The Blood Progenitor Discovers Xiao's Trail

Dream Realm.

Sun Cup Flower Sea on the God-Given Land.

A brown-haired little girl in a dress lay sleeping in the flower sea. The light was perfect, and the island's temperature was so comfortably warm it felt lazy.

She hugged a pillow as she lay amidst the flowers, supported by golden Sun Cups clustered together like an impossibly wide bed.

When the wind blew, waves rippled through the flowers, rocking her gently like a cradle.

Suddenly, a group of little spirits gathered around her, circling and shouting loudly.

"Lady Shelly!"

"Lady Shelly was robbed!"

The spirits called her "Lady" only because they had to, without any real respect. Their words were full of enjoyment at her misfortune.

"Robbed!"

"She got robbed!"

Shelly hugged her pillow and rolled over to look at the spirits surrounding her.

"You're so noisy," she complained. "Keep it up and I'll plant you all in flower pots."

The spirits scattered in fear but didn't leave entirely.

Shelly asked again, "What was stolen?"

The spirits immediately crowded back to answer, "Your home was stolen!"

Shelly mumbled groggily, "Whose home?"

The spirits replied, "Yours!"

Shelly rubbed her eyes, finally waking up properly.

She thought for a moment, assuming her Temple of Life had been stolen, and suddenly cried out.

"Ah!"

"There's a thief!"

Shelly prepared to return immediately at first. Yet, after only a few steps, she turned and headed toward the Pyramid Temple instead.

"These spirits must have seen my home being robbed from the Pyramid Temple," she thought.

She wanted to see exactly what kind of thief would dare steal from her.

She ran to the Pyramid Temple.

Inside the temple, a group of spirits, both large and small, surrounded the Dream Sovereign Hila. Yin Shen stood on the other side, deeper within the temple.

The temple pillars blocked Yin Shen's body. Shelly could only see his back.

Shelly approached Dream Sovereign Hila and discovered they were looking at a city in the clouds.

"What do you mean, my home?" Shelly asked the spirits.

"You're all exaggerating, deceiving the great Life Sovereign."

Shelly discovered it was just the God-Descended City, left by the Sky Beast, that had been stolen.

Though it wasn't her actual home that was stolen, Shelly was still unhappy.

"How dare they steal my things," she fumed internally.

"I'll make them hand over the thief."

Yin Shen walked over at this point. Though he hadn't looked directly, he seemed to know what had happened.

"Of course it's not your home," he said calmly. "How could outsiders enter this place?"

"It's just a relic preserved by the beast. Not everything inside belongs to you. They're artifacts from the previous era."

Yin Shen found Shelly's furious appearance rather amusing.

"Besides," he added, "who left the door open, showing off to the outside?"

"How long has it been since you checked on things? Next time, your real treasures in the Temple of Life might actually get stolen."

Although the Temple of Life was Shelly's home, she spent all her time living on the God-Given Land.

The vast God's Island had become her playground.

She had completely forgotten about her own temple.

"I showed Shelly what was in the clouds but then forgot about it," Hila explained.

She had only just seen someone break into the God-Descended City to steal something, but she hadn't caught the whole sequence of events.

Seeing Yin Shen tease her, Shelly grew even more upset.

She pouted, nearly sitting down on the ground in a sulk.

"Ruhe Beast Island is all mine," she insisted.

"Everything is mine."

"They're all my things."

Yin Shen looked at her and said, "In that case, they didn't steal from you."

"They just moved your things from your back garden into your house."

Shelly turned her face away. "They still stole my things. I'm upset."

Yin Shen patted her head gently. "By your logic, this whole world is mine, including you."

Shelly retorted, "That's right, everything belongs to God."

"But I have my own personal space and my own possessions," she added stubbornly, like a child demanding their own independent space.

Yin Shen looked at her. "Just as you said."

"Though mortals live on your island, they too have things that belong to them."

"Don't try to view everything as yours. What truly belongs to you will return to you."

Shelly became embarrassed. She felt God's words made sense.

Just because mortals lived on the island she created, it didn't necessarily mean everything belonged completely to her.

And though the Ruhe beast had swallowed many things from the previous era, many of those things had their own history and context.

She finally gave up her plans to go down to the mortal realm.

Shelly asked the little spirits, "What did they steal?"

