My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Nukalofa felt that the bald man was right, and the other man gave him a very familiar feeling, like an old friend he hadn't seen for many years. This feeling dispelled the last bit of wariness in his heart.

Rexor grinned as he watched Nukalofa bending down to straighten his robe.

The next second, Aksut circled around to Nukalofa's side and, with his sharp longsword coated in special oil, severed the man's neck from top to bottom.

Rexor then took out a container he had prepared beforehand and put the bewildered head inside.

Amidst the clash of swords, Nukalofa's headless corpse was torn to pieces, falling like insignificant dust.

Aksut gave the pseudo-blood mage squad a retreat order.

Instead of rejoining the pseudo-blood mage squad, he and Rexor headed towards another retreat point.

This would distract the Church of the Otherworldly Demons and reduce the number of pursuers.

As long as the Shadow Fiend has not yet recovered from the spell backlash, the return journey will be very safe.

Unfortunately it backfired.

Just as Axet and the others reached the edge of the anti-magic field and were about to cross the gray ocean, a pair of purplish-black eyes filled with anger and murderous intent appeared in the sky behind them.

Several purple orbs of light, stretching across the sky, fell like meteors and struck the members of the pseudo-blood mage squad.

Chapter 98 Interrogation

The outer teaching area, the tower of the Demon Hunter School.

Xia Zuo climbed the spiral staircase, with two silver sand hands beside him. One hand held a glass jar, while the other used a glass rod to stir the viscous liquid inside to prevent it from solidifying and sticking together.

Xia Zuo stopped in front of a room on the middle floor of the tower, slowly pushed open the door and went inside.

This is a comprehensive medical facility with inpatient facilities, capable of treating a variety of serious combat injuries—the types of injuries are not limited to common wounds such as cuts, fractures, and internal bleeding, but also include severe negative effects caused by high concentrations of energy.

Earlier today, Rek'Sorrow and his companions were subjected to a ranged attack from the Shadow Fiend while at the edge of the anti-magic field.

Within the dark light cluster condensed by the Shadow Demon Lord himself, there are unique shadow patterns woven by his own hands.

These shadow patterns are like incredibly complex locks, locking away the injured person's life force and preventing their injuries from healing on their own with the help of blood magic.

Until the scholars in the tower figure out the texture and structure of the shadow pattern and dismantle it from the inside, the purplish-black wounds on the injured person's body will remain, as difficult to remove and cure as a bone marrow infection.

A total of 18 pseudo-blood mages were attacked, and 16 of them were instantly dissolved by the extremely cold shadow energy upon contact with the Shadow Meteor, sacrificing themselves silently.

Axet and Rexor were quite far from the 16 pseudo-blood mages, so the Shadow Meteor that flew towards them landed a second or two later.

These brief one or two seconds became the critical window of opportunity for Shazo to rescue Rexor and his companion.

He channeled a large amount of life force, using the red vests worn by the two opponents to weave a blood magic dome. At the cost of half his life, he managed to save the lives of the bald man and Axut before the Shadow Meteor completely pierced through the dome.

The instant the Blood Magic Dome collided with the Shadow Meteor, countless malevolent shadow sparks flew in all directions. Rexor and Axtus were unfortunately stained with some.

Axet was in better condition; his body was primarily a [Runic Body]. In order to unleash blood magic, he retrieved his portion from the cold storage where his body tissues and organs were kept and attached it to his Runic Body.

Although the Shadow Demon's shadow runes are troublesome, as long as the injured part is cut off, there will be no more problems.

Axet was hit in the calf. He returned to the arcane territory, underwent minor surgery to replace his leg, and then returned to his work with the Advance Legion.

In comparison, Rex's situation is much worse...

His right cheek was grazed by shadow energy, half of his face melted away, and his brain was nearly damaged.

He is currently recuperating in bed, wrapped in medical bandages developed by the alchemy school, quietly waiting for the scholars of the Tower to decipher the Shadow Runes.

Xia Zuo walked to the bedside and manipulated the silver sand palm to put down the glass jar.

