Just like that, the new Princ.i.p.al of the Hunter"s House was appointed.
In actuality, at this point, the Sorcerers did not have any other choice.
Under normal circ.u.mstances, if one was to become the Princ.i.p.al of an organization like this, apart from having great strength, they would also need great reputation so that others would be willing to follow them.
However, these were not normal circ.u.mstances.
Putting aside Chen Heng"s incredible power, there was also the threat of the Heart-Devouring Devil.
Moreover, these Sorcerers had all been saved by Chen Heng, and all of them wanted to repay him.
Moreover, what was key was that Chen Heng had greatly changed.
After receiving the Faith Mark, just by standing there, Chen Heng made others want to trust and rely on him.
After becoming the new Princ.i.p.al, Chen Heng began to give orders.
What surprised the other Sorcerers was that Chen Heng was not immediately heading to deal with the Heart-Devouring Devil. Rather, after discussing with Ariel and the others for a while, he decided to temporarily leave the Hemu region.
"Even if we get rid of the Heart-Devouring Devil, that will not be of much benefit to us," Chen Heng said as he looked at Ariel and the others.
"We don"t have enough people, so what good would it be if we took over those regions? We don"t even have people for day to day operations."
There was a reason why Sorcerer organizations would take in a large number of students.
There were many things that they needed Apprentices to take care of, no matter if it was planting, mining things, or imbuing items with magic power.
This was why Sorcerer Academies would take in students.
The current Hunter"s House had lost much manpower.
After that big battle, including Chen Heng and the other true Sorcerers, there were fewer than 50 Sorcerers remaining.
With such little numbers, they could barely maintain operation of the Hunter"s House, let alone do other things.
Even if Chen Heng and the others defeated the Heart-Devouring Devil, they would not be able to benefit much.
After all, they would not be able to take in the various resources that the Heart-Devouring Devil had.
In the end, those were the things that the Sorcerer organizations were fighting over.
Since they could not immediately devour those things, it was better to act slower.
"Us not acting is not sparing them; rather, we are just letting them continue to fight among themselves and make the situation more chaotic," Chen Heng spoke softly as he looked at everyone, "It"s just that after experiencing the Heart-Devouring Devil"s rampage and falling under its control will those people be grateful to us for saving them and will be willing to follow us.
"If we just forcefully suppress them, they will just maintain those feelings of enmity towards us.
"We are not the Heart-Devouring Devil and do not have any way of controlling people."
Since they could not gain the biggest benefits now, retreating and not acting was also a good tactic.
Rather than acting and becoming everyone"s enemy, it was better to let the Heart-Devouring Devil make the situation more chaotic and attract everyone"s hatred.
One day, after Chen Heng and the others gathered enough strength, they would act and appear as the saviours of the world.
When that time came, as the victors, they would naturally receive the grat.i.tude of those who had been controlled, as well as rightfully take over everything that the Heart-Devouring Devil had.
Hearing Chen Heng"s words, all of the Sorcerers nodded in agreement.
Ariel was quite impressed by Chen Heng"s thinking—even though he had the power to get rid of the Heart-Devouring Devil, he could calmly and rationally a.n.a.lyze the situation. This was how a Sorcerer should be.
After deciding on this plan, they began to act.
The Apprentices within the Hunter"s House were told that they could continue to stay if they wished, and they could also leave if that was what they wanted.
In the end, a few Apprentices left, but most chose to stay.
In times like this, there were not many people who wanted to be rogue Sorcerers—not only was it difficult for them to obtain magic skill frameworks, but it was also difficult to obtain other resources as well.
Those things were the reasons why most Sorcerers chose to join an organization.
Ariel and the other Sorcerers also used their connections to contact some other Apprentices and gather new people.
Even though they had decided to leave, they did not act too quickly.
Mortals moving houses was quite troublesome, and it was even more so for an Academy.
During this time, Ariel and the others busied themselves, moving everything of value from the Academy.
Because the Heart-Devouring Devil had controlled everyone in the Hunter"s House, it had not done much to the Academy.
As such, most things of value were still there, and they were all to be moved.
Fortunately, the Heart-Devouring Devil had been very confident in its control over Sorcerers, so it did not come to check on the Hunter"s House regularly. It just had Ariel and the others periodically report to it.
Because of how big the Hemu region was, and due to the warfare going on, it actually took quite a long time for reports to reach it.
This gave them enough time to move away.
Time gradually pa.s.sed.
Soon, it had been two months.
By now, they had finished most of the preparations.
Chen Heng and some others stood outside the familiar gates.
Ariel was standing in front of the gate, with Charlie and the others next to her.
Looking at the gates, as well as the familiar scenery around them, she could not help but deeply sigh.
"Let"s go," Charlie said as he comforted her, "We"ll come back one day. When that time comes, everything will be different."
"Indeed…"
Hearing Charlie"s words, Ariel nodded, with a resolute look on her face, "Everything will be different."
As she spoke, it was as if she could see a wonderful future, and her eyes became brighter.
There were many others who also felt quite reluctant to leave.
Even though Sorcerers were quite cold and rational, they still had emotions.
In response, Chen Heng"s expression was calm and understanding.
They stayed for a short while until everyone could get their emotions under control before heading out.
