Chapter 508: The Legendary Mercenary
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Seed of Origin, the first life form created by the Goddess could be called the progenitor of life in the Plane of Dreams. At least from what information they have at hand for now. Hao Ren had seen something similar to the Seed of Origin in his dreams before. It was a bloody orb and once it comes into contact with a habitable planet it will explosively grow into something like the First Born, creating a whole new ecosystem. The primal blood that flowed from the Seed of Origin carried within it all the required nutrients to sustain the early stages of the ecosystem. The blood of the First Born was probably the closest thing to the primal blood.
Hao Ren had assumed that the Holletta's Seed of Origin had already fully withered and all its primal energy had became the First Born and the second ecosystem sphere. He never thought that there were remains of the seed. It was found by the first Pope of the Disciples of Glory, and he used these primal blood to create the first holy warriors of the church and a series of divine abilities.
"We are still investigating the matter." Cardinal Orben chose his words carefully. "We had found only recently found out where the church's teaching were slightly.. problematic, and trying to get a full picture of the primal blood from those tattered tomes had proved to be rather difficult. But all in all we can confirm that the holy blood is the primal blood of the Seed of Origin... strictly speaking though, it is just a reproduction of it.
"Reproduction?" Vivian's eyebrow rose.
"There were precious little left of the primal blood when it was found." Cardinal Orben explained. "By the time His Excellency the First Pope found the blood, it had almost dried up. But he had managed to figure out a way to maintain the production of the blood. Using external stimuli, the primal blood could recreate itself endlessly. Only that ensured the growth of the church for many more years to come. Otherwise we would have run out of the blood within years.
"I can probably guess what is the external stimuli that you are referring to." Hao Ren rubbed his chin. "It is probably to mimic the planet's most primal state. That misled the blood into thinking that there was a reset of the ecosystem, and it started producing again to sustain the ecosystem."
Cardinal Orben kept silent, the reproduced blood was one of the church's most vital secrets. Even for a foreigner who had obtained the nod from the Pope and the King themselves, these secrets were too vital to let out. But his silence was a tacit acknowledgement of the fact.
"What's the difference between the reproduction and the real thing?" Vivian was the expert on matters of 'blood' and her questions were pointed.
"No difference at all." Cardinal Orben replied. "The primal blood is a great creation of the Goddess. It can replicate itself in totality, thus the reproduction is the real thing. Truth be told, the original blood found had already been used up and the ones we have preserved are reproductions of countless of times. But it still remained pure and powerful, and it's effects the same as the initial samples."
"I wish to have a sample." Hao Ren went straight to the point. "To study more about the First Born's connection to the blood."
It was only a half-truth. Hao Ren's real intention was to study the connection between the primal blood and the Goddess herself!
The life spawned from the Seed of Origin was like an ever-spreading ink on top of water. With the every change of the ecosystem, new life were formed as they grew more distant from their primal form and progenitor. Following this unique backward-push growth of the Plane of Dream's Tree of Life. Only the most ancient, most primal of lifeforms are the closest to their creator. So the Seed of Origin was arguably even closer to the Goddess than the First Born was. It was probably the closest thing to the Goddess Hao Ren could ever find for now!
To date all that Hao Ren and his little entourage had managed to find were fossils of all kinds, and yet the Disciples of Glory had managed to preserve a living sample of the Seed of Origin!
Cardinal Orben had only brought them to see how the ritual branding took place, but he had no plans to hand over the primal blood to a group of outlanders. He demurred upon hearing Hao Ren's request. "The primal blood is a sacred relic, it's the church's most prized relic, even if they are reproductions..."
"You just said it." Nangong Wuyue retorted without much thought. "Since it can be reproduced, and you guys probably have tonnes of those, just a small phial wouldn't hurt...."
"The sanctity of a sacred relic is not determined by it's amount." Cardinal Orben's face tightened, but given how rigid his face already was, there was no difference. "The most important thing is that the primal blood had never been handed to an outsider before."
