Rivers of the Night

The fury of the Patriarch was practically palpable in his roars. He reached forward with the last of his strength, exploding forth with all the speed he had left and grasping at Theron.

But just as his laws were about to rip into Theron's throat, a current bombarded him from the side.

He had put all his strength into coming forward, giving it everything he had. He simply had no Mana left to protect him from such a thing, and he was about to be easily swept away.

But it was Theron who caught him.

The Patriarch's claw missed Theron's throat, zipping by just fractions of an inch to the side as though Theron had calculated everything down to the finest millimeter.

Left in his hands… there was a withered old man who was emitting so much Death Mana that he seemed like he could start rotting right this very instant.

Theron hadn't put his cards into hoping he'd kill Patriarch Nightingale personally. The variables in this world were too great.

Not long ago, he had pierced Blackmaul right through the lung, barely missing his heart, and yet the man popped in a pill that healed his internal injuries almost instantly.

For someone like Patriarch Nightingale, who had lived far longer, was far stronger, and certainly had an even larger number of trump cards, Theron didn't even know if cutting his head off would be enough—never mind the fact that he couldn't guarantee that either.

According to his calculations, cheating Patriarch Nightingale by a few inches was possible, but the length of the thickness of his entire neck?

No matter how clever his plan, the difference in strength was too great. That distance was too large, so there was no guarantee he could decapitate Patriarch Nightingale—it was as good as impossible.

So, that left Theron stuck in a corner. He couldn't escape because Patriarch Nightingale kept cutting off his routes toward descending deeper into the river, and he couldn't land a strike he felt would be a guaranteed kill.

But then he thought about how Patriarch Nightingale had cornered him, first blocking off the obvious exits that he would use, and then baiting him to attack the targets he really wanted.

And that was when Theron realized something.

Patriarch Nightingale was the owner of the Centinnial Blooming Lotus, and it was then a plan formulated in his mind. A new plan.

Theron had no way of knowing exactly how old Patriarch Nightingale was, and he also hadn't known the Patriarch would make the lotus his Echo either—he hadn't even known that was possible.

But what he did know was that the way the Centinnial Blooming Lotus worked was in his favor.

The lotus wasn't an item you simply ate and were done with. As the description said, it increased your lifespan by 10x. So the question was… how?

A cultivator's lifespan changed with their cultivation. If you ate a fruit that gave you a 10x lifespan as a mortal, by the time you got to Patriarch Nightingale's cultivation, would it even be worth it anymore?

The Centinnial Blooming Lotus was a special Mana Herb that bound to your dantian. Every time you broke through, it would be stirred and produce a seed. This seed would be absorbed into the stream of your meridians and thus produce the effect of improving your lifespan.

But the core of that sustenance would remain in the lotus itself. Without the influence of the lotus, the seed wouldn't be able to continue producing its effects.

This was because the lotus had a way of purifying and manifesting Life Mana in a continuous cycle. The seed would undergo a spiritualized sort of germination and growth through the body that would, over time, slow the dissipation of your real Life Mana by a factor of ten times.

Together like this, the seed and lotus would work together until the next time you broke through, whereupon a stronger seed would form and the process would continue all over again.

This was how the lotus kept its promise. The stronger your lifespan was, the more it would be able to give you. But the weaker your lifespan, the weaker the result as well.

And if you suddenly had what was effectively 10x your Life Mana so abruptly cut off, the shock to your system would be enough for more than just a brief, temporary freeze. It would give Theron the chance to levy a true death blow.

What Theron didn't expect was that Patriarch Nightingale would have gone as far as to make the lotus his Echo, and as a result of that, the effect Theron was hoping to give him a slight opportunity had instead become the death of a man.

As for how Theron had done it, it was quite simple. All he did was sense and cut off the Patriarch's connection to his current Blooming Seed.

The Karmic Needle and Thread were hypersensitive to things that could change the path of Karma, and what could be more potent in doing such a thing than an item that could increase one's lifespan so substantially?

However, actually cutting it was easier said than done. To do that, Theron had to actually physically cut the Patriarch. Luckily… he had managed to leave that open wound.

In the fog of the Shadow Blade, he had hidden the Karmic Scissors.

Patriarch Nightingale never stood a chance.

Theron's claw ripped into the Patriarch's dantian, pulling out a Core. It flickered with a transparent light and a dull fog. Compared to the unnamed cultivator, it was several times smaller. However, it somehow seemed more resplendent—not because of the Patriarch, but because of the lotus within.

'Hm…'

Theron's first instinct was to take the lotus for himself. But… when he thought about it…

He suddenly had a much better idea.

Why would the unnamed cultivator have such a thing? This lotus wasn't as valuable as the legacy, but it didn't feel too far off.

Unless… that was the point.