The bloodline of demons was divided into seven different grades, namely –
Common grade, Spirit grade, Innate grade, Royal grade, Sacred grade and Ancestral grade.
Their bloodline was their source of talent. The higher the grade of the bloodline they inherited, the faster their cultivation.
Before becoming a cultivator, the blood remains dormant as common mortal blood. It is only after being awakened, that their bloodline shows its purity.
Increasing bloodline purity is much more difficult than raising one's cultivation base. Unless one possesses very rare treasures that can increase their bloodline grade, one usually has to diligently cultivate for lots of years to increase it by small margins, refining drop after drop to a higher level.
Hence, as someone who awakened high purity Innate blood of demonic Silver Winged Rocs, his potential as a Demonic Roc was extremely high.
Besides his intelligence and high comprehension, it was one of the primary reasons that his wind affinity was so high.
However, due to his mother possessing the lineage of Candle Dragon's and his father refining the demonic Core of an Immemorial Storm Dragon, his body also possessed the bloodline of the latter which was at Sacred grade.
Due to its quality and the ridiculous amount of energy within them, he was only able to awaken only three such blood drops in his body.
But these three drops were so dominant that when he grew up, his body didn't have features of the Rocs, but rather the dragons.
Even now that he had started to revert to his demonic form, he looked like a dragon-human hybrid. The only thing that he could display from Rocs were the talons.
Innate and Sacred, it was just a difference of two ranks. However, the difference between these two ranks was like the difference between heaven and earth.
With the suppression of his bloodline, he could strip away the cultivation base of demons who had a higher cultivation base than him!
Despite being one of his greatest trump cards, Tianlong felt a little helpless while thinking about it.
Because unlike his Roc form, he had no method of cultivating it further!
Demons were multifarious by nature.
Each of their races had unique cultivation arts that were tailored for them.
Unlike Yun Clan's Roc Transmogrification Art which let him cultivate as a Wind Roc and bring the full power of wind arts while also steadily increase his bloodline, he had nothing that could help him help him in regards to the Storm Dragon's blood.
That's why he was struck in an awkward situation of only having three Sacred grade blood drops and not have any other lower grade bloodline accompanying it.
Hence, he was pleasantly surprised when his blood drops rapidly devouring the lightning sparks throughout his body.
If each of the Tribulation lightning sparks constituted a lightning serpent, then the three blood drops were each a lightning dragon who wanted to feast on the serpents.
"So, this is also one way to advance my bloodline…" Even as he fought with the trace of heaven's will, he couldn't help but feel happy in his mind.
Every time a spark of lightning was devoured by the Storm Dragon blood, it'd leave behind a small amount of Innate grade dragon blood.
It was only after a long intense mental battle that he was able to dissipate Heaven's will from the lightning and completely refine it.
Being in her red-haired state and having restored her cultivation, her nature had become cruel and merciless. Even while looking at her son's bloodied and charred state, she didn't reveal a worried expression like usual.
"Are you done?" She asked him in a calm voice.
Tianlong opened his eyes and matched her murderous gaze.
"Better than ever." He replied with a cold voice. The silver light in his eyes glowing almost as bright as her red eyes.
Seeing the silver light, she was amused.
Materialising her sword again, she grabbed him and left the place.
Just in the morning, there was a clan living here. But just because someone from their family had offended her years ago, she had massacred the entire bloodline.
Even their corpses weren't spared.
A nameless queen sitting on her iron throne, performing cremation for the evil. Her sword draws blood, paving a path of bones for the devil.
Their figures vanished from the scene of tragedy leaving behind only a string of words and a sigh from a youth.
Sometime later a streak of red light entered a medium-sized clan on a rank 3 cultivation country.
Despite being a cultivation clan, they had a large number of mortals. Upon approaching the place, the air of the place seemed to seep inside the red light and dissipated its killing intent.
Even as Long Qianmei and Yun Tianlong returned to their residence, none of the clansmen noticed anything.
Even the clan protection arrays didn't react to their movement.
The only two people who noticed them only looked at them for a moment and smiled.
Upon returning to her room, Long Qianmei sat on the very same cushion that she was sitting on before leaving.
Her hair, eyes and nails all started to revert to their original form and lose the enchanting red shade.
Taking out two small bags of holding, she kept them on the table. "Iron sand filled with sealing energy. After being refined by heavenly lightning, this has become an excellent defensive treasure."
Pointing at the second bag she said, "Shards of Jade Cores that were shattered by tribulation lightning. Absorb the lightning or use them for your research, your choice."
Next, she took out a red-coloured mercury-like substance. "Weapon essence refined from the blood and bones of the Ju Clan. Brand it and you should be able to use their inborn divine ability to change it into any kind of spiritual weapon."
Finally, she took out a three-headed Nascent Soul which seemed to be created entirely from lightning.
Even though it was sealed inside a Jade, Tianlong could sense the Heavens' will present in it and the destructive power within the soul. Even Long Qianmei was extremely serious was handling it.
"A mutated lightning soul that I created after taking inspiration from the abominations residing in the Violet sea. With your lightning sense guiding it, you should be able to deliver Nascent Soul level lightning strikes."
Tianlong's eyes were fixated on the jade as if he was looking at a new toy. The way she had fused the three souls tickled his curiosity.
