Born in Blood



Liam watched as the Sacrosanct tree branches twisted and coiled, wringing out the light from them.

The humming noise grew louder and more pronounced as the seconds ticked by.

Surprisingly, despite seeing a massive Rank 6 item, there wasn't any significant pressure on his mind.

There must have been a hefty amount of formations and inscriptions keeping the tree in check.

Otherwise, the natural pressure it released was probably enough to kill everyone there.

Liam's eye constricted to the Sacrosanct, studying the process. When the branches finished wringing out their light, everything condensed into the towering bark.

Liam tensed. For a second, he felt as though the entire thing would burst out and explode. But it didn't.

The faint pressure he felt before suddenly tripled in power, as though a boulder thumped against his brain. Bearable, but annoyingly painful.

Eventually, all the branches of the tree were devoid of light. 

All of it had poured into the bark, which had filled everyone's vision with blinding rays of white.

Slowly, the light condensed into the tree. Enough that Liam could see again.

The previous dead branches had pulled back into its bark, the leaves twisting inward as the entire tree rapidly receded in growth. 

By the end of it, a small hole in the middle of the bark split apart, a radiant sphere at its heart.

The Miracle Fruit.

The tree was no longer pulsing with light. But everything had been thrown into that fruit. It sent rays of light in every direction, like a miniature sun.

Yar'wei looked towards Usan and gave him a nod.

"Using it instantly is advised. Just be careful not to taint or damage it with darkness. Keeping it in your ring is also fine."

With slow steps, Usan arrived at the tree's heart and reached for the untainted fruit, grabbing it, staring at it for a few seconds in silence, before putting it in his ring.

As soon as he did, the tree vanished into the ground, turning into a tiny stalk of sputtering light which poked through the ground.

In another 500 years, it will grow and bear another fruit.

Done with that, Usan cast a glance towards Liam and prepared to leave. 

Before they could, though, Yar'wei spoke with a gaze fixed towards the Sacrosanct Tree.

"You wouldn't happen to have a dual-elementalist in your Temple, would you?" 

Liam hid any surprise from appearing on his face. Usan did the same. 

"Why?" Usan deadpanned.

Yar'wei looked at them with a strange look. As though questioning whether or not he should speak the next few words. He did.

"We have an inheritance. Big one, too," Yar'wei said. Liam felt a pang of awe. Usan hid any emotion. 

'Big one.'

Was it from a Celestial?

Liam side glanced at Usan. 

The Unforgiven had an indecipherable expression.

There was silence.

Liam couldn't speak to him mentally.

A Rank 5 Zenith could obviously tell when people were speaking telepathically. 

And if Liam did that, it would obviously point a suspicious finger at him.

"We do," Usan answered after a long pause.

"What elements?" Yar'wei asked, clearly shocked.

"Darkness," Usan answered. "And something else I can't say."

Yar'wei's eyes widened. 

His incredulous gaze snapped towards Liam instantly.

Was that why the fights between the Temple were covered by an Isolation Barrier?

Liam didn't panic. Before he arrived, he applied the Restrictive Needle on his Chaos Pearl.

Right now, only his darkness aura was visible to a Rank 5 Zenith's consciousness.

"But he just has one," Yar'wei said suspiciously, looking back at Usan.

"Who said we had just one darkness cultivator?" Usan asked rhetorically. "We have another. But he wasn't strong enough for the tournament."

Yar'wei pursed his lips, pensive. 

There was a massive chance the Unforgiven was lying.

But on the off chance that he wasn't…

"Why can't you tell me his second element?" Yar'wei asked. 

"Why don't you tell me more about the inheritance?" Usan said with a slight scoff. 

"If it's not a requirement for the inheritance to accept him, then I won't say what his second element is."

Yar'wei pursed his lips again.

It was a fair point.

"How old is he, at least?" Yar'wei asked. 

Usan paused, but answered anyway.

"19. Nearing 20. Whose inheritance is it, anyway? Why was nothing announced to Ilali?" Usan said with a slightly narrowed gaze.

Whenever an inheritance was discovered, there was a certain way to go about it.

If those who discovered it were a powerful organization or country, announcing its discovery was far better than keeping it hidden.

Why?

Because some inheritances had extremely demanding requirements – some of which were even hidden – which was found in a very small minority of people.

For example, Nord and the giants' inheritance.

The former was an absolute idiot who somehow met the conditions of a powerful inheritance, when the Royals thought it had gone docile. 

"Because this is too important," Yar'wei said seriously. 

His aloof gaze quickly grew sharp. Like a blade unsheathed from its scabbard. 

"If you want to risk your disciples' life, we can discuss details here and now."

Usan didn't glance at Liam.

Liam didn't glance at Usan.

But Usan already knew what Liam would say.

"He'd want in. You can start explaining."

Yar'wei was a bit surprised at how fast the Unforgiven agreed.

"Not a word of this comes out to the public. I don't need to threaten you to make you understand, right?" Yar'wei said. Usan nodded once, unfazed.

Yar'wei paused, considering the words carefully, before speaking a name.

"This is a Celestial's inheritance."

"The Eternal Sword's." 

Silence.

Usan's eyes slowly widened with shock, but his face turned hard right after.

Liam, on the other hand, looked stunned.

A Celestial inheritance! 

Entire countries would wage war if they knew!

"We've sent two parties into the inheritance…" Yar'wei said, pausing with a bitter look.

"But?" Usan asked.

"But they never came out in the end," Yar'wei answered.

"We still don't know why."

"It's been a couple of years since then."

"The restriction of the inheritance requires two dual elemental cultivators to enter at the same time."

"At least one of those elements has to be either of darkness or light."

"But they have to be under the age of 21, too."

"You can understand how bloody difficult those requirements are."

Indeed, it was. Extremely so. Maybe a one in a million chance for those things to align.

Yar'wei looked towards Twilight, who looked shocked, then back towards Usan.

The man looked extremely grim. 

"But we can work out a deal."