After practicing for a while, Ryan casually pointed toward the ground.
"Whoosh!"
A slender strand of snow-white Spider Silk shot from the tip of his index finger.
In an instant, it struck a rusty piece of iron lying several meters away.
The Spider Silk wrapped tightly around it.
Ryan’s finger curled slightly.
Whoosh!
The silk instantly retracted, pulling the piece of iron across the floor and directly into his palm.
Ryan stared at the rusty object in his hand, his eyes gleaming with excitement.
He could clearly feel the rough texture of the rust beneath his fingers, along with the faint metallic smell emanating from the iron.
"Object Control..."
A smile slowly spread across his face. Although the object was connected to him through Spider Silk, the principle was essentially the same.
He could use the silk to freely pull, manipulate, and control objects from a distance.
This feeling was surprisingly satisfying.
However, as Ryan continued experimenting with his abilities and became increasingly familiar with his Spider Bloodline, he gradually discovered one of its characteristics.
Control. His Spider Bloodline seemed to lean heavily toward control and utility.
It wasn’t completely lacking in offensive capabilities. Spider Claw Blade provided him with a genuine means of attack, while Spider Silk could also be used creatively in combat.
But compared with other Bloodlines of the same rank, Ryan suspected that its direct offensive power was probably on the weaker side.
This realization left him somewhat conflicted.
Why had he awakened a Spider Bloodline after consuming the Burning Blood Pill?
And not just any Spider Bloodline but A D-grade Ordinary Bloodline. Could it be random?
Or had one of his ancestors possessed a Spider Bloodline, allowing that dormant lineage to pass down to him?
Or perhaps...
Ryan’s expression became strange. Could it have something to do with his years of scavenging?
He had spent countless days rummaging through garbage, frequently encountering spiders, ants, and other creatures.
He had even been bitten by them more than once.
Could those experiences somehow have influenced his awakening?
If that were really the case...
Ryan felt like crying. "Then I really suffered a huge loss."
He should have spent more time around powerful exotic beasts!
What if he had somehow been bitten by a tiger-type exotic beast?
Wouldn’t he have awakened a domineering Tiger Bloodline instead?
Ryan glanced at the slender Spider Silk extending from his finger.
Compared to the terrifying Bloodlines he had heard about, this thing did feel somewhat... Soft and flimsy.
"Would this really be useful in a fight?"
He couldn’t help but mutter. Then another thought suddenly crossed his mind.
Could the Boundless Creation Furnace create pills capable of changing or improving a person’s Bloodline?
If such a thing existed, then perhaps his current Bloodline wasn’t something he needed to worry about.
With that thought in mind, Ryan’s frustration gradually disappeared.
After thoroughly familiarizing himself with his Spider Bloodline, Ryan couldn’t deny that he was still happy.
"A D-grade Ordinary Bloodline is indeed a little weak..." He glanced at his hand. "But it’s still a Bloodline."
More importantly, he had finally awakened. And he had successfully broken through to the Elemental Power Realm, Stage One.
That alone was enough to make him excited.
Although his Spider Bloodline might not be particularly impressive, the transformation of his body was undeniable.
Ryan suddenly bent his knees. Then...
Whoosh!
His body shot upward. He easily leaped four or five meters into the air, his head nearly touching the ceiling.
If the roof hadn’t limited his movement, Ryan was certain he could have jumped even higher with his full strength.
His eyes widened slightly. ’Its like a Metamorphosis, A caterpillar becoming a butterfly...’
The image suddenly came to mind.
The difference between an ordinary person and a Bloodline Fighter was much the same. One was bound to the earth, while the other had the power to break free of those chains and soar beyond the limits imposed upon them.
If one failed to cross this threshold, then no matter how hard they struggled, they could only remain at the mercy of those who stood above them.
But once one crossed it, the world suddenly became much larger.
Ryan slowly landed. He knew just how significant this transformation was.
Most of the commoners who had graduated from the Welfare Institute alongside him had possessed such poor aptitude that they could not awaken a Bloodline at all.
The elimination rate was conservatively estimated to be above ninety-nine percent.
In other words, for every hundred ordinary people who attempted to awaken, only a tiny fraction could successfully cross that threshold.
And now, at twenty years old, after already being considered a hopeless case for years, Ryan had actually awakened a Bloodline.
Although he had relied on the Burning Blood Pill to accomplish it, his luck was still astonishing.
Of course, there had been exceptional individuals among his fellow students.
Some commoners possessed extraordinary innate aptitude and could naturally awaken their Bloodlines without relying on expensive pills.
The moment they awakened, they would often be recruited by major forces and provided with abundant cultivation resources.
