“Roran, you will become the second Inheritor of the Blood Legacy.”
Silence.
The scene of an old man gently gazing at an eight-year-old child seemed to have frozen in s.p.a.ce. The dark ebony hair of the child contrasted with the long silvery hair of the old man underneath the soft moonlight.
A surge of wind embraced them as their hair wildly fluttered in the dark of the night, and even the stream of time ceased to flow.
Calron’s heart violently thumped against his chest as he fixedly stared at his Master, and then his friend.
“What is your answer, my child.”
Elias faintly breathed out the words as he broke the standstill in time.
“I don’t know what the Blood Legacy is…”
Just as Elias was about to respond, Fatty continued on with a fierce determination on his face.
“But, if it will give me the power I want, then even if I have to sacrifice everything, I will accept it.”
Hearing the intense tenacity in Fatty’s words, Elias let out a low admiring laugh.
“Child, you will do just fine. With your determination, you will soon be able to grasp the power of the Blood Legacy. Both of you, take some rest and meet me early tomorrow morning and I will give you what you desire, Roran.”
“And take this, it will let you safely enter my home.”
Elias calmly stated as he flung a small wooden token towards Fatty. It was the same exact wooden disk that he had previously given to Calron to enter the area inside the Artifact.
“Calron, take care of him till then.”
With a brief glance towards Calron, Elias vanished into thin air!
Both boys stared stupefied at the scene.
It was not the fact that Elias had mysteriously disappeared into thin air, but it was that his speed was so fast that their eyes could not even keep track of his movements!
Just as Elias left, there was an air of awkwardness between the two boys.
“Uh, big brother, I…”
Fatty tried to fill the silence, but he did not know what to say.
Calron guessed what seemed to be troubling Fatty, as he gently responded.
“Fatty, it’s fine. Everyone has their secrets to keep, and besides, it makes no difference to me whether you are an Element-Less or not.”
“You really mean it?”
Fatty asked with a bright smile on his chubby face.
He had been worried that Calron might see him differently after finding out his secret, as who would want to befriend a cripple and a useless trash? He had previously seen Calron’s stunned face when the old man revealed his secret, so he thought Calron may have felt deceived by him.
Although, it had been only a short while since he met Calron, Fatty had never felt so close with anyone in his life, besides his big sister. If Calron had broken off their friendship, then Fatty would have been utterly devastated.
Seeing the range of emotions flicker on Fatty’s face, Calron jumped onto Fatty’s back and ruffled his hair playfully.
“You idiot! You think I would stop being friends with you just because of that? Who else will steal my food if you were gone?”
As Calron joked and teased him, Fatty laughed as he tried to get Calron off his back.
“That’s not true! I would never steal food from someone! Please don’t ruin my reputation, big brother!”
Fatty tearfully cried as Calron started tickling him.
“Eh? What about that biscuit you stole from the three-year-old girl this afternoon? You even pushed her!”
Fatty tried to hide his face in mock shame, but burst out laughing after a while.
“Haha, that little girl was acting so smug while munching on that biscuit, so I just wanted to taste it a little bit!”
Shaking his head, Calron started laughing as well. Only Fatty would ever be able to justify himself for stealing food from a little girl.
In the dark of the night, two youths were bent over laughing hysterically as they reminisced the scene from earlier in the market. They had completely forgotten all about the cold, the dark, or any other worries, as they simply laughed in each other’s company.
“Fatty, meet me at my hut tomorrow morning and we’ll go together to Master Elias’s place!”
Calron stated after recovering from the fit of laughter.
“Alright, big brother! By the way, what is the Blood Legacy? I have heard of the other legacies, but never about one that follows the path of Blood.”
Fatty asked curiously while tilting his head to the side.
“Umm, I’ll let Master explain it you, as I don’t know much about it as myself. However, you need to learn to control your emotions once you receive it, as this legacy has a vicious bloodl.u.s.t whenever it senses spilt blood.”
Calron stated while whispering the last few words.
Fatty was even more curious about it, but he decided to wait until tomorrow morning to learn more from his new Master.
Both boys now ran towards the Red Boar School and they finally entered the courtyard. The guards at the gates admonished them for staying out so late in the dark, but eventually let them off with a mellow warning.
Before the boys were about to split to leave to their respective huts, Fatty asked a final question.
“Big brother, is Master truly blind? I could swear he was gazing right into my eyes when he was talking.”
“He really is blind, but Master has a technique that lets him see essence or some other type of energy around him. I don’t really know much about it, but no one can conceal anything from Master’s eyes! That is probably how he knew about your core as well.”
Nodding his head, Fatty shouted out a quick goodnight to Calron and happily strolled towards Gretha’s kitchen. Calron said he was tired, and that he wanted to take some rest.
However, the real reason was that Calron wanted to further explore his new bow!
Rushing towards his hut, Calron closed the door behind him as soon as he entered.
After making sure that there were no disciples wandering outside, Calron willed the bow to appear!
In the blink of an eye, Calron felt the heavy weight of the bow in his hands.
The dark onyx bow was surprisingly quite heavy, and Calron immediately placed it on top of his bed, as he could not bear its weight.
It must be understood that after Calron’s breakthrough to the third rank, he was much stronger than a normal person and could even lift a huge chunk of steel if he wanted, but this dark bow was even heavier than steel!
The bow appeared to be absorbing all the light near it, which seemed to make its metallic body even darker than the depths of an abyss. The only trace of light was in the strange patterns coiled around it, as they glowed a faint blue hue. The contrast between the dark onyx body and the blue azure light, made the bow seem completely unnatural and out of this world.
What utterly confused Calron, was that the bow did not even have a bowstring! A normal bowstring would be useless, as it would immediately break before being drawn fully as the limbs of the metal bow would not bend. So how was one supposed to even use it?
Calron touched the bow and started to feel the texture of the metallic body. It was astonishingly smooth, like silk, and there was not even a hint of a blemish on the metal. Moments after Calron touched the bow, he felt his lightning essence abruptly tremble with an uncontainable excitement!
Curious as to why his essence was reacting in such a way, he slowly released the lightning around him.
Suddenly, the golden lightning surrounding Calron rushed into the dark bow!
As the dark onyx metal absorbed the essence, the faint blue glow around it switched to a pale yellow color and slowly a thin thread of golden lightning coalesced at one end of the bow and gradually connected to the other end, forming a bowstring made of lightning essence!
Amazed at the sudden development in front of him, Calron felt his heart racing as he tried to contain his excitement.
It was obvious that this dark bow was not ordinary and previously Calron had felt slightly dismayed as he could not figure out how to use it, but seeing the current scene, Calron realized that this bow required essence!
He had heard of legendary weapons in children’s tales that required a cultivator’s essence, but it was his first time seeing such a weapon with his own eyes!
Gathering his strength, Calron used his entire body to pick up the heavy bow and took a few moments to steady himself.
With his heart pounding against his chest, Calron finally drew the lightning string.