Tainted Blood

by Tinalynge

  Xue Wei had transformed his legs as well. “Catch him!” Xue Wei called out. Hei Gou, disregarding everything that the berserker threw at him, used his four strong legs to propel himself at the berserker, biting his strong jaws down on the berserker’s shoulder, his paws wrapping themselves around his body. Right then, Xue Wei had a glint in his eyes.

  Xue Wei spun around himself to gather momentum. He did not hold back at all and swept his leg out like the tail of a flood dragon, which came crashing down on the enemy.

  Kick of the Forgotten Kings!

  A combination of Xue Wei’s manyQi Dragons and his dragon shape’s strength amplification empowered the kick.

  This was the strongest attack that Xue Wei had ever delivered. The berserker suddenly felt an acute sense of danger. He tried his very best to dodge, but the massive Hei Gou held him with all his power, pinning him down to a slow crawl.

  The whip-like leg filled with roaring Qi dragons and physical strength came crashing down, landing on the berserker’s waist.

  Xue Wei was gasping for air. His leg felt a sting, and as soon as he delivered the kick, he retreated as fast as he could.

  “Let him go!” Xue Wei called out, in which Hei Gou let go of his shoulder and retreated as fast as he could.

  The berserker was breathing hard. It was impossible for him to be completely fine after that attack, and he had received many wounds already. Furthermore, his shoulder ached from the wounds where Hei Gou’s razor-like teeth had sunk into his flesh. Before Hei Gou had retreated, he had done everything to cause as much injury as possible, which was why the berserker’s entire shoulder was fully mutilated.

  Not only this, his hip was broken. Where the kick had landed, all bones had broken. Although he was an Ordinary Knight, he could simply not withstand the full might of Xue Wei’s transformation and thousands of Qi dragons.

  The darkness from Hei Gou’s domain ability still shrouded the entire area. Xue Wei was breathing heavily; he had used a massive amount of Qi and physical strength to deliver that attack, and his leg had not come out unscathed after the kick.

  But the battle was not done yet. “Corner him!” Xue Wei growled, “We will use our last attack to end him. We really have to finish this. There will be someone soon who will try to reap the rewards of our battle if we don’t hurry up!”

  Hei Gou understood what Xue Wei was hinting at. Their battle had dragged on too long. The sun had also started rising, ever so slightly bringing with it dawn.

  “Okay, I have this attack I’ve never tried before,” Hei Gou said seriously. “Stay away, I don’t want to kill you by accident!”

  “Hah, you think that you can kill me? Wait with your skill, let me try something first!” Xue Wei laughed and brought out every scale in his body. This was a fully draconic shape, but not a full dragon transformation as he still resembled a human. However, all of his skin had been covered with scales.

  A tail had appeared behind him, and horns protruded from his head. His eyes were red and their irises had become slitted.

  “I have no innate abilities yet,” Xue Wei muttered to himself, “but I do have something that might stop him for a moment.”

  Xue Wei briefly paused, and then he looked sharply at the berserker. A deep roar came out from deep within his chest that sounded like thunder had struck the entire city.

  A deafening roar traveled through the entirety of Cloudsoar City. Every Primordial and Fierce Beast within the city started cowering, which greatly shocked their handlers and owners.

  The Diviners, who were at the other end of town, could not help but widen their eyes in shock while their hearts palpitated with fear.

  “What was that?” one of them asked with a trembling voice. “What was that roar?!”

  The two strongest of the Diviners looked at one another, their eyes displaying deep shock and fear, but there was also excitement. Without paying attention to anything else, both of them rushed out of their lodgings.

  “It came from the lawless area,” one of the Diviners said. The other nodded his head.

  “I can sense the energy,” the other said seriously, and both of them rushed through town at the speed of a lightning strike, forgoing attention towards anything else.

  Chapter 21 - The Two Diviners

  “This is the place, is it not?” The tall one of the two Diviners asked with confusion as he looked around the small alleyway.

  “It is indeed here,” the shorter one nodded his head. “The corpses are both warm still, and one is a bit colder than the other, but they were both killed less than an hour ago.”

  “There are a lot of scars on the ground,” the shorter Diviner continued. “Over there the first mark is clearly made from a cut that cut off this dead man’s leg, and another mark from the cut that cut off his head.”

  “It is clear that the sword that was used to cut this man’s head and leg off was massive and sharp. It was so sharp that it made these ten centimeter wide and three meter long gashes in the ground.”

  “Over on this side, the ground has cracked like a spiderweb. There are footprints and claw marks all over ground.” The tall Diviner was the one who took over analyzing the scene when he looked at the surroundings of the berserker’s demise.

  “This man died quite a bit after the other man. It seems that there were at least two people fighting, one beast and one human. Do you think the human has made a contract with the beast?” The tall Diviner was confused.

