Spirit Realm

"Senior..."

Qin Lie showed respect for the first time as he bowed towards this old man.

"I'm Teng Yuan, the ‘yuan’ that means ‘far away’," the old man said coolly.

"I see, Senior Teng."

"No, no, call me Old Teng. I like other people calling me that."

"Alright, Old Teng."

"Mn, this is more pleasing to hear."

Qin Lie felt puzzled but he still asked seriously, "Old Teng, why did you help me?"

In the past few days, he had been tormented by Old Teng in the deep abyss.

In the daytime, the three suns' powerful light shone on him after being amplified through those crystal-shaped mirrors.

In the night, the moonlight of the moons was gathered and tormented him to unconsciousness.

In both cases, thick and suffocating earth spirit energy furiously poured into him.

Many times, he felt he was about to die.

But whenever he was on his last gasps, Teng Yuan would appear and throw a rank six spirit beast to him. Qin Lie would drink the blood and eat the meat to recover from his wounds.

Right after he’d recovered, Teng Yuan would rudely throw him back down into the abyss to be tortured.

He repeated this process.

He thought he would die some day, but now... he was alright, and his bloodline had made a breakthrough.

He realized that Teng Yuan was never trying to kill him.

"What latent abilities did you receive?" Teng Yuan asked again.

"Strengthening transformation, enhanced recovery ability, and an ability called ‘ignition.’ If I ignite half of my blood, my strength will double." Qin Lie knew that he could not hide anything in front of this old man. Therefore, he answered obediently.

"Holy shit, as expected of the god race bloodline. Transformation and recovery ability, this is already terrifying, and ‘ignition’ too!" Teng Yuan gaped.

"Bloodlines are also divided into ranks?" Qin Lie asked what puzzled him.

"If bloodlines were equal, why would the Ancient Beast Race members be divided into ten ranks? Not just the Ancient Beast Race, many other powerful races use the ranks of a bloodline as the ranks for strength." Teng Yuan had a disdainful expression. “You have the god race bloodline, but you do not know about the ten bloodline ranks? No wonder you had only rank four bloodline despite being on the verge of breaking through to the Fragmentation Realm. If I didn’t help you, who knows how long it would take you to reach rank five."

"Please teach me," Qin Lie said seriously.

Teng Yuan looked in wonder at him. "You really don't know."

Qin Lie shook his head.

"Just like the Ancient Beast Race’s bloodline, ancient bloodlines are divided into ten ranks based on their transformations. Many ancient experts use the bloodline as ranks. When the bloodline has just awoken, it is between rank one and rank three. It’s not particularly evident, and there are no special abilities."

"At these ranks, only the body and the biomagnetic field is strengthened, and potential is developed. Ancient experts’ strength, speed, and perception all advance together"

"Starting from rank four, the breakthroughs in bloodline will lead to obtaining latent abilities."

"Usually, latent abilities are related to bloodlines. For example, the members of the Serene Moon Race have the ability to absorb moon power. They can form powerful attacks through moon power. The same with Flame Race."

"As the bloodline advances, the ability will be enhanced. On top of that, it is possible to gain new latent abilities.”

"In other words, when a member of a powerful ancient race possesses a pure and powerful bloodline, as it advances, they can gain many different latent abilities."

"You, after reaching rank five, have three latent abilities: transformation, enhanced recovery, and ignition."

"As you continue to advance, when your bloodline reaches rank six, seven, eight, and nine, your three latent abilities will be enhanced, and you will possibly obtain new latent abilities."

“Latent abilities are unlike secret bloodline techniques. They can be directly used by your body to generate overwhelming power."

"Secret bloodline techniques such as the fire wheel you used your bloodline to form earlier come from the race's Chaos Blood Realm. They are like the spirit skills of humans, they are ways to use the bloodline."

"In other words, the bloodline latent abilities are unique powers of the bloodline, while secret bloodline arts are ways to use the bloodline."

"Do you understand what I am saying?"

Teng Yuan stopped, and looked at Qin Lie.

"Yes, latent abilities are simply abilities exclusive to the bloodline. Secret bloodline techniques are purely skills to kill enemies with the bloodline," Qin Lie said.

"Yes." Teng Yuan grinned and said, "The increase in your bloodline’s rank will increase your potential in all aspects, will let you think faster, be more intelligent, and will grant you stronger perception. Your responses will be faster, and your rate at gathering spirit energy and absorbing it will naturally be faster as well. Your cultivation will also quickly increase! In my opinion, you will reach the Fragmentation Realm soon."

"The breakthrough of the bloodline strengthens potential and will greatly increase cultivation speed?" Qin Lie was shocked.