A nearby spirit said, "They stole a stone."

Another spirit shouted loudly, "That's right! They took a broken stone and left behind the shiny, pretty crown!"

In the spirits' view, that crown was much prettier.

Shelly couldn't understand why someone would break in just to steal a stone. After thinking for a while, she came to a conclusion.

This must be an idiot.

An idiot who stumbled into my garden by accident, happily picked up a broken stone, and left.

Thinking of this, Shelly felt there was nothing to be angry about anymore.

"If it's just a stone, then I won't hold it against them," Shelly announced, unusually magnanimous, speaking like a little adult imitating Yin Shen's manner of speech.

"But stealing is wrong," she continued. "If they don't change their ways, they'll surely suffer for it in the future."

She held up the Spirit's Magic Mirror and spoke to the clouds on the other side.

"Close the door properly!"

"How can you let thieves just walk in?"

The clouds churned.

The Sky Beast, one of the Ruhe beasts, felt very wronged.

Wasn't it you who told us to open the door in the first place?

The spirits started making a fuss again. "The one who entered wasn't living!"

"Not living!"

Shelly paused. "Ah?"

"Not living?"

Shelly immediately added instructions to the Sky Beast and other Ruhe beasts: "Non-living beings aren't allowed either."

When Shana returned to Silver Fish Island, the flames were still smoldering, though most of the fire had already burned itself out.

At the shore.

Shana stood soaked at the water's edge, looking utterly wretched.

His body trembled. It was unclear if it was from swimming too long or from the cold.

Shana had swum back. He left the boatman's vessel forever in the God-Descended City, among those clouds.

Camon's image kept flashing through Shana's mind, along with his grandfather's face.

He recalled again the image his grandfather had transmitted to him: that gloomy elder approaching him bit by bit, his sunken eye sockets filled with an icy gaze.

He remembered the elder speaking to him, "Why, with people, of course."

"My dear Shana!"

Shana walked past the burned foundations of houses, entering the center of the island village.

He saw the two-story wooden house where he had lived.

For months, he had planned his journey to the God-Descended City there. He had even started getting used to life on this island.

He remembered the boatman's child who always ran upstairs to ask him.

"Mr. Shana," the child would ask.

"Have you finished your poem?"

The final image froze in the dark night. Shana lifted his head to look at the sparks bursting from the burning wood above, as if seeing Camon again, controlling his web in mid-air, watching him.

"Shana!" Camon's voice echoed in his memory.

"You cannot resist fate."

Shana stared at the sky, feeling as if he saw dense threads everywhere.

White threads fell from the sky, tangling around him.

They suspended him and everyone else in mid-air, manipulating and controlling his fate.

Water still dripped from Shana's head, his slightly curly hair sticking to his face.

"Is this what Divine Beings are like?" he thought desperately.

"Is this what the Shana clan is?"

This was completely different from what Shana had imagined Divine Beings and their apostles to be.

Shana drew his sword, swinging it repeatedly at the air around him.

He slashed at the air beside him.

It was as if he were trying to cut away all the binding threads on his body, determined not to leave a single one.

"What a joke," he spat.

"You abominations, every one of you."

"What right do you have to represent Divine Beings? What right do you have to represent fate?"

"I refuse to accept this."

"I will never accept this fate you've given me."

He slashed like a madman at those invisible threads that truly controlled him, though they couldn't be seen.

Finally, he was exhausted.

Shana wandered the entire island like a walking corpse.

His immense spirit power, gained from merging with the Wisdom Stone, covered every corner around him as he lifted fallen houses one by one, exploring every part of the island.

He found no survivors and no trace of Camon.

He could only leave.

In the deep night after Shana left, light suddenly burst forth from the black ashes left by the fire.

One by one, hazy phantom shadows emerged from the darkness.

They were Heart-Burning Demons from the Abyss.

"Clack!"

A bone hand pushed away the blackened charred wood pressing down on it and crawled out from beneath.

Remains assembled piece by piece, forming groups of Bone Demons that wandered across Silver Fish Island.

They had crossed the boundaries of the Abyss, emerging from the darkest depths of corruption and evil into reality.

They savored the darkest, most corrupt power of mortals, tasting their fear and despair, devouring their desires and emotions in great gulps.