  “No,” the shorter Diviner shook his head. “That was not a contracted beast. Although the beast roar was majestic, the beast cannot be that strong. This dead person was only an Ordinary Knight, but it still seemed as if it was some sort of rather bitter combat. The other one, the one with the sword, was a much cleaner execution.”

  “The execution of this one was indeed quite bloody; he has not even been left with an intact corpse.” The tall Diviner looked at the berserker and kicked his mutilated corpse with some disinterest.

  “So do you think that it was a Primordial Beast from the council?” the tall Diviner asked, his disinterested expression turning excited.

  Every Diviner knew about the Council of Elders that had the highest authority in the entire Primordial Beast world. To become a member of the Council of Elders, one had to be a true monster.

  “Use your brain, will you?” The shorter Diviner snorted while cleaning his hands with a cloth, removing the blood stains from examining the corpses.

  “If it was indeed someone from the Council, they would not have had such a hard time killing these two experts. A single stomp of their foot would kill these two fools before they even knew what had happened.”

  “When I look at this battle, it is clear that whoever it was had a tight battle. The victor’s cultivation base was lower than the opponent’s. Still, they managed to jump ranks and defeat them in such a brutal way.”

  “We also have to consider the reaction of all the beasts we had captured when the roar appeared,” the shorter Diviner continued. “When the roar resounded, all the beasts laid down flat on the ground as if they were scared or worshipping something.”

  “It is clear that it was not a normal beast. Not even the usual Primordial Beast,” the shorter one mused out loud while rubbing his chin. “In fact, I can only think of one creature that is capable of inducing such submissive behavior from the other beasts, and at the same time have such a powerful roar at a low level of strength.”

  “What is it?” the tall Diviner asked with bated breath. He was truly curious about what kind of beast had this strength. “It could be a Sovereign Beast,” the shorter Diviner said after hesitating for a bit.

  “Sovereign Beast?!” The tall diviner choked violently when he heard this. “But they are extinct!” he exclaimed, shocked but also scared. “We know they did not exist for the past couple of thousand years—they vanished after the great human rebellion, and no one has seen one since.”

  “Just because no one has seen them does not mean that they ar
e extinct,” the shorter Diviner said slowly. He was uncomfortable about the fact that this battle seemed to mark the return of a Sovereign Beast, but even if he said that there was a chance that it was a Sovereign Beast, he was in truth only two percent certain of his statement.

  “Well, the beasts that attacked these unfortunate experts have long since fled. We will get nothing from staying here,” the shorter Diviner sighed after thinking about their options for a bit.

  “We can ask around though. Even though it is a rather deserted area, there are definitely eyewitnesses.”

  Normally, the shorter Diviner would have ignored a few murders and focused on his task, but this time he felt that the possibility of capturing a Sovereign Beast was so alluring that he could not help but feel excited and greedy.

  If he really managed to catch a Sovereign Beast, he would be considered a hero of humanity. He would be showered with praise and would without a doubt be promoted.

  “Well then, let us ask around.” the taller Diviner was aware of what this shorter Diviner was thinking, but he still decided to help. Even if all the fame went to the shorter Diviner because of them being teammates, some light would also shine onto him.

  And with that thought, the taller Diviner began searching for eyewitnesses with renewed vigor.

  As a matter of fact, it was not hard to find someone who had seen something. Beggars and those pretending to be beggars were everywhere, including this small desolate alleyway.

  “I want ten essence stones for the information,” the beggar was adamant with his request. Although ten essence stones was a whole lot of wealth, they were eager to know more given the chance to catch a Sovereign Beast should their conclusions be true.

  Having received the ten essence stones, the smile on the beggar’s face grew by the minute. He had actually managed to get such wealth. It was clear that he would be able to live a good life in the future if he managed to leave the lawless area before getting robbed.

  “Okay, the information you want, I have it,” he said seriously. Now he had gained money so it was only fair he gave something worth it in return.

  “You are lucky that it is me you are asking,” the beggar snickered, “The entire area was filled with darkness, one of them used a technique to make the world descend into darkness, but I am a spiritual energy cultivator, so I could observe the fight anyway.”

  The two Diviners were shocked when they heard this. This beggar that they assumed was useless turned out to be a spiritual energy cultivator? That was unexpected! Still they were excited, they wanted to know what had happened after all.

  “There were three experts: two beasts and one, I assume, human. The human could not use Qi and only used spiritual energy. He created some rather impressive swords out of spiritual energy and easily executed his opponent.”

  “The other was a strange black dog,” the beggar said musingly. “It looked like a Celestial Dog, but it had two crow wings on its back. Its silver eyes were outstandingly beautiful. Also, it swallowed all light, making the entire alleyway descend into darkness.”

  “The last one is the one who used his roar. He was a Heavenly Warrior, but he managed to mutilate his opponent’s corpse so badly. It is truly no easy feat to go against an Ordinary Knight as a Heavenly Warrior.”