Ryan had once envied those people. He had watched them walk farther and farther ahead while he remained trapped at the bottom.
But now... He no longer needed to envy them.
His Bloodline was only D-grade Ordinary. His starting point was also far later than theirs.
But he possessed something they didn’t. The Boundless Creation Furnace. As long as the Furnace continued to create resources, Ryan could continuously strengthen himself.
Even a weak Bloodline could become powerful if enough resources were poured into it.
Ryan’s gaze gradually hardened. Perhaps he had started late. Perhaps his Bloodline was weak.
But neither of those things meant his future was limited.
"Then I’ll just cultivate harder than everyone else." He clenched his fist.
As long as he continued accumulating resources and slowly strengthened his Spider Bloodline, there was no reason a latecomer like him couldn’t eventually catch up.
And perhaps one day... This seemingly weak D-grade Ordinary Spider Bloodline would become something that no one dared to underestimate.
Ryan also knew some of the strength realms used to measure Bloodline Fighters. The instructors at the Bloodline Institute had explained them during their lessons, though Ryan had only been taught about the lower three realms.
He knew very little about the realms beyond them.
From lowest to highest, the three realms he was familiar with were:
[Origin Sea Convergence Realm] [Origin Spirit Realm] [Origin Ascendant Realm]
The Origin Sea Convergence Realm was divided into nine stages, while the Origin Spirit Realm and every realm above it were divided into four smaller stages:
[Early Stage] [Middle Stage] [Late Stage] [Peak Stage]
However, strength realms were only one part of what determined a Bloodline Fighter’s true power.
In the Verdant Realm, there was one subject that could never be ignored.
Bloodline.
Throughout the countless years of the Verdant Realm’s history, countless mysterious and extraordinary Bloodlines had emerged.
Despite their vast differences, Bloodlines generally possessed three fundamental characteristics:
[Inheritance] [Mutation] [Randomness]
Inheritance meant that Bloodlines could be passed down through generations.
If a family had produced individuals with powerful Bloodlines in previous generations, their descendants would naturally have a much greater chance of awakening similarly powerful Bloodlines.
This gave the descendants of powerful families an advantage that ordinary people could hardly hope to match.
However, inheritance was never absolute.
Bloodlines could also mutate.
Although a descendant had a high chance of inheriting the Bloodline of their parents or ancestors, there was always a small possibility that their Bloodline would undergo a mutation and manifest as something entirely different.
A family that had produced fire-based Bloodlines for generations might suddenly give birth to a descendant capable of controlling lightning.
A family known for powerful physical Bloodlines might produce a child with an entirely different ability.
Such deviations were rare, but they were far from impossible.
Then there was the most unpredictable characteristic of all; randomness.
No matter how exceptional a family’s Bloodline was, there was always a chance that their descendants would fail to awaken a Bloodline altogether.
Conversely, even a family that had gone generations without producing a single Bloodline Fighter could suddenly give birth to a child capable of awakening one.
After all, if one traced humanity’s history far enough back, it was possible that countless people throughout the Verdant Realm shared distant common ancestors. Over tens of thousands of years, different bloodlines had spread, mixed, mutated, and branched off in countless directions.
Because of this, even someone born into the poorest and most ordinary family still possessed a faint possibility of awakening a Bloodline.
The odds were simply far lower than those of descendants from powerful families with exceptional Bloodlines passed down through generations.
This was the randomness of Bloodline awakening.
It was also the reason Bloodline Fighters were so revered throughout the Verdant Realm.
For an ordinary person, awakening a Bloodline could completely change the course of their life.
It was the difference between remaining powerless beneath the heel of others and gaining the strength to determine one’s own fate.
Naturally, countless people dreamed of becoming Bloodline Fighters.
Ryan had also learned from the instructors at the Welfare Institute that a Bloodline’s potential was measured by its grade when it was first awakened.
Generally speaking, the higher the Bloodline grade, the greater its overall potential and abilities.
Even among Bloodline Fighters at the same strength realm, someone possessing a higher-grade Bloodline would usually have a significant advantage.
Bloodline suppression was one of the most important factors that allowed powerful Bloodline Fighters to challenge opponents above their own realm.
A Bloodline with extraordinary abilities could compensate for a considerable difference in strength, allowing its wielder to display combat power far beyond what their cultivation alone should permit.
Bloodline grades were divided into seven major grades, from lowest to highest:
[D] [C] [B] [A] [S] [SS] [SSS]
The first four, D, C, B, and A, were considered the four lower grades, while S, SS, and SSS were considered the three higher grades.
