Chapter 4: The Origin of Bloodlines, Eighteen Ancestral Veins

Di Cang gathered his spirit, immersing his consciousness deep into his own sacred physical vessel, focusing on a patch of vital blood at the location of his heart. Instantly, he beheld within the depths of his bloodline the vast manifestation of a bloodline universe. Within this universe, eighteen incomparably majestic drops of divine and demonic source blood floated like infinite stars, eternally rising and falling.

Of course, these eighteen drops were not truly "essence blood" in the sense of possessing the full might of gods and demons; rather, they were the origin blood, the source from which all divine and demonic body refiners drew their power. Any practitioner who cultivated the path of divine and demonic body refinement to its pinnacle could, through their supreme physique, nourish the source blood within themselves, gradually awakening the ancestral spiritual imprints and the inheritance of techniques hidden within.

At this moment, Di Cang had already set foot on the path of divine and demonic body refinement in the primordial world. Naturally, he could use his own supreme physique to awaken the source blood within, thus receiving the inheritance of ancestral power.

He first reached out to connect with the first drop of source blood within his body.

Boom!

A torrent of vast knowledge and power surged from the depths of his bloodline, transmitted by the ancestral source blood into his sea of consciousness. At once, Di Cang saw a golden star emerge within his spiritual sea; by touching it with his mind, he could perfectly merge with the principles of power contained within, thereby unleashing an earth-shaking divine art—the Azure Cloud Escape of the Ancestral Sorcerer Emperor Jiang.

Azure Cloud Escape was a supreme spatial evasion technique, capable of tearing through space itself. If cultivated to perfection, a single movement could traverse two hundred forty thousand miles in an instant—yet this was merely the hallmark of the technique mastered to its acme.

Now, Di Cang finally understood that the escape techniques of this world, such as Sun Wukong’s somersault cloud, claiming to leap one hundred eight thousand miles in a single flip, were simply the natural expression of such supernatural arts at their peak.

In reality, when one’s supernatural arts were cultivated to the Golden Immortal pinnacle, they could generally reach the stage of mastery. Advancing further to the rank of Taiyi Immortal and grasping the fundamental Taiyi laws of the cosmos, one’s understanding would undergo an earth-shattering transformation; techniques that were once mere magical arts would evolve into innate commands of the Taiyi laws, their power rising to unimaginable heights.

Next, Di Cang reached for the second drop of source blood, thereby acquiring the divine art "Flowing Years' Sorrow" from the Ancestral Sorcerer Zhu Jiuyin.

He received the inheritance of twelve distinct divine arts; the remaining ten were as follows: The Myriad Transformations Poison Mist of the Ancestral Sorcerer Shebishi; the Trinal Divine Wind of the Ancestral Sorcerer Tian Wu; the Snow Across Heaven and Earth of the Ancestral Sorcerer Xuan Ming; the Ninefold Celestial Thunder of the Ancestral Sorcerer Qiang Liang; the Undying Lightning Talisman of the Ancestral Sorcerer Xi Zi; the Summoning the Legion from Seeds of the Ancestral Sorcerer Ru Shou; the Springtime Across All Creation of the Ancestral Sorcerer Gou Mang; the Ninefold Primordial Water of the Ancestral Sorcerer Gong Gong; the Divine and Demonic Twin Flames of the Ancestral Sorcerer Zhu Rong; and the Nine Heavens Breathing Earth of the Ancestral Sorcerer Houtu.

“Good heavens!”

Di Cang was rendered speechless.

He had wondered what kind of powers might reside at the root of his bloodline, yet never expected they would encompass the might of all twelve Ancestral Sorcerers. How many times must his bloodline have been fused and refined to combine all the blood of the twelve Ancestral Sorcerers into the body of a single individual?

But that was not all.

Di Cang opened his divine eyes, gazing even deeper into his bloodline. He clearly witnessed the infinite golden radiance of the Seven-Clawed Golden Dragon, the bull-headed, human-bodied Flame God tribe, the Huaxu tribe whose forms resembled giant serpents, the Leize Dragon Clan seemingly birthed from thunder pools, the sacred and resplendent radiance of the Fuxi God Clan, and, in the deepest recesses, a towering, serpentine deity, its entire being suffused with the rhythm of the Dao, as if the embodiment of the Way itself.

Di Cang hesitated only a moment; he did not overlook a single one.

Contacting the towering, human-headed, serpent-bodied deity, Di Cang obtained the Art of Patching Heaven—not the true, complete art, but an extremely fragmentary version, containing only the barest outlines. According to the bloodline inheritance, this technique represented the ultimate expression of the Dao of Creation, capable of mending the very fabric of heaven.

For instance, should one suffer the loss of a soul or spirit, becoming little more than a living corpse, the Art of Patching Heaven could restore them to wholeness. Should an innate spiritual treasure be shattered, the Art could make it whole again. In short, it could restore, create from nothing, transform decay into wonder, and repair all things.

“Incredible!”

Even the merest fragment of this technique left Di Cang in awe. Truly, his forebears were unparalleled; to have created such a heaven-defying divine art—who in all the world could compare?

Thereafter, from the Fuxi God Clan, Di Cang inherited a single word: "Change."
From the Leize Dragon Clan, a single word: "Thunder."
From the Huaxu God Clan, a world-shaking divine art: The Luminous Glazed Realm.
From the Flame God Tribe, a scroll of medicinal lore: The Principles of Medicine.
From the Seven-Clawed Golden Dragon, an alchemical formula: The Gold-Dragon Elixir.

Marvelous, truly marvelous! Di Cang plundered every awakened bloodline power within himself, his spirit soaring with exhilaration.

Although the share of power he received from each bloodline was but a trace compared to its full potential, through his recent ascent to the realm of the divine and the awakening of new bodily potential, Di Cang could now see it clearly.

His current body was nothing less than an endless treasure trove of potential. Even he could not name all the sources of bloodline within him; his ancestors were too numerous to count, each more remarkable than the last. To learn even a little from each was a world-shaking gain.

Yet, there is always a price to be paid for such gain. The greater the potential within, the more one must choose a path. If one cultivates too many powers, each step forward demands an ocean of resources to nourish the bloodline and convert it into potential.

If Di Cang could make choices and sacrifice a few of the less important bloodlines, he might ascend more swiftly to the pinnacle of the divine and demonic body refinement path. After all, each of the eighteen bloodlines could lead straight to the summit.

However, after only a moment’s reflection, Di Cang dismissed the idea of choosing at all.

Perhaps in another world, he might have struggled with such a decision. Here, in the primordial world, could this world possibly lack the opportunities and resources for his cultivation? Absolutely not. Figures like Xing Tian and Hou Yi failed to break through in the end, not because the world was lacking, but because they themselves were lacking.

When Pangu cleaved open the Chaos and initiated the tribulation of three thousand Chaos Demons, their residual resentment became a karmic curse that merged with the primordial world's turbid qi. Even before the birth of the Witch Tribe, the curse was laid upon them, thus they could only cultivate the body and not the soul, their potential forever limited. This is why the Ancestral Sorcerers were stuck at the quasi-saint level, unable to transcend, and why the Great Witches could not break through to consummate Golden Immortalhood.

Of course, this curse applied only to pure-blooded witches; even those of witch descent could dissolve it with human blood, for the three thousand demons were long dead, their curse but a remnant grudge with limited effect.

Since resources are abundant, then within the same realm, the stronger, the better!

With only a little thought, Di Cang made his decision.

He would cultivate them all. He would refine all eighteen of his bloodline sources, let ancestral blood empower him, and forge his body into the very incarnation of gods and demons!