Chương 66: Ability

'I recover really fast.' Shu Yang thought as he stretched his body. He had just woken up, and looking at the dimly lit sky, he hadn't slept for many hours. He turned to look at Shen Ye, and the man was still fast asleep.

'I wonder if it has anything to do with my bloodline advancing.' Shu Yang had always been in slightly better condition than others his strength. That was because he inherited mundane traits from his children. While it wasn't enough to give him any extraordinary abilities, he still found himself having more energy, needing less sleep, and recovering from injuries faster as the number of descendants increased. There were also things like having clear skin and silky hair.

Shu Yang didn't often look at himself in the mirror, but each time he did look, he thought he had grown more handsome. His wife had questioned him several times about his secrets to good looks, but Shu Yang just said it was an advantage of advancing in his martial arts. Still, he couldn't remember recovering this fast before. He and Shen Ye had been running for about a week straight, only taking short rests for food and only sleeping during the darkest hours of the night.

Shen Ye seemed to be getting more and more fatigued as the days passed, but Shu Yang's body didn't take the same toll. He felt fully rested every day when he woke up.

'It has to be an effect of having a Founding Bloodline.' Shu Yang hadn't had much time to examine the changes caused by the advancement of his bloodline. He just felt better overall.

'I guess I'll get some training done while I wait for Shen Ye to wake up. I should be able to recover fine.' Shu Yang hadn't dared tire himself out before, but now, he felt he should be able to keep up with Shen Ye even if he trained for hours. Shu Yang had actually deliberated whether to leave Shen Ye behind and travel on his own. He would be able to get to their goal a lot faster alone. But he had abandoned that idea. If he knew where Tianhu was, he might have left on his own.

But in the current situation, he really needed Shen Ye's help. He might not need his help with tracking, since Xiaorong was there to help with that. But Shen Ye knew many more Masters and Innate warriors in the area than Shu Yang did, and they might encounter some of them along the way. And most importantly, Shen Ye had a trait that made him able to tell when someone was lying to him. That could be of great use. Even at a slightly slower pace, Shu Yang believed he could find Tianhu much faster with Shen Ye's help.

Taking a deep breath, Shu Yang started going through the motions of his self-derived martial art. Time passed slowly, and after about 15 minutes, Shu Yang was able to draw the conclusion that his progress was about the same as it had been before his bloodline advanced.

'I somewhat expected it, but it's still disappointing.' Shu Yang thought with a sigh, and stopped his practice. Shu Yang had a lot of experience with his Bloodline Power increasing, and it had never been the case that it made his advancement much faster. What truly made a difference was an increase in talent. He had just hoped it would be different this time.

'I guess it's not too bad. The time needed to reach the peak of the Master stage has never been my main worry; it has been the difficulty of advancing to the Saint stage. That should be a lot easier now.' Shu Yang had never encountered a bottleneck when advancing a stage, and he guessed this was because his Bloodline Power had always been a step ahead, helping him across the hurdle.

He knew that his son Tianren had struggled for over a year at the peak of the 1st-grade martial warrior stage before advancing to an Innate warrior. That was despite him having talent and access to an abundance of resources. The only thing he didn't have was Bloodline Power.

'I know I shouldn't be greedy. Having a boost in overcoming the bottleneck to the Saint stage is already a great boon. But…shouldn't there be something more? I have gone from a Mortal Bloodline to another level, after all.' Shu Yang sat down on the ground and focused on his connection to the Bloodline Tree, refusing to believe this was all there was to it. He focused on his traits, thinking that perhaps they had unknowingly grown in power. But there was nothing. They hadn't changed one bit.

'Is there really nothing else to it?' Shu Yang leaned back and looked up at the dimly lit sky.

'I guess I do feel a bit different. I'm a little more…comfortable?' He closed his eyes again and saw the Bloodline Tree in front of him. He examined it closely but couldn't gain any clues. The tree was larger and looked more vibrant, but what good was that? Shu Yang let his mind wander for a while, trying to really feel the changes to his body. Half an hour passed, and suddenly, Shu Yang's eyes opened in surprise.

'There is something there?' Shu Yang thought that there seemed to be some kind of power in his blood that hadn't been there before.

'Now we're talking!'

'But what is this power? How do I access it?' Shu Yang clenched his fists, trying to urge the power in his blood to unleash itself. He wasn't really expecting anything to happen, but strangely enough, with just a thought, the power in his blood activated. Shu Yang opened his eyes wide. Before him, the still-dark expanse of land became clear as day. Details miles away could be made out. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

His mind felt clearer than ever, and his thoughts ran smoothly. Problems in his martial arts became clear and easily solvable. He could feel Shen Ye beside him as a living being in a strange kind of way. The same was true for Xiaorong in the tree behind him. The feeling was incredibly strange, and so much was happening at once that Shu Yang didn't know what to focus on. Eventually, the feeling disappeared. The power in his blood seemingly running out, and everything returned back to normal again.

'What…was that?' Shu Yang knew that he had just become more overall powerful all of a sudden, but it was too much to take in all at once. Should he attempt something like this again during a fight, he would probably be cut down in a second, while standing there looking dumb.

'Hopefully, I can adapt in the future and learn how to control it.'

'But did I actually become more powerful, or was it just a feeling?' Shu Yang stood up and clenched his fist. He didn't feel tired from the experience, neither in mind nor body. But the comfortable feeling he had become accustomed to since his bloodline advanced was gone.

'I wonder how long it takes to recover this kind of ability?'

'And is there a way to speed things up? Is there a way to make it even stronger?' Shu Yang couldn't help but sigh. He knew too little about these things. Many years ago, Lady Jiangxi had been able to clear up any doubts Shu Yang had about bloodlines. But now, his bloodline had reached a level he feared was beyond that of anyone in the kingdom.

