Prime Originator

"This…"

Leon narrowed his eyes.

He could sense Lilith's aura skyrocketing to the Transcendent Realm—No, it was infinitely close, but not quite there yet.

Still, it was a very impressive leap in power for Lilith, whose strength was no higher than 4-star Ranked Awakener in Body Cultivation, to be a step short from Rank 1 Transcendent.

"A few drops of Origin Blood can produce such results?" Leon muttered with surprise.

Awakening the bloodline of Divine Beasts had always granted big leaps in power, even if it was just a small awakening.

"For the result to be this great shows how impressive the Desolate Crow was…" Leon commented before he wore a thoughtful look.

Also, the Desolate Crow Clansmen's bloodline had been so diluted that any increase in bloodline concentration was equivalent to big changes.

Perhaps, this was the true reason for violent bloodline awakening—like experiencing drought for many years before receiving a light shower from the clouds.

"Hubby, how can a few drops of blood cause such huge changes?" Darlene asked Leon in soft whispers.

"This must be your first time seeing a bloodline awakening," Leon said with a slight smile.

"All bloodline awakenings are like this. Humans are also capable of their own bloodline awakening, but nothing as impressive as the beasts and beastmen," he stated before adding, "This is their inherent advantage and disadvantage."

The Divine Beasts were one of the dominant races within the Divine Realm precisely due to such a clear advantage.

As long as the bloodline concentration of the descendants was high, their strength would grow very quickly to reach their ancestor's level, albeit slightly weaker.

By the same logic, beast descendants with diluted bloodline were shackled by it, limiting their achievements.

Only by changing their bloodline could they break free from the shackle of their powerful ancestors' bloodline.

If not, they can only find ways to increase their bloodline concentration like Leon had done for Lilith.

Of course, the Desolate Crow Clansmen were in a better position than most beasts with dilute bloodlines because they were beastmen with mixed bloodlines.

"I see…" Darlene muttered softly.

She watched Lilith transformed with little envy.

If she had not cultivated to the 9-star Ranked Awakener Realm in the Neutral Zone after Leon took her there, her envy would definitely not have been little.

Meanwhile, Leon shifted his attention onto Lilith's black flames and new pair of black-feathered wings before he noticed a slight detail regarding them.

"This position… is slightly lower than the supposed positioning of the wings…" Leon muttered softly before guessing, "…Another pair of wings?"

Shortly after, he wrinkled his brows in confusion of his own knowledge. Did any of the Desolate Crows in the Divine Realm ever have more than a single pair of wings?

A four-winged Desolate Crow? Definitely unheard of.

However, from the looks of it, Lilith would have two pairs of wings if she did not lose one of them.

'Is this a mutation of the Desolate Crow's bloodline?' Leon pondered quietly.

Sometime later, Lilith's bloodline awakening ended.

Her bloodline erupted violently at the start but slowed down quickly to a grinding stop, a bit shy of Rank 1 Transcendent.

Nevertheless, with a bit of training and medicine, Lilith will officially become a Rank 1 Transcendent.

"Leon! Words cannot express how joyful I am right now!" Lilith chirped excitedly in front of Leon before feeling a bit of weight on her back.

After glancing over her shoulders, she became even more excited!

Gasp!

"Ooh~! I have a new pair of wings!" She exclaimed.

At the same time, Lilith's black flames slowly dispersed, revealing her bare body with glistening skin akin to a newborn baby.

"More importantly, you should find something to cover yourself," Leon commented while taking out a spare set of clothes for Lilith.

Of course, he did not waste the opportunity and gazed at Lilith's bare body intently, enjoying the full view presented to him.

"Ahhh—!" Lilith screamed.

Her face was flushed as she immediately snatched the set of clothes from Leon's extended hand before she quickly tried to cover herself.

"D-don't look!"

"Not looking."

Although Leon said he was not looking after covering his eyes with his hand, he was still blatantly peeking through the gaps in his fingers.

"Rogue!" Lilith cried.

She could feel Leon's hot stare violating her body, but she could do nothing but do her best to wear Leon's spare set of clothes as quickly as she could.

Suddenly, Leon felt a pinch in his waist before his gaze shifted to the side—only to see Aria looking back at him with a disapproving gaze.

"Ahem, it's not what it seems." Leon coughed.

