Chapter Three

The Gaze of Fate

“Hervolt Dread, a talent of six candles!” Senbo announced with pride.

“Congratulations! The pure Hervolt blood has triumphed over the heavens and proven its worth!”

“As expected from the lineage of the clan chief!”

“All of his children have etched their names in the clan’s history as great mages, and now his youngest son joins them.”

“Look, his twin has started the ceremony.”

After Dread exited the blood pool and was escorted by two guards to wash himself, the elder called his twin brother Hervolt Drada, who appeared less enthusiastic and more composed.

Amidst the whispers of the Hervolt family among the clan elders, Drada had already reached the middle of the blood pool, extinguishing five candles.

“Hervolt Drada, five candles!” Senbo announced calmly, and immediately the clan elders continued their praise and flattery towards Chief Shiasu.

After all, having many young mages in the family was better than possessing wealth, and building relations with such families was the goal of every mage not belonging to them.

The rest of the Hervolt family passed through smoothly, with six of the youths being pathless while the majority were mages with talents ranging between two to four candles, with Dread being the highest and Drada immediately behind him in rank.

“The Hervolt family remains steadfast against the world as usual. Chief Shiasu is certainly very fortunate, but this means the balance of power between the families is slowly shifting,” thought Nyoska as the ceremony continued with the Anira family.

Except for her daughter Lyssa, who had shown great talent since childhood, Nyoska didn’t care much about the other candidates.

Having a talented family member was indeed something to rejoice about, but it didn’t compare to having that person be your own child.

Under Lady Alice’s orders, who spoke in a gentle voice, Lyssa walked calmly as if heading to a wedding and entered the pool with her right foot.

Instantly, three candles extinguished, leaving an astonished impression on the faces of the spectators.

She then proceeded to walk to the center of the pool, with the number of remaining candles unchanged.

“Anira Lyssa, seven candles!” Senbo announced with enthusiasm, declaring that what the attendees were witnessing was no illusion.

It was rare to possess a talent of six candles, and seven candles were even rarer, with the clan having only a few.

Despite the encouragement and applause, Lyssa showed only a small smile, though she was secretly trying to hide her pride at surpassing Dread.

The rest of the Anira family fared reasonably well, with none being pathless.

The least talented had one candle and the best had four candles, but only Lyssa balanced the scales with the Hervolt family.

The remaining family was the Geist family, which was secretly the focus of everyone's attention.

After all, the Geist family had founded the clan since ancient times, while the Hervolt and Anira families were smaller clans absorbed under the wing of the great Geist clan.

To maintain this arrangement, the Geist family had to always be the strongest, and talents like Lyssa and Dread were more of a threat to that order than support.

Simply put, It was impossible to trust a being capable of killing you whenever they wanted just because they carried a sign saying they wouldn’t do so.

Lying was something everyone could do, and as much as breaking promises was detestable, who would be bothered if the promise-breaker could beat anyone who opposed them? Laws were made by the strong not to protect the weak, but to protect themselves.

Geist family was simply held by Annalise alone all these years, and when she meet her time who knows what will happen to the clan.

Stolz began leading the children, and the process went too smoothly. Just simple talents barely surpassed the third candle, with a limited few reaching the fourth, and five pathless individuals were expelled from the hall.

All this occurred while Annalise gazed with disappointment at the family she personally raised, feeling as if an invisible hand was squeezing her heart, and after what felt like an eternity to her, the ceremony concluded for the direct descendants.

.............

"Seems like this is our signal. Move all of you!" the guard shouted to the orphans sitting in a filthy waiting room, where the sound of rats could be heard as he lit a small fire.

Once the area was illuminated, Sero, Risa, and Li Xian were seen in their mana absorption positions, while Jinta devoured a rat as if it were corn on the cob.

Despite the guard’s disgusted look, he was more concerned with the situation. To him, no matter how much you try to teach dogs table manners, they will still eat like dogs when extremely hungry.

He even felt a pang of hunger hearing the rat's flesh being chewed by Jinta, who threw the remains after hearing the guard’s call.

Following this, Sero, the two girls, and a few other orphans, barely more than half of the original number, were led away.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

The rest? Who cared? Neither Sero, Jinta, nor the guards did. They saw those who wished for death and refused to fight for their lives as less valuable than insects since at least insects wouldn’t accept being crushed without a fight.

They were led to a well-lit room where the remaining guards and a significant number of children were gathered.

Most of these were war prisoners, orphans of mages, or children of the shady actions of important figures in the clan. Like Sero, their ceremony was their way to a better life, and they were labeled as the rejected.

The three families had their own gates, but the rejects had a single iron door barely wide enough for an adult.

They had to line up to pass through one by one until they all entered the main cave, where the three clan elders, prominent clan members, and some of the younger members of the families who chose to stay were gathered.

“The rejected have been brought under the orders of Elder Annalise Geist!” the handsome guard announced, clasping his hands.

Disdainful, condescending looks were cast upon him and the rejected behind him, as he, a pathless individual, had the audacity to speak the name of one of the clan elders. However, Annalise didn’t care and raised her hand, signaling him to begin. The guard then took out a scroll and began reading.

“The first candidate is Liu Jinta, a thief from the Liu clan known for his love of steeling from the high class, to the extent that a second-path mage had to intervene to capture him. He was then sold at a slave market and purchased by Elder Ji, who thought he would be a useful assassin for the clan," the guard said, then he turned toward Jinta.

"Please step forward and enter the blood pool,” the guard said calmly. Suddenly, Jinta dashed past him and leaped into the blood pool as if it were an empty swimming pool, extinguishing all the candles.

