Chapter 203 - Second Order Blood Manipulation & Second Activation

With Bai Zemin's words as command, the Soul Record immediately began to work demonstrating its might once again.

The bottles of blood that were neatly stacked on top of the rack began to move until the corks that sealed off the inside from the outside began to slowly rotate until they opened as if an invisible hand was controlling them.

Now losing the obstructing object, the blood inside of approximately twenty bottles slowly rose and began to fly into mid-air.

"No matter how many times I see it, I don't get bored of this." Bai Zemin commented as he watched in wonder as the liter of blood inside the bottle he held in his hands magically levitated and joined the rest of the blood to form what appeared to be a huge spiral.

With the united sight of the Unclassified blood, the First Order blood, and the Second Order blood, even someone who didn't know what was going on here would definitely know which blood was better due to the clear difference in quality.

The blood of exactly sixty-six enemies that were slaughtered by Bai Zemin began to rotate slowly at first, but in a matter of seconds the rotation speed was gaining speed until it was no longer possible to differentiate what was what. The only thing in sight was a huge orb of blood spinning surprisingly fast.

Just as Bai Zemin wondered what was next, the mana of the world around him shook violently. He could clearly sense the immediate change.

"The mana is flowing into the blood..." Bai Zemin pointed out in amazement.

"The Soul Record can control the mana at will and can do whatever it wants with this energy." Lilith added calmly as she observed the changes in the blood with sparkling eyes.

The bloody sphere began to slowly light up from the center. At first it was just a small luminous dot, but before long that small dot spread like the waves of the sea to the entire sphere and in a matter of seconds the entire orb began to glow with an intense light ruby color.

The glow of the bloody sphere was so bright that Bai Zemin and Lilith unconsciously closed their eyes to avoid being blinded.

Tink...

A tinkling sound echoed softly in the middle of the silent room and when Lilith and Bai Zemin opened their eyelids again they were surprised to find that the blood sphere along with the miraculous glow was nowhere to be seen anymore.

It failed? Such a thought flickered in Bai Zemin's mind and for a moment he was startled. However, he soon shook off that thought forcibly.

Such a thing cannot happen. He said to himself.

Indeed, a moment later, both he and she looked down to the floor to see what the previous sound had been and there they saw a small blood-red pearl giving off a faint miraculous shimmer.

"This is..." Bai Zemin bent down and picked up the object in his hand, marveling at how soft it felt to the touch.

"Just eat it." Lilith urged as she looked at the red pearl in his hands. "That small pearl is probably the trigger to evolve your Blood Manipulation."

"That''s unusual..." Bai Zemin frowned as he received no description of the object in his hands.

Although he found it strange that his skill did not directly evolve as his past skills did, he ate the pearl without hesitation. As the pearl went down his throat and into his body, Bai Zemin felt all his blood heat up for a split second before returning to normal.

All the energy from the blood pearl seemed to flow into his soul, more specifically, into the red rune that represented his Blood Manipulation skill. The rune of the skill glowed and its reddish color deepened a bit at the same time as a strange additional engraving appeared on the rune.

[You have evolved Blood Manipulation to the next Order]

[Blood Manipulation (Second Order active skill) Level 1: First Order Blood Manipulation level 5 power multiplied by 2. Your blood weapons have a 10% chance to inflict critical hit when hitting an enemy. Second Activation: Consume 20 Mana points to activate and 1 Stamina point every 5 seconds. Envelop your weapon or a part of your body with a crimson blood flame, increasing your physical attack power and magical attack power by 20%.]

Bai Zemin's eyes flashed at the sight of the Blood Manipulation evolution and his heart pounded against his chest fiercely.

Only one thought was in his head at this moment: Strong!

Bai Zemin felt that all the efforts he put in and all the trials he had to overcome to get this far were really worth it!

The power of the skill had been multiplied x2, this in itself was amazing considering all that he could do with this skill. Already terrifying with its previous power, one could imagine how terrifying Blood Manipulation was with its doubled power.

In addition, as a bonus, Blood Manipulation gave Bai Zemin a 10% chance of inflicting a critical hit when using blood weapons against his enemies. This meant that the current him had a 40% chance of critical hit as long as he met the requirements.

10% came from his 'One Hit to Kill' title.

20% came from his passive skill 'Throwing'.

And the last 10% from Second Order Blood Manipulation.

Just imagining the power of Crimson Blood Judgment, a Third Order skill, with a critical hit, made Bai Zemin's hair stand on end.

Moreover, the second activation was something Bai Zemin did not expect to receive.

A Second Order skill did not always possess a second activation and most of the time, even in the Third Order or Fourth Order, skills only received general boosts but not a skill attached to the main one.

The case of Lightning Movement was a rarity; not for nothing did one of the Archangels of the Army of Heaven, Gabriel, a Seventh Order existence, possess this skill as his main skill.

The second activation of Blood Manipulation was actually a crimson blood flame that increased both, his physical attack power and his magical attack power, by 20%! If Bai Zemin used his skills well along with his Blood Berserker job and Blood Will, the overall power increase he would receive could reach up to 110% against beings of his own Order and up to 130% against beings more powerful than him!

A 130% increase in his overall attack power was no joke. This was an amount that could scare any being if they found out about!

At this point, Bai Zemin was confident that if he encountered that Second Order bear again he would definitely not end up in such a miserable state as he ended up in after the battle.

"I knew you would definitely receive a second activation... But I didn't expect one that would increase your already terrifying battle power even more." Lilith sighed seemingly exasperated. Although she said that, Bai Zemin could notice a small smile on the corner of her lips that revealed her true feelings.

Bai Zemin felt like hugging her or squeezing her cheeks but in the end restrained himself.

"What needed to be done has already been done. Now let's start working on my next equipment."

* * * * * * *

Thanks a lot to all those who use their Golden Tickets to vote for BW <3