Yarn's heart pounded several times, and it took several deep breaths before he finally managed to calm his emotions.
But his face still held an expression of disbelief.
Just a moment ago, he had suddenly awakened his Bloodline Power, gaining an ability called Blood Flame.
However, his face also showed confusion.
He clearly remembered that when he was in the Kingdom Army, the instructor had said that the Bloodline abilities they activated through Bloodline Stimulation were derived from the Bloodline of the Violent Bear, with primary characteristics tending towards strength and endurance.
The Bloodline ability activated at the first stage was usually either Mania or Hard Skin, and only in extremely rare cases would the ability of Rage be activated.
But these three abilities, no matter how he looked at them, were completely different from this Blood Flame.
"Father?"
A hesitant call roused Yarn, who was deep in thought.
"Let's go!"
Coming back to his senses, Yarn quickly extinguished the flames burning on his body and said, "We can't stay here long."
"But..." Yam looked back at the mountain fire that had begun to rage, his expression hesitant.
Yarn was silent for a few seconds, then looked back at his wife and young son, and finally gritted his teeth: "Go! We must go! We can't save the people on the mountain; the lord wants all of us dead."
With that, he no longer looked at his second son's expression, but turned to pull out the rusty sword still stuck in the knight's chest.
At this moment, because the longsword was no longer held in Yarn's hand, the flames did not burn on the blade, and it once again returned to its rusty appearance.
If Yarn hadn't seen it with his own eyes just now, he really wouldn't have believed how special this sword was.
But when he looked at the knight's body again, his expression suddenly changed drastically.
Most of the knight's body had withered, and most of the blood in his body seemed to have evaporated, making him look shriveled like a dried corpse.
Watching this scene, Yarn was horrified, and his gaze towards the longsword became fearful.
At this moment, even if he were dumber, he would know that this sword was definitely not simple.
What's more, he wasn't a fool.
Yarn thought to himself, 'No, I can't just run away like this; I must cover it up!'
So he quickly drew the sword, but as soon as he gripped the hilt, a flush suddenly appeared on his face.
The large amount of vital essence absorbed from the knight's body suddenly surged into his body, causing his aura to rapidly expand at that moment, and also making him suddenly understand many things.
But at this moment, he couldn't meticulously sort out the knowledge that had suddenly appeared in his mind, so he hurriedly activated his Bloodline ability, directly igniting the knight's corpse with fire, then hastily packed up his strange iron broken blade, and left with his wife and children.
"Father, where do we go next?"
"To Tim..."
Yarn originally wanted to say Tim Village in Red River Territory, but then he suddenly remembered that his Iron Wolf Mercenary Group was actually already on the Gem Territory Baron's list, so this lord must have already found out about their relationship with Tim Village.
Now that a Bloodline Knight had died, this lord would probably go to Tim Village, so Red River Territory was no longer an option.
So Yarn immediately changed his words: "No! We go to White Mountain Territory!"
...
Robin was very disgusted with that knight's Bloodline.
Previously, there was only one drop, and he wasn't quite sure what was going on, but when Yarn plunged the longsword into the opponent's body, as a large amount of vital essence was automatically absorbed by the sword, some fragmented memories and inheritances were also reviewed by Robin.
This knight's Bloodline originated from a monster called the Inferno Hound, which was of low grade and could only be cultivated to the second stage.
According to the knight's incomplete memories, apart from those Bloodline Nobles who possessed high-grade Bloodlines, it was impossible for ordinary people to achieve class transcendence without the efforts of several, or even more than ten, generations.
For example, the Inferno Hound is a second-stage monster, so its Bloodline Power can only allow one to cultivate to the second stage at most.
To further improve one's strength, one either had to evolve the Inferno Hound Bloodline or swallow the Bloodline of stronger monsters to cover it, but both of these could not bypass a key word: Bloodline concentration.
The so-called Bloodline Stimulation training method was actually a method of continuously stimulating the Bloodline concentration within the practitioner's body.
The normal training method is to take specially formulated Bloodline Secret Medicine, and then practice the Bloodline Stimulation method to continuously resonate with the Bloodline Secret Medicine ingested into the body, gradually transforming and strengthening the practitioner's body, until the Bloodline Secret Medicine is completely integrated into the practitioner's body and resonates with the Bloodline Stimulation method, at which point a Bloodline User can be born.
However, not everyone can do it.
