Chapter 928: Lu Baixi Breaks Through, Baize Bloodline!

“How can there be a White Snake bloodline here?”

Bai Zhaozhao was shocked and puzzled.

The White Snake is a top-tier True Spirit, scarcely seen in the world.

She had never heard of any White Snake descendants in the Southern Desolation.

“This bloodline aura feels like a weak human–demon hybrid.”

The pure silver horn at Bai Zhaozhao’s brow gleamed as she attuned to the White Snake bloodline’s aura.

She realized this wasn’t some ordinary mixed-blood descendant.

Like her, the bearer was human with a True Spirit bloodline.

Only, the other party was very weak.

Currently just second-rank and attempting to break into third.

Bai Zhaozhao rushed toward the source of the White Snake aura to investigate.

For one, the White Snake bloodline was close to her Baize lineage.

For another, a great calamity was approaching.

She had been sent down the mountain to find the anomalies foreseen by the Heavenly Derivation Chart and to seek out children of destiny, those blessed with immense fortune, and help them.

The White Snake bloodline is that of a top-tier True Spirit.

Anyone bearing it would be a prodigy, a true bearer of great fortune.

It also suppresses demons and wards off evil.

With the demonic calamity looming, such a bloodline would prove invaluable.

And this White Snake aura was rich; one parent was very likely a fourth-rank White Snake descendant.

If she could invite such a descendant, it would also aid in facing the demonic calamity.

But as Bai Zhaozhao neared the site of Lu Baixi’s breakthrough, her slender figure halted. A fourth-rank demonic aura spread ahead.

A phantom of a Golden-Winged roc seemed to coil there, overlooking the land.

“That’s… a fourth-rank Demon King, a descendant of the Golden-Winged Great Roc!”

Bai Zhaozhao didn’t know the exact details of this Golden-Winged Roc.

But from its bloodline aura and demonic qi, she could tell it was a roc bearing the Golden-Winged Great Roc bloodline.

The Golden-Winged Great Roc is also a top-tier True Spirit.

But isn’t this a branch of the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range in the northern reaches of the Southern Desolation?

How could a Golden-Winged Roc descendant be here?

And that Golden-Winged Roc descendant was together with the White Snake bloodline.

“Has this golden roc marked the White Snake bloodline as prey?”

Bai Zhaozhao’s delicate face turned solemn, faint golden light in her pupils. She didn’t think the golden roc was protecting Lu Baixi but treating the girl as prey.

After all, the Golden-Winged clan is vicious and savage, even preying on dragons.

As a descendant of that clan, this golden roc would be no different.

To a Demon King like that, Lu Baixi’s White Snake bloodline was an irresistible lure.

The only flaw was her weak cultivation—hardly a satisfying meal.

So the roc would nurture her, then devour her.

Bai Zhaozhao’s first thought was to save the girl.

But facing that Golden-Winged Roc, she wasn’t confident she could.

Besides, intervening now could disrupt the breakthrough.

Hum!

Bai Zhaozhao stirred her divine arts. Endless starlight flowed around her, her white hair lifting as her form blurred, merging into the Great Void and vanishing.

With a Baize bloodline and Tianyan Sect training, she wasn’t one for head-on duels.

But in divination, masking auras, and hiding her presence, her methods were exceptional.

At her level, few could ever pinpoint her aura or form.

Her horn flared, pure and sacred, seemingly linking to heaven and earth as she divined how to take Lu Baixi from the Golden-Winged Roc.

Difficult. Very difficult.

Her divination showed that without paying a heavy price, it would be hard to rescue the White Snake girl from the roc.

Yet the reading also showed the Golden-Winged Roc bore no malice toward the White Snake bloodline.

“Huh?” Bai Zhaozhao frowned. Something was off.

Wasn’t it raising the White Snake bloodline as prey to devour later?

She tried to deduce the relationship between the two.

A fourth-rank Golden-Winged Roc resisted divination greatly; Lu Baixi was further shielded by the Lu Family Record.

Fortunately, her Baize bloodline and the Tianyan inheritance were extraordinary.

She faintly sensed the roc and the White Snake girl were not predator and prey, but rather close.

“What is going on?”

With Baize blood and vast hidden lore, she could read much of the Golden-Winged Roc from its aura.

But in her memory the Golden-Winged clan’s descendants were brutally savage. How could they live peacefully with a White Snake bloodline? How could they be close?

The White Snake clan is innately kind and abhors evil. They should reject a bloodthirsty, battle-mad race like the Golden-Winged Great Roc.

Even a girl merely bearing the White Snake bloodline should instinctively dislike such a roc.

