Bloodline Tree – [Clan Building]

“Did no one bother to clean things up?” Shu Yang asked with a frown, looking out at the vast expanse of decaying bodies before him. 

“No time, I suppose,” Shen Ye answered. “They would be making the most of the situation and continuing south while the rest of the Luo Kingdom is unprepared. No one would be able to foresee the whole frontline collapsing without warning; I doubt the Lishen Empire would waste the element of surprise.”

“How do you think the Luo Kingdom will hold up?” Shu Yang asked; he didn’t know much about the strength of the top families in the Yan Kingdom, let alone in the Luo Kingdom.

“It’s hard to say,” Shen Ye answered as the two made their way through the battlefield, looking for clues about their missing children. “If they respond quickly, they should at least be able to hold on until reinforcements arrive. But…if your guess about these Immortals is true, and it seems that it actually might be, I really can’t make any predictions. If they can really approach our Master and assassinate them without showing themselves, I doubt there is hope, no matter how well prepared we are. Unless there is a way to counter them. How did you do it?”

Shu Yang hesitated slightly, “I have quite good senses; their invisibility doesn’t work on me. If you can solve that, there really isn’t much to fear.”

“I see,” Shen Ye said, not asking anything more.

‘I hope we can find Tianhu quickly, but it seems a bit unlikely. Do I really need to leave him to make it out on his own?’

Shu Yang had begun feeling a little restless. They had spotted numerous large legions of warriors entering the Luo Kingdom, and Shu Yang was worried about his family back in the Yan Kingdom. 

They should be safe for now, but if the Luo Kingdom couldn’t hold on, the Yan Kingdom would fall soon after. 

‘I really wish I had some kind of tracking trait. It would have saved me so much effort in the past, and I bet it will be equally necessary in the future as well.’

After making their way through the battlefield for a little over an hour, the two finally found the place where the battle Tianhu and Xiaoshi experienced should have taken place.

Shen Ye recognized the Masters lying dead on the ground.

“Strange,” Shen Ye said, looking over the dead bodies.

“What’s strange?” Shu Yang asked.

“They’re barely injured. No bruises or fractures. They seemed to have had their throats cut without resistance,” Shen Ye explained.

“Invisible Immortals seem a little more believable now, right?” Shu Yang said.

“I already said I believed you,” Shen Ye said, “But how did Xiaoshi and Tianhu get away?”

“Tianhu’s senses are even sharper than mine,” Shu Yang said, and then went on to explain that Tianhu had felt that someone had been watching him for a long time before the attack.

“You have quite the powerful trait, it seems,” Shen Ye remarked. 

‘Not really.’

While it was true that Shu Yang could spot these people thanks to his trait Piercing Gaze, Tianhu had no such thing to rely on. 

“What’s this?” Shen Ye asked as he turned over one of the Masters. 

Shu Yang looked down and saw that the man’s back was severely injured, and it looked like it was from a burn.

“Fire?” Shu Yang asked.

“Someone poked him with a torch?” Shen Ye questioned, “I don’t see how any fire could cause this much damage to a Master.”

“Magic,” Shu Yang said. It was the only explanation. 

Shen Ye frowned, “And you say that these Immortals aren’t hard to deal with as long as you can see through their invisibility?”

“Well…I might have gotten lucky. They are bound to be variances in strength and ability among them,” Shu Yang said.

“Let’s hope this is a rare ability then,” Shen Ye said with a sigh, “Any ideas? Do we go west, as that man said?”

“I suppose that’s all we have to go on,” Shu Yang said, hoping they were hiding somewhere nearby. 

‘I’ll give it a few more days. A week. If I still can’t find him, I’ll have to return without him.’

Shen Ye started walking, and Shu Yang followed. But after just a few steps, he came to a stop. 

Glancing down at the ground, Shu Yang saw something that made him feel cold. 

There were dead bodies, mutilated beyond recognition, all over the place, and Shu Yang had grown used to it, but the arm he saw on the ground made his stomach drop for some reason.

He took a few careful steps toward it, bent down, and touched it. He recognized it. 

He didn’t want to believe it, but he couldn’t be mistaken.

‘Tianhu.’

Shu Yang instinctively felt his connection to his son through the Bloodline Tree, and he could feel that he was alive. But now he knew Tianhu wasn’t as unharmed as he had assumed. 

Shu Yang looked up, desperate to at least sense the direction his son was in.

Connecting to the Bloodline Tree, while looking around, he really tried his hardest to feel the slightest sensation. But there was nothing. 

‘Maybe…’

It had been three days since he last activated that strange power within his bloodline. While he wasn’t back to the peak he had felt before using it the first time, he should have recovered somewhat. 

Shu Yang remembered how his senses had been amplified tremendously, and decided to try it again. This time, while only focusing on trying to sense his son.

With a thought, the power in his bloodline activated, just as easily as the first time. 

His eyes suddenly saw everything incredibly clearly, making out the details of the leaves on the trees in the distant horizon. His thoughts were all over the place, and the strange feeling he got from Shen Ye and Xiaorong returned. 

Shu Yang was once again overwhelmed, but he tried his absolute hardest to remember his goal. He grabbed Tianhu’s severed arm, felt his connection through the Bloodline Tree, and looked out across the landscape again. 

‘Come on! Where is he!’

Suddenly, Shu Yang’s vision warped. 

The landscape disappeared, and everything turned silent. Only Tianhu’s pale face appeared before him, a hand reaching over to tenderly wipe sweat from his face. 

‘Tianhu!’

The vision lasted only for a moment. The strange power in his bloodline ran out once again, and Shu Yang took a few deep breaths. 

“Are you coming?” Shen Ye asked from up ahead, noticing Shu Yang had stopped following. 

Shu Yang turned to look at him and asked, “Does Xiashi wear a ring on her middle finger? A blue one?”

Shen Ye opened his mouth in shock and ran up to Shu Yang at full speed. “Xiaoshi!?”

Shu Yang was confused, but then he looked down at the arm he was grabbing and understood.

“It’s Tianhu’s arm,” Shu Yang said, showing it to Shen Ye as he stepped up to him.

“Then,” Shen Ye said, sweating slightly from his momentary panic, “What about the ring?”

“Well,” Shu Yang said. How could he explain? The hand wiping his son’s face had a ring like that on the middle finger. To make sure the vision wasn’t just his imagination, he wanted to see if it was Xiaoshi’s hand he had seen. He had never seen Xiaoshi before, so if she really had a ring like that on her finger, the vision was most likely real. 

“I’m just a little confused, sorry,” Shu Yang said.

“It’s…it’s alright,” Shen Ye said, calming down. He looked at the arm in Shu Yang’s hand and comforted, “It’s the left arm, not his sword arm.”

“Right,” Shu Yang said, not finding the words very comforting. His son’s arm had been severed. He really didn’t know how to accept that. 

‘He is safe. Alive. That’s what matters.’

Unfortunately, even though Shu Yang could see a glimpse of his son, there was still no sense of direction. 

“Let’s go,” Shu Yang said, deciding to try again in a few days and see if he could make progress.

“Right,” Shen Ye said.

‘He was pale, but not dangerously so, right? He’s an Innate warrior; he should be able to make it.’

‘At least it looks like he isn’t captured.’ 

That thought gave some comfort.