Most people can never become a Bloodline User in their entire lives.
Moreover, different Bloodline Secret Medicines have different Bloodline Stimulation methods, and one set of Bloodline Stimulation methods cannot be applied to all Bloodline Secret Medicines.
The Kingdom Army that Yarn once served would provide the Violent Bear's Bloodline Secret Medicine and the corresponding stimulation method, but this Bloodline, specifically used to cultivate warriors, could only cultivate first-stage Bloodline Users.
Therefore, if one wanted to advance to a second-stage Bloodline User, one had to acquire a large amount of military merit and then exchange it with the kingdom for higher-grade Bloodline Secret Medicine and stimulation methods.
This was also how the Kingdom Army controlled its Bloodline Users.
Of course, whether it was the Violent Bear or the Inferno Hound, these were all low-grade Bloodlines that could be mass-produced—this was also why Robin disliked these Bloodlines, even finding them to have a foul smell, because while they were politely called low-grade Bloodlines, to put it bluntly, they were no different from domesticated livestock.
After all, he had seen the genuine Ten Thousand People Bloodline—the Iron Manipulation Technique displayed by that god-slaying Bloodline User back then still amazed Robin.
...
Two men and one woman stood beside a nearly charred corpse, their expressions grim.
"Didn't you say this mercenary group had no Bloodline Users?"
"I checked their mission records for the past two years, and there was indeed no trace of any Bloodline Users," the questioned young man retorted, "I even went to Tim Village in Red River Territory for an in-depth understanding; it's impossible for there to be Bloodline Users."
"Hughes's Bloodline is Ghost Fox; his sense of smell cannot be wrong," the only woman among the three defended the young man.
"So what do you mean?" the middle-aged man, who seemed to be the leader, said in a deep voice.
"I am more inclined to believe there was a Bloodline User from a third party," the middle-aged woman slowly said, "And it was... the devourer."
Hearing that title, the expressions of the other two men, which had been tense, relaxed slightly.
"Indeed," the middle-aged man nodded, "The other party destroyed Berman's body, clearly to cover something up; the possibility of it being the devourer is very high."
"Then how do we report to the Gem Territory Baron?" The middle-aged woman frowned tightly.
"Just tell him directly," the middle-aged man slowly said, "Berman unfortunately encountered the devourer while leading the mission and was killed by him... Given our lord's temperament, he will only ask us to find that devourer and invite him to become a knight under the lord's command."
The middle-aged man's words immediately silenced the other two.
The greed and generosity of the Gem Territory Baron were well known to the surrounding lords.
His greed stemmed from the fact that he would not grant any village within his territory as a fief to his vassals.
His generosity, however, lay in his willingness to provide the best armaments and rewards to his knightly vassals and private soldiers.
Therefore, the death of a first-stage Bloodline Knight might indeed enrage the Gem Territory Baron, as he would be distressed about losing the strange iron blade he provided to Berman, but if he were told that there might be a second-stage or near-second-stage Bloodline User in his territory, he would certainly not care how Berman died, but would instead try to invite the Bloodline User who killed Berman into his family.
"Can you find the person?"
"No way," Hughes shook his head, "Everywhere here is filled with the scent of the Inferno Hound's Bloodline ability after it was activated, which has confused all surrounding scent traces; I can't smell a second scent.
And the other party was very cautious; he immediately deactivated his Bloodline ability after killing Berman and even dispelled other scents.
When I came over just now, I already checked the surroundings carefully; I can't even smell the people who escaped from the mountain anymore."
"Those people must know what happened here; if we can find them..." the middle-aged woman said.
"Hughes, you might have to make a trip to Tim Village," the middle-aged man said in a cold tone.
"Do you think they'll still go to Red River Territory?"
"These lowlifes from the mountain have only been active in Red River Territory these past few years; they are only familiar with the situation there," the middle-aged man replied, "These commoners only rely on things they are familiar with, so if they're not in Tim Village, they must be in one of the other villages in Red River Territory they've visited before."
"And after you get the information?"
"Kill them," the middle-aged man said coldly, "They are bandits identified by the lord."
"I understand," Hughes nodded.
"What about Berman's body?"
"Take it back to his son; after all, we were once colleagues," the middle-aged man shook his head, "Now, it's up to his son whether he can make something of himself... Not all descendants of Bloodline Users will necessarily be Bloodline Users."