My Clan Cultivation System: Only My Clan Can Cultivate

Chapter 81: Twin-Tailed Gale Blade Art

— 13 Years Ago —

(Thorne Estate — Ian’s Home)

It was exactly midnight. The loud, synchronized crying of two hungry babies echoed down the dark hallways of the estate.

"Honey, can we please at least hire a wet nurse? Look at yourself. You are so tired these days, but with a wet nurse around the house, you won’t have to struggle this much," Aron Thorne said gently. He looked sadly at Caroline, who had deep dark circles under her eyes as she carefully cradled and fed both babies at the exact same time.

"And I always tell you, I don’t need any of that. I want to feed my babies on my own," she said softly, a warm, exhausted smile on her face as she looked down at the twin girls.

"But you are not getting nearly enough sleep these days, and I’m genuinely starting to get worried about your health. I have rarely seen you hold a sword or even train in the courtyard lately," he sighed, sitting down on the edge of the large bed.

"Sword training can wait. I’m not in a rush to advance at all, and it’s not like I’m good at it anyways" she said slowly. "Just let me feed them, okay...?" Her voice trailed off as her eyes slowly fluttered shut, dozing off while the babies, Emma and Emily, were still quietly feeding in her arms.

"Aaaahh... she is so incredibly stubborn," Aron sighed, leaning forward. He gently lifted both Emma and Emily from the arms of his sleeping wife and placed them softly into their crib. "I don’t know why she is so hung up on feeding them herself and doing absolutely everything alone. She was exactly like that when Ian was born, too..."

He turned and looked toward the bedroom doorway. Standing silently in the shadows was a younger version of Vincent. He was wearing a dark travel cloak that was completely soaked in dried blood.

"I think it’s because we both grew up in the orphanage, and we didn’t have parents in our own lives," Vincent said quietly, walking into the dimly lit room. He stared warmly at Caroline, who was finally sleeping soundly. "She is trying so hard to make sure her kids never feel even a fraction of the loneliness that we felt as children."

"You took way too long. You went missing for a whole week, Vincent. She was starting to get really worried these past few days," Aron said, crossing his arms. "And now you come sneaking back in with your clothes covered in blood. Do you want her to wake up and see you like this? And should I assume that is not your blood, right?"

"No, it’s not mine. You don’t have to worry about that," Vincent said, glancing down at the small sleeping twins.

"It seems you came back alone," Aron noted, his face turning serious as he looked past Vincent into the empty hallway. "What about the other guys that you went out with?"

"They are all dead," Vincent said with a completely dull, emotionless look.

"I see," Aron said softly, closing his eyes. "Then I am truly sorry for your loss. I know those guys were great friends of yours, when you were young."

"There is absolutely no need to apologize," Vincent said, slowly shaking his head. "Since I am the one who betrayed them and killed them in the first place."

"So... that means..." Aron’s eyes widened in realization.

"Yes. It means it was actually there. Your secret information was completely spot on," Vincent said, reaching into a small leather bag tied to his waist. "And I even found two of them. Can you believe it?"

Vincent pulled out two thick, ancient-looking books. One was bound in crimson-red leather, and the other in light green. He kept the red one and handed the green one directly to Aron.

"Wow... thank you, Vincent. Really. With this, it will be the absolute perfect gift for her birthday next month!" Aron said, pure joy shining in his eyes as he traced the cover. "She won’t be permanently stuck at the Second Stage like she is now. She will even advance higher, maybe even becoming a Knight!"

Vincent just smiled warmly when he heard the excitement in Aron’s voice.

"Hmm..." Aron read the ancient golden letters stamped on the green cover. "It’s called the Twin-Tailed Gale Blade Art."

...

— PRESENT TIME —

"Don’t worry, Lady Thorne. I won’t kill you right away," the guard smiled cruelly, his red Aura suffocating the hallway. "I will make sure to leave your mouth perfectly intact... so that you will still be able to tell me exactly where that Manual is hidden."

