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The loyal servant’s body was covered in sweat, even soaking through the linen undershirt, but as his consciousness awakened, the wounds that should have existed on his body had already healed considerably.

At the very least, it would no longer affect his movements.

This abnormal self-healing came from the hidden potential that began to be unleashed from his physical body after completing the Black Iron trial, truly allowing this tempered body to shed its mediocrity and begin to step into the ranks of transcendent power.

For a warrior, this was only the most insignificant change.

The entire journey through the Black Iron realm was about unleashing one’s individual potential, and after all of one’s personal potential had been fully excavated, they would naturally enter the strength trials of the White Silver Body.

In the next stage, there would naturally be new and more difficult goals to achieve, but that was not something a Black Iron-level warrior needed to consider.

The system of power levels summarized by the elves was not just a few random cool and edgy names, each stage had things that must be accomplished at that stage.

“It seems you’ve recovered well.”

Just as Maxim sat up from the bed, Murphy’s voice suddenly came from the shadows of the tent, causing the loyal servant to immediately stand up.

But as the blade cut through the wind, an exquisite, sturdy, spirit-tempered and ebony-adorned tomb ritual black blade was handed to him.

Maxim’s eyes narrowed slightly.

He immediately recognized this black blade as Jed’s sidearm, with Jed’s personal emblem still on the hilt, so it could be called the “Jed’s Blade” for now.

But this blade was now in Lord Murphy’s hands, so…

“Jed and I have come to an agreement, Maxim, although the process was not ‘pleasant’.”

Murphy’s figure stepped out from the boundary of the shadows, and he said to Maxim in a gentle tone:

“From now on, you no longer need to worry about being entangled by the past, and can finally open your arms to embrace a new and unrestrained life.

I should congratulate you, loyal one.”

“I too feel joy for this, Lord Murphy, and I congratulate you on your brilliant victory as well!”

Maxim accepted the tomb guard’s ritual black blade with an open heart and without psychological burden. He had already paid back what belonged to Jed.

He looked at Lord Murphy standing before him with an elegant smile and demeanor, and then sensed from the change in Murphy’s aura that he too had just gone through a trial like Maxim’s and emerged victorious.

Combined with the relic belonging to Jed in his hand, it wasn’t hard to deduce who Murphy had chosen as the target for his Trial of Strength.

Befitting of Lord Murphy!

Maxim marveled inwardly. To use a Silver-realm enemy as a stepping stone to enter a new realm, compared to the small victory he had achieved, it was hardly worth mentioning.

“Perhaps I should also fulfill my promise to you.”

Standing at the boundary of the shadows, Murphy looked at the【1/3】blood covenant number on his character card and said to Maxim:

“I have gained new power and can transform you into a midnight being like myself, leading you to tread the path of eternity. But I hope you can wait a little longer, Maxim.

The weakness stemming from Tris’s bloodline has still not been properly resolved.

But I think, after we tread the Blood Vulture Halls and thoroughly eliminate those lurking in the darkness, this trivial problem will also be resolved.”

He paused, emphasizing as he spoke to the silent Maxim:

“I want to give you the best, for your deeds deserve the best!”

“Of course, my lord, I obey your will.”

Maxim bowed his body and said in a deep voice:

“I have already entrusted my soul, persona, and will to you. My fate should also be decided by you, and all I need to do is to keep swinging my sword for you, cutting down those enemies obstructing your great cause.

Nothing more.”

“I have no doubt about this.”

Murphy smiled, clasping his hands behind his back as he said to the servant he trusted most, second only to Tris:

“Now, get dressed and come with me to the city.

I need to create my own tomb badge, and you will assist and learn the process. That way, once you complete the initial embrace and become one of us, you can immediately receive that boon of midnight power.”

“It is my honor, my lord.”

Maxim smiled in the darkness.

After Murphy left, he immediately got up and changed out of the soaked linen robe, deftly donning the padded armor underneath.

As he was about to put on the tattered chainmail, he noticed a set of cleaned tomb guard’s leather armor laid out on the table in the tent.

This was clearly also part of Jed’s “inheritance”.

Representing the high-quality spirit garment that the tailors and artisans of the Blood Vulture Clan could produce, the luxurious and obscure Blood Vulture crest was spread all over the armor.

Only the patriarch’s personal guards were qualified to wear such armor, its very existence being a reward for loyalty.

