Chapter 241 241:Beyond 9-Star[2]
"Hahaha!" Harris laughed, witnessing Lucas's expression.
"No, you are not. This is done for your well-being. There are two reasons for this. The first one is that a person needs to have a body to handle the coercion of stars. Unlike the primordial times, our body is too weak."
"Secondly, anyone who reaches 9-Star would be made aware of this and at 9-Star they can change their power structure without much backlash and create stars. One can also attempt to create stars at the lower level but if you fail you're gonna burst out due to the pressure coming from the stars in your natal soul." Harris started explaining to Lucas.
"Then what were those talks about 10-Star?" Lucas asked with a questioning gaze.
"10-Star is a pseudo realm. Our present world exerts pressure on us when we try to fuse the 9 stars to form the sun but you can make the stars remain fused to generate strong power. However, in doing so, you are betting on your prospects as once you become a 10-Star, it might be difficult to undo the chance to become a Sun realm expert if, by chance, the world ever allows it."
'The world will be fused soon, doesn't that mean soon 9-Star would advance to the Sun realm? Now that I think about it, the book always says that restrictions are imposed on 9-Star to stop advancing, but it never mentions people advancing to 10-Star. Maybe until Frederick had reached 9-Star, it was supposed to stay hidden.'
Thinking this, Lucas asked aloud
"Suppose the world fuses once again, then does that mean everyone's potential will get a boost?"
"In a way yes but it isn't that significant." Harris shook his head.
"Everyone will surely get a boost due to the increase in mana, increased resources and removal of restrictions that had been suppressing us from reaching the upper limit to keep the balance but in the end, there is still limitation."
"As I said it's all come down to genetics at the end. For example, a person who is supposed to grow to 150cm, by exercising and other means may increase his height by a few centimetres but he can't increase his height to 190 cm or more if he was born with short or dwarf genes. Though there are means to achieve that but who knows what side effects one has to bear and those things are very, very rare. Not everyone is as lucky as you."Harris squinted his eyes at Lucas whose body was in a mess at the beginning due to consuming something magical to awaken.
Lucas averted his gaze while having a sudden realization about the bloodline potions.
The golden bloodline potion brings both external and internal differences in him like an increase in height, making his skin smooth and brighter, and improving his overall aesthetics and body structure.
'So, in the end, what the bloodline potion did was to improve the overall genetics allowing the person to grow and adapt better. As per bloodline power, it is inherited by genes but dilates over time due to the genetic mixing which they call bloodline degradation.'
After Lucas made a rough guess, he then stared at Harris with a complicated gaze.
"Sir Harris, how did you know all this?"
"You clearly don't have a simple background."
Harris gave a bitter smile and paused before opening his lips.
The reason why Harris had never taken a disciple was because his brutal training wasn't something a child of this age could handle.
Lucas had tried to accept him as Master but their relationship was quite complicated.
Thinking about this, Harris' expression became sorrowful.
"I am...no, I used to be a noble descendent but I ran away from home.''
"Why?" Lucas asked curiously knowing that once his name was enough to make the underground organizations tremble in fear.
He used to be a top powerhouse who was injured for some unknown reason and can be said to be retired.
'It seems Sir Harris is one of those problematic kids.'
Harris sighed and sat beside Lucas, staring up at the sky.
"I was hailed as a genius. A heaven-defying one on top of that as said by people but I was never able to shine because I had a sister who shone with such dazzling brilliance that it shadowed me."
Lucas noticed a myriad range of emotions over Harris' blank expression.
"My sister was a bit fierce and always beat me. Even when I was big enough I would be beaten by her. I started to feel jealous of her strength and wondered what I lacked compared to her."
"One day, during the parade I threw something which fell on the Emperor. I was too lazy to ask for forgiveness. You can say that I was conceited at that time acting all that arrogant until I got my ass kicked by my sister in front of everyone. This infuriated me to the core and broke the last straw. In my anger, I ran away and vowed to come back only when I became stronger than her."
Lucas for some reason felt his heart struck for some reason.
"Do you hate her?"
Harris turned his sight abruptly towards Lucas and smacked his lips.
"No, never. All I wanted was to defeat her and also humiliate her if possible."
'Isn't that the same as hating her?' Lucas' lips twitched as he murmured inwardly.
"After escaping I chose to become a mercenary working here and there. My parents didn't look for me thinking that I was throwing a tantrum or might have searched for me, only God knows."
"My life working as a mercenary was difficult. For someone like me who had lived drowning in riches, grovelling in filthy mud was like a disaster nevertheless I persisted. And the main reason for this is because I found someone to impress.''
PTUI!
Lucas choked seeing Harris' naive innocent expression.
'Is this the same guy described as an emotionless psychopath by the book? Then what is this lovesick expression?'
"Don't stare at me like that."
Harris' cold words echoed in Lucas' ears.
"Love is often unreasonable and can make one act out of character. Only those who are in love will understand this mystical emotion. And from the moment I laid my eyes on her, I felt attracted to her even though I had seen more beautiful girls than her."
"After so much pain, I finally wooed her. We formed our mercenary team, and traveled together around the world enjoying ourselves to our hearts' content and indulging ourselves in our desires."
"Soon, she got pregnant which also brought many changes inside me. I didn't want my child to live days of suffering so I decided to let go of my foolishness and return. I wanted her to live a carefree life. I didn't plan on inheriting the title and decided to leave it to my sister. I started dreaming about having a sweet lovely daughter whom I could protect and play around with….."
"Alas, fate is a fucking bitch that don't even blink before trampling you."
Harris' expression deformed and his eyes became dark emitting a strong murderous intent.
Harris put his hands over his eyes trying to calm himself down.
"I don't know why but a son of bitch attacked us out of nowhere. I was nowhere near his level and was destroyed. Just as I thought he came for me, he did something that still gives me nightmares. He walked towards my wife and using his power extracted something from her where I could only stand and watch, begging him to spare her."
"The moment he finished extracting her...she suffered a miscarriage and died along with her child..."
A deep silence lingered for a moment and at that moment, Lucas even forgot to breathe seeing Harris' maddening expression with eyes burning with fury.
Harris clenched his fist blaming himself for being weak.
Too weak that he couldn't even protect his family.
"I was just a pathetic piece of shit and blamed myself for being too weak. My head snapped and I lost all reason. Consumed by rage, I searched for him, destroying everything in my path. I swept through every illegal organization and slaughtered everyone who tried to oppose me."
"I got stronger and stronger the more I fought. On my hunt, I found upper members of the Church in cahoots with underground organizations and started going after them and in turn made the Church my enemy. I overturned their killing order by killing more members of their churches. I hanged those fake priests in public places along with evidence of their crimes."
"Amidst all the chaos, I finally found a link to those fuckers and as I delved into it, I encountered enemies with power similar to that bastard who stole everything from me."
"He was a 10-Star Demon. Searching for him, I had my way to the Demon realm despite facing a turbulent space storm as I crossed through the portal."
"A 10-Star Demon…" Lucas mumbled, trying to search in his memory.
"We fought. It was a battle that I was winning but before I could finish another one appeared. I fared well against the 2 10-Stars and won at the cost of exhausting and burning a part of my lifespan. Just as I thought everything was over...."
"Five more 10-star creatures that I have never seen in the world appeared."
Harris laughed out loud and then staring at Lucas, he spoke,"What you are thinking is correct. At that moment I truly thought that I fucked up for real."
"As I prepared myself to embrace death, she appeared."
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