"It's not what seems, hmm?" Aria asked with narrowed eyes while she was increasing the strength of her pinch.

Despite the pinch inflicting zero pain on Leon, he pretended to be in pain before surrendering with his hands helplessly raised in the air, "Alright, alright. It's my fault for looking, okay? But can you blame?"

"I'll let you off the hook this time," Aria pouted slightly.

Leon cracked a slight smile after being pardoned by her, knowing that Aria was not actually mad at him. He held her hand and rubbed with his thumb to show his affection.

Sometime later, Lilith calmed down in her new set of black clothing that appeared slightly loose and baggy due to her build being smaller than Leon's build.

"Leon, can you refine more blood to help me increase my bloodline concentration further?" Lilith requested before saying, "If I can continue to trigger the bloodline awakening and increase my strength to the Paragon level, my clan will no longer need to fear the Desolate Netherbird Tribe."

"Let us not get ahead of ourselves. A second bloodline awakening will not be that easy." Leon shook his head before saying, "It was only this effective because it was your first time increasing your bloodline concentration."

"Furthermore, the dosage was small. If it had been a bigger dosage, your life would have been in danger—should you fail to endure it."

"I see…"

Lilith was slightly disappointed by Leon's rejection.

Nevertheless, she understood his reasoning and knew best about the risks—as the one who had just experience the painful baptism of the bloodline awakening.

As such, she did not dwell on it.

"Then… can it be done to strengthen my clansmen instead? Is there a limit to how many people you can help due to our diluted bloodline?" Lilith asked.

"Hmm…" Leon pondered for a moment before he answered, "Logically, there shouldn't be any limitation."

After all, he was practically creating new blood of the Desolate Crow Divine Beast by fusing the Origin Blood together rather than extracting the bit of Desolate Crow Bloodline from one person to give to another.

"I will help you enhance the strength of as many clansmen as I can before I leave for the Dark Continent. That way, your clan will have a fighting chance against the Desolate Netherbird Second Prince's retaliation while I am gone," Leon stated.

Once Lilith heard Leon was planning to leave, she was immediately devastated, like she was about to lose her pillar of support.

"You're planning to leave? Must you leave?" Lilith asked with reluctance.

She did not want him to leave. But at the same time, she did not want to selfishly stop him from going after all that he had done for her and her clan.

She had no right to stop him.

"I have to. My presence on the other side concerns the fate of many lives," Leon said firmly.

Seeing that Lilith was reluctant to see him leave and also appeared a little lost, Leon patted her on the shoulders and said, "Don't worry. I will only be one Teleportation Portal away. If something happens, you can always send someone over to notify me."

"Mm." Lilith nodded.

His words comforted her and made her felt a bit better.

…

The following few hours, Lilith went around collecting blood essence from her clansmen while Leon used it to refine Origin Blood using the Everlasting Blood Mantra technique.

Without surprises, the other clansmen were also able to enjoy a minor bloodline awakening upon absorbing the blobs of Origin Blood given to them.

The first group to receive them was naturally Uncle Jorn and the other Transcendent-level warriors within the clan.

Uncle Jorn's strength directly rose to the Mid-rank 2 Transcendent while the Transcendent-level warriors rose to Early-rank 2 Transcendents.

By the time Leon decided that it was time to go, a few thousand clansmen were able to experience a minor bloodline awakening, allowing several hundred higher-level clansmen among the thousands to advance to Early-rank 1 Transcendent or higher.

Without exception, every one of them sprouted a pair of black wings and erupted with black flames.

A few hours ago, the Desolate Crow Clan could only be considered an average mid-rank tribe. But a few hours later, there were utterly transformed into a high mid-rank tribe—all of which was due to Leon's efforts.

His contribution to the clan cemented his position as the eternal hero of the Desolate Crow Clan, revered by all clansmen.

His status became even greater than Lilith's absent father, the Clan Leader of the Desolate Crow Clan.

Uncle Jorn and the other warriors had their reservations against outsiders, but Leon's benevolent act of awakening their bloodlines had completely won them over. 

The Desolate Crow Clan enjoyed an all-time high morale and liveliness as people celebrated and cheered on the streets.

But at the heart of it all, Leon was nowhere to be seen.

He had gone to the cellar underneath the central palace to make his preparations for departure. At the same time, he waited for the others to gather so they could leave together.

…