"Grand Banquet? Isn't that the party Azure Bai invited us to?"

This specific name was remembered by Lucy, but unlike Arthur, she would not call him Senior when he is not here, she just didn't respect him to that point, well neither did Arthur but he just got used to calling him that.

But why did Astrith only say those two words, does it mean that Saly would be there? That would be too contradictory as she is only a small girl with no status in the Underworld, the only conclusion they could come up with is that the abductor of Saly would be there.

They had a detailed description of that woman from Anastassia, so they should not miss her if she comes to the Grand Banquet.

The banquet would be held after a few months, but would Saly be safe in these 2 months? What if the woman gave up on dealing with them and had already killed Saly?

"Do we wait for the banquet or continue searching?"

Arthur didn't want to make all the decisions, he should discuss it with Lucy first as Saly is considered their daughter.

"Since it's Astrith who said that, we better trust his words, it's futile to waste time on searching for her, we better prepare for the upcoming event."

Lucy really wanted to find Saly immediately, but it was impossible, the only thing they could rely on is what Astrith said, if they found the woman, the finding Saly would not be too hard.

Since it was decided, both of them entered closed door training, Arthur reserved the inn room for the next 5 months to not be disturbed when they are practicing.

Lucy had already broken through the Immortal Realm, but in 2 months, she could still improve further and stabilize her foundation. There is much to do in a few months, if it were old fogies that had lived for thousands of years, a few months or a couple of years are nothing, they could even pass centuries in reclusive training.

There was also a thing that surprised Arthur; it's that woman's weapon, Anastassia said that she only used a book and only at the last moment did she use it. The main point is the book, its description was rather vague but from the look of it, it looked very similar to the Book of the Damned.

In the past, he thought learned it all, but after breaking the seal of the overgod of Knowledge, he came to know that there is another part to the book and her book is most likely that part. Considering that the first part gave him [Faster Than Death] , [Death Touch] and [Death Binding] .

Lucy and Arthur didn't waste time roaming on the city, the stayed at their room and began training non-stop.

Lucy practiced in both her techniques and honed her saber skills, her progress was unbelievable and her Strength rose very fast, by the 12th day, she already broke through to the Immortal 2nd Grade. Her Mental power had to reach 2,000 but with her talent and fast progress, it was done rather quickly.

As for Arthur, he managed to enter the ethereal state again, the black talisman started conjuring again with a slow pace. The black flames kept burning and the black gold symbols shined even brighter when the talisman was almost finished.

After one month of this meticulous and non-stop training, the black talisman was 90% done. Arthur had his eyes closed and looked extremely serene. It's like he was sleeping and not breaking through.

Deep in his consciousness, Arthur was actually having a dream, a strange dream. It happened once before but this time it was much clearer as he could distinguish himself in the dream.

He was looking at his body from above, the him in the dream was a bit older and had a beard. He wore a simple and long white robe and didn't emit any strong pressure or chilliness.

He was holding a small baby, who didn't even open his eyes yet, he was touching the baby's nose and heartily laughing as he was teasing the baby in his hands.

It was a peaceful scene, anyone would think it's a father teasing his child. As for the surroundings, all of it was plains of grass except a small hut, it was very small and had some plants stuck in it.

As Arthur was contemplating the scene and wondering what was this about, he sensed a presence behind him so he turned his head only to be dumbstruck as Zodiak's skeleton was floating behind him.

It looked at him with its lifeless eyes and seemed to be thinking about something as it remained silent.

"Kid.. you sure have some strange past."

"Past?..."

Arthur didn't understand what Zodiak was implying, these scenes never happened in his past, he didn't even know what this place was, much less who the baby is.

"Senior Zodiak, I don't think this is my past."

Arthur didn't try to hide it as his relationship with Zodiak is not that bad, this man, who had unbelievable strength helped him more than one time, whether it's by saving his life or giving him a hand in some matters, such as the portal to the Underworld.

Zodiak's skeleton kept floating as it didn't show any emotions or gestures, after a couple of seconds, the cold and emotionless voice of Zodiak rang again in Arthur's ears.

