The Titan's Throne

Bloodline Evolution

She walked up to Bastian, with some suspicion in her eyes.

"What the heck was that?"

Bastian turned around when he heard her question, a cheeky grin was plastered on his face.

"The Empyrean Equilibrium Void Shattering Fist!"

V was surprised. This sounded like a martial technique! Mages had spells and warriors had martial techniques. These were specialized techniques that had a much bigger effect than normal moves.

For example, some martial techniques can make your punch ten times stronger than normal. All they require is one to move and mould his qi in certain ways to produce results.

The unfortunate thing was that martial techniques were not easy to find. The cheapest martial technique was around 3 gold, so only well-paid warriors could learn them.

Not only that, martial techniques were very difficult to learn and even more difficult to master, it can take one 5 years to learn just one technique if one's aptitude was average. In addition, one could only learn martial techniques once one started cultivation. A bird without wings cannot learn how to fly.

Some martial techniques had many levels called chapters. In extremely powerful martial techniques, each chapter could count as a martial technique on its own.

For example, what Bastian just did was the first chapter of a very powerful technique. V did not for one-second doubt Bastian's words. Since with her own eyes, she could see the entire area 500 meters in front of Bastian was upheaved and burned to a crisp. Some sand had even fused together, forming impure glass. Yet the most remarkable thing was not the damage, but the fact that Bastian had created art with it.

For in front of the two was a massive image of a taijitu, made from normal and burned sand.

To have this much of an incredible degree of control on his first try, not to mention that he was not taught by anyone. Wait...was not taught?

That was when V realized it. Bastian did not know any martial techniques beforehand. So how did he know one now? One that was not only so powerful but one he executed with incredible familiarity.

This technique, his body change, and that massive dragon! There was only one explanation... But it is impossible. One needs many tools to do that. Doing so without tools is pointless. Even the tools could only increase the odds of success slightly. He only cultivated normally, so the odds of him doing this were harder than if one tried to ascend to the heavens... Unless...

V came to a very frightening conclusion. Her master had once told her of an old legend. Of people who had done deeds so incredible in their past lives, that karma would bless them with incredible luck in their new ones.

These beings were called Karmic Kings. It is said that they were blessed so much by karma that they would never fail in any endeavour. It was also said that if one allied himself with such a person, it was possible for one to experience good karma himself, however, if one become the enemy of a Karmic King, then one's fate would only be to enter the underworld.

Luck that could defy reason itself. Such was the existence of Karmic Kings! V refused to believe such fairy tales but Bastian's next words brought her fears into reality.

Bastian saw that she was lost in contemplation. So he decided to push her along.

"V, I don't know how, and I don't know why, but I just had a Bloodline Awakening!"

Bloodline Awakening, one of the least understood phenomena on the path to cultivation. There are many theories explaining what it is or how it came to be. Some theories suggest that humans are the descendants of gods or powerful beings, and that part of their divine power could be awakened, giving one, extraordinary strength. This was the most accepted theory. Others state that it was a random mutation that gave one a boost in strength.

Despite the different theories, everyone still came to the same conclusion. If one had awakened a bloodline, then one's strength would increase by leaps and bounds! It also provided many benefits, depending on what bloodline one has aroused.

One person has the potential to awaken lots of bloodlines, as procreation is the combination and fusion of multiple gene pools, but once you have awakened a bloodline, you can't awaken another. Most awaken relatively weak bloodlines, some awaken stronger ones. The strength of your bloodline is roughly determined by the might of the apparition that appears at the moment of your awakening.

The more tangible and greater the aura of the apparition, the mightier the bloodline one had awakened. These apparitions were also the beings from which the bloodline originated from.

Take, for example, Bastian. His bloodline originated from that massive two-headed dragon. Its aura and size were so ridiculous, so much so that V almost lost her sanity, despite having an incredibly fortified mind. Just one claw from the dragon was able to blot out the sun!

This was clearly an extremely powerful bloodline. Another sign of its might were the changes made to Bastian's appearance. The changes that occur to one who has awakened a bloodline, depend more on how much of the bloodline was awakened, rather than the strength of the bloodline itself, however, both points still factor in at the end of the day.

For example, two people could awaken the same bloodline, but one would be able to awaken more than the other. The one who awakens more would have more strength and would have their body further enhanced to the point where their physical appearance was altered, just like Bastian.

V stood there with a frown on her face. That was the kind of frown she always had when she got a surprise. She did not like surprises. "What's the name of your bloodline?"

When one awakens a bloodline, especially a strong one, they would usually receive information with it. Usually, it would be just a name and some properties of the bloodline. As your cultivation increased one would gain more information. Yet Bastian's bloodline came with a martial technique! A high class one at that!

What information will he receive if his cultivation increases?

V trembled at the thought.

Bastian showed a pondering expression on his face. He had received too much information at one time, so he was still busy trying to sort it out. After a while, he breathed in deeply and sighed. "Tyrian Double Headed Storm Dragon. Ever heard of it?" asked Bastian.

V shook her head. The less powerful bloodlines were much easier to awaken. The more common and well known they were, the easier they were to awaken. Thus the general consensus was that unknown bloodlines are powerful.

V came from the Inkume, a tribe that had been in existence for thousands of years. Although the information had been lost to the sands of time, they still had far more knowledge than almost all other groups on the sovereign continent. V had been educated by some of their most knowledgeable scholars, yet she had never heard of such a bloodline.

If even my tribe has not heard of it, who has?

When she connected the dots together, she started breaking into a cold sweat, an unknown bloodline, with an extremely large apparition, so big that its footprint was the size of a small country.

She wanted to ask Bastian more but he interrupted her with serious news.

"V you were right. You definitely were not the only person who saw this apparition. Odds are people in the city are going crazy. We need to get the general and his men to leave....fast."

V nodded. Such a large apparition with such an imposing aura no doubt caught the attention of a lot of strong cultivators. The higher your cultivation level, the more sensitive you are to such things. There was no doubt that many strong cultivators were on their way.

"Let's move! Now!"

Bastian took V's hand and ran back toward the city. V was being pulled like she was a piece of cloth. Bastian's strength surprised her. He had barely cultivated, yet he was strong enough to lift her and move her along like she was a kite!

Not only that, but his speed was shocking. He was moving at least 3 times the speed of a physically fit human without cultivation.

Bloodlines are such a cheat!

V's unhappy thoughts were evident on her face. Yet Bastian could not care less. On the contrary, he was just happy that he was messing with her body instead. This was revenge for her sudden action of chucking him into the sky.

Her body was extremely strong and resilient, so the movements did nothing to her. She simply allowed Bastian to pull her along whilst she was deep in thought. She guessed that most of the strong cultivators in the sub-region sensed what had just happened, and odds are some of the stronger ones would move.

Unfortunately, she had underestimated Bastian's bloodline severely.