Chapter 1024: Ancient
“Come on. Give everything you’ve got!
“The victor will take all!
“The loser will be gone forever and completely annihilated!”
…
A mad voice raved.
‘”Ahh!” A youth screamed and woke up. He touched his face that was dripping with cold sweat. “That same strange dream again! I haven’t been able to avoid it since birth!
“Nevermind. I have to rest and restore my energy. The coming of age ceremony is tomorrow!”
The youth’s name was ‘Ancient’. He was born in a small tribe in the Hundred Thousand Mountains of the southern barbarians.
There was a rule in the Hundred Thousand Mountains of the southern barbarians—newborn babies had to be tested. Those who qualified would be immediately sent to the Holy Land. There, they would be trained to become the strongest fighters of the tribe.
The social outlook here was very different from the outside world. Family and friendship were considered complete hindrances.
Only if they cultivated with all their hearts could they become the strongest warriors of the tribe!
Therefore, since early childhood, Ancient and the other children had undergone the most stringent training. Here, crying was punishable by caning, and only the strong ones could obtain the respect of their peers.
“Fortunately, my innate ability isn’t bad. The elders said that there is an eighty percent chance that I will successfully activate my spirit property and awaken the bloodline power!”
Ancient clenched his fists tightly.
Without bloodline power, it was impossible to become extraordinary. A rank one mortal could not live more than a hundred years.
“My ability is among the top five in this group. I will definitely succeed!”
For some reason, there was always a voice in his heart that was urging him to continuously improve, making him train extremely hard. He was not the slightest bit lazy.
The nickname ‘Lunatic Ancient’ was resounding among these young people.
…
Ancient took a deep breath and continued sleeping.
The next day, together with a hundred-odd youths between fifteen and sixteen years of age, he was brought to a cave.
“You… are the elites of our Flybarb tribe, and today is your coming of age ceremony!”
At the front a stone platform, the high priest, ‘Brutal Bones’, exuded an aura that brought a strong sense of oppression. “You must go all out to complete the spirit property activation ritual and awaken your bloodline power to become the strongest warriors of the tribe!
“You will be the elites of the tribe as long as you become bloodline warriors. Wine, food, an endless supply of women, the best of everything will be within your grasp!”
…
He said a few words casually and immediately made the young men breathe hard.
However, the faces of a few young women started to look displeased.
“Hehe… Of course, if any woman were to awaken their bloodline power, she will also be able to control her own destiny and not be forcibly assigned to the strong. You can even have as many male pets as you want!”
The high priest smiled. “Come forward when you hear me call your name. First up… Peck!”
“High Priest!”
The young man named Peck stepped forward anxiously and sat cross-legged in the center of the platform.
There were four stone pillars inscribed with complex runes around him. They were filled with dark red colors and seemed to have some kind of wild beast’s fresh blood splashed on them.
“Coming of age ceremony, begin!” the high priest announced loudly, and the surrounding priests immediately started beating drums.
The dull thumps echoed throughout the cave continuously.
The young man Peck swallowed a few herbs and closed his eyes.
Runes lit up one by one on the surrounding four stone pillars, starting from the ones at the bottom before moving to the middle ones.
This speed! The high priest frowned. After the time it took for one incense stick to burn, large beads of sweat appeared on Peck’s forehead. His entire body was wobbling, and his blood vessels were expanding, looking very terrible.
‘”Ahh!” Finally, he screamed and fell unconscious.
“Failure!” the high priest said emotionlessly. He motioned slightly, and a warrior came up to bring Peck back.
The first one failed? Below, Ancient’s chest tightened. You can only become a normal warrior if you don’t succeed in the awakening of the bloodline power to become a bloodline warrior. There’s a world of difference!
“Next… Nuo… Failure!
“Next… Wei… Failure!”
…
After seven consecutive failures, the stone pillars finally sounded, and the runes lit up all the way to the top!
‘”Ahh!” A young man opened his eyes and roared. Blood-red illusions appeared on his body, and a totem that looked like both a lion and a dog formed above his head.
“Hmm… Mutated beast ‘mastiff’, seventh-grade totem. Not bad!” Delight appeared on the priest’s face. “Next!”
A young boy with a frosty face went up. It was one of the four that Ancient felt was stronger than him… Dark!
“Ughhhh!”
From the start, it seemed as though the stone pillar was dying to light up. The phantom of a black dragon emerged on the young man’s body.
“Good! ‘Horned dragon’, third-grade totem!” the high priest exclaimed. “Dark… come and stand behind me!”
“Third-grade totem!”
The rest were all envious.
