Located half a mile underground, a large room ripe with the scent of blood and decay held several cages spread out along the walls.
Only two torches lit the entire room that spans no less than 100 square meters. In at least a dozen of the cages, bodies can be seen, unmoving and listless.
Without purposely looking for a heartbeat it's near impossible to tell if there were any still among the living.
On the far side of the room was a table next to the only exit leading to the world outside. Snores could be heard coming from the two guards who were left on duty to watch over the heretics.
If either of them were awake they would have noticed the deep flickering of the torches and one of the lifeless bodies glowing for a few seconds before everything returned to normal.
[Vessel and soul fusion halted at 68% beginning full body scan..]
[Body in critical state - suffering from severe dehydration, malnutrition, torture, crippled cultivation, poison…]
[Beginning soul body override.. bloodline seal found..]
[Using system privileges to search for applicable bloodlines…]
[Three blood legacies found… beginning awakening process]
Dazed and aching consciousness was slowly returning to the prisoner.
"I'm.. not dead..?"
Was the first thought to cross his mind. As he realized he couldn't move or speak, searing pain equivalent to the torture of float through chaotic space assaulted his every being, even reaching deep into his soul.
The moment the pain hit him he thought that split second of peace was a figment of his imagination. Something the devils of his mind conjured up because he was falling into madness from all the pain.
But only a few moments after the pain subsided and he could hear that machine like voice in his head again..
[Beginning body synch… 100% synchronization]
[Beginning soul synch… 100% synchronization]
[Beginning mind synch… 100% synchronization]
[Beginning system synch… 100% synchronization]
[Absolute synchronization achieved]
[Bloodline legacies fusion and awakening achieved]
[Body suffering from dehydration and malnutrition only]
[Reincarnation of host deemed successful…]
[System no. 0071321 welcomes the rebirth of this great Lord… please state new name so the system can begin full operation]
Still dazed from having his soul suffer so much turmoil, the prisoner was very confused as to what was going on.
Just as he was about to speak his mind was flooded with what seemed like many life times worth of memories…
Fortunate or unfortunate most memories outside of his last life were fragmented and in pieces. There was enough memories left over from several life times ago that helped him quickly understand what a "System" was.
"I've been reincarnated with my own Gold Finger? But why now after having lived through so many incarnations before?"
[The system apologies for achieving soul bond with host late. The original plan was to synchronize with host at the end of your second reincarnation, but because host formed a perfect soul there was no way to breach past your soul defenses.
Every lifetime following you brought your perfect soul with you. It wasn't until the last moments of your previous life that there was significant enough damage for the system to properly fuse with host]
[System recommends host finalize the binding process by stating your full name]
Understanding the weight and importance of having your own Gold Finger, the boy quickly threw out all reservations and placed all his bets on binding this system to himself! For all the hundreds of years that he lived in his last life there was one thing that he would never forget.
On the day of his Naming ceremony, when his grandfather stood before the rest of the royals, his brothers and sisters, and above the people of the land; when his name was finally bestowed for over 100 billion kilometers, the holy objects of all the sects cried and rang out.
Lesser holy objects disintegrated turning into fine powder and were blown away, returning to the heavens themselves. But the biggest reaction was from the skies, it seemed like the heavens were in a dilemma since the name had received the worlds recognition but the one who received it was a demon!
This clash of recognition and duty left the heavens in turmoil, rolling thunder could be heard across the endless skies. Eventually a lightning storm descended from the sky, the heavens pent up frustration was taken out on all people everywhere. After that day many sects closed their doors for years to be sure to consolidate their strength. They knew another great war with the demons could not be avoided.
"I am Alucard Cadmus Di Beelzebub! No matter what life, this is the name bestowed upon me by the heavens! This is the name that would shake world's! This name is my soul!"
[Binding complete… beginning normal operation!]
"The memories of this vessel show that I've always been a captive of the Righteous Sword saints of light. There are no memories outside of being a tortured prisoner.
