《House of Omen: The Sheriff Of Langerhans》 Prologue- Forever Flowering King A terrifying roar resounded through the Southern Rainforest. Three teenagers seemed to be coordinating to suppress a vicious beast. Their blurring forms were dashing around the enormous boar and while the three of them were among the best of their peers, they were clearly struggling against the animal. While it was a vicious beast, the animals of the rainforest were known for their keen intellect, even at the lower stages of evolution. It was hard to discern the figures of the teens as they moved explosively in this rare opening of the forest, every time their feet landed on the floor, they would be forced to pause for a moment. They were using a commonly taught application of spiritual energy taught to any martial artist raised by the Factions of Langerhans city. Two of the figures were young men clothed in red body suits, due to this, it was clear that they were from the Fire Faction. The third figure belonged to a young man wearing a green t-shirt and brown shorts. While the two in red were clearly struggling to avoid the charges of the wild boar, if they had the time to focus on their begrudging teammate, they would be terrified to find that his face only flashed with difficulty when he felt that one of the others may be looking at him. At other times he would relax and watch the pitiful scene in front of him. The two disciples from the Fire Faction had been exploring the wilderness, trying to kill vicious beasts. There were also spiritual roots and herbs in the rainforest, however they grew much deeper in the wilderness and could only be found by Dispersion level masters. They had felt unbelievably lucky to find a Wood Faction disciple whose spiritual energy seemed to be on par with their own. While the Fire Faction was renowned for it''s combat prowess, they couldn''t compare to the Wood or Water Faction when it came to the spiritual art of restoration. On the assumption that this Wood Faction disciple would serve as a portable medicine kit, they''d moved to restrain him and make him follow their demands. Who would''ve thought that the person they ran into was the man ''revered'' as the Forever Flowering King. They instantly realised that not only would they not be receiving any type of auxiliary healing, it would also be nigh on impossible to kill him in order to quickly resolve the potential disputes brought about by their domineering approach. Before they could come to an agreement between themselves a boar from within the rainforest charged out and began to attack them. After attempting to attack the Forever Flowering King and use him as bait, they begrudgingly agreed that even if he was broken in terms of the Wood Faction''s speciality, an elite O.D still had capabilities. Dashing for a while towards the city, they reached the clearing that would seemingly become their graves if they lost focus for a moment. They had hoped to co-ordinate with the Flowering King but his cold face showed them that he wouldn''t be forgiving their transgression, regardless of what they believed to be mutually shared mortal danger. At this point, an almost imperceptible flash of ridicule crossed the King''s face. He chuckled as he suddenly raised his speed, no longer pausing to propel himself forward nearly as frequently as the other two. He dashed to the boar''s blind spot imperceptibly. Once martial artists began using low restriction body techniques it would already become impossible for the human eye to see them, let alone these young experts that trained daily. However, the young man had moved without using any spiritual energy, if any of the older City members had seen this, they would be sure the young man had eaten a rare herb. This is to say, his speed when using just his physical body was much faster than the other two youths. After taking a moment to survey the plain, the young man in green dashed at the youth the boar wasn''t currently chasing, he appeared in front of him like a ghost and lashed out at the left side of the youth''s stomach. The young man from the Fire Clan instantly flushed white, he''d been absolutely focused on avoiding the vicious beast, he never imagined that the broken O.D of the Wood Faction would have time to attack him so viciously.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. He tried to force the spiritual energy in his reservoirs to rotate and disperse into his body faster. However, he''d already been in a desperate situation and the sneak attack had been launched perfectly and decisively. He expected to be sent flying, at worst he could use the force to propel himself, he''d never to expect the blow to come to a screeching halt. Before he could even feel relieved, the slow moving fist made contact, he saw the Wood Faction''s characteristic green coloured spiritual energy form around the fist and enter his body instantaneously. Before he could even contemplate what had happened, the youth who''d appeared like an angel of death disappeared as quickly as he''d appeared, not even sparing the young man another glance. By this time the boar had turned around and dashed towards him again. Before it''d reached halfway through the clearing a green flash passed it making the vicious beast stop in it''s tracks. Vicious beasts had fierce instincts which were heightened by their spiritual energy. Something moving so quickly that it couldn''t sense caused even this low level beast to pause. The green flash landed behind the other Fire Faction youth and repeated the same confusing action before disappearing into the rainforest. The two youth''s were dumbstruck, The