Unlike most Fullers, Sera didn’t have the Fuller’s metal related bloodline but a strange one, which she had probably inherited from her mother, who was the non Fuller parent.
Though Riva was surprised to find this because unless her mother had a higher tier bloodline than Fuller bloodline–at least one on the same tier as the Royal Family’s bloodline–the offspring would always inherit the Fuller Bloodline, she wasn’t in mood to think about Sera’s dead mother’s origin because she realized Sera, who she had come to think of as her daughter, was slowly dying.
The reason: Her strange bloodline was slowly eroding her lifeforce.
She used many methods but she couldn’t stop her bloodline from eroding her lifeforce.
Not wanting her to worry about it, she decided against telling her. And even though she felt guilty, she dropped the idea of taking her as her disciple and stopped guiding her cultivation.
Instead, she started assigning her more tasks to keep her busy and prevent her from cultivating because she had realized the higher her cultivation became, the faster she would lose her lifeforce.
Unfortunately, Sera was just too talented. Despite her efforts to slow down her cultivation, within the next few years, she broke through to the Four Star realm.
As a result, her bloodline started eroding her lifeforce at a much faster speed. At the age of 18, and despite the fact she was a Four Star mage, she had the lifeforce of an ordinary middle aged person.
Finally, she realized that it would have been better if she had told her the truth. Thinking better late than never, she told her about her bloodline and how it was slowly killing her, and that she needed to stop cultivating.
When Sera heard that, she showed no surprise or fear. She just smiled and for the first time, she hugged her and said, “Thank you for telling me.”
Riva had thought she would heed her words and would stop cultivating but two years later, right before she left for the year-long mission in the central plains, Sera met her and told him she had reached the peak of the Four Star.
Riva was so angry out of concern that she didn’t know what to do. When she asked why hadn’t stopped cultivating despite knowing the consequences, Sera told her that she had not put any effort into cultivation.
It was her accursed bloodline that was passively increasing her cultivation and in return consuming more and more of her lifeforce.
She had tried to control it to no success.
And the reason she hid her progress from them was simply because she didn’t want them to feel sad and worry for her.
Riva had broken out in tears that day while embracing her.
She remembered Sera wiping her tears and saying, ‘I have no regret. You have given me a life so beautiful that I had not even dreamt about growing up. I’m very grateful to you and can’t bear to see you cry.’
‘Also I have good news.’
‘What good news you have?’ Riva had asked,
Sera, with a cheerful smile on her face, had said, ‘After reaching the peak of Four Star, my bloodline has stopped increasing my cultivation on its own.
So, my lifeforce drainage rate wouldn’t increase any longer. And given how much lifeforce I have right now, I still have over five more years to spend with you, Sophie and little Uriel.’
“Is that true?!”
Sera’s excited voice jolted her out of her reminiscing. After composing herself, she nodded, “…Yes.”
‘Hm?’ Max, unaware of their relationship, couldn’t help but become a little surprised when he heard the reluctance in her voice.
Then he frowned, ‘What’s going in this woman’s head? Doesn’t she want to save her daughter? I swear if she refuses because of you, I’ll make you regret this.’ He viciously thought.
Sera became visibly relaxed when she heard Riva’s confirmation and tears appeared in the corner of her eyes.
“Good. It’s very good news that Sophie can finally recover.” She said, smiling through tears. She then turned to Max, bowed at a completely ninety degree and said, “Please accept my gratitude in advance, Sir Max.”
Hearing this, Max heaved a sigh of relief in his heart when he felt her genuine happiness, and relief when she heard the news.
‘Since she seems to care about Sophie as much as Riva, she probably wouldn’t mind making a small sacrifice for her, right?’
Fighting back the unreasonable urge to open his eyes to accept her gratitude, he simply nodded, “It’s nothing. I’m doing just what I ought to.”
‘Now even if I die next year, Elder Riva wouldn’t be lonely with sister Sophie.’ Sera thought, feeling relieved.
She hadn’t lied when she told Riva that she could live five more years. She indeed could but then the incident with Uriel happened, resulting in his death and Sophie’s foundation crippling.
When she saw Sophie after she injured her foundation, and inspected her condition, she had a vague feeling that her life force could help her. Since she treated Sophie like her blood sister, she didn’t hesitate to gamble and use her life force.
Unfortunately, her intuition proved wrong and by the time she realized it, she had already lost more than three year’s worth of her remaining life force.
…
Riva felt her heart clench when she saw how happy and relieved she was.
‘She has suffered enough for a lifetime. I can’t betray her trust in me and disappoint her.’ She knew if she asked, Sera would definitely agree.
Taking a deep breath, she glanced at Max, ‘Even if Sophie develops some resistance to his bloodline energy after her condition reverts, I’m sure he could still heal her.’
Max felt the change in emotions and when he felt her gaze, he knew she was going to ruin things for him.
It was true even if Sophie’s foundation wasn’t healed in the few hours Sophie’s condition was good, it wouldn’t matter much.
The only reason he had healed her enough to freely move around like a normal person was because he knew compared to convincing Riva to have sex with him or find someone who fit his requirement to do it would be way more difficult than convincing Sophie to do it. He just needed to be smart about it and not let Riva become suspicious.
Once they did it and he healed her foundation with the produced Nascent Energy while saving some for himself, even if Riva found out, she wouldn’t be able to do anything about it and Mike would know that he needed women to boost his bloodline energy to heal others. Then, he would prepare some for him without him asking, making it easier for him to heal others and gather more Nascent Energy.
Unfortunately, he didn’t get the chance to find Sophie alone after he helped her recover, complicating things.
After Sera recovered from her rush of emotions, she noticed Riva had something to tell her, but was hesitating. With her intelligence, it wasn’t difficult for her to realize that she wasn’t called here simply to give her the good news.
So, she said. “Elder Riva, please don’t hesitate to say it if you have something to tell me.”
Riva firmed her will and shook her head, “No. There is noth–”
But before she could complete her sentence, Max shouted, “Shut up!”
Sera furrowed her delicate brows in displeasure. Riva was someone she respected the most in the world. She couldn’t tolerate someone shouting at her in front of her.
Even though she didn’t say anything because she didn’t want to ruin what was probably Sophie’s last chance, her impression of him dipped by a few notches.
Meanwhile, Riva’s expression darkened, not because she was angry but because she realized he was going to tell Sophie the truth.
Before he could open his mouth, she hurriedly sent him mental messages.
[Don’t you dare tell her!]
[I know even if Sophie’s condition reverts, you can still heal her. So, wait for a while. I will find someone more appropriate for you to boost your bloodline energy.]
Max clicked his tongue in annoyance when he heard this, ‘Indeed, just as I thought. She is indeed going to ruin it for me.’
If his bloodline didn’t have such an abnormal reaction toward Sera, he wouldn’t have minded too much and could wait for her to find someone else. After all, it would only take him a little Nascent Energy to reinvigorate Sophie again even if her body forms some immunity to his bloodline energy.
But since his bloodline had such an exaggerated reaction, he could tell he would not just gain some Nascent Energy from her… he might get some another pleasant surprise too. Therefore, he couldn’t afford to let the chance to have her go.
So, he ignored her pleas and told Sera why Riva had called her here.
The 10 Bonus Chapter Mass release between 10-15 November!
