His shocked shout caught the ladies off guard. Then they became worried and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Ashton, however, acted as though he didn’t hear them and closed his eyes. After a while, he opened them and burst out in a loud, happy laughter.
“Hahaha… it’s amazing! I would have never thought little Max could find such miraculous medicine.”
Realizing there was nothing wrong, the ladies sighed in relief while Anna grew curious when she heard him mention Max’s name and asked, “What happened father? What made you so happy?”
Ashton controlled his laughter, glanced at everyone and said, “Not only did the medicine that little Max sent healed my body, it also healed my destroyed mana core. Not only that, my mana core seems to have been upgraded by four levels, meaning half of the obstacles to emperor realm have been removed for me. It’s… unbelievable!”
Everyone became stunned when they heard this and muttered in a daze, “It’s really unbelievable.”
Apart from Ashton, who had previously reached peak three-star, and Anna who still had a long way to go, everyone here was just two-star.
For them, even reaching the peak of the mortal boundary was near impossible given their age and talent, let alone the Emperor realm. So, they were naturally shocked upon hearing he had hopes of reaching this legendary realm.
After the momentary shock, they became delighted. Unlike the older ladies, Anna couldn’t help but jump in joy and shout, “Wohhh!! It’s amazing! Our family will have an emperor mage in future.”
Before she had joined the Cloud Academy, she felt she had a powerful background, but after she joined academy, and interacted with others and saw multiple three and four-star mages, she realized her background wasn’t anything special.
After seeing five-star and king ranked mages, she lost every last bit of the pride she originally had and felt as though she wasn’t from a noble, but a common family.
But for someone who was raised like a princess, this reality was a bit cruel.
So, she adjusted her future goals and even though she knew it wouldn’t be easy, she vowed to become a king ranked expert at least and if possible, an emperor or even a Monarch, and earn back the pride she had.
But despite her vow and determination, she was painfully aware that her talent was not too good. Therefore, the chances of her achieving this goal weren’t too high.
That was why when she heard how her father’s path to the Emperor realm had become a lot easier, she was incomparably excited. So what if she couldn’t achieve the goal she set? Her father could do it and her family and she would still gain their lost pride.
…
Although this Drop of Life was diluted, the energy it contained was immense. Even after healing all of Ashton’s injuries–visible and hidden, new and old–and restoring and upgrading his mana core, there was still some energy remaining.
So, while they celebrated, it circulated throughout his body as though searching for something more to fix, but he was already completely healed.
Since it didn’t find any injury, it slowly started seeping into his blood. But before it could, microscopic golden chains manifested around each of his blood cells and blocked the energy.
This seemed to enrage the energy. It rammed into the chains again and again. Each time the energy clashed with the chains, some of it would disperse.
But under the unrelenting assault, some cracks finally appeared on the chains and before the last bit of the energy dissipated, there was an inaudible crack as the chains shattered.
As soon as it did, a surge of golden energy flooded his blood cells. When the golden energy appeared, the composition of his blood started changing. It slowly turned golden, and as it did, it became stronger, purer and more complex. It was as though it was evolving.
Right when the chains shattered and golden energy appeared in his blood cells, Ashton who was gleefully smiling with his family, froze.
Since he was the focus of everyone’s attention, the ladies immediately noticed the change in his expression. But just when they wanted to ask what happened, their expressions also changed while Anna cried out in alarm.
“What’s that?!! What’s happening father?!”
Immediately after that, everyone lunged forward. Esther tried to freeze him. Amelia tried to heal him. Mina tried to cover him in earth elements while Anna took out a few thick blankets and covered him.
“Why isn’t anything working? This fire…”
…
Ashton could feel a strangely familiar energy coursing through his blood, making it boil like magma, and filling him with almost endless strength.
He was learned enough to know he was undergoing bloodline awakening. This, however, confused him. How could he have a bloodline inheritance? From what he knew, none of his ancestors reached the level where they could bestow their descendants with a bloodline. So, why was he awakening one right now?
However, these thoughts were interrupted by the sudden and ‘strange’ actions taken by his wives and daughter.
Noticing they weren’t stopping and were preparing to launch more ‘attacks’ at him, he, for a moment, thought they wanted to kill him but immediately dispelled the thought as it was impossible and asked In a confused and slightly irritated tone, “What are you guys doing?”
Anna and others were panicking because their ‘attacks’ were ineffective when they heard his voice. Noticing he wasn’t panicked and his voice was calm, the ladies took a close look at him. Soon, they furrowed their brows in confusion as though they saw something incomprehensible.
Anna pointed at him and said in a shaky voice, “Father… you are burning. But it’s strange. The fire doesn’t seem to be hurting you.”
“Fire? Burning me? What are you say…”
Confused, Ashton looked down at his body and saw he was engulfed in blazing, golden fire. His heart skipped a beat and he instinctively wanted to jump off the bed and try to extinguish it. But then he realized, the fire wasn’t hurting him just like Anna said. In fact, he felt very comfortable.
But seeing how his clothes and bedsheets had already burnt into ashes and the bed was slowly disappearing along chunks of ice, the blanket Anna wrapped around him to put out the fire and even the pile of earth Mina conjured, he realized the fire was only harmless to him, not to others. Then he told everyone to leave the room and wait outside.
After they went out, he jumped off the burning bed and sat cross legged on the ground and waited for the bloodline awakening to complete.
The golden fire blazed for over an hour before it slowly receded into his body. After it completely disappeared, Ashton opened his eyes to reveal golden pupils. At the same time, a subtle regal aura spread out from his body.
Ashton felt the changes in his body and couldn’t help but exclaim “A bloodline can cause such transformation? How amazing! No wonder those with bloodlines are always stronger.”
If before he used that self sacrifice spell to protect his family and completely destroyed his mana, his strength could rival early stage four-star mages, and after he took the Drop of Life and recovered and his core was upgraded, he had become strong enough to completely overwhelm any mid-stage four-star mage, then now, after his bloodline awakening, he was sure he could kill most of the peak four-star mages, and if he went all out, even if couldn’t defeat, he could fight on equal footing with a newly ascended early-stage five-star mage.
Ashton’s emotions were in turmoil. Just a while ago, he was on the verge of death but now, not only was he in perfect health, even his mana core recovered, of which he had already lost hope a few years ago, and had such a huge increase in his strength.
“Little Max…” He muttered under his breath, a complicated look flashing in his eyes.
…
In a dark hall in a place very far away from Ashton, four pairs of eyes snapped open at the same time and looked towards a stone table, a part of which was flashing with golden light.
“Someone has awakened the Imperial bloodline?” One of four pairs of eyes owner said a level of excitement in their voice. The other three pairs of eyes also had excitement flashing within.
“Find out who this kid is. No matter if he is from the main or branch families, bring him here.” Ordered one of four, their voice ringing throughout the dark place.
Immediately, a respectable voice answered, “Yes, Ancestor!”
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The 10 Bonus Chapter Mass release between 10-15 November!