The south barbarian cultivation world believed that man was the spirit of all things, and the body contained the bloodlines of millions of species. As long as the bloodline could awaken, it was possible to obtain all kinds of magical powers.
There were also differences in the totems that awakened.
The lowest eighth and ninth-grade ones were only ordinary wild beasts that had limited potential. Anything above was defined as a mutated beast, so there was value in training them.
And Dark’s ‘horned dragon’ was a legendary fierce beast, one level higher than mutated beasts.
Even the high priest was likely moved by it and would take him in as a disciple.
Unfortunately, everyone after him failed, except for a young girl who awakened the ‘jade rabbit’, a fourth-grade totem, making the high priest very happy.
“Next, Ancient!”
Ancient took a deep breath when he heard his name, went to the center of the stone pillars, and sat down cross-legged.
“Begin!”
He grabbed the herb in front of him and chomped it down.
A heat current converged in his body and injected into the stone pillar beside him.
Runes lit up, but very slowly.
“Hmm?” The high priest frowned. “This Ancient… is the top five among this group, isn’t he? This speed… seems like he’s going to fail. Ah, what a pity. No matter how good he trained his martial arts, he will be an ordinary warrior if he can’t awaken his bloodline power. This is life!”
“Am I going to fail?” Ancient could feel the heat current rolling around in his body. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, it started to stagnate halfway up the stone pillar.
“Is that Lunatic Ancient?”
“He is in the top five and has always been arrogant…”
“Seems he’s about to fail…”
Many gloating voices came, causing Ancient to become even more anxious. “No, I have to succeed!”
A kind of obsession made his eyes flash red. He bit the tip of his tongue, and the violent pain immediately simulated the heat current in his body to accelerate.
Bang!
Finally, numerous heat currents converged and seemed to break through a certain barrier.
The four stone pillars lit up, and a totem appeared.
“Hmm… it seems a bit weak judging from the momentum!” The high priest frowned. The totem that appeared in front of him was still foggy. “How is there fog in the bloodline totem?”
He gently pushed his palm out, and Ancient’s bloodline power could not hold up against it. The fog dispersed and… a large shell appeared?
“Ancient, shell, ninth-grade totem!” the high priest announced immediately.
The eighth and ninth-grade bloodlines were only ordinary wild beasts.
Shells and the like were weaker than ordinary lions and tigers. He was merely a little stronger than those who could not awaken their bloodline power.
“Haha… That gave me a shock!”
“So what if he could awaken a totem? It’s still of the lowest grade. He probably can’t even make it to the next realm!”
“I heard that the big tribes don’t even bother with trash like eighth and ninth-grade totems.”
Most of the other youngsters started to gloat mercilessly.
After all, Ancient had stepped all over them, making them quite unhappy.
Ancient returned to his place with his fists clenched and lowered his head, seemingly unreconciled.
However, no one knew that he was reborn the very instant he awakened his bloodline. He was merely pretending at this time to cover up his true emotions.
“I-I am Ancient, and I am also… Fang Yuan!
“My True Spirit finally awakened after such a long time!”
Fang Yuan tightened his fist. “Abominable Lord, you sure are something… You are ruthless to others but even more ruthless to yourself!”
He combined his deductions with his previous memory and fully understood what had happened.
“It was a huge decision for the Abominable Lord to burn his Dao Fruit!”
Existences that had cultivated for such a long time had their own understanding of the ebb and flow of destiny. The Abominable Lord knew that if he did not do anything to Fang Yuan at that time, it would be Fang Yuan’s turn to fight back.
Therefore, he took advantage of the last chance to fight desperately.
This really hit Fang Yuan where it hurt. The Abominable Lord had the advantage in his years of cultivation and foundation after all.
Fortunately, he had the help of the light from the Huaxia civilization world!
He had not died immediately but rather entered a stalemate with the Abominable Lord.
The two Netherheaven Demon Gods staked everything they had and started a bet under special circumstances.
Reincarnate into this world to determine the final winner!
The winner would obtain everything, and the loser would perish with no second chance!
“If not for the help of the light from Huaxia, I wouldn’t have even had the chance to bet!”
Fang Yuan gritted his teeth and sensed himself. “My chips were… my Dream Master Great Dao, my Body of Origin Power, my everything. The same is true for the Abominable Lord. These are not ours until the winner is decided!”
The bet this time had instantly made both of them mortals!
There was nothing like a Netherheaven Great Dao that would allow their strength to recover immediately.
Because their Great Daos were used as chips and had offset each other.
The only thing left was to rely on themselves!
“Abominable Lord, I can feel your determination… But the final winner will be me!”
Fang Yuan’s eyes gleamed bright.