First things first, I need to gain my freedom. To bad for the original owner of this body was but a weak child that never had the chance to learn how to use his abilities."
[Sub-Quest opened:
Escape from your captives!
Reward: Opening of main questline - Inventory function opened]
Hearing the system ring out again Alucard knitted his eyebrows.
"System you can issue quests?"
[Although it's within the systems privilege to issue quests that fall into certain parameters such as helping host achieve long term goals, most quests are given when the hosts will aligns with the will of the heavens!]
Although there are numerous memories about systems and there outrages capabilities, all the memories were jumbled and many were shrouded in lots of fog!
"system why am I having a hard to recalling memories outside of my last life?"
[System only attached to host during your last incarnation, it's impossible for the system to have fully uploaded and shifted through so many lifetimes worth of memories when emergency action was immediately needed upon contact with host.
Furthermore the amount of damage to last vessel housing your soul was not insignificant, in order to mend your soul and stabilize your mind the system had to use the Lesser God-tier artifacts that had impaled you and that you were refining in your soul realm to help fix that which was broken.
After sifting through all the usable objects in your possession the only things left remaining in your soul realm are the Dimensional Stone and the Blood Gem you swallowed before your demise.]
Hearing that the cost of his rebirth was the sacrificing of clear memories of lives long lived and several holy objects with a majority belonging to those at Divine Core Formation realm, who were only the servants of true gods honestly didn't bother him nearly as much as he thought it should.
"I mean hey, who can spend a mountain of gold… if you're dead??"
Thinking that the benefits outweigh the cost, Alucard shrugged the piece of information off and started to evaluate his body further. The previous inhabitant of this body had no will to live, he allowed his captives to molest his flesh with their torture tools. To the extent that his cultivation had been completely crippled.
Outside of extreme pain in which he would throw his head back screaming at the top of his lungs the only other response he would give, were those of grunts and whimpers. Although it was dark inside the room, with the bloodline awakening alucard had no issue seeing every detail of his flesh.
"System is there anyway you can display my current strength and help me think of a way to get out of this predicament?"
[would host like access to full analyst of current strength? Y/N]
"Yes!"
[Alucard Cadmus Di Beelzebub
Age: 13 Sex: Male Race: Vampiric Blood Fiend Were Leopard (Demon)
Affinity: Earth (P) - Wood (P) - Metal (P) - Fire (P) - Water (P) - Ice (P) - Air (P) - Darkness (P) - Light (P)
Laws: Space (I) - Death (I) - Life (I) - Soul (I) - Refining (A) - Blood (A)
Qi Cultivation: None
Body Cultivation: Mortal Grandmaster 1-star
Soul Cultivation: Mortal Lord 6-star
Blessings: None
Accumulated Divinity: 5
Accumulated Souls: 167
Enslaved Spirits: 0
Servants: 0
Familiars: 9
Descendants: 0 ]
[The system standard for Affinity starts from Lowest grade at the bottom and increase to Low, Medium-Low, Medium, Medium-High, High, and Perfection as top grade.
The cultivation level of Laws are as followed by lowest to highest - Internal, Aura, Nascent, Force, Manifestation, Domain, Sovereign. While each law belongs to its own Category such as Mortal, Earth, Spirit, and Divine.
Each cultivation level is further broken down into different grades like Low, Standard, Superior, or Pinnacle. As your understanding increases and your connection with the law evolves it will be easier for you to break into higher grades with your laws unleashing much more power and holding greater influence on the world around you.]
"The cultivation levels seem identical to the system of the last world i lived in."
Although being able to comprehend any law is a rare talent, but two cultivators with a similar cultivation base would find themselves quickly coming to a deadlock in battle with each other.
Say one comprehended a mortal law and the other comprehended an Earth law, the one who comprehended an Earth law 9 times out of 10 would completely decimate the opponent. Of course that's if the cultivation levels of their laws are at similar places, such as both being at the manifestation realm. The further apart the cultivation realm of a person's law the more power they can infuse into each of their attacks.
