Chapter 187: Fifth Bloodline Unlocked: God rank, stage 20!
Casey watched the group, her jaw tight. She was exhausted, humiliated by the mission’s failure, and now faced with the moral ambiguity of Arthur’s actions. Her idealistic nature rebelled against the notion of profiting from a morally compromised situation.
She exhaled a long, shaky breath, her anger cooling into a cold resolution. "Fine! Distribute it amongst yourselves, I don’t need anything..."
She spun around and walked away, her armor clanking with each definitive step, leaving behind a group of stunned teammates.
Arthur looked at his friends, a flicker of genuine concern replacing his usual defensive posture. "Did I go too far?"
The oldest member of the team shook his head. "No... You’re just worried about our safety. Casey got pride, and she won’t easily let go of her pride."
He stared at her retreating back, a knowing weariness in his eyes:
"She will come around."
____
[Planet Gaia.]
A glittering gateway shimmered and faded, depositing Sunny and Josephine before a newly constructed mansion on Planet Gaia.
The sight was breathtaking: a vast, manicured green field surrounded by soaring walls, centered on a massive house.
"You built a mansion here?" Josephine asked, her voice laced with shock as she took in the scale of the estate. Her eyes widened, spotting the grand gate.
"Don’t tell me that is real gold."
Sunny grinned with a mischievous glint in his eye. "Oh, love... The whole mansion is made of gold, I simply painted it white."
He walked to the door, opened it with a flourish, and gave a small, courtly bow. "Don’t you want to know how it feels living in a gold house?"
Josephine blinked, walking up to him. She wasn’t just surprised by the extravagance; she was genuinely confused by the waste.
"Why spend so much money?"
Sunny stood upright, his smile softening.
"This exact place we are standing on is where Ellen was born. This mansion isn’t ours, I built it for her, and the construction robots did a good job at it." He gently took Josephine’s hand and led her inside.
"Not only that, almost all furniture is made of gold."
A flicker of understanding crossed Josephine’s face. "In a simpler form, this house itself is a treasure trove," she realized.
"Hahaha! You can put it like that," Sunny chuckled. He paused, snapped his fingers.
BAM!!
Josephine spun around just as a section of the wall silently moved five inches outward, then slid completely to the side, revealing a shimmering, spinning gateway.
"Come on," Sunny said, pulling her toward the portal.
BAM!
The wall moved back, closing shut without a sound.
_
Sunny and Josephine reappeared on an open field bathed in the soft glow of a purple sky, surrounded by exotic, beautiful flowers.
’Thanks to the system, I set up a space that helps when breaking through to the next rank without destroying anything,’ Sunny thought.
"Where are we?" Josephine asked, tilting her head back, awe in her eyes.
"In my world... In here, nothing can obstruct us when cultivating." Sunny explained, settling into a meditative posture. He snapped his fingers, and Josephine vanished, reappearing hundreds of miles away.
"Huh?" She looked around in shock, then north toward the barely visible outline of Sunny.
"Don’t worry, I can hear whatever you say, even if you are millions of miles away, I will still hear you."
Sunny’s voice echoed in her mind. His eyes were already closed. "You have more celestial energy stones than Ellen, use them all... You should break through to the divine rank."
Josephine, understanding the isolation was for safety and focus, nodded. She sat down, her internal resolve strengthening.
"Here goes everything."
A mini-hill of celestial energy stones appeared before her, followed by a mysterious fruit and ten evolution stones.
"What are these?" she asked.
"Start cultivating, when you are done; absorb the energy from the evolution stones, and eat the fruit."
Josephine accepted the instruction, closed her eyes, and began drawing the intense energy from the celestial stones.
___
Sunny felt the distant surge of her energy and turned his focus inward to the system.
"Ok System... Use all EXP."
{Ok, Master.}
{Starting Absorption process.}
He watched his massive reserve of EXP drain rapidly. Two minutes later, the first notification hit.
{Congratulations!! Master has entered the God rank!!}
BOOOOOOOM!!!
A dense burst of spiritual energy erupted from him, shooting into the purple sky.
’Good... Keep going,’ he urged the process.
{Congratulations!! Master has entered God rank stage 3!!}
A larger explosion of power followed, causing cracks to spiderweb across the ground beneath him, which immediately self-repaired.
BOOOOOOOM!!!
{Congratulations!! Master has entered God rank stage 10!!}
{Congratulations!!! Fifth Bloodline has been successfully unlocked.}
{Congratulations!!! Leviathan transformation have been unlocked.}
{Congratulations! Master gained a new Bloodline Passive skill: Multi Damage.}
{Multi damage: Once an attack made contact with a target, that target suffers continuously attack of Master’s 30% of his full attack, equal to 500,000. God-rank.}
Sunny blinked in stunned surprise at the sudden deluge of power and skills.
BOOOM!!!
A dense wave of energy burst out from him, and the pleasant purple sky contorted, forming a massive, swirling storm cloud.
"Huh?" Sunny looked up, confusion etching his face.
{Hell Tribulations has been activated.}
"Hell what?!"
BOOOOOOOM!!!
A colossal purple lightning bolt tore down and smashed directly into Sunny.
"AHHHH!!!" He screamed, a raw cry of pain that the system instantly muffled, preventing it from disturbing Josephine.
{Congratulations!! Master has entered God rank stage 15!!!}
The pain was immense, but the flood of new power was equally undeniable. Sunny gritted his teeth, sweat plastering his hair to his face.
BOOOOOOOM!!
{Nightmare Tribulations has been activated.}
WHOOSH!!
A red lightning bolt, even more destructive, ripped open the sky and collided with him, instantly incinerating the ground he sat on and setting the immediate area ablaze.
Sunny sat perfectly still amidst the flames, his eyes closed. The hidden blade at his tail retracted and disappeared with his tail, same with his ears... And in seconds, he transformed into his human on earth, but way younger.
{Master gained a new skill Bloodline skill: Camouflage.}
{Camouflage description: Master can take the appearance of any male he had seen.}
{Note: When in disguise, Master can’t be detected by anyone lower than him in rank or stage.}
’This... This is just like Jinx’s skill,’ he thought, focusing on the new abilities to distract from the agonizing pain.
’The only difference is that I can only take the appearance of males, while she can take both gender appearance.’ He clenched his fists, marveling at the sheer utility.
"The fifth Bloodline gave me two god rank skills, which are very important, what will I gain from the other locked Bloodlines?"
{Congratulations!! Master has entered God rank stage 20!!}
"I just entered the peak of the god rank in less than thirty minutes?" Sunny muttered in awe, his amazement quickly turning to a frown as a flood of red text appeared.
{Warning!!}
{Remaining EXP have been stored.}
{Restriction has been placed on Master.}
{System’s Level is too low to break this Restriction.}
"Your level is too low?" Sunny was stunned. He had soared to the peak of a major rank in minutes, only to hit an immediate, impassable wall.