Relic awoke in a slight daze. He felt pressure pressed against his shoulder which he quickly turned to see was his sister sleeping soundly. He quickly breathed a sigh of relief before quickly adjusting her so that she leaned against the tree.

He quickly noticed the Diana not too far away. Her head was lightly raised as Cornelius flew around her. Her body were still filled with numerous lacerations from the previous attack. Although the bleeding had stopped, it looked as if she was close to death’s door.

….

“Sorry this is the most I can do.” Cornelius finished applying the medicinal cream on her body.

“Thank you, this is the second time you have saved me Mr. Saviour.” She gave a light smile.

“Please, I’m the one who should be thanking you. You put yourself in harm’s way in order to protect my student and her brother. Also… sorry, this was my entire fault to being with.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Diana, how are you?” Relic suddenly appeared before Diana and Cornelius.

“Ah, Relic, I’m doing good. I’m happy to see you and your sister are uninjured as well.”

“I don’t know what to say except thank you for coming to our aid. You had no obligation to put your life in danger like that and we are incredibly grateful for what you did. If there is anything I can help you with please don’t hesitate to ask?” Relic bowed.

“No, no, it was nothing. In fact, I wasn’t able to do much at all…”Her gaze returned to the sweet looking girl who was still currently sleeping against a tree. “Please tell Hana it was great to see her again, but that I have to return to my home and we won’t be able to see each again.”

Her long body stretched to the sky, and while she tried to put up a strong front, the twitch in her eye did not escape Cornelius or Relic.

“Diana, you are still heavily injured; you can recuperate back in my immortal cave. I’m sure whatever business you have to take care of can wait until you are able to move freely again.”

“N-no, I really do have spent too much time here. I must return to my kingdom before my father goes on a rampage.” She feigned a smile before turning to leave. “Goodbye…”

Her entire body suddenly shook slightly as more golden scales dimmed to black. At this point, the golden scales on her body only covered 30% of her body. She sighed lightly and continued on.

Relic stroked his chin as if he had a beard and spoke, “Diana, if you don’t mind, may I ask you a question?”

Diana stopped and turned back to Relic.

“Yes, what is it?”

“I’m just curious as to why you have not yet awakened your ancestral blood line yet.”

Cornelius and Diana stilled by Relic’s bluntness. She stood silent for a moment before lovering her head to Relic’s eye level.

“I-I see you must have been studying about spirit beasts. Okay, I can tell you a little about Spirit beasts.” Diana still believed Relic and Hana to be nothing more than little kids. While Hana could be said to be an unsurpassed genius in cultivation, Relic was just her brother who stayed by his sister. Even after Relic had performed such an advanced cultivation technique, she merely believed it was something the mayor must have taught him.

“You see spirit beasts all strive in order to awaken their ancestral bloodline. However, we can only activate it once and at times, it occurs randomly. When the blood line first awakens, the spirit beast must go through the awakening process successfully to awaken the blood fully otherwise it is deemed a failure…like me. My gold scales are the result of my awakening having failed and will soon disappear from my body. I will never be able to awaken it once more.” She said in a sorrowful tone.

Relic tilted his head in confusion. “That’s not what I meant. I mean why you have not eaten the lightning wave fruit yet to awaken your bloodline. Your kingdom is quite far away and it would take you several weeks to get there in your state. Do you perhaps have a secondary location to perform your awakening process?”

“Eh?” She stared blankly hearing Relic’s words. Lightning wave fruit, what is that? Didn’t he just hear spirit beasts only receive one chance to awaken their bloodlines? These questions popped in her head.

“Your injuries are not light and I’m afraid once you go deeper, your blood will attract certain spirit beasts to attack you. Did your father not send anyone to receive you?”

“Relic, what are you trying to say? We both know how Spirit beasts are treated once their awakening fails. Why are you asking such questions? Cornelius asked with a frown. He truly felt like Relic was asking too much considering Diana had risked her life to save them. It almost sounded like Relic was mocking her which made his blood boil slightly.