Due to the laws of the Abyss, they could only dwell and manifest in corrupted and fallen places.

Yesterday's paradise had become a corrupted land where monsters dwelled.

Such a large-scale sacrifice, the disappearance of an entire island's population, could not remain hidden for long.

Especially since this was near the recently prominent Lost Kingdom, it wasn't long before the outside world was alerted.

A Lantern Bearer team under the Grand Elder of the Land of Sunrise arrived.

These Ability Users, dressed as Alchemists and carrying lanterns, cast various spells to destroy the Bone Demons that were everywhere.

"Sure enough, these are Abyss Monsters." Everyone who stepped onto Silver Fish Island looked grave. It seemed they had encountered such Abyss Monsters before. This was a terrifying supernatural race that had only appeared in recent years.

"Be careful of the Heart-Burning Demons! Use the spirit barrier Divine Technique!" As Heart-Burning Demons lunged at the Alchemists one by one, their leader noticed and captured one in a bottle.

Heart-Burning Demons were far more dangerous than other monsters if one wasn't prepared. However, once prepared for, they were actually the easiest to deal with.

Especially as followers of the God of Alchemy and Desire, the Lantern Bearers seemed to have an inherent advantage against Heart-Burning Demons.

"Don't let their dark power corrupt you!" the leader shouted.

After eliminating the lingering Heart-Burning Demons and Bone Demons, they prepared to pray to the God of Alchemy and Desire for divine power. They planned to perform a ritual to cleanse the area of corruption.

Accompanying them was a person from Suinhor.

He hadn't helped eliminate the monsters but observed quietly instead.

He was a very energetic-looking elderly man whose age would have been hard to guess if not for his white hair.

His gaze was full of wisdom, and his every movement carried a scholarly bearing.

The elder was Master Breman, creator of "The Lost Kingdom."

After completing "The Lost Kingdom," this master had returned once again.

He sought new inspiration while also making something of a pilgrimage.

But he never imagined such a tragedy would occur so close to the Lost Kingdom.

Master Breman was quite attentive. Through careful observation of details, he immediately noticed this fire was no accident but rather a ritual that someone had performed here.

And those dead islanders weren't just killed. They were sacrificed.

"What kind of ritual array is this?" Breman wondered.

"What kind of ritual requires sacrificing so many people? What Divine Being would accept such a sacrifice?"

"Was it a sacrifice to that recently appeared entity called the Abyss?"

Breman picked up a bone left by a Bone Demon. Unfortunately, the sacrificial traces had been corrupted by the monsters, making it difficult to find evidence of the Ghost Transformation ritual.

Breman felt it wasn't so simple. "Performing an Abyss Sacrifice under 'The Lost Kingdom'... is this person mad?"

On Breman's back was a strange tattoo pattern.

He too was a Trilobite Symbiote.

Breman opened a small silver flask. One by one, blood-colored worms crawled out and rushed toward the surroundings.

They burrowed into the ground, spreading in all directions.

These blood worms excelled at searching for auras and exploring all traces left by life.

They could find what Breman wanted.

Breman waited for news while observing his surroundings.

Suddenly, he looked up at the clouds.

Breman realized something, his expression changing drastically.

"It's not this island," he thought suddenly.

"They weren't targeting this island or its people. Their target was up there."

Breman's gaze fixed on a location beyond the clouds. "The Lost Kingdom."

The master seemed dazed for a moment. The small silver flask at his feet suddenly shook as the blood worms he had sent out returned one by one.

Breman picked up the flask, receiving the information transmitted by the blood worms.

"All ordinary people, likely island fishermen," he murmured, summarizing the findings.

"What did this person do?"

Breman stopped at a spot where the worms had gathered. This seemed to be the area where fish were traded. A merchant had likely come here to buy silver fish.

"A merchant."

As he walked, Breman reached the island's center.

"Hmm..."

"What were these two moving entities?"

Breman sensed two beings had left traces on the island, but he couldn't feel their auras at all.

It seemed neither of these two were living people.

Breman's blood worms were very sensitive to life auras, but these two beings had absolutely no rhythms of life in their bodies.

Breman jolted, feeling he had discovered an important clue.

"Two people without living auras? Or perhaps so powerful they could conceal their life rhythms?"