Maxim flexed his fingers, not rejecting Murphy’s generosity.

He donned the armor properly, then took the vampire mask beside him and put it on his face, concealing his inhuman features and hiding himself under this black light armor. He also equipped Jed’s ritual black blade and attached his own spirit poison blade “Ambition and Dreams” to the other side of his weapon belt.

The Blood Vulture Sword Arts included dual-wielding techniques, which Maxim was proficient in.

“Not bad, you have the air of a strong one now.”

As the loyal servant stepped out of the tent, he received praise and affirmation from Murphy.

A deep laugh came from behind the mask as Maxim said in a pleased tone:

“Still incomparable to you, my lord. You have begun transforming from a formidable warrior into a great ruler. This is no flattery.”

“I seriously doubt the Black Iron trial first unleashed the potential of your silver tongue. You were never this talkative before.”

Murphy rolled his eyes, waving his hand forward.

The master and servant swiftly disappeared into the night, leaving the survivor’s camp still under curfew. Both had entered the Black Iron realm, and their movement speed had increased significantly with the growth of their power.

Ten minutes later, they arrived in the still ash-covered ruins of Kadman City. The slightly winded Maxim looked up toward the inner city, and after a few seconds, he said in a low voice in the dim night:

“The obstruction there has been removed, my lord. We can enter now.”

“We can, but there’s no need.”

Murphy didn’t even look at that “new map”, saying:

“Let the Witch Hunters explore the path first.

Over the next two days, we have many things to busy ourselves with. Though I don’t want to dampen your enthusiasm, the fact is, we have once again reached the brink where we must struggle to survive.

The old troubles have just been resolved, but new troubles are already on the way.”

“But isn’t that just the constant nature of your turbulent life, my lord?”

Maxim followed behind Murphy, joking:

“Since knowing you, I haven’t had any easy victories or easy survivals, but that’s actually a good thing.

Without pressure, where does strength come from?”

“Your optimistic attitude is really great. Can you tell me where you bought it? I’d like to get a few pounds for myself, to keep my precarious sanity from being destroyed by the terrible pressure.”

Murphy smirked.

He walked through the ash-covered city ruins, gripping the Ebony Stone gifted by the young lady to use his heightened night senses to search for the lairs permeated by the aura of death.

The job title “Tomb Guard” itself contained the word “tomb”, fully proving that this advanced job’s power came from death under the midnight hour. Therefore, the job change process had to be completed in places saturated with the atmosphere of death.

It was a profession with the ominous vampire characteristic, with even the job change process being enough to chill one to the bone.

“Found it!”

A few minutes later, Murphy detected an area where the aura of death was abnormally concentrated.

It was even colder and more chilling than the graveyard outside the city, and it was right under Murphy and Maxim’s feet, or more precisely, in the dark area deep beneath the city.

In the sewers.

“My lord, this place is too filthy!”

Seeing Murphy about to lift the manhole cover at their feet and jump down, Maxim immediately stepped forward to stop him:

“Even when the city still existed, the sewers were notorious as a den of filth and depravity. I can hardly imagine how much unspeakable human disaster has accumulated down there after the calamity.

An esteemed one such as yourself should not set foot in this place. Why don’t we go to the graveyard outside the city instead?

Or find an already perished village?”

“Dignity means nothing before strength, Maxim. Besides, time! We don’t have that much time to be picky.”

Murphy didn’t mind the sewers’ filth.

In fact, he could even guess that the environment of Kadman City’s sewers wouldn’t be that bad, because as Maxim said, even when the city still existed, the intricate sewer area was already notorious as a den of filth and depravity.

Various evil forces operated in the sewers, and they would create their own underground lairs.

This meant that it wasn’t actually that dirty there.

At most, it was just a bit run-down.

Murphy had visited the underground black markets before. Kadman City previously had many such areas occupied by underground gangs, and those places were generally located in the sewers.

The vampires in the city all knew about the existence of the black markets, yet no one wanted to shut them down. During the most difficult periods of the war, even the vampires had to obtain some living supplies through the underground black markets.

This was the Blood Vultures’ territory, and the original sin of the Blood Vultures was desire. From those two words alone, one could imagine how frenzied these Descendants of Desire could become when indulging themselves. It was fortunate that this world had no faith of debauchery, otherwise the Blood Vulture vampires would absolutely be among the first batch to be corrupted.