If not for confidence in her divination and innate gift, Bai Zhaozhao would have thought she’d sensed wrong.

After a moment’s thought, she decided to wait until the White Snake bloodline advanced to third rank, then approach to talk.

Meanwhile, a youth in dark-gold armor with a golden mantle—the Golden-Winged Roc—stared coldly over the land.

When Bai Zhaozhao had approached, he’d sensed a faint presence.

But her methods were superb, and she had immediately cloaked her aura and form.

He dared not be careless. He shot skyward, unfolding a hundred-zhang demon body, gold from head to wingtip. His wings hung like clouds and cleaved heaven and earth with their edge.

All around, feather-swords heavy with killing intent gathered and stood.

His cold, razor-sharp eyes burned like twin golden suns, glaring down over the land.

If any person or beast came near, his one hundred and eight thousand feather-swords would strike at once.

Lu Baixi was breaking through to the third rank.

If something went wrong, he couldn’t report to his Master, and he’d have no face to see him.

For hundreds of miles, every beast shivered, growled low, or even collapsed in a faint.

“Is this golden roc Yangming True Lord’s spirit pet?”

Far off, merged with the void and cloaked, Bai Zhaozhao saw the roc’s true body and thought of the Yangming True Lord who was the talk of the Southern Desolation and the Northern Region.

Rumor said his spirit pet mount was a fourth-rank Golden-Winged roc.

She had come this way upon hearing news of Yangming True Lord, intending to visit the Jiang Kingdom.

She wanted to see if his origins matched the anomaly foreseen by her sect’s Patriarch.

Though by timing alone, he didn’t quite match what the Patriarch had said.

Even so, a top Nascent Soul powerhouse appearing in a backwater was worth Tianyan Sect’s attention.

“We’re already near the Jiang Kingdom. This golden roc is most likely Yangming True Lord’s spirit pet.”

Bai Zhaozhao was ninety percent sure the roc before her was his mount.

On one hand, such fourth-rank rocs were rare.

The odds of coincidence were far too small.

On the other hand, her innate senses agreed.

“Is this White Snake bloodline connected to Yangming True Lord?”

With a faint golden glow in her eyes she looked again at Lu Baixi, a suspicion forming.

The moment the thought arose, her gift told her it was likely right.

She suspected the White Snake girl was probably Yangming True Lord’s daughter.

“If that’s true, then Yangming True Lord must be a righteous cultivator, a true gentleman.”

Bai Zhaozhao pondered.

He had slain True Lord Mingsha of the Yin Ghost Sect and helped the Jiang and Yue Kingdoms repel the demonic path of the Liang Kingdom.

But that didn’t automatically make him a kind and righteous cultivator.

Her intel even hinted at unclear ties with the Jin Kingdom’s Five Poisons Sect.

Even so.

If the White Snake girl was his daughter, then he was definitely a kind and righteous cultivator.

For a simple reason.

To sire such a True Spirit bloodline, he either carried the White Snake bloodline himself or had won the favor of a White Snake descendant.

A sinister cultivator could never win such favor.

So Yangming True Lord had to be a righteous cultivator of the orthodox path.

At that, Bai Zhaozhao felt even more eager to pay him a visit.

A demon beast’s breakthrough is similar to a cultivator forming a core, yet the process is quite different.

But with resources prepared early by Lu Changsheng and half a year of guidance from the Golden-Winged Roc, Lu Baixi’s breakthrough was smooth and free of risk.

Three months later, Lu Baixi succeeded.

Though her White Snake bloodline stirred a huge commotion that could have lured beasts and Demon Kings alike—

With a fourth-rank Golden-Winged Roc guarding, demonic aura unleashed, and one hundred and eight thousand feather-swords arrayed, not a single beast or king dared approach.

Any that came within a hundred miles were cut down at once.

Only Bai Zhaozhao, a Nascent Soul True Lord with a True Spirit bloodline, remained nearby.

“As expected of the White Snake bloodline—mastery of celestial melody, rare notes of the Dao. Even I benefit from it.”

Though far away, Bai Zhaozhao kept an eye on Lu Baixi and could clearly hear the rare resonance of the Dao during her breakthrough.

The notes were like a wondrous movement. Even her heart felt lighter.

At higher realms the path of music is unfathomable, killing without a trace.

It can also move emotions, cleanse the heart, and purge inner demons and stray thoughts.

It can unlock potential, even spur beasts and spiritual plants to grow. Vast and profound.

The White Snake clan excel in this, born attuned to the musical Dao.

