Tian Shen

Tian Shen was born two million years ago. He was an orphan who was abandoned on an empty road. A man found him and took him home. The man was from a well off Cultivation Family who taught Tian Shen about Cultivation. He was very bad at Cultivation, though. Even after five years, he wasn't able to cultivate,

Since he couldn't cultivate, he couldn't extend his life using Cultivation, but as someone who was scared of death, he didn't wish to have a limited lifespan, so he started trying other ways. The first place he put his mind to was the ancient books and scriptures to gain knowledge and in an effort to find ways to help him," he continued.

"I suppose he found a way to do that," Long Chen let out, seemingly getting a few clues.

"Yeah, he did. When he was fifteen years old, he found a method to help him. Blood Cultivation," Long Tian explained.

"What's Blood Cultivation? I don't think I heard about it," Long Chen muttered.

"It's a very dark method. It basically means, the more people you kill, the more your lifespan increases. For example, if a blood Cultivator kills a mortal who has ten years of his life remaining, the blood Cultivator gets the rest of the old man's life added to his own. It's a very dark yet very powerful method," Long Tian said, sighing.

"Can you guess who the first person he killed was?" He asked.

"The young people he met in school? Or old people who couldn't defend themselves?" Long Chen let out, taking a guess.

"None. The first person he killed was a ten-year-old girl when he was Sixteen. The girl was the real daughter of the man who picked him up and adopted him. He took her life and buried her body, making it seem like she went missing," Long Tian explained.

"What the actual f...! He could've killed so many people, but he killed the Daughter of his benefactor?" Long Chen asked, sighing.

" She was the only real kid of the man. After her, he was the only one left. Even if he couldn't cultivate, the boy received more love and care than before. So it worked out for him," Long Tian muttered.

"What happened after that?"

"After that, things moved slowly. He kept killing people who kept getting buried. He kept killing to get more age while he kept researching to find ways to get stronger, and that's when he killed someone... That changed his life forever..." Long Tian said.

"Who?" Long Chen inquired.

"He killed one of your ancestors who happened to be a mortal who was traveling through his city. Your Ancestor didn't have his bloodline awakened. In fact, no one had been able to Awaken your bloodline since the beginning."

"As Tian Shen killed the man who had this unawakened bloodline, he received a portion of that bloodline. Similarly, the small portion he received wasn't enough for awakening. But it was enough to establish a remote connection between him and the real Bloodline Temple. With that, he gained access to the bloodline temple," Long Tian said.

"Ah, so he didn't receive the bloodline but stole it. What happened after that?" Long Chen inquired.

"Even though he didn't get bloodline through inheritance, his stealing worked the same way. He got entry into the bloodline temple's first floor, which had a few resources. He uses those resources to gain knowledge and get stronger."

"Soon the people of the city found out that he was the one behind the disappearance of kids and old people, they confronted him. His adopted father was with the ones asking questions as well. None of them knew that he was much stronger now. That's when he killed the entire city and left."

"He kept reading the books inside the Bloodline Temple and found a few things about its origin and the mysteries. After he finished going through everything on the first floor, he tried going to the second floor, but as he didn't have a full bloodline but a stolen one, he wasn't allowed to go in," he continued.

Long Chen kept hearing the stories of the past, which he found fascinating. Finally, he had someone who wasn't hiding things from him. He was glad that he got to know so much.

"So he couldn't go upstairs. He already had the resources and knowledge of the first floor. That should have been enough for him to settle down and rule over the populace," Long Chen muttered.

"That should have been enough, but he wasn't satisfied. He didn't think that it was enough. You can call it greed or and thirst to get stronger, but he decided that he needed to go upstairs. That's when he came up with a plan," Long Tian explained.

Long Chen was about to ask what plan, but Long Tian started explaining before he could even ask.

"The plan was to find more people with this bloodline. It was to find the people like your ancestor that had inherited the bloodline. The problem was that he had already killed your ancestor without asking anything. So he didn't know about the family of your ancestor. If he had known, he could have gone and killed them all to increase the density of his bloodline, but he couldn't. Thus he planned something different," Long Tian said.

"He created a fake bloodline temple and a fake bloodline that contained a trace of his own bloodline and spiritual essence. He placed a drop of blood of this bloodline in thousands of rings. He even created Xun as a Guardian Spirit of these thousands of rings. He threw these rings all around the world, in wait of finding the person with the real Bloodline."

"Since he had lost so much blood to do this, he went into a deep sleep that lasted for thousands of years. He had thought that it would be enough time for one or two real heirs to find the ring if he was lucky.

"The rings worked in mysterious ways. Only when the heir touched them did they work. If someone else touched the rings, the rings killed them and devoured them whole."

"Throughout the thousands of years, the rings were found by many, and they devoured many, but the real heir wasn't found," Long Tian said.

"Until I came along? Is that right? Wait, how did Tian Shen get trapped in a mirror then? From what I understood after hearing Xun's thoughts, she needs to use me to get him out of the mirror. How did he get trapped there? Or was it that she was faking it because she knew I was able to read her thoughts?" Long Chen asked, surprised.

"She herself doesn't know it. She was created by him. She still thinks that Tian Shen is the real origin of the bloodline. In her mind, she believes that the fake bloodline temple is the real one. She thought that he made some mistake and got caught in his own creation, which was why he needed an heir who could get stronger and help him get out."

"In reality, Tian Shen is not trapped there. I don't know where he is since he didn't enter the Bloodline Temple from the moment he went to sleep after creating Xun. I'm not even sure if he has awakened or not," Long Tian muttered.

It was all too much for Long Chen to take, but he was still keeping up to it, trying to form a timeline of events in his head.

"Why did Xun need me to get stronger and go to the mirror then? Why isn't that guy coming to kill me already?" he asked.

"It's because he doesn't need to, I believe. That mirror isn't what you think it is. It's a treasure created by him to suck bloodline. As soon as you get strong and touch the mirror, all your blood will be sucked, and you will be left to die. That's the real purpose of the mirror. Tian Shen would be informed of it. He can simply walk in the Fake Bloodline Temple and take the mirror which has all the blood he needs," Long Tian explained.

"As for why he simply doesn't kill you and take your blood now, it is probably because he's unsure. He wants you to get stronger so you can Awaken your actual bloodline completely. That's what he is after. This time, he doesn't want an unawakened bloodline, but a fully awakened one. So the Fake Bloodline Temple is to give you a starting edge," he continued.

"Since Xun doesn't know about the real Bloodline Temple, I guess the one I was going in trials was the fake one? All the rewards I received were from a fake one?" Long Chen asked, sighing.

"The rewards were real. They were the ones that Tian Shen found on the first floor of the Real Bloodline Temple. He just shifted them to the fake one for you," Long Tian said.

"Awakening the bloodline is the toughest job, which is proven by the fact that no one has been able to do it since the time immemorial. One can only enter the real Bloodline Temple after their bloodline is fully Awakened. As Tian Shen was a Variant that stole the bloodline, he got access somehow, but even he couldn't get to the second floor. The real Bloodline inheritors can't enter without awakening a full hundred percent of the bloodline."

"After going through all the books on the first floor, he found out about the ways to awaken bloodline slowly, which was useless for him since he couldn't do it because of his fake bloodline that he stole. He used those methods and created the trials to make it easier for the heir to awaken. That's why your bloodline was walking up after finishing the trials of the Fake Bloodline Temple. Even I'm surprised how he was able to do so much," Long Tian muttered. There was clear amazement in his voice.

"So I was nothing but a rat in the big scheme of things whose whole purpose was to be a staircase that led Tian Shen to the second floor," Long Chen let out, sighing.