Suddenly, the red Aura guard dashed at Caroline with insane speed. Violently swinging his glowing sword, he brutally struck her directly in the gut. The heavy impact launched her backward, sending her crashing hard into the wooden wall again.

"Aaaah..." Caroline moaned in pain, sliding down the splintered wood.

"What the hell is up with that armor? My blade didn’t even slice it in half, or even make a single dent on the plating," the old guard frowned, staring at the black iron chest piece Caroline was wearing.

"Hmmm... is it actually forged from that specific metal?" he muttered, tapping his chin in realization. "Well, your family is quite wealthy, so it really wouldn’t surprise me if you somehow had custom armor forged entirely from Gorged Iron."

’This guy is definitely a Fifth-Stage Aura user. I am completely sure of it now,’ Caroline thought, gritting her teeth as she struggled to stand up. She was breathing fast, coughing up small drops of blood onto the floor. ’His speed is incredible... but it is not completely untrackable to my eyes. It’s just that my exhausted body couldn’t physically react fast enough to block him. The gap in our power is not actually that massive.’

’But this is good news. If the guy is only at the Fifth Stage, then there is still a genuine chance that I can win,’ she thought. Taking a deep breath, she completely deactivated the dense green Aura cloaking her body.

"Ooooh... are you finally giving up now?" the guard mocked, watching her Aura fade away. "Or is the deep fatigue of constantly maintaining your Aura finally catching up to you?"

Caroline simply closed her remaining eye. Suddenly, a violent surge of green Aura erupted again—but this time, it did not cover her entire body. It wrapped tightly around both her arms and legs, directly coating the twin swords in her hands.

"Sigh... you are really stubborn, huh? I can easily tell you have very little Aura left. That is exactly why you only covered your limbs to save ener—"

Before he could finish his sentence, a sudden, powerful breeze of fresh wind started violently circulating inside the enclosed hallway.

"Huh... wind? How?!" the guard gasped, looking around the blood-stained walls in complete confusion. ’With all this thick, blood smell in the air, there shouldn’t be any fresh wind blowing inside the mansion!’

He quickly looked back at Caroline. The green Aura spinning around her blades was actively generating the gale!

"You are the one who is doing this!! Is that technique an Elemental technique?!" Just after saying that, the old guard started laughing crazily, his hands literally shaking from pure excitement. "Oh my God... I have really hit the absolute jackpot here! To think I would actually find an Elemental technique! I don’t think even the Royal Family of this Kingdom possesses an Elemental technique!"

Caroline frowned deeply when she heard his remarks.

"If I bring this manual back to my Lord, he will surely reward me tremendously! To think a low-class Baron family like yours could hoard something that could literally start a massive war with other noble families! Even small neighboring kingdoms like Khazan would do absolutely anything to get their hands on something like this! Now I see exactly why you weren’t using it before... you were terrified, weren’t you? What do you think would happen to your little house if word gets out?!"

Caroline didn’t say a single word, but her frown deepened into a dark, murderous glare.

"That specific look on your face..." the guard chuckled, raising his red-glowing sword. "I can guess exactly what you are thinking. You are thinking that I absolutely must die here right now, so that my mouth stays shut forever."

Suddenly, he dashed at her with full speed, his entire body radiating his suffocating Fifth-Stage Aura. "Let’s see just how strong you really are with that Elemental technique of yours! For you to think that you can kill me!!" he roared, charging directly at her.

"Twin-Tailed Gale Blade Art — First Stage: Feather Blade," Caroline whispered.

The exact second the words left her mouth, she completely vanished from his sight.

CRASH!

The guard’s heavy strike missed her entirely and violently shattered the wooden wall where she had just been standing.

’She vanished?!’ he thought in pure shock.

"Huh... where the hell did she go?!" he yelled, hurriedly pulling his sword out of the splintered wall.

Suddenly, the rushing wind shifted behind him. She had appeared directly at his back! As she thrust her twin blades toward his spine, he desperately spun around, swinging his heavy red sword to deflect the lethal attack.