  “He looked human through most of the fight, but right before the roar, he started transforming; his entire body was covered in azure scales, his eyes were red and he had horns and a tail.”

  “From what I saw, this was not his real shape but more of a partly transformed stage.”

  “The three of them left after killing their opponents. Now, let me explain what they look like,” the beggar then began to describe their appearances.

  “From the looks of it, I assume that they have participated in the underground battles,” the shorter Diviner said. “Let us go and get some information.”

  After this, the Diviners went to the underground battle grounds. They quickly found out that the two experts that had been slain were the remaining two of the Tiger Triplets, and that their younger brother had previously been killed by a newcomer in the cage battles.

  They also found out that this person had appeared with two others earlier today, and that he was close to the Intelligencer and one of the well known Primordial Beasts of the city.

  “It seems that we should come next week, but without letting anyone know that we are Diviners,” the short Diviner said after a bit of contemplation.

  “So you think that we will get our hands on a Sovereign Beast?” The tall Diviner shook with excitement, grinning, but the shorter Diviner gave him a glance of disdain.

  “I am still very far away from certain about this beast being a Sovereign Beast—in fact, the likelihood of it being an elite Primordial Beast is also very likely. I am just hoping that it is a Sovereign Beast because I very much want to get my hands on one.”

  The two Diviners put an end to their discussion and slowly made their way back to their lodgings. Although the short Diviner had made sure that the taller one understood that he did not know whether or not this beast was a Primordial Beast or a Sovereign Beast, he still felt a certainty within his mind that this roar had come from something fundamentally superior to a Primordial Beast—the Sovereign Beast.

  While the Diviners returned to their lodgings, Xue Wei was lying unconsciously in a bed within the hotel. Hei Gou and Bai Tianyi stood next to him. Both had worry shown on their faces, and a frown adorned their brows.

  “This is troublesome,” Bai Tianyi said after observing Xue Wei for a bit of time. “Although we managed to convince the staff that he was just dead drunk, I am quite unsure about what exactly happened.”

  It was rare for Bai Tianyi to be unsure about something. His eyes were showing heartfelt worry, his heart thumping rapidly with fear.

  Although he was immortal, he had a contract with Xue Wei. If something happened to Xue Wei, he would return to slumber for a very long time. And even without this, Bai Tianyi had taken a liking to this master of his. They considered each other friends, maybe even brothers. It was natural to be incredibly worried about a friend like that when they were injured.

  “Well, let us think back,” Hei Gou said hesitatingly. “He was in his draconic shape, looking like a human but with scales all over. He was doing fine, but when the roar escaped his lips, the Tiger Triplet guy was ripped to shreds and Wei collapsed.”

  “I have a theory,” Bai Tianyi said with clear doubt evident in his voice. He himself thought his idea to be rather far-fetched, so he did not have any actual faith in it being correct.

  “Anything is worth a shot now, tell me what you think,” Hei Gou said impatiently. Bai Tianyi nodded his head.

  “I think perhaps that roar was an innate ability. If it was a normal roar, it would never have done the damage it did—so it has to have been an innate ability.”

  “So far, Wei has not managed to unlock any innate abilities from his mind, but I can’t see any other reason than him having grasped hold of an innate ability with sheer instinct. If it is an innate ability, then there are two possibilities for what is happening now.” Bai Tianyi continued.

  “The first possibility is that the innate ability took too much energy and has put him in a comatose state to recover from it. This would be simple and should not take too long.”

  “The second possibility is him having somehow unlocked all of his innate abilities and heritage from his mind. In that case, he might be unconscious for quite some time to digest the genetic information he has unlocked.”

  Hei Gou considered what Bai Tianyi had said and nodded his head. It made sense, but he was not sure which of the options he preferred.

  “Both are beneficial to us,” he said after a bit of thought, feeling a bit torn.

  Chapter 22 - Tainted Blood

  The roar had not caused as much panic in the city as one might think. The roar had come during the night, so most were asleep.

  The beasts had all felt it, and a f
ew humans had been woken up, but it was quickly forgotten by the normal people. Only the Diviners and the beasts knew about it.

  Lu Yuping, who had sensed the roar, had been trembling with excitement. He had arrived at the deserted square at the same time as the Diviners, but he had hidden from them and stealthily examined the scene from afar.

  While he had seen the corpses on the ground and instantly recognized them as the two remaining Tiger Triplet brothers, he did not stay for long. The Diviners were not a joke. If they noticed him and saw through his disguise, he might not have lived to tell the tale, whether alive or as a free man.

  He knew that the Diviners had guessed that there was an elite beast in Cloudsoar City, but he was busy feeling proud of Xue Wei. Knowing that the Sovereign Beast he had found could jump ranks in a fight, his reverence of Xue Wei—and the excitement of what the boy would one day accomplish—grew substantially.