Rexol glanced at him sideways. "You saved my life again."

Xia Zuo knew there was something more to what the other party was saying—anyone who had studied blood magic knew that the blood magic dome condensed by the red vest far exceeded the red vest's own power limit, a fact that could not escape the keen observation of the bald man and Axut.

Xia Zuo was fully prepared to face the questioning.

“I don’t have many friends, but Aksut is one. He will keep it a secret for you.” Rexor said as he sat up straight, making it easier for Shazo to change his bandages with his silver sand hands.

Xia Zuo looked at the dark wound beneath the bandages, and the small purplish-black tentacles that kept emerging from it, and sighed helplessly, "Unfortunately, my abilities are insufficient; I can only save you and Aksut."

"No one can save everyone, you've done a great job."

After Rexol waited for the other person to apply the medicine to prevent the wound from worsening and re-bandage it, he said:

"The path to fighting the Church of the Otherworldly Demons is inherently fraught with danger and death. We were prepared to sacrifice ourselves... but I still have to thank you for saving me and Axut."

Xia Zuo waved his hand, changing the subject, "What are you planning to do with Nukalofa's head?"

The head was also corrupted by shadow energy.

The Shadow Fiend seems to be targeting Nuk'alofa; the shadow runes it infused into the Shadow Meteor are particularly effective against Nuk'alofa.

Both Rexor and Nuk'alofa were grazed by the streaks of shadow sparks, but Rexor only suffered minor damage to half of his face, while Nuk'alofa's head was largely melted away, leaving only about a quarter of his brain tissue.

"The Shadow Demon Overlord clearly wants to kill Nukalofa, fearing that we will gain control of the secrets in his mind, and even more so, to seize control of the withered blood vessels by eliminating him."

Rexor said:

"Without your help, the Shadow Demon Overlord would have already succeeded. But now, hmph, we're going to dig deep into Nukalofa's secrets and, incidentally, delay the hatching of the Otherworldly Demons as much as possible."

According to reports from spies dispatched by the pseudo-blood mage legion, the incubation process of the Dark Chamber plane has been temporarily interrupted, and all the otherworldly demons that are about to emerge from their cocoons have been forced to stop growing.

Nukalofa's remaining quarter of his head became a powerful tool for the temple to control the demons.

As for digging deeper into Nukalofa's secrets... Shazor remained skeptical about whether this idea could be accomplished... The other great alchemists who were tasked with dealing with a quarter of the head shared the same opinion.

They discussed a potentially feasible solution:

Nukalofa's remaining brain tissue was placed in a glass jar filled with nutrient solution.

A weak electric current is passed through the nutrient solution to stimulate brain tissue to respond to external stimuli.

Using highly sensitive, high-fidelity energy fiber tubes, signals generated by brain tissue are collected and converted into mental impulses, which are then transmitted to a mindless death row inmate who serves as the medium through which the temple investigates Nukalofa.

"Even with only a quarter of a brain left, can it still be used to search for memories?" Xia Zuo touched his nose, feeling a little guilty.

Rexol leaned back against the cushions of the hospital bed and shook his head. "No. The secret medicine of mental medium has no effect on a quarter of a head. Even if we put an alchemical bionic body on Nukalofa, he can't enter deep meditation. He can only awaken the remaining memories in his brain by constantly asking questions, and then have the death row inmate say them."

"Oh, okay..." Xia Zuo was completely relieved.

While Nukalofa and Rexor were talking inside the magic-free field, Shazo was observing them from the perspective of their blood relatives.

After the spiritual ocean was destroyed, Nukalofa's behavior was actually quite different from what Xia Zuo had expected.

First of all, Xia Zuo had no recollection of anything about the original owner; he inherited not a single memory, subconscious thought, or habit.

But Nukalofa can act on his subconscious; he can speak the language of the previous era, cast hybrid magic and shadow magic, and is very familiar with Rexor.

It gives the impression that after his mental landscape was destroyed, a large part of his memories disappeared, but he still retained some memories from a very long time ago.