Each major grade was further divided into three tiers based on the overall strength and potential of the Bloodline:
[Ordinary Tier] [Excellent Tier] [Top Tier]
Most people, upon their initial awakening, possessed Bloodlines in the D-grade Ordinary Tier or C-grade Ordinary Tier.
Those with exceptional natural aptitude were much rarer.
Some youths possessed such extraordinary Bloodline talent that they did not even require the assistance of Awakening Pills. The moment their Bloodlines awakened, they could directly reach the B-grade.
As for those capable of awakening an A-grade or even S-grade Bloodline from the very beginning...
They were exceedingly rare.
Such individuals were genuine prodigies, monsters among monsters. Their appearance was so uncommon that an A-grade or S-grade initial awakening might occur only once among millions upon millions of people.
Of course, Bloodline grade was not the only thing that mattered.
There were also different types of Bloodlines.
The instructors at the Bloodline Institute had spent considerable time explaining them during their lectures, and Ryan had listened with particular interest.
Within the Crimson Expanse, Bloodlines were primarily divided into five major categories.
The countless Bloodlines that existed throughout the world could ultimately be classified under one of these five types, though the individual abilities and variations within each category were virtually impossible to enumerate.
The five major Bloodline types were:
[Transformation Type] [Object Control Type] [Enhancement Type] [Lifeform Type] [Special Type]
Each type possessed its own strengths and weaknesses.
As Bloodline Fighters grew stronger, they would generally devote themselves to developing their abilities according to the nature of their Bloodline.
Transformation Type Bloodlines allowed their users to transform their Origin Sea into different elemental or attribute-based forms.
Fire. Water. Wind.
These transformed forces could then be wielded directly in battle.
At higher realms, some Transformation Type Bloodlines could even use their Origin Sea to assimilate surrounding objects possessing the same attribute, temporarily incorporating them into their attacks.
The possibilities were almost endless, and their manifestations varied greatly from one Bloodline to another.
However, this type placed extremely high demands on one’s strength realm.
Transformation Type Bloodline Fighters also relied heavily on powerful combat artifacts and secret treasures to maximize their abilities.
They were particularly formidable in close-to-mid-range combat.
Object Control Type Bloodlines granted their users extraordinary control over specific materials or objects.
Some could manipulate metals.
Others could control paper, glass, stone, or other specialized materials.
As their strength increased, they could also refine exclusive control artifacts that allowed them to continuously expand the limits of their Bloodline abilities.
This type placed tremendous demands on one’s strength realm and Mental Awareness.
The quality of their combat artifacts was equally important.
A powerful Object Control Type Bloodline Fighter, armed with the right artifacts, could manipulate objects from a considerable distance and overwhelm enemies without ever allowing them to approach.
As a result, this type excelled in long-range combat.
Enhancement Type Bloodlines focused on strengthening the user’s own body.
Some could harden the skin until it became tougher than steel.
Others could strengthen the bones, muscles, claws, hair, or even individual parts of the body.
The possibilities varied from Bloodline to Bloodline.
Enhancement Type Bloodline Fighters placed enormous emphasis on physical strength and often followed paths similar to traditional body refiners.
They generally relied less on combat artifacts and secret treasures than other Bloodline Fighters.
Once they closed the distance with an opponent, however, their physical prowess made them extremely dangerous.
They excelled in close-quarters combat.
Lifeform Type Bloodlines allowed their users to access the innate abilities of specific lifeforms.
A Bloodline might grant someone the abilities of a spider, allowing them to produce powerful webs.
Another might grant the senses and physical characteristics of a direwolf.
Yet another might manifest the properties of a thorn-based lifeform.
Unlike most other Bloodline types, a single Lifeform Type Bloodline could possess multiple supernatural abilities derived from its source.
Depending on the lifeform involved, these abilities could specialize in close, mid, or long-range combat.
Among the five major categories, Lifeform Type Bloodlines were therefore exceptionally diverse.
Then there was the final category.
Special Type.
Even the instructors at the Welfare Institute knew very little about Special Type Bloodlines.
They were considered the most mysterious, and, according to some accounts, the most terrifying, Bloodlines in existence.
Ryan had only heard fragments of information about them.
According to ancient legends, every person who awakened a Special Type Bloodline was destined to become an extraordinary figure.
Some even claimed that such individuals were children of destiny, people whose existence was somehow connected to the world’s own fortune.
It was said that their actions could subtly influence the course of history itself.
Whether those legends were true or merely exaggerated stories passed down through generations, Ryan had no way of knowing.
But there was one thing he understood clearly.
The deeper he looked into the world of Bloodlines, the more he realized just how vast it truly was.