"Yes!" Teng Yuan snorted. "Humans schemed to obtain the pure bloodlines of the ancient races in hopes to get rid of their biggest weakness, fragility. Through the strengthening of their bloodline, they can develop their potential and increase their cultivation speed."

"This is also why humans are more and more terrifying."

"The reason the god race were overthrown was because they underestimated the intelligence of humans, and the terrifying quality of the human bloodline—being able to mix with the bloodline of other races!"

"Humans are a rare race that was able to steal the blood of powerful races, mix it with their own while still being able to cultivate their so-called spirit arts and store spirit power in the spirit sea. In result, they reached terrifying levels of power!"

"In the past, the humans emphasized cultivation and ignored the refinement of their body. Because of their inherent weakness ,they were not be able to catch up to those powerful ancient races even if they spent great effort on their physical body refinement."

"This meant that they were at a huge disadvantage in melee combat."

"At the start of the War of the Hundred Races, when the humans allied with the other races to fight the god race, they hid in the back and only released spirit skills. They never dared to fight at the frontlines."

"The humans were looked down upon by the other races, and their abilities were limited. Once the god race came near the defense line, the humans would be easily killed."

"At that time, their bodies were too weak."

"Later, humans, through mixing bloodlines, came to possess the bloodlines of the ancients, and their bodies grew stronger. They would not die with a single blow."

"Their cultivation speed increased, they grew stronger, and they even had the ability to fight the members of the god race head-on.

"In the second battle of the races, the humans finally did not shrink back behind the other races, and fought a the frontlines. This is why the god race had to flee back into the chaotic streams of space."

"Humans are best at reproducing, their numbers nothing short of terrifying. The population of all the other races added together is not even one-tenth of the humans."

"With such an enormous population, even if only one in a hundred is an expert, it is enough to terrify all the other races."

"Right now, the god race is gone, and humans have dominated Spirit Realm. They have proven their prowess to the other races."

"The god race has disappeared. The other races started to live in the shadow of the humans. Also… in these years... the humans have become more and more arrogant, and not any better than the god race!"

"F*cking hell!"

Teng Yuan had been originally speaking of the bloodline yet when he continued to talk, he started to criticize the humans.

Qin Lie had an awkward expression.

Teng Yuan seemed to hate both the humans and the god race. And he was human, and also had the god race bloodline.

"Nevermind." A long time later, when Teng Yuan was tired of cursing, he stopped when he noticed Qin Lie's silence.

"Usually, the breakthrough of ancient races’ bloodlines to rank five is the same as the Fulfillment Realm according to human rankings. Oh, right, your rankings for cultivation are copied from the bloodline ranks of the ancient races. However, the bloodline of the ancient race is famed for its strength. So while you only have a bloodline that just reached rank five, just with your bloodline power, you should be able to kill martial practitioners that are in the early stage of the Fragmentation Realm."

"Of course, people such as Jun Hongxuan and Lin Jie from major factions who also have bloodlines of ancient races are a different matter."

"Oh, I also forget you are in the late stage of the Fulfillment Realm, and about to reach the Fragmentation Realm."

"When you reach the Fragmentation Realm, if you fought against those two people in a deathmatch, with your god race bloodline, you may be their match."

"They are in the middle stage of the Fragmentation Realm."

Teng Yuan said casually.

"Old Teng, why did you help me?" Qin Lie suddenly said.

Teng Yuan stopped grumbling and snorted. He said, "The person you got the Records of Geocentric Magnetism from has a deep connection... to me." Sorrow flashed through his eyes.

"His inheritance, the last thread of his power after his death, turned into the characters of the Records of Geocentric Magnetism and have been imprinted into your mind. You could be considered his only heir."

"Also, the members of the Ancient Beast Race that you helped release are connected to me."

"I owed you a favor, and gave you good fortune to repay it."

Teng Yuan seemed unable to control his emotions and his eyes seemed to tear up as he spoke.

"Leave, leave, I have done what I could. I do not want to interfere in what happens next, I'm sending you away now!" Teng Yuan grumbled again.

"Boom!"

A loud explosion sounded in Qin Lie's mind, his eyes were dizzy as he rose through the clouds.

He knew he was leaving this place at a rapid speed.

A long time later, dizzy, he heard Teng Yuan's shout.

His floating body stopped.

He found he was shrouded in a gray and yellow energy flow above the village of the Dark Shadow Race. There were Sun Palace chariots parked around him, and some crescent flying artifacts further away.

When he looked down, he found that the members of the Dark Shadow Race were being chased by Sun Palace's people in the valley.

"This has nothing to do with me." Teng Yuan had an aloof expression. Then he said, "How about ... I send you away?"

"No, let me down," Qin Lie said seriously.

"You are sure?"

"Sure?"

"Alright then."

He threw Qin Lie down.