Although alucard was happy about having a perfect grade talent with almost every element and had already comprehended several laws to the internal level he couldn't help be confused as to where all this talent came from!
"System, how did this body achieve perfect talent in so many elements, why have i comprehended several laws that i have not worked with yet, what's going on with my body cultivation, why are the accumulated souls i have so few, and most important of all… Why is my soul so WEAK!!"
The more Alucard looked at the data, the more confused he become about the whole thing! When cultivating the body, soul, and Qi they all followed along the same cultivation system.
There are 9 Greater cultivation realms, each greater realm houses 9 lesser realms, and each lesser realm holds 9 star stages! All cultivators when they start on the path of cultivation from having no power within you at all, all start at the mortal realm!
In the beginning you start off as a Mortal disciple 1-star. after breaking through the 9th star the disciple turns into a master, then grandmaster, warrior, lord, king, emperor, ancestor, and finally becoming a saint!
After breaking through Mortal Saint 9-star, you would break into the Spirit Greater realm. Just like the Disciple Greater cultivation realm, the Spirit Greater Cultivation realm has 9 lesser realms with 9 levels in each realm. The following Greater Cultivation realms would be Nascent Soul Greater realm and then the Divine core Formation realm with 5 more Greater realms following after even that!
Although the Mortal Greater Realm may be the weakest of all the greater realms, every lesser realm breakthrough would make you seem like the immortals out of legends to those at lower levels than yourself!
For every lesser mortal realm you break through you get an addition 100 years of life! For every lesser spirit realm you break through, you get 200 years of life. So on and so forth, so someone at the Nascent soul Grandmaster realm would have no less than 3,600 years of longevity!
Your longevity is determined by all your cultivation bases as a total! If you cultivate Qi and the body both reaching the Mortal Lord 1-star realm in both, you would have 1000 years of longevity added to your life span. 500 years from each cultivation base.
[Host being of the Demon race it is only natural to have some kind of body cultivation level, it's unfortunate that the vessel provided for host was not in better condition upon reincarnation for if otherwise with the blood essence used to unseal the bloodline power you're body cultivation would rival your current soul cultivation!
Even though your soul cultivation has always been your strongest even reaching the Nascent Soul realm in your last life after having nearly been completely extinguished that was as much strength that could be recovered and stabilized in a short amount of time!
The elemental Affinities and law comprehension came from the sacrificed Lesser God-tier artifacts! Although their cores were used to help heal and complete your reincarnation their was masses of spiritual energy left over. It is within the system privileges to use the unstable excesse soul force and wild spiritual energy to help strengthen your soul and new vessel!
Unfortunately, Hosts last battle was extreme to say the least. Although you used your divinity to throw out all the citizens of your personal world sending them to a myriad of other realms and tried to save those in your palace by absorbing their blood, cores, and soul fires while also retrieving the dimensional stone used to hold your world together... The 7-star God-tier Overlord Soul Shattering Sword is much too vicious.
The shown number is just the number of complete souls you have, there are hundreds of thousands of shattered soul flames within the Blood Gem you cultivated and swallowed!
As of right now the system has no way to mend the shatter souls of your fallen comrades]
Hearing the systems words Alucard could only frown, just reincarnated and already so many problems have popped up before him.
"Well there's no need to worry myself to death before I've even freed myself from this disgusting place. I wish this vessel had more detailed memories, from the little i can grasp, those who tortured him were at the Mortal Grandmaster realm at most.
They used the torture methods to teach the disciples of the sect the best ways to kill his kind and what is best to be harvested after the kill. After having been tortured for so long there was no way the previous body could retain any form of its body cultivation. And there's even less to say about any form of soul or Qi cultivation since a technique is need to cultivate them without a special physique.
Humans are one of the only races that have to start all of their cultivations from zero as they grow up. Beings from the fae race, or the goblin race, or even the dragon race all have natural traits that add their cultivation just as the grow. An adult Elf would have a soul cultivation at Nascent soul realm easily without having to put in any effort.
