Return of the Mythic Bloodline

Chapter 475: Quest changed

"Hah... I have finally absorbed it," I released a tired sigh, feeling my whole body go numb.

Around me, half of the room on my left was frozen solid, with thick sheets of ice covering everything. The other side had turned scorched black, burned by the extreme heat from the repeated release of my yang energy during the breakthroughs.

Ding...

"Congratulations! You have successfully absorbed the Primordial Yin Essence of the Goddess of Winter and Snow.

All Yin-based skills have increased by two levels."

"Congratulations! You have unlocked a new skill, Extreme Yin Transformation!

Description: A legendary transformation that can only be accessed by cultivators possessing the Extreme Yin or Yin-Yang attribute.

Upon activation;

1. All Yin skills will be temporarily increased by two levels.

2. The host can—"

Before I could read further, another screen appeared above the previous one, with a message written in bold letters upon it.

"Alert! The details of Doomsday Quest #2 have been changed!

Doomsday Quest #2: The Boss Monster of the San Francisco Dungeon Break has wreaked havoc upon the city. Stop it before it leaves the city.

Status: Pending

Reward on completion:

1. Skill: Soul Conjuration level up

2. New Skill: Extreme Yang Transformation

3. Next quest in the series.

Penalty on failure: Termination of the entire series."

"Eh? You can’t just change the quest conditions on a whim," I said with a frown, rising to my feet.

As I opened the room’s door, my head hit the translucent energy barrier cast around the entire room. From the point where my head bumped into the barrier, it slowly vanished, dissolving into thin air.

It had been cast by Ume to make sure I would not be disturbed inside the room and also would not bring down the entire house with my continuous bursts of energy.

"Oh, you are done with your breakthr—dear heavens! You have already reached the peak of the Awakened Sage Realm!?" Ume gasped, her eyes widening in shock. She and Nymeria were sitting on the sofa in the hall outside the room. The sofa was placed facing the opposite side, where a television was mounted on the wall.

"What kind of heavenly treasure did you absorb inside to ascend so many levels in such a short time?" Nymeria asked, turning around with her chin resting on the back of the sofa.

A grin appeared on my lips as I answered with a bow, "Thanks for giving me the heavenly treasure, Your Highness."

"Huh!? What do you mea—" Her face turned beet red as she realized what I was implying. She had already seen me breaking through previously during the process, so she understood the reason behind my sudden increase in realm.

"Hehe, so you realized," I said in a teasing tone.

"Shut up," she muttered, slowly sinking lower into the sofa so I could no longer see her.

I would have teased her more, but I needed to check into the sudden change in the quest and what exactly had occurred there.

I walked into the hall, where Ume and Nymeria were completely immersed in a Korean romantic drama.

’Is this why they didn’t even come to check on me when I came out?’ I muttered inwardly, my brows furrowing.

"Nymeria, have you seen my phone?" I asked, noticing it was absent from the table where I had placed it before entering the room.

She flinched upon hearing my question. Turning her eyes sideways, she answered in a suspiciously low, suppressed tone,

"No, I haven’t."

"Sigh... what disaster have you brought upon me this time?" I asked, facepalming. Just from her guilty tone, I could tell she had played around with my phone again and caused trouble with it.

"H-hey, that’s rude!" Nymeria snapped, still unable to meet my eyes. "When have I ever brought a disaster before?"

Even she felt ridiculous saying those words, obviously aware of the incidents from before.

"I promise I will not get angry," I said in a coaxing tone, forming a smile. "Now tell me, where is my phone?"

"Hmph, as if I’m scared of you," she hissed, giving me side glances. There were no lies in her voice this time.

She turned her focus back to the TV and muttered, "Don’t disturb me now. Shoo, shoo."

My eyes narrowed as I noticed something hidden beneath her.

"Hmm, I must have lost it in the city," I sighed, pretending to move away.

Just as I reached the back of the sofa, I slipped my hands beneath her arms and suddenly lifted her up.

"Kyaaa! What are you doi—"

"Oho, look what we have here," I said with a smirk as my phone was revealed beneath her.