Forever Flowering King was seen as a wasted talent that ranked in the lower half of the Wood Faction''s O.Ds based on his cultivation, he was reputed for his inability to heal and a restrictive abnormality in his recent cultivation speed. They''d never imagined he''d move in a way that could only be compared to their Faction''s elders, but had seemingly done nothing. They didn''t have much time to ponder on this as the vicious beast had also seen the green light disappear. It immediately dashed towards the closest red clothed youth. The youth began to rotate his spiritual energy through his body but found that the energy in his innate core was erratic and beyond his control. Before he could even question why such a thing happened, the boar was upon him and collided with him without mercy. This time the youth did go flying and he left a string of red blood snaking through the air to prove it. The other youth saw this and attempted to use this time to turn and flee. However, the boar was just so much faster than him on the flat plains and he''d been standing in the middle. Usually through application of his spiritual force he should still have been able to just about reach the dense foliage before the beast reached him. However, like the disciple before him he found that his spiritual energy was erratic and moving outside of his control. Due to this, he''d only traveled a few meters before the wild boar unmercifully collided with his back. A grim crunching sound resounded before he was propelled into a tree at the edge of the opening, twitching while bubbles of blood flowed out of his mouth. The beast slowly walked towards its newest prize, knowing the other prize was definitely dead; and was about to play with the dying young man. However, as it leisurely trotted over, a green flash crossed the plains from behind the boar, the Flowering King had returned and lashed out once again. This time however, his fist didn''t slow down and collided with a bang against the bony area on top of the boar''s tail. The animal shrieked as it was propelled in the same direction it had previously sent the second Fire Faction disciple, however it was propelled directly through 3 small trees before it landed with a crunch. The green flash came to a halt in front of the fleshy mass that had been the vicious beast. The young man frowned to himself, while he''d toyed with the two other young men they were still Fire Faction disciples. The Fire Faction specialized in combat and produced the most vicious martial artists. As such, they''d be hunting often, usually close to the city. The sounds of the trees crashing especially would have the potential to attract other wilderness explorers. He plunged his arm into the fleshy mass in front of him and pulled out a small dark red sack. He grimaced as he did the action, while it was easy, he''d always hated rooting through things like this. Then he flashed over to the other two bodies and retrieved a few sacks which were slightly smaller than the one he''d retrieved from the boar. While they wouldn''t be useful for the next few days, as long as everything went to plan he''d soon rid himself of that god-awful nickname and return to schedule. While he allowed himself to bask in self glory, he soon sensed spiritual fluctuations a few hundred meters away. Grinning to himself while suppressing the playful voices in his head, he flashed into the foliage in the opposite direction of the energy fluctuations. A group of young men that looked to be around 20 years old arrived moments later. They looked around the plain and their faces turned white. The youth that had arrived first began to shake with rage. ''F*ck!'' His shout resounded through the rainforest. A short distance away, the young man in green suppressed the urge to laugh before disappearing off silently towards the city. Chapter 1- I am....Luc Wood? A young man lay on his back in a field of flowers which seemed to go on forever. Asleep, his face looked peaceful. However, if anyone else had been there, they''d find he looked almost...irritated? While he was around 180cm tall, his soft features betrayed any attempt to hide his youth. He wore a pale green robe and his arms were spread beside him defenselessly. This peaceful scene seemed to go on for an eternity before a change came to the young man''s face. His face suddenly twisted and he clenched his jaw. His arms wrapped around his body and he was soon in fetal position, veins started to protrude on his forehead and he began to shake in pain. He grabbed his head and began to roll through the flowers, while he was clearly in great pain, he didn''t make a sound....even the flowers made no sound. After a few moments, he rolled onto his back and sat up straight with a jolt. "Every time I wake up....it''s like I couldn''t breathe....I don''t understand" the boy said as if he was still asleep. How many times is this? Luc moaned as he massaged his temples waking from one dream into another. In the last dream he''d been an enormous primordial tree! He had lived for eons, seenlegendary figures rise and fall, was worshiped by Gods and Mortals alike, before finally facing a tribulation to extend his life once more...which ultimately he seemed to fail. At this time, he was possessed with the same feelings of longing that plagued him prior to his repetitive appearance in this place. He was trapped in a circle of dreams. He''d only experienced each individual dream once, however, this place was like a waiting room he returned to before going into the next dream. Even though he''d been forced to shed his mortal attachments in various ways to end each