Chapter 14 – The First Breakthrough (1/2)

Chapter 14 – The First Breakthrough

His body was aflame.

Anger. Rage. Wrath.

He wanted to destroy. To kill, and kill once again. He stood above all beings, and even the Gods themselves feared the power he held.

Life was meaningless in front of him, as he was its natural reaper. A farmer, a soldier, a general, all perished under him.

He was surrounded by an endless terrain of blood-soaked sand, and it was unclear whether the sand itself was red or it was stained with real blood. The scorching sunrays burned through the sand and the countless corpses lying around him. Some of the bodies were skewered with spears, some with necks full of arrows, and even more with missing limbs.

However, it was the smell in the air that exhilarated him. It was the smell of blood.

He stood still in the deserted plain for over millennia as he waited for an opponent to test his might against. Blood slowly dripped from the tips of his fingers as it made the already blood-colored sand appear more sinister.

His mighty chest rose and fell with each breath he took, while a mysterious smile was etched onto his face.

Gazing at the multitudes of corpses surrounding him, a low chuckle escaped from his lips. What were once beings that stood at the peak of heavens, now lay lifeless around him.

Even the flow of time in this plain was under his domain.

Immortality was tedious.

Time was tedious.

Only the flow of blood was eternal.

He wanted to end his immortality and return back to his past when he could still bleed. Back to when he was still a mortal, and when he was not known as the Blood Ancient.

………………………..

*Cough**Cough*

Calron abruptly spat out a mouthful of dark blood onto the grass below him. He continued to spew globules of dark blood until he felt like there was none left in his body anymore.

Each time he coughed, a stream of new blood would replace the old blood, and the process seemed to continue endlessly until not even a speck of his old blood remained in his veins.

Calron felt like several pores on his body were being forcefully opened, and the feeling was akin to the sensation of a thousand needles piercing his skin.

Elias calmly observed the changes around Calron, and he knew that the boy was currently undergoing the opening of his meridians. This process would bring upon a soul-crushing agony as this was the stage when the meridians would slowly connect to the spiritual veins within one’s body. The meridians were essential in letting an Inheritor draw the source energy from the legacy’s pool.

The blood purging also expelled any impurities within one’s body, but usually it was only a small amount of blood that was expelled. However, Calron was clearly spewing out large quantities of dark blood. Just the sheer amount of blood on the grass would have caused any grown man to die twice over, but Calron remained standing.

Too many abnormal events keep revolving around this boy.

Elias inwardly thought while observing the boy.

Even Elias was startled at the current scene unfolding before him. Was it because the power of the legacy was too much for Calron? The Blood Legacy’s power had usually been shared among multiple Inheritors, and this was the first time known to Elias when the Blood Legacy’s Inheritors had dwindled down to only two members. Maybe, this was causing an extra strain on Calron’s body…

Meanwhile, Calron blankly stared at the puddle of blood underneath him and was just as confused as Elias about what was happening within his body. What were those images he just saw? The images soon started to become hazy in Calron’s mind, but he instinctively knew that the figure in those images had something to do with the Blood Legacy.

“I think this is enough for today. Get some rest to recover your body and meet me here again tomorrow morning.”

Elias gently spoke to Calron as he dismissed him for the day.

………………

Calron painstakingly dragged his body away from the forest and slowly trudged towards the gathering hall. His thoughts kept revolving around the person he saw in the earlier images within his mind, but his brain seemed to freeze every time he tried to recall the person’s face.

Hmph, you forgot about cultivating your essence after all that Martial Arts crap! Kid, although the power of a legacy is great, you would still need a high cultivation to contend against tougher opponents. Hurry up to your room, and let us begin. No eating until you finish cultivating today!

The Voice strictly stated within Calron’s mind as it urged the boy to resume his cultivation training.

Calron let out a depressed sigh and changed his direction towards the disciples’ lodgings. After reaching his hut, Calron immediately sat down on the mat in a meditative position and started training under the first stage of the Thunder-Bird technique.

With his hands properly aligned, Calron began the rhythmic breathing of the technique and sensed the surrounding essence slowly being absorbed into his body.

By every passing second, his elemental core started to feel fuller and fuller, as tendrils of lightning essence gradually entered it. Calron continued to absorb the essence until he felt like his body could not absorb any more essence.

After storing all the absorbed essence, Calron began the process of refining it. When one absorbed the essence from the environment, it contained many impurities within it and if the essence was not refined to its purest state, it would affect the future cultivation of the elementalist.

Calron felt like he was very close to reaching the peak of the first rank, but he still needed to refine all the essence before attempting to break into the next rank.