Ebony's Fable

Inviting the two Saintesses walking the mortal lands into his house, they looked the same as always.

Not in any battle gear. Shi Tao wore a black, semi-modernised Chinese Hanfu with silver embroidery featuring the Shi Clan Emblem, the tortoise.

The Ning Saintess wore a solid coloured cheongsam with a Crane embroidered. It was clearly not meant for comfortable movement, but it probably didn't matter to the highly evolved mind mage.

Sitting on the sofa, he led them with his wife nodding in greetings. Her hands and mouth were too busy stuffing herself like a chipmunk.

"Good evolution. That fire is better now." Ning Saintess commented before anything else.

Aunt Shi Tao was surprisingly…quiet.

"What was the lashback from telling us what we weren't supposed to know?"

"Just a pathetic Godling."

"What's that?" Xin asked without thinking.

Asking more wasn't exactly kind to these Saintesses.

Knowledge was dangerous.

"Hmm…It's like a God split itself into many parts because there is too much concept for one entity to hold. In that sense, the God of Knowledge is one of the mightiest. There is close to no knowledge concept that is not under their purview. The concept of knowledge is one of the vastest concepts. The concept of war can't even hold a candle, yet there are multiple Gods of War. But there is only 1 God of Knowledge.

However, to handle all that knowledge they had split themselves into Gods and Demi-Gods. Yes, even every Demi-God of Knowledge is technically the God of Knowledge Themselves. A Spirit life form. You could say that Eidolon is the product of the God of Knowledge, a servant. Pathetic right? To handle the concept. They had to split themselves up, no longer an individual. No longer a Self. Only concept. The backlash for Ah Tao destroying a book in the Boundless Library was that she destroyed the very concept of the book's contents, which will never be recovered as they were. The librarian God of Mischief retaliated, and I had my mind flooded with images of cats. All cats that have existed in the history of this universe. Or at least, They tried to. It was rather bothersome."

"I see." Ebony had his confusion settled with the explanation. But to have one's mind infected with the image and moving memories of all the cats that existed through space and time was rather ridiculous. That would make anyone's mind turn effectively dead.

"The God of Mischief is also the God of Knowledge, hence, Godling. Despite being one God, they are separate entities. Separate souls. Bond by Concept and Law."

"And Aunt Tao?"

"Targeted attacks. I faced a mind attack trying to brainwash me and turn me into a fool. She is facing a life of peace. No battle. No training. No Destruction."

"No training?"

"None. The Concept of Training has twisted for her. If she trains, she will get weaker. All her past opponents turned peaceful, her family members hate battle. If she touches a broken table now, she'll fix it. All in her mind. Her body is unaffected, and reality hasn't been altered, she walked here on instinct."

"How horrifying. Can that happen for real?" Ebony couldn't even imagine how terrible that would be. Unlike the Ning Saintess, Shi Tao was not a mind mage. She hadn't broken free from the curse of knowledge. The knowledge of mischief.

The Ning Saintess completely ignore him. Looks like the answer was a yes or find out yourself situation.

"Anyway, my dear descendant's evolution…" The Ning Saintess walked to the window and uttered, "Turtle, get over here."

"Hmph, they're shy." The Ning Saintess caught something that catapulted towards their house.

"That…heartblood essence." His wife saw the giant bead and identified it immediately. Her heart started pulsing loudly.

"The Turtle…Tree chose to gather all their sisters' pieces." The bead of heartblood essence could not fit through his window and door but the Ning Saintess magically brought it in. It was similar or the same as how the Third Gen Ning could teleport or move by mana displacement.

The effect was simple enough for anyone to copy. All they had to do was store the bead in their Myriad Bracelet and take it back out inside his house. The issue of having furniture too large to enter doors was not an issue at all with space magic.

"First up, let's talk about your heritage. We are friendly with the True Vampires for the First sees the Blood Saintess as an equal. Your father is of the Nosferan race. They originated from the True Vampires. No matter how thin, it means you have compatibility with this." Without their consent and ignoring any reflexes, the Ning Saintess dragged out the barrels of Her blood out from Xin's bracelet.

