"The Dragonblood Warrior Clan?" Linley felt his mind suddenly buzz.
To Linley, his family was nothing more than an ancient, declining clan. How could it possibly be connected to the legendary Four Supreme Warriors?
"You don't believe it?" Hogg's face bore a touch of pride. "Linley, go take a closer look at those memorial tablets. Now that you can read, check the backs of each tablet—they're carved with the deeds of the ancestors they represent. The three highest tablets belong to ancestors who were Dragonblood Warriors!"
Hogg took Linley's hand. "Come with me."
Hogg led Linley to the side of the altar where the tablets were arranged. Picking Linley up, he said, "Look closely at the inscriptions on the backs."
Linley widened his eyes and read—
The text on the reverse of the highest tablet was deeply carved and clear. The ancient characters, weathered by five thousand years, narrated earth-shattering feats!
"Baruch, the first Dragonblood Warrior of the Yulan Continent. In the year 4560 of the Yulan Calendar, Baruch faced the Frost Wyrm and Black Dragon beneath the walls of Linnan City, ultimately slaying both and shaking the world. In 4579 of the Yulan Calendar, Baruch battled the Nine-Headed Snake Emperor along the northern coast of the continent. The skies roared, the seas raged, and cities crumbled. After a day and night of fierce combat, Baruch finally slew the Nine-Headed Snake Emperor… Thus, he founded the Baruch Clan, becoming its first patriarch!""Ryan Barugh. The second Dragonblood Warrior of the Yulan Continent. In Yulan Calendar 4690, defeated and subdued a Saint-level Golden Dragon in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. Became the Golden Dragon Saint Knight! In Yulan Calendar 4697..."
"Hazard Barugh. The third Dragonblood Warrior of Yulan Continent. Born in Yulan Calendar 5360. First battle against the Saint-level magical beast 'Blood-Eyed Maned Lion' in the Sunset Mountains. After defeating the Blood-Eyed Maned Lion and driving it to flee in defeat, his fame shook the world..."
...
Each great name. Each earth-shaking achievement made Linley's blood surge with boiling excitement.
"My family... is actually the Dragonblood Warrior clan?" Linley remained thrilled for a long time.
Hogg beside him spoke solemnly: "The first three generations of our Barugh family all produced Dragonblood Warriors consecutively. Once becoming Dragonblood Warriors, their lifespans became extremely long. The second family head, Ryan Barugh, only married and had children after reaching over seven hundred years of age."
"What about after that?" Linley asked curiously. "Father, why doesn't our family have Dragonblood Warriors now?"
Hogg nodded. "To become Dragonblood Warriors mainly depends on the concentration of Dragonblood Warrior lineage in one's body - the higher the concentration, the better. As generations of descendants continued, the Dragonblood Warrior lineage in later Barugh family members became increasingly diluted. However... this isn't absolute. Because through successive generations, there would occasionally be certain descendants who suddenly manifested higher concentrations of Dragonblood Warrior lineage again.""After Hazard Baruch, approximately a thousand years later, our Baruch family produced the fourth Dragonblood Warrior. Then, after another fifteen hundred years, spanning dozens of generations, our family finally saw the fifth Dragonblood Warrior. However, in the more than a thousand years since then up to the present day, not a single Dragonblood Warrior has appeared."
Hogg shook his head and sighed. "The fifth Dragonblood Warrior existed on the Yulan Continent for merely two centuries before vanishing. Over the subsequent thousand years, our Baruch family has completely declined."
A millennium's passage could erode even the most glorious lineage.
"Yet there remains hope for our family. Perhaps in some generation, a descendant's Dragonblood Warrior heritage will manifest with sufficient density to meet the awakening threshold. Once that condition is fulfilled, through decades of arduous cultivation, a true Dragonblood Warrior may emerge, restoring our Baruch family to its former glory as the 'Dragonblood Warrior Clan'!" Hogg's eyes blazed with fervor. "Linley, you've reached six and a half years of age. By tradition, testing at six yields accurate measurements of Dragonblood lineage density. Today, I shall conduct your assessment."
Linley's heart quivered. Testing Dragonblood Warrior lineage density? Testing his own? He understood perfectly the implications - this examination would determine whether he possessed the qualifications to become a Dragonblood Warrior.
"Wait here, Linley. I'll retrieve the Dragonblood Needle." Hogg declared with barely restrained excitement before striding toward the ancestral hall's rear chamber."Dragonblood Warrior? Would I become a Dragonblood Warrior?" Linley felt nervous deep inside.
Standing there, his heart churned with chaos. There was anticipation, but also a trace of fear—fear that the density of Dragonblood Warrior lineage in his body might fail to meet the requirements.
"If I fail... Father will probably be disappointed," Linley couldn't help thinking. Having depended on his father and younger brother since childhood, he didn't want to let his father down. Yet the concentration of Dragonblood Warrior heritage within him wasn't something he could control.
After a short while, Hogg emerged from the secret chamber behind the ancestral hall, holding an extremely thin, transparent needle nearly twenty centimeters long.
"Dragonblood Needle?" Linley stared at the needle in his father's hand, instinctively guessing its name.
