Veronica was fifteen, once the eldest young lady of the Baruch Clan, waited on hand and foot.
Now, she had been stripped of that surname. She wore coarse hemp clothes, ate leftovers from the tavern, and lived in a rented little cabin.
After eating, Veronica took the Dragonblood Secret Manual out from under her pillow.
She had written it down from memory. On the day she left the clan, she had taken nothing but the clothes on her back.
"I still can't cultivate. The Dragonblood Warrior bloodline? It sounds glorious, but it's really a shackle on every one of us." With disgust and disappointment, Veronica put the Dragonblood Secret Manual back.
She no longer wanted to remember her old surname.
She stripped down to her underwear and began exercising.
The clan had once provided her with plenty of training equipment, but she hadn't appreciated it at the time. Now, she could only exercise with the simplest methods, doing sit-ups and lifting heavy objects. But at fifteen, she was still only a warrior of the fourth rank.
She sat up warily, put on her clothes, and drew a cleaver. It was a discarded cleaver from the tavern where she cooked, which she had taken for self-defense.
Ever since she had been driven out of the clan, she had lived in fear, wary of everyone.
"Don't be nervous, little girl." It was a woman's voice.
Veronica looked closely and saw a middle-aged woman.
She cautiously said nothing.
"I've come from Fenlai City to take you there on the pope's orders."
Veronica frowned.
The woman continued, "The pope lamented that the Baruch Clan, once an ally, had fallen so far. He is also displeased that Pehlivan killed his brother and seized his position, so he sent me to take you to the Holy City to cultivate."
Veronica's expression softened, but the glimmer that had just appeared in her eyes faded again. "I can't cultivate."
"Don't give up so easily. When the pope was young, he had dealings with Solon Baruch, the Dragonblood Warrior of that time. He knows the Baruch Clan once had a way to activate the bloodlines of its ordinary descendants, but it was abandoned because it was too difficult and left almost no chance of survival. The pope said that if you can trust him, he can let you try that method. Whether you succeed will depend on you."
"Really?" Veronica's eyes lit up.
The woman nodded.
"I accept. I'll do anything."
"It would be best not to let the Baruch Clan know about this," the woman reminded her.
"I'll leave a letter saying I've gone to the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts."
The woman nodded.
Jason watched Veronica's cabin quietly from a distance.
Someone had just gone in. Jason had wanted to get acquainted with this girl from the Baruch Clan, or at least offer her some assistance, but he hadn't expected someone else to get there first.
What was more, that person's aura was highly unusual.
Even from this far away, the Power of Death on Jason had been dispelled.
Although Jason didn't use Necromancy often, he still picked up traces of the Power of Death. Necromancers were "long-lived" because they were steeped in the Power of Death for so long. In truth, Jason knew it wasn't longevity, but a transformation into a "creature" that was half human and half undead.
This was especially true for those who lived beyond their natural lifespan. The ninth-rank necromancer Linley knew in the original story had such a terrifying appearance because, by then, the death energy had gradually changed him.
That was why Jason wanted to reach Saint-level sooner. As long as he became Saint-level before the age of two hundred, the Power of Death would have very little effect on his body.
And now, he could feel the faint Power of Death lingering around him being dispelled. The Power of Death on the surface of his body was so weak that even a Saint-level expert would have trouble detecting it.
If I kept that mysterious person by my side, wouldn't I no longer have to worry about the Power of Death turning me into something neither human nor ghost? Jason felt a little pleased.
While Jason was still hiding in the shadows, two people came out through the window.
More precisely, a woman carrying a girl leaped onto the roof.
Only then did Jason get a clear look: the person who had gone in was a woman too.
The two weren't moving very fast. Jason waited until they had put some distance between them before following.
After following them for a short while, he discovered that the two had actually led two horses out of an inn's stable-
"You should've said so earlier. I could've ridden too." Jason looked around. Fortunately, he wasn't far from the tavern where he was staying. He checked their direction again, then hurried back to his room.
