Chapter 11 – Nine-colored Halo (1)

“Brother, I didn’t hear your name being called out yet. Why?” At the corner of the left row, Qingyu grumbled, with her hands put beneath her chin.

It was already afternoon, as the dusk sunlight shed through the entire Battle Beast Hall. Up until now, only half of the candidates had finished the ceremony. However, Qinghan was still patiently awaiting his turn, though he didn’t have a clue when that would be.

“Hehe, the elders always prioritize the descendants with the highest potential. Don’t worry.” Qinghan stroked Qingyu’s hair, pretending not to care about the sequence.

Actually, Qinghan had deliberately observed his counterparts. In the morning, most of them were the young pupils and their accomplishments were satisfactory – Apart from Qingfeng’s seventh-grade spirit wolf, there were battle beasts from third-grade to sixth-grade.

While in the afternoon, the candidates were clearly weaker than those before them. Although there was a key descendant named Ye Qingchen who had summoned a sixth-grade battle beast, others had yielded rather disappointing results. Some of them, for instance, failed to summon a beast, as the halo color remained white for them.

As a third-time candidate, Qinghan was regarded by the Ye Family as a futureless descendant, so it wasn’t really a surprise that he had to wait this long.

“Ye Yunhai, first-grade spotted pig, Ye Huatian, second-grade dog, Ye Jianhong, second-grade coquettish chicken… The last group, Ye Xiaosa, Ye Qinghan and Ye Yanyu.” Elder Tianqing unpredictably smiled, as he seemed to be depressurized by the nearing ending of the ceremony.

Once the last group finished their tasks, the ceremony would end. Despite the fact that some candidates didn’t summon any beast, Elder Tianqing was rather satisfied with the general outcome. A seventh-grade spirit wolf could be categorized as a superior beast, which was the true reason why he smiled so cheerfully. He even started considering, that if these candidates would summon a seventh-grade battle beast each year in the Awakening Ceremony, then the Ye Family’s influence in the continent would soar. Because, when the seventh-grade battle beast matured, it would likely become equivalent to a cultivator in the Realm of the Prince.

“Pfffffff!”

Qinghan let out a long sigh to quell down his excitement. Finally, it was his turn! He recited the fourth step, as per described in the Secret Code for Sacred Blood, in a quiet and low voice.

“Step four – Stop the flow of your blood. At the awakening ceremony, you have to deliberately block the flow of your blood in order to activate the sacred blood, so that it may resonate with the ancestral power. Possible symptoms: blood starts to flow backwards or meridians get cut off, or perhaps… Even death…”

Qinghan turned to his sister, and dotingly looked at her. He wasn’t sure if he could survive this dangerous method and felt guilty that he could die inside the altar and leave Qingyu alone in this world.

“Hey, brother. Come on... It’s not your first awakening ceremony, relax! Believe in yourself and you’ll definitely succeed!” Qingyu blinked her charming eyes, while she tried to console her seemingly unconfident brother. Looking from afar, in her white dress, Qingyu very much resembled an elf from the celestial heaven.

“Yes, I will!” Qinghan firmly nodded his head. He then straightened his spine and strode fearlessly towards the altar.

Walking into the white halo, Qinghan entered the altar.

Although it was his third awakening attempt, Qinghan still thought that the altar was rather strange and mysterious.

Indeed, the size of the altar was far from large. The floor of the altar was made of some unknown kind of slates, on which some illegible words were sculptured. On each of the four corners, there was a piece of white crystal placed, without which the white halo would fail to appear.

Gradually, from inside the altar white smoke emerged, which quickly became thicker and thicker. Strangely, large amounts of the white smoke penetrated into Qinghan’s body.

Three minutes quietly passed by. The white halo remained the same, as there wasn’t even the slightest of changes, except for some ripple-like fluctuation.

“If I don’t follow the Secret Code for Sacred Blood, I’ll fail to summon any beast, just like my previous two attempts… Alright, I have to practice the fourth step. Daddy, don’t let me down and please bless me.” Qinghan was determined to take the risk and stop the flow of his blood.

Crouching towards the middle of the space inside the altar, Qinghan deliberately blocked the acupoints that connected his yin and yang blood vessels.

Instantly, his body grew redder and redder, because all his blood vessels pumped up.

“Oh! So suffocating, as if someone is strangling my neck! Ah? Why am I so dizzy? Come on, it’s about time for my sacred blood to activate and resonate with the ancestral power...”

The whole experience was grotesque, as if he was forced to be drowned in the deep waters of the ocean. Right now, he was suffering from a severe deficit of oxygen in his brain.

“Hold on! Hold on!” Only these two words lingered in his mind, Qinghan chose to believe in his father and continued blocking the blood from flowing.

Anyone who saw Qinghan right now would be shocked by his horrible appearance – various protruded veins, a scarlet-red body and blood that kept oozing out of his mouth, nostril and ears… Very much like a ferocious demon.

“Oh, no!” Qinghan vomited a mouthful of blood. The blood vessels could no longer stand the pressure caused by the blockage of his blood flow.

“I’m doomed! I will die…” Unexpectedly, his mind was extremely sober, despite the physical suffering. As if in a trance, he felt like he could see all his yin veins crack with blood pillars flooding out of them. Also, through the white smoke, he could see the various expressions of the spectators. Here, he saw his sister, Qingyu, who was sitting there with her tender and hopeful eyes… It was like a momentary recovery of his consciousness before death.

Because of the severe hemorrhage, Qinghan was on the verge of falling into unconsciousness... Or even death!

At this critical moment, the bronze ring on his left hand suddenly emitted a gleaming white ray. Like a silk thread, the ray shot into Qinghan’s body.

Surprisingly, Qinghan’s body was wrapped up by a glowing aura, as the red color of his skin gradually disappeared. Thanks to the white ray from the ring, Qinghan’s outlook went through a series of positive changes.

Eventually, the white ray went through Qinghan’s heart, where his yin vein was broken. His skin, muscles and veins, all recovered from their previous horrible appearance. Now, the gleam only lingered on his chest, as it was the most severely injured part of his body.

Despite the ongoing changes that were happening in Qinghan’s body, he was totally unaware of it. He had already lost consciousness before the white ray had even entered into his body.

……

“It has been more than five minutes since my brother stepped into the altar. Why is there no change in the color of the halo?” Qingyu frowned, as she was extremely worried about her brother, who had been so determined to succeed.

Honestly, Qingyu didn’t care much about success or failure. All she was anxious about, was whether her brother would be saddened by any kind of failure.

“Ah, the color starts to change!” A spectator in a nearby seat suddenly exclaimed.

Out of excitement, Qingyu quickly raised her head. However, after having a closer look, she lowered her head again, in great disappointment. It was the left altar that was changing colors, not her brother’s.

“Alas… How shall I soothe my brother when he comes out?” Qingyu was caught by a feeling of indescribable uneasiness, as she knew that her stubborn brother would turn crazy if he found himself failing yet again. Occasionally, she would cast her eye on her brother’s altar to see if there was any miracle...

“It changes, it changes!!! The halo around my brother’s altar is changing color!!”

The girl’s abrupt exclamation caught everyone’s attention. They all fixed their eyes on the middle altar, where Qinghan was in.

The left halo had already stopped changing, as it had turned yellow. While the middle one finally started to change its color from white to red… And there were no signs of stopping quite yet!