And neither was he wrinkled nor old - it was just the grey powdery texture and tone of his skin that made him seem so old and weathered by the years.

The old but not old, wrinkled but not wrinkled and copper-brown / blonde haired old man/ youth stood by the gates of what looked to be a small outpost in the middle of the wilderness - and s.h.i.+vered.

He pulled his robes tighter around his body and muttered under his breath a cantrip spell to warm himself. The night's were getting colder and colder, especially here in the open country with barely any buildings, spa.r.s.e trees and just craggy, rocky peaks wherever he turned.

What's more, the large temperature difference between the cool air and the warm ground caused strong drafts of wind to howl through the surrounding mountains and valleys, buffeting Lars with it's cold embrace...

'...I really should have listened to you and exchanged for the fire-type bloodline...' Lars lamented inwardly, then instantly regretted it as his constant companion latched on to his slightest moment of weakness to criticise him.

'Of course you should have!!! What's the point of some pansy defensive improvements!?! Yadda yadda bla bla bla defence is for cowards blabbety blabbety why can't you just bow down to my infinite wisdom and follow next time!!'

Well, Lars did wince after Kizorik began his tirade, but he quickly zoned the furry bird out as Velzash exchanged a glance with him, the tiny winged demon standing behind Kizorik, shaking his head and making a signal with his hand to mock the blabber-mouth penguin.

Lars looked bemused as he saw Velzash's actions, not knowing how to respond.

He wanted to add a jibe and say, 'Aren't you just as vocal and annoying?!?! HUH????', but he wisely decided it was better to just keep his lips zipped.

He felt the advanced Legendary-level bloodline pump within his veins, the vital life throbbing through the sinews of his muscles, nouris.h.i.+ng his skin.

The bloodline of one of the creatures with the strongest defence below the Mythical realm, whose guard was not only through rigidity of it's outward defences but also through superb flexibilty and agility to evade attacks. Some said that although this creature only exhibited the power-level of the Legendary realm, in terms of speed, combat and defence, it was nearly unparalleled!

This was the bloodline of the most superior of the Legendary lifeforms available for exchange in the Abyssal Treasury; the bloodline of the winged serpent of the border of light and dark, the peak-Legendary stage Jet-Black Winged Wyvern...!

A normal Wyvern was born with a body the size of a cow and the physique of a peak-Adept level human adult. A Wyvern would then just mature naturally, by virtue of their inherent bloodline and genetic make-up, and then gradually but eventually ascend to the peak Grandmaster-realm.

But with their advantage of flight and their naturally heavily armoured but light-weight, resilient and flexible body, they were far more deadly than what their cultivation stage implied, threatening even early World-cla.s.s warriors and requiring peak World-cla.s.s combatants to hunt them!

And above the regular Wyverns were the cla.s.ses of the creatures that could break through beyond the World-cla.s.s stage and enter higher stages still - Superior Wyverns which were defined by their ability to break into the World-cla.s.s stage, Grand Wyverns that reigned in the Legendary realm, and the 1-in-trillion Wyvern Kings that stood at the apex of all known lifeforms at the peak-Mythical stage!

Though Superior Wyverns and Grand Wyverns were already sufficiently rare and could barely be found on a shared-ecology planet like Yiluo, there would still be some scattered around the globe, perhaps ruling over nests or large groups of other Wyverns in isolated mountainous regions.

Above all those cla.s.sifications, there were tales of a higher creature, one that reigned supreme as a tyrant over countless planets, galaxies or even systems, an organism that bore some slight resemblance to Wyverns in terms of appearance and form but transcended their power in every single way. These fabled pompous rulers would not share dominance of their star-territories with any other race, but would subjugate and indenture all others... Including even the human race!

Nonetheless, these were but tales after all... And could not be taken so seriously, not until and unless someone discovered evidence of the existence of such lofty creatures ruling over expansive star systems! Of course they were but b.o.l.l.o.c.ks and hogwash - how could such a system-spanning anomaly go undetected for countless years until today...? Therefore such had been dismissed for countless years, millenia and eons...!

However, the stories were that the Jet-Black Winged Wyverns and all other Superior Wyvern sub-races and other reptilian races such as the Wyrms, Sea Serpents and the myriad, countless creatures were descended from this ultimate existence, the pinnacle lifeform...

The Dragon Ancestor!

Lars recalled the stories he had heard since young, including those of St John, King Arthur or other figures, historical or otherwise, slaying dragons. Then he shrugged and continued waiting to enter the Ancient Slith Sect's gates, knowing he would probably never be able to confirm the authenticity of these fables after all.

Bringing his mind back to the new bloodline he had exchanged more than 2.5 million points for, he thought about the Jet-Black Winged Wyvern's bloodline he had received.

All in all it was impressive and gave him an immense boost to his strength.

What was different about the bloodline absorbed now and that absorbed earlier was that this bloodline came as a phial holding roughly 15 millilitres of the Legendary Wyvern's heart's-blood - blood that carried the condensed energies, gene structure and inheritance of the grand and mighty creature!

