A Will Eternal

The face floating in the blood-colored light above Middle Peak told everyone that the blood master of Middle Peak had been determined, and it was none other than… Nightcrypt!

Everyone who was familiar with Nightcrypt’s face was shaken. Xu Xiaoshan gasped and rubbed his eyes. Although it seemed somewhat improbable, it actually made sense for this to have happened.

Nightcrypt had risen to prominence over the course of only a few years, but had come to influence the entire sect. He was even famous on the outside.

For him to become the blood master was within the realm of predictability. In fact… it was a logical outcome!

The grand elder of Corpse Peak looked on with wide eyes. Next to him, the Corpse Peak blood master seemed equally dazed. However, it only took a moment for him to smile. Then, his eyes began to shine, as though he were looking at an equal.

Blood masters were a proud lot, and as far as they were concerned, the only people who were worthy of being adversaries… were the other blood masters!

“Interesting….” he murmured to himself. “Other mountain peaks have had blood masters who didn’t come from the major cultivator clans. Up to now, Middle Peak has been the only one who hasn’t.

“How did Nightcrypt manage to turn things around and become blood master when all the cards were stacked against him…? Considering how important he is with his skill in the Dao of medicine, he’ll definitely be a formidable opponent in the future!”

The blood master of Lesser Marsh Peak, the tall, burly man, looked on with a strange light shining in his eyes. He knew that, as of this moment, he would not be able to treat Nightcrypt the way he had in the past. After a moment, he looked over at the grand elder of Lesser Marsh Peak and said, “Prepare a really nice gift to send over and ease some of the previous tension.”

Shaken, the grand elder nodded. He also knew that… from now on, Nightcrypt was on a different level. Before, the patriarchs had liked him, and yet, held his fate in their hands. A mere thought on their part could lead to his rise, and also his fall. But now… things were different.

Now that he was a blood master, he had his own solid foundation. He was one of the true powers of the Blood Stream Sect. He had the power of an entire mountain peak at his disposal, and had been approved by the Blood Ancestor. Not even the Blood Stream Sect patriarchs would casually make a move against him.

If Nightcrypt eventually reached Core Formation, he would become a blood ripper, which was a position superior to that of a prime elder. That would make him a core element among the core elements of the sect!

A person like that was someone nobody could afford to provoke.

The blood master and grand elder of Nameless Peak were feeling much the same way as their counterparts from Lesser Marsh Peak. They quickly made arrangements to bring an impressive gift along for their next visit to Nightcrypt.

Many thoughts and feelings could be found within the Blood Stream Sect now that Nightcrypt had become a blood master. As for Xuemei, she hovered there in midair, a blank look in her eyes. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but then simply coughed up some blood. Eyes flickering dully, she turned and headed toward Ancestor Peak in a beam of light.

Upon arrival, the first thing she did was confer with her father, Patriarch Limitless. Then she went to her immortal’s cave on Ancestor Peak and went into secluded meditation.

People took note of Xuemei’s attitude, but didn’t ponder it too deeply. After all, anyone who failed to succeed in a fight for the position of blood master would find the situation hard to accept. Xuemei was acting just as it would be expected for her to act.

Although Song Junwan had mixed feelings, she gritted her teeth and flew toward Ancestor Peak to find the Song Clan patriarch. The new blood master was not from the Song Clan, and that was a very important matter. It was now a fact that could not be changed, so the Song Clan Patriarch would surely have questions and direction for her.

“Nightcrypt,” she thought, “I promised that if you stopped Xuemei from succeeding, even if you became blood master yourself, that I would help persuade the patriarch to accept and support you!” Taking a deep breath, her eyes shone with determination as she arrived at Ancestor Peak and offered greetings to the Song Clan patriarch.

Everyone was shaken by the events which were playing out. However, the cultivators of the Blood Stream Sect soon realized that something was odd about the situation….

“Weird, Nightcrypt is now the blood master. But… why hasn’t he come out from the trial by fire yet?”