"Not your past? You must be mistaken kid, this cannot be a dream as it is too realistic, so the only plausible possibility is that it's your past, I heard of some people practicing Fate laws but I'm sure you are not one of them so this cannot be a dream of the future."

After pausing for a split second, Zodiak continued talking.

"Anyways, I didn't come here to learn about your past, this is only a late message I left for you when you are about to breakthrough. Since you got my corpse, then you surely have my storage ring, inside it, there is a cultivation book for you, it's named 'Dark Anguish Technique', all the volumes are there, moreover, practice the 'Dark Star Body-Strengthening Technique' it's only 1 volume but it compliments the first one. Oh! And stop using that lowly soul absorption technique, your souls is filled with impurities, that way to increase your soul power is totally wrong, either reach a high-realm or find a Godly treasure for that!

And one last thing, don't break through in a public place, find a seclusive place to breakthrough or troubles will come, especially if you're in the high-Realm."

Just as he finished talking, Arthur found himself sitting cross-legged in the inn room with Lucy practicing her saber skills.

He didn't even thank Zodiak for his help, he was suddenly ejected from that strange dream and found himself awoken here.

"Lucy, we have to change to another place"

.....

In a mountain range named The Decayed Tips, approximately in the central mountains which were sky-high. Lucy and Arthur built a cave very deep underground. It was rather easy with Arthur Advanced mastery in Earth Attribute, his physical strength and so on. They got here using their new Spirit Boat which had an insane speed, it was much faster than Malark's.

They followed Zodiak's advice and moved to a very reclusive place, this mountain range doesn't have any strong monsters, in fact, it doesn't have any monsters and it was just a border between the Silent Graveyard and the Void Abyss.

It was the perfect place for Arthur to Breakthrough. Lucy is rapidly advancing in her saber skills and new Yin power. She managed to create that meteorite attack in just 10 seconds, not only that her attacks with Yin power are very strong and freezing. If Arthur doesn't use the Ancient Flames, he can't defend, moreover, the red flames could barely withstand the Yin power as he is weaker than Lucy.

Normally the dark red flames can burn anything, but this time, they couldn't burn Lucy's attacks which contained Yin power and that's because it had been enhanced by her special meridians and what's more is that she is using Nether Energy and he's using the meager Mana present in this space.

Arthur and Lucy sparred a few times as sometimes, the talisman would stop conjuring unless he consumes all his Mana. It is rather hard to consume it all, so he would create big and slow attacks that only cause destruction and are easily dodged, Lucy in return would try to defend with her saber skills and Yin power.

While wearing a sky-blue robe with long sleeves and with Twilight's Vow in her hand, she seemed like a fairy. Each saber strike would create an ice beam that headed straight at the enemy, it is beautiful but deadly.

....

40 days passed since they received the message from Astrith and as this specific day, the black talisman was finally conjured fully, its size was of a normal talisman but it emanated an ominous aura that made others look away from it rather than staring at it.

Arthur was focusing on the black talisman and slowly, this dark flaming Talisman started melting and going inside his head all the way to his Dantian area.

He felt his body burning hot and all his clothes he was wearing were burned by the mysterious black flames. He was literally a ball of black flames and all his surroundings were engulfed in the flames.

Lucy stepped back and did not dare approach it, despite the soul-link, she still felt danger from the black flames.

As Arthur was feeling his meridians opening and the Nether Energy entering his body, a sudden black beam of light rushed from his body all the way to the sky. It was very noticeable and it started thickening by the second, even Lucy was engulfed in it but fortunately, it wasn't harmful.

ARK Race Bloodline awakening! .... initiating process...

As the black beam was thickening, Arthur's hair which was pure black and a bit long suddenly transformed to grey, but that was not the end, his veins and muscles started convulsing and you could see their greyness even from his skin. The pain was agonizing, he totally forgot about the black beam due to the pain from the convulsion. He was closing his eyes but if he opened them, Lucy would be surprised as they too turned to grey.

