Fire ‘n’ Blood - Chapter 2 Awakening

The instant Inferno’s soul had merged with Alex; there was an alarming change in Alex’s soul. The usual size of the soul of a normal human being is hardly the same as a grip. But as soon as Infernos soul and Alex merged, the soul of Alex started to rapidly expand.

Even after losing his consciousness Alex was screaming in pain and sweating buckets. The rapidly expanding soul was already getting larger than his body, thus Inferno used last of spiritual strength and helped to compress the soul which was expanding. This unknowingly helped Alex a lot, a rapidly expanding then compressing soul means that his soul was very dense and powerful and in future, this would be helpful after he reaches the Immortal Realm.

When the merging process of Inferno and Alex’s soul was complete and the necessary memories that Alex would need were released to him from the sealed portion, then Alex slowly started to wake up.

The instant Alex woke up, he could feel drastic improvements in his Soul but that did not change the fact that he still could not cultivate. The memories that were given to him by Inferno contained the procedure for the next steps which he has to follow; yes the soul merging was only one of the steps.

Both his hands contained something special, one had a jade bottle which contained Inferno’s essence blood while the other had a small black pearl-like thing which Alex knew was the Spiritual Core of Inferno.

As per the memories he had to first use the essence blood, he has to drink it and the essence blood will start to change his blood to the blood of a dragon whereby there will be some genetic mutations done to his body, his genes will have to go through multiple evolutions to cope with the strength of the dragon’s blood.

Alex did not waste any more time, he directly opened the jade bottle and gulped the essence blood immediately. The effect was what he had expected, his body started to burn from the inside. A dragon’s blood could never be separated from the essence of fire. Both started to rampage in his body.

He was attacked with pain but instead of screaming this time, he sat down in the lotus position and started to bear the pain to the best of his capability.

His body had started to undergo evolution. The blood had silently entered inside his heart, where the blood started to refine his heart and pump out more draconian blood in his bloodstream along with clearing his blocked meridians.

Dragon’s blood was very powerful and the little meridians that were blocked from birth would easily open up and expand beyond normal humans. His whole body was also evolving while the blood changed.

Each of his muscles, organs and the whole body started undergoing intense expansion and compression which started to tone his body while strength filled his every cell. This process had helped Alex to undergo Foundation Establishment realm of cultivation without even cultivating.

At foundation Establishment the body usually undergoes severe changes where the realm starts with body toning being level 1 then in subsequent levels it evolved the skin, the muscles, the bones, the bone marrow, the organs, the heart, the meridians were expanded, and finally the Dantain is strengthened finally having 9 levels in full.

But now due to the dragon’s essence blood, Alex was undergoing a more intense evolution in all these categories. His body was toned beyond any human while hardening the skin. His muscles were more flexible and contained immense natural strength.

His bones were like steel and his bone marrow was evolved beyond human levels. The organs and his heart were incomparable to humans as they had evolved to accept the dragon’s blood which was more violent in nature.

Even his meridians were more strong and had expanded more than what humans are capable of in their initial levels. He had evolved into a totally different man now. Due to the genetic mutations, there was even slight cruelty which could be seen in his eyes, this was the beastly instinct which he inherited from Inferno and was instilled in his soul.

He knew this was the perfect time to use the spiritual core of Inferno. Absorbing the core was easier as he just needed to bring it to contact with the space between his eyebrows and it would be absorbed. He did so and immediately it was absorbed but with this Alex had fainted instead.

*

Outside the cave and above the Lake, it was a different scene altogether where many people were currently fighting. One side consisted of over thirty people while another side was only three people who were shadily dressed. They were fighting and the shady guys though fewer in number were winning somehow.

But suddenly the sky started to darken, intense black clouds started to form above the lake. Everyone below were frightened, all saw a sight that instilled fear among them. The clouds were gathering thunder which was concentrated in one place. This thunder was so huge that they instinctively knew that if it fell on the ground and they were still within the perimeter then all of them will die.

Fearing death they all fled. While the thunder which was actually the heavenly tribulation which was forming and slowly but with full momentum fell down towards the lake.

But at that moment a spectral dragon came out of the lake and stood in front of the thunder. It was an image of a humongous dragon, and the body was larger than the whole lake.