"Alright, Linley. The tip will only pierce your skin slightly. It won't hurt. Extend your hand," Hogg said with a smile. Linley nodded, took a deep breath, and stretched out his trembling right hand, betraying his intense anxiety.
Not just Linley—even Hogg himself was trembling with tension.
"Endure it a moment." Hogg pressed the translucent Dragonblood Needle gently against Linley's right index finger, puncturing the skin effortlessly. A sharp, bone-deep pain flared as the needle turned crimson.
Hogg, hands shaking, lifted the needle to his eyes and began examining it closely.Linley looked up, staring unblinkingly at his father, his heart filled with unease. "Is the concentration of Dragonblood Warrior lineage in my body sufficient? Why has Father been examining that 'Dragonblood Needle' for so long?" A bad premonition stirred in Linley's heart.
"Ah..." A sigh escaped Hogg's lips as he set aside the Dragonblood Needle.
Hearing his father's sigh, Linley—who had been tense all this time—instantly understood: the Dragonblood Warrior lineage within him must have failed to meet the requirements. Tears began to stream down his face.
"Linley, why are you crying? Hush, now. Don't cry," Hogg immediately scooped Linley into his arms, his heart aching as he comforted the weeping child. After all, Linley was only six and a half years old—still just a boy.
"I won't cry... I won't," Linley sniffled, forcing back his tears. "Father, I'm sorry... I've disappointed you."
Hearing this, Hogg felt a warm surge of emotion in his chest and hugged Linley tighter. "Linley, don't blame yourself. Truthfully, I never held much hope to begin with. Over a thousand years have passed, and not one of our family's dozens of generations has produced a Dragonblood Warrior. Your failure isn't your fault. I don't blame you."
Warmed by his father's embrace, Linley gradually relaxed.
Meanwhile, the two-and-a-half-year-old Wharton had long fallen asleep in the arms of the housekeeper, Hilli."Linley, the Baruch family now only consists of me, you, and your younger brother. In my lifetime, I have no grand ambitions. Becoming a Dragonblood Warrior... I dare not even hope for that." Hogg gave a self-deprecating smile. Becoming a Dragonblood Warrior—how could it be so simple?
Linley also looked up at his father.
He rarely saw his father speak to him like this. Normally, his father was so resolute, so stern.
Hogg gazed at the rows of ancestral tablets, his eyes carrying a trace of longing as he said softly, "My true goal is actually to recover our Baruch family's ancestral treasure."
"Ancestral treasure? What is that? I've never heard of it," Linley asked curiously.
Hogg declared proudly, "Our family's ancestral treasure—the warblade 'Slaughter'—was the weapon of our Baruch family's first patriarch, the very first Dragonblood Warrior in the Yulan Continent, Baruch himself. Ah... Our descendants have failed. Over six hundred years ago, due to the family's decline, the patriarch of that generation actually sold our ancestral treasure for his own extravagant indulgences."
As he spoke, Hogg's entire body trembled with rage.
"Sold the ancestral treasure?" Even at six and a half years old, Linley felt anger rising within him after reading many books. He understood that no matter how dire the circumstances, one should never sell the ancestral treasure. And according to his father, that patriarch had done it purely for personal luxury.
Hogg shook his head helplessly. "Every subsequent patriarch has tried to reclaim the warblade 'Slaughter'. Yet despite six centuries of efforts by generations of our family, we've never succeeded. After all, the warblade was originally sold for 180,000 gold coins—180,000! Not only could we never produce such a sum, even if we could, others wouldn't sell it back to us."
For an ancient Dragonblood Warrior family to have its ancestral treasure sold off—this was a disgrace!
A shame upon the ancient Dragonblood Warrior family!
Every generation of clansmen had strived to retrieve the warblade 'Slaughter', yet six hundred years of efforts had borne no fruit.Hogg, as the current patriarch of the family, naturally shared the same anticipation. Yet the clan's financial situation was dire. 180,000 gold coins? Even if they sold their ancestral home, they probably couldn't raise such an enormous sum.
The ancestral treasure remaining outside their family was a constant humiliation that pierced Hogg's heart, filling him with shame and making him feel unworthy to face their ancestors.
Seeing his father's expression, Linley comforted him: "Father, don't worry. One day, I'll bring our family's ancestral treasure back."
"You?" Hogg laughed, affectionately stroking Linley's head.
In his heart, Hogg sighed: "Linde, how could you know? Those exact words... I once said to your grandfather too." How could it be so easy to achieve what six hundred years and countless generations had failed to accomplish? Those who possessed the warblade 'Slaughter' would undoubtedly be extraordinary figures.
Would such people ever sell it? And even if they did, could the impoverished Baruch family afford the price?
"Father doesn't believe me?" Linley looked up at his father with innocent confusion.
"I believe, I believe," Hogg replied with a chuckle.
Father and son leaned against each other in mutual support. The ancient Dragonblood Warrior clan, now reduced to only three members, had declined for over a millennium. When would this fading lineage regain its former glory? Nestled in his father's arms, the young Linley clenched his small fists tightly, unaware that this moment would become the origin of legends.