Chapter 5124: Blood Turns Into Poison
Silence descended over the Bloodline Hall.
The disciples stood rooted in place while the corpse slowly leaked darkened blood across the stone pathways.
The smell alone was enough to make them shiver.
Within moments, alarms rang throughout the Miredon Family Estate.
Elders and physicians rushed over at full speed, only to come to an abrupt stop after seeing the corpse lying before the Ancestral Hall.
Even the elders felt chills spread through their bodies.
The old ancestor no longer looked human.
His skin had blackened in several places while his veins bulged grotesquely beneath the flesh. His body looked hollowed out from within, as though every drop of bone and blood inside him had decayed into corruption.
One elder quickly knelt beside the corpse and sent his spiritual sense inward.
The next instant, his expression twisted into one of horror.
"The bloodline..."
His lips trembled, "It’s corrupted..."
"What nonsense are you saying?" Another elder who stood behind him, maintaining a careful distance, barked.
The elder who checked turned around and roared, "The bloodline itself became poison!"
The surrounding elders instantly stiffened.
Only one thought dashed across their mind like a million horses galloping across the battlefield: Impossible!
How can one’s own bloodline turn into poison?
That was saying that their own blood turned into poison. It didn’t make sense at all. If the ancestor’s blood was poison itself that was harmful like this, then how come he survived to this day?
"Elders..."
Suddenly, one of the terrified disciples who witnessed the scene spoke through clattering teeth.
"Speak boldly." One of the elders encouraged him.
The terrified disciple nodded, "Ancestor... he kept saying there was a hex..."
The moment the word left his mouth, silence fell again.
The elders exchanged uneasy glances.
A hex was a troublesome thing to encounter. It wasn’t a rune, but it acted like one, latching onto blood, soul, and other spiritual factors that karma could integrate and be borne from. Even in the Six-Headed Hydra Upper Realm, known for poison and darkness, a hex was still rare to come across, unlike a curse.
Fearing the origin of this hex, one elder immediately began inspecting his own body.
At first, he found nothing of concern, but he kept checking.
Then his face turned deathly pale.
Deep within his soul, hidden so carefully it was nearly impossible to detect, a black-red mark pulsed with a green glow silently beside his soul essence.
The elder’s pupils constricted violently.
Cold sweat drenched his back as he found it difficult to breathe.
"No..."
He hurriedly circulated his cultivation art and surged with his soul force, trying to squash the hex.
The black-red hex mark that glowed in a sinister green reacted instantly.
*Pop!~*
Agonizing pain exploded through his meridians.
"Argghh!"
The elder staggered backward, coughing blood onto the ground.
The surrounding elders recoiled at the suddenness, thinking it was another enemy attack.
"What happened!?" However, even as they looked around, they couldn’t find anyone.
"There’s... really a hex..." The elder who checked blurted out, fear overwhelming his voice.
The other elders immediately wanted to check themselves, but one elder roared.
"Stop! The hex might react adversely to your discovery!"
Hearing this, their expressions crumbled one after another, but one elder was too late.
*Pui!~*
That elder who was the fastest to check among them spurted a mouthful of blood along with the elder who first checked. Their skin increasingly became red as their pores began dripping blood.
The other elders watched this scene, their hearts sinking.
"Quick, aid them!"
One elder who was a physician instantly began burning his blood essence and sent a healing water wave directly along with his blood to support that elder’s blood from degrading.
He clenched his teeth and continued supporting despite the unknown danger this strange hex posed to him.
Seeing that he wasn’t affected by the hex poison within that elder’s body, the others also started doing the same, trying to help stabilize the blood from rotting into poison. They burned their blood essence to stabilize the two elders.
Soon, they were able to help them avoid a quick death, unlike the ancestor.
"The ancestor... he had less blood essence since he was too old, so he wasn’t able to endure for long..."
They quickly arrived at the conclusion that the hex was fatal for those who had low blood essence. As for those still in their prime or elderly with enough blood essence, they could still withstand the hex. But to their horror, they noticed that the hex wasn’t destroyed or dispersed in those two elders but still stayed in their system.