The dragon looked towards the lake and thought – Little one, I am taking this tribulation for you, but this is the only one I can help you with, after this I will totally dissipate. I hope that you would be able to fulfill the contract and will grow to become great someday.

Infernos eyes though spectral but still showed an expression of longing, hope and most importantly sacrifice, the kind which is usually done only for family members.

After this, he roared towards the heavenly tribulation which struck him at that instance with a power to destroy even the heavens. A blinding light enveloped the surroundings and when the light faded away, there was only tranquility even the black clouds had gone away. No one could ever believe that a crisis had ever arrived at this place.

*

When the disturbances passed outside the lake, Alex was still unconscious in the cave. His body and soul both were absorbing everything that was provided to it. His body had blood that was boiling like magma and his body had evolved to become more sturdy and powerful like a beast.

After the genetic mutation of Alex was completed, his body and soul started to integrate everything that was gained and form a unique balance. When the whole process had completed a mystical aura started to radiate out of Alex’s body.

The Aura was growing stronger and stronger and the moment when he woke up was when he could not control himself any longer and he shouted out of fury.

“Rooaaaar”

But instead of a normal shout, the sound was like the roar of an ancient dragon that had woken up from his slumber. The power of the roar was terrifying and it started to shake the cave and its surroundings too. Alex did not have the knowledge of what was happening outside, but he could expect that it was not worse than this.

Alex started to check out his body and found that most of his features were similar to before the contract but his features had now intensified with his aura. He could also feel his body’s strength was many times more now.

He also felt that he had already reached the peak of Foundation Establishment without even cultivating. This was something which was an added gift of the dragon’s blood.

The memories he had received had also provided him a cultivation art known as Sacred Fire Art. This Art could not be cultivated by humans but now that Alex had dragon blood flowing through him, he could easily start cultivating it.

To reach the next major realm, he had to sense Qi and convert the already present Qi inside his body as per the cultivation manual. He did the same and found that within an hour he had cleared the first four levels of Qi Conversion. His breakthroughs had become easy and he was cultivating too fast, he felt that he had become a genius now.

He thought he should use this chance to cultivate faster for now and then he will go to the nearby forest which has fierce beasts to learn how to control his new found strength. Without the control of his strength, he would not be of any use in dangerous situations.

He continued for more than five hours and had finally broken through all 9 levels of Qi Conversion to step into the Qi Condensation Realm. After breaking through he decided to stop, for now, it was not good if he broke through too much without proper control of his strength.

He got himself out of the cave through the well like structure that was inside the cave and found that the Lake was exceptionally calm. He had been inside the Lake for the whole day and it was already night when he came out. Without wasting any more time he started towards the Ross family’s quarters in Nilfer Village.

*

Nilfer Village.

Ross Family Quarters.

A large group of people was currently kneeling down in front of a middle-aged man who was both handsome and looked strong with the aura of an expert. He was Alex’s father Aaron Ross and the next in line to become the family head. He was sitting with a pale face while panting and sweating.

He had just arrived and found the situation; he was aggrieved and could not do anything. His son Alex was incapable of cultivating, but he was still his son and which parent does not love his children dearly.

He was the same and even though his heart hurt when he sent Alex here, still, with immense pain, he had taken this decision. But today morning he was immediately called here, but he was late to arrive and what does he find that his dear son was attacked and now was missing.

This had truly aggrieved him and though he was tearing up in his eyes, there was a fury deeply hidden in his eyes. He would surely take revenge for his son’s murder. But the problem was Alex’s mom, what answer should he give to her?

He was not even able to say anything to the guards that were currently kneeling in front of him. They had also lost quite a few guards after the mornings indecent, and though they were all cultivators at the peak of Qi Condensation according to them the attackers were professional assassins at the Core Formation realm.

This also angered him, which of their enemies would resort to attacking a person who could not even cultivate that too using Core formation realm cultivator. His anger and sadness left him pale and furious at the same time.

He was still in a daze when he heard a commotion outside the quarters, a frown emerged on his face and he asked one of his subordinates that were outside “What is it Rufus, did something happen?”

“Sire, you got to come out. Sire, it is important, please” answered a voice from outside while a tremble could be noticed from the voice.