Chapter 287
The sea breeze howled. In the distance, the storm churned like a massive cylinder—slow and relentless, veined with arcs of electricity.
Zhang Yao floated in midair, struggling to contain the fractures spreading through his mind-spirit.
Father. The word had not crossed his mind in far, far too long.
Back then, he had only managed to escape the Royal City and shed his identity as an illegitimate child thanks to Eldest's help.
From childhood to adulthood, the fear of his father had seeped deep into his bones. It lingered even after he became a Mistborn—and becoming a Mistborn only deepened his understanding of just how terrifying his father truly was.
In theory, a Mistborn's power was an enhanced version of a Blood Ancestor's. They, too, could devour external sources to grow stronger. However, most external targets offered little worth consuming, and martial arts techniques yielded even less. Very few, therefore, chose to devour directly. Even the more aggressive Mistborn would simply cultivate Blood Ancestors to devour large numbers of experts on their behalf, then effortlessly reap the harvest once it was ripe.
The fundamental reason was simple: the returns for a Mistborn devouring prey directly were abysmally low.
But this did not apply to his father.
His father had once been dispatched to suppress the largest abyssal rift in Federation history. From teetering on the brink of death to frantically devouring everything in his path, he had grown exponentially stronger. Nearly ten thousand years had passed since then. No one knew what heights he had reached.