After leaving the Hunter"s House, they first went to Helo City to buy some things before leaving this region.
At the port, the s.h.i.+p that would take them to leave was already there.
Compared to the normal s.h.i.+ps that ferried Apprentices, this s.h.i.+p was very big.
The Hunter"s House had many things to be moved, so Ariel and the others had spent a large sum of money to hire a big s.h.i.+p.
After everyone got on, the s.h.i.+p departed, and the port became smaller and smaller until it could not be seen anymore.
At that moment, they truly felt that they had left.
Charlie gave a light sigh and silently turned and walked into the cabins.
Even though they had left the Hemu region, they had many things to do on the s.h.i.+p.
According to the plan, they would head to Chen Heng"s hometown, the Dolan region, and establish a new base there. They would gather Apprentices and slowly acc.u.mulate strength.
Moreover, some of them would head into the Faith World and establish a new Academy there.
Many of the Sorcerers were quite interested in this.
After hearing about the Faith World, they could not help but feel curious about it.
A new, unexplored world that contained powerful demon beasts and monsters was something that greatly attracted them.
As such, this was something that many Sorcerers felt excited about.
Of course, there was another purpose for this.
Given that they could freely enter and exit the Faith World using Chen Heng"s Faith Mark, this meant that the Academy would have a way out no matter what happened.
Even if they lost everything in the outside world, they could hide within that world and preserve their strength.
This was a very good idea, so Ariel and the others were quite interested.
During this time, when many true Sorcerers were gathered, they often gathered to discuss and plan many things.
Chen Heng sometimes partic.i.p.ated in the discussions, but most of the time, he remained within his room and did Meditation.
One day, as he was doing Meditation, he suddenly opened his eyes.
He could hear noises from outside, most of which were Apprentices" shouts.
Moreover, Chen Heng could sense a clear wave of ill-intent from a distance, so he got up and walked out of his room.
He came to the deck and saw figures bobbing up and down on the ocean.
Merfolks" figures appeared, looking at them bloodthirsty and savagely.
Looking at this scene, Chen Heng chuckled and did not know what to say.
It was because of the Merfolk that he had fallen into danger and then entered the Faith World.
After so many years, he had almost forgotten these fellows, but they had once again appeared before him.
There were many of them, and they were filled with ill-intent.
Chen Heng could not help but wonder if these were the same Merfolk that had attacked him back then.
On the deck, Sorcerers walked out and looked at the Merfolk in interest, but no one was afraid.
After all, putting aside true Sorcerers, there were seven or eight Third Rank Apprentices and even more Second Rank Apprentices.
Even if the true Sorcerers did not act, just the Apprentices would be able to keep these Merfolk at bay.
It was a completely different situation to the s.h.i.+p that Chen Heng had been on before.
"Ed, you"ve come."
Standing on the deck, Charlie looked at the Merfolk in interest as he said, "Do you think these are the Merfolk who attacked you back then?"
"It"s possible," Ariel nodded, "The Merfolk are very territorial and don"t relocate easily, nor do they allow other Merfolk tribes to come to their territory."
"It seems that because of the war, these Merfolk have been living quite well," a Sorcerer laughed as he gave a bloodthirsty smile, "But since they dare to attack our Academy… then we"ll teach them a lesson…"
As he spoke, the other Sorcerers smiled.
Even though they discussed with each other and did their research, it was still quite boring looking out into the vast ocean every day.
These Merfolk coming here gave them some entertainment, and they could also take revenge for Chen Heng and get on the good side of their new Princ.i.p.al.
As such, everyone rubbed their hands together, including the true Sorcerers, and they looked at the Merfolk below as if they were prey.
Even now, the Merfolk did not know what was going to happen.
A b.l.o.o.d.y scene soon unfolded.
Soon, the water was dyed red with blood.
Facing the attacks from the true Sorcerers, the Merfolk were unable to resist at all and were annihilated.
In just a short while, the Merfolk were all slaughtered, and the Merfolk Priest who was equivalent to a Third Rank Apprentice was captured by Charlie.
According to him, a Merfolk Priest who could awaken their bloodline was a very rare material, and they would be able to be used to create an excellent magic item.
This Merfolk attack, which may have been dangerous to others, was easily dealt with by them.
Many people obtained Merfolk corpses and happily left.
Chen Heng also obtained some. Apart from the Merfolk Priest, which he gave to Charlie, most of the Merfolk n.o.bles" corpses went to Chen Heng.
"After a few years, I"ve achieved my goal."
Within the simple laboratory, Chen Heng extracted the essence blood from a few Merfolk corpses as he thought to himself.
A few years ago, when he had first seen these Merfolk, he had wanted to see if he could devour their essence blood.
It was just that it was too dangerous back then and he did not have an opportunity.
He had never thought that he would have the chance after a few years.
Chen Heng directly used the Heaven Devouring Scripture to devour these Merfolks" essence blood.
After these past few years, the Heaven Devouring Scripture had been further enhanced by Chen Heng, and it was even more efficient.
Before, it would have taken him a few days to completely digest the essence blood, but now it could be achieved in just less than half a day.
Of course, these changes were also due to the change in the strength of Chen Heng"s body.