Curse him! Pray to Jörmungandr to strike him down with lightning!

Nina let out a startled cry, but before she could duck behind Zohan, she saw a look of panic wash over Talissa's face. The next instant, the tall woman's body went limp and she collapsed weakly to the ground, utterly unable to move.

"Awoooo—"

Talissa could not help letting out a mournful howl. The strength she had just recovered vanished once again in the blink of an eye.

The joyful anticipation of taking her long-awaited revenge had lasted less than a second. Instead of being slammed against the wall by Nina into a shape impossible to pry loose, she was once again left completely paralyzed.

"I knew it! The moment you get a chance, you try to kill me!" Nina's spirit snapped back as she glared angrily at the fallen Talissa. What a treacherous bitch!

She must have been jealous that Nina had won Master Zohan's favor and wanted to eliminate Nina to take her place.

After all, in the current Red Hazel Town, besides cows and horses, the only creature with a backside as round and large as Nina's was this vicious bitch right here!

The murderous intent and ferocity Talissa had just displayed vanished along with her strength, and now she lay flat on the ground, completely unwilling to move.

Death would be a relief; she had nothing left to fear.

No matter how Zohan tormented or humiliated her, she would maintain this exact posture and refuse to give him even the slightest reaction.

After all, much of a pervert's pleasure came from the reactions of their tormented victims. The more Talissa struggled and suffered, the more he would enjoy it.

Talissa refused to let him have that satisfaction. She possessed a will of steel and unyielding determination.

"It seems you know nothing about binding magic. It is a vast and intricately branched magic system. The kind of binding magic that simply strips away your strength and paralyzes your body is crude and blunt, but just now, I skillfully applied critical-trigger and multiple-restriction binding spells to modify the binding effect," Zohan explained concisely to the layperson.

Celyad understood only vaguely. Her combat prowess came entirely from innate abilities, and before advancing to a vampire, she was incapable of mastering high-level magic.

Yeye looked at Talissa with curiosity, feeling a slight urge to touch her, yet not daring to. This creature that Nina called a "bitch" was unlike anything she had ever seen, and her magical energy was remarkably abundant. She wondered if feeding her to Celyad would make the blood pig even stronger.

As for Nina, she had no idea what any of it meant, but she was by far the most excited of the bunch. She whispered stealthily into Zohan's ear:

"Master Zohan, the collar around my neck also has magical binding effects, doesn't it? As long as you pull the chain and trigger that critical condition, I lose control of my body just like that. Plus, feeling your magical power all over my body—is this what they call multiple-restriction binding..."

You son of a bitch are truly a genius, and your understanding is top-notch.

Zohan reined in his breathing. Given the circumstances, he couldn't just drop everything to conduct magical experiments and research the way he had earlier with Madam Aldous.

"Ahem—that's right." Zohan still couldn't resist wrapping an arm around Nina's slender waist. Through the thin, lightweight cotton-linen loungewear, he could still clearly feel the contours and details of her undergarments.

He casually toyed with her, while Nina let out a soft moan and leaned against his chest, blushing deeply. With the air of a victor, she glanced down at Talissa on the floor. The lowly bitch had lost again!

"Now, the binding effect of this collar allows you to move freely in daily life and unleash your full power, but you may only attack targets designated by me and only when I permit it. Otherwise, you will instantly be bound and lose your strength."

Zohan explained as calmly as possible to Talissa. Since this concerned cultivating Celyad's practical combat experience, pressing matters took precedence.

Celyad immediately grasped Zohan's arrangement. "Darling, your mastery of binding magic is profound. Can you use the collar to adjust the level of her strength? That way, I can choose the training intensity and gradually improve."

"O great magic god Yormungand, please strike down with lightning and smite your unworthy disciples and grand-disciples! And this evil blood worm, and that cheap woman who put a collar on herself to become a plaything and a slave—"

Talissa exhausted her vocabulary of malice, concocting curses. She would rather commit suicide than endure—wait, since her strength had returned, could she kill herself?

Suicide certainly didn't count as acting with his permission, nor was it targeting someone he designated. Would the binding take effect then?

Talissa hesitated. Her determination to die was naturally unshakeable, but what if the binding didn't work?

It would most likely work. After all, Zohan was such a powerful mage, and the failure rate of his spells was vastly lower than that of ordinary magic practitioners.

She could still endure humiliation for now and wait to see how things developed. A magic wolf must die eventually, but her death had to be worthwhile.

For instance, taking Nina down with her before dying.

Pfft, that wasn't worth much either. In that case, she would choose to commit suicide only when she could take Zohan down with her.

She settled on this tragic and heroic notion.

At Talissa's curses, Zohan couldn't help but smile. How did his teacher become the magic god? Praying to the teacher to strike dead her only student—that was courting death, you stupid she-wolf.

Celyad ignored the outburst, Yeye didn't understand it, and Nina immediately fired back with verbal abuse.

Zohan thought for a moment, then tapped his staff against Talissa's collar a few more times. "Done."

With that, he turned to praise Celyad admiringly, "I hadn't considered that. Your idea is wonderful."

Celyad dared to imagine it, Zohan dared to test it, but Talissa dared not believe it. She quickly tested the waters and instantly felt that her current strength had been reduced to roughly that of an ordinary human.

Apart from the period when her strength had been suppressed by Zohan, how long had it been since she last experienced the fragile power of an ordinary human?

Talissa was utterly astonished, staring blankly at Zohan.

"You... you just did that, and directly altered the effect of the binding spell? You added a circuit structure that requires even finer mana control and multi-effect realization, creating an entirely unprecedented new spell?"

"Mm, what about it?" Zohan could understand Talissa's shock; she was an outsider, after all.

Magic was never static. The circuit structures of many spells when first invented were imperfect, only to be repeatedly revised and updated by proficient mages.

Through this process, magic became more refined, achieving higher success rates or better effects, though some ended up unrecognizable.

At the same time, Zohan's fundamental view of magic was that magic was simply an application.

Magic circuits were just code. What he had just done was akin to adding and modifying code to update the program's functions, nothing more!

Talissa's delicate wolf jaws pressed tightly shut. She refused to praise this hateful, vulgar, dissolute, and insidious young man!

She understood magical theory far better than Zohan realized.

She had never witnessed anyone alter magical arrays so rapidly, especially those that needed to be inscribed onto a physical medium.

He had not only been swift, but had also achieved the desired effect with absolute precision—wasn't that just doing whatever he pleased, bending reality to his whim?

Mages were respected not merely because they possessed destructive power, but because they could create new things, alter natural phenomena governed by rules, and enhance or weaken existences.

It was remarkably comprehensive.

Yet the vast majority of mages followed established teachings, studying and researching past magic.

Advancing inch by inch within their specialized fields, their capabilities were predictable, and their actions never strayed beyond their opponents' imaginations.

Zohan, however, was entirely unpredictable and unimaginable. He could alter the effects of magic at will—how was that any different from a god whose imagination became reality?

Even if he couldn't actually achieve everything through magic by sheer imagination yet, evoking that feeling and linking him to divine power was terrifying enough!

Was there truly any point in her holding onto her unyielding defiance, fighting desperately with an indestructible will? Talissa sank into profound anxiety.

"I'm hungry. I want to eat," Talissa said defeatedly.

In her current weak state, what kind of tempering could she possibly provide for Celyad? Talissa's spirit was broken, but making demands came as naturally as ever.