A display like that would usually result in immediate execution, but as soon as Jinta’s head emerged from the blood pool, one candle was lit.

“Liu Jinta, one candle!” Sinbo declared, leaving a bitter impression on the rest of the young mages. The thought of a dirty thief studying alongside them made some want to vomit, but rejecting such a free talent would be wasteful.

“Next, Jiu Li Xian, a child from the Jiu clan whose parents sold her due to poverty was bought by Lady Alice out of pity. Please step forward to the blood pool,” the guard said calmly.

Li Xian, nearly naked with her slender legs revealing skin as white as snow covered in dirt, was the center of attention not for her body but for her potential.

Trembling like a leaf in autumn, she glanced toward Risa and Sero as she took a few steps.

Once fully in the pool, all the candles went out, and so did the hopes of some of the clan members.

Yet, remembering Sero’s advice she began to try absorbing mana from the blood pool.

One candle…

Two candles…

three candles…

And then she stopped.

"Jiu Li Xian, three candles," Sinbo declared with a dry voice.

Cold sweat dripped from Li Xian's body, showing signs of severe exhaustion, but through it all, she smiled for the first time in her life.

She became a mage with a three-candle talent, and she walked out of the blood pool with a grace that made it seem as if her skin was too pure to be touched by the pool’s blood.

“White hair and captivating beauty—those are traits of a mage from the start.”

“Of course, she’s a mage. Do you think Lady Alice would choose a pathless person?”

The young members of the clan whispered among themselves as they watched Li Xian approach Sero and whisper quietly, “Thank you for saving my life,” before standing silently by his side.

Sero glanced sideways with lazy eyes and said nothing.

“Next, Risa Geist—” the handsome guard began, but before he could continue, Annalise raised her hand and gestured for him to proceed without further introduction.

For her, both Sero and Risa were a blemish on the Geist family’s history.

Risa, looking irritated, stepped towards the pool and extinguished all the candles as she walked through it with a confident face, her eyes locked on her brother’s.

When she reached the center and began absorbing mana as Sero had taught her, she closed her eyes.

“For my mother, who was insulted; for my poor father, who was punished for falling in love; for my brother, who persevered and risked attacking the caretaker who abused us!” Risa chanted in her mind, listening to the gasps of amazement from the crowd until a powerful constriction in her heart made her lose focus and open her eyes.

She looked around—six candles were burning.

“Risa Geist… six candles,” Sinbo announced in a flat voice, which trembled in the silent cavern before the clan elders began to flatter Elder Annalise.

"Just as expected from the offspring of the Geist family! It has completely erased the filthy blood of the pathless one who married one of the great family’s women!"

"Six candles talent! We have another great mage in our clan!"

"Long live the Geist family!"

A few of the clan’s elders spoke with silky voices, trying to seize the opportunity, but Annalise showed no reaction other than a simple smile.

Yet, her gaze was fixed on Sero, who stared ahead in silence, unmoving or even showing any concern.

“That boy has beautiful eyes, blue like mine, but representing a sea of killing and bloodshed. How does an orphan child have such eyes? Was the orphanage secretly a torture house?” Annalise thought calmly and wisely, while Sero laughed in his mind.

“Hehe! This clan uses the blood as a way to awaken the mana realm! A method I, Dark Waters Immortal mastered in my previous life! Its merits include the ease of manipulating mana in related techniques and shards, with the drawback being that it uses the mage's blood. So be it!” Sero thought calmly as he walked towards the blood pool, placing his right foot in it, and extinguishing all the candles.

He didn’t care about that but rather felt happiness.

“This blood pool consists of the blood of the three elders, containing their mana that gets absorbed by the children of the clan. This means that the closer the blood relation, the more mana is absorbed by whoever enters it, and since they are from high paths, it makes these rites more disgusting. It is merely a biased choice for the excellent lineage,” Sero thought with disgust, questioning how a biased test could compare to someone of his level.

But, the will was the essence of life, and mana was the power of beings.

Mana couldn’t be forced to obey a specific group of people, and a few rabble claiming to be elders were below the level of the Immortal of the Black Waters.

“Unfortunately, I can only rely on the knowledge I have and on this weak body, which barely shares a blood bond with this Geist woman. Let the real ceremony begin now!” Sero murmured with a slight laugh as he advanced towards the blood pool.

The mana of the blood pool had been mixed by the clan’s elders who had poured their blood into it over generations, with the common belief that mana transferred with the blood, as mana was the power of beings, and all beings had blood.

Thus, the Geist clan was founded on this principle, using their blood as weapons, and thanks to those techniques, they controlled the mountains separating Lan Grasslands from the rest of the continent.

But that theory was not entirely correct, after several years into the future, mages discovered that mana did not transfer with the blood but rather intersected with its paths.

The reason was the immense concentration of mana within the being itself, giving the illusion of mana splitting with the blood.

Sero was aware of this and had asked his companions to absorb mana through their hearts.

But again, mana couldn’t be forced to obey a specific group of people.

Not even Dark Waters Immortal can make it obey him.

Even with the knowledge of the truth, fate mocked him, leaving him in great shock and doubt as he stared with wide-open eyes at the blood pool beneath him.

He was about to curse everything in a moment, but he automatically smiled, letting the old man’s words pierce his ears like an arrow.

“Sero Geist, one candle talent,” said Sinbo with disappointment, leaving a desperate impression on Analis and shock on Li Xian and Risa.

Even Jinta forgot to breathe upon hearing those words.

"Fate gave me a new life thanks to my will but took my power at a price. I guess life is fair after all," Sero thought in his mind before it went blank, then sighed