Light Fortress
Chapter 490 - 110: Gu Shen and I Felt Like Old Friends at First Sight_2

Chapter 490: Chapter 110: Gu Shen and I Felt Like Old Friends at First Sight_2

Thus... the heads of the five great families kept a low profile, their "strength" deeply embedded in people’s hearts, yet the abilities they possessed, and their true power, gradually receded into the background.

In Bai Xiaochi’s palm, a flickering thread of blood condensed.

He took out a test tube from his bosom and collected the long-frozen blood, whispering softly, "There’s no need to be astonished, ’Bright Shadow’ isn’t some heaven-defying ability... compared to your Thunder Realm Walker, its power is still too frail."

"Is it blood manipulation?"

Bai Xiu crouched down, his hand stroking the thick ice. He couldn’t comprehend how that thread of blood was extracted.

Several days had passed since he left the Frozen Prairie Ice Lake. Given the harsh climate of the Tundra, not a drop of blood, let alone a whole body, could survive a day’s blast without freezing into icy fragments and shattering completely.

"You’ve guessed half right, it’s a small branch of the ’Trait Series’."

Bai Xiaochi tucked the test tube inside his inner robe, not hiding anything, and solemnly said, "The five major families are ancient clans that moved to Changye before the new era... The older generation told me that strange blood flows through the veins of the members of the five families. I am not clear about the other families, but in the Bai Family, as long as one is a legitimate descendant of pure bloodline, there’s a very high chance of awakening one’s Extraordinary Ability."

Bai Xiaochi looked towards Bai Xiu, knowing he was from a distantly related branch of the Bai Family in Jiangbei.

The phrase "bloodline" was always avoided by the Bai Family members in his presence.

But in fact... how could a person who has truly awakened an ’S-Class Ability’ care about so-called lineage?

Bai Xiu’s expression showed little change.

Bai Xiaochi continued, "Among the abilities of the direct descendants of the Bai Family... there is one strange trait attached, and that is ’Reverse Flow’."

Bai Xiu frowned, "Reverse Flow?"

"It is... a trait that defies the common rules of both worlds."

Both worlds, the ordinary world and the extraordinary world.

"You could understand it as... ’time reversal’," Bai Xiaochi stated calmly, "but it’s not as heaven-defying as the literal meaning suggests. ’Time reversal’ cannot affect the material world’s established outcomes, nor can it clash with more powerful principles. For example, things like reviving the dead... if a person truly died, then Reverse Flow couldn’t save them. Moreover, Reverse Flow requires a significant price to be paid."

Bai Xiu’s expression grew increasingly grave.

"The blood extraction just now... used ’Reverse Flow.’ In fact, extracting that thread of blood was reaching the limit of the ’Bright Shadow’ ability, and... it’s limited to non-living things only," Bai Xiaochi shrugged casually, continuing, "It might be because my bloodline is fairly weak, ever since the last Bai Family Master passed, the power of ’Reverse Flow’ has been greatly diluted. To be able to possess even this thread, I suppose, is a stroke of luck amidst misfortune."

Bai Xiu was somewhat puzzled, "The last Family Master passed, and the ’Reverse Flow’ ability was diluted?"

"This matter... you will eventually come to know," Bai Xiaochi said calmly, "The last Family Master was named Bai Shu... to call him Family Master is actually not accurate. His name is not on the ancestral hall’s memorial tablet, nor in the family records. Although he was designated the ’Family Master’ by the Bai Family, he never truly sat in that position."

"Bai Shu..."

A very unfamiliar name.

Bai Xiu had never heard of it, partly because of his indifference to worldly affairs, and partly because... the Bai Family had never mentioned the last Family Master to the younger generation.

"During the era when Gu Changzhi became the Divine Throne, the Bai Family paid a great price to cultivate ’Bai Shu’... but in the final battle for the ’Seed of Fire,’ Bai Shu failed," Bai Xiaochi said with downcast eyes, "Without the Seed of Fire, everything the family had invested was in vain, the blood of the clan members and the Reverse Flow trait, all focused on him. Although he did not become the Divine Throne, he became the second most prominent person in Changye after Gu Changzhi."

"Bai Shu... chose not to shoulder the burden of revitalizing the family, but instead chose to end his own life."

The story was short.

It had no twists or turns.

Yet, such a story was completely taboo in Bai’s Ancestral Hall... The former Elder Council, those in power who decided to sacrifice blood, retired out of guilt. This kind of gamble was somewhat similar to the Gu family building the ’Qingzhong’ in a do-or-die effort.

The Gu family lost their bet, Gu Changzhi did not awaken, but they managed to create a miraculous place in the end.

The Bai family lost their bet... the Reverse Flow trait in their blood was greatly diluted, and the miraculous person they had created chose suicide.

In a way, the Bai family lost even more terribly.

"This is why the Bai Family has been silent for twenty years, and as its Family Master... what I have to do is quite simple," Bai Xiaochi said with a soft chuckle, "Before the Bai Family welcomes a period of prosperity, I just need to stabilize the situation. I am not an unparalleled genius, nor do I have heaven-defying abilities. All I need to do is steady this family until you all grow up... that will be enough."

By ’you,’ he meant Bai Xiu and Bai Chen.

Bai Xiaochi saw clearly... after the dilution of the blood trait, the Bai Family desperately needed a ’savior’ with strong enough abilities. Unfortunately, that savior was not him.