Blood was the oldest medium for carrying life and inheritance.
When the blood bead in Mizuki Han's veins, imbued with the power of extreme cold, met Haku's warm blood—an emblem of life and the future—at the wounds on their pressed-together wrists, a long-planned ritual of plunder officially began.
[Deep Fusion ritual initiated by host...]
[Establishing genetic pathway...]
[Warning: This process will inflict tremendous pain and irreversible bloodline changes upon fusion target 'Haku.' Continue?]
"Continue."
Mizuki Han's silent command came without a trace of hesitation. His will was like iron tempered for a thousand years: hard, cold, and beyond question.
But just as the system confirmed his command, the invisible genetic pathway opened completely, and Han prepared to begin his ruthless, bloody devouring, a sudden change erupted!
"Bzz—!"
A third force surged forth, belonging to neither of them—not even to the Yuki Clan. Brimming with the savage, ancient, and violent aura of the primordial wilderness, it was like the most ferocious ancient beast lurking in the depths of the sea. It abruptly awoke in the depths of Haku's seemingly pure blood and burst forth!
It wasn't chakra!
It was a more primal, purer power of "blood"!
At their overlapping wrists, the blood flowing from Haku's wound instantly darkened, turning from scarlet to a deep purplish black! Strands of black, visible to the naked eye like ink spreading through clear water, surged up the newly established genetic pathway in a savagely relentless reverse flow, furiously invading Mizuki Han's body!
This wasn't fusion at all. It was contamination and devouring in reverse!
Mizuki Han's pupils contracted sharply!
He could clearly feel a tyrannical, domineering will, utterly unreasonable, rushing along with the black blood into his meridians. It tried to completely disrupt and assimilate his orderly Ice Release chakra, purified by the system!
There was no intelligence in that will, only the most primitive, all-conquering violence and arrogance!
In an instant, Mizuki Han's pathological Persecutory Delusion was triggered to its utmost. His first thought was to sever the link immediately, shutting out this unknown, uncontrollable force for good!
But that thought lasted only 0.01 seconds before a far greater, more burning greed and ambition crushed it completely!
Risk? Losing control?
In this world, what could be riskier than placing your fate in someone else's hands? What could be more absolute a loss of control than being weak?
This force was unknown, but the very "quality" it contained far surpassed any Kekkei Genkai he had ever encountered!
It was a trap, but also an enormous opportunity!
[Warning! Unknown High-Tier Bloodline Fragment detected (attribute: ???)!]
[This bloodline has extremely strong invasive and assimilative properties! It is attempting to invade the host!]
[Fusion risk increased to 90%! The rewards upon success will grow exponentially! Abort?]
The system's warning blared incessantly in his mind. Even its cold mechanical logic seemed to tremble.
Abort?
A near-maniacal, crazed smile curled Mizuki Han's lips.
The words "abort" and "retreat" had never existed in his dictionary!
"Devour it!"
His command in his mind was even more domineering and unquestionable than his earlier "continue"!
If you want to devour me, then I'll chew up your very essence, your will, everything you are, and turn it all into fuel for my rise to supremacy!
Boom!
At his command, the gentle river of chakra flowing through Mizuki Han's body erupted into chaos! His pure Ice Release chakra, embodying the utmost "stillness" and "cold," became the sharpest blade and charged straight at the black bloodline power, which embodied "motion" and "violence"!
Blue and black, two utterly different forces, waged a silent, perilous war at their pressed-together wrists and within Mizuki Han's meridians!
"Ugh..."
Haku's sleeping body suddenly arched, and a pained groan escaped her. Tears spilled uncontrollably from the corners of her tightly shut eyes. Her small face turned bluish purple, as if she were enduring the agony of having her soul torn apart. Strange patterns like black ice crystals began to appear across her skin, radiating an ominous aura.
She had become the battlefield for this bloodline war!
Mizuki Han's situation was no better.
The black bloodline power was like a nest of living vipers, spreading wildly through his meridians. Wherever it passed, his blood vessel walls bulged as if they were about to burst, while wave after wave of stabbing pain came from inside his body.
Worse still, that tyrannical will was battering his spiritual sea, trying to erase his self-awareness and claim his body!
Yet Mizuki Han's expression remained as inhumanly cold as ever.
His body endured unbearable pain, but his mind was an ancient iceberg standing firm amid the raging storm!
Let the wind howl and rain lash. I remain unmoved!
"Is that all you've got?" he taunted the ancient will on a mental level. "A remnant that's been slumbering for who knows how many years, and you dare act arrogant before me?"
He gathered all his will into an invisible ice needle and stabbed it fiercely into the core of that violent will!
At the same time, under his forceful control, his Ice Release chakra stopped defending itself. Instead, it became countless tiny vortices of extreme cold, furiously grinding down, breaking apart, and crushing the black bloodline power!
This was a contest of wills, and a clash between one plunderer and another!
After an unknown length of time, the ancient will finally began to falter before Mizuki Han's nearly pathological, utterly pure "self." In the end, it was only a remnant of instinct, while Mizuki Han possessed a complete sense of self and boundless ambition!
As one side weakened and the other grew stronger, the balance of victory began to tip.
The force's savage aggression was gradually suppressed and weakened.
The black bloodline power was no longer a nest of vicious vipers. It had become prey stripped of its fangs and bound fast, dragged along, broken down, and then... absorbed by Han's chakra vortices!
[Unknown bloodline fragment's will has been suppressed.]
[Analyzing, devouring, assimilating...]
[Deep Fusion (mutation) officially initiated...]
The system's cold notification sounded again, marking the initial victory in the bloodline war.
Mizuki Han had won.
He had not only held on to his body, but also brought an unexpected and even more precious "supplement" within the scope of his hunt.
A feeling of power unlike anything he had known began to slowly grow at the genetic level. He could sense his Ice Release bloodline undergoing an indescribable transformation, evolving toward a higher plane.
But just as he was savoring the fruits of victory, a pain hundreds, even thousands of times more terrifying than the tearing of his meridians or the assault on his will erupted without warning from every cell in his body, from the depths of every inch of his genetic chains!
It wasn't tearing, burning, or freezing.
It was... the pain of "reformatting"!
The excruciating pain of having his very form of life forcibly rewritten, every cell broken apart and reassembled, his genetic chains violently torn apart and spliced together with a completely different sequence of code—the ultimate agony rooted in the very source of life!
"Crack!"
A faint snap.
The tooth Mizuki Han had clenched so tightly shattered under the sudden pain.
Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, but he couldn't even manage a groan.
He had won the war, but now he had to endure alone the cruelest price of victory.
The true agony of this bloody rite, which he had initiated himself on his path to supremacy, was only just beginning.
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