Thinking about it this way, it seemed even Murphy felt his “kinsmen” had gone too far with their desires.

“Let’s go!”

The vampire nimbly jumped into the vertical shaft leading to the sewers, with Maxim following closely behind.

The two landed steadily in the dim passage after dropping nearly five meters, and guided by the aura of death, proceeded one after the other toward the area ahead without a single point of light.

“Poof”

Maxim took out a small gas lantern containing tinder and lit the torches placed on both sides of the ancient sewer walls along the way.

They walked in this narrow, dark place, still able to hear the sound of flowing water.

“The underground water system is still active, that’s good news.”

Murphy walked in the darkness without feeling fear, instead having a sense of reassurance. Ignoring the foul smell around him, he said to the alert Maxim gripping his sword behind him:

“Although Tris and the young lady have explained to me that the Astral shadows in the outer city are not enough to pollute the groundwater, it still puts me at ease to ensure that my subjects will not have to worry about fetching water in our future base of operations.”

“They should be grateful for your concern.”

Maxim responded:

“I have not seen any esteemed vampire care about such trivial matters. This alone proves that you will certainly be a wise ruler, my lord.

You possess a benevolence that other vampires lack. It is a supreme virtue.”

“Hmm, I’m now confirmed that the first potential unleashed in you was indeed your silver tongue, Maxim. Perhaps after we establish our power, I should give you the nickname ‘Smooth-Talking Max’.

In the following decades, this nickname might just become a term specifically referring to flatterers in the Transia region.”

Murphy snorted, causing the trailing Maxim to laugh deeply once more.

But then, as they passed through the narrow passage and entered the area where the aura of death was concentrated, Murphy and Maxim almost simultaneously drew their weapons.

Before their eyes was clearly a three-dimensional rectangular space that had been excavated by human effort over a long period of time, similar to a large “underground black market” area, with nearly a hundred corpses strewn about haphazardly.

Their deaths were tragic, both men and women.

There were even some teenagers.

Their attire didn’t resemble the gangsters who would wander and gather in the sewers. They were just ordinary civilians who had taken refuge in the sewers after the Kadman City disaster.

But they had failed to escape death.

“Spawns of despair and Astral beasts, my lord.”

Maxim went forward to examine the mangled bodies that had crawled out farthest, resting his spirit poison blade as he said in a low voice:

“These people must have emanated too much despair in the darkness, attracting those monsters. This narrow space left them with nowhere to escape, only to face a desperate slaughter here.

As for those beasts…perhaps alligators? Or some kind of amphibian.”

“It’s no longer here.”

Murphy’s vampire senses allowed him to discern more details in the darkness. He said:

“It left at least three days ago. There’s no trace of its presence within my perception range. Perhaps the great fire that burned the surface drove it into hiding deeper underground, or it may have already returned to the Astral Realm.”

His gaze swept over the corpses in this three-dimensional area, seeing the despair on the decaying faces, and after a few seconds, he shook his head and said:

“How tragic, we were a step too late.”

“This is not your fault, my lord. You and your warriors have done enough.”

Maxim immediately reassured:

“They fled into the sewers, and were difficult to locate under the cover of the Astral shadows.”

“No, Maxim, I’m not as fragile as you think.”

Murphy shook his head, his tone low as he said:

“I’m thinking about how many bodies like this are in the entire sewer system? Three thousand? Five thousand? No, originally there were at least a hundred thousand people living in the outer city, but we only rescued over a thousand. Excluding those unlucky masses swept into the Astral Realm, the number of people who died in the sewers is bound to be high enough to make you despair.

What I’m worried about now is that as the Astral energy fades, the spirit energy in this place will recover. Just imagine the death horrors that could be spawned by so many tragic deaths, it makes one’s hair stand on end.

Each person is a potential ghoul, and Kadman City had countless locations used by gangs for hiding bodies from their crimes.”

He sighed, looking toward the maze-like underground tunnels before them.

Gripping his sword, he said:

“A ghoul nest and resentful spirit tomb shrouding the entire outer city is forming. Just the number of ghouls alone is conservatively estimated to be no less than ten thousand.

I dare say, Maxim, the sewers beneath our territory will absolutely become the largest and most terrifying lair of evil spirits ever formed on this continent.

Afterward, ah, my warriors will likely be quite busy.”