Cui Clan's true reason for decline

"A long time back, our Cui Clan was hailed as the strongest clan in the Divine Realm. There was nothing we couldn't have and nothing we couldn't do. But now.... Now we can't even hold onto one single city... "

Gritting her teeth as she said so, Cui Yan showed that she still felt humiliated when talking about how far her clan had fallen.

"And many wouldn't believe this, but the main reason the Cui Clan had declined isn't due to outsider interference. In fact, it isn't due to any internal wars either."

"All of it is because of the decline in the quality of successors."

Sighing as she spoke, Cui Yan eyes seemed to move towards the mark near her eyebrows and the one near her neck.

"In the past, one out of every three kids born inside the Cui Clan possessed the bloodline mark. But this number slowly kept on decreasing until now where even one in every hundred is considered as lucky."

"Unfortunately, it doesn't matter if only one or two of us possess the bloodline mark. We need at least three of them to show off the power hidden inside our bloodline."

Feeling curious, Jian Shen asked, "What is the bloodline mark?"

Not hiding anything since hiding it wouldn't matter after a few days in case the Cui Clan got destroyed, Cui Yan directly pointed at the two marks on her body and said, "These. These are the bloodline marks which only those from the Cui Clan can awake."

As she spoke, Cui Yan seemed to do something which caused black marks to light up and look golden.

Seeing this Jian Shen felt that these marks now looked exactly like the one Xifeng had between her eyebrows.

But didn't she just say that only those from the Cui Clan possessed them?

Also, Xifeng did say that those marks were just there and didn't have any special purpose due to which Jian Shen, for the time being, couldn't conclude that both of them were the same.

Continuing her explanation, Cui Yan said, "When those who were born with these marks came together in a group of three or more, they can use the special power of our bloodline."

"What power?"

Thinking for a while, Cui Yan said, "Depending on how many awakened the bloodline marks and were using them at the same time, everyone who possessed the Cui Clan's bloodline would obtain an increase in their strength."

"Though the increase in their strength depends on how many are using the bloodline marks, even the lowest increase in strength is three times!"

Listening to Cui Yan, Jian Shen who understood what kind of a special power was hidden behind these bloodline marks felt that it was no wonder that the Cui Clan was once hailed as the strongest clan in the Divine Realm.

At the same time, he also understood why the Cui Clan had declined so quickly when the bloodline marks appearing on their descendants decreased.

With everyone relying on that special ability to increase their combat powers, the lazy ones most likely didn't bother cultivating properly causing then to stay in the lower levels.

Therefore, once the bloodline marks stopped appearing, they most likely failed to be useful in fighting against their enemies who without possessing the same technique rivalled them in strength.

Shaking his head at how this technique was such an unreliable double-edged sword, Jian Shen suddenly asked, "How many of you possess the bloodline mark?"

Sighing once again Cui Yan said, "There are only two of us with bloodline marks still alive. So our only hope is to hang on for as long as possible and pray for there to be at least one in the next generation to possess the bloodline mark."

Nodding his head, Jian Shen who was now very confident and almost sure that the mark between Xifeng's eyebrows was similar to the bloodline marks Cui Yan had on herself, suddenly said, "Have there ever been any reports on those outside the Cui Clan awakening bloodline marks?"

"Huh? Outside the clan?"

Thinking for a while with a scrunched ho face, Cui Yan nodded her head and said, "In the past when the bloodline of our members was very pure, the women who married men outside the clan always gave birth to those who possessed the bloodline marks. But after all this time, even those who have been born outside the Cui Clan no longer gave any bloodline marks."

Listening to this Jian Shen guessed that Xifeng's ancestor was most likely someone from the Cui Clan. As for why everyone in their family tree always obtained the bloodline mark, Jian Shen didn't really possess an answer to.

And he didn't really need one either. All he needed to do now was take Cui Yan with him to verify if the mark Xifeng possessed was really the bloodline mark of the Cui Clan and not something else.

But if it did turn out that Xifeng did possess the Cui Clan's bloodline mark, it'd mean that the Cui Clan would be able to use four people to activate their special technique since this meant that Xifeng's daughter also possessed the bloodline mark.

Thinking so, Jian Shen got up and said, "Come with me, there's something I need you to verify."

"Verify?"

"Yes. I know someone who might possess the Cui Clan's bloodline mark."