NOVEL NEXT Chapter 452: The Shadow of Blood
Eamon fled without looking back, and Ethan made no move to give chase.
With a sudden tremor, the Twilight Warspear erupted from the earth in front of Julian. His hand shot out, fingers closing around the polished shaft. In one fluid motion, he pivoted, driving the weapon forward in a long, sweeping thrust. A Windspirit Faction disciple—twisted into a grotesque, vampiric monstrosity—was hurled backward, its body folding under the strike.
Now armed with the weapon, Julian's strength spiked. The three-pronged tip of the Twilight Warspear cut through the warped creatures as if their flesh were nothing more than wet paper, bypassing their once-impenetrable defenses with contemptuous ease.
Ethan, standing above on the cliff, extended his hand. Micah, still dazed, was pulled toward him by an invisible force. Ethan carried him down into the valley, landing beside Baleron, who lay sprawled and unmoving. The man had been flung a shocking distance by the shockwaves of Ethan's earlier clash with Eamon. It wasn't immediately clear whether he was still alive.
Julian, with the weapon still in his grip, finished off the last seven crippled creatures in a blur of motion. When the valley finally fell silent, he returned the Twilight Warspear to Ethan and knelt beside Baleron, pressing his fingers to the man's neck.
"He's alive," Julian announced.
"Good. Let him stay that way for now—I have questions for him later," Ethan replied. He shifted into his Tree Form, channeling green energy into a Rejuvenation spell that flowed over Baleron's battered frame.
"Take him. We're leaving. This isn't somewhere we should linger." Without waiting for a reply, Ethan lifted off, arrowing toward the cliff where the Youth-Preserving Fruit tree grew.
Micah's protective Runic scroll had shattered under the blast from Ethan's last attack, but the fruit tree itself was miraculously untouched. Extending his Soul Sense, Ethan let his awareness sink into the tree's trunk, spreading into its roots and the earth beneath.
"Rise," he commanded.
A weight pressed against his mind, the ground itself shuddering in answer. The cliff face groaned, boulders splitting and tumbling away. Under Micah and Julian's astonished gaze, the tree simply… vanished.
"B-Brother… you know that tree can't be kept in a spatial pouch for long…" Micah stammered, wide-eyed.
"Hmm. Let's go," Ethan said, unconcerned.
Micah stared. He knew that and still took it? If the tree had been left here, future generations could have harvested from it—but Ethan clearly didn't care. What puzzled him more was why none of these people seemed to possess a Mindscape. Even the Windspirit disciples were Soul-Wielders, yet they still relied on clumsy spatial pouches for storage.
Ethan didn't elaborate. He simply gathered Micah and Julian in his power, lifting them back to the top of the cliff. Micah guided the way toward the rumored entrance to the second level, and they set off again.
All the while, something strange unfolded inside Ethan's own Mindscape. After storing the fruit tree, he had placed it beside his Tree of Life. To his surprise, one of the Tree of Life's branches reached out, sweeping over the Youth-Preserving Fruit tree. In the blink of an eye, the sapling crumbled into fine powder.
Ethan's gut tightened—until the next moment, when the powder was drawn into the Tree of Life as if inhaled. A new branch began to grow from its side, not the vibrant green of the Tree of Life but the rich brown of the Youth-Preserving Fruit tree. By the time the transformation finished, twenty-seven ripe fruits hung from its boughs.
"…Grafting," Ethan muttered, the tension in his chest easing.
They traveled in silence for a time. Micah and Julian began to talk, slowly warming to each other, though Julian's mind was clearly elsewhere.
"Don't worry," Ethan said suddenly, without looking back. "Blackie's smarter than you think. He'll be fine."
Julian's gaze flicked to him, then down again. "Hmm," he murmured in acknowledgment.
Ethan's mouth curled faintly. "Micah, how much do you know about the Blood Clan?"
Micah's face tightened. "The Blood Clan… they first appeared in what we call the ancient era—and were the very cause of its collapse. They are born predators, existing only to drain life and destroy. No one knows where they truly came from, or if they even existed before that time. The oldest records we have in the Moros Starfield go back thirty million years.
"Every time the Blood Clan has appeared since then, countless starfields have been consumed, stars snuffed out, and entire civilizations erased. It's been ten million years since their last known incursion. I never thought I'd see them here—let alone during a Spirit Realm trial. Brother… which starfield are you from?"
"I only know our planet's called Umbral Star."
"Umbral Star?" Micah frowned, thinking. He shook his head. "Never heard of it. I'll look into it when we return. But if Blood Clan servants are showing up there… you need to be careful."
Ethan nodded, absorbing the weight of the warning. He hadn't realized the Blood Clan's power ran that deep—no wonder Micah's face had gone pale at the sight of them.
"So… the man just now wasn't a true Blood Clan?" Ethan asked.
"Exactly. He was just a human who fell to their influence. That doesn't mean the Blood Clan themselves have returned—it could simply mean someone inherited their power or legacy."
Ethan's thoughts churned. He remembered the Blue Dragon's warning about the creature imprisoned beneath Beastfall City… and also it's suspicion that this trial itself had been orchestrated by the Blood King. Could the Blood Clan's periodic resurgences be tied to the Divine Ability Immortality? If he claimed the scroll for himself, could he end them entirely?
But the Immortality scroll was locked behind a quest. Ethan opened his quest panel:
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[Quest Name: Conquer the Sea of Death
Requirement: Unify the four main cities of the Sea of Death.
Hurricane City: 0/1
Beastfall City: 1/1
Forgotten City: 0/1
Clearspring City: 0/1
Time Limit: Remainder of the trial.
Reward: Divine Ability Scroll: Immortality (Divine)]
---
No changes. He still needed to conquer the remaining cities to claim the ability. Now, with the Blood Clan tangled into the picture, the whole thing was becoming a headache. What was the true link between the Blood King and the Blood Clan?
He thought back to the moment before entering the trial, recalling what his Advanced Analysis had revealed:
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[Blood King · Osloak]
Grade: Divine
Level: 1
Health: 500,000 / 500,000
Attack: 5000–5000
Defense: 5000–5000
Skills: None
Special Skills: Revive Blood Clan, Blood Clan Transformation, Domination
---
Revive Blood Clan. Blood Clan Transformation.
Ethan's eyes narrowed. If Osloak could open a portal to send him in here… could he also come through himself? Was this entire something truly orchestrated by the Blood King?
"We're here," Micah said suddenly, pulling Ethan out of his thoughts. He stopped, turning to face them.