“In the past, the new blood master would be teleported out immediately. But Nightcrypt… is still inside the Blood Ancestor’s body?”

Soon, more and more people began to wonder the same thing. By that time, Bai Xiaochun had appeared in a region inside the Blood Ancestor’s body that no Blood Stream Sect cultivator had ever entered before!

It was a world that seemed to be formed from shattered ruins, from countless fragmented chunks of land that made up a larger continent. On first sight, it actually resembled an enormous, shattered mirror.

It was so large that its ends weren’t even visible. The broken fragments stretched as far as the eye could see, emanating an aura of death that cast everything in a gray light.

There were no signs of life anywhere. Everything was gray, and the pressure that weighed down on the area mounted continuously.

Bai Xiaochun looked around blankly, unsure of where he was. He remembered aborting his Throat Crushing Grasp. He remembered Xuemei’s mask falling off. He remembered seeing Du Lingfei’s face. However, everything had occurred too quickly. Not only could he never have been prepared for any of it to happen, it completely exceeded anything he could have imagined.

As he thought about what had just occurred, his mind trembled as though it were being rocked by thunder. There were so many questions he wanted to ask Du Lingfei, and yet before he could open his mouth to ask them, he was sucked into the blood vessel. The next thing he remembered was looking around at the gray world around him.

As he hovered in the air above the shattered world, he took a deep breath and looked down to examine himself. All of his wounds were gone, even the effects of Xuemei’s Golden Touch. He was healed and restored to his absolute peak.

A powerful blood qi swirled inside of him, and his Undying Live Forever Technique was pulsing, seemingly forming a resonance with the world around him….

Ripples spread out from him that caused the world to fluctuate. As the two sets of fluctuations merged, the ripples grew more and more powerful, to a shocking degree.

At the same time, rays of light began to shine up from within the cracks that separated the shattered fragments of the world. Bai Xiaochun began to pant as he slowly formed speculations about where exactly he was.

Back when he’d first entered the Blood Stream Sect, he had felt a resonance very much like this, the source being something below the surface of the sect!

Apparently, all such resonances that he felt in the Blood Stream Sect originated… from this very location!!

This was their origin.

Heart pounding, he decided to try to take a step forward.

As he did, intense rumbling sounds filled the entire world around him. At the same time, the resonance between his Undying Live Forever Technique and the world grew more intense, more powerful. It was like the whole world was roaring.

It was a roar of complete excitement and anticipation!

The glow that filled the world began to flicker rapidly, and the beams of light shooting up from between the gaps began to link together. Soon, channels of electricity pulsed through the world, all of them connected.

The electricity flickered more and more quickly, and the rumbling sounds grew more intense. It was almost as if a life force were awakening that had been asleep for many years, something that was struggling to emerge from death because of the resonance which had formed!!

RUUUUUUUUUUMBLE!!

Heaven and earth shook violently, and lightning crackled with unprecedented intensity. The entire world seemed to be waking up. The blinding beams of light were fully connected, filling the world with multi-colored light as a powerful life force erupted out.

It came from nowhere, as if it had been waiting for countless years to emerge. Although it was only a moment of recovered youth, it was enough to fulfill the dying wishes of the giant that was the Blood Ancestor!

RUUUUUUUUUUMBLE!

Deafening rumbling sounds echoed out, and the countless shattered fragments that made up the world began to tremble. Innumerable bolts of lightning were stirring, and then, they all simultaneously shot out toward Bai Xiaochun!

In the blink of an eye, they were upon him, flooding over him, boring into his skin through his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, even through the pores of his skin.

Shaking violently, Bai Xiaochun threw his head back and let loose a long cry. More lightning poured into him, as if the accumulated life force of the whole world were using its last bit of power… to deliver a legacy!

This was the ultimate legacy, something above the blood master level. The lightning bolts all contained memories, countless memories which bored into Bai Xiaochun, filling his mind, forming a complete tableau… of memories!

A legacy is memories!