There was no possible way for this child to fight his way out of the sect and gain his freedom again. He was still to young to have any kind of profound Body or soul cultivation. May whatever is left of your soul be resting in peace knowing that this sect won't be in the world much longer.
To bad i can't come up with a definite time table since there's no information on how strong the sect leader of this place is. No clear information on where we are or even how to escape. Well i guess i can't expect much from a 13 year old kid whos earliest memory is this dark room and being tortured. For all i know he was probably snatched from his mothers arms after the murdered her.."
Reaching down to his ankle Alucard grabbed the shackle that had been previously cutting into his leg from all the rubbing. On the shackle he could faintly make out the runes forged into it, clearly the shackles were used to stop the prisoners from absorbing any of the spiritual energy in the area, preventing them from cultivating to insure they would not be able to escape!
With a single pinch the shackles crumbled up and became nothing more than scrap metal. With a fleshly body at the the Mortal Grandmaster 1-star realm those who were experts in dissecting him would not be able to so easily lay their hands on him anymore.
"This place is disgusting even to I, being a vampire variant there is no possible way i could drink the blood from any of these bodys just laying around. Fortunately i can kill my way out of this place and feast on the blood of each of the sect members as i go. I wonder what level my cultivation will reach after this bloodbath.
System can you scan this room for any signs of life outside of myself and the two sleeping guards?"
[Beginning life scan… 3 signs of sentient life found]
[would host like those with vital signs to be highlighted? Y/N]
"Yes"
After a few seconds three spots in the dark room began to have a light glow about them. Using his soul cultivation base Alucard quickly weaved the darkness spiritual energy around him and melted into the shadows.
Having a reservoir of knowledge comes in handy during times like this, without even cultivating any specific arts its very easy for him to use his cultivation base to do lesser tasks. It was because of this he was able to stand out during a majority of his past lives getting a leg up on any of his competition and allowing the powers that be to noticed his unique strengths.
It's not easy to get the ancestor of your bloodline to pass off several drops of his own Qi blood to you to help further your cultivation.
Before the original spot he was standing at could cool he was already back with 3 more persons. All of them battered and beat up on with scars that painted their bodies. With shallow breathing no of them opened their eyes, just like the original host of the body, their spirits have been just about completely crushed. If not for the bodies will to hold onto dear life, they would have fully passed on months ago.
"Now you guys hold on and wait here, i'll be back quickly and leave you guys with a parting gift."
Even though Alucard has lived his life as a demon lord, he has never forgotten the teachings of Karma. What kind of man would he be to free only himself and not give the other prisoners a chance at freedom too. If for no other reason than the fact that they were fellow prisoners and he had memories of them suffering torture techniques together.
"By the time i reached the Nascent soul realm in my last life i had finished several lifetimes worth of work and perfected an all rounded cultivation technique that could help me break into the True God Greater Realms without the need for me to become the lesser of someone who had already reached that realm.
It's unfortunate that i had already spent hundreds of years cultivating other techniques and unless i was willing to throw my complete cultivation base out the window and start over from scratch i wasn't able to cultivate the technique.
Forming the blood gem to house all my subordinates blood Qi and Soul flames was the most i could do with the technique. Without cultivating the full technique there was no Matrix Blood Gem key created. If i had been able to cultivate the matrix key then there would be a much higher chance that those soul shards would be able to completely heal themselves and have no problems being reborn
But now my cultivation base all around is low enough that i can start on my path to True Godhood and finally cut out a piece of the heavens for me and my people! The Demons have been cast out of the heavens for too long, we will get our vengeance for the betrayal of those xenophobic bastards!
Since i don't have the luxurie to take my time to get stronger, this sect will be my stepping stone to gain a solid foundation for self. I just hope there are enough bodies here to help me achieve minor completion in the first part of the cultivation script."
