My health recovery is incredibly fast.

"We all know that bloodlines only have three states: dormant, awakened, and declining. Whether it's the Western Continent or the Eastern Continent, everyone has some kind of bloodline dormant within them. After experiencing several eras of change, the concentration of dormant bloodlines in the bodies of the people of the Eastern Continent is very low, far less than that of the Western Continent, which has not experienced the calamity of demons."

"But no matter how low the bloodline concentration is, it still exists in the body of every person from the Eastern Continent."

"Therefore, I propose that while other schools of thought are researching the power of bloodlines, we should also participate and study the latent state of bloodlines in the Eastern Continent to see which bloodlines will be revived under the stimulation of the medicine."

As soon as Letunia finished speaking, another female pureblood mage said, "So, you approve of the temple researching that potion?"

“Yes, Cynthia,” Retunia replied.

Xinfeiya glanced around. "Everyone, I do not agree with the Temple's research into bloodline enhancement potions. It will incite people's desire for bloodlines. This desire will fester in the shadows, providing an opportunity for the Church of the Otherworld to infiltrate. Don't forget the last years of the previous era. I feel as if history is repeating itself. I think I don't need to say more; everyone understands that the resurgence of bloodline power in the Eastern Continent is more harmful than beneficial. How many of you share my view?"

“I agree with your point of view,” said a female pure-blood mage.

“Me too,” said another pureblood mage of the same gender.

“I agree.” x5, five female pureblood mages expressed their opinion.

"I object." x3, including Krestor, three female pureblood mages, supported Letunia and opposed Sinfia.

Xia Zuo then realized that the pureblood mage group was actually dominated by women.

Upon closer inspection, he was astonished to discover that, apart from himself, they were all pure-blooded female mages…

And that's not all. The second and third generation pure-blood mages who had no say and attended the meeting with their mothers were also women.

It's truly astonishing... If it weren't for the fact that the historically famous pure-blood mage Winston Bergust was a man, Xia Zuo would have questioned whether this profession was exclusively for women.

As the saying goes, one woman is equal to 50 ducks. When a group of women get together to discuss a problem, the noise they make is louder than a flock of quacking ducks.

However, this "common saying" does not apply to pure-blood mage groups.

Although everyone had different opinions, they did not speak directly. Instead, they communicated with their respective leaders, Sinfia or Letunia, and then expressed their views through their leaders.

The entire discussion was conducted in a rational and courteous manner, without any instances of escalating the issue, labeling, or shouting.

Apart from saying a few words at the beginning, Xia Zuo remained silent in the corner, summarizing their remarks in his mind and absorbing knowledge from their discussions.

First, it can be made clear that the reasons why either Letunia or Sinfia support or oppose the research on the bloodline enhancement drug have nothing to do with their own interests.

Neither side has ever said anything like, "If the bloodline enhancement potion creates more pure-blood mages, our interests will be harmed."

This is a very strange thing.

According to normal logic—that scarcity increases value—the fewer pure-blood mages there are in the temple, the more privileges the existing pure-blood mages will enjoy, and the more secure those privileges will be.

Why don't both Letunia and Simfia care about whether their own interests will be harmed?

While listening to the discussion, Xia Zuo pondered the matter and ultimately came to two conclusions:

Pureblood mages are not short of money or time; they can obtain everything they desire through time. Moreover, those pureblood mages who remained in the temple after the baptism of the previous era, without falling into the trap of becoming half-blood mages, must be very aware of the dangers of excessively pursuing profit and know how to restrain their improper desires.

The temple has only two requirements for pure-blooded mages, including Xia Zuo himself: loyalty and contributing some life essence every year.

Life essence is formed from the life force of a pureblood mage, which can damage their foundation.

If the Bloodline Enhancement Potion could create more pureblood mages, the pressure on the existing pureblood mages would be greatly reduced.

Hmm, that makes sense... Xia Zuo felt that his reasoning was correct.

Half an hour had passed since the group discussion began, and the previously deadlocked situation began to change.

Instead of trying to persuade Cynthia and the others to support the research on the potion, Letunia calmly said:

“Synphia, you must understand that whether or not we research potions is not determined by us bloodline awakeners.”

Letunia looked down at the circular seats and continued:

"This problem is like a switch. Turning it on means researching the potion. Turning it off means not researching the potion. Who will turn this switch on? Not us, but them—anyone who doesn't yet possess the power of their bloodline will try to turn it on. This will create a combined force and a trend."

