Bloodlines

"Let's take a short rest here." Zhang Baichi looked around the clearing in the forest and made a quick suggestion.

The surrounding disciples nodded their heads and plopped down on the ground, rocks, or nearby branches.

Without needing any commands, a few of them patrolled the immediate vicinity and stood guard around the makeshift camp while others rested.

This was already the eighth day they had spent in the Beastwilds Mystic Realm and thereby the seventh they had spent hunting for Demonbeasts in the northern parts of the Mystic Realm.

Zhang Baichi also sat down on a small boulder and stretched his legs. Their group has been running around the forest this whole day and they would need to head back to their basecamp soon.

By now everyone was accustomed to the day and night cycle in the Mystic Realm, and it was easy for them to tell how much time they had left until the sun would set.

Calculating the time, Zhang Baichi knew they would need to start moving in 20 minutes to make it back to camp before sunset.

He opened his status windows and glanced at his Inventory.

There were already over 20 Demonbeast corpses and the Points in his system interface had soared to 312 after selling another 7 or 8.

In total, their group has hunted over 30 Demonbeasts in just seven days, a very impressive number considering that each and every one of these Demonbeasts was at least in the 3rd Layer of the Qi Gathering Realm.

Even when Zhang Baichi thought of the disciples' strengths as disappointing, he could not deny that everyone was getting stronger at a very fast pace.

That was especially true for the ones with decent strength to begin with; Each of them was growing by leaps and bounds, becoming stronger and stronger.

However, that also meant that the disparity between the weak and strong was growing even more apparent.

By now, everyone had gained a completely new understanding of Zhang Baichi's strength, and the stronger they grew the more they noticed the chasm that separated their strength from his.

Subconsciously, everyone had started to treat him as someone who stood far above them in terms of status and strength.

They would listen to his commands unconditionally and had fully accepted his leadership.

Only few among the disciples could talk to him in a casual way, like Lu Zheng who was platonically friendly to anyone, Xiao Xueling who thought similarly to Lu Zheng, or Yu Hao who, quite frankly, didn't care about anyone's status.

As for Zhang Baichi himself, he didn't care what they thought about him. In his eyes, it was natural to leave things to those that fit the role best.

With his strength, it was natural that he would be seen as the leader.

This thinking was also the reason why he was willing to blindly follow Lu Zheng's directions in the beginning. Or why he would be willing to be taught Martial Techniques by Yu Hao.

Incidentally, this was also the reason why he disliked Xiao Xueling a lot. Thus far, she has not once proven herself through anything but her strength, which was quite good, but still inferior to the likes of Lu Zheng or Yun Ye.

Zhang Baichi let his eyes roam around the disciples, observing them casually. They had accustomed themselves very well: Those that needed rest would rest, those that could stand guard would stand guard, and so forth.

His eyes lingered on Xiao Xueling for a moment. Given her strength, she should help others out or stand guard, but she was resting as well.

A bit further away, Yun Ye was discussing tactics with the disciples from the Fleeting Storm Sword Sect, including the Ji family members.

On the other side was Lu Zheng, helping out with guard duty and preparing to scout the area ahead with a few others.

Their strengths were similar, but the contrast in their behaviour was striking.

'It's not like she has any ulterior motives; More like that she's used to having people work for her.' Zhang Baichi had drawn that conclusion about Xiao Xueling a few days ago, but he couldn't be bothered to help the Willow Tree Pavilion to correct her behaviour.

Instead, he would simply ignore her, and do what needed to be done. Relying on someone like that didn't feel right to him.

He also spotted Yu Hao quietly meditating alone. During the last battle, Yu Hao had lead the assault and expended quite a bit of his strength.

What bothered Zhang Baichi about him was his strength, though. For the past few days, the gap between the strength of the front runners of their group and Yu Hao was growing.

Yu Hao had ample combat experience to begin with and his martial arts were top-notch among their group; His mastery over combat techniques was unmatched.

Unlike the rest of the front runners, his cultivation was lacking, though; Everyone's cultivation was already at the 10th Layer of the Body Forging Realm, while Yu Hao was still at the 9th.

'If he managed to break through, he'd be equal to Lu Zheng, if not stronger. He could easily rank in the top three.', Zhang Baichi thought to himself.

However, even though Yu Hao was diligently cultivating every day, and his potential was stimulated by continuous battle, he still didn't show any signs of being close to breaking through.