Secondly, and most importantly, when Shazo was helping Rexor and the other man transport the brain, he secretly used a detection spell on the brain tissue inside the blood magic container.

The feedback results showed that this almost completely damaged brain had a negative effect called "mental breakdown".

...

[Mental breakdown]

For unknown reasons, your connection with the spiritual ocean has been severed. It is predicted that the correct connection will be re-established in 22 hours.

...

Xia Zuo clearly remembered that when he woke up in the underground alchemy room, he did not have this negative effect.

Either the negative effects ended before he woke up.

Alternatively, his failure to inherit the original owner's memories, the abnormality of the walls in his spiritual ocean, etc., are not caused by an attack on the chaotic container.

Shazo and Rexol sat in the hospital room for a while, waiting for Selena to arrive.

She arrived in her physical form, and as soon as she entered, she took out a bottle of inverted triangular potion from under her robe and handed it to the bald man. "Your secret medicine is here. Drink it quickly. It can remove the shadow runes left by the Shadow Demon Overlord."

Rexol had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

He uncorked the bottle and drank it all down, then ripped off the bandage on his face.

A puff of smoke emanated from the wound covered with tiny purplish-black tentacles, and a few seconds later, the remaining shadow energy vanished.

Rexor's facial flesh began to writhe, and soon, a complete face appeared before them.

“Oh, you’re getting more and more skilled with blood magic now,” Selena exclaimed, then continued, “The shadow energy on Nukalofa’s head is almost dissipating. High-ranking decoder Kadum has been standing guard, eager to interrogate Nukalofa. Do you want to go check on him? Or perhaps rest a little longer?”

Rexor rolled out of bed, picked up the alchemy pouch from the bedside table, and hung it on the lining of his leather armor. "Go now. I don't want to waste a second."

The bald man patted Xia Zuo on the shoulder, "You should come too. Anyway, there's nothing for you to do in the pseudo-blood mage legion. You might as well help me come up with some ideas."

Selena left the hospital ward, walked to the wall of the corridor, summoned a floating walkway, and directly brought the two people behind her from the air to the high tower opposite.

This is the territory of the alchemy school, and alchemists in long robes come and go.

Selena walked ahead, ascending to the top of the tower and entering an exceptionally spacious open-air alchemy chamber.

The ceiling was replaced by several layers of huge glass.

The glass is divided into small squares by metal strips, and the curvature and thickness of the glass in each square are the same.

Sunlight shines onto these lens-like glass surfaces, and after being focused and refracted through layers, it finally falls from different angles into an optical instrument suspended in the center of the room.

Below the optical instrument is a light emitter with a sleeve, the lower end of which is aligned with the culture tank.

The alchemist, manipulating the optical instruments, adjusted the parameters of the beam emitted by the beam emitter while slowly moving the beam to gently sweep across Nukalofa's mind, dispelling the shadow energy on it.

This was a last resort, since Nukalofa had lost even the mouth to drink the secret potion... The alchemy school had no choice but to use this method to remove the Shadow Rune shackles from the Shadow Demon Overlord.

As soon as Rek'Sorrow stepped through the door, Kadum came up, rubbing his hands together, licked his lips with his long, thin tongue, and said excitedly:

"Reso, Reso, haha, that's great! We actually caught Nukalofa! Even though he only has a quarter of his brain."

"Looking forward to your performance, Kadum."

Rexol walked to the culture tank, stared at the brain tissue inside, and asked Selena, "How long can he survive in this form?"

"If he stays in a dormant state in the culture tank, as long as no one deliberately sabotages it, he can live indefinitely until his brain tissue ages and dies on its own. He could live for over a hundred years without any problem."

Selena paused. "If it's an interrogation, you only have 30 hours at most. After that, his brain tissue will collapse because it can't withstand the mental impulses."

“Hmm...time is of the essence.” Rexol turned to Kadum. “Ready to torture him?”

Kadum pulled out a thick book, patted the cover, and said, "Of course. I guarantee I'll make him spill the beans about Sodike Black Flag's whereabouts."