Letunia looked at the silent Sinfia and said, "You can't stop the trend, no one can. This is not something that individual power can contend with. What we really need to do is prepare to deal with this trend."

Letunia looked around. "Gentlemen, let's change the subject. What should we do if the vote overwhelmingly supports the research on the potion? And what should we do if the vote fails?"

"Wonderful! She's managed to unify two contradictory viewpoints on a higher level. This pure-blooded mage named Letunia is something else; no wonder she spoke first..." Xia Zuo couldn't help but take another look at her, but apart from a red pearl lying in a seashell, he couldn't see anything else.

Retunia's words had an effect.

After clarifying her thoughts, Cinfia stopped arguing with Letunia and suggested:

“We must let other schools of thought know our bottom line, not the kind of vague bottom line that can be repeatedly tested, but a red line that absolutely cannot be crossed. Any research that leads the situation toward artificial bloodlines must be stopped, or we will face another bloody year of disaster.”

Artificial bloodline? Why bring this up? Xia Zuo was puzzled.

On the outer halo of the other people's jewels, there is a special part or action that indicates whether they are going to ask a question or speak. Letunia opens her seashell, while Christo makes the jewel floating on the surface of the red wine rise and fall.

Since Xia Zuo hadn't yet commissioned his own jewel, he couldn't politely interrupt the speaker with a question. So, he used illusion magic to conjure a few lines of text and quietly asked Christo beside him:

“I know very little about artificial bloodlines. Could you tell me about their connection to the Bloody Year? I only know that the Bloody Year is related to the search for the soul.”

Chapter 45 Playing with Fire

My health is recovering incredibly fast.

Krestor glanced at the illusionary characters conjured by Shazo and responded with an illusion in return:

"To put it simply, without external intervention, there is an upper limit to the types and quantities of bloodline power that humans can possess. Experiments on artificial bloodlines involve mixing different single bloodlines together to see if a new bloodline can be generated. Such experiments often lead to tragic consequences and are a byproduct of bloody years."

"Oh, I see... Thank you." Xia Zuo dispelled the illusionary text.

Driven by his instincts as a poison alchemist, Xia Zuo felt that artificial bloodlines were somewhat similar to compound toxins.

There are 60 basic toxins in total, and there is a limit to the number of them. This means that although the total volume of compound toxins is huge, there is also a limit to the number of them.

The relationship between a single bloodline power and an artificial bloodline power is similar; the quantity of the former determines the complexity of the latter.

Drawing a parallel between basic toxins and bloodline power, a thought popped into Xia Zuo's mind:

If the basic toxins originate from the pollution of the stars, then what about the power of bloodlines? Could they also be a form of cosmic pollution?

The thought made Xia Zuo's heart skip a beat, but he immediately dismissed it.

The power of bloodline is a product of nature. It is a gift that humanity received from nature in the process of resisting the alien demons of the stars, a fact that has been recognized by everyone in the temple.

Moreover, when he met the Pillars of Creation, Xia Zuo's spiritual ocean had confirmed this information to him.

Xia Zuo composed himself and continued listening to the discussion.

Letunia and Sinfia reached an agreement on stopping the artificial bloodline experiment, and they devised a plan, but Letunia seemed to have something else to say.

She said worriedly, "I have a bad feeling, Cynthia."

"What?" Xinfeiya asked.

“I’m afraid that when the time comes, those advocating for artificial bloodline experiments might not only be ordinary mages, but even those mages who already possess bloodline power might participate. Ordinary mages might fear the authority of the inner sanctum, but mages with bloodline power will not, because they are members of the inner sanctum themselves.”

A hush fell over the room. Letunia's words unsettled everyone present... except for Shazo... His temporary ignorance prevented him from understanding what Letunia's description meant.

"Why do you say that, Letunia? Do you already know something?" Cynthia asked.

“Some members of the inner sanctum are getting very close to the alchemy school.” Letunia turned her orb around, pointing to several areas to her lower side.

Xia Zuo recalled the layout of the venue; that should be the seats for the Sand Mage and the Fire Mage.

"The bloody years of the Fourth Age, though horrific, undeniably left behind invaluable experimental records. We've all seen those records. I don't know if you've noticed, but the records of the Sand Mages and Pyromancers from that experiment are the most complete. They suffered heavy losses, but this also led to greater progress in artificial bloodlines."

