Chapter 710: Section 497: Cang Xu’s Bloodline (Extra at Month’s End)
White Hair Sea Trench.
The brilliance filled the entire underwater valley, casting everyone’s expressions in sharp relief.
Ship ghosts and others looked solemn, their gazes focused on Cang Xu and Ku Feng.
Cang Xu and Ku Feng were already kneeling among the many believers.
The Fishmen of the Da Ji Tribe were silent, but the flames of hatred blazed in their eyes as they glanced at Cang Xu!
If looks could kill, Cang Xu would have been killed by the Da Ji Tribe’s Fishmen hundreds of times by now.
After all, he was the sworn enemy who had wiped out their entire tribe.
This was a genocidal vendetta!
“Even if I am killed by the Holy Beast inside the Ocean Nest, I must kill you first!” thought many Fishmen of the Da Ji Tribe.
Many had even conspired to join forces to eliminate Cang Xu before this!
Ku Feng, sitting close to Cang Xu, gave a bitter smile, “It seems that once we are in the Ocean Nest, we’ll likely first fall into bitter strife.”
Cang Xu reassured, “Don’t worry, compared to the battle at the Nether River, it’s still not too dangerous. Most Fishmen haven’t experienced teleportation, so we will react first. By taking the initiative to approach the Holy Beast, there might still be a chance.”
Having said that, Cang Xu looked towards Qing Xin.
Qing Xin was standing afar, sensing the ill will the Fishmen harbored towards Cang Xu and had absolutely no interest in getting closer to him.
Cang Xu’s gaze flickered briefly before he shifted it away.
If he acknowledged Qing Xin now, it would undoubtedly expose their relationship and attract disaster to her.
Just like before, the Array hummed as it operated, with Divine Text and Magic Rune reflecting off each other.
Numerous sea beasts were absorbed by the Gold Altar, their flesh dissolved and bones fell, assembling the Gold Altar into an even more robust structure.
Spatial fluctuations occurred, transporting all the believers around the altar into the Ocean Nest.
“We’re in!” The Fishmen of the Da Ji Tribe quickly surveyed their surroundings after regaining their composure.
“Found Xu Jia, let’s go together!”
“He’s right there, don’t let him escape!”
“Thinks he can flee to the Holy Beast, he’s seeking his own death.”
“You have ruined our Da Ji Tribe; we will tear your body into ten thousand pieces!!”
The Fishmen of the Da Ji Tribe tore “Cang Xu” into shreds, then swallowed him piece by piece, clearly harboring deep hatred towards him.
However, they did not know that it was all just an illusion.
What represented Cang Xu was merely a piece of alchemy material aboard the Deep Sea Monster Fish—a giant sea fish’s corpse, yet endowed with the Deception and Disguise Skill.
The real Cang Xu had already been swallowed whole by the Rubber Swallower and taken inside the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
Ku Feng and Qing Xin, both at Silver Level, had been sealed by a double seal; the Rubber Swallower effortlessly captured them alive.
Cang Xu, not wasting a second, hurried and struggled out of the Rubber Swallower, dashed through the corridor, and arrived at the Meditation Room.
The metal door slid aside, and the Fishman youth had already completed his form-shifting transformation.
The Fishman youth appeared before Cang Xu, his chest and back bearing twisted patterns, each forming a ghost face.
Relying on the Ghost-faced Fish Bloodline, the Fishman youth was eligible to refine and manipulate Undead Mana.
“Sir squad leader!” Cang Xu bowed, his face showing a hint of excitement and anticipation.
The Fishman youth nodded slightly, waiting for Cang Xu to enter the Meditation Room as the metal door closed behind him. Then the youth pointed his finger at him.
Undead Magic—Undead Bloodline Detection Technique!
The consumption of mana was severe; the Black Iron Level mana pool of the Fishman youth was nearly depleted.
The Undead Bloodline Detection Technique was a Silver Level Spell, and the consumption of mana was just the standard Silver requirement.
The Fishman youth was able to cast the spell independently, entirely relying on his own Bloodline talent that gave him a Silver Level mana reserve even at Black Iron.
Even so, the Fishman youth’s casting success rate hovered around 30%.
This was because many factors affected the casting of spells, with mana being just one aspect; others included Magic Model construction, etc.
Perhaps because the Fishman youth had prepared long enough this time, he slightly increased his success rate, successfully casting the spell on his first attempt.
A beam of grey light burst from the fingertips of the Fishman youth.
The light wasn’t dazzling, forming a straight line, extremely fast, like a laser, striking Cang Xu.