Finally, Zhang Baichi couldn't keep silent any longer. He was five parts six parts curious, and four parts concerned for this friend of his. 'System, can you tell if there's something wrong with Yu Hao?'

[Ding! There is nothing wrong with Yu Hao's health. Yu Hao is simply shackled by his inferior cultivation talent.]

Zhang Baichi was at a loss for words. Before they went to the Mystic Realm, Yu Hao had once mentioned that his own situation was different compared to other disciples.

Was this what he meant? That his talent for cultivation was simply lacking compared to his talent for martial arts?

'Is there a way to help him with that, system?', Zhang Baichi asked, deep in thought.

[Ding! A cultivator's cultivation talent is innate but can be changed but a lot of factors. The most commonly changed is the bloodline of the cultivator.]

'…You're telling me I could give him some True Dragon Blood?', Zhang Baichi asked, his curiosity peaked now.

During his time on earth, he had read hundreds of novels, many of which featured rare bloodlines of dragon, phoenixes, and other mythical creatures.

People that changed their bloodline with the blood of such mythical creatures would usually undergo heaven shaking transformations, and become much, much more formidable, to the point where they would stand far above ordinary human cultivators.

[Ding! Changing a cultivator's bloodline through the use of True Dragon Blood is indeed possible.]

The system confirmed his guess, heightening his excitement about this matter. 'Phew, keep calm, keep calm… Even if it's possible, True Dragon Blood is d*mn expensive, and I probably shouldn't experiment with something like this on a friend, anyways.'

He closed his eyes and thought about the matter for a short while. 'Hey, system, is it save to change someone's bloodline just like that?'

[Ding! While the process is usually extremely painful, there is no risk of failure, as long as the recipient's bloodline is weaker than the donors.]

'So, it's safe, since the ordinary human bloodline should be much weaker compared to True Dragons, huh. How much blood would I need to change Yu Hao's bloodline?', he questioned.

[Ding! A single drop would be enough to allow Yu Hao's potential to reach the Nascent Soul Realm.]

Zhang Baichi stared at the message, slack jawed. 'True Dragon's are seriously impressive, huh.'

'Just a single drop… A vial is 850.000 Points, so what about a single drop?', he asked the system.

[Ding! A single drop's worth of True Dragon Blood has already been extracted from the Demonbeast corpses that Host has sold.]

[Ding! Host can spend the same number of Points that have been exchanged for the corpses to redeem the True Dragon Blood.]

'Cheapskate trash software, you're scamming me out of the corpses and only give me the blood?', Zhang Baichi clicked his tongue and complained, but didn't really care about the matter. 'I have 312 Points. Minus the 20 from killing the Mutated Cloudwolf, that's 292 for a drop, huh.'

Zhang Baichi turned to look at Yu Hao and thought for a while. By now, Yu Hao had already noticed that Zhang Baichi was staring at him but didn't know why.

Since the former was lost in thought again, Yu Hao walked up to him instead. "What's up with you? Why are you staring at me?"

Zhang Baichi was pulled out of his thoughts and looked up at Yu Hao, who stood next to him. "…I was thinking about some stuff… Hey, I might have a way to help you with your cultivation."

'This is perfect; I'll simply leave the choice up to him.', Zhang Baichi thought. It only took him a week to get to 300 Points, anyways; He can always hunt that number of Demonbeasts again in the future.

Helping his friend and seeing someone's bloodline transform was simply more entertaining at the moment.

"What do you mean?", Yu Hao grew serious. He was painfully aware of his own deficits, and he wouldn't let any chance to change his fate slip by.

"I possess a certain medicinal ingredient that's said to be able to change someone's bloodline. However, I have no idea if it actually works. I can't tell just how dangerous it actually is since it's never been tested. It would basically be human experimentation.", Zhang Baichi spoke in a low voice.

The two of them were alone here since no one in their group would disturb Zhang Baichi, and it was well known that he would talk with people alone from time to time, so he wasn't worried.

"If you're fine with that, we can give it a try. If it succeeds, you can easily reach the Core Condensation Realm in the future, maybe even beyond that. But remember that you're playing with your life if you do.", he once again cautioned.

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We're already 50 chapters in? Wow!

Thank you for staying with me for so long!

Unfortunately, this will be the last chapter... For today. :>

See you tomorrow!