Letunia paused, then continued:

"With a few more experiments, they can establish a very complete artificial bloodline system and initiate the so-called 'bloodline evolution.' Think about it, the sins of the past are irrelevant to them, while the glory of the future is just around the corner. Do you think they can resist initiating bloodline evolution?"

Sinfya sighed. "We can't stop them. They'll find test subjects from within their own teams or create them using bloodline-enhancing drugs. All we can do is supervise them to make sure they don't force the test subjects to do things against their will."

Leturnia said, “But the effect of such supervision is very limited, isn’t it? We can’t supervise in advance, or even interfere in the process. We can only check the experiment afterward. If the Sand Wizard and the Fire Wizard find a way to bypass the law’s supervision without alerting the Light Element, we may never know what they did before they started bloodline evolution.”

Shazo secretly used illusion magic to ask Christo, "Why do they say that the oversight of the laws can be bypassed?"

Christo replied, "The law is overseen by members of the Temple, and the primary principle of oversight is to ensure that the interests of the Temple are not harmed."

Christo's answer was brief, but it immediately enlightened Shazo!

By using certain methods to strip the test subject of their Temple membership, the experimenters can, to a certain extent, do whatever they want with them. As long as what the experimenters do does not harm the current Temple members or damage the Temple's interests, then the experimenters will not be subject to the laws and punishments.

Sinfia looked at Letunia and asked, "Do you have any good ideas?"

“We need to find some help,” Letunia said. “It’s true that the Temple Laws only require loyalty. But that doesn’t mean loyalty is a justification for evil. Violations of the regular laws are punished just as severely. We can use those punishments to keep them in check.”

"What... do you intend to do? Cooperate with the guardians of the sand sorcerers' and fire sorcerers' territories? Use secular systems to monitor them?" Cynthia asked.

Letunia shook her head and looked towards a corner of the venue.

Cynthia looked over as well, then whispered, "You're playing with fire, Letunia. Getting help from those people in the Inquisition will drag us down with you."

“Is there a better way?” Letunia said. “I’m afraid not. And we’re not going to have a face-to-face meeting with the court, but just to have the right people make contact with them at the right time.”

“Who should go?” Cynthia asked. “You, me, Christo, or someone else, or perhaps our descendants? Forgive my bluntness, but in our thousands of years of life, we’ve all made mistakes without realizing it. Speeding, disobeying traffic signals, or casting spells without permission. These things don’t cause serious harm, but they can certainly cause trouble when we face the Inquisition.”

“We have a suitable candidate, Cynthia.” Letunia looked to her side.

Everyone's eyes turned to that direction.

Xia Zuo immediately became the focus of the entire audience.

what's the situation!

How did it all suddenly turn to me?!

Xia Zuo was taken aback for a moment, then asked, "Uh... is there anything I can do?"

“If you’re willing, I’d like you to forward a whistleblower letter to the Tribunal at some point in the future,” Letunia said. “According to the Tribunal’s rules, they will review the whistleblower first before processing the letter. It’s not convenient for us to face their review. I’ve heard about your experience from Christo and Rexol; you’re disciplined and ambitious, and you probably rarely make mistakes. You’d be perfect for delivering the whistleblower letter.”

That sounds a bit odd. Because they're unlikely to make mistakes, they become the best whistleblower of the year? ...Xia Zuo asked again, "How do they review whistleblowers? Do they use the 'Punishment Thorns'?"

“No, no, no,” Letunia shook her head repeatedly. “The level of protection isn’t that high; it won’t even require memory reading. The Inquisition will send someone to cast the [Judgment Spell] on you. It’s a spell that combines detection and punishment. It can scan for the crimes you’ve committed and punish you on the spot. If you’ve ever sped, you’ll have to pay a fine; if you’ve ever flown under the influence of alcohol, you’ll also have to pay a fine. Apart from serious crimes that will lead to imprisonment, other illegal acts can be resolved on the spot.”

Chapter 46 Top Secret

“I won’t let you undergo the trial in vain,” Letunia said sincerely.

"If you suffer any losses as a result, I will compensate you double."

“Me too, Shazo,” Cynthia said. “I will give you an additional reward of twice the amount of your loss, on top of the compensation from Letunia.”