"It's an expensive toy, don't break it." Seeing her son's expression, she broke out in a smile. By now, the blood light around her had already dissipated.
No one would associate this gentle mother with a bloodthirsty woman who had planned to massacre and refine an entire family for countless years.
In the end, there was nothing in this world that was a hundred per cent good or a hundred per cent evil.
These terms were just a matter of perspective.
That night Tianlong couldn't sleep. Having witnessed her swordplay and intent domain, his mind kept repeating them.
Unfortunately, his courtyard didn't allow him to completely release his powers. The best place to train would be the clan's training grounds.
But with him participating in today's competition, he had caused too much clamour. He didn't want to venture out too much till the matter hadn't subsided.
Since he could neither use the clan's training grounds nor use his courtyard, he chose to go to the place where he used to train with his father.
Turning into a gust of wind, he quietly slipped out of the clan.
Once he reached the place where he had trained with his father, he was once again reminded of the painful beatings that he had to endure.
It bought out a smile on his lips.
From his childhood till now, he had always been an obedient child. He didn't venture out too much, didn't play too much, listened to them and diligently studied.
It was both a thirst for knowledge and his quest to heal her.
Now that she was completely fine and he was grown up, he had no such bindings.
"We'll have to part soon…" He heaved a sigh while looking at the clan.
Now that his mother was completely cured, he knew that this was his time to leave the clan for good.
Although he had grown up in the harmonious atmosphere of the Long Clan for these short seventeen years and had grown attached to the simple life here, he knew that the world his parents lived in was much larger than this.
He had to leave this place sooner or later.
"Maybe someday when I'm as strong as mother and father, I can take my Long Clan to new heights…" For a brief moment, this idea flashed through his mind but was quickly rejected.
"No, being as strong as mother and father won't be enough. Otherwise, with mom's prowess, she would've done something for them already."
His mind quickly went through various scenarios.
He knew that his mother acted detached from the clan as if she had nothing to do with them. But if she really was so detached, why would she ask Xia Youqing to offer protection to the clan?
"No matter how strong she is, only her personal strength isn't enough to protect everyone. Moreover, she can't stay here forever to protect them and neither can she take them all away with her."
"Forget Long Clan which is just a business-oriented cultivation clan, even an old country like Grand Xia can't protect themselves from others. With mother's fame, if she is associated with them, she'll just bring a disaster."
For the first time ever, he felt that his parents' strength was insufficient. Even if they were extremely strong experts who could fight above their cultivation realm, they weren't the strongest in this world.
There was always a higher peak.
Eyes burning with determination, he had an intense desire to become stronger.
"Since mother wanted me to go to Grand Xia, she would have her motives. It is said that experts rise in times of chaos. The destiny and luck of the country would squeeze out and help its citizens to resist the waves of invaders. If I make use of this war, I should be able to garner benefits from both sides."
As soon as he thought of the academy which he would soon join, there wasn't any sense of belonging in his mind. He only had a calm and rational mind.
"History is written by the victors. Xia Youqing's narratives were from her own perspective. I don't believe that Gu Yuan Zi is really as evil as she claims him to be. After all, one cannot clap with just one hand."
From the perspective of a neutral observer, he started to analyse all the bits of information he gathered.
Had he joined the Grand Xia's Imperial Academy, his ideas would have been from their view. But now, he could calmly analyse the situation from an impartial third-person view.
"Then there's also this matter with Heavenly Fate Island. How did they divinate the condition of a Soul Transformation expert? Even if they could, why did they do it? What kind of thing did Gu Yuan Zi offer them for which they were ready to offend a rank 5 country? Do they want the two countries to go at war and reap benefits from it?"
His was in deep thought. He knew if he was in their position, he would've done the same.
"No that's not right. If I did that, I would make sure that my name never gets out. Yet Xia Youqing already knew about the Heavenly Fate Island." He firmly shook his head.
"Then, there's also the fact that she showed no change in expression while speaking that name yet she flared up with hatred while mentioning Gu Yuan Zi. Looks like this Heavenly Fate Island isn't that simple…"
Hundreds of different possibilities started to appear in his mind.
He was a calculative person by nature who preferred scheming over direct confrontation. So even before reaching Grand Xia, his mind was flashing through the different aspects affecting it.
"I can't believe the words of Xia Youqing readily. It's natural that she would be biased. At most I can believe half of what she said…" He needed to reconfirm these details from someone else.
Soon, the image of two extremely beautiful women flashed in his eyes. "Hmm, as the princesses of the country, the two sisters should know quite a bit. Plus, that younger of the two gets easily agitated, it would be much easier to get information from her than anyone else."
Towards the two sisters, he only felt that they knew many of the country's secrets, thus befriending them was a wise choice.
However, his heart remained calm while facing their beauty.
They may be physically attractive, but it wasn't enough to move him.
As for Xia Youqing's proposal of marrying them? What a joke!
He had just recently turned seventeen and become a cultivator. His life was just starting.
He didn't want to get involved in their politics and tie himself down.
In some aspects, he was just like his father in his younger years.
However, he still remembered his mother's words of turning them into his maids.
Knowing what kind of a person she was, he knew that she never spoke meaningless words.
Was there something special about those girls that she noticed? He needed to verify further.