The Primordial Era

"Fine." Lion-Man Tong San could only suppress his curiosity. He'd find out after dinner anyway, and he had enough patience to wait that long.

"Brother, I'm back!"

Qing Shi and Zong Ling returned astride a Frost-Flying Colt, leading a group of swaggering cavalry. Yi Water City was, after all, the lowest-tier county-level city in the entire Empire. Within its borders, the Dongbo Clan of Snow Eagle Territory ranked among the top ten families, so whenever Qing Shi went to Yi Water City for fun, he still made a grand and imposing entrance.

Dongbo Xueying was glad to see his younger brother enjoy himself every day.

After dinner, Qing Shi, tired out from a whole day of playing, quickly went to bed. Dongbo Xueying, Zong Ling, and Tong San, however, all headed to the study.

"Why are we in Xue Ying's study, anyway? Tong San, why do you look so excited you can barely contain yourself? What happened?" Zong Ling was still completely in the dark.

Dongbo Xueying was already smiling as he searched the bookshelf for the book he'd read before.

"I'll tell you!"

Tong San took a deep breath. "Xue Ying roasted that third-rank magical beast today—the one that weighed over ten thousand pounds—and ate the whole thing by himself!"

Zong Ling's eyes widened.

One man, eating over ten thousand pounds of meat? Was he even human? He was more like a dragon!

"With his strength now, he could probably beat the two of us with a single move," Tong San continued. "You can go see the Alchemy Dummy in the training yard in a bit. Xue Ying smashed it to pieces with three blows of his spear. The force even snapped his spear in half."

"What!" Zong Ling was stunned.

Xue Ying's spear weighed fifty pounds and had also been forged by an Alchemy Master. It wasn't a ranked weapon, but it was more than adequate for a Heaven-Rank Knight. And a spear shaft was built to store force. How much strength would it take to snap one?

"What exactly happened?" Zong Ling asked.

"I want to know too. But Xue Ying said he'd tell the two of us together." Tong San looked at Xue Ying, and Zong Ling did the same.

Dongbo Xueying leafed through the books on the shelf. He soon found the one he wanted, quickly flipped through its pages, and located the passage he'd read before. He ran a finger beneath a section, then smiled and handed the book to Zong Ling. "Uncle Zong, Uncle Tong, it's just a biographical tale. Read this passage carefully, and I think you'll understand."

"Oh?" Zong Ling took it with interest, while Tong San leaned in to look.

Zong Ling first glanced at the book's cover. Its title was The Woodcutter Knight.

"Him? The Woodcutter Knight?" Zong Ling and Tong San both paused. They didn't read much, but they'd heard plenty of legends on their adventures. The story of the Woodcutter Knight was widely known. He had been a knight who lived more than five thousand years ago, and he was famous because he was incredibly powerful.

He'd once been a woodcutter in a mountain village, but later embarked on the path of knighthood. As a Title-level Knight, he'd killed a Transcendent life-form with a single swing of his axe! Once he became a Transcendent, no one among the Transcendents could match him!

His title was "Woodcutter," a name he had chosen himself.

He was honored as "the strongest Transcendent" of his era. His strength lay in the fact that no Transcendent life-form could withstand more than a few of his axe swings! He was that terrifying.

"Read that passage first," Dongbo Xueying said with a smile. As a child, he'd admired the Woodcutter Knight for a long time. The man had been so domineering: he loved chopping wood, and treated his enemies like firewood, chopping them all the same! Dragons, demons—he chopped them all!

"Right." Zong Ling turned back to the passage, and Tong San stared at it too—

"Yes, this was the moment the Woodcutter Knight awakened the legendary Great Axe Bloodline hidden within his body. The author should explain here that all humans, including you and me, have countless bloodlines lying dormant within us."

"When the plane world of the entire Empire first came into being, it had no life at all. At that time, its environment was extraordinarily harsh."

"Gradually, after being nurtured over countless years, the plane world finally gave birth to a group of powerful life-forms. They were the earliest life-forms of the Primordial Era! Each possessed terrifying strength, enough to move mountains and fill seas. They could carry a mountain on their shoulders as they ran about, tear a dragon apart, and drink its blood and eat its flesh... Dragons were weak before them, and even the Deities beyond the plane dared not descend."

"These powerful life-forms continued to reproduce, and from them came humanity! That is why every human has the bloodline of these Primordial Era life-forms."

"And over the long ages that followed, Deities also descended and left descendants among humanity."

"Humanity has continued to multiply. If you traced any human's lineage back ten thousand years, you could probably trace it to the same bloodline."

"Every human has the bloodlines of these Primordial life-forms and Deities. Of course, they are all exceedingly, exceedingly faint."

"The bloodlines of direct descendants are much stronger. For example, the founding emperor of our Longshan Empire, Great Emperor Longshan, had a son after he became a Deity. That son was the legendary Twelfth Prince, and he was born a Transcendent life-form! That was because his father was an exceptionally powerful Deity, and the bloodline in his body made him a Transcendent from birth."

"From the Primordial Era, through the Ancient Era and the Archaic Era... to the present day, we are all mere mortals. The bloodlines of those powerful life-forms are exceedingly faint."