"And two months ago, the First Born hadn't appeared." Hao Ren raised an eyebrow. "This is a time of extraordinary events, so you need to be adaptable to survive. Your blood could probably get you a new army, but I can probably find a way to safely neutralise the First Born. After all, the First Born originated from the blood."
Cardinal Orben kept silent, and Hao Ren simply shrugged. "Just so you know, Eight hours ago I had just performed a funeral ceremony for a civilisation. Their history was six times of yours, and their knowledge surpassed even that of your mage-emperors, but yet they had perished. Perished by the hands of the First Born that there was nothing left of them. What was left of their civilisation was just a data vault that's about a few kilogrammes heavy, and could just be placed in a safe. Before a power beyond your comprehension, your traditions and rules are nothing. I do not wish to comeback here a year later just to put you lot into another data crate."
The cardinal was rather conservative, but that was only because he followed the scripture to the word. A fool however, he was not, and after considering the fact that the primal blood indeed were in abundance, he nodded after some deliberation signalling to a serf boy to bring the alembic over.
"Take it. I pray that the Goddess will can be done through your hands."
Hao Ren smiled as he took the alembic and stored it into his Dimensional Pocket. "I'll make good use of it."
"This is the first time since the founding on the church that the primal blood was given to an unbeliever." Cardinal Orben said, a hint of lament in his voice. "But it is true that the primal blood isn't something we are short of... but they had never been given outside of the church. This was a tradition that we had held for thousand of yearsa
"The Disciples of Glory may have a history spanning thousand of years, but in the grand scheme of things, this is but a blink of an eye." Hao Ren grinned. "We are facing a living being that had lived for millions of years. Lets not bother too much about tradition in the face of such a foe."
Vivian shrugged as she cleared her throat. "Time is a cruel master. It can make many traditions and cultures worthless with the passing of time. So do not use your traditions to fight against something that is even more ancient than you are. Of course, I get the feeling that the Disciples of Glory are not a religion that is stuck in the past, you lot are much more intelligent than most of the religions I had come across."
Hao Ren had now obtained what he wanted. The primal blood sample was undoubtedly an important and valuable find. After this, he planned to inspect the situation of the other two First Born.
Before that however, Hao Ren and his gang had to stay in the royal city for two days as Becky had finally obtained what she had been dreaming for. The lass was so darn excited that she would not let Hao Ren go...
Hao Ren did not know how General Ophra had explained to King Mhoren on the question of 'even a world-saving hero requires recompense and it won't come cheap' but the king had graciously approved a huge sum of reward. The amount was enough to knock Becky out in joy. It was beyond the reward that she would receive for finding the Sacred Orb of the Holy Synod. This lady here had turned into one of the richest mercenary overnight, and at the same time became the world's most famous mercenary. Indeed, the legendary mercenary. Her counterparts could only obtain such a title after slaying some evil dragon or sealing a demon king, and by the time they had obtained the title, most of them were already dead. Yet, Becky, a wee lass just 23 summers had attained this glorious title.
It goes to say, being hard carried a really wonderful thing.
The royal court had awarded her a manor near the royal city, and a castle on the west side of the border. The former was to be her permanent abode while the latter, the symbol of her nobility and power. Becky was now a ranking nobility in a promotion never seen before. She was now a viscountess, and the viscountcy soon gained prominence as her exploits at the Dragonspine Ridge reached the wider public. The incident at the Beinz region had rattled everyone, and even the Pope and the King required something, someone to calm the citizens' nerves. Mere miracles were not going to suffice, they require a heroic figure, a real living one, and seems like Becky was their answer to that.
Soon, the story of the legendary mercenary surviving the encounter at Beinz will spread, and Becky will undoubtedly be the focal point of attention.
But she didn't seem to pay it much thought, the naïve-to-the-point-of-silliness lass had still not recovered from her shock. She was deep in her euphoric stupor for a good two hours after being knighted, and finally let this slip:
"So much money.... I think I won't regret anything if I were to die now..."
These were the first words of Viscount Becky after being knighted.