Chi Qide looked at the black shadow floating behind his son one last time; his cheeks were slightly red as he tried to contain his excitement and regain his composure, but he ultimately failed and started laughing crazily.
"Haha, haha, haha!"
"Good, good!"
"Very good!" Chi Qide said, a smile tugging at his lips.
His thoughts were filled with what benefits his son's talent would bring him in the future, the sects he could join, and the glory he would bring.
Even soon surpassing him and taking on the role of sect leader, taking the sect into a new era.
At this moment, everyone clapped their hands and shouted.
"Congratulations, Sect Leader, for producing a prodigy!"
Chi Qide inhaled deeply and gathered himself. And with an indifferent face, waved his hand to indicate for them to stop, but he was full of a sense of pride on the inside. He then said,
"That's enough, others are yet to awaken their bloodline; you never know, there may be a next Earth-bloodline," said Chi Qide, his gaze landing on Long Huang for a split second.
Everyone who heard this thought Chi Qide had said these words to comfort the others who had yet to awaken their bloodline, so they wouldn't lose their confidence.
While Huang Peng, on the other hand, gritted his teeth as he knew this was clearly a trap to shame and humiliate Long Huang, but he could only watch.
"Right, let's continue with the awakening ceremony," said Chen Ying.
"Next up, Long Huang!"
Hearing this name, the elders, citizens, and disciples could not help but turn to look at Long Huang.
As the other twin star of the Azure Lotus Sect, Long Huang was seen as the better of the two. But Chi Wei had an Earth bloodline, true qualifications to be called a prodigy, so what about him?
With the assembled sect members watching, Long Huang calmly stepped into the light beam.
Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum!
With every step he took, his heartbeat quickened.
Long Huang didn't stay in the light beam area for long, and unlike Chi Wei, a faint gold light appeared around Long Huang's body.
Seeing this scene, the crowd stared blankly.
Subsequently, a golden light mixed with the grey light appeared; the two lights flashed intermittently, and the aura of his bloodline, though weak, gave off a slightly fierce and chaotic feeling.
As the lights merged into one, a small snake with a mixture of gold and gray scales, sporting two barely visible bumps on its head, appeared.
Those in the hall exchanged glances with each other, clearly puzzled.
"A snake bloodline?"
Within their knowledge of beast-type martial spirits, a snake was either black, brown, green, yellow, red, or blue, but this snake appeared gold and gray.
And as for a serpent, this was too small to be a serpent bloodline.
Chi Qide looked at the bloodline shadow above Long Huang and started to probe it with his spiritual sense, and after a moment, his puzzled eyes were tinted with a trace of triumph.
In his opinion, this bloodline was nothing but a mutated version of the snake bloodline, not even a serpent.
Some other sect disciples also possess mutated-type bloodlines. Therefore, compared to Chi Wei's Winged Black Tiger, the difference was like heaven and earth.
"Sect Leader, what do you think?" asked Chen Ying, not knowing what this bloodline or its true grade might be.
"A mutated snake bloodline, a high-grade Ordinary bloodline at best." Chi Qide declared.
All elders and everyone present in the Martial Hall nodded their heads, apparently agreeing with the Chi Qide's judgment.
"A mutated snake, High-grade Ordinary bloodline, huh?"
"So what!"
Long Huang thought as he stepped out from the beam, but his face was calm because if it truly was such a level, he was as good as dead. But he felt his bloodline wasn't as simple as a high-grade Ordinary bloodline.
Seeing Long Huang's bloodline being only a High-grade ordinary bloodline, Chi Wei's lips curved into a mocking sneer, his eyes filled with arrogance as he looked at Long Huang.
Long Huang naturally saw Chi Wei's mocking smile, but he paid him no mind, for he was too lazy to play a staring game with a little kid.
One by one, more than a thousand disciples stepped into the light beam and had their bloodlines awakened, followed by the children of Blossom City.
Most of them possessed low-grade ordinary bloodlines, some high, and even a few variant bloodlines.
There were several waste bloodlines and some without any bloodline.
In this year's bloodline awakening ceremony, Long Huang's bloodline came in eighth place out of the thousands of 14-year-olds in the whole of Blossom City, but this didn't matter as he and the rest of the children were just a sideshow, overshadowed by Chi Wei's bloodline.
After the awakening ceremony ended and the citizens departed, Chi Qide gathered the new disciples and elders for a brief meeting.
"I will personally advise Chi Wei's cultivation from now on," Chi Qide announced to the elders, smiling.
No one was surprised by this; after all, Chi Wei was his son and now was the sect's top talent. With that, Chi Qide turned and left with Chi Wei.
After bowing to the sect leader, the elders and their chosen disciples left as well, including Huang Peng and Long Huang.
