Bloodline Tree – [Clan Building]

A few weeks passed, and Shu Yang was back home in Baishu Village, sitting cross-legged in the yard. It was still early in the morning, and the sun had yet to rise.

‘I can feel it. I can’t strengthen my body more than this. It’s time to advance.’

Perhaps if Shu Yang had access to a more powerful martial art, and not the one he had deduced by himself with the help of the Bloodline Tree, he could strengthen his body a lot more while still a 1st-grade warrior. But there was no way he could wait until he managed to get hold of a top-grade martial art before advancing.

Shu Yang closed his eyes and focused on the qi hidden inside his body.

Qi was hidden inside every living being’s body, infused in the blood and flesh. But for most people who didn’t know how to use it, it didn’t serve much purpose.

A martial warrior, however, used this qi to strengthen the bones, organs, and muscles. And as the body grew stronger, it could hold onto more qi. If you were talented enough to keep controlling the qi as it grew more abundant, time and food were the only obstacles in the way of reaching the peak of the 1st-grade stage.

This is where Shu Yang found himself, and now he needed to take the next step.

To advance to the Innate stage, you needed to condense a wisp of Innate qi. This was a type of qi that was much more powerful than regular qi. To condense it, a tremendous amount of regular qi needed to be compressed. It was far from easy to do so, but Shu Yang had been cautious in his advancement, always paying attention to the changes inside him every step of the way. Now, his body was strong enough to handle the strain from compressing the large amount of qi required.

Taking a deep breath, Shu Yang began. He contracted muscle after muscle, pushing out the qi into his blood. His heart beat faster and faster, and qi was gushing around in his body, in amounts he had never felt before.

Shu Yang started taking control of the qi. It was something that most people found impossible, not even decades of hard work guaranteed you would succeed. But luckily, Shu Yang had the talent for it, and with years of practice, he had gotten quite apt at it. He also guessed that his trait ‘Clear mind’ and his powerful bloodline might give some extra help.

The qi flowed with the blood and into Shu Yang’s heart, where he managed to make it stay put. More and more qi gathered, and the pressure was mounting. His heart beat louder and louder inside his body, and Shu Yang almost worried it was about to burst.

But slowly, Shu Yang felt something different start to rise from the large amount of qi. It condensed, and another form of qi took shape inside his heart.

Shu Yang didn’t know how long it took, but he was covered in sweat when he finally condensed all of it.

A small wisp of Innate qi was now tucked inside his heart, and Shu Yang was shocked by the immense power he could feel from it. As his heart pumped, his blood flowed out, revitalized by the new Innate qi located there. He could feel his muscles screaming with joy as the blood, infused with a new quality, flowed back.

‘Amazing!’

‘I knew Innate warriors were powerful, but it’s really different to experience it yourself.’

Besides feeling the joy of growing powerful, Shu Yang felt incredibly hungry.

Fortunately, he had prepared. He knew he would need food after advancing, so he had already prepared meat in droves beside him.

Shu Yang immediately started eating, and it didn’t take long before he could feel his body recovering.

Emptying all his muscles of qi had strained his muscles quite a bit, but he could now feel his body fill up with energy. His heart kept pumping out blood ‘tainted’ by the Innate qi, strengthening his muscles.

Shu Yang was pleasantly surprised as he felt himself keep growing stronger and stronger. The Innate qi seemed to gradually transform his whole body.

It wasn’t until 15 minutes later that Shu Yang started to feel that his body had received all the blessings it could for the moment.

Standing up, Shu Yang clenched his fists with a wide smile. It wasn’t as exaggerated as the air crackling, but he truly felt that he could punch a hole through the brick wall a bit further away.

Shu Yang focused on his connection to the Bloodline Tree, and saw exactly what he was hoping for.

[ Bloodline Power: 5.26 (Mortal - High) ]

[ Traits: Slight martial arts talent, Clear mind ]

‘Finally! My bloodline is labeled as ‘Mortal - High.’

‘Does this mean that my Shu family has technically become a Martial Family?’

Shu Yang still hadn’t heard anyone speak of Bloodline Power value like the one he could sense from his Bloodline Tree. But through his own and his sons’ advancements, he had gotten a pretty good idea of the different stages and their corresponding Bloodline Power.

If there was no inherited bloodline to increase the Bloodline Power, a normal person had the value of 1.0, a 3rd-grade martial warrior had a value of 1.2, a 2nd-stage warrior had 1.5, a 1st-grade warrior had 2.0, and an Innate warrior had 3.0.

He also suspected that the Master stage had a value of 5.0. Meaning Shu Yang’s Bloodline Power was already at the level of a Master even as he had just advanced to the Innate stage.

‘It’s a shame that the only child I’ve had who gained a significant boost from my bloodline is Tianzheng.’

‘And now that I have a Martial bloodline, I really want to pass it on…’

‘I’ll have to bring up the matter of having another child with Qianyue again. Now that Tianyue is in Kuo City, it might be easier to convince her. I can’t be the only one missing having a daughter in the house.’

Shu Yang let the matter rest for the moment and focused on his new strength.

Seeing nothing he could break around him, he looked down at the ground and decided to test out a punch there. Clenching his fist, he bent down and mustered all the strength he had.

His punch broke the dried soil with ease, creating a small crater from the force.

‘I feel like the ground is too soft to truly test my strength.’

Shu Yang had no choice but to go and look for something more suitable. He remembered there was a rocky hill not far from one of his fields, so he headed there.

After a few minutes, he found himself in front of a rock wall. He once again unleashed a punch with his full power. The rock gave way to his fist, and a small imprint could be seen as Shu Yang removed his hand, with cracks spreading from the impact.

