The Blood Legacy (The Divine Elements Book 1) (17 page)

“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 space. 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 bloodlust 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.

*fizz*

The lightning thread completely disintegrated into thin air as soon as Calron drew it slightly.

“Huh?”

Calron dumbly stared at the bow in his hands. Besides the faint yellow glow, the bow was exactly the same as before, and all the essence it had just absorbed seemed to have vanished as well!

“What just happened?”

Calron was utterly perplexed. Hoping it was a fluke, he gathered a huge amount of essence again and willed it into the dark bow.

The yellow glow of the patterns brightened for a moment as the lightning thread formed once more. The string of lightning bolts appeared to be a bit thicker than before. Reaching to draw again, Calron pulled the essence string.

*fizz*

Although Calron could draw it slightly more this time, it still disintegrated after a few seconds.

“Hmm, it seems that this bow requires a huge amount of essence in order to use it.”

After realizing what the problem was, Calron softly sighed.

He knew that it was just wishful thinking to hope he could use a weapon that emitted such a profound baleful aura with merely his Spiritual stage strength.

Storing the metal bow back inside his body, Calron lay on top of his bed.

“Thunder’s Hand… this bow has some sort of connection with lightning and that mysterious locket. I wonder why my father had this locket in the first place…sigh, if my Teacher were here, he would be able to answer some of my questions. How long will he take to recover? I really miss him…”

With a wistful groan, Calron turned to his side and slowly closed his eyes.

Within his dreams, various images flickered, ranging from bloody wars to a large bird with lightning bolts.

………………

Feeling the sun’s rays boring through his eyes, Calron groggily stared outside the window.

He immediately tucked his head back inside his blanket and turned his body to the other side to escape from the sunlight.

Suddenly, he felt a massive weight on his legs. It was almost as if a baby elephant had just sat on them.

“FATTY! Get the hell off of my bed!”

Realizing that the baby elephant was actually Fatty, Calron furiously bellowed while kicking the chubby boy with his feet.

“Ouch! Big brother, no need to be so mean! That hurts, you know I already got kicked around yesterday because of you!”

Fatty mumbled as he rubbed his bottom, while Calron slowly got off the bed.

After a quick brush of his teeth and a hurried cleanup, Calron returned to find Fatty rolling around in his bed.

Shaking his head, Calron yelled.

“Fatty, let’s go!”

……………………….

After their breakfast at the gathering hall, Calron and Fatty left to go to the forest as they gave a quick goodbye to Gretha.

Looking at the two boys leaving together, Gretha gave out a low chuckle. The two youngsters were almost polar opposites of each other, both physically and in their personalities.

One was skinny and pale, while the other was chubby and energetic. Calron was a nice boy, but he rarely talked to others and seemed to have a mysterious atmosphere around him. On the other hand, Roran was a cheerful kid who was almost always goofing around or shoving food in his mouth.

Giving a final smile towards the young pair, Gretha went back to her work.

………………….

In a few minutes Calron and Fatty had finally reached the start of the forest, and the whole time, Fatty either gasped or exclaimed in wonder at the new sights in front of him.

“Master told me this was an Artifact that is a special treasure of the Red Boar School. He said the School Head let him use it as his home, so Master doesn’t have to interact with others.”

Calron explained while the two boys were walking towards Elias’ hut.

“But Master is so strong! Why does he need to hide from others?”

Fatty curiously inquired. From his experience yesterday, it was obvious that even though the old man was blind, he was extremely powerful! Just based on the movement skill he saw alone, it was comparable to the Martial Arts of his family!

“I think Master doesn’t like drawing attention to himself, and besides, he told me once that against some Vajra stage experts, he won’t even be their match.”

“Hey big brother! Have you realized something yet? From today onwards, we will be cultivation brothers as well! Hehe, I will show you just how awesome I am!”

As Fatty playfully boasted, Calron just gave him a smug smirk.