"Th-that’s..." Nymeria was left speechless. She had been caught completely red-handed.

I hoisted her onto my shoulder and leaned down to grab the phone.

"No! Don’t touch it!" Nymeria shouted, struggling wildly in my grasp to break free. However, unlike before, the difference between our physical stats was no longer overwhelming. I held her tightly in my arms.

"What are you trying to hide?" I asked as I finally picked up the phone.

The phone had my Face ID registered, so it was completely locked. There were only two things she could access from the lock screen.

The first was the keypad for the call logs. She could not have possibly called anyone or received any calls either, since I had put the phone on airplane mode before entering secluded cultivation. It was still on flight mode.

So the other option was...

I opened the phone’s gallery, and there I found it. A treasure that not even an ancient artifact could hold a candle to.

Hundreds of close-up shots of Nymeria’s face in countless adorable expressions. She looked like a curious little white mouse staring into the screen with wide eyes.

For the first thirty images, the shots were random, as if she had been trying to figure out how the camera worked. The rest showed her making pouts, blowing kisses, smiling like a small child, blinking at the camera, and flashing V signs.

The moment she realized my grip around her waist had loosened, she jumped off me and snatched the phone from my hand, her face crimson with both embarrassment and anger.

"I will destroy this accursed thing!" she shouted, raising the phone high above her head. However, she froze midway as her eyes landed on my rosy face.

I was completely overwhelmed by the absolute cuteness I had just witnessed. My entire system had crashed.

The number of times I had blushed in front of Nymeria could be counted on the fingers of one hand, so she was a little taken aback.

"What is with that stupid look on your face?" she muttered softly, poking my cheeks.

"O-oh, I was just overloaded by cuteness," I answered, my voice filled with awe as I finally snapped out of my daze.

"Hmph, what’s cute about these heinous paintings?" she retorted, shoving the phone back into my hand. "Burn these paintings," she added emptily, turning her attention back to the television.

I selected all the pictures and saved them to the cloud so I would not accidentally lose them.

After that, I turned off flight mode and opened the news channel to get updates about San Francisco.

It had been over fourteen hours since I entered closed-door cultivation. America should have already nuked the city eight hours ago.

Was it not enough to kill that Death Knight? Or had the rift still not stabilized?

While I was lost in thought, a live video appeared on my feed with the title:

"Union of the World’s Strongest Awakeners: Hunting the First SSS Monster in San Francisco.

Live: 110 million"

"What?" I muttered, my brows twitching as I clicked on the video.

A distorted recording from ground level appeared on the screen, accompanied by the sound of heavy breathing flowing in and out. Ruins and debris littered the surroundings.

At the front stood a dark figure covered in several cracks, its eyes burning with tails of blue flames.

But what shocked me even more was the person barely standing before it. His entire body was covered in countless wounds, blood continuously dripping onto the ground. In his hand, he carried a massive crimson axe.

"Aryan... What the hell do you think you are doing!?" I muttered, tightening my grip on the phone.

"Ume, teleport me to San Francisco right now," I ordered urgently.

"What happened?" she asked, turning off the TV after noticing the urgency in my voice.

"My brother’s life is in danger. Please send me there immediately."

Both of them instantly jumped up from the sofa. With a swing of her arm, Ume moved the table away from the center of the room and began engraving a circular pattern onto the floor with her finger.

"Please hurry," I urged, my eyes fixed on the screen where Aryan was fiercely battling the Death Knight one-on-one.

For short distances spanning only a few kilometers, Ume could teleport directly without the need for an array. However, for long-distance travel, she needed to create an array and know the exact coordinates of the destination.

Within a couple of minutes, she completed the array, and I stepped into its center.

"I created it in haste, so it can only teleport one person," she explained. "We will catch up to you soon. Please be careful."

"I will," I nodded.

She poured her Soulforce into the array. Its patterns glowed with a mystical pink hue, releasing a pillar of energy upward that engulfed me completely.

The scenery before my eyes distorted, and in the next moment, I found myself standing atop the ruins of a destroyed building.