224 Tainted Blood (2/2)
Reaching into his robes, Lan pulled out a small jade vial, a kind of jade that Hei Gou had never seen before. He could even sense the energy emanating from this vial, and the heaven-and-earth essence in the room became so dense that every breath felt as if he was breathing in pure Qi.
”You are going this far? Just how valuable is he?!” Bai Tianyi was shocked when he saw the vial that Lan withdrew. He recognized it right away; it contained the heart blood essence of an Azure Dragon. It was one of the most absolute treasures on the entire continent.
Lan just smiled and looked at Xue Wei. ”This is an investment,” he said seriously. ”Make sure to tell him that I have invested a lot in him. And if he wants to know more, he has to come find me at the center of the continent. I reside in the capital of the Tiansong Empire. If he makes it there, finding my mansion will be a breeze, so just hurry up.”
After stating this, Lan placed the vial next to Xue Wei's lips and let drop after drop of the heart blood essence of an Azure Dragon drop into his mouth.
”He will be unconscious for two weeks,” Lan said before he vanished from sight. Indeed he simply vanished; he had not opened the door or the window, he had not taken a step or twisted the space as they'd witnessed before—he had just faded away.
”Who was that?” Hei Gou asked with a quivering voice. It was like experiencing a hurricane that had just swept in and vanished right away.
”That was Lan. He is the strongest man in the world,” Bai Tianyi did not conceal anything. ”He is a complete mystery. No one knows where he comes from or what his aim is. He arrived many millennia ago, way before I was at my peak, but he never participated in a power struggle. The only time he actually did something was when there was a group of people who tried to destroy his house.”
”He is known as the prophet because he, somehow, knows everything—literally. And I don't mean just our continent, I mean everything in the entire world.”
”He is likely the mastermind behind the Intelligencer in every city. Li Chen is probably his direct subordinate.”
”Even when I was at my peak, I don't think that I would have been able to beat him, but he never wanted to fight. He ran from every challenge with a grin on his face.
”The only thing that can move him is treasure. He is a complete treasure hoarder. Anything of value takes his interest, no matter how little, and he is also the richest man in the entire world.”
”Other than that? I don't know. But for him to have become Wei's teacher, clearly something must have happened behind the scenes. Also, why is Wei a one of a kind in the entire world?
Hei Gou and Bai Tianyi both lapsed into silence. Both were in deep thought.
The tainted blood reference kept rotating within Bai Tianyi's mind. What did 'tainted blood' mean?
Everyone knew that it was impossible to be of mixed breed. If a beast became pregnant with a human or the other way around, the child would die. There had never been any instance where the child had survived, and thus he could not be of mixed breed, but what else could having tainted blood refer to?
”Do you think he is mixed?” Bai Tianyi finally voiced out his concerns. No matter how he thought about it, that seemed to be the only fitting explanation for the term 'tainted blood.'
”He could also have some sort of disease,” Hei Gou said doubtfully. ”I don't really know what he meant by tainted blood, but when I got some of his blood, it made me mutate. If he was not a Sovereign Beast, I do not think that would be possible.”
”Did you ever experience any side effects from the mutation?” Bai Tianyi asked curiously. Perhaps they could get some information this way around since Hei Gou had this tainted blood running through his veins, but Hei Gou shook his head.
”I have never felt better than I did after getting his blood, and I constantly grow in levels much faster than ever before.”
Eventually, the two spent the following two weeks discussingthe tainted blood problem. They looked at it from every single angle and discussed all the facts they had, yet nothing made any sense. None of the options sounded plausible, and eventually they had to put an end to their discussion.
”We will know when we reach Tiansong Empire,” he said with a sigh. ”That prophet Lan said that he would tell us what it meant then, so we better get ready to go there.”
Bai Tianyi, who could not think of anything better, nodded his head. ”I guess that is our only option,” he agreed. His head hurt from trying to interpret what Lan had said that day.
In fact, this was Lan's aim. Lan's most interesting pastime was to tease and trouble others. He and Bai Tianyi went back a long way, and Bai Tianyi had chased him time and time again demanding a battle. Now he could finally bring Bai Tianyi trouble by making him think about the tainted blood all day long. Although it had been an unfathomable amount of time since then, Lan was the type to hold a grudge.
During these two weeks, Bai Tianyi and Hei Gou were not the only ones who felt like pulling out all their hair. The two Diviners were in a similar situation. They had gone to the underground cage battles as planned, but their targets never showed up.
Both times they waited the entire night to no avail. Eventually, both of them received a reminder from their headquarters about their original mission and they were forced to leave Cloudsoar City in pursuit of the genius who had escaped their temple.
It had been exactly two weeks after Lan's visit when Xue Wei opened his eyes. His eyes, which had previously been black, were now azure. They were like the vast expanse of the cloudless sky, so beautiful that it was hard to pull your eyes away from his.