“Fatty, you are forgetting that I’m your senior disciple. Master has already taught me some powerful moves! If I was allowed to use the Blood Legacy during my fight with Chax, I could have easily defeated him!”

Calron proudly gloated, while Fatty turned a disbelieving look towards him.

“Of course, big brother. And I’m secretly a princess in disguise!”

Fatty sarcastically responded. He had felt a powerful aura around Calron when first saw him, but after knowing that he was a Lightning elementalist, the logic in Fatty’s mind could not associate Calron with someone strong.

Aware that Fatty did not believe him, Calron gave up on trying to convince him and cracked a grin when he thought about how he will be able to give a thrashing to Fatty when they sparred!

Meanwhile, Fatty completely ignored Calron’s grin.

After a few minutes, the familiar hut of Elias soon appeared within Calron’s sight and he grabbed Fatty’s arm, as they both rushed towards the humble hut.

………………….

An old man sat seated in a meditative pose.

His upper body was bare, as the thick muscles rippled under the sun’s rays. There were countless traces of scars spread across his skin, some of which appeared to be caused by claw marks while others seemed to be clean cuts from a sword.

With his silver hair tied neatly in a simple ponytail, the old man emitted a violent and bloodthirsty aura into his surroundings.

Just as the two boys were starting to feel pressured by the aura, the old man abruptly opened his eyes.

“Good, you’ve come on time. Calron, you can practice your Formless Fist if you want, and I will pass on the Blood Legacy to Roran in meantime.”

“Yes, Master.”

Calron responded as he started walking towards the lake. He had decided that the open air and the natural environment might help give better results in his training.

As Calron left, Elias stood up and turned towards Fatty.

“Roran, what do you think the Blood Legacy is?”

“Um, big brother told me it had something to do with bloodlust or killing?”

Fatty hesitantly answered.

“True, but not completely. The Blood Legacy is one that follows the path of destruction and violence. Although all Legacy Inheritors train in battles and war, their main purpose is to increase the understanding of their Martial path of either their weapon or fist. The Blood Legacy is completely different. There is no justice or virtue in our path, we kill what needs to be killed, and we are neither the heroes nor the villains, as we simply forge our own path in this cruel world.”

Elias calmly explained to the wide-eyed boy in front of him.

“Our Legacy is not the path of a weapon, but a path soaked in the blood of others. Your greatest battle will be controlling that bloodlust, and the rest you will understand once you inherit it. There will be no going back after you get baptized in the legacy’s blood. Do you still wish to become my disciple?”

Elias knelt down and looked fixedly into Fatty’s eyes, as he softly asked the last question.

Gazing into those unnatural glowing eyes, Fatty felt his heart tremble at the sight.

Clenching his fists, Fatty gathered up his determination and returned the fierce look towards Elias.

“My desire had always been to cast away my fate as a cripple and seize my own destiny. If this Blood Legacy will give me the power I need, then I will gladly embrace it and walk the path of blood.”

Fatty responded in a cold low voice.

Hearing the boy’s determination, Elias gave a slight smile.

“Roran, you and Calron will be the future of this Legacy. Do not let its fire be extinguished!”

With a solemn declaration, Elias slashed his palm with a dagger.

“Kneel.”

Fatty slowly got on his knees in front of his Master and bowed his head. After a few seconds, he felt a warm wetness on his forehead and he knew that it was his Master’s blood. Just as the blood dripped into his eyes, he heard Elias’ voice.

“From today onwards, you will walk in the path of blood. Destruction and Carnage will be your sworn brothers and follow wherever you go. May the God of War bless and look favorably upon you and give rise to your valor. I, Elias Salazar Xuria, hereby acknowledge you as my Inheritor and pass on my will and Legacy to you. Do you accept?”

“I do, Master.”

“The first blood has been shed. From this day on forth, you will walk in the path of blood, alongside your brother. Let your transformation begin.”