As the two neared the manor, a voice from behind called out.
"LONG HUANG!"
In the distance stood none other than Chi Wei.
"Let's fight, it's time you knew your place."
Huang Peng was just about to speak, but was intercepted by Long Huang. "It's fine, fifth elder."
The two now stood face to face.
Chi Wei moved first without any warning and sent out a punch aimed straight for Long Huang's chest.
Thud!
Long Huang had parried the attack with his forearms, but was pushed back. He tried to gather himself, but Chi Wei didn't wait and lunged forward.
Long Huang, on instinct, slid aside as Chi Wei's fist grazed his robes. Chi Wei, annoyed, sent out a flurry of fists. Forcing Long Huang to be on the defensive. As the fight continued, Long Huang's eyes grew sharp, his dodges less wasteful, as he learned Chi Wei's attack pattern.
He even got to sneak in a few punches. Even so, Chi Wei had the upper hand, and Long Huang wasn't the only one learning.
"No more running, bastard," Chi Wei taunted, breathing heavily.
'What is he up to?' thought Long Huang as he dogged another of Chi Wei's attacks.
"Got you, you snake bastard," said Chi Wei with a huge grin as his fist turned into an open hand and grabbed Long Huang's robe before delivering a knee to his stomach.
'Kahfff'
Long Huang staggered, the breath knocked out of him. Chi Wei didn't let up.
His hands came up in a formal, practiced pattern and struck out, Stone-Crushing Fist. The punch hit Long Huang's jaw, snapping his head back, sending him crashing to the ground, vision swimming.
Chi Wei stood over him, panting. "Who knew you were so weak?"
Huang Peng was at Long Huang's side in an instant, helping him up. His voice was like iron. "Why did you go so far?"
Just then, a new, authoritative voice cut through as a figure now stood behind Chi Wei. "My dear brother, have you taught this boy nothing?"
"Unlike you, brother, I actually want my son to have a life outside of fighting and cultivating," said Huang Peng in a stern voice as he stared at Chi Qide, who had just appeared.
"Typical, Huang Peng."
"Excuses. The Azure Lotus sect is no place for the weak."
Getting up from the ground, Long Huang wiped blood from his lip, "I'm not weak, your spoiled bastard would have lost if he fought me fairly."
"There is no such thing as fair in the world of cultivation. Do well to remember that." Said Chi Qide as he gestured to Chi Wei to follow him as he turned and left.
"Huang'er, don't beat yourself up over this loss. You still have many years ahead to get stronger, okay."
"I won't fifth elder" Long Huang said, his voice tight but clear. The pain was already fading.
"Good," said Huang Peng with a smile
"Even though your talent for cultivation isn't remarkable, you do seem to have a talent for fighting."
"And with a few pills and effort, achieving the Blood Tempering Realm will not be difficult for you," he said, trying to comfort him.
"I understand, fifth elder," said Long Huang with a nod.
Long Huang then opened his mouth, wanting to tell Huang Peng that he felt his bloodline wasn't just an ordinary grade bloodline, but in the end, he didn't say anything, for it was only just a feeling, and he wasn't sure.
Soon after the two arrived at the manor, they sat and talked for a while about Long Huang's cultivation plan for the future.
Huang Peng first gave him a cultivation technique for training qi and explained the important points that Long Huang should focus on during practice. Long Huang listened attentively and memorized them in his heart.
Huang Peng even wanted to personally guide Long Huang as he first cultivated, but Long Huang declined, stating that 'You won't always be there with me, so it's best I figure it out on my own.' Before saying goodbye and leaving.
After leaving the courtyard's main hall, Long Huang rushed to his house to begin cultivating with the cultivation technique the fifth elder had taught him.
He sat down cross-legged on the bed and started sensing the world's spiritual energy according to the Xuan Qi Breathing technique.
A twist of light of gold and gray emerged from his chest, transforming into a snake. The little snake then stretched its jaw wide and devoured the surrounding spiritual energy like a starved beast.
Meanwhile, Long Huang was shocked as he felt something warm trying make its way into his body, but before he could get excited, the feeling disappeared.
"WTF! Where did the spiritual energy go?" shouted Long Huang, panic in his voice.
He then tried 10 more times, but still nothing.
"Fuck! Am I destined to die an early death again?"
"No, I won't bow to this stupid fate of mine, I refuse!" he roared.
Boom!
An explosion wrung out on the thirteenth try, and a blinding light shone as his bloodline began to change, causing him to open his eyes.
Before his very eyes, the little snake grew larger and larger, shedding its scales one by one as they changed from a dull gold and gray to shiny gold and dark gray. On its underbelly, 2 pairs of legs spurted out, each with 3 golden claws