloodlines can step into a higher level.

Just as Luo Kunlun and the others were waiting for their tasks to be assigned, a piercing shriek suddenly came from the sky.

Everyone looked up and saw a dark flock of birds rushing in from afar, blotting out the sun.

These birds are entirely black, with feathers as sharp as blades, claws as sharp as steel needles, and bloodshot eyes.

"Damn it, only half a month later, these blood beasts are back again!" one of the escorting soldiers cursed, a hint of annoyance flashing in his eyes.

Blood Beasts are the name given by Saran Fortress to the beast-like Dead Blood. They are monsters formed after Dead Blood infects ferocious beasts and birds of prey; they are numerous and extremely aggressive.

Before anyone could react, a dazzling bolt of lightning suddenly descended from the sky, like a roaring dragon, and struck the center of the flock of birds in an instant.

With a deafening roar, lightning exploded, and the entire flock of birds was instantly vaporized, leaving not a trace of remains. Only the smell of burnt meat and a faint stench of blood lingered in the air.

Clearly, this was the fortress's defensive forces taking action.

Even after destroying the horde of blood beasts, the escorting soldiers showed no joy; instead, their faces grew increasingly solemn.

"These monsters are multiplying too fast. It won't be long before even more blood beasts attack the city."

The greatest enemy of Saran Fortress in the Secret Martial World has never been the remaining native humans and martial artists, but these troublesome dead blood.

There are not many powerful martial artists in the Secret Martial World to begin with, and martial arts masters are even rarer.

Moreover, there is never a shortage of collaborators and surrenderers among humans. After the wizards' first wave of purges, most of the natives were either defeated or surrendered and became the wizards' lackeys, posing no fatal threat to the fortress.

But Dead Blood is different. Wizards want to dissect and study them to extract the secrets of their super-fast self-healing and life-stealing abilities, and then cultivate them into "flesh fields," which makes Dead Blood naturally hostile to wizards.

Even more terrifying is that a single Dead Blood can transform at full power, transforming everything from ferocious beasts and birds of prey to rats and insects, into a massive army of Dead Blood in a short period of time.

Although these low-level dead blood creatures are generally not very strong, they have the advantage of large numbers. Even core strongholds like Saran Fortress are often harassed by them, which shows how terrifying their troop production efficiency is.

More importantly, according to the latest research by wizards, dead blood can not only infect creatures in the Mystic Martial World, but also affect magical beasts on the Wizarding Continent.

The difference is that powerful enough monsters will not be controlled by the Dead Blood. Instead, they can control the Dead Blood, using it as a symbiotic entity to gain the ability to heal themselves at super speed and plunder life force.

The Wizarding Continent is home to a large number of extraordinary creatures, including even first-ring magical beasts.

If the Dead Blood were to break through the blockade of Saran Fortress and spread to the Wizarding Continent, it would inevitably have a huge impact on the rule of the Four Elements Tower. This is why the wizards suppressed the Dead Blood.