"Still, now and then, someone awakens a Primordial Bloodline. Some awaken the Great Axe Bloodline, some the Divine Archer Bloodline, and some a bloodline suited to running... Some can teleport, some can control lightning, some are said to transform into countless forms, and some are nearly immortal..."

"But according to the author's research, those who awaken a Primordial Bloodline may initially astonish everyone... only to later become unremarkable, and almost all of them fail to become Transcendents. The reason I hold the Woodcutter Knight in such high regard is that he took his bloodline in stride and ultimately became the strongest Transcendent of his era!"

"After the Woodcutter Knight awakened his Primordial Bloodline, the Great Axe Bloodline, he soon met the most important woman of his life. For details, let the author tell the story..."

That was the only passage about Primordial Bloodlines in the entire thick biography.

The rest was the Woodcutter Knight's legendary life.

"Primordial Bloodline?" Zong Ling and Tong San both looked at Dongbo Xueying.

"Yes. I think I awakened a Primordial Bloodline," Dongbo Xueying said.

"What bloodline?" Zong Ling asked curiously.

"Can you teleport?" Tong San was even more excited. "Try controlling some lightning! Or conjure some flames!"

"No."

Dongbo Xueying could only smile helplessly.

There were many types of Primordial Bloodlines. After all, there had been a whole group of Primordial life-forms born in the earliest days of the plane world, and the one he'd awakened was relatively ordinary.

"The book says Primordial Bloodlines all have something they're good at?" Zong Ling asked.

"Actually, using those special abilities comes with very strict limitations," Dongbo Xueying explained. "My special ability is simple—my strength doubles when I unleash it!"

"Doubles?" Zong Ling and Tong San were both thrilled.

They wanted that ability too.

What knight wouldn't want to double his strength? It wasn't as unusual as teleportation or transforming into countless forms, but doubling one's strength was still very useful.

"However, when I unleash that burst of power, my stamina drains faster too," Dongbo Xueying said. "Normally, I can fight for an hour without tiring. But if I go all out, I'll probably be exhausted in no time, so I can only fight at full strength for a short while."

"How strong are you now?" Zong Ling asked curiously.

"In a normal fight, I'd guess I'm as strong as a Meteor Knight," Dongbo Xueying said.

"Then doubling your strength would put you at Silver Moon Knight level?" Zong Ling and Tong San were both excited.

"Only my strength increases. I'm still a step slower than a Silver Moon Knight, and the effect doesn't last long," Dongbo Xueying said with a smile.

"Even so, you're now the strongest person in Yi Water City," Zong Ling said eagerly. "Hahaha, I knew it! Xue Ying, you've trained diligently, practicing spear techniques for nearly ten years, yet you still haven't developed Battle Qi. That was clearly abnormal! Sure enough, you'd been holding back. Once you unleashed your strength, you took everyone by surprise!"

Dongbo Xueying smiled.

He had his own thoughts about this awakening.

Every human had a dormant Primordial Bloodline. After countless generations of reproduction, why did some people still manage to awaken theirs?

Dongbo Xueying didn't have many examples to draw on, but the Woodcutter Knight offered one clue. He'd been a man who loved chopping wood... He'd kept chopping wood, and eventually awakened the Great Axe Bloodline! As for Dongbo Xueying, every day he pushed the strength of his arms and fingers to the limit while practicing spear techniques. He had to soak in a medicinal bath to recover.

Perhaps pushing himself so hard every day had helped awaken this Strength Bloodline!

Dongbo Xueying didn't know who the towering, roaring giant he'd vaguely seen during his awakening had been, so he simply called his Primordial Bloodline the "Strength Bloodline."

"This is only the beginning," Dongbo Xueying said. "It's like an ordinary person's body, which keeps growing stronger as it's nourished by Battle Qi. I can feel my body growing stronger and stronger under Battle Qi's nourishment too."

"Hahaha..." Zong Ling and Tong San both laughed.

They were overjoyed today.

They'd always thought the vow that the young child had shouted back then was nothing more than a child's wish. None of the others present had believed him at the time... Dongbo Xueying really could save his parents. It had seemed far too difficult!

But today, both of them saw hope!

"Oh, right. Starting today, I won't need to soak in medicinal baths anymore," Dongbo Xueying said with a smile. "My body isn't immortal, but its recovery is far better than what the medicinal baths could provide."

As he spoke, Dongbo Xueying picked up a paper knife from the desk and cut his palm, leaving a wound. With a medicinal bath, it would have taken until the next day to heal completely.

But now, the wound in his palm healed rapidly. In the time it took to draw a single breath, it had vanished completely.

The stronger the body, the more astonishing its recovery.

Even the internal organs of a Silver Moon Knight transformed under the nourishment of Battle Qi, giving them remarkable recovery. A Title-level Knight's body could be tempered by the power of Heaven and Earth... making them nearly immortal, even more so than Dongbo Xueying. People said a Title Knight could be worn down by ordinary mortals, but that was only theoretically possible.

After all, the cost would be too high.

If an army were really sent after them, a Title Knight would have escaped long before, never giving them a chance to surround him.

Usually, only someone with the strength of a Title-level Knight or a Transcendent could kill a Title Knight.

"Oh, there's one more important thing. In a couple of days, I'm planning to go to Yi Water City," Dongbo Xueying said suddenly.