But one thing was certain: two beings with supernatural powers were here, and they must have been extremely powerful.

Following the sensations, Breman released his blood worms again.

He walked across all of Silver Fish Island.

"One of them performed some kind of ritual, killing everyone on the island."

Finally arriving at the dock where small boats moored, he looked at one empty post.

A boat should have been moored here but is now gone.

"The other took a boat into the place of death in Thunder Marsh's depths."

Breman was finally certain, but he found it incredible.

What kind of person could pass through Thunder Marsh's depths and brave such terrible white mist?

"Impossible!" he exclaimed internally.

"How could anyone enter there? Wouldn't that be suicide?"

But all evidence pointed to someone entering that place.

This was a premeditated plan. Someone killed everyone on Silver Fish Island, performing an inhumane sacrifice.

Ultimately, this sacrifice allowed them to enter the Lost Kingdom in the sky and achieve some purpose.

After much contemplation, Breman reluctantly accepted this explanation, even though it seemed almost impossible to believe.

"Someone found a way..."

"...to get into the Lost Kingdom?"

"What did they want? Did they mean to desecrate holy ground?"

"To desecrate that lost nation?"

For some reason, Breman felt a surge of anger, as though something deeply sacred to him had been violated.

Breman immediately found a merchant who had recently entered Silver Fish Island. To help him remember more, Breman brought him back to the island.

Breman asked him, "Have any strange people come to the island recently?"

The merchant shook his head while thinking about his answer.

"No outsiders?" Breman pressed.

"Silver Fish Island is too remote," the merchant explained. "Usually, only locals and people buying silver fish go there. Few others visit."

But Breman pointed to a spot on the island where his blood worms had collected the most traces.

"There!" he insisted.

"Two outsiders should have lived there. You never saw them?"

The merchant froze. He seemed to instinctively feel that someone had indeed lived there, but he couldn't quite remember.

"Huh?" he mumbled.

"It seems someone lived there... no, wait..."

But in an instant, he felt this sense was unreasonable.

He finally recalled his certain memories and shook his head repeatedly.

With a serious expression, he said firmly.

"No, no, no."

"I remember now."

"That was an islander's house, but it was always empty. No one lived there."

Breman was stunned. He didn't understand why he got this result.

He felt the person before him was lying.

What he didn't know then was that the merchant's memory had been modified by a high-ranking being.

It wasn't modified through illusion, but directly altered and erased at the memory level.

Breman interviewed two others who had been to the island, but learned nothing new.

Only then did Breman truly sense something was wrong.

"They aren't lying," he realized. "They're telling what's in their memories."

"But their memories are problematic. They clearly don't match reality."

Master Breman felt there was only one possibility: "Modified memories."

"Someone definitely modified and erased memories."

Memory erasure and modification involved extremely high-ranking Divine Technique powers.

Recovering such erased memories was almost impossible without a backup.

Breman summarized all the clues he had found, all the information he had gathered.

"Two beings without any life rhythms entered Silver Fish Island, planning to infiltrate the Lost Kingdom."

"They performed some ritual, then used the power of the Abyss to erase its traces."

"They could ignore Thunder Marsh's deadly taboos, entering the Kingdom of God in the sky to achieve some purpose."

"Afterward, they had the power to alter others' memories, erasing traces of their existence."

Breman felt this matter was beyond his imagination, hiding an enormous plan he couldn't fathom.

He suspected that entering the Lost Kingdom was just one step in a larger scheme.

The memory erasure was likely done to keep the true purpose hidden.

The more Breman thought, the more terrifying it seemed, leaving him restless.

"Divine Beings!"

"What kind of people could accomplish such things?"

"And what exactly are they trying to do?"

One month after the Silver Fish Island tragedy.

Blood-colored flowers now covered Silver Fish Island completely, enveloping the small island.

Gorgeous flowers bloomed one by one, revealing delicate stamens.

All darkness and corruption had been cleared away, while all auras and traces here fell under the newcomer's control.

From the depths of the red flower sea emerged a red-haired female Demigod.

Since it involved the God-Descended City, Vivien had personally come to Silver Fish Island.

Unlike Breman, Vivien immediately sensed the ritual's location. She understood how such information was arranged and implemented, and what effects it achieved.

Vivien could even feel the ritual wasn't performed on the ground but in mid-air.