Relic raised an eyebrow as the expressions Diana and Cornelius were making. “Isn’t it common knowledge for her to quickly consume the lightning wave fruit here now that she was injured?”

He went into deep thinking. “Ah!” his eyes flashed with a light of remembrance, “Sorry, I had mixed up some of the details between the Central Heaven Continent and our Great Sea Continent.” He made an apologetic gesture to Diana. “This maybe news to you, but so long as a single drop of ancestral blood resides within you, as long as you consume an opposing essence fruit, you will encounter a tribulation within your body which will stimulate that blood. If you are capable of passing the tribulation you will have successfully awakened your ancestral bloodline!”

Diana stilled in disbelief as Relic continued, “Yes, while the ancestral awakening is a bid deal to spirit beasts, it can’t be considered rare in the Central Heaven Continent. Over there, spirit beasts with awakened bloodlines are as common as clouds.”

“H-how …Are you speaking the truth?” Diana asked solemnly.

Relic nodded.

Diana turned to Cornelius who was just as much shocked as she was. He quickly noticed her gaze, which now seemed to be filled with a small light of hope.

“Diana, I can’t say exactly why, but Relic is most likely telling the truth. I would believe him even if he were to tell me he knew the location of the pill of immortality.” He assured her.

Relic scratched his head slightly and let out a small chuckle.

“In the Central Heaven Continent, the spirit beasts there have their own sects and undergo trial by fire for their younger generation to invoke their ancestral blood line. During the awakening process, spirit beasts genuinely have two options. They may either pass their awakening process or choose to purposefully fail the awakening. If they fail, they will have to ingest essence fruit of an opposing affinity to their own which will spark a tribulation within their body. However, doing so is incredibly dangerous and the difficulty is several times that of naturally awakening. Those with monstrous talent would choose to wait for their ancestral blood line to dwindle after their initial failed awakening as the less ancestral blood in your body, the more powerful the tribulation. The reward for passing a powerful tribulation is obviously a higher quality of ancestral blood and the more powerful the spirit beast becomes.”

Relic proceeded to stare at Diana directly in her eyes. “You only have 30% of your ancestral bloodline left which is usually the realm genisus would attempt. It won’t be easy to pass your tribulations.” He nodded. “Diana, you have the affinity to the earth essence meaning you must eat the lightning wave fruit in order to ignite the blood line once more.”

At this point, tears began to well up in Diana’s eyes.

“The Central Heaven Continent…” Cornelius mumbled to himself. He had never even heard of the place. The Great Sea Continent which they lived in was not small. Even with all his years of traveling, there were still many places he had yet to visit. However, compared to the Central Heaven Continent, you may as well compare a city to that of an entire country.

“You speak as if spirit beasts with awakened bloodlines are commonplace in this Central Heaven Continent. Isn’t the chance of awakening the bloodline incredibly difficult?” Cornelius asked with a look of intrigue was on his face. The Beast Calamity Sect was probably the most knowledgeable sect with regards to Spirit beasts. Yet, he had never figured out how or when spirit beasts would awaken their bloodlines.

“The treaty between the humans and spirit beasts had an unexpected consequence for spirit beasts. This is my own theory but the primordial spirit beasts, which existed in the beginning, lived in chaotic periods where only the strong survive. Through dangerous encounters they became stronger and stronger. To be pushed to your absolute limit is what I believe causes spirit beasts to awaken their bloodline. However, as the treaty is still in place, powerful spirit beasts rarely are able to challenge themselves where they put their lives on stake.”

“TH-that truly is an interesting theory.” Cornelius nodded.

“So…I can still awaken my blood line.” Tears fell down her head. Relic’s words were like a sweet song which gave her hope in her moments of despair.

Light shined from her body and she transformed back into her human form. Before anyone could react, she had embraced Relic in her arms. Though there were many lacerations on her otherwise perfect body, her beauty had not diminished one bit. “Thank you…Thank you…” Her voice filled with gratitude.

All the while Relic froze like a statue from her sudden action.

Even Cornelius couldn’t help but drop his jaw from the sight.

Suddenly…

“Brother, what are you doing?”