dream sequence, the emotional numbness would seem to wear off a touch when returned here. He was currently sitting in a familiar field of white roses, a dozen metres from a woman who seemed to never notice him. She looked up from her book and the first few times this had happened, Luc could have sworn she''d been staring straight at him. The woman couldn''t be compared to any woman Luc had ever met before. She was dressed in a flowing white robe and sitting under the oak tree, she looked as if she''d melded with nature, a piece of jade would simply lose it''s luster in comparison and any of the so-called ''top beauties'' in the city would take their own lives, rather than be compared to this otherworldly queen. For some odd reason he could not fathom, Luc had never felt any attraction to her, all he felt was a need to be closer to this fairy who exuded such a majestic presence. Just as Luc lost himself to the serenity of the scene, he bit his lip and stared fiercely at the woman. The other times he''d come here, he''d been unable to exercise any form of free will. His time in the last dream had changed him. In the last dream he''d covered the world with one hand and had only been destroyed by his own pursuit for the pinnacle! "I DON''T NEED YOU TO NOTICE ME, LET ME OUT OF THIS PLACE!!". He''d faced this woman three times already. On each other occasion he''d been left with his hand outstretched in futility, falling into a world of darkness and thorns. Suddenly, the serenity of the field was disturbed. The bright sky grew gray and cold, the woman''s face began to grow vicious as the plants began to writhe and magically grow around her. The thorns of the roses pierced her skin, but the woman showed no sign of noticing any pain. As plants slowly lifted her up and away from Luc as he sank into a mass of roots and thorns,If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. As this happened, Luc''s lungs were filled with a roaring pain once more, this pain and struggle to breathe seemed to proceed the transitions! Luc''s eyes began to blur, this time the drowning sensation came much faster than before. This time however he had free will! He rotated his spiritual core and felt much more in control of his spiritual energy than he''d ever felt before! Luc felt indomitable in this moment! While some of the thorns continued to charge towards him, the remaining flowers seemed to spring to his defence! The roaring pain in his lungs dissapated instantly and Luc took a fierce breath and naturally commanded the remaining flowers to form a platform that carried him out of the thorns. If Luc could see himself in this moment he''d be astounded! Standing atop the platform of Flowers he looked like a deity! He raised his head defiantly at the woman, he intended to leave this place right now! As Luc prepared to exercise his new found power in this mysterious realm, he finally noticed the woman''s face! Rather than having a blank detached expression as Luc had gotten used to, the woman lifted her head and peered directly into Luc''s defiant eyes, as if searching for some type of answer. Luc was truly perplexed. "YOU COULD SEE ME!!!" he roared. He couldn''t explain the waves of anguish and potent feeling of betrayal that wracked his body. He thought he''d grown truly numb through these detaching experiences, in this moment however, all his emotions flooded back into him. His senses were thrown into turmoil! The power began to wash away from him and the thorns began to dominate the flowers as Luc began to slowly sink once more! A flash of shock crossed the woman''s face for a moment, however, this shock was soon replaced by a loving smile that silenced Luc instantly. *bump bump* "Huh?" Luc was shocked, this entire time, besides the sound of his own thinking, he''d been unable to hear anything....but he was certain that was the sound of a heart? *bump bump* The woman''s body started to glow and was surrounded by the vibrant green spiritual particles which were flowing away from Luc as well as solid silver spiritual particles coming from her own body! This astounded Luc, the ability to call forth spiritual energy from oneself was no easy feat and with the density she''d produced Luc assumed she''d have to at least be a Dispersion level master, perhaps even a Reformation rank archon! "So you''re still alive...." she said in a voice that could only be compared to a harp.....in a language Luc was sure he''d never heard before. Against his will Luc stretched out his hand once more as vines and thorns began to cover his body. This time however, the flowers reacted to his action and flew towards the woman at amazing speed! Luc was determined! If he was to return to another vision he''d make sure he at least struck this woman! The woman sniffed in disdain "Poor mongrel!" the melodic voice blasted out again, the harp like voice raising multiple octaves, the word ''mother'' resounding in Luc''s ears. Her body exploded in a flash of luminscent green light, destroying all of the vines that had pierced her. The resulting mass of spiritual energy charged towards Luc. Knowing he was only in the Flowering stage, this energy storm would be more than enough to kill a battalion of Lucs. He raised his arms in front of him and tried to channel spiritual energy in defence. *Bump dump* "Follow your Karma...." the melody sounded once more, clearly fading as a flash of light encompassed Luc''s vision.... "I need to rest..." the harp trailed off into silence once more as the sound of his heart faded away. The light was followed by an all too familiar dark world accompanied by a familiar floating sensation. While