She looked at the sky above the island, frowning.

"A Ghost Transformation Ritual?" she wondered.

"Who performed Ghost Transformation here?"

"Did they want to plunder divine blood or create servants?"

Ghost Transformation wasn't something ordinary people could achieve. In the current world, only Asai, the God of Knowledge and Truth, and his servants could do it.

But Asai was beyond Ruhe Beast Island, on the other side of the world.

More importantly, Vivien felt someone of his power had no need to sneak around doing such things.

Too petty.

If that fellow Asai wanted to fall into darkness, it would surely be a scene more terrible than the former Evil God Disaster.

Other than Xiao, only the Little Person in the Bottle could have done this.

But with the Little Person in the Bottle long dead, Vivien couldn't help but feel confused.

"Could one of Asai's followers have fallen?"

Vivien immediately walked across the island, sensing deeper traces of the Ghost Transformation ritual.

Suddenly, Vivien's expression changed drastically.

"This is the power of the Evil God's Light of Original Sin!"

Vivien sensed the power waves emitted by the shard Camon had used in the ritual.

The mythological properties were so vivid here.

This method of Ghost Transformation was typically the power of Anhofus, the Little Person in the Bottle.

Vivien was extremely familiar with this aura.

She had experienced this power on Sacred Mountain and had felt it in her hometown of Cross City.

Vivien was certain it was the power of Anhofus, the Little Person in the Bottle Evil God. Even as a Demigod, she was deeply shaken.

"The Little Person in the Bottle Anhofus?"

Huge waves rose in the sea southeast of Ruhe Beast Island.

The moment Vivien spoke this name, the power of the Blood Kingdom reflected in the sky, and red tides surged across the entire sea.

A terrifying shadow swam beneath the ocean.

That was Vivien's true form, her aspect as the Life Ability Demigod.

After a long while, Vivien finally calmed down.

"No."

"He's dead, killed by Stuen."

Vivien didn't believe the Little Person in the Bottle could come back to life.

Who else? Who else could use the Little Person in the Bottle's Light of Original Sin?

"Xiao?"

"No, he's dead too."

But once this name was spoken, she couldn't help thinking further.

Unlike the Little Person in the Bottle, Xiao's death back then was very strange. He died at the hands of Vivien's sister Anli with almost no resistance.

For someone as scheming as Xiao, it was far too simple.

He only said one thing to Anli: "What Xiao owed the teacher has all been repaid."

Then he went willingly to his death.

It felt like a vicious criminal suddenly surrendering after just a few words from the protagonist.

How could that be possible?

But back then, Vivien was completely focused on the final battle at Sacred Mountain. She had no energy to consider Xiao's situation, assuming it was just his last resort.

At the time, the Little Person in the Bottle, Vivien, Stuen, Asai... everyone wanted him dead.

The final battle of the era was about to erupt, with him as a central figure in the disaster.

He had nowhere to run.

Besides, they had forged his mythological organs into tools. What was there to doubt?

Now, as a Demigod with a broader perspective, the more Vivien thought about it, the more questions arose.

Looking at the clouds, though she couldn't see the God-Descended City, Vivien suddenly remembered something.

"God-Descended City."

"The Yinsai Crown."

The Divine Artifact forged from Xiao's divine blood was there. If he wanted to come back to life, the Yinsai Crown would be essential.

The more she thought, the more possible it seemed.

"He didn't die... he reincarnated?"

"He wants to take back what he once lost?"

Vivien walked through the Blood Mist Cups, step by step reaching the shore.

Light shone down through the clouds, casting onto the lake surface.

"If Xiao is still alive and has returned to this era," Vivien's expression darkened, her voice laced with cold fury.

"I will make sure..."

"...you never escape your eternal nightmare."

Xiao was also a student of Vivien's teacher, Lan. In her youth, she had received guidance from this senior fellow apprentice.

He was decades older than her, and she once held deep respect for this elder.

That lasted until Xiao killed their teacher Lan for power, killed many Temple of Truth priests on the island, and pushed the Evil God Disaster to an uncontrollable peak.

This was someone who would stop at nothing to gain power, to pursue his goals.

He never cared whether his actions were right or wrong. All that mattered to him was getting what he wanted.

And this...

This was what Vivien hated most.