Leaving the three prisoners together, Alucard had the darkness turn to liquid again and swallow him without making a sound. He swiftly traveled to the other end of the room where the guards were napping and before these two Mortal Master Realm experts could wake from their dreams he plunged his hands into both of their hearts quickly reciting the first part of the cultivation scripture and using his vital energies to manipulate the blood flow in the bodies of these two bastards.
After their blood cycled through their bodies 9 times their corpses instantly shriveled up making them looking mummified. The cultivation technique requires the user to refine all the blood in their body into a single drop of blood until that one drop has accumulated to the mass of a small pound before reaching the minor completion of the first script.
To reach perfect completion of the 9th layer of the script a single drop of blood must contain the mass of an infinite ocean. By the time you reach the 9th layer of the script you would have reached the Heaven realm making you the highest form of existence in this known universe.
As Alucard removed his hand from their chests, you could see a drop of blood each with a burning soul flame surrounding them. This technique when used on others had the ability to pull out their Blood Qi, Vital essence, and soul flame forming it into a single drop of blood essence. By swallowing these drops of blood Alucard will further refine them and use them to push all three of his cultivation bases forward.
The greatest danger of this technique is swallowing the blood of opponents of much greater cultivation levels then yourself. In those instances your Qi is likely to backlash and go out of control, your soul could easily be possessed by the remaining consciousness of your opponent, and your body may explode into a thousand piece!
Quickly returning to his personal cell with the blood sources he just retrieved. Alucard quickly sat in lotus position a few feet away from the three tortured companions and swallowed the two drops of blood whole.
The moment the blood sources entered his mouth they melted and their warmth filled his entire being. He quickly began reciting the cultivation technique quietly to himself.
If anyone was there watching him cultivate they would sense the peculiar air about him and the faint aura flowing around him. This aura was based off of his mortal grade law of Refining, although mortal grade was the lowest grade no law can not be underestimated!
As long as the practitioner's understanding of their law isn't lacking there are an untold amount of application when using law.
For a brief moment he could feel resistance from the blood essence echoing out from the soul flames of the practitioners. But that didn't last long, using his superior soul cultivation he easy refined out their consciousness and continued on with absorbing the rest of the essence and cycling it through his body the required 9 times.
Each cycle through his body would refine the blood essence more and more, bringing it closer to his own blood essence until finally there is no difference between the new and old.
The worth of experiencing cultivation in his past lives is shown immediately. To go from no Qi essence and enter into the Mortal Disciple realm 1-star can take even a talented individual up to a week or two before they can not only sense the spiritual energy around them but also gather enough of it and store it in their cells to make the breakthrough.
But only after sitting down and cultivating for ten minutes Alucard was already opening his eyes and exhaling turbid air.
"System, display my information again."
[Alucard Cadmus Di Beelzebub
Age: 13 Sex: Male Race: Vampiric Blood Fiend Were Leopard (Demon)
Affinity: Earth (P) - Wood (P) - Metal (P) - Fire (P) - Water (P) - Ice (P) - Air (P) - Darkness (P) - Light (P)
Laws: Space (I) - Death (I) - Life (I) - Soul (I) - Refining (A) - Blood (A)
Qi Cultivation: Mortal Disciple 2-star
Body Cultivation: Mortal Grandmaster 1-star
Soul Cultivation: Mortal Lord 6-star
Cultivation Technique: Immortal Blood Ocean
Blessings: None
Accumulated Divinity: 5
Accumulated Souls: 167
Enslaved Spirits: 0
Servants: 0
Familiars: 9
Descendants: 0 ]
"It seems like reaching minor completion in this art will actually be harder than i thought. I have to at least reach Mortal Grandmaster 9-star realm before i reach the threshold.
I'll also need a lot of blood essence before my body and soul cultivation see anymore increase since humans can't normally cultivate their souls or body until reaching at least the Spirit greater realm and the Nascent soul realm respectively.
This is when quantity is important. Maybe after i devour 500 drops of blood essence i'll see an increase in my Body cultivation. But there's no telling how many drops ill need before i'll see an increase in my soul cultivation. But for now this will have to do."