‘Not bad. My body has become a lot more resilient. But that’s not all I can do.’

What made Innate warriors particularly powerful was their Innate qi. An Innate warrior could control their Innate qi away from the heart and into another part of the body to boost the power of a punch or kick tremendously. It could even be controlled to leave the body for a short amount of time, allowing you to coat a sword or knife with it, enhancing the qualities of the weapon temporarily.

Shu Yang cocked his arm, ready to unleash another punch. This time, the wisp of Innate qi traveled from his heart and into his fist.

As the fist made contact with the rock wall, a loud boom sounded, followed by the sound of cracking rock. A hole three feet deep and five feet wide had been created. His previous punch couldn’t begin to compare.

‘This feeling…is truly exhilarating.’

For the first time, Shu Yang had the feeling of being something more than human. And he very much liked that feeling.

Even if he knew there were still many martial artists out there who were a lot stronger, Shu Yang couldn’t quite silence the voice inside that told him he was invincible.

‘I need to calm down. I can’t let this power get to my head. It would be a great shame if I got myself killed just as I have begun becoming powerful.’

Shu Yang took a few deep breaths and managed to steady his mind.

‘While I shouldn’t become overconfident, I shouldn’t underestimate this power either. Since I’ve advanced to the Innate stage, there is no need to avoid confronting the Liang family any longer.’

Shu Yang didn’t plan on becoming a local tyrant just because he was an Innate warrior, but he had realized long ago that the Liang family couldn’t exist in the same village as his Shu family.

The only reason he hadn’t done anything about them so far was that the Liang family hadn’t really done anything that crossed his line since the incident with Tianren. And since he knew that the only one who would gain an advantage by pushing the confrontation forward was him, he felt it was alright to put the matter on hold.

But now that he was an Innate warrior, he didn’t need to wait to grow even stronger. He had been looking forward to clearing out the Liang family for a long time. And he had made plans to make sure everything went smoothly.

‘I’ll head to Kuo City right away, to make sure everything can proceed. Then I’ll return and announce my advancement, and the villagers can start making their moves.’

Shu Yang started walking back to his house, feeling lighter than ever.

‘Now I just need to deduce the next martial art needed to advance to the Master stage. It’s probably going to take me a while. My talent was enough to just barely help me advance to the Innate stage. I’m afraid it won’t have any effect now that I’m trying to reach the Master stage.’

‘Well, there is no need to panic. My Bloodline Power is strong, so that should help. And over the next decade, grandchildren should start popping up. Added together, their talent should have some effect on me.’

‘Maybe I can even get lucky and have a little genius be born into the family.’

When Shu Yang got back to his house, the sun was already starting to rise. Shu Yang noticed that his family was up and about, and he was looking forward to revealing his new strength to them.

But before he could enter his home, Qianyue rushed out with tears running down her cheeks.

“Did you find him?” She asked hurriedly, and Shu Yang felt his stomach sink.

“Find who? Who is missing?” Shu Yang asked, trying to keep his voice calm.

“Tianhu! Didn’t you go looking for him?” Qianyue asked. She held a letter in her hand and pushed it to Shu Yang. “This was left on his bed this morning.”

Shu Yang opened the letter and immediately breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was his son’s handwriting. For a second, he had been worried someone had been to his home.

As Shu Yang read the letter, he felt all sorts of emotions stir up inside. Mostly anger, though.

“Can’t he talk to me before making a decision like this?” Shu Yang yelled out, throwing away the letter.

“Do you think we can still catch up to him? He should stay near the roads, right? Let’s hurry and take the carriage and follow him,” Qianyue said.

Shu Yang thought about it for a second before sighing and shaking his head, “Since he decided to leave, let him leave. You know how Tianhu is; since he made the decision, he won’t go back on it.”

“But…but how can he make it? He is only a 3rd grade warrior. It’s too dangerous. Didn’t you say the Black Beast Mountains was full of danger these days?” Qianyue asked.

“It’s dangerous, but Tianhu shouldn’t be stupid enough to hunt after a Saint Beast,” Shu Yang said. He noticed Qianyue still looked worried, so he added, “I’ll take the carriage to Kuo City; he might have headed that way. If I find him, I’ll talk to him. But either way, Tianhu has grown up and has his own ideas. I’m sure he knows to be careful out there.”

Qianyue had trouble speaking, and her red eyes full of tears almost broke his heart. Shu Yang embraced her, trying to get her to calm down.

‘If I really do find you along the way, you’d better be prepared for some fatherly discipline, Tianhu!’

If there was something he couldn’t accept from his children, it was hurting their mother. Tianhu had to have known this would worry Qianyue to death, but he still left without a word.

Even if Shu Yang thought leaving for the Sword School was unnecessary and dangerous, he would still have allowed him to go if he was adamant about it. His children had their own lives to live, and since Tianhu was 16 years old, he was old enough to make decisions for himself.

But leaving like this showed that Tianhu was still young and reckless.

Shu Yang let go of Qianyue and got ready to leave.

Before leaving, he turned to Tianxu, who had been standing silently to the side with the other kids.

“When you go after him in the future, you’d better tell me first, or you can leave behind your surname when you leave.”

“Ah! Er, yes. I understand. I will definitely tell you,” Tianxu said, nodding hurriedly.

Shu Yang knew his son well enough to understand that he was only thinking about going after Tianhu at the moment. Since he was set on leaving too, Shu Yang would at least make sure he was prepared when he left.

‘What a day.’ Shu Yang thought with a sigh, even though the sun had yet to rise.