[A.B.P.P.E.] Bk 2 - Chapter 76 - Distracted by Brilliance

Da Ruis looked back toward the camp where the majority of the Hu Clan currently rested. Fraternizing with lesser beings that would not have been worthy of kissing his boots as an outer court member of such a prestigious clan, much less act high and mighty before the single most powerful being on this dump of a world. The Patriarch was eccentric in ways that no one could understand. 

Which fit the bill. 

All ancient, extremely dangerous beings were oddly quirky. 

Da Ruis was only thankful that strangeness had not been in the direction of torturing poor ghost spirits they found wandering battlefields and kidnapping potential disciples to forcefully inherit his almost dead legacy. His desperation was one born from the desire to continue the ancient legacy of his beloved Hidden Lotus Hall. It was his sole reason for still being alive when he should have died nearly four millennia ago. 

Old promises and oaths weighed heavily upon his unbefitting shoulders as the last member of the Hidden Lotus Hall that was still alive. 

An ancient battle hall that had slowly dissipated as time passed. 

Not that they were ever conquered or defeated, but rather they had eroded away without ever noticing. Their students fat, weak, and greedy. Newer generations of elders and most glorious of potentials were corrupted by their base desires without their oldest ancestors there to watch over carefully. Even he had missed the festering contaminations until it had been too late. 

A mistake he would never allow again. 

Da Ruis looked back toward the caravan and at the party, as the Patriarch called them. 

Yin Hu shifted once more in a chair he clearly hated. Jun and Shui, the two brightest stars of potential within this damnable world. Not that they were the most blinding he had ever seen. None were close to Da MoLeng, the white haired saintess of his Hidden Lotus Hall. 

Da Ruis tore his gaze from the girls as flashes of remembrances assaulted him.  

Memory he had made a concerted effort to forget. 

The white, long hair, the head of a once joyful face filled with happiness and smiles spiked upon a battle spear by members of her own. 

Fuck! Not again! I refuse to remember!

Da Ruis fell to his knees, hands grabbing his head as a strange pain lanced throughout his entire being but originated in his mind. Pulsing with every fake heartbeat that copied his old physical body he had discarded. He knew this was nothing but a bout of regret that would pass in a few seconds. He just needed to tide the storm. And tide the storm he did.

It took a few minutes of agonizing torture before it receded and was locked back into the recess of his mind. 

These remembrances were a curse of his physical form, the same one he had abandoned so long ago to find a pure generation for the Hidden Lotus Hall’s Legacy. He had gotten too close with the way he had been blessed to absorb the Void Qi and create an Inheritance Instance that would last longer than even his existence hopefully. A Sparring Instance as the Patriarch called it. 

He made another mental note to ask for permission to impress it upon the crystalized power source they discovered in the Ancient Vault Yin Hu had somehow shattered. Defenses that should have been impossible to breach, breaking like pitiful glass at nothing but a touch. 

Da Ruis shook his head. 

His mind had begun to stray more often as well–

An old man jumped out of the trees and into the clearing. One of the two powerful beings connected with the Merchant Clan they had hitched themselves to. Chan Vu or Shen Yuo, something along those lines. 

Nothing but a Foundation Establishment whelp with a half ruined core that didn’t even know he had only seven years to live unless he solved his problem. 

Probably used corrupted or half finished technique manuals to cultivate and now he’ll suffer for it.

The old man searched the small clearing Da Ruis was currently in, unable to find the old ghost. He pulled his blade out and began cutting back and forth for a few minutes. Only to look confused after he discovered nothing of note in the darkness.

Huh…? His senses aren’t that bad at all. 

Da Ruis floated around the old man and studied him well. Wondering how he had figured that something was wrong in this area specifically. It should not have been possible considering the preparations Da Ruis had taken already. Illusion arrays, presence dampening, presence distortion, presence vanishing, and a dozen other techniques just in case someone of note actually ended up in the general area. 

Which he had fully expected when he remembered how the past few months had gone. 

From getting caught by Yin Hu, to the bunny cultivators, all the way to the nightmare fuel manor the entire party had almost stumbled into if not for the Patriarch's protection. He shivered as he recalled just how close he had gotten to dying truthfully. It would not have been a kind thing to have his soul ripped out from his Spirit Form.

He checked the old man’s Spiritual Roots this time, searching for reasoning to the impossibility he saw.

Ah. I see. I see.

The old man had a high enough potential bloodline. One he had seen before in weaker cultivation worlds that had a proper grading of a B+ by the system administrators. Well, B+ had it not had such horrible side effects to having it. The Death Scarab Bloodline gave even their Initiates intuition of someone stronger than even Sir Rong who was third to him and the Patriarch only. 

The negative?

Members of the Death Scarab Bloodline were capped at two hundred and seventy three to two hundred and ninety nine years of life. Nothing could change it either. 

They could become True Sages by the time they reached two hundred and ninety eight and would still die that following year. 

It made cultivating pointless and their bloodline to run very thin.

So thin that they were often found in the worst trash planets that weren’t worth even visiting. 

Just like this one–

Da Ruis blinked as his gaze shifted around him as his gaze searched for potential. Even from a distance he could see burning stars that shone nearly as bright as the Hu Girls’. Bloodlines that had not existed on this planet just a month ago. Types that should have been impossible unless they used up every iota of Qi and destiny into a single child. Which was impossible unless someone intentionally tried it. 

Yet, here he was, staring at atleast four burning stars that pulsed with more potential than should be possible. 

Not a single one is above the Qi Initiate level? What the hell is going on?

Da Ruis didn’t even notice Shan Yue vanishing from before him and reappearing on top of a certain cage within the camp, the boiling tension, and the subsequent battle that took place as he drifted off toward the bright lights of impossible bloodlines in a world that was absolutely pathetic based on his own centuries and millennia of searching. Wondering if he had missed something important during his initial searches and how none of it would directly benefit his Hidden Lotus Hall, but rather the immutable Hu Clan led by its namesake; Yin Hu.

He didn’t even notice a certain White Furred Demon with red eyes and massive fangs watching from the distance. This time around its eyes lacked the same savage predatory gaze. Intelligence shone radiant as it tilted its head at his antics, Shan Yue’s random blade swinging, and the battle that took place in the camp. 

It looked back and forth between who to follow, before it decided to rush after a certain floating ghost looking for potential members to induct into his Hidden Lotus Hall.