he knew he''d been unconscious, Luc was able to sense the damage he received when he suppressed the awakening of his bloodline. In each dream he''d lived a part of the great old tree''s life, the last vision had been the longest and showed the most majestic moments in it''s existence! Having experienced such a reality, the meager reality of an orphan disciple was much harder to acclimate back to than one would imagine. Luc took this time to try and piece together everything that happened before the cycle of nightmares, he was grasping at the fragments of memories from a life that now happened eons ago... "No!" he screamed at himself; forcibly dispelling some of the fog that blocked his memories. "It was my bloodline awakening ceremony" he thought..seemingly uncertain. Images began flooding into his mind once more.... Chapter 2- Langerhans The city of Langerhans was completely corrupted by the sins of humanity. While still called a city, on the planet we call Earth, it would rival the size of China. Langerhans is a city spread across the southern reaches of the continent of Phios. It was surrounded by large rainforests causing a perpetually humid climate; the majority of buildings were formed from the powerful trees of the rainforest. The city was protected by the towering walls formed by ancient trees used by their ancestors to protect themselves from vicious beasts. Luc had heard stories from the older generations about the walls coming to life in times of need, he paid them no heed. However, in the past ten years, the walls had continued to grow without him having seen anyone doing work on them; perhaps there was more to them than meets the eye. On every corner, a different crime was being committed and on every street a life would hang in the balance; this was due to a combination of the plague that none could avoid and the actions of a pointless martyr on the blade of yet another common street thug. However, in such chaos, organised crime was at the peak of success, a slow and almost undetectable influx of people from the west into both the city and it''s surrounding smaller cities led to a twisted renaissance and in the Southern District of Phios, by this point, might was definitely more important than any type of flowery wordplay. Wood of course was not any sort of family name, like many he was a bastard churned out by the city, he just happened to have been left in an orphanage that was run by the Wood faction, he often darkly joked that whoever had left him in this God forsaken city at least had a little bit of sense. As a way to provide some sort of belonging, the factions that controlled the city behind the scenes had come to an agreement in which they would divide the obnoxious number of orphans or plainly unwanted children based upon the faction that raised them. This was Luc''s view anyway, to the numerous people that had been turned away from the factions, leaving their baby inside a faction could be seen as the ultimate sacrifice for your child''s future. In some cases the parents would later reveal themselves and would as Luc would say, be lazy farmers that would leave their crops to be overrun by weeds and then reap meager gains; just to ensure a lack of effort. While Luc was, in any use of the word, a coward; he preferred to refer to himself as a man who had no intention of risking his life. This starkly contrasted his tall athletic build, he was about 180cm tall, but had a face that instantly read, my life will come before yours. This, to be fair, was only barely hidden by other members of his generation. He was truly shameless in his protection of himself leading others to believe that he was undependable; he simply didn''t want others to mistake him as someone that could potentially protect them at risk to himself. His lithe athletic body had compact muscles which bulged much less than many of the City''s other O.Ds, many attributed this to the Wood faction''s focuses. However, Luc was a young panther that didn''t yet know it''s true power and truthfully, seemingly not interested in finding out. Many people saw him as shadow of his former self, which only became less worthy of their attention as the months without progress crept on. The city had seven major powers. Five of the powers were the five factions. They were like sects, that raised children and trained them in their respective disciplines. Each of the sects focused on a particular elements. The elements were water, earth, metal, wood and fire. The two other factions were the World Army and the Obsidian Alliance. The World Army ran the city in name, but barely took part in its duties, resulting in the city''s current condition. The Obsidian Alliance was a large organisation that ran businesses across the city. Most of the money in this city was in it''s hands. The World Army held a special position. They were the true rulers of the city yet they held little power.