"This... what kind of sinister hex is this?" The elder cursed as he clenched his chest, still feeling a great sense of unease.
"Who would be ruthless enough to potentially cast it on all of us? How did they do it?" Another elder angrily roared.
Some elders still felt that something had happened to these two elders.
A hex couldn’t be underestimated. This hex’s properties and effects were still unknown. It wouldn’t disappear, and they didn’t know what exactly it did other than turning one’s bloodline into bad blood and thereby killing them.
"...!" Thinking like this, one elder realized something.
"Quick, take them to the Bloodline Hall."
The two elders were stunned but did as that Grand Elder said.
They were brought to the Bloodline Hall and were made to undergo the test from the Bloodline Mirror.
It basically contained their information, even the information of their parents. Hence, paternity fraud was difficult to achieve. However, right now, there was a line that caused the two elders to shiver incessantly, one of them even staggering back before they fell to their rear.
"No... no way... there’s no way my bloodline purity has fallen from eighty-nine percent to thirty-nine percent..."
"Mine is thirty-two, fell by half just like that...?"
The two elders uttered absentmindedly, unable to believe what they were seeing through their own eyes.
The expressions of the others also surged as they realized the implications.
Their bloodline purity had degraded! These illustrious elders from the main family had turned into trash overnight!
Without high bloodline purity, their prowess would be reduced by a great margin! Moreover, below thirty percent, that was already the level of degradation where the bloodline purity falls to the lesser grade in the next generation- Grade Seven Bloodline, since their Miredon Family’s Bloodline could be considered Grade Eight Bloodline.
Everyone here, from an elder to a disciple, knew that the bloodline purity for a newborn baby of their family would be thirty-three percent and above.
As long as they have this kind of bloodline purity, they could be considered members of the Miredon Family.
But one of their elders had fallen below this margin. Could he even be considered a member of the Miredon Family anymore?
That elder also realized this, and his expression slowly rose into a furious scowl, "Dammit! Whoever did this to us, did this to me, can’t live under the same sky!"
"Elder Fuden, please don’t worry. We have bloodline treasures that help renew and recover your bloodline purity. Although it wouldn’t be much, I guarantee-"
"Elders, let me track down this foe even at the expense of my life. Since my bloodline has degraded to this level, there’s no point for me to continue living like this. I won’t ever let the other members of our family go through the same excruciating experience as this!"
That elder sat down and quickly entered meditation despite the protests erupting around him, worried for his safety.
*Pui!~*
He spat a mouthful of blood as the hex exploded within him again, causing him to cry out miserably before he pointed in a direction and fell.
"The hex... the hex’s source... comes from the Hayden Family...! Ah!"
Soon, that elder also turned into an empty husk as black blood formed a huge puddle below him. He wasn’t even able to escape with his soul as though it was affected by the hex.
The other elders watched him die with eyes full of calm and indifference, but rage brewed in their hearts.
A Level Three Primarch of their family was gone just like that. Since he was a Primarch, this elder was still young compared to the Exalts who were here. With rage brewing in their hearts, they all turned to look in one direction.
This was all because of one family that they openly despised and offended! To think they had such a powerful hex expert who could hex their entire family.
"Hayden Family, just you wait! We can’t live under the same sky!"
In the skies, the Patriarch, who was observing all this, said with a cold gaze as he took out his legacy artifact and placed it on his head. It was a blue oceanic crown. Once he put it on, he waved his hand.
"Elders and disciples! Heed my command, prepare for war!"
Unbeknownst to them, a similar scene was playing out in the Hayden Family.
The source of the hex they found was none other than the Miredon Family’s grounds.
Why? Because Evelynn went on a walk with her avatar and placed her karmic substitute in the alleyway behind the Miredon Family’s Estate. It was in the form of an eye, waiting patiently for someone to trace it once the main body hid itself from prying eyes.
She set them up both.
But what did City Lord Davis do?
"What!? There’s a martial curfew!?"
The members of the Hayden Family and Miredon Family barely got out of their estates before the city guards stopped them, causing them to become even more enraged.
