KRRGHHH!!

The Serpent woman coughed a mouthful of blood as her eyes widened in terror. She hurriedly shook her head, as if asking for mercy.

But, the coldness in Emperal’s eyes didn’t leave any room for mercy. His eyes shifted to the spot where the wolf-kin had once been standing.

"Sigh...I have nearly depleted all my Verth just to kill that man and subdue this woman. There’s no way I can catch up to the man."

That was just the beginning; there was a war going on a few miles behind him as we speak. He couldn’t afford to give any more time to these... plebeians.

"Alright, then. What should I do with you?" Emperal spoke as he looked at the trembling woman in his grip.

There were two options: either to kill her or...turn her into his spy in the mainland. Yes, the second one was impossible...unless.

"Swear on your Spirit Root to serve me eternally, that is the only way to escape your death."

One of the most heinous things about the Spirit Root was that the user could use it to swear or form oaths.

This loathsome thing, however, was limited only to the beasts. They had the special or cursed ability to swear an oath.

That, however, came with its own set of risks.

The Serpent Blood further trembled as she heard his words; her mind turned into a mess as she processed his words.

This was no different than accepting being Emperal’s slave! He could control her through this oath.

But the cold grip reminded her of her current reality. For a second, she closed her eyes. Weighing the pros and cons.

And no matter how the cons piled up, they ultimately could not beat the fear of death itself. It was an innate instinct present in every living being.

Opening her eyes, she reluctantly nodded. Emperal’s smile widened when he heard this. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Good choice"

He loosened his grip, causing the Serpent woman to fall onto the hard ground.

"Hssshrgs Hssisss hsghssh"

She attempted to speak, but only a set of gurgles and non-understandable gibberish echoed.

"You can fix it from a local Alchemist. I have only destroyed one of the vocal folds. In case you screamed using that loathsome blood of yours."

Emperal’s cold words snapped her head back up to him. She lowered her gaze and gritted her teeth.

"Now, let’s begin."

Saying that, he cut his finger. Allowing a drop of blood to escape. The Serpent woman’s breath got stuck in her throat as she watched the drop of blood.

It was deep crimson, tinted with bright silver. It was magical to say the least.

Taking a deep breath, she too followed his actions and gathered a drop of blood in her palm.

Her blood floated towards Emperal’s drop of blood, which was hovering arrogantly off the ground.

"With my Spirit Root as the witness, I, Emperal, therefore declare your eternal servitude towards your master, that is, me. Do you accept it?"

She looked at him for a few seconds and...finally nodded. Her eyes were filled with regret as she looked at the light which shone in between her and Emperal’s blood.

In the next second, her drop of blood shot straight towards Emperal’s chest and merged inside!

The moment that happened, she felt an invisible chain wrap around her Spirit Root. She closed her eyes as a heavy feeling of suppression washed over her.

"Alright, it is done. Now go, your first job is to kill that wolf and report back to me."

Saying that, he turned around and walked towards the neutral zone. Without even looking back.

The Serpent woman gritted her teeth in hatred when she saw this, but there was no other way. Clutching her neck, she slowly stood up and started walking towards the path where the wolf had run to.

...

"Hmm, that went more smoothly than I expected. Thank goodness her bloodline purity wasn’t that high, or else there was no way I could bind her."

Emperal muttered as he popped a Verth restoration pill in his mouth. Obviously, the oath wasn’t omniscient. If that were the case, the creatures of the Myriad Beast Alliance would have long been chained and used as slaves by other races.

It heavily depended on purity, and bloodline purity is not simply how much beast blood someone carries. It is the degree to which blood has retained its original nature across generations.

That is, how close the living creature is to the primordial beasts that the lineage they descend from. Purity of the bloodline is as important in beasts as ingenuity is in humans.

It determined three things simultaneously: what abilities a creature can access, how powerfully those abilities can be expressed, and the most significant of them all is oath.

The bloodline purity is classified into five different levels.

The first one, Diluted. This is the most common bloodline in Draventhar. The bloodline that got mixed across so many generations that the original beast nature is barely legible.

The second is a common bloodline. Only two to four innate abilities are accessible through the common bloodline, whereas it was one or more rarer—two for the diluted ones. Truly a bunch of unlucky motherf—beasts.

The third one, Noble bloodline. This is where the real power comes in. The bloodline that carries enough original beast nature to provide a genuine and useful combat advantage independent of cultivation.

On the same level of cultivation, if one of the beasts possesses a Noble bloodline, then it goes without saying that...he will win.

The entire biology itself changes here. Including partial beast transformation.

Now, the fourth, the Royal bloodline—the apex predator. The bloodline stops being a social distinction and steps into the realm of physical reality; the abilities and powers these bloodline bearers have are unimaginable or fundamentally high, to say the least.

Only three of the races have their own Royal Bloodline beast. Namely, the dragons, the phoenix, and the Titans.

These bearers are hailed as geniuses of the centuries and have a non-negligible high-tier Spirit Root. This makes their existence beyond the norm.

"This oath system, fortunately, only works on Common and Diluted beasts, or else there would be chaos all over Draventhar. Heh, it’s really hard to imagine Vraelyn swearing an oath."

Emperal chuckled as he finally entered the neutral zone, the moment he did. A chill ran down his spine.

"What in the hell...?"