“Your Lordship, a letter from your son just arrived a while ago.”
A servant dressed in a simple brown robe bowed as he addressed the stocky figure seated on the white throne.
“Hm, what did Chax write?”
The stocky man casually inquired.
The man had a trimmed goatee and a head full of pale blonde hair. A large crest of a growling black bear was imprinted on the chest plate of the armor he wore, and his eyes contained a spark of cunningness that was hard to detect to the naked eye. The man was slightly overweight, however, it was clear to see that he still retained a lot of muscle and strength over the fat.
“He writes that there will be a tournament at his school within a few months and he wishes for you to be there to watch him partic.i.p.ate.”
The servant spoke as he conveyed the contents of the letter.
“A tournament…interesting. Reply back to Chax saying that I will be there and look forward to seeing how much he’s grown. Haha, with Master Dane there to guide him, I’m sure Chax will have learnt a thing or two!”
The stocky man boisterously exclaimed as he gestured for the servant to leave.
Once the servant left, the expression on the stocky man’s face abruptly changed.
“What’s the status on our men stationed at the Mountain Range?”
The stocky man asked in a low voice as he turned his head towards the back of the room.
Out of the shadows, a tall and wiry man stepped forward. He had greasy thick dark hair, and his black murky eyes exuded a nauseating feeling to anyone standing close to him.
“We captured three beasts of the first rank safely, but we unfortunately encountered a fifth rank stone ape in the process of securing the previous beasts and lost several men to the stone ape before finally killing it.”
The nasal voice of the lanky man whispered into Regis’s ears.
“d.a.m.n it! Why are we losing men every month? Can’t you bunch of idiots capture a fifth rank beast without killing it! Where is Warrick?”
Under Regis’s roar, the greasy haired man calmly stood there.
“After we lost that lightning elementalist, things haven’t been so easy on the mountains. Lately, the magical beasts are getting are more and more aggressive by the day, and I sense that one of them is about to breakthrough into a new realm. Warrick still hasn’t returned from the last trip.”
The tall man answered in a soft voice. A hint of disdain flashed across his face as he gazed at the stocky man seated on the throne, but it was quickly disguised before anyone could see it.
“A beast is about to breakthrough? Send some scouts to keep an eye on the inner circle of the forest! I want to know at once if something suspicious occurs! And tell Warrick to report to me as soon as he returns! I need to put that lightning boy to work immediately! I don’t like it when I’m not making any profits!”
As Regis continued his tirade, the lanky man listened with patience. He knew that he could not make this obnoxious Lord see any reason, so he just kept his mouth shut. As for the lightning kid, what help could a first rank cultivator provide in the first place? It was better to let the kid grow and then break his mind to make him follow their commands obediently.
As the lanky man was pondering within his own thoughts, Regis was clearly impatient with the current developments.
“Viktor.”
Regis calmly stated.
“Yes?”
As soon as the greasy haired man responded, Regis coldly commanded.
“I have a mission for you.”
BOOOOOM!
A loud explosion echoed throughout the forest.
As the smoke dispersed, it revealed two figures in the middle. One was an old man standing with his arms folded across his chest, and long silvery hair fluttering behind him, while the other was a youth of eight years old, with midnight hair and eyes equally as dark.
Both figures calmly gazed at each other with no words being spoken.
“You’ve surprised me yet again, Calron”
Elias broke the silence, as he admiringly spoke those words to his disciple.
“It’s all thanks to you, Master. This disciple would not have perfected the Formless Fist without your guidance a while back.”
Calron humbly responded back to his Master.
Although Calron did have an unbelievable degree of perception in Martial Arts, if it was not for his Master giving him pointers at every exchange, he would have never been able to understand the secret of the Formless Fist. Calron estimated that it would have probably taken him a few weeks to comprehend the aspect of balance in power, if he were to continue training at his previous pace.
“Sigh… I never had a disciple with as much of a monstrous talent as you, Calron. It has not even been a few days since you started the First Layer, and you are already ready to break the seal for the Second Layer.”
As Elias’s voice reached Calron’s ears, he felt slightly confused by his Master’s words.
“Huh? Breaking a seal? What’s that Master?”
Hearing the confusion in Calron’s voice, Elias shook his head and continued.
“I forgot that it’s only been a while since you inherited the Legacy… the seals are located on the bridge that connects you with the source pool. After your first transformation, the first seal is automatically opened, but for every seal after that, you will need to forcefully break through them in order to access the next Layer of the Blood Arts.”
After Elias finished his explanation, he beckoned Fatty to come over as well.
“Roran, you will need to know this as well, so pay attention!”
Just as Fatty came over, he excitedly grabbed Calron’s arm and wildly pumped it with his one hand. Fatty’s other hand was still injured from the exchange between him and Calron.
“Wah- big brother, you’re so awesome! Please teach me that move you did in the end!”
Seeing Fatty being himself again, Calron sighed and shook off Fatty’s hand from his arm.
“Alright, I’ll teach you, but remember that you can’t reveal the Blood Legacy to outsiders, including your sister!”
“Eh? But I really wanted to show off in front of big sister!”
Seeing the stern look on Calron’s face, Fatty immediately responded back.
“I will definitely not do that, big brother, I promise!”
Hearing the conversation between the two boys in front of him, Elias slowly smiled. Although he could not see their appearances perfectly, he could see the essence outlining their bodies, and watching them bicker back and forth, Elias unknowingly felt content to see them together.
He could finally be at peace knowing that his Legacy will remain alive through these two boys.
“So, I’m guessing that you two don’t want to hear about the seals?”
Elias asked with an amusing look on his face.
Slapping Fatty on the back of his head, Calron stated quickly.
“Sorry Master, we are ready to listen.”
“Very well. The seals on the Blood Legacy can only be broken once you meet the criteria of the next Layer. Since Calron has already mastered the First Layer, he has achieved the level of control needed to break the second seal! The Formless Fist is a technique that requires the perfect balance of source energy within the body to activate, and now that Calron has mastered that balance, he will soon be able to break open the seal.”
Intently listening to their Master’s explanation, both boys nodded as they absorbed the words being spoken.
Within Calron’s mind, he sent his conscious inside the source pool and towards the azure bridge that represented his path. He was curious as to what these seals that his Master talked about appeared inside the source pool.
As he approached the ocean of blood, what he had not noticed before was that there were exactly eleven steps on all three bridges, and with the last step connected to an endless abyss of darkness.
Focusing his gaze upon the first few steps of his own bridge, Calron noticed that only the first step emitted the same azure aura as the rest of his bridge, while all the other steps were dull and plain. There were various symbols etched onto them, but they all seemed to blur whenever Calron focused on them.
So this is where Master said the seals were placed. It looks fairly ordinary. What is so special about them?
Right after Calron inwardly made up his mind, he sent his conscious into the second step.
*Bzzt*
A burst of pain surged within Calron’s mind and he suddenly doubled up on the ground as he grabbed his head with both his hands!
Seeing Calron abruptly fall on the ground, both Fatty and Elias rushed towards the fallen boy and tried to shake him up.
Just as Elias’s hand touched Calron’s body, he felt a sudden jolt!
Looking down at the boy, torrents of Azure Lightning bolts crackled around his body.
Chapter 33 – The Azure Lightning Emerges