Max's eyes glead with interest. "What opportunity?"
The spirit chuckled, but there was a knowing edge to its amusent. "Sadly… I 'can't' tell you."
Max's expression darkened slightly. "Why not?"
The spirit's grin widened. "Because your strength is too weak to even 'participate' in that opportunity."
Max clenched his jaw slightly, but before he could speak, the spirit continued.
"When you reach the peak of Seeker Rank, return to the seventh floor," it said. "Only then will I reveal what awaits you. Until that day… strive to beco stronger."
Max exhaled slowly.
Sothing even beyond an inheritance. Sothing so significant that the spirit itself wouldn't even disclose it to him at his current level.
It only reaffird what he already knew—
'Strength is everything. I guess I have no choice but to wait…' he thought, though the idea of being kept in the dark bothered him.
Shaking those thoughts away, he turned back to the spirit. "So, about the first opportunity—the one where I receive the inheritance of my bloodline. I can get that now, right?"
The spirit nodded. "You can," it confird, raising a spectral hand to point at the pillar in the center of the hall. "Just place your hand on it."
Max turned to look at the pillar.
It was simple, unassuming—just a stone construct with a faint glow surrounding it. But on its surface, right at the center, was a handprint mark.
Without hesitation, Max stepped forward.
His fingers hovered over the mark for a brief second before he pressed his palm against it.
The mont he did—
His bloodline activated automatically.
A surge of power coursed through him, but before he could even process what was happening, his vision shattered like glass.
The world around him was ripped away, consud by absolute darkness.
And then—
He wasn't alone anymore.
Standing in the middle of the void was a dragon.
A massive, overwhelming existence that made everything else insignificant.
Its body stretched into the darkness, its form almost impossible to fully comprehend. But its eyes…
Cold. Empty. Eternal.
Staring into them felt like looking directly into the abyss itself.
Max felt small.
No—he felt like an ant before this creature. A speck of dust in the presence of sothing primordial.
And then—
ROAAARRR!
A deafening roar shook the void, making Max's entire existence tremble.
Before he could react, before he could even think, the dragon lunged forward—
And swallowed him whole.
Gasps!
Max's chest heaved as he took deep, staggering breaths, his mind reeling from what had just happened.
He was back inside the Inheritance Tower, his hand still pressed against the stone pillar. But sothing was wrong.
His body—
It was overflowing with black flas.
Dark, searing fire surged from his skin, coiling around him like a living entity. The sheer heat made the air around him distort, yet he felt no pain. Instead, he felt… power.
Then—
The flas reached their apex.
And in that very instant—
The entire Inheritance Tower began to glow.
But it wasn't black flas that consud it.
It was a gentle white glow—a radiant light that spread from the tower outward, covering the entire City of Dark Heaven.
Outside the Tower…
Every single mber of the Black Lotus Guild—those who possessed the Black Dragon Chaotic Bloodline, a bloodline inherited through the Inheritance Tower—felt it.
One after another, their bodies began to glow, enveloped in the sa soft white radiance.
At first, they were confused.
Then—
Shock.
Fear.
Excitent.
"What's happening?!"
"What's going on?! My bloodline—it's going crazy!"
"Yeah! Mine too! This has never happened before!"
And then—
A sudden realization spread through them all at once.
"Wait… my bloodline— 'it's getting stronger!'"
"Mine too!"
"How is this possible?! How could our bloodline suddenly start evolving?!"
Those with black flas felt their abilities enhancing.
Those with bloodline-based physical enhancents felt their strength and speed skyrocket.
Those with Black Lotus techniques suddenly found their techniques refining themselves, becoming more potent than ever before.
This wasn't just a power-up.
This was a full-scale bloodline evolution.
Sothing that had never happened before in the entire history of the Black Lotus Guild.
And the most terrifying part?
It wasn't just them.
The Old Saintess and Klaus were no exception.
Their bodies, too, were bathed in the sa gentle white glow, a sensation unlike anything they had ever felt before.
Klaus, normally composed, trembled as he felt the changes within him. His Black Dragon Chaotic Bloodline—the sa bloodline he had cultivated for centuries—was undergoing a fundantal transformation.
"This… this is impossible…" he muttered, his voice unsteady. His hands shook, his entire being overwheld by what was happening inside him. "'My bloodline… it's evolving… to the rank of a Saintess…?'"
His breath ca in shallow bursts.
He had lived for so many years, and yet—never had he felt this level of pure, unfiltered shock.
Bloodline evolution had always been considered a myth—a fairy tale whispered among the old scholars, an impossibility in the rigid structure of Acaris's natural laws. Yet, right now—it was happening.
And not just to him.
The Old Saintess closed her eyes briefly, imrsing herself in the sensation of change coursing through her veins. But the mont she fully grasped what was happening—
Her eyes snapped open, widening in sheer disbelief.
"'My bloodline… it's transforming into that of a Progenitor…?'" she muttered.
She took a step back, stunned. Even with her ten thousand years of experience, her knowledge of history, her understanding of bloodlines—
She had never, not once—heard of a phenonon like this.
An evolution of all bloodlines within an entire guild?
Not just one or two individuals, but every single mber experiencing an instantaneous jump to the next level of their bloodline's potential?
It defied everything she had known. Everything she had ever believed possible.
For the first ti in thousands of years, the Old Saintess laughed wryly, shaking her head.
"Originally, we wanted Max to gain the inheritance, so that his power could strengthen the existing bloodline of our guild mbers."
She paused, looking around, seeing the countless glowing figures, the rising energy, the sheer magnitude of what was happening.
"But who would have thought…" she murmured, her voice filled with awe.
"'That Max's bloodline is so strong—so unbelievable—that it wouldn't just strengthen our bloodline…'"
Her lips curled into an incredulous smile.
"'It would evolve every single one of us to the next stage.'"
She let out a breathless laugh.
"If this isn't a miracle…"
She glanced at the tower, still glowing, radiating a power unseen in the history of the Black Lotus Guild.
"Then tell —what is?"
As all of this unfolded outside, Max felt sothing shifting deep within him.
A strange, unexplainable sensation surged through his core, sothing constructing itself inside him.
He instinctively closed his eyes, focusing inward.
And then—
He saw it.
A dragon.
A black dragon, its body imnse and coiling, moving slowly around his golden core—not as a beast, but as a guardian.
The sight sent a wave of understanding through Max's mind. It wasn't just so illusion or manifestation—this dragon was part of him.
And then—
A flood of information poured into his mind.
His bloodline had granted him sothing new—an Inheritance Ability tied directly to his Black Dragon Bloodline.
The na appeared in his thoughts as though it had always been there—
[Dragon Scales Transformation]
The knowledge of its effects was imdiate.
—An ability to coat his body in dragon scales, enhancing his defense and strength to an unimaginable degree.
Max's eyes snapped open.
The black flas around him were still raging, but now, his body felt different.
Stronger.
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