All his body was pulsating and transforming. The black beam of light started decreasing in size and transformed into a huge whirlpool in the sky, this whirlpool was absorbing Nether Energy and Mana like crazy, even the decaying mountains started falling apart as their natural Nether Energy was forcefully absorbed by the Nether Energy.

All this Nether Energy and the meager Mana absorbed went to Arthur's Dantian through his meridians, just like Lucy, a jet black orb was condensed from the Energy, it continued increasing in size for some time until it reached its maximum and at that time, the whirlpool disappeared and what replaced it was just the sounds of the nearby mountains falling as they were out of energy.

The greyness in Arthur's body disappeared but his hair was still grey, it even grow a bit longer. As he was steadily breathing, Arthur felt the Nether Energy being absorbed by his Meridians and he could see the black orb in his Dantian. It had black flames all over it and a purple light was pulsating in it as if it was a heart.

He checked his body condition but there was nothing wrong, in fact, he was feeling great, he wanted to fight and unleash all the stocked up energy in his body, it's like he was a sponge filled with water.

It was fortunate that they changed location or else this would have been a serious problem, the black whirlpool was noticeable from hundreds of miles but the distance from the Undead city is not just hundreds of miles but millions of miles! So unless someone was passing from this area, no one should have seen it.

The cave they built in the underground was no long gone and what replaced it was just a very deep pit.

"Congratulations!"

The silver-haired Lucy softly smiled to Arthur, she went next to him and gave him a cloth to wear as he was naked, if it was like usual, they would have enjoyed their time as it was a joyous occasion, but now was not the time, saving Saly took priority.

"Hehe, thank you, it seems we're going to spar more often now."

Arthur was hugely overwhelmed by her strength before breaking through, but after he grasps his techniques and stabilizes his foundation, sparring equally with her would not be a problem.

The first thing Arthur did was obviously check his status window, after all, it was the most precise thing that indicated his strength. He may have stats higher than Lucy or a Divine Realm individual but that didn't mean he is stronger because stats aren't everything, they are just numerical values, one had to rely on his wit, techniques to overcome his enemies.

TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE / ONE WITH THE SWORD / ARK???

Level: ???? Class: Dark ARK Parasite

-

Realm : Immortal 1st Grade

-

Strength: 72.3m

Intelligence: 63.4m

Agility: 65m

Wisdom: 45m

Vitality: 59.9m

Dexterity: 52.8m

-

Health: 50m Health Regen: 29999/s

Nether Energy: 48m Nether Energy Regen: 29999/s

Mana: 35m Mana Regen 19999/s

Stamina infinite Stamina Regen ????

-

Creation : 25

Attack: 95m

Defense: 65m

Magic defense : 15.5m

Enigma abilities : Telekinesis / Ancient Threads / Sixth sense / ARK??

Mental Power : 1027

Elemental Resistances:

Fire: 100% Water: 75%

Wind: 35% Earth: 75%

Light/holy: 5% Shadow 30%

Lightning 100% Ice 30%

----

The increase in all the stats was very obvious as all of them increased by more than 10m but that was not it, he still had a lot of corpses in his storage so without hesitation, Arthur started possessing them like crazy.

Lucy didn't disturb him and continued practicing, as for him, after possessing all of them, he fed Makaze as many swords as it could devour, it didn't devour all of the swords in storage as there were just too many but Arthur purposely fed it the better ones so after having devoured 40 Mystic Ranked swords and 3 Heavenly Ranked Sword, it stats didn't increase anymore.

Makaze, evil wind (Heavenly Ranked 2nd Grade)

Origins : Dark Supreme World.

LVL requirements : Immortal 1st Grade or above

Stats required : 1000+ Mental Power

to equip you to need to have at least [advance sword mastery]

stats : Depends on the owner : calculation... : +2.5m Agility / +4m strength / +2m dexterity

Unique skill(passive) : [Devourer] : this katana can devour any kind of sword and by doing that its stats would significantly increase, you need to know that it needs to feed to strong swords to increase its stats significantly, otherwise the increase would be very low.