Apprentice Knight

[Demon Bloodline!]

The personalities of the manor stewards were cast from the same mold.

As expected, the other manor stewards were also hosts of Quasit Bloodlines.

There was clearly something wrong with the Golden Lion Count's Estate!

The hosts parasitized by Quasit Bloodlines all happened to be manor stewards in charge of serfs.

Clearly, this was to make it easier for the Quasits to collect chaotic souls born from murder.

"A One-Ring Demonic Beast stands on the same level as a formal wizard. Even if Quasits are not skilled in combat, they are still not something a Junior Wizard Apprentice can hunt."

Yin Ming knew his own limits.

However, creatures of the Abyss would not remain in the mortal world for long.

Quasits, creatures naturally cautious and cowardly, were even less likely to stay in the mortal world permanently.

The only things he needed to worry about were those powerful Demon Bloodlines, as well as the human knights controlled by Bloodlines.

The little black furball was the weakest initial-form Quasit Bloodline. If it obtained the true blood of its bloodline source, it could evolve into advanced Bloodlines such as Giant Husk, Heart-Eater Worm, and Armorbound.

"Thankfully, I'm a serf. I have no value as a host."

The Golden Lion Count's territory being entangled with Abyssal demons clearly meant it was no kind place.

Yin Ming had no plans to leave for the time being.

The greatest known danger here was a One-Ring Abyssal Quasit.

Elsewhere, who knew how many-ring demons might be lurking!

"..."

Mortals believed that the extraordinary were unfathomably mysterious.

They could spend their entire lives searching and never find so much as a scale or claw of an extraordinary clue.

Yet once one truly stepped into the extraordinary, one would discover that it was everywhere.

At the end of the day, the extraordinary and mortals lived in the same space.

Mortals could not see extraordinary beings only because their understandings never intersected.

Jerome Hoven had been parasitized by a Demon Bloodline, yet until his death, he never knew he had crossed paths with an extraordinary creature.

"If I killed... all the Demon Bloodlines! The refined mental power extracted from them could probably permanently solidify my second mental rune at once."

For now, Yin Ming only dared to think about it. Unless he had a Minor Teleportation Talisman on him, hunting demons and fleeing afterward would be extremely dangerous.

If he truly put it into action, then no matter how cowardly the Quasit was, it would still have to crawl out of the Abyss to take revenge.

"Too weak! If I had the strength of a One-Ring Wizard, I should be considering how to fish that Quasit out of the Abyss right now."

Yin Ming realized that his strength was no longer enough!

Yet in the short term, he could not find any way to improve it quickly.

A wizard's accumulation of mental power was a long process. He still needed nearly two months before he could condense his second rune.

Even if he used the Scavenger Gourd to increase the activity of his brain's nerve cells, it would still take a month.

The third zero-ring spell: Crimson Flame Ring.

It was a purely offensive spell, stronger than Wizard's Hand, but only by a very limited margin.

His flesh-and-blood enhancement had also hit a bottleneck. His constitution had reached the level of a High Knight, but without real combat experience, the fighting strength he could actually exert was limited. He could only crush Low Knights through physical superiority and was absolutely no match for a High Knight.

"Knowledge! If I knew the fundamental principles behind constructing rune spell-formula circuits, I wouldn't be picking up scraps from others without a single constructive breakthrough."

Whether it was casting spells instantly,

maintaining two or more spells at once,

or using the same principles to develop Wizard's Foot and Wizard's Head, all of it would bring a qualitative leap in combat power.

Unfortunately, the Hanhai Wizard's inheritance contained no theoretical knowledge at all. He could only cultivate step by step.

"..."

Tulip Manor!

Pains Gagarin put away his bloodstained whip.

He took out a small piece of freshly baked white bread, golden-brown and soft, and rewarded it to a hulking man beside him.

