Chapter 640 - Desolate Crow's Origin
"Study and practice?"
Uncle Jorn wanted to inquire further.
But seeing that the person was no longer interested in continuing the topic, Uncle Jorn could only smile wryly and return his attention to the frozen bodies of the Three-legged Golden Crows.
It was hard to imagine how many mouths could be fed with each body. Uncle Jorn's eyes brightened at the thought.
After calling over several high-level to Transcendent-level warriors from the clan, they began working on the frozen bodies, dissecting them into small pieces of meat to be prepped and preserved elsewhere.
The noise made it unsuitable for Leon to focus. Thus, he left the area to find a quieter spot to refine the 600-odd drops of blood essence.
Soft Feather stayed behind to watch the Desolate Crow Clansmen at work with a drooling expression written all over the face.
Aria, Darlene, Lilith followed behind Leon with their own reasons.
Aria found the area noisy, Darlene simply followed the crowd, and Lilith was curious about Leon's blood collection like her Uncle Jorn.
A few minutes later, they found a relatively clean patch of grass that had not been contaminated by rat blood before taking their seat.
After seeing the bottle of 600-odd drops of blood essence in Leon's hand, Lilith could hardly contain her curiosity, but she knew better than to interrupt him.
She watched Leon commence his blood refinement as the bottle uncorked itself, and drops of blood essence flowed out in streams before revolving around his hand.
Meanwhile, Leon had already shut his eyes in full concentration of refining the blood essences according to the Everlasting Blood Mantra.
It was specified that only one type of Origin Blood can only be refined out of each race. However, this should only be applied to pure breeds.
For a mixed-breed like the Desolate Crow Clansmen, Leon was curious how many types of Origin Blood he could gain after refining their blood essences, which contained variations of Desolate Crow and human bloodlines.
'Whether there will be one type of Origin Blood, two types of Origin Blood, or more than that, I will soon find out,' Leon thought.
Very shortly, the first few dozen drops of blood essence were refined into a few Origin Bloods before Leon fused them into his bloodstream.
The answer became crystal clear to him in the next moment.
His mastery of the Everlasting Blood Mantra only increased from 11 types of Origin Blood to 12 types of Origin Blood.
'Only one type of Origin Blood was able to improve my mastery of the Everlasting Blood Mantra technique, huh? And it's the Origin Blood of the Desolate Crow...' Leon silently contemplated.
In other words, the Origin Blood of humans was completely ineffective in raising his mastery. It could only serve as stamina replenishment in battles of attritions.
'I cannot rule out the possibility that these Origin Blood of human is ineffective because they were ordinary... Origin Blood of humans with special bloodlines might prove to be different...'
Leon continued to ponder deeply in mediation before he resumed refinement of the following few dozen blood essences.
Without any surprises, his mastery did not improve after absorbing the next few refined Origin Blood. His stamina level, on the other hand, was overflowing with energy
'Strange...'
Leon noticed something unrelated to the improvement of his mastery while refining the blood essences into Origin Blood.
'Although the code sequence recorded inside the Origin Blood of the Desolate Crow is all the same time, the shape slightly varies...'
After pondering the peculiarity for a moment, Leon wondered if it had something to do with the concentration of bloodline diluted throughout the generations.
'Wait a minute,' Leon suddenly thought of another matter.
According to history, the beasts were just ordinary animals prior to the last Cataclysm. How could they have the bloodlines of Divine Beasts or perhaps, even God Beasts?
'If the beasts had taken half a millennium to become Divine Beasts before breeding, the bloodline concentration of their offsprings should be very high instead of being diluted like this...' Leon pondered.
Not to mention that the Divine Beasts should still be around.
'Since that is not the case, it means the beasts already contained the bloodlines of the Divine Beasts even back when they were regular animals...' Leon concluded.
Why was planet Gaia so abnormally large compared to other celestial bodies amongst the stars? Why does it have so many floors and layers beneath its surface?
When Leon considered the destroyed civilizations, the ancient ruins, and the Cataclysms throughout history, his eyes suddenly snapped open with a startling conclusion.
'The world has undergone many cycles of destruction and recreation!'
Seeing that Leon's eyes suddenly snapped open, Lilith, who had been observing him, was startled.
"Did you forget something?" Lilith inquired with a confused look. She was sure that she had not done anything to interrupt his practice.