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Like the name says, the World Army is an army that spanned the globe, but Langerhans was not of any value to them so they paid little attention to it. The Obsidian Alliance was an organisation that only cared about profit and not the means in which it was made thus they held a lot of sway, but the true power of the city was the factions. Each faction was not that powerful by itself but together they were like a beast that had devoured the city. Luc had been raised by the Wood faction and in this war torn city, useless people were not something that were easily found. While Luc had no intention of risking his life in any way, he needed to display a minimum level of martial prowess in order to have any kind of comfortable lifestyle in the faction, of course, while at the same time avoiding a level that may result in any dangerous tasks or responsibilities. The four levels of the human martial path as taught to all youths in the Wood clan are: Formation, Conception, Dispersion and Reformation.Each level has 3 sub levels referred to universally as lower, middle and upper. While the other factions may have slightly different names, the power level and respect afforded to the ranks was essentially the same. The factions had further divided the lower level of the Formation realm into three parts. For example in the wood faction the three sub-levels for Lower Formation martial artists were seed, plant, flower. For example the Water Faction referred to them as: stream, river and see. To be honest, the factions of Langerhans would be laughed at by the Overlords of the strongest cities, that is, if they were regarded at all. The addition of the levels ''Seed'', ''Plant'', ''Flower'', did not occur in the top tier cities As he thought this Luc''s face showed an emotion between disgruntlement and lazy reluctance before finally forcing himself out of bed. He flexed his muscles, did some lazy stretches, then silently got dressed in a loose fitting dark green shirt and ? length shorts that were light brown in color. He didn''t bother with anything such as bathing, after all, his destination was the lake behind the practice grounds. It was still a while before twilight when he finally left his dormitory room on the 5th floor. He left through the window as to avoid any unnecessary gazes. He flickered and landed on top of the dormitory gate then disappeared again, his destination being a lake behind the practice grounds. His mood was dark as he recalled that the World Army split experts into the:Formation, Conception, Dispersion and Reformation realms. The whispers of the higher realms only reaching him through bribing people that possessed half truths. However, far too few people reached the upper Conception level in Langerhans, let alone the far off Reformation realm. As such, the factions mostly included those withing the Middle to Upper Foramtion experts. To Luc it was truly too shameful, however, even though they were barely able to maintain the status of a large city; the majority of people in the city never spoke to anyone who would point this out to them. Those that knew secretly acknowledged their weakness or rebuked the insane person that told them such things. On the other hand, the World Army took the approach of speaking baby talk to the babies, it profited them to have cannon fodder flock to them, but they had no intention of stressing themselves too much in terms of the worldview of those who would never reach the Dispersion level. In keeping with the requirements of the faction''s orphan martial training program, while Luc was valued as much better than his age mates in terms of cultivation, allowing him to live in the dormitory free of charge, along with use of the faction''s training facilities and connections, he was, among his peers, seen as someone that barely qualified. While Luc usually tried to show a level of detachment and lack of interest in order to maintain his charade, a dark smile crossed his face as he thought of how little his peers truly knew. By this time he had been running for around 15 minutes, while the direct route to the training ground from the dormitory was around 5 minutes away from his room at his peak speed, he preferred to take the long way around, this allowed him to stretch his legs during these early hours, without the need to suppress his speed. Leaving through the window would allow him to avoid certain people, but not all eyes were so easily fooled. Anyone who tracked his comings and goings would feel that an O.D at the mid flower level should take approximately 15 minutes to reach the training ground, at least at a leisurely pace. As he passed the bazaar that had potentially changed his life, questions began to flood his head. He squashed them once again, what was the point wondering about any existence such as that monster. Especially in his current predicament. He jumped down from the roofs at the same time as restricting his running speed by about 60%. In accordance with the requirements set by the Wood faction, he had displayed a resonance with the spiritual root provided to him by the Patron of his orphanage. He was then transferred to an orphanage that was run by the family of one of the Faction''s sub-elders. Between the ages of 5 and 6 he was repeatedly exposed to low level Wood attribute spiritual energies and environments. By time he reached 6, like most other people in the faction''s program, he''d reached the Seed level of cultivation; he couldn''t remember the names of those who were at the plant level now, let alone those that didn''t make the cut when he was 6 years old. When he was 8, he ran into who he referred to an a bull-shit old monster called Flame Shadow. He promised himself that he would one day unravel the secrets surrounding that man and either get his revenge for that which took place on that hazy day, or take him as his Master for life. ... Thank you for reading! Please vote if you enjoyed it! Chapter 3- Bloodline Skills The four levels of the human martial path as taught to all youths in the Wood clan are: Luc paled and then sneered thinking about how his 8 year old self had only realized that he had reached the Conception realm and had experienced pain throughout his body, as if all his limbs had been stretched to their limits. Flame Shadow had clearly