Winnie opened his personal status via the Virtue panel.
Name: Winnie Aeciphysis
Soul Art: [Armor] (High Defense, Reduced Agility)
Root Soul Art: Unawakened
Divine Favor: Unawakened
Soul Art Level: Entry-Level
His gaze moved to the Soul Art Level section, and Winnie remembered that Soul Art levels were ranked.
From lowest to highest, they were: Entry-Level, Apprentice, Sorcerer, Demon Spirit, Master, Grandmaster, Purgatory, Immortal.
Each level was divided into three stages: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.
Since he had just absorbed a Soul Art, it was naturally at the Entry-Level Beginner stage.
When he saw the Root Soul Art section, Winnie was somewhat surprised. Root Soul Art was something that only Sage families would have. As a Dead Bloodline, his Root Soul Art wasn’t “None,” but “Unawakened,” which was a bit puzzling to him.
Also, his Divine Favor was also unawakened.
If the family bloodline were to awaken, would these two sections unlock as well?
If Winnie wasn’t mistaken, the Aeciphysis family was the bearer of the [Blessed Angel] bloodline. The Divine Favor abilities were [Flawless Holy Feather] and [All-Gods Blessing Flame].
Winnie wasn’t entirely sure about the specific effects of [Flawless Holy Feather], since the only heir of the Aeciphysis family in Caryliman's Citrus was Winnie, a Dead Bloodline cannon fodder. As a result, Aeciphysis became one of the weakest and least prominent Sage families in the story, only existing in the background from start to finish.
This was normal, after all. In the original story, Winnie's death symbolized the complete extinction of the Aeciphysis family. After that, the Goddess Fanghui and the generations of Fanghui Saintesses lived only in history books. The Aeciphysis family’s Divine Favor was buried under the sands of time, with only the [Saint's Envoy] Soul Art proving the family’s existence.
As for [All-Gods Blessing Flame], Winnie knew a little about this Divine Favor’s effect. The reason was simple—this Divine Favor was too powerful.
According to the original story, [All-Gods Blessing Flame] wasn’t ordinary fire; it was the companion flame of the Blessed Angel, capable of purifying the world and eradicating evil, rendering any magic ineffective and turning it into fuel for its own flame. It was also the only Divine Favor in the game that could bypass all resistances and enchantment protections.
Whether living or dead, anything touched by it would be completely purified. Many Demon Kings throughout history had perished under the [All-Gods Blessing Flame]. It was universally feared, known for being so deadly that there were no survivors—it was famous throughout the world. Humans knew how terrifying it was but couldn’t quite describe it, while the Demon Race understood it all too well.
It was a weapon that made even the proudest Demon families tremble.
If you are reading this translation anywhere other than Novelight.net, it has been stolen.
But unfortunately, this universally acknowledged ultimate weapon had only ever appeared in the background of the original story. Apart from the spark of the flame left by the Goddess Fanghui, it had never shown itself.
If he could summon [All-Gods Blessing Flame], it would be unthinkable...
In that moment, Winnie felt a surge of desire to awaken the family bloodline.
However, Winnie then realized a blind spot.
If he wasn’t mistaken, there was something strange about the Aeciphysis family.
The first Aeciphysis was called the Goddess Fanghui, and her descendants were all the Saintesses who led the Fanghui Church and its followers.
That’s right, only Saintesses, no Saint Sons.
According to records, the features of every Fanghui Saintess were the same as the Goddess Fanghui—peach-pink hair and cherry-colored heart-shaped eyes.
It wasn’t surprising that their features were the same, as in the setting, the genes of Sage families were incredibly strong. It wasn’t just Aeciphysis; other Sage families were the same.
What was strange was that, despite the Aeciphysis family’s long lineage, why had there never been a Saint Son? Why were there only Saintesses? Could it be that the Aeciphysis family could only produce girls and not boys?
But thinking about it, this was a Western fantasy magic world, and having these strange settings wasn’t too out of place.
Yet, why was it that in his grandfather’s generation, all three of them were boys? And in those three generations, the Divine Favor disappeared, the features vanished, and the family became a Dead Bloodline.
Could it be that there was a problem with the Aeciphysis family’s gene expression? Maybe the most important part of the gene became recessive in males and only expressed in females?
