The Blood Catalyst

Mo Fan had no intention of believing a word Jiang Yi said.

The woman stood there playing the bystander, projecting an air of righteousness — but let's not forget that it was she who had killed Jingjing and Zhao Mingyue, two innocent, brilliantly promising young students.

Mo Fan believed that somewhere deep in Jiang Yi's bones, the conscience of a Military Mage still lingered. But that conscience accounted for no more than the size of a thumbnail — wholly disproportionate to the rest of her heart, which had turned completely black.

Survive a live experiment?

Give him a break. Mo Fan had seen the agony of girls parasitized by the Scale-Skin Mother Demon. He'd witnessed the soul-shredding torment of Xu Zhaoting as he transformed into a Cursed Beast Demon. The only woman who could ever make him lay down his arms was someone like Teacher Tang Yue — mature, powerful, strikingly voluptuous. Not some dark-skinned, broad-faced Military Mage whose heart had turned beastly.

Nothing disgusted him more than people who committed utterly inhumane acts while preaching righteousness at the top of their lungs. Scum was scum. A beast was a beast.

"Stop this pointless struggle! Wait any longer and even I won't be able to save you!" Jiang Yi called out sharply.

"Every last one of you is dead and I'm still standing. Come take me down yourself if you've got the nerve — otherwise shut your mouths and stop running them. And you damned lizards — are you really descended from the evil dragon bloodline? Hopelessly brainless. Same defective breeding stock as whatever Lu Nian's been crossbreeding lately. There's no shortage of fat, clueless targets over there — what are you doing coming after me?!" Mo Fan stood atop a heap of rubble, venting the crushing pressure of death bearing down on him the only way he knew how: a furious, profane torrent of abuse.

Not far away, Jiang Yi's mouth twitched involuntarily.

This foul-mouthed bastard was really something — one sentence and he'd managed to insult everyone in the vicinity, lizards included.

*Fine. Let's see how long you can keep running that mouth.*

Demon-Beasts always followed the same battle pattern: first they sent waves of lesser creatures to grind the enemy down, and only once humans were exhausted would the Battle-General-class Colossal Death Lizards appear.

By the look of things, the Colossal Death Lizards would be flooding in very soon. And when they did, Mo Fan — alone as he was — would have no choice but to beg. He didn't look remotely like the type to die with a smile on his face.

"The New-Element experiment does draw on bloodlines extracted from parasitic organisms to alter physique, but it is far less brutal than the Black Church's inhumane curses. You won't die, and you won't be disfigured," Jiang Yi called out.

"What is humanity's greatest weakness — and mages' greatest weakness in particular? Simply this: the lack of a powerful body. Since parasitic Demon-Beasts can cause humans to mutate and develop bodies like their own, we spent countless live experiments developing the Blood Catalyst — a substance capable of altering a mage's constitution. Those who transform under its stimulation become extraordinarily powerful. When fused with a specific type of Demon-Beast, they can demonstrate strength far beyond human limits — and fight Demon-Beasts barehanded, without a single spell!"

Jiang Yi continued pouring these ideas into Mo Fan, determined to make him understand just how magnificent their experiment truly was.

Humans fighting Demon-Beasts barehanded — what did that even mean?

It meant the divide between ordinary people and mages would vanish entirely. Even ordinary people could hold their own against Demon-Beasts in combat. And mages — already wielding the power of magic — would be utterly invincible once they possessed such bodies as well.

Lu Nian had gone mad because this research was simply too intoxicating. It was an experiment that could genuinely reshape the order of the world.

So no matter the cost, they would see it through — even if the government intervened, even if the Five Continents Magic Association issued a blanket ban, even if the Hunters' Alliance put them on every wanted list.

"If it's so effective, why don't you volunteer yourselves? There's no shortage of brainwashed fanatics like Lu Nian!" Exhausted from fending off Lizard-Skull Giant Demons, Mo Fan finally threw back his answer to Jiang Yi's grand ambitions.

"Every previous test subject was a volunteer — and even now there's no shortage of them. But every single attempt has failed. Mages who use the Blood Catalyst either transform into mindless monsters, or their Magical Energy is completely drained and they wither into husks," Jiang Yi continued.

At last, Mo Fan managed to catch his breath. His Swift Star Wolf had driven off one of the Colossal Death Lizards and returned to guard him, buying him a precious window to recover.

As he recuperated, he squinted across at Jiang Yi — heavily surrounded by officers on all sides — and said with cold mockery:

"Comrade Staff Officer, it seems the military has no more use for you. Allow me to recommend a new posting. Excellent compensation: a double life, plenty of loyal hounds at your heels, statutory holidays. Every member holds the most lofty and sublime ideals imaginable, and their methods are remarkably similar to yours. As it happens, I have rather close ties with the Black Church — those people are so devoted they'd haunt me as vengeful spirits rather than let me slip from memory. I'll put in a good word and have you introduced. They'd welcome you with open arms. You'd even skip the indoctrination."

"Don't lump us in with Black Church filth!!" The words struck Jiang Yi to the bone, and she cried out.

Perhaps she had long since recognized, deep down, that her actions were no different from the Black Church's. But she refused to admit it. She was sacred military law!

Jiang Yi drew a slow, deep breath. The flesh of her face trembled.

She forced herself to rein in her emotions and take in the desperate battlefield around her with as much calm as she could muster.

The Lizard-Skull Giant Demons blocking their escape route were multiplying. Once all four directions were sealed off, even carving a bloody path out would be nearly impossible.

"The Blood Catalyst draws energy proportional to a mage's spiritual level. An Intermediate-Level Mage possesses only two Star Nebulae, yet the Blood Catalyst extracts energy exceeding what two Star Nebulae can provide... A mage's soul simply cannot bear it," Jiang Yi pressed on.

"If too much Magical Energy is extracted, the mage suffers an overwhelming mental shock and the spirit collapses. But if not enough is extracted, the procedure cannot truly take effect..."

"So you came after me — the one person born with Dual Elements?" Mo Fan's smile turned cold.

Now he understood. Their Blood Catalyst experiment required drawing an enormous quantity of energy from a living subject — energy that exceeded the maximum any mage at any tier could safely withstand.

For a Basic-Level Mage, the Blood Catalyst would extract energy exceeding one Star Nebula. For an Intermediate-Level Mage, the Blood Catalyst would extract energy exceeding two Star Nebulae. For a High-Level Mage, the Blood Catalyst would extract energy exceeding three Star Nebulae.

And the margin of excess was considerable — enough to directly cause mages to lose their sanity, suffer spiritual collapse, or have their bodies wither away.

He was born with Dual Elements. The only person in the entire world who, at any given cultivation stage, possessed Magical Energy far beyond what any mage his level should have.

And so he had become the perfect test subject.

"Your success rate is extremely high. And in theory, the transformation would only set back your cultivation level — you wouldn't die," Jiang Yi continued.

Time was running short. She had to convince Mo Fan to surrender immediately — otherwise she herself couldn't guarantee that any of them would make it out alive...

"I bet you said the same thing to everyone who ended up dead," Mo Fan said.

Jiang Yi fell silent.

The truth was, she had. She had said exactly those words to each person who died — including her own younger brother, who had volunteered for the experiment. He had died in agony, his eyes filled with hatred for her, his own sister. Every night when she closed her eyes, those eyes stared back at her.

*Just a setback to cultivation?*

*I'd come to believe my own words after all.*