But just as the blades were about to clash, Caroline effortlessly flicked her wrists. She completely changed the trajectory of her twin swords as if they were as light as paper, shifting her lethal strike from his head directly down to his stomach!

SHLUCK!

Her twin blades violently pierced the guard’s stomach. The stab wasn’t fatally deep, as most of the raw force was barely stopped by his thick silver armor, but blood instantly began to pour.

’Shit... her speed is completely unbelievable! And the terrifying way she changed the heavy trajectory of her swords mid-swing like they weighed absolutely nothing... what the hell is up with that?!’ he panicked, quickly kicking off the floor and desperately backing away from her.

’But her stamina is something else entirely. She is still fighting perfectly after all that?! And the sheer Aura capacity she possesses is incredibly scary,’ he thought, nervously watching her.

Caroline was bent slightly forward, panting rapidly while resting a hand on her knee.

’She must also be at her physical limits too. Then I should finish this right now!’

He suddenly pushed his Aura to the absolute maximum, drastically increasing the concentration of the red energy around his body until it became thick and dense.

’Such dense mana... is he gonna—’ Before Caroline could even finish her thought, he suddenly blurred and appeared right in front of her! His heavy sword was glowing so bright it burned the eyes, raised high above his head for a devastating downward cleave.

’I didn’t actually want to kill her... but if I toy with her for just information, she will absolutely kill me first! I noticed that it’s not her Aura capacity that is huge... it’s her Aura recovery that is insanely fast! Whenever we stop to talk, she is actively recovering her strength! It’s better to just end everything right here!’ he decided, viciously slicing his sword downward. ’I can just search the house after I kill her’.

"Twin-Tailed Gale Blade Art — Second Stage: Swallow’s Deflection!"

Just as Caroline spoke, the green Aura coating her left blade started violently spinning, producing a localized, high-pressure mini-tornado around the steel!

The exact moment the guard’s heavy red sword made impact with her spinning green blade, Caroline effortlessly redirected the massive kinetic force completely to the side, causing the guard’s heavy swing to wildly miss her shoulder and smash into the floor, making him entirely lose control of his weapon!

’How am I losing control over my own sword?! And why do I feel like the Aura inside my blade is actively being sucked away?! Is it because of this damn wind?!’ he thought in pure terror.

Just as he lost his balance, Caroline didn’t stop her assault. With her right hand, she swung her second blade directly at his neck. The blade originally had no Aura spinning around it—until the exact fraction of a second before the strike connected!

Suddenly, the Aura spinning around her right blade ignited. But it wasn’t green... it was bright red! Like the attack the guard did.

She swung to cleanly slash his head off. Panicking, the guard desperately threw his left arm up, burning the absolute last of his Aura to block the blade, sacrificing his own arm to save his life!

SLASH!

The blade cut deeply into his arm, violently deflecting the strike just enough that the tip only tore a deep, bleeding gash across his face instead of taking his head.

’Shit!! She became even stronger again! Just how?! Does an Elemental Sword Aura Manual really make this much of a terrifying difference?!’ he thought in sheer panic. His heavily bleeding arm hung uselessly by his side as he frantically dashed back toward the direction of the front door to escape. ’I need to get the hell out of here right now! I can just tell my Lord about it, he can do something’

But Caroline didn’t even give him a second to recover. Her eyes glowing with lethal intent, she dashed right after him, raising her twin blades to strike his back.

"MOM!!"

Caroline froze perfectly still.

Standing in the shattered doorway was Emma. She was sobbing uncontrollably, thick tears streaming down her face. Both of Emma’s arms were brutally bent and broken, hanging limply at her sides.

Standing directly behind the crying girl, resting a dark, gloved hand tightly on Emma’s shoulder, was the masked old man, Number 10.

"Emma!!" Caroline screamed in sheer panic, all her Aura instantly fading as she stared at her broken, crying daughter.

"I’m so sorry, Mom!!" Emma sobbed helplessly.