'I need to get better bracelets after all.' Ebony didn't have any complaints with their functions but this lady was too powerful, simply extracting something from their spatial storage when it was supposedly bonded to them and didn't allow others to open it up without significant intrusive methods.

"No matter your compatibility. Chances are, you will die if you take Her blood. We have tried to dilute it, but it would make no difference to a Grandmaster. Her Blood is Divine."

"Is she not a Saint?" Xin mumbled while analysing the heartblood essence up and down. She even stopped eating to drool over her new food item.

"This is mere speculation on my part. I have no proof. The only reason she is a mere Saint, is because she can't evolve without dying from the sheer amount of Potential, she has collected over, I'm not even sure how long."

"Wrong. She drank too many Gods' blood. Her stats are so high her soul will pop the moment she evolves. She'd been abstaining from drinking for the past two million years to strengthen her soul."

'2 million years old…' Ebony didn't know how to react to the person cutting into their conversation. The voice was a bit…similar to his mother's in tone, to be honest. He had been slightly caught off guard. Was the First of the Xeng from the Shi Clan too?

Needless to say, Xin's ability to gain stats from drinking blood originated from the Blood Saintess.

To what end?

The end seemed to be having stats so high that one can't evolve without having a soul too weak to fill its container.

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How will that cause a soul to pop?

He would have to study.

"Regardless. Her Blood contains concepts, and more importantly, the key to Divinity. Numen, in broader terms Faith. Fortunately, you my descendant already have it. We noticed during your proposal duel." The Ning Saintess ignored that she was corrected by the First.

"She does?" Ebony didn't know what this key to Divinity or Numen was, but he did make a connection when he heard faith. The Altarbound Kin.

"The majority of the Divinity of the True Vampires lies within Lilith; the exception are held by the True Vampire's Gods. Make no mistake, She is Lilith Modred the First. The originator of vampires. She merely chose a few of her followers to turn into vampires and bestowed them Godhood. You could say she's the Godliest Saint in the universe."

"As I was saying, this is more dangerous than the Willshard Crystal by unimaginable magnitudes." The Ning Saintess was not perturbed by the interruption.

"So I'll be unimaginably more powerful right?" Xin poked his cheeks unnecessarily hard.

"That's not the takeaway. I was about to die." Ebony waved his hands in front of his wife to block her view of the heartblood essence and barrels of blood.

"Psh, you don't have to be worried or insecure. Let your wife protect you in future."

"…" Teasing aside, it was not his place to block her personal path of evolution.

What came next was an explanation about how she was supposed to use the materials they had.

All the given materials and ingredients that Ebony found will have to be eaten, even if they were rocks, she would have to swallow. These couldn't be placed in her bloodbath as the blood would likely dissolve or consume every bit of energy that was useful. Thankfully, no rock eating was required as they already made it into a potion.

"Besides your compatibility for being a descendant of the Nosferan race, this Heartblood Essence will be your clutch. Your saving grace." The Ning Saintess took the gluttonous solar blooded phoenix's heartblood essence back into her hands like taking candy from a baby.

Xin pouted in annoyance that she let 'food' out of her grasp.

"The Life Grafter is an odd one but, his greatest creations are not bad. Now, this was not given to you out of malice, but there are indeed hopes of a certain Phoenix's revival."

"I know. It is a bet. A challenge." Xin replied seriously.

"Indeed. Phoenixes have gone into hiding for millions of years." The Ning Saintess continued. "You would have to consume each other and see who comes out on top. Use each other and see who revives. Either way, the phoenix would revive in some fashion, so feel free to eat her up good."

"Coincidentally, Lillith is the culprit. She loved phoenix blood more than anything else, and the entire race went into hiding ever since. It's almost miraculous that a pure phoenix egg escaped their clutches. No wonder her familiar found a liking to you."

It did not bode well to have his wife look like a tasty treat for an existence that birthed Gods.