Cang Xu’s body jolted, his body temperature rising rapidly as if he were in boiling water.
Soon, strands of grey mist began to emerge from his body.
More and more grey mist intertwined, eventually forming a giant sphere that completely enveloped Cang Xu. The dense undead aura dispersed in all directions.
The Fishman youth undid the Blood Core’s composite transformation and began to patiently wait.
Among the dense grey mist, Cang Xu was the first to feel a change.
His toes began to itch, or more precisely, his bones itched.
It grew itchier!
In just a few seconds, the itchiness became so intense that it made Cang Xu’s color change—knowing Cang Xu was not a normal being, as an Undead Life, it was rare for him to feel such strong life sensations.
Unable to bear it, Cang Xu’s toes wiggled madly, and just as he was about to bend down and scratch, severe pain erupted.
This pain did not replace the previous itchiness; it was as if the itchiness in his ten toes had burst through his flesh and skin and directly sprang out!
Painful and itchy!
Cang Xu’s body shook violently, almost unable to stand.
At this moment, the Fishman youth outside the grey mist saw a magic image emerging on the surface of the mist.
A bone claw gradually appeared, growing larger and larger.
The claw fiercely grasped the ground. The sharp tips of the claws pierced directly into the ground, then continuously spread deep underground.
“It’s the Twisted Withering Claw Bloodline!” the Fishman youth immediately recognized.
Since he had acquired the Middle-level Soul Vein inheritance from Cang Xu, he possessed vast information about Undead Life.
The face of the Fishman youth remained indifferent, unexcited.
Because the Twisted Withering Claw Bloodline was merely Bronze Level.
“There must be higher-level Bloodlines in Cang Xu!” the Fishman youth was very sure.
It was obvious.
Because Cang Xu himself had reached Black Iron Level, if he only had the Twisted Withering Claw Bloodline, he could only reach Bronze Level at most, and he couldn’t have surpassed Bronze to reach Black Iron.
On the surface of the gray fog, the scene of white bone claws spreading suddenly collapsed.
The gray fog kept changing, and began its transformation anew.
It affected Cang Xu, who suddenly felt no itch in his toes, nor pain in his feet. Instead, a pain started in his neck.
This pain was not the soreness from overexertion of muscles, but a twisting pain.
It was as if someone was forcefully playing with his skull, making it constantly rotate.
In the process, his neck—which connected his head and body—felt like a rope being twisted continuously, rapidly forming into a spiral.
It wasn’t just twisting; his skull was also being pulled upwards, causing his neck to be stretched longer and longer.
Cang Xu felt as if he had become a toy, lying in the hands of a giant child. The tyrannical giant child was planning to pull his head off his body.
Cang Xu instinctively hugged his own head, pressing down hard, trying to counter this pulling force.
It was entirely his illusion!
But the severe pain was indeed real, and it made Cang Xu gasp in pain.
At the same time, a magic scene reappeared on the surface of the gray fog.
It was a wailing humanoid ghost. The most notable feature of the ghost was that its head was far from its body. The neck that linked the head and the body was thin and long, looking like a severely twisted, spiral-shaped rope.
“Strangulation Ghost Bloodline… This bloodline is nice, it’s a Golden Level,” the Fishman youth’s eyes slightly lit up.
But the next moment, the magic image changed again!
The Strangulation Ghost originally swayed like a willow in the wind, but gradually, it became immovable, as if it had been hit with a petrification spell.
And, the Strangulation Ghost kept shrinking.
Around him appeared one, two, three… a dozen… dozens… hundreds of corpses.
The Fishman youth carefully identified these corpses as originating from various races.
He saw Fishman, Beastman, Elf, Dwarf, and even many wild beasts, dragons, and even phoenixes.
All these racial corpses shared one common characteristic: their necks were pulled thin and long.
Their skulls were gathered together, joined by methods like teeth interlocking and flaw splicing, forming what looked like the trunk of a large tree.
And their necks served as flexible branches, extending in all directions.
Their bodies hung heavily like ripe wheat sheaves in autumn, pulling their slender necks into a bend.
Seeing such a magic image, the Fishman youth paused in breath.
He couldn’t help but mutter softly, “Corpse Hanging Tree… a Holy Domain Level Undead Bloodline!”
Cang Xu’s body actually contained a Holy Domain Level Undead Bloodline.
The Fishman youth was genuinely happy for Cang Xu!
Ten minutes later.
Cang Xu sat collapsed, his expression listless and disheveled.