done something to Luc in front of everyone at the bazaar, Luc just wasn''t sure what it was. However, the orphans of Langerhans that managed to be sponsored by a faction were nothing like the children found in mundane continents, given the benefit''s he''d acquired Luc didn''t worry about what may have happened to him. By time he was 8, the Wood Faction had already instilled a need for power in order to attain anything, so on that day he even felt grateful to Flame Shadow, whatever he had done to Luc allowed him to reach the Conception realm. The faction set a deadline of 13 years of age before the Orphans that were unable to reach the Plant stage would be kicked out. Luc continued to amaze the Faction over the following years and many people looked forward to him developing a secret skill, a powerful ability that sets one apart from others, at 16 with intense curiosity. While the orphans were given many years to reach the Flower Realm, this was to prevent them using up their potential aimlessly and to allow them to build what Luc referred to as the Pauper''s foundations. The orphans that were not directly adopted by some high ranking member of the faction were faced with strict constraints between the ages of 13 and 16. They must reach the Flower Realm by the age of 14, the peak of the Flower realm by 15 and have broken through to the lower end of the middle Fromation Realm before they turned 16. After this, they had between the ages of 16 and 30 to train their secret skills, advance to the upper Formation realm and attempt to attain a rank in the top 50 Wood Faction Juniors, by defeating someone already on the list. This was interesting because the Wood Faction was focused on healing, as such, the youths would compare: spirit density, control and the continuous ability to channel that spirit energy. With the head start provided by Flame Shadow, Luc refused to allow himself to fall behind and spent the next few years making a name for himself as the person with the highest potential to be adopted by the Wood Faction leader. If not at 16, then surely at 30, after leaving a mark on the Junior rankings. Thinking about this, he removed his top as he reached the lake, threw it into the pouch tied across his waist and dived into the pool. He bitterly smiled as he thought back over the 10 years between reaching the Plant Realm and now. He''d reached the peak of the Plant Realm by time he was 10 years old, his progress increased between the ages of 10 and 13 and he reached the peak of the Flower Realm, by that time, the some of the elders of the other factions had already begun sending him simple treasures and spiritual herbs in order to draw a powerful healer to their side before he''d been drawn in by any faction. The Wood faction turned all of them away; by this time, he already knew that they wanted to avoid him forming any allegiances outside of the Wood Faction. They believed he was still mentally a child, they didn''t realise that he saw them merely as stones to be stepped upon during his path to leaving the City, District and Continent; travelling the lands as a battle medic in the World Army, and possibly going even higher... No one predicted that the once amicable youth would suddenly turn hostile soon after he turned 14. He became reclusive, studied until it affected his once robust features and would spend weeks in the wilderness surrounding the City of Langerhans. However, his cultivation continued to increase. While one would think that the Factions would micromanage the lives of these orphans they invested in but besides food and housing, until the orphans reached 16, the Faction would not expend any extra resources monitoring or helping them. This was fine with Luc, as far as he was concerned when they begged him for help later it would fall on deaf ears. His face passed from a lonely determination into mystical detachment as he started to rotate the increasingly uncontrollable amount of energy running through his spirit channels. When he turned 14, he began to feel the energy fluctuations shared by all people that had reached the Flower level prior to their 16th birthday would feel. This was the awakening of his bloodline and the accompanying secret skill. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. It must be understood that in many other cities the 16th birthday, while still very important, was a simple affair. The skill, coming from the bloodline, would occur in predictable ways in the other more organised cities. In Langerhans, tracing your family back two generations was remarkable and most people would feel comfortable having one parent alive to give them some idea of what to expect. Luc sighed as he rotated the Wood Clan''s trademark Green spiritual energy possessed once the O.Ds, orphan disciples as they were called under the breaths of jealous non-martial artists, reach the Flower Realm. If both parents had equally powerful or weak skills, you would gain access to both skills and with training the skills would be able to improve. If one parent''s bloodline was to much stronger than the other, it may suppress the weaker skill, either making it go dormant, or causing it to have a greatly reduced effect. This was the generally accepted principle anyway. For example, someone may have a bloodline which should awaken a weak water secret skill and a powerful fire secret skill. Instead they would find that they never developed the water secret skill and the negative relation between the bloodlines would go on to weaken the fire secret skill. Of course certain Sects and Families would have hidden methods to manipulate the bloodline, some