Although soul and body cultivation can be used for elemental and law based skills. Qi actually molds and fits the best when using the different arts. Qi is directly derived from the heavens, while your body and soul cultivation is respectively to cultivate life force and soul force based arts.
Each having their own place in the cultivation world. You can not cultivate your body or soul but to be a true cultivator you must cultivate Qi if you want to go against the will of the heavens and break through to higher realms!
It's also much harder to cultivate your body or soul, and the spells and arts related to both of them are not easy to obtain so most practitioners don't have the time or energy to waste on something they might not even be able to continue to elevate later in life.
After the releasing the impurities into the air Alucard moved over to the 3 comatose prisoners checked them over making sure all their bones were connected properly and removed and abnormalities such as needles, stones, broken knife tips and of course the shackles on their legs before continuing on.
"Although i don't know any of your names no one should have to grow up in a damnable place like this. Giving each of you a single drop of my blood and helping you cycle it through your bodies will help you quickly heal.
Although you may still be very weak after the treatment, if you find the will you shall have your freedom. After i leave whatever you all chose to do is of your own volition."
Alucard spent another 15 minutes helping them cycle a single drop of his blood through their bodies. As a body cultivator having a cultivation level at the Grandmaster level his physique is full of vitality.
On top of that members of the vampire race are known for their quick healing, in some realms vampires are specifically hunted so their blood can be used to sell as rejuvenation potions. A race that is immune to most disease, has rapid healing abilities, and when they reach full adulthood their physique and body cultivation is usually only second to that of the Therianthrope and Herculian races of their respective realms.
After seeing color return to each of the three people and their breathing become easier Alucard quickly got up and headed towards the only exit leading out of the dungeon.
********************
In another location
Immediately after the death of the two guard protecting the prison two tokens hanging on a wall in another room cracked down the middle.
Hearing the crack the elder stationed in the room to watch over the life tokens of the sect slowly opened his eyes. As he opened them a white glow shot out of both and directly struck the two tokens making them float directly to his hands.
Seeing the names on the token the elder frowned, he reached into his sleeve and took out a sound transmission talisman and immediately notified the Hall master of the Order Hall.
His message was simple but two the point.
"John and smith are dead. There's an issue in the 3rd level of the prison."
************************
In the Hall of Order
"What's wrong Hall master Song? Issues with disciples at the arena's again?"
Hall master song heard the words of his assistant but could only frown as he contemplated the proper course of action.
"Lance grab 4 of your sect brothers at the Master 5-star level, head towards the third prison and see if you find anything."
Visibly shocked, lance stared dumb found at the hall master for a few moments before he brought himself to ask.
"Did something happen in the prison Hall master? Why bring so much man power to where we keep those wretched demons? It couldn't be that even after being dissected over and over they still have the strength or even the will to revolt against us could it?"
Although Hall master songs thoughts were inline with this disciples he couldn't ignore the words from the elder in charge of the Life Token Hall, although they were both at the Grandmaster level the life token hall did not have room for error.
If any of those life tokens shattered it would mean that one of their sects disciples have died. If the disciple was out in the world at the time there are many factors that could have been at play that lead to that disciples death.
But this time it was the death of not one but two of the sect disciple, both of them being at at least Master 1-star level and most important of all… their death happened within the sect's grounds!
This was either a complete disregard for the sect law or something else is going on.
"Two disciples who were guarding the prison have had their life tokens shatter. I fear the sect has been infiltrated and someone has come to stir up trouble.
Quickly go and report back on whatever you find. If it's just to stir up trouble the likeliness that they are still in the prison is very small, while your looking for clues I'll send a few parties out to beef up the security and check the surroundings of the sect.
Be careful on your way and keep an eye out for ambushes."
Hear the Hall masters words Lance quickly steeled his nerves, grabbed 4 fellow disciples and headed towards the prison. Since they were not located on the same mountain peak it'll take about 45 minutes to arrive on location.
During this brief respite Alucard had already began making his way out of the prison!