43 Bloodline
"Urrrrrgh..." a deep, guttural sound resonated through the forest as the massive body of a bear collapsed. The bear looked utterly wretched, its form battered, bearing a conspicuous punch mark on its body, and bleeding profusely from multiple injuries.
With eyes full of terror, it began running, despite its massive 2200-pound body, moving with ferocious intensity as if its life depended on it, causing the ground to shake slightly.
Its eyes remained wide open, filled with disbelief at what had just occurred.
[Cyclone bear]
[Age: 30] [Normal beast] [Remark: a normal bear found in almost every forest; it could evolve into a great beast if it could evolve its bloodline to sense qi.]
Lu Zhen observed the system prompt detailing the bear's status as it disappeared into the distance. Since his appraisal eyes have levelled up, even though it was just a level, he could now see more information about any item when he needed it. However, he noticed that his qi was being drained faster than before, which left him somewhat puzzled. The new skill he had obtained, Appraisal eye, seemed to be the only one costing him qi, while others were passive and didn't appear to consume his energy.
Beasts had a ranking system similar to humans, with the distinction that they didn't need to cultivate like humans. Instead, they could naturally break through with time. They didn't require specific cultivation techniques; rather, the older they grew, the stronger they became, provided they had enough food.
However, this didn't mean they were stronger than humans. In fact, they were weaker due to their lack of intelligence in their early stages. They couldn't endlessly become stronger; they eventually reached their sealing limits and died due to age. This is why lower-ranked beasts were often hunted for resources. Humans, always curious, sought to use everything to their advantage.
The relentless growth of beasts, who primarily hunted and ate and just grew stronger from that, had made martial artists envious, leading to research on beasts.
One should not underestimate the power of science and research in this world. Although it lacked the unique technology of Lu Zhen's previous world, it had developed unique approaches. Even the most complex experiments, which would be challenging with modern technology, could be conducted with simple tools.
It was discovered that beasts possessed a bloodline that integrated into their bodies as they grew older. This piqued human curiosity about whether these bloodlines could also be applied to humans. After countless decades of research, it was found that humans could indeed have bloodlines. In fact, humans had a bloodline within them all along, but it was considered the weakest in the world, albeit the most flexible. It could evolve endlessly but required external assistance to do so.
They also found that other bloodlines could integrate into humans to make them stronger. That's where the Bloodline warriors were born. However, there were very few bloodline martial artists in this world because the method to integrate the bloodline into a human was a very complex process with a very low chance of success. It delved into the study of genes, and the success rate was so low that almost 99.99% of the people died during the transplant of their bloodline.
This transplant could only be taken by higher-ranking martial artists; otherwise, the failure rate was 100%. So almost none of the martial artists were willing to integrate the bloodline of a beast. After all, although they would gain powers beyond their stage, they had the chance of dying. So most of them gave up, except those who were stuck at their old age and had no hope of breaking through their limits. Only those people tried to integrate a bloodline, as it was their only hope.
In the history of the world, only eight people have been able to integrate their bloodline. At least that was what Lu Zhen knew. He didn't know if there were others, from what Lu Zhen had heard from Yu Bai, who came to be known as the ancestors. This ancestor's combat ability soared to new heights and they breakthrough and even their lifespan increased.
They shockingly discovered that their bloodline also transferred to their descendants. From that moment, the eight high-tier martial artists intercourse frequently to produce countless descendants, and they established the eight great clans which almost ruled the world in their era. But, unfortunately, time was an ethereal thing. The eight kings even with their bloodline to help eventually died.
Which led to the downfall of eight clans eventually due to a lack of talented descendants. The descendants didn't have a 100% chance of inheriting the bloodline. Even if they had the bloodline, some were just not talented enough to become martial artists, and their bloodline could only serve as external assistance.
That's why, with time, the eight families declined and were shattered ages ago. However, their descendant trail is still found till today. This was what Lu Zhen had heard from Yu Bai. He too was the descendant of a bloodline owner, but he didn't know which one. When he asked Yu Bai the question, he just kept silent, refraining from answering it.
"Brother Lu, you are truly impressive," Xia Long commented with a mocking tone on his face, sporting a smile, seeing that Lu Zhen couldn't defeat an ordinary beast and had let it escape.
"You can think whatever you want after you go to the grave," Lu Zhen thought with a sneer as he ignored Xia Long's mocking tone.
"So where are we going?" Lu Zhen said with an emotionless face.
"We will be arriving soon, Brother Lu. I am sorry if I offended you," Xia Long said in a sincere tone, as if he really didn't mean it, putting his hands at the back of his head.
Lu Zhen just sneered in his mind as they continued to walk.
Soon, they arrived at a big hill that looked just as average as all the hills surrounding it. When Lu Zhen looked up, he could see the hill ascend as if it didn't even have an end to it.
Xia Long stopped right there, putting his hand in front of his mouth and making a "shh" sound.
"This is where I found the delphinium, but unfortunately, there was a snake beast in the third stage of the martial realm guarding it. I couldn't take it out as I was alone at that time," Xia Long said with a smile still on his face, somehow recovering from the ugly expression he had made.
"I have heard that Brother Lu has reached the martial trainee level, and seeing that you could chase away an ordinary beast with just a punch, how about you go and deal with the snake for experience? We will come to help you right away if anything happens," Xia Long suggested with a meaningful smile, pointing outward to a place covered with leaves.
Hearing this, Lu Zhen felt oddly familiar. Didn't he just slay the snake in the third stage of the martial realm just before? If that was the case, then Xia Long was really digging a grave for himself.
"Alright, then, Brother Xia, I will go," Lu Zhen said with an emotionless face, although he was trying to hide his amusement internally. While he wanted to deal with these guys now, he didn't want any witnesses to escape. He was sure that Yu Bai could easily take care of Xia Jing if he went into the bloodline form, but there was still a possibility of escape they had, which he didn't like.
Lu Zhen had a life principle: "Strike only when prepared." He wasn't 100% sure that he could kill them all while capturing the woman, and he didn't want to take chances. So he was waiting for the right opportunity to strike, unless he was 100% sure he wouldn't strike, but he knew that this wasn't always applicable in the real world. Countless variables could come into play. What if a meteor fell from the sky or if someone heard the commotion and came to help? There were countless possibilities, even though they might be unlikely, but there was always an off chance of them becoming true.
With that thought, he said, "Alright, Brother Xia," as he headed toward the hills.
Xia Mei was stunned, hearing Lu Zhen being so agreeable to Xia Long, which left her confused.
"Am I wrong about him?" she thought to herself.
"Brother, you should go help Lu Zhen," Xia Mei said as she stopped Lu Zhen from leaving. However, hearing this, Xia Long tightened his fist as if he was going to say something. Yet, before he could speak, Lu Zhen interrupted him.
"Don't worry about it, Miss Xia. I'll be fine," Lu Zhen said in an uncaring manner as he went to the hill, stunning Xia Mei, who was trying to intervene. Although she felt that Lu Zhen was not simple, she didn't want to take any chances and potentially lose someone who might know her what her true identity.
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