'As expected, the phoenix really has a chance of reviving through Xin's body if she consumes all of the heartblood essence.' Ebony got more and more curious about what to feel about Ful.

No malice?

The Tree Spirit was changing, directing both of their growth significantly.

Xin was to dump the heartblood essence into the bloodbath with her.

"The most bountiful concepts within Her blood are Blood, Charm, Night, Regeneration, Exalted and to a lesser degree, Shapeshifting. These will strongly affect your Potential towards these areas."

They were informed that the Blood Saintess held over 90% of all the concepts of Blood in the universe. Any creature with blood flowing in its veins could be said to be under her Domain and rule. As for Charm, the First, who seemed very curious about this conversation about her friend, speculated that she held over 50% of the universe's concept of charm. Making her, undeniably, the most charming entity in the universe by Law.

The Xengs are not exempt from becoming thralls if they see Her true figure.

At extreme degrees, Charm was a strong mental and spirit-based offence and defence.

"You skipped over Exalted." Ebony listened to the humble bragging from the First about how the Blood Saintess also controlled more than half of all the concepts of Night that exist in the universe and slightly under half for Regeneration. The voice seemed very proud of showing off her friend's achievements or strength.

"The race she birthed made that Concept and forced it onto her. It is utterly useless in battle. All it does is make her feel mightier, which is moot with her power."

Then the Ning Saintess gave her descendant more specific instructions about the energy she was being supplied with by the Altarbound Kin and how it could help her retain her Self during the evolution.

In the meantime, Ebony was directly addressed.

"Hey, Shi Wu's son. Hmm being born on Earth held your early growth back…no matter, you are made of good stuff. Give me something to look forward to. Perhaps fate is messing with me again, for your wife to have gained Lillith's attention was unexpected. Hah, I'm overthinking it. You're the one getting messed with."

"The First, right? What was my mother like?"

"Didn't Tao tell you? Shi Wu was who I believed could have been my rival. Damned shame I tell ya. Then she had you."

"Aunt Tao tells me she passed. Where is her mask?"

"Nowhere. She is dead."

"What about the Rime Tribe?"

"We will invite you if you're strong enough. I'll leave a crumb for you."

That answered nothing.

"Address me the instant you get any reaction speaking of that Tribe in future."

"Ha ha. Seems like I'm the one who will decide to invite you or not." Ebony might not understand her vague reply, but he understood that he was the bait for any mention of Rime Tribe.

"Good. You have guts."

"Thanks for the wedding gift, we like it a lot."

"Let's make a bet." She changed the subject.

Ebony waited, this person seemed to know his or perhaps his mother's patterns. They simply stayed silent and waited for a continuation instead of replying.

"Whether you call for help before we find you."

"What are we betting?"

"How about one of your Unique Skills against one of mine. If you survive till we find you, I'll give you one of my Unique Skills of my choosing. If you have more than one by then, you pick one of yours to give me."

"Unique Skills can be given?" Ebony had to make sure he wasn't hearing things.

"I can rip out the concept of the skill."

"Start thinking which one you're going to gift me."

"Ha! I can just create another one."

"What do you mean by the concept of the skill? Does it exist if the skill is below Tier 7?"

"They won't pay any attention to you till you show signs of conceptual usage." The First answered his question in a roundabout way. Telling him that by the time the Rime even notices him, it was probably when he had already shown signs of using concepts.

"So that's my time limit. I accept the bet."

He packed up and they returned to Xin's maiden home in Xienor. It didn't even take a minute with the Ning Saintess fetching them.

Hoarfrost Glades was Ebony's evolutionary home, and Xienor were the Xengs.

Sadly, Kong Jing was not around for her cousin this time around.

But this time, Ebony was aware of how to adjust and place the materials around her room while she evolved. The room itself should be sufficient…Ebony took a look at the barrels of blood and voiced his concerns.

The Ning Saintess nodded at his concern and called for a Xu craftsman. It would take some time for them to return to Xienor, just enough for his wife's feast to continue.