Unlike the bone marrow of the minotaur, which was also a Legendary stage creature and had taken weeks to slowly incubate before providing him even the beginning of it's benefits, this was a direct transfusion of 10% of his bloodline to that of the Jet-Black Winged Wyvern.

By now, his body had absorbed most of the minotaur bone marrow and a.s.similated it to his physique, however, the strength would still be gradual. Right now his physique had newly advanced to the beginner Expert-level, with corresponding strength gains in every area especially resilience, reaction speed and strength.

However, the journey to reaping the full benefits of the minotaur's bloodline would be long as it would take perhaps another 10-20 years until his recently fully-formed bone marrow could produce enough blood to upgrade his body to the Legendary stage - unless he incorporated other bloodlines, strengthenings or boosts into the equation!

And thus, the newly infused bloodline of the Jet-Black Winged Wyvern!

Normally, a cultivator would focus his or her efforts on a single path of training or strength. This was despite the fact that, naturally, a cultivator with balanced and varied abilities was decidedly more powerful and effective in battle. Said cultivator would also be able to hold their ground and make an impact on many different situations due to their wide-range of skills.

A general rule of thumb was that, if two separate individuals cultivating two different paths were to join forces, their combined strength would be greater than the sum of the parts and able to defeat another pair of two individuals who had both mastered the same arts.

For example, a mage and archer pair would hold a definite advantage in battle when facing against a mage-mage pairing or an archer-archer pairing!

This was true even though there would be challenges in coordination between the two combatants with marked differences in their approaches to battle, leading to oft-times mistakes and miscommunications.

How much greater and stronger then would it be if both the mage and archer capabilities were combined into one mind, one person and one body; with flawless coordination and perfect combo-ing of skills...?

As such, it was an axiom of the universe - two paths is better than one... That is, if one can live that long to cultivate those paths!

This was why cultivating two paths or two arts was extremely, extremely rare. Not because it was necessarily better to focus on one, nor because of any advantages in strength, no. It was because branching out to a separate path and developing the twin paths in tandem meant double the length of time to cultivate...

Meaning it would take twice as long to break through to any particular stage...

And since one would only receive the extension of longevity on the first time of breaking through to a stage... This meant that the cultivator would likely die of old age before making any significant achievements in the twin-path cultivation!

With all that being said, Lars... Was a special case altogether!

If before, his mage capabilities alone placed him at the peak of the Legendary realm and likely able to hold his own against an early Myth... Now with his boosted physique already at the Grandmaster-realm and soon to enter the World-cla.s.s realm...

He could probably call himself a Myth with not a single soul daring to challenge his claim!

Lars then sighed as he continued his more than 30 minutes wait at the front gates; gates he could easily burst open and tear apart with just the littlest bit of strength.

He sighed partly because of the tedious wait that he bore with due to protocol...

And the fact that the bloodline had such a lame-a$s name...

'...Jet-Black Wings... Literally a name from an anime... S-someone will surely call me a weaboo....'

As Lars lamented his fate and complained over the fact that the strongest and also most affordable bloodline had such an embarra.s.sing name, he straightened his body and brought his attention back to the present as he heard footsteps approaching. A pair of footsteps, to be exact.

'...Hope there are no more delays...' He waited, relieved that he could finally proceed with his quest to find more valuable materials to exchange for Abyss Points. And as he heard the pair of footsteps draw near and stop on the other side of the heavy metal gates, he heard the clank of metal as the pair on the other side slid aside the small eye-height metal plate to see him.

Lars saw two pairs of eyes against the backdrop of a burning torch and noted that the new arrival was not nearly as old as the decrepit, nearly collapsing guard. He looked well-kept, if not for the fact that his bloodshot eyes showed signs of severe lack of sleep and intense stress.

Lars tapped his thigh with his right finger as he waited and let the newly arrived Maester Slith give him a once over, waiting for them to ask him some questions and let him in.

Finally after 10 seemingly long seconds, Maester Slith asked, "What is your news about Everaldus...? How can you prove you are carrying a message from him...?"

Lars smiled as he heard this and responded simply and directly.

He lifted up the ring of the recently departed Everaldus and showed it to Maester Slith, the light from the torch illuminating the dull-black surface of the unremarkable ring, indistinguishable from any other black-painted ring except for the insignia of an upright lizard-snake.

"This... This... How dare you take this from Everaldus! Guard Mulberry, a.s.sist me in accosting this miscreant!!! How dare you, how dare you!!!!!!"

And Lars stood speechless, bemused as Ol' Mulberry slowly worked open the metal gates as the hysterical and fuming Maester Slith stood by his side!

And Lars could not decide just what was wrong with the old men as they took nearly 30 seconds to open the gates as he just stood there, speechless and clueless, wondering how he should respond...!

'...Are they... Mad... Or suicidal...?' Lars smiled as he prepared to explain things to them... After subduing them - gently...