ancient heroes had passed down dormant legendary bloodlines which may require personality traits and other fortunate events to evoke. Or certain bloodlines, which on the surface level seemed incompatible, but actually evolved together giving birth to many of the strongest martial artists found on Phios, which were what Luc considered to be monsters in human form. Luc had even heard about members of the previous top 10 youths in the Woods faction having their bloodline skills stolen away during their adventures. In the luckier cases this resulted in a decline or stunt in cultivation. In a city like Langerhans, the 16th birthday was something many dreamed of. It could be the doorway to heaven, or a disappointment that could mar them for a lifetime. Remember, many of these people did not know their true parents and given that Luc had been raised among his peers across Langerhans, they all waited for their 16th birthday with a mix between grim determination, hope and fear. Many of these youths grew up on stories of the young genius going by the nickname of Athena and the 9th Young Master of the Dragon Clan who had both been adopted by powerful clans. Thinking about this, Luc''s initially calm face changed between a brief moment of happiness and apprehension, before he allowed his body to be submerged in the water. After allowing the emotions to wash over him and reaching a depth of about 30 meters below the surface; he began to rotate his spiritual energy faster. The sharp change caused all the aquatic life forms to swim away from this potential threat immediately. While the Wood Faction would never raise dangerous animals in their lands, it was still impressive for a person at the mid Flowering level to permeate their spiritual energy into their surroundings, this tended to be a trait only found by people at the middle Formation level. However, he knew that he was firmly stuck in the Flowering Realm. As the spiritual energy began to increase steadily and very slowly form winding layers, Luc allowed his mind to drift back to his previous thoughts. Athena was nicknamed after what Luc had learnt to be an Ancient cultivator that was said to possess boundless knowledge and had surpassed even the Reformation stage. While not even comparable to such a level, the recent Athena was still a force to be reckoned with in the city of Langerhans. By the age of 15 she had reached the Peak of the Sea realm in the Water Faction, this was equivalent to a peak Flowering level expert in the Wood Faction. Reaching the Peak of the Sea/Flowering realm put her one realm below the current Leader of the Wood Faction in terms of talent. Many agreed that had she stayed in the Water Faction, the balance of power in Langerhans would inevitably be completely different. But many in Langerhans also agree that if you wait for heroes that have already left to come back and save you, the grunts of today will bring you back to the present. Upon her 16th birthday, the expert only known as Athena to Luc instantly broke through to the Dispersion realm. If this wasn''t shocking enough, her ancient skill had conjured up a full set of spiritual defensive armor as well as an enormous Owl familiar. The Water Faction did not have the resources necessary to nurture such a talent and looking on in fear, the Fire, Earth and Metal factions all saw a precarious future. However, due to the large increase in power Athena had just experienced, coupled with her body having not even reached the Sea stage and her spiritual energy surpassing it by up to one small level, she soon collapsed due to exhaustion before she was able to take control of her secret skill. Her body was unable to handle the sudden disparity between the strength of her body and her spiritual cultivation. Before the other factions could even react to dispose of this potentially calamitous woman, the Water Faction''s Old Matriarch crushed a life saving treasure, while the Wood Faction Great Elder worked to stabilize Athena''s condition. This was only 30 years ago, while the Great Elder had already been in his position for almost a decade, his powers could not be compared to the level they had reached now; in order to keep Athena stable he was unable to move her and it seemed impossible for the Water Faction''s life saving treasure to keep them protected for even 10 breaths. However, just as it seemed the Water orb protecting them would give way due to the attacks of the other factions, the whole world went white and everyone besides the Water Faction''s Matriarch and the Wood faction''s Great Elder were forced onto the ground. "You dare." This phrase rang across the Earth Faction''s ''Ancestral Land''. The most terrifying thing was, the voice was unhurried and sounded as if said casually, but it resounded in everyone''s ears, fully suppressing the newly unlocked bloodlines of the 16 year old Athena and even the other faction''s leaders on par with the peak Conception Realm Great Elder. A man in Golden Armour appeared inside the Water clan''s orb without causing any damage to the shield. He instructed the Great Elder of the Wood Clan to continue healing Athena who he referred to as his niece. He then turned to the Matriarch of the Water clan and thanked her for taking care of his niece as necessary due to the negligence of her Father. In Luc''s mind the man had assumed the ignorant little people in this city would never hear of him or Athena again after this. Given that they didn''t know either of their true names, how could they as mere mortals, possibly chase down Gods. ... Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed the chapter please vote!