That was very possible.
But if that was the case, how could he awaken the family bloodline? No matter how much he awakened, it wouldn’t change the fact that he was a man, right?
He didn’t know. For now, he would just take it step by step. Before he accumulated enough Virtue, he had no idea what the future would hold.
With that thought, he extinguished the candle, but he didn’t plan to go to sleep immediately. Instead, he sat on the edge of the bed, calmly watching the courtyard under the moonlight with his legs crossed.
After a long time, a suspicious shadow appeared in the courtyard.
Finally, he had waited long enough.
Winnie’s lips curled into a smile as he caught Dark’s tail. However, he didn’t intend to follow him right away.
He just wanted to confirm that Dark was indeed doing something shady behind his back. As for following him to investigate?
Winnie still wanted to live. He didn’t know who had been so bored as to plant eyes on him, an utterly insignificant Dead Bloodline, but rushing in without knowing the enemy’s identity would be a dangerously reckless move.
His instincts told him that the person, no, the force, watching him wasn’t ordinary. At the very least, it wasn’t something he could face head-on with his weak self, so he couldn’t let the enemy know that he had already detected their spy.
When cornered, a dog would jump the wall—taking down someone as weak as him would be too easy.
On the other side, Dark sneaked out of the courtyard gate, wrapped in a black robe. Although he didn’t think the idiot young master Winnie could detect his trail, it was better to be cautious.
As usual, he arrived at the designated meeting spot. After exchanging the secret signal, a tall man wearing a cloak stepped out from the shadows of the street corner.
"Greetings, my lord," Dark quickly bowed.
"You've advanced the meeting time; I assume you have important intelligence?" The man's voice was muffled, making it hard to distinguish the tone. As he got closer, Dark noticed he was wearing a mask that obscured his face.
"Yes, that’s right," Dark respectfully reported that Winnie had decided to fire him.
"...You mean, that fool young master wants to fire you?" After a long pause, the man finally spoke.
"Yes, he went to the palace again today. I'm not sure what for, but when he came back, he was furious. It might be because of the previous incident, or maybe he discovered something suspicious about me...?"
"Did I allow you to make assumptions?" Before Dark could continue, the man gave him a sharp look, making Dark quickly lower his head.
"I dare not!"
"That useless fool was rejected by the princess recently. It’s not surprising he would take his frustration out on someone weaker than him. This is very much in line with his personality," the man analyzed, speaking to himself.
Hearing this, Dark was somewhat surprised by the man’s judgment but didn’t dare to speak out.
"So, my lord, what about me?"
"The last living member of the Aeciphysis family has fallen to this point. I think continuing to monitor him is just a waste of resources."
"As for you, just as we agreed, you will get what you want."
"Thank you, my lord!" Dark’s heart swelled with joy upon hearing this.
This was the moment he had been waiting for, taking risks all this time. Wasn’t this what he wanted?
"So, my lord, where are you going to take me to treat my dark illness?" Dark believed the person before him had a way, after all...
"You don’t need to go anywhere." The man turned around.
Dark’s face immediately turned pale with disbelief as he stared at the cross-shaped sword of light that had pierced his chest.
In an instant, his breath was filled with choking blood.
He was pierced by countless swords of light.
The seemingly holy swords of light had become the weapon that killed him.
"My lord, you...?"
"Dark, I really wanted you to live, but I can't guarantee you can keep the secret in your stomach," the man said with a light laugh.
"Only the dead can keep secrets forever."
"This isn’t a breach of contract, though. After all, we agreed that the [Saint's Envoy] would heal your dark illness. This is a [Saint's Envoy] technique. It could be considered healing, but not using healing magic."
"You, you! This bastard!..." Realizing he had been tricked, Dark widened his eyes in fury.
"What? A thing that sells out its master, do you deserve to live?" the man sneered.
Dark’s eyes grew dull as he gradually lost vitality. His body was burned into ash by the light swords, which were soon blown away by the wind, never to be seen again.
"With so many eyes watching... Winnie Aeciphysis, I hope you’re worth me doing this."
"Don’t let me down." The man whispered softly, flicking his cloak and disappearing without a trace.