After the escort team left, Xiao Lin started his preparations for the tournament. A week remained until the tournament, but at noon, Ibeiya had run over to the embassy in search of Xiao Lin, telling him the time had been moved forward, and it would begin that night.
“The Argos clan suddenly notified everyone. They are the winners of the last tournament, so they have the right to do this. Since it’s only bringing it forward by a few days, most of the clans did not have any objections.” Ibeiya seemed to be in a panic. A few days were not much, but she worried that it could affect Xiao Lin’s matters.
Xiao Lin was quite suspicious. They had just rescued everyone from the Argos clan last night, and now the tournament was being moved forward. It was clear that the Argos clan was beginning to make some moves. Xiao Lin could not help but count his lucky stars, thankful the escort team had already left.
Xiao Lin consoled Ibeiya and got Liang Taibai to make a special pass for her. The embassy was Dawn Academy’s own sovereign land within the Rosa Kingdom. Whoever took over the royal city, no one would dare barge inside unless they were ready to make an enemy of the academy.
Of course, the embassy was not a place anyone could get in. With the special pass, if anything happened once Xiao Lin left, Ibeiya and her uncle could still avoid disaster there.
That was part of Xiao Lin’s repayment for the Shard of Creation. As for the martial tournament, Xiao Lin might have agreed to participate, but he actually did not have much confidence in winning.
Liang Taibai saw through Xiao Lin’s worries, and consoled him. Liang Taibai’s words were very simple, asking Xiao Lin to just focus on the participation. It had not been reported to the higher-ups. Even if he lost, Xiao Lin would not lose anything other than 20 years of his lifespan, so there was no pressure.
Other than that, Liang Taibai had kindly provided a batch of potions, such as physical and energy strengthening potions. Those potions could temporarily raise someone’s basic attributes, and were basically stimulants. Xiao Lin was no stranger to those potions.
During the end of semester examinations, the student union had repeatedly emphasized the fact that the strengthening potions were not allowed to ensure the fairness of the examinations.
They were not at the academy, and no matter how he looked at it, the clans of the dark races were definitely not honorable, principled people. Liang Taibai told him, “I told you before, the dark races that stay here are not that strong, but they will all have some tricks during the tournament, such as potions or certain mysterious forbidden techniques. You need to be careful of all that.”
“I understand. I’ll just focus on participating.”
When it got late, Xiao Lin headed to Ibeiya after taking four different strengthening potions. The four potions had increased each of his attributes by 10 points. It was a pity that the individual potions did not stack, but a 40 point increase was still good.
Ibeiya had dressed up properly that night, putting on a pure white gown with the bottom of her dress reaching the ground. She had light mascara and red lipstick. She also had a pair of high heels adorned with jewelry.
Planet Norma did not have high heels before the habits of Earth seeped into their culture after hundreds of years, slowly influencing the locals. At some point, the locals had also started to wear high heels as a status symbol, but it was of course limited to special occasions.
Ibeiya had always possessed both naivete and seductiveness. The make-up had taken away all her childishness, making her look even more mature and alluring.
Xiao Lin stared absentmindedly, and Ibeiya started to blush. However, she quickly let out a little shout as she almost fell, obviously not used to the heels. Xiao Lin shook his head, smiling as he said, “We’re only going to a tournament, not a banquet.”
The old man next to Ibeiya said, “You don’t know this, but it’s actually a banquet on top of a tournament. It’s a banquet that only happens once in ten years, and it’s our chance to show off the power of the St. Claude clan, so we naturally need to maintain the most basic of appearances so as to not disgrace the clan!”
“Fine! Fine!” Xiao Lin did not feel like arguing with the old man who was so fixated on past glories. He carefully helped Ibeiya the entire day, because her constant swaying was quite pitiful.
“This is a drop of blood essence left behind by the old master. I’ll give it to you. I hope you don’t disappoint us.” The old man might have been a stiff stickler, but he was very careful in his preparations. Since Xiao Lin’s weapons had all disappeared when they were kidnapped, the old man had prepared weapons for him. At the same time, he handed over a blood essence around the size of a fingernail.
Ibeiya had been bright red leaning against Xiao Lin. When she saw the amber red object, she had a pensive look on her face, and her expression dimmed. Looking at Xiao Lin’s confusion, she explained, “This is father’s blood essence. Please keep it. Each drop of blood essence can strengthen your attributes. If we use your method of calculation, it will increase by about twenty points.”
“How long does the effect last?” Xiao Lin thought it was something like a potion.
“It lasts forever!” the old man said expressionlessly.
Xiao Lin was surprised. It increased 20 attribute points immediately. Something like that was more valuable than a weapon of any quality.
If it was not something Ibeiya’s father left behind, Xiao Lin would have asked for more. Ibeiya saw through his thoughts and smiled, “Blood essence is something vampires leave behind when they die. It’s a pity, but my father’s skills were not great, or it would not have such a meager effect. Blood essence can’t be taken lightly either; it can only be taken no more than once a year, or it will be hard to digest and cause side effects.”
The value of 20 attribute points was different for each individual, but after drinking the potions, Xiao Lin would actually have had 300 attribute points for the first time. That was the level of a Bronze-ranked individual. Even if it was temporary, it was still a significant jump.
Xiao Lin looked at the distraught Ibeiya and could not help but feel sorry for her. Even though Lilith and Yu Mei had told him the girl had some hidden schemes, Ibeiya had yet to do anything to harm him, and he actually owed her a lot instead.
Regarding the blood essence, Xiao Lin did not need to ask to know that it was definitely left behind for Ibeiya by her father. She was probably to use it when she grew up.
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