“Who would have thought that after being subjected to the Undead Bloodline Detection Technique, the subject would feel so uncomfortable,” the old Mage sighed.
The pain was real, Cang Xu’s body and spirit both were severely hurt.
But during this period, the feeling of his neck being stretched was just an illusion caused by the injury and the stimulation of the bloodline.
As the Corpse Hanging Tree magic image appeared on the surface of the gray fog, his spirit became disordered for a moment, and he even experienced hallucinations.
He felt as if he had become one of the corpses hanging from the Corpse Hanging Tree!
“The Undead Bloodline Detection Technique is designed to unearth the secretive elements of the target’s bloodline, which is why it’s so ‘fierce’ as to cause injury to the subject. Only such force can achieve the desired effect,” the Fishman youth said.
Recently, he had abandoned the training of Fighting Energy, focusing solely on Spell practice.
He continually pondered the content of the Middle-level Soul Vein inheritance brought back by Cang Xu, and practiced the Undead Bloodline Detection Technique. All of these had given him a great deal of insight.
Although Cang Xu felt miserable, he was very pleased inside.
“It seems the situation inside my body is quite complex, actually containing a mix of three different bloodlines.”
Indeed, that was the case with the bloodlines.
Some people did not possess any Extraordinary Bloodlines.
Some had a single Extraordinary Bloodline, but it was extremely faint.
Others had multiple Extraordinary Bloodlines in varying amounts, forming a relatively stable state, much like Cang Xu.
Coincidentally, Cang Xu had three types of Undead Bloodlines, corresponding to the three veins in the sect of Undead practice.
The Twisted Withered Claw Bloodline corresponded to the Bone Vein.
The Strangulation Ghost Bloodline corresponded to the Soul Vein.
The Corpse Hanging Tree Bloodline corresponded to the Corpse Vein.
The concentration of all three bloodlines was very low; even combined, they did not make up 10%.
The concentration of the Corpse Hanging Tree Bloodline was the lowest—according to the Fishman youth’s guess, it was less than 1%. Although its quality was the highest, its scale was too small, and its impact on Cang Xu was minimal.
The concentration of the Twisted Withered Claw Bloodline was the highest, but not high enough to dominate by quantity. Therefore, it was still overshadowed by the Strangulation Ghost Bloodline. After all, the Twisted Withered Claw Bloodline was only at the Bronze Level.
The concentration of the Strangulation Ghost Bloodline was between the two, and so was its grade. But overall, it had the greatest impact on Cang Xu.
Therefore, when manifesting in Cang Xu, the effects of his practice in the Bone Vein, Corpse Vein, and Soul Vein were best in the Soul Vein.
Such was the complex truth of bloodlines.
It couldn’t be determined solely by a Transcendent’s own practice performance.
“I have a feeling that the Corpse Hanging Tree Bloodline is the result of my recent bloodline mutation,” Cang Xu said weakly.
The Fishman youth shook his head, “There is no basis for that statement, nor any point in pursuing it. But without a doubt, the Corpse Hanging Tree Bloodline is the most suitable for purification. That will be our next effort.”
“To be honest, we are very lucky this time. If it were another type of Undead Bloodline, it might have been more difficult to collect. The Corpse Hanging Tree is a very unique example among Undead Bloodlines.”
“In the Bloodline Map, there are very few Undead Lives upstream of it, but downstream, they are numerous like the stars at night. There are many targets to choose from, and we can extract the Corpse Hanging Tree Bloodline from many Undead Lives.”
Cang Xu added, “However, this also means that collecting 100% of the Corpse Hanging Tree Bloodline will be somewhat more difficult than other Undead Bloodlines.”
“Exactly,” the Fishman youth nodded slightly, “But realistically speaking, it’s very difficult to collect 100% of a bloodline, especially an advanced one.”
“And for lower-grade bloodlines, it’s easy to reach 100%, but what use is that to you? Very little!”
In this regard, the Fishman youth had the authority to speak.
Because his King of Flame Dragon Bloodline had long been above 30%. His current concentration of Fishman Bloodline was even lower than that of the King of Flame Dragon Bloodline.
The higher the grade of the bloodline, the more difficult it is to increase its concentration.
Unless the Fishman youth directly slew a King of Flame Dragon, which would cause his bloodline to surge.
But if the Fishman youth had such strength, would he still need to specifically increase the concentration of the King of Flame Dragon Bloodline?
Normally, the strategy is to choose targets from downstream in the Bloodline Map, accumulate gradually, and build up a high concentration high-grade bloodline.