Chapter 137: The Diary

The soul within the portrait suddenly fell silent. After a long while, it spoke. "What is it that you want?"

"I have no interest in the previous wizard of this place. All I want are the resources, the meditation techniques, and the experimental data." Shus had no interest in what had transpired here; he simply wanted the lifetime of knowledge accumulated by a wizard.

"Leave! The things here are not suitable for you."

"Heh!" Shus chuckled at the voice from the portrait, and the sparks of lightning dancing on his fingertips made his stance perfectly clear.

"Even if you kill me, it will be useless. I hold the control over the entire manor. I could even destroy the laboratory, and you would gain nothing you desire!" The soul within the portrait seemed like a different person, having shed its previous cowardly, life-clinging attitude.

"You are bargaining with me..." Shus calmed down, looking at the portrait. It was clear the other party just wanted to extract some benefits from him.

"I am telling the truth. The things here are not suitable for you!" The soul in the portrait seemed anxious; its tone sounded like it was afraid of something.

"Do you really think that after breaking in here, I would return empty-handed?" Shus stared at the portrait. He suspected that the control center of this manor might truly reside with her, as this place was, at the very least, a secret realm belonging to a Level 2 wizard.

"This manor was built by my master, Samuel Beltz. He was a Level 3 bloodline wizard. Rather than calling this a secret realm he opened, it would be more accurate to call it the place where he was imprisoned for the latter half of his life. Oh, right, you can call me Mavis!" After hearing Shus's words, the soul in the portrait seemed to yield, slowly revealing the secrets of this realm.

"A Level 3 wizard... and a bloodline wizard at that." Shus was startled. Based on his earlier deductions and the scale of the realm, he had assumed it was merely a Level 2 wizard’s domain.

He gestured for Mavis to continue.

"Everything achieved here pertains to bloodlines, so you..."

"No need to beat around the bush. State your conditions directly!" Shus did not want to dance around the issue. Facing such a place, it was better to wrap things up quickly.

"You must guarantee you will not harm me, and you must help me find a physical body!" Mavis had been imprisoned for so many years; if it weren't for the promise she made to that person back then, she would never have remained here willingly.

"Agreed." Shus accepted without a second thought. The things Mavis requested were easily fulfilled, and compared to the knowledge of a Level 3 wizard, they were not worth mentioning.

The thought of the knowledge and wealth of a Level 3 wizard set Shus's heart ablaze.

"After entering the laboratory, you must let me choose three items first. Don't worry, I only want a few bloodline test tubes!" Fearing that Shus might refuse, Mavis quickly specified what she wanted.

"Fine!" Shus thought for a moment and agreed. If it were only bloodline test tubes, he already possessed the Abyss bloodline, so those items were of no use to him.

"Very well. But before that, you might want to look at this—though I am not sure how much of it remains."

"Hummm!" As Mavis finished speaking, a buzzing sound came from the desk nearby, and a brown notebook materialized.

"This is that wizard’s journal!" Shus’s eyes lit up the moment he saw the notebook, and he immediately reached out to take it.

"Has it been torn?" Shus frowned as he flipped through it. The content left him deeply disappointed; most of the pages had been ripped out, with only a few remaining.

Mavis watched Shus's actions from the portrait, remaining silent. She did not know if her choice was correct, but she had promised that person she would continue the unfinished experiments.

"New Wizard Calendar, July 14, 821. It took me 90 years to finally become a Level 3 wizard. If I can ascend to a Level 4 Great Wizard, I can leave this broken, miserable world."

"The following content is torn out. Was it to keep others from knowing?" Shus looked at the jagged edges and continued to flip through the remaining pages.

"New Wizard Calendar, January 23, 847. Things are starting to take a turn for the worse. I don't know if I can keep it under control."

The content after the 23rd was torn out again. From these scattered fragments, Shus could not guess what the owner of the journal intended to express.

"New Wizard Calendar, November 27, 857. It has erupted after all. Mavis tells me that if things continue like this, my body will not last much longer."

"Mavis." Seeing this name, Shus glanced at the portrait. This sealed soul clearly had an extraordinary relationship with the Level 3 wizard.

"New Wizard Calendar, April 17, 859. The bloodline I was once so proud of has ultimately led me to corruption."

"New Wizard Calendar, June 24, 859. I have begun to have people collect bloodline information, seeking a way out."

"These two entries are close in time. Did something go wrong with the bloodline?" Shus could roughly discern from these contents that the Level 3 wizard was suffering from issues with the bloodline in his body.

"New Wizard Calendar, July 28, 1280. I feel my life may be coming to an end, yet I have only just found a glimmer of hope!"

"What kind of problem could plague a Level 3 wizard for four hundred years without a solution?" The more Shus read, the more solemn his expression became. He was also a bloodline wizard, and while he had been harboring a僥幸—a sense of wishful thinking—regarding his own bloodline, seeing this journal forced him to take it seriously.

Shus admired the master of this manor; he had become a Level 3 wizard in only 90 years. Shus knew well that even with his own decent talent, if not for the chip, he might not even be a Level 1 wizard today.

"New Wizard Calendar, August 14, 1219. I finally understand. The curse of the bloodline is unavoidable. The depths of the endless abyss are where hope lies; only there can one walk toward the Gate of Truth!"

This was the last page of the journal. Of the entire book, only these fragments remained. Shus did not know what had happened back then, but the "curse of the bloodline" had captured his attention.

Shus closed the journal, the final sentence echoing repeatedly in his mind.

"The embrace of the abyss... the embrace of the abyss..." Shus felt that the 'abyss' mentioned in this sentence might refer to his own Abyssal bloodline. The other party was a bloodline wizard, and the bloodline he possessed was indeed extraordinary. Shus had not deliberately excavated his own bloodline, but the traits he had displayed were clearly beyond the capabilities of an ordinary high-order biological bloodline.

"You've finished reading, haven't you? I believe you understand now. This is the secret realm of a bloodline wizard. If you are not a bloodline wizard, the experimental data is meaningless to you!" Mavis watched Shus, who was deep in thought, and broke the silence of the room.

"Abyssal bloodline?" Shus asked directly. He was certain that since Mavis had followed the manor's owner for so long, it was impossible for her not to know.

"What?" Hearing the name Shus spoke, Mavis was stunned. She had not expected that, besides that person, someone else would actually know of the Abyssal bloodline.

"I mean, is the 'abyss' mentioned at the end of this journal the Abyssal bloodline?" Shus even opened the journal to show Mavis.

"I should have realized... I should have realized..." When Mavis in the portrait heard the word 'Abyssal,' many familiar yet strange memories flooded her mind. It was not until she looked clearly into Shus's eyes that she was finally convinced.

"Hahaha, do you see? The thing you have been desperately searching for is now in your manor, and he is standing right before my eyes..." Mavis suddenly laughed, the laughter echoing in the room, revealing a trace of profound sorrow.

"The bloodline in your body is the Abyssal bloodline, isn't it!" After venting, Mavis spoke in a highly agitated tone.

"Yes." Shus did not hide it; he wanted to understand his own bloodline through Mavis.

"Yes... those strange eyes of yours, I should have realized it long ago! If only he could have met a wizard like you back then..." Mavis’s tone turned dejected once more.