Leon's gaze shortly fell on Lilith before he asked calmly, "How much do you know about your ancestors from the beast side, the Desolate Crow?"
"The Desolate Crow Ancestor? Not much, actually. In fact, the entire clan knows little about the Desolate Crow Ancestor," Lilith replied honestly.
At the same time, she was mildly taken aback, uncertain why Leon was asking her such a question.
After listening to Lilith's answer, Leon nodded without any surprise, finding it completely normal to be ignorant.
The beasts were unique in their ability to pass on their memories to their descendants through their bloodline.
That is also how the bloodline of Divine Beasts resurfaced after the Cataclysm acted as a catalyst to awaken them, bringing the Divine Beast bloodline back to the beasts of the Wildlands.
"At the beginning of time, in an era when life began to sprout throughout Primal Chaos, the black crows were among the first species to make their appearance," Leon began to retell a story he knew from the Divine Realm.
"The crows were confident in their ability to soar the skies, and their arrogance grew bigger the higher they flew—until one day, they sought to challenge the sun."
It was a story with many versions regarding the legend of the Desolate Crow. Nevertheless, Leon recounted the version of the story that he knew.
"Without surprise, the crows were singed black by the sun while many were simply reduced to black ashes. The Desolate Crow was one of the few that survived the wrath of the sun and even gained some of its power."
"How do you know about this story? And why did you bring it up, Leon?" Lilith asked with surprise, uncertain of Leon's intention.
"I have thought of a method that might possibly increase the concentration of your Desolate Crow Bloodline. However, I am not sure if you are interested in testing it out, Lilith?"
"What? Is it really possible to increase one's bloodline concentration?" Lilith muttered in shock.
The Desolate Crow Clan was vassal to the Desolate Netherbird Tribe because they were weak. Another reason was that their Desolate Crow Bloodline was too diluted to be awakened, which is also why they were weak.
If her clan could awaken their bloodline, the clan would not be inferior to the Desolate Netherbird Tribe and perhaps even surpass them.
Would her Desolate Crow Clan still be afraid of the Desolate Netherbird Tribe at that point?
"Well, we don't know yet. But according to logic, it should be possible," Leon stated before asking again, "So are you interested or not?"
"Of course I am! Even if it's just a slim chance, I am willing to take it!" Lilith stated. If she can awaken her bloodline, her fate would be completely changed.
"What do I need to do?" she asked shortly after.
"Nothing yet, and not much either. Give me a moment," Leon said before he refined the remaining drops of blood essences he had on hand into Origin Blood.
Afterward, the handful of Origin Blood was separated based on their origins; human and crow.
The human Origin Blood was stored away for future use before Leon merged all the Desolate Crow Origin Blood together.
"It's done. It's not much, but if you can absorb this into your bloodstream, there's a chance it will improve your bloodline concentration," Leon said while offering the blob of Desolate Crow Origin Blood to Lilith.
After all, it was pure Desolate Crow Blood, even if it was just a tiny portion.
However, they had an entire clan that carries the bloodline of the Desolate Crow. If the method succeeds, he could just collect more blood to refine to increase the concentration further.
"I'll give it a try!"
Lilith accepted the blob of Desolate Crow Origin Blood from Leon with a solemn look.
After feeling the subtle power coursing through the blob of Desolate Crow Origin Blood, Lilith had an intuitive feeling that it will be effective.
Without further adieu, she immediately absorbed the Origin Blood into her bloodstream.
The blob of Desolate Crow Origin Blood quickly mixed with Lilith's bloodstream before reacting violently, causing her blood flow to increase and her body to heat up.
Within a few minutes, Lilith was soaked in sweats.
Lilith felt like a furnace as her body was being burned by the blood. Even so, she gritted her teeth and endured it—but for how long? She did not know.
"Ahh, so painful! So hot! I don't think I can endure it, Leon!"
"Endure it! You must endure! Don't you want to change your fate? Persevere, Lilith!"
Leon encouraged.
After receiving Leon's encouragement, Lilith could only steel herself and continue to resist the burning sensation with all her might.
"Uwahhh!"
Boom!
A fresh pair of black-feathered wings suddenly sprouted from Lilith's back! Her aura surged, and black flames shrouded her body like a cloak of darkness!
At the same time, Darlene immediately felt pressured by the sudden transcendental might!