Chapter 303 - Bloodline Gem

"Oh Ava, that was a quick hunt." Barbara smiled as she reached the bottom of the stairs. "What did you get this time?"

"A demonic anaconda," Ava replied casually. "Didn't even have to go far into the jungle. Lucky me."

"Alright then," Barbara said, extending a hand. "Where's the demonic core? Let's run the experiment again."

Ava nodded. A glowing yellow demonic core appeared in her palm. It pulsed faintly, packed with great energy. She handed it over immediately.

"Are you sure this'll work, Barbara? We've already tried a few times."

"I don't know," Barbara said, but her tone was determined. "That's why we have to keep trying, even if we fail. Failing to me isn't really failing. It means progress! We must not waste our efforts and continue."

Ava pouted and said jokingly. "But it's my delicate body that keeps getting experimented on. Of course I'm worried. You might break my delicate body." 

Barbara shook her head. "Delicate? You can beat demonic beasts to death with raw strength alone. I'm the delicate one here, weak and helpless... I only came to study energy phenomena and ended up in this mess. Boo hoo! I want to go home!"

She even faked a few sobs, wiping imaginary tears from her cheeks.

"Aaaargh, alright, alright! Stop faking your cry already!" Ava groaned, covering her ears. "My ears hurt just listening to that."

"Sigh… if only you were a man. At least I could get married and have kids even if we got stuck here forever," Barbara lamented. Her voice dripped with mock despair, a playful pout tugging at her lips as she leaned against the wall.

Ava rolled her eyes. Why does everyone want to get married and have kids whenever they get trapped somewhere? 

Now that the topic of marriage had come up again, a certain sex fiend's face, who laughed frequently, appeared in her mind. The more time she spends with Barbara, the greater the urge to let her marry Leyvi and make her join the Leyan Family due to her selfish reasons. But Barbara was now her best friend, and it would be immoral and a betrayal to send her into the sex fiend's plate.

Ava, you must not succumb to the brainwashing of a certain panda! She reminded herself.

So, what exactly happened to cause Ava to have an internal struggle like this??

...

It started not long after she arrived at the Mystic Realm.

Just like everyone else, the first thing she noticed was the colossal tree looming on the horizon. Her jaw dropped when she saw it. How could there be such a massive tree? Its towering silhouette seemed to pierce the sky, a silent giant that made her feel impossibly small.

She also realized a bit later that she couldn't use her Air Walk movement technique to traverse the air, something she'd done countless times without a hitch. She'd leaped off the ground, ready to kick the air and soar, but… nothing happened. Her foot swung through empty space, no resistance, no lift. Gravity yanked her down hard, and she hit the dirt face-first, sprawled in an undignified heap. The humiliating thud brought a flash of memory—Leyvi's freakish spiritual pressure flattening her during training, pinning her just like this. Her cheeks burned at the thought.

Her temper flared, and she ended up punching the ground repeatedly, creating a crater. Each strike shook the earth, her knuckles venting her irritation in bursts of dust and debris.

After calming down, Ava tried flying again, but since she was already aware of the potential for failure, no more faceplants happened. 

She found it weird that she couldn't kick the air if she intended to fly, but it was perfectly fine when she used it to change direction midair while fighting. It was as if whatever this restriction was, it only prevented her from flying. 

Much later, she realized that nothing here could fly, even the birds.

Ava began exploring the area, trying to find other people, but she found nobody except for wild animals and demonic beasts. In the end, just like everyone else, she also traveled toward the colossal tree. However, her journey was cut short when she later arrived at a beach.

Between her and the colossal tree stretched an entire ocean!

She scanned left and right and noticed that, except for the colossal tree, there was nothing else on the horizon. Since there was no way to cross the ocean, Ava changed her plan and traveled along the beach instead. 

As she dashed along the beach with her movement technique, Ava gradually noticed something different about the sea. The color of the water seemed to be a much lighter turquoise than the deep blue. 

Ava stopped her great stride and observed the water properly. To her surprise, the water wasn't seawater but fresh water! How was this possible? The view in front of her was definitely the view of an ocean. Water as far as she could see, with waves, a sandy beach, and all. But, how could this be fresh water? 

An answer quickly came to her mind. She could only think of one reason why it was fresh water instead of seawater. The reason was that the ocean wasn't an ocean in the first place, but actually a massive, great lake! Her eyes widened.

Now the question was whether the land she was on was part of the mainland or an island. 

Ava wasn't about to just sit there wondering if she was stuck on an island or not. She kept moving along the coastline, her boots kicking up sand as she went. She passed a busted-up port town at one point—crumbling docks, ships half-sunk in the shallows—and made a mental note to check it out later. Could be something useful, maybe.

At the same time, her frustration was building, and so every now and then, whenever she spotted aquatic demonic beasts lingering too close to shore, without breaking stride, she would flick a quick kick, sending them splashing back into the water. She must've booted hundreds of them along the way, smirking as they thrashed around, fighting each other like idiots trying to figure out who had hit them.

She stopped to rest a couple of times, plopping down on a rock or under a twisted tree, staring out at that endless turquoise water. Two days later, Ava was back where she started. The same beach where she had first gawked at that colossal tree across the lake. Her stomach dropped. Yup, this was an island. A pretty big one. This meant that she was trapped.

It hit her hard. Not only was she stuck here with nothing but animals and demonic beasts for company, but when she had looped the whole island, she hadn't seen a single speck of land anywhere else. No other islands, just the lake stretching out forever, and that colossal tree mocking her from the horizon. Just how big was this lake to look like a vast ocean? And that tree, it had to be rooted in some huge chunk of land to grow that size. But without flying, how was she supposed to get across? Swim? No way. Who knows what kind of demonic beast is waiting to swallow her?

Then she remembered the port town from yesterday. Maybe there would be some clue over there. She turned around, zipping back with her movement technique, the world blurring until the town's ruins popped up again. However, her hopes tanked fast. The place was a graveyard of shipwrecks—rotted wood, broken masts, nothing that would float. Time had wrecked everything useful.

She explored the town more, and later, an intact mansion entered her spiritual sense. 

Although pure body cultivators could use spiritual sense after enhancing and elevating their body to a certain level, the ability wasn't as good as a normal cultivator's spiritual sense. At her level now, her spiritual sense range was only slightly above a kilometer.

Ava found many beautiful jewelry, weapons, armor, and spirit stones in the mansion's vault, which took a great deal of strength to get into. Although she couldn't use the spirit stones directly for her body cultivation, she could buy plenty of resources to support her. However, the problem for her right now wasn't the lack of resources but the lack of continuity. 

Ava looted everything in the mansion and left. The most valuable thing she found was a bloodline gem. 

A bloodline gem was a rare and powerful crystal formed from the condensed essence of an awakened demonic beast's bloodline. When a demonic beast successfully awakened its mystical bloodline, it could, through intense focus, crystallize a portion of its bloodline power into a tangible gem. 

These bloodline gems were highly coveted, as they granted others limited access to the innate abilities and traits of the beast's awakened lineage. The strength and purity of the gem—and thus the degree to which the bloodline power could be accessed—depended on how much bloodline essence was used during its creation. 

Bloodline gems could grant enhanced physical attributes, elemental affinities, or even unique abilities associated with the beast's mystical bloodline. 

Since it consumed their bloodline essence, which weakened their bloodline power, most awakened demonic beasts never made bloodline gems unless they were on the verge of death or had a constant supply of high-quality foods to replenish their bloodline essence.

Due to this, bloodline gems were extremely rare. In the Cloud Continent, if getting their hands on awakened demonic beast meat was already a difficult task, bloodline gems were near mythical.