“Tianyan Sect’s Bai Zhaozhao greets True Lord Golden Roc, and congratulates this young friend on her breakthrough.”

Seeing Lu Baixi had broken through, Bai Zhaozhao dropped her concealment, appeared before the roc, and bowed with a proper introduction.

Though she bore the Baize bloodline, she introduced herself by her Tianyan identity.

The Golden-Winged Roc glanced at the suddenly appearing Bai Zhaozhao and snapped, “Out of my way!”

His one hundred and eight thousand feathers quivered, blasting golden sword-light. Killing intent soared and even heaven and earth trembled.

“True Lord Golden Roc, I mean no harm. I sensed a White Snake bloodline and came to make its acquaintance.”

Bai Zhaozhao backed up a few steps and spoke.

She hadn’t approached earlier precisely because Golden-Winged Roc descendants were savage and hard to deal with, so she’d waited until the breakthrough ended.

She hadn’t expected the Golden-Winged Roc to be this rude anyway.

Seeing she was here for Lu Baixi, the roc’s expression darkened further.

But he could tell Bai Zhaozhao was no simple figure, a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Her earlier concealment had even slipped past him.

Wanting quiet for Lu Baixi, who had just broken through and needed rest, the roc sent a golden storm of feather-swords sweeping toward Bai Zhaozhao.

Then he hooked Lu Baixi with a claw and tore through the sky.

Seeing him strike directly, Bai Zhaozhao’s flawless face tightened in a frown. What a wretched temperament.

How could someone with a White Snake bloodline be close with such a vicious race?

But when the storm of sword-feathers surged in to destroy everything, Bai Zhaozhao didn’t hesitate and flicked out a pale-gold jade tome.

The tome opened without wind. Runes and seals like reflections of heaven’s laws bloomed, folding space to wall off heaven and earth.

Boom, boom, boom—

The one hundred and eight thousand feathers drowned all, as if splitting heaven and earth, unleashing endless terrifying might.

A moment later, clad in white with drifting hair, Bai Zhaozhao stared coldly at the vanished Golden-Winged Roc.

She could, by tracking his demonic aura, use divination to find the roc and Lu Baixi.

But after that vile attitude, she had no desire to invite more trouble.

She decided to visit Yangming True Lord in the Jiang Kingdom first.

“I wonder how Yangming True Lord managed to tame that Golden-Winged Roc.”

For such a ferocious, untamable beast, anything but raising it from the egg was near impossible.

Even then, it took time, effort, and methods to break and train it.

Otherwise it would still disobey.

From that brief exchange, she had seen how brimming with savage ferocity it was.

Yet with Yangming True Lord absent, such a fierce roc was willing to care for Lu Baixi, a girl with a True Spirit bloodline. Contradictory indeed.

At this moment Bai Zhaozhao was intensely curious about the roc’s master, the Yangming True Lord who now shook the Southern Desolation and the Northern Region.

But thinking of how she’d shown goodwill and waited this long, only to be attacked on sight, Bai Zhaozhao fumed.

“Hmph!” A lunch box appeared. She grabbed two glossy, crispy drumsticks and finished them in a few bites, her cheeks puffed like a hamster, then hefted a bag of beast milk and chugged it.

After venting her annoyance through eating, she felt much better.

She then nibbled slowly as she flew toward the Jiang Kingdom.

Forbidden Sea, deep within the palace on Green Dragon Island.

On a massive bed carved from Sea-Marrow Jade, Lu Changsheng sat cross-legged behind Ao Long, palm on her back, threading Yin-Yang magical energy through her body to balance the rampaging power.

After these days of helping, Lu Changsheng had learned the unruly force came from her Azure Dragon Bloodline.

She must have gained some chance, some Heavenly and Earthly treasure, pushing her bloodline further.

But with insufficient strength and a severe poison in her body, it kept surging out of control.

As the poison dissolved, with his help Ao Long was gradually mastering and absorbing the power.

It was just a bit slow.

Or rather, Lu Changsheng wasn’t used to solving things on a year-long timeline.

Otherwise, for a Nascent Soul cultivator and a fourth-rank demon king, resolving this in one or two years would be incredibly efficient.

“Sigh, I hope I can max out her favorability, or this will be a big loss.”

Lu Changsheng mused that at this rate it would take at least another year, which was a frustrating waste of his time.

He even considered pausing and having Ao Long stay at the Fuhai Sect.

Then he could help her balance Yin and Yang and master the power when he had time.

Just then, a system chime sounded in Lu Changsheng’s mind.

[Congratulations to the host. Your first child has reached the third-rank among the demon race. You have earned one rare lottery draw!]