The Path Against Heaven

After the royal messenger arrived to deliver the decree of ennoblement, he went straight to Minair Manor to pay his respects to Torista.

He tactfully extended an invitation for Lei Mo to accompany them to the royal capital to attend the Duke's investiture ceremony.

"Very well! I am quite interested in the Keir Kingdom as well."

Lei Mo said to Torista.

"Understood, I shall go and provide the reply!"

Torista bowed, but before turning to leave, she cast a resentful glance at Lei Mo.

Her silver-gray eyes, silver-white hair draped over her shoulders, petite frame, high-standing peaks, and gaze brimming with ripples of emotion.

Ah! I can't take this—I really can't take this!

Lei Mo shouted loudly in his heart, though his face showed no sign of being overwhelmed; in fact, he seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit.

The royal capital of the Keir Kingdom, Tore City, is located to the southeast of Kemar City; compared to the capital, Kemar City is much closer to the Elf Forest.

One wonders what kind of luck the Minair family had to encounter an elf and even leave behind a bloodline—Torista.

Otherwise, the chances of a woman being named heir would be very low; the decline of the Minair family was also a significant factor, as they needed Torista to revitalize the clan.

Many questions welled up in Lei Mo's mind: just how many half-elves are there in the Keir Kingdom?

Do the children born to half-elves count as half-elves or humans?

Why was that fellow named Cole Minair able to become a Druid while the other seven could not? Was it because of the elven bloodline?

These questions all required a trip to the Keir royal capital; otherwise, there would never be an answer.

And this Keir Kingdom, is it not very similar to a certain island nation? Seed-spreading, is it? It's just too similar!

What exactly is different about the elven bloodline, and what are pure-blooded elves actually like? What is their talent?

Last time, Keir ran away too quickly, and there was no time to ask; he was likely afraid that Lei Mo would take the opportunity to finish him off as well.

The Duke's investiture is a grand affair, and the kingdom needs to conduct extensive publicity. The time set for this occasion is three months, primarily to promote the antiquity and greatness of the Minair family.

The only thing the Minair family has left to boast about is its antiquity—older even than the Keir Kingdom itself—but that is all they have.

Everything else, such as the family's glorious history, their meritorious deeds, or powerful experts, is completely non-existent.

So, sometimes, having no capital to boast about is a tragedy, though the Minair family at least has one.

Even if they truly had nothing, in some situations, fabrication is always an option.

For the past three months, Lei Mo has been helping Torista modify and perfect her light-attribute battle qi.

That's right, Torista is already a seventh-rank warrior, and her original battle qi manual was no longer worthy of her.

Since Lei Mo does not possess light-attribute battle qi, he combined the Light Rune on Torista's back with the characteristics of light elements to create a new battle qi manual.

Torista's new manual has already begun to show results; it can help the family's warriors accumulate battle qi to reach the seventh rank.

This is good news for the weak Minair family, and those seven Rune Warriors have also broken through to the seventh rank.

After the breakthrough, the speed slowed down; the cultivation of battle qi and the realization of talent both require time.

Cole Minair has yet to break through; his Druid cultivation is still in the experimental and exploratory stage. The path of cultivation is not yet clear and requires Lei Mo to perfect it step by step.

Currently, Druid cultivation relies entirely on Lei Mo's various brainstorms.

The essence blood of different Magic Beasts led Lei Mo to think about deducing a method of Druid cultivation based on how Magic Beasts cultivate; otherwise, merely accumulating battle qi would fail to bring out the advantages of a Druid.

What is the advantage of a Druid? Naturally, it is having a body and talents exactly the same as a Magic Beast. Refining essence blood has no restrictions from laws or rules; one can refine anything of the same level.

This is terrifying; theoretically, one could obtain the talents of ten different laws or rules.

Refining the essence blood of a certain type of Magic Beast does not necessarily mean obtaining that type's talent, but at the very least, it provides the key to open the door—the ability to cast magic of that element.

Being able to absorb the elemental laws of that type at least grants the qualification to comprehend those laws, even if only theoretically possible.

But does this affect the heaven-defying path of a Druid? Not at all!

Someone with absolutely no wind-element talent, like Lei Mo, could refine the essence blood of a Divine Wind Bear and, upon transforming into one, release all wind-element magic, including forbidden spells.

Unfortunately, he did not obtain lightning-element magic; perhaps the lightning element was obtained by the Divine Wind Bear through refining a magic core, not an innate talent.

In his Divine Wind Bear state, Lei Mo is theoretically capable of comprehending the laws of wind.

Greed leads to poor digestion; I had better focus on comprehending Destruction!

Lei Mo secretly gave himself a warning to avoid being a jack-of-all-trades and master of none!

Before becoming a god through Destruction, Lei Mo does not intend to comprehend any other laws.

Bill's wind-element talent is just so-so; even now, he hasn't sensed the fluctuations of the wind laws. His talent isn't even as good as mine!

Lei Mo felt a bit of disdain for Bill's talent in his heart.

The ceremony for Torista's promotion to Duke is in half a month, and the Minair family's procession is preparing to depart today.

Kemar City is several thousand kilometers away from the royal capital, and the journey will consume seven or eight days.

No one dared to bother Lei Mo with trivial matters; he sat cross-legged on the back of the Divine Wind Bear, silently blending into the Minair family's procession.

Everyone looked at Lei Mo with eyes full of longing and hope—all because of those seven fellows.

Although the seven fellows did not actively show off, everyone saw the fact that all seven of them had advanced from sixth-rank warriors to seventh-rank warriors within a few months.

All of this was brought about by Lord Bailey, including this dukedom.

The members of the Minair family wished they could grovel before Lei Mo, begging for the same miraculous encounters as those seven fellows; no one knew about Cole's transformation yet.

The possibility of an ordinary human becoming a Druid was far too low, and Cole had elven bloodline from many generations back in his ancestry.

It was only because his bloodline had experienced a certain degree of atavism in his generation that he was able to become a Druid.

Lei Mo was filled with a desire to study elves and half-elves.

If Keir were willing, Lei Mo would not mind helping him become a Saint Realm Druid.

The scenery along the way was quite pleasant; unlike the Keaton Kingdom, the Keir Kingdom was deeply influenced by elves.

The overall aesthetic was also nature-oriented, allowing Lei Mo to experience a fairyland-like natural landscape.

During his few months in Kemar City, Lei Mo had done some research.

It was not just the Keir Kingdom that revered elven bloodlines, aesthetics, and everything related to elves; all the dozens of kingdoms and duchies bordering the Elf Forest were the same.

This might just be the psychology of admiring the strong; it's the same here as it was on Earth!

Lei Mo summarized in his heart, Back then, my China was number one in the world, so everything about it was good and correct—it's just that later, sigh!

Pushing these stray thoughts aside, Lei Mo sank his consciousness into the Soul Space of Franklin.

He focused on perceiving the Destruction Rune projected by Franklin, leaving the vigilance of his body to Franklin and Bill.

In that gray, misty space, the dense, myriad Destruction Runes were entangled and interwoven with one another.

It was impossible to tell where the beginning was or where the end lay, yet the fluctuations of the laws upon them were clear and rhythmic.

These fluctuations were deduced and calculated by Lei Mo's nebula-like soul, and then cross-referenced one by one with the complex, interwoven Destruction Runes; the effect of this perception was excellent.