"Oh, I forgot about the boy. Since you've helped me find this place, I won't be ungrateful." Suddenly, Lu Zhen turned his attention to the second cage where Xiao Yu was lying unconscious. He slashed with his hands and, like with Elv, broke the cage without harming Xiao Yu.

"The previous dummy I killed must have been a clown or something," Lu Zhen thought to himself as he observed the unconscious boy.

"He was a dummy," the girl said, her eyes filled with a glint of knowing.

"Did you already know?"

"No."

"Why did you kill the dummy without flinching then?"

"That's because he was in my way. If he had been real and stabbed me in the back, he would have died. Even if he was a dummy, he would have still died. I don't care what people do as long as they don't get in my way, and since he wanted to kill me, it's my principle to kill him back," Lu Zhen explained in a cold voice as he once again reviewed the contract.

"This man is a maniac," the girl thought to herself as she looked at her hands, where there was the vial. "Sigh, I'm running out of time. This guy is my best bet."

"Alright, let's get started." The girl broke the vial and put a drop of her blood into the contract. Lu Zhen, who had collected the blood essence in his hand as well, dropped it into the contract.

Lu Zhen carefully observed with narrowed eyes.

The moment the two blood essences connected within the contract, a sizzling sound resounded, as if the blood essence was being burned by the contract.

The two drops of blood essence literally started to boil before smoke began to rise from them, and they started to burn. Even the contract itself seemed to ignite under the watchful, narrowed eyes of Lu Zhen.

Finally, the blood essence began to burn away. Lu Zhen could feel some strange connection to his blood essence being established.

"Is the contract done?" Lu Zhen asked as he looked at the girl.

Elv nodded with a smile on her face.

"Give me the book now."

"Okay." A book appeared in her hands, and she gave it to Lu Zhen. When he touched the book, it felt smooth to the touch.

"This book can help you become a mage, well, technically a mage. You won't gain any power or benefits of a full-fledged mage, even with very little mana required," Elv explained casually as she stretched her body.

"Will you provide me with the mana for that?" Lu Zhen asked.

"Oh," Elv smirked as she glanced at the corpse of the man Lu Zhen had brought.

"There is a mana storage function on that armour, which should provide enough mana for you to construct a mana heart using this technique. You see, there are many ways to create mana hearts, and the more mana it consumes, the more powerful it becomes. Since your technique requires very little mana, you can imagine the power your mana heart will have.

It might not even reach the first circle," Elv explained with a smirk on her face.

Lu Zhen simply nodded with an expressionless face and began flipping through the book to examine its contents.

Noticing his golden eyes scanning the text, Elv nodded with satisfaction.

"It seems like he does know how to read our language. If he didn't, well..." A small smirk appeared on Elv's face.

Elv hadn't lost anything in this deal. The method she provided to Lu Zhen was the most basic and lowest-tier way to establish a mana heart. It was rather useless for anyone aiming to become a mage, as the resulting mana heart would be far too weak for anything a mage could do. In exchange, she secured a living first-stage martial artist, which was a significant gain on her part.

However, this didn't mean Lu Zhen didn't benefit. He could now address his immediate problem, the curse that had been plaguing him.

Lu Zhen read through the book, gaining insights about mana hearts. After finishing, he closed the book and turned to Elv with a puzzled expression.

"How can I extract mana from the armour?" he asked.

Elv shook her head. "You can't. You need my help." She walked over to the armour, touching it with her hand and closing her eyes.

After a moment, she withdrew her hand, holding a bluish energy-like ball.

Lu Zhen's eyes widened as he saw this.

"Mana is not invisible?" Lu Zhen couldn't help but exclaim.

"No, only when it mutates does it become invisible," Elv explained, shaking her head.

Lu Zhen nodded as he curiously looked at the bluish energy-like ball. He reached out and took it from Elv before swallowing the ball directly.

The ball entered Lu Zhen's body and began to disperse.

"Huh, you're taking it directly?" Elv inquired, her expression somewhat curious.

Lu Zhen replied, "Yeah, is there a problem?"

"If you can digest that, then there's no problem," Elv replied, continuing to observe Lu Zhen.

Lu Zhen turned the pages of the book as he guided the mana into his heart, following a simple circulation method written in the book. The instructions in the book were relatively straightforward, almost crude. Lu Zhen found them easy to grasp, and he could have learned the method just by reading through the book once.

As the mana was guided into his heart, he sat down on the floor, assuming a cross-legged position.

Lu Zhen methodically guided the mana into an infinity circle, carefully circulating it around that shape, back and forth. As he did so, the mana began to take on a slightly purer quality.

He continued the process, gradually guiding the mana into two circular patterns connecting the two circles.

Lu Zhen slowly separated a little of the mana as he started to construct symbols according to the book, making the symbol of the two water elements inside both circles.