Most people like to believe they're in control of their lives, that choices matter more than chance.
Edwin Marsh is such a person. He always liked to be in control, to prepare a set of rules and regulations for everything that he partook in from morning to day's end. That was his life, his life right up until fate decided to intervene without asking his permission.
Out on the open road, a black sedan slowed, then executed a sudden U-turn,its destination abandoned before it was ever reached.
Beyond Hexwill's expectations, beyond even Gregory's sight, Edwin Marsh was now heading straight toward Hexwill's mansion.
His intent had never tasted so bitter and sour.
"Turn around, Paul. Back to the mansion," Edwin ordered.
His eyes remained fixed on the translucent system interface hovering before him, its glow reflecting in, his pupils twisted with resentment.
Ding!
[Signs of spiritual energy eruption detected!]
Ding!
[Error! System rank too low to absorb Breath of the World.]
Description:
[Breath of the World — the primordial essence released prior to a planet's merging process with an Elder Realm.]
Emergency Quest Issued!
[Absorb a system that has successfully absorbed the Breath of the World.]
Time Limit: 24 hours, 2 minutes, 16 seconds
Reward: [Advance one major cultivation realm]
Punishment: [Death]
Edwin's jaw tightened.
This… this was exactly what I tried to avoid.
Fate truly had a cruel sense of humor, playing chess with mortals and ghosts alike.
Edwin knew the truth all too well. Within twenty-four hours' reach, there was only one system capable of meeting the quest's condition.
Hexwill's!
Which meant that when the countdown ended, only one of them would still be breathing.
Yet even as bitterness gnawed at him, excitement flared.
Every system-holder knew the that the awakened realm was the limit on Earth. A hard ceiling imposed by Earth's thin spiritual energy and incomplete cultivation paths. Beyond that point, progress was impossible.
Or so they thought! What was he seeing right now! Was this real?
Although many still hoped that their system would allow them to break this limit, most systems were too low in rank to oppose this rule. Theories on how to break this limit was always a hot topic among the upper echelon of the old families. Two in particular were well received and discussed by the families.
One was to find a way to increase spiritual gradient on earth while the other was to raise one's own system to the Sovereign rank and raise one's realm via completing quests.The first one was utterly impossible since even the spirit gathering formations granted by the systems could not gather spiritual energy that does not exist. The second method however had already been tried.
Rumors about it were all over the upper echelons. All including a certain old family.
The Grimblade family!
Old as systems had existed on Earth. For your information, that is a very long time as systems could easy be linked to every thriving civilization that has existed on earth.
To put it into context, wherever civilizations reached a peak in the past, there were records that stopped explaining how things happened. Those gaps, that are repeated across continents and eras, were the earliest shadows of systems at work.
For example. In ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, there were many inscriptions that spoke of royal enforcers who did not age normally and of rebellions that ended before any army moved. Impossible engineering feats, sudden political stability, individuals whose existence embarrassed the limits of contemporary understanding and many more!
Even though those days were gone, records still remained. It was also through these records that the conjecture of increasing spiritual energy may enable them to breakthrough. That was because the things recorded were just too nonsensical to be feats done by mear awakened mortals.
Now you can imagine just how old of a family the Grimblades were, since they were the first descendants of man who were acknowledged by the system.
Back to the rumors.
It was said that the entire Grimblade family had been purged after their last patriarch, Titus Grimblade, went on a rampage hunting system users indiscriminately.
The rumors also claimed that Titus's system had even reached the legendary Sovereign rank! That is after he wiped out nearly three-quarters of the system users on Earth of course.Yet even so, he still died while attempting to break through to the next realm, making it apparent that a sovereign ranked system still needed abundant spiritual energy to aid taking that last step.
'It had been a gamble on Titus's part.' Edwin thought
For if he had succeeded, the Grimblade family would have risen as the de facto leaders of humanity.
But he failed,and in the end, his entire bloodline paid the price. An entire family whose bloodline goes back to literally the start of human civilization.
That was also why Edwin had been so shocked when Hexwill revealed that he had tracked down one surviving member of the Grimblade family. At the time, even Edwin couldn't help feeling overwhelmed by the thought of a Sovereign-rank system.
However Edwin was not naive,and he knew very well that Hexwill had only shared the secret with him in order to use him as a deterrent against the other families. But that didn't matter to him. Edwin still found himself fantasizing about killing Hexwill and taking that power all for himself.
In the end however, it was all for nothing.
The child truly was a Grimblade, and there was no mistaking the bloodline signature,but it had already been exhausted by the time Edwin examined him. Worse still, the boy possessed no system at all. Let alone a sovereign ranked system.
'Maybe that's why he's still alive', Edwin wondered, his thoughts recoiling back to the system reward.
Advancing a major realm…!
What did that mean?Wouldn't that make him the strongest existence on Earth?
Like the Titus that never was?
Edwin's pulse quickened.
After his advancement, what consequence could he possibly fear?
Visions bloomed in his eyes, ambition flairing like a forest fire during the summer heat. world domination whispered sweetly in his mind.
The major families stripped bare by his own hands, their systems absorbed one by one. Power stacking upon power.
He could almost taste the new system functions awaiting him.
By then, he would only grow stronger while the rest of the world withered
And perhaps,just perhaps,after consuming every system...
His own system might ascend to the legendary Sovereign Rank.
Edwin exhaled slowly,calming his beating heart.
"I have to plan this carefully," he muttered. "There can be no mistakes. No damm mistakes!"
A moment later, he spoke again. "Paul."
"Yes, sir?"
"Change of plans, paul. Enter the town instead of heading straight to Hexwill's mansion."
He couldn't risk appearing there without warning. Not yet. Hexwill may pick up on something.
Hexwill would question it right there and then.
And Edwin couldn't be sure of one critical thing.
And that was...
Whether Hexwill… had received the same quest as him or not!