His bundle was still unopened. Jason slung it over his back, picked up his weapon, and left a handful of gold coins. Then he hurried to the stable, led out his horse, and gave chase.
The pair hadn't concealed their tracks, and Jason easily found the hoofprints.
After chasing them for more than ten li, Jason was still considering what to do when he caught up to them, and whether he should slow down and trail behind, when he spotted two people confronting each other in the distance.
One was a mage, the other a young woman. A girl stood farther away, and two dead horses lay nearby.
"I didn't expect the rumors to be true." The person, who was plainly dressed as a mage, spoke with his back to Jason. "The ancestors of our Baruch Clan were once allies of the Radiant Church. They helped you kill powerful Saint-level enemies from the Dark Church. How could you do this?"
The mage sounded quite old, and his voice was filled with anger. "How could you use the bodies of our clanspeople as vessels for Angelic Descent?!"
The young woman's face was expressionless.
"Cough, cough, cough." The mage's voice betrayed an unmistakable frailty. "I once met with other Saint-level experts. Our Baruch Clan once had a way to activate our bloodlines, but it was tampered with less than a hundred years after our ancestor left. Was that your doing too?"
"Isn't that for the best?" The young woman's voice was cold. "The Baruch Clan's Saint-level experts killed enemies for my lord, and their descendants offer their bodies in loyalty to my lord. As for concealing the method of activating their bloodlines, those rebellious lambs refused to honor my lord. We merely made them bow their defiant heads."
The mage raised his head. Even with his back to Jason, Jason could see his unwillingness to accept it.
"Cousin, do you really remember nothing at all?" The grief in the mage's voice was almost overflowing.
"I am an angel in my lord's service. As for the soul that originally inhabited this body, it has already gone to heaven."
"The Baruch Clan still has many Saint-level allies. After I die, our Baruch Clan will expose your crimes and let everyone know of your wicked deeds!"
"Then we'll kill everyone who slanders my lord." The young woman's voice was utterly flat. "They're nothing but lambs. It doesn't matter how many die; they'll reproduce anyway. As for the allies you think you have, do you know? You have even more enemies, including Deity-level ones."
For a moment, the mage was speechless.
"Be good lambs again and provide vessels for my lord's angels to descend into. As for you, Mikhail, in recognition of your ancestors' loyalty to my lord, I grant you the right to go to heaven."
Mikhail was only an Eighth-level Magus. How could he withstand an attack from a ninth-rank angel?
In Jason's sight, the angel in the young woman's form appeared before the mage in a flash, her fair hand piercing straight through his chest.
But in the next instant, crimson flames engulfed the angel's entire body.
"I curse everyone in the Radiant Church to die a miserable death! I curse the God of Light to fall from his divine throne!" came a shrill cry.
You're about to die, and that's still not a harsh enough curse. At least wish death on the Sovereign of Light's entire family, Jason grumbled silently from his hiding place.
The flames came from a scroll. Jason wasn't surprised. It was only natural for a clan as distinguished as the Baruch Clan to have a few high-level scrolls passed down to them.
The angel seemed enraged by the "blasphemous words." She thrust her other hand into the old mage's chest and pulled hard, tearing him in two!
However, the weakness of ninth-rank angels lay in their bodies. Their bodies were only at the sixth rank and were extremely fragile.
The angel turned her gaze toward Jason's position.
As the hairs on Jason's body stood on end, a spear of light pierced straight through him, carrying him backward and pinning him to a tree behind him.
Four spears of light flew toward Veronica. The girl had been standing frozen in place from the sudden turn of events, and in an instant, the four spears tore her limbs apart.
The angel then waved her hand, and a light shone on Veronica, quickly sealing the stumps of her limbs-but without her limbs, Veronica couldn't move.
By the time she had done this, the angel's body had completely broken apart, revealing her original appearance.
She had the face of a beautiful girl, a naked body, and a pair of pure white wings.
"My brothers and sisters will come to finish things up shortly. With some training later, this Veronica should be capable of serving as a vessel for another of our kind."
In an instant, the angel dissolved into specks of starlight and vanished into the world.