He forced an unnatural smile onto his face and praised extravagantly, "This serf, who entered the manor only five days ago, has completed his plowing task exceptionally well. Now this is a qualified serf, one worthy of enjoying delicious white bread."

Having retired from the border battlefield, Pains was not good at praise, socializing, or schemes.

Yet whenever thoughts of murder surfaced in his mind, he felt an incomparable thrill.

If he could successfully carry out a murder, he would gain a pleasure beyond the limits of the flesh.

Misleading perception, manipulating emotions, twisting one's own will, driving humans to do things they had never wanted to do—this was the power of Abyssal Demon Bloodlines.

Murder! Murder without a trace.

A Quasit could not digest souls carrying hatred. To it, this was a necessary cooking process to remove the poison.

All the serfs played along. Randy wore an envious expression, then whispered to Yin Ming, "I'll bet half a piece of black bread that this guy won't last two months."

Yin Ming blended into the common dust. He had no lofty spirit to save strangers of another race and make an enemy of the whole world. "Then you're bound to lose! This guy looks strong outside but is hollow within. I bet he can't even last one month."

"I..." Jack kept his head lowered. He had been strangely silent all day, and after glancing at Yin Ming, he seemed to want to speak but stopped himself.

Suddenly!

Pains Gagarin abruptly changed the subject.

Pointing at Jack among the crowd, he said excitedly, "In addition, there is another serf whose outstanding performance has caught the eye of young master Adams Arthur. He will become an Apprentice Knight of the Golden Mane Knights."

Fake, right?

Not even a dog would believe that!

Who would get promoted to a regiment-level officer just because he was good at farming?

The Landon Duchy had not launched a full-scale war. The nobles simply could not possibly recruit serfs into the army.

The old serfs' eyes were filled with doubt and vigilance as they pondered what kind of new trick this was to swindle people.

The new serfs were thrilled. If they had hoes in their hands, they would have swung them until smoke rose from them. Working well could actually give them a chance to change their social standing.

"Jack..." Randy looked astonished. Turning his head, he whispered, "Pains isn't using you as a pretext before quietly killing you, is he?"

"I'll explain when we get back!" Jack shook his head.

Yin Ming also found it unlikely. To trap and kill a few serfs, there was no need to borrow Adams Arthur's mighty name.

A mere manor steward could neither make decisions for the count's heir nor dare to do anything in his name.

"..."

"Eno, I'm sorry!"

After returning to Blackstone House, Jack gave Yin Ming a deep bow in apology.

Without waiting to be questioned, he took the initiative to explain, "Do you remember that Silverleaf Herb roots can stop bleeding? I traded that information for the chance to become an Apprentice Knight. I'm willing to give any compensation."

When Adams Arthur had killed the Shadow Leopard and raised its head high for everyone to see, Jack had said that he wanted to become a knight. He never expected that he would truly seize an opportunity!

"Eno trusted us, which was why he didn't hide the recipe for Hemostatic Powder. You shameless thief, you've already handed the recipe over to someone else. It can't be undone now, so what compensation are you talking about?" Randy cursed furiously.

"I... I can confess to Lord Arthur and prove that the recipe was Eno's discovery. Then I can try to secure another Apprentice Knight position." Jack took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and spoke.

"No need! This was Jack's own ability. I have the recipe, but I get scared just seeing Lord Arthur's mount, let alone stopping him to speak with him. You becoming an Apprentice Knight has little to do with the recipe."

As a serf, simply speaking to Adams Arthur meant risking one's life.

Yin Ming had no desire to claim credit, nor was he interested in becoming an Apprentice Knight.

Before becoming a knight, an Apprentice Knight

was, bluntly put, a handyman responsible for feeding a knight's horse and remaining on call twenty-four hours a day.

Wasn't being a serf who only needed to work half an hour a day far better?

Besides, Apprentice Knights also had to follow knights onto the battlefield. Who knew whether some war demon might be hiding in a corner of the battlefield, devouring the battle souls of the dead?