Legacy of Hatred-Chapter 147: Lineage

The connection with the Ancestral Beast had already hinted at the fact that the matter was huge. The Mutated Battlefield’s unnatural magical beasts had even pointed toward nightmarish reasons.

However, Liam felt that everything he had seen surpassed his wildest imagination, expanding his idea of the world in ways that he didn’t think possible.

The subject of laboratories had come up during the Alchemy Elder’s lessons. Liam’s far tidier cave had been the result of those teachings, but they had also involved broader, more general aspects.

So, Liam knew what that hidden chamber was. It was a lab for what looked like human experiments, which was somehow the nicest side of the whole matter.

The five carvings on the broken containers depicted something every child in the Dragon Kingdom could recognize when inspected together. After all, they belonged to the fairy tale everyone knew so well that Liam couldn’t help but list their names in his mind.

’The Qilin of Abundance,’ Liam thought in the same order as the containers, ’The Turtle of Wisdom, the Ape of Might, the Phoenix of Passion, and the Wolf of Bonds.’

For some reason, the containers carried the brands of five of the seven Ancestral Beasts, separating them, only lacking the Snake of Hatred and Dragon of Perfection.

The absence of the two creatures behind the legendary battle among Ancestral Beasts didn’t seem to be random, either. After all, the Dragon’s son ruled the Kingdom, and he was hunting the Snake’s son, making the latter’s bloodline forbidden.

Liam also knew that the sons and daughters of the Ancestral Beasts were far from common. Everyone carried their blood, but those heirs were so rare that the cultivation world’s classifications lacked a title for their status.

According to Liam’s studies, there were three levels of lineage to the Ancestral Beasts: Common, illegitimate, and direct. The sons and daughters would be the fourth, but cultivators hadn’t invented the title since it would only fit the Dragon King, at least publicly.

Those levels came with innate benefits in talent, physical prowess, and heightened abilities connected to the specific bloodline. Yet, they weren’t mainstream as a power classification since the spiritual roots and the various stages made for far more accurate divisions.

However, Liam used that classification to find answers to what he had just witnessed. Those containers were clearly meant for blood, but they were too big for the true sons and daughters to fill. They probably weren’t even around to do that.

So, Liam guessed that the blood had to come from lesser descendants, maybe refined to the point of matching the true sons and daughters. He wouldn’t have smelled the kinship otherwise.

As for what purpose, the Ancestral Snake, the twisted corpses, and the unnatural magical beasts made it easy for Liam to find an answer.

’Devoured by their greed,’ Liam repeated the Snake’s words in his mind. ’Our power.’

As impossible as it sounded, the nightmarish lab’s purpose was to harness the Ancestral Bloodlines. However, something had probably gone wrong, creating the Mutated Battlefield as everyone knew it.

And Liam could understand why people would seek the power those legendary bloodlines carried. He even had plenty of examples that went beyond his divine talent.

The Dragon King was literally the leader of a Kingdom that carried his name, making the topic self-explanatory.

Crazy Uncle had been able to read the future, which was something more miraculous than the cultivation world as a whole.

Instead, Liam’s physical strength could match foundation experts when they relied on the circulation technique. His core’s affinity was also so great that something meant to brainwash him had ended up aiding his cultivation.

There clearly was power to be found in those bloodlines. Liam simply couldn’t understand the Church of the Man’s role in all that.

For once, Liam believed the Church had to possess some versions of those legendary bloodlines. He wasn’t completely sure, but that trapdoor had most likely opened due to his unique blood.

The Church had set up the key that way, meaning that it possessed the blood to open it.

Liam’s dragon mark itched as his thoughts moved to the next point, prompting him to scratch it with the back of his hand.

The Church of the Man was no Demonic Sect. It existed in the open and was famous in the Kingdom. Allegedly, the Dragon King also allowed its existence and let it be apolitical.

Nevertheless, Liam found that hard to believe now.

It would have been different if the Church operated like the Divine Cult, hiding from the world to conduct illegal businesses and pursue treasonous goals.

Yet, the fact that the Church was a renowned and flourishing organization hinted at approval rather than mere disregard of its existence.

The Dragon King had launched the kingdom-wide Bloodline Screening to flush out the son of the Snake. Liam had to believe that the King would have crushed an organization messing with ancestral bloodlines.

It was even more unbelievable that the King was unaware of those experiments when it came to such a public organization. After all, if Liam had been able to discover that, someone far greater than him would have, too.

So, Liam could only find a single possible explanation. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

’The Dragon King approves these experiments,’ Liam considered. ’He might even support them.’

The reason for that escaped Liam’s mind. He could guess, but he didn’t know enough to come up with anything remotely solid.

Moreover, the Dragon King was too much of a distant figure for Liam to try to understand his reasons. Actually, the whole topic was. A foundation expert like Liam couldn’t possibly have the means, experience, and knowledge to make sense of that gargantuan matter.

’So, is the Church of the Man doing some shady bidding for the Dragon King?’ Liam half-concluded. ’Though the name is a bit odd.’

It sounded contradictory for an organization with such a name to want to twist men with the ancestral bloodlines. It was so unfitting that it almost felt it had been chosen on purpose.

Still, once again, Liam refused to jump to conclusions, only opting for a new but instantly great wariness of the Church of the Man. As things stood, that organization looked to be far more dangerous than the Guilds.

Actually, Liam almost found the Church worse than the Divine Cult due to the Ancestral Beasts’ involvement. Despite all the cruel, dark acts, at least the Divine Cult opposed the Kingdom.

But Liam spared the matter another thought, inevitably thinking of one of the dearest people in his life, who was probably part of the Church of the Man at that exact moment.

’Will Adrian be fine?’ Liam wondered. ’Nothing happened to Cyrus, so he will stay away from this mess, right?’