'Perhaps the Emperor of Lishen knows something about it, but it's not like I can ask him.'

'Or…these cultivators. They aren't very strong, but they might come from somewhere where these things are common knowledge.'

'I really need to capture one of them and squeeze them dry of information.'

"Have you been up long?" Shen Ye's voice snapped Shu Yang back to reality.

"Not long," Shu Yang answered.

"Are you good to go?"

"Give me a second," Shen Ye answered and got up on his feet, stretching his body. He then pulled out some dried meat and hurriedly chewed through it. After drinking some water and relieving himself, Shen Ye gave Shu Yang a nod, "Let's go." The two continued on their way, and Shu Yang spent most of the time thinking about his bloodline. If he couldn't find a cultivator for answers, he would have to figure things out himself.

'It might be something unique to me. Some effect of the Bloodline Tree, perhaps.'

'Either way. I should prepare myself better the next time I activate it to see if I can figure out the purpose of the ability.' A few hours passed, and the sun started to rise. Suddenly, Xiaorong grabbed Shu Yang's attention by nudging his cheek. Shu Yang looked at her, and she tilted her head.

'What does she mean?' Xiaorong seemed to be able to sense people's presences a lot earlier than Shu Yang and Shen Ye could, so she would warn Shu Yang whenever they were about to encounter someone. This past week, they had already avoided three legions of the Empire's people thanks to her early warnings. Shu Yang thought something similar was happening again, but the way Xiaorong looked at him made him think it was different this time around.

'It would be a lot easier if she could speak.'

"Are there people up ahead?" Shu Yang asked in a low voice, making sure Shen Ye couldn't hear him. Xiaorong nudged his cheek in a way Shu Yang took as confirmation. He could be wrong, though.

"Is it not very many of them this time? Not very dangerous?" Shu Yang asked. Xiaorong once again nudged his cheek in response.

'This is ridiculous. I wonder if beasts start understanding human language as they advance.'

'I really hope they do.'

"Shen Ye," Shu Yang called out, making Shen Ye stop and turn to look at him.

"I think there might be people up ahead."

"Alright," Shen Ye nodded, already used to Shu Yang's keen senses, "Let's go around."

"I don't think it's an army moving," Shu Yang said.

"It's probably a smaller group. It might be our people. Do you want to go take a look?"

"We should. They might have useful information," Shen Ye agreed. So the two of them slowed their pace and made their way forward, constantly on the lookout for enemies. Fortunately, there were no surprises, and Shu Yang seemed to have guessed Xiaorong's intentions correctly. They found a small group of martial warriors moving together, heading south. They looked battle-worn and tired, but still carried on.

"Our people," Shen Ye said to Shu Yang in a low voice.

"Let's ask them where they're coming from?" Shu Yang suggested.

"Let's," Shen Ye agreed. They jumped out from their cover and made themselves known to the group of soldiers. The soldiers all jumped back in fright at the sight of them, unsheathing their swords.

"Don't worry. I'm Master Shen, and this is Master Shu," Shen Ye said in a calm and commanding tone of voice.

"We're not your enemies; we are from the Yan Kingdom."

"I…I see. Greetings, Masters." One of the soldiers spoke and then bowed. The men behind him did the same.

"Where are you guys coming from? What happened to make you end up like this all alone?" Shen Ye asked.

"It…it was horrible," The soldier said in a shaky voice, and then went on to explain how their camp had been attacked without warning, with a much larger force than their own.

"The worst part was that our commander actually-" The soldier hesitated for a moment and then finished through gritted teeth, "They abandoned us. We were left to the enemy Master's mercy, slaughtered like pigs. It's a miracle we managed to get away. Luckily, we were far back."

"Who was your commander?" Shen Ye asked with a frown.

"Master She-..." The man seemed to suspect something, but still finished, "It's…Her name is also Master Shen."

'It's actually people from Xiaoshi's army!'

"Tell me exactly what happened," Shen Ye ordered sternly.

"I…I'm not sure. Some sort of battle broke out among the Masters, and I only saw Master Shen run off with a young man on her back. I don't know what happened to the other Masters, but none of them showed up to stop the enemy after that." Shen Ye looked at Shu Yang with a raised eyebrow, "Tianhu?"

"Probably?" Shu Yang said, unsure himself. His son never talked about his relationship with Xiaoshi, so he didn't know how close they were. But from what he knew, Xiaoshi shouldn't be close enough to anyone else to carry them away like that.

"What way did they go?" Shen Ye asked.

"I…I don't know. West…probably?" The soldier answered hesitantly.

"Do you remember any details from the battle that took place among the Masters?" Shen Ye asked.

"I didn't see much. I was close, but not that close. I'm sorry," The soldier said, shaking his head.

"Fine," Shen Ye said, "Thanks for answering. Be careful on your way. The Lishen Empire's people have already entered the kingdom. I'd take off my uniform if I were you." With that, Shen Ye turned and left, and Shu Yang followed.

"What do you think?" Shen Ye asked.

"Immortals attacked. Everyone but Xiaoshi and Tianhu was killed. The two managed to escape, but how far is hard to tell. They might have encountered trouble right after," Shu Yang said. Shen Ye frowned.

"Well, let's go take a look and see if we can find any clues. We shouldn't be far from where the battle took place now."

"Right," Shu Yang nodded. He felt better knowing Tianhu had at least managed to escape the battlefield. The risk of being captured was slightly lower now.

'But why was he carried away? Was he injured?'

'I hope it's nothing serious.'