Chapter 48: Returning to Ancestral Roots

Excitement…
Neo felt tremors spreading through him from within, as if he were being eroded by extreme cold or immersed in hot springs. Even his lips trembled involuntarily.
For the first time, Neo experienced the impact of power burning within his consciousness. Within his body, dark forces reached a new level of activity. The cause was the activated ancestral imprints in his bloodline—combat energy, wolf transformation, intense emotions between life and death. Some kind of sealing constraint was unexpectedly yet logically undone.
The evil beasts were converging on Neo’s location. Without a commander, they were true desperados.
Neo paid no mind. Just a few seconds later, the despair he had endured before vanished entirely. Energy formed a highly unusual phenomenon on his body: blue water light, green life light, and orange flame light. These three colors intertwined and merged into white light. Yet, the highly activated dark forces became the dominant tone, resulting in a color akin to that of a silver fox—dark and shiny base with silver tips. This light rippled as his body moved, as if he were clad in a robe woven from night and moonlight.
The emotional glow faded from Neo’s eyes, leaving only a fierce intensity. He entered a special state of transcendence, where his sense of smell, hearing, vision, and tactile perception seemed to merge. As a result, the world he “saw” changed—into a world of only flowing light. There was floating light in the air, and the cliffs beneath his feet emitted a relatively steady cold light. The evil beasts charging at him were also made of light—chaotic yet fiercely burning masses of light.
The concept of casting spells seemed to no longer exist, or rather, it became extremely simple. Different attributes of power and different colors of light were readily available to him. First, his sharp claws and toes changed—thanks to the petrification technique, they acquired a crystalline luster and texture. Then, flame energy was added, resulting in golden-crystal claws with a green tint that formed in an instant as he took a step forward.
Faced with an evil beast charging head-on, Neo, moving like a beast along the wall on all fours, lunged out with a growl. With a single strike from his front claws, he pressed the beast’s head and upper body into the stone wall, just as a bear slams a flying pheasant to the ground—severing the beast’s momentum.
Another beast charging at him was about to collide with Neo when suddenly, a shadow of his arm appeared, delivering a powerful blow. Amidst the loud crashing sound and a burst of blood mist, the nearly 200-pound beast was flung sideways nearly 20 meters before plunging into the abyss.
Bang! Bang! Bang! On Neo’s other side, three evil beasts converged from three directions in a sharp arrow shape, slamming into Neo’s arm, waist, and hips.
But before that could happen, Neo’s body transformed into obsidian-like substance after a burst of light—thanks to the Dark Stone Skin technique, his body became obsidian.
With that impact, Neo rolled sideways, carrying along a large amount of rock caught by his claws.

Amidst this tumbling, three lightning balls were sent forth from Neo’s claws—Dark Thunder Balls. The evil beasts hit by them did not glow with electricity; instead, as the lightning balls vanished, dark purple and dark blue electrical flames erupted from within, reaching a diameter of over 3 meters. After that brief flash, the evil beasts were reduced to charred remnants.

As Neo continued tumbling and had yet to land, evil beasts leaped up from the other side. In midair, their scythe-like claws swung repeatedly, but only left scratches about 1 centimeter deep on Neo’s body. His blazing white claws, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound as they sliced through the air, tore the evil beasts apart as if they had been cut by four massive swords.

Neo was falling! In just that short time, he had descended more than 30 meters. With a screeching friction sound and flying debris and sparks, deep scratches appeared on the cliff face. Using both hands and feet, Neo charged upward like a wild beast.

Boom! With a loud explosion, one of the evil beasts was sent flying upward.

Boom! A massive shockwave rippled outward from the point of impact, like ripples in water. The evil beast hit by the blast not only had its flesh explode at the point of impact but also moved much more slowly. Neo’s other claw struck swiftly, tearing the beast into pieces amidst a cloud of blood.

Turning around, he grabbed the chest of an attacking beast as if lifting a chicken. A fierce flame burst from the palm of his claw, so bright that it was unbearable to look at. Then suddenly, it darkened. With a roar, dark red flames erupted and scattered, turning the beast into fragments. Flesh, bones, and debris rained down—this was the fierce and violent Dark Flame technique.

The evil beasts still charged fearlessly. Neo abandoned his quadrupedal stance and stood upright. Gravity seemed to no longer affect him; a 90-degree cliff appeared as flat ground. With each step he took, rocks shattered like crispy pastries, and his toes, now glowing white like magic crystals, were fully visible. The toes are among the hardest parts of the body to control in combat—usually, fighters can only gradually master using combat energy there starting from level 7.

Neo’s power continued to grow. The moonlight-like light on his body now had a burning effect, and mysterious magical patterns began to appear on his obsidian-like body surface, resembling symbols from some ancient rituals.

Sssss! Deep blue light shot out as Neo raised his hand, leaving ray-like trails in the air that lingered for a long time. On the other side, two charging evil beasts froze as if struck by Medusa’s gaze. Neo walked forward calmly. The moment the two ice sculptures passed by, he stretched out his arms, turning them into countless fragments that plummeted into darkness. In this technique, the shadow of ice arrows had faded away…

The highly active dark forces acted like an amplifying solvent, fusing the powers of various elements to unleash a uniquely powerful energy.Neo overcame his previous weakness and appeared before the evil beasts in a position of relative strength, with that relative strength rapidly turning into absolute power. In terms of combat prowess alone,Neo was advancing at a rate of 1/5 level per second. By the time he killed the last evil beast, he could already cause lava cracks with a radius of 7 meters in the rock walls with just one step. The magical patterns on his body were extremely clear, glowing with intense light, resembling pillars of fire as if he were a deity or demon.

“Neo, stop! You’re slipping into the abyss of dark magic!” Nancy warned again.

“But this feeling is great! I don’t feel any discomfort, and this increase in power isn’t at the cost of my life. It’s the legacy of my ancestors’ bloodline activating their powers. I never thought power could be used like this—direct, simple, and powerful! I seem to see my ancestors fighting—those Nisar hybrids, those vampires who believed in ancient times that we were only fit to be guardians or slaves doing menial work…”

“That’s right, everything you say is true! But do you know what price your ancestors, the Black-Mane Werewolves, paid for this?”

“What price? Whether in those times or later, they were revered, just like those great men with sacred titles. They fought to the last moment for the freedom of their races—they were true heroes!”Neo strode forward, images of his ancestor Seken constantly appearing in his mind. In that world filled with powerful warriors and countless heroes, during that magnificent era, Seken was one of the brightest stars, a true king of heroes.

“They gave everything! They had no access to all the good things in the world—only for strength!Neo, even if we ignore the completeness of life, think about what meaning there is today for a mere killing machine? Seken had divine guidance—what about you?”

“…”Neo stopped in his tracks. Nancy never exaggerated, and he himself lacked the resolve to give up everything for a single goal.

Neo wanted to end his werewolf state immediately, but Nancy stopped him. She suggested he first reunite with the Water Guardian and the two war puppets. Soon,Neo understood the value of this advice. After ending his werewolf form, every inch of his flesh seemed to be tearing apart—total damage caused by the highly activated energy to his body.

Fortunately, following Nancy’s guidance, he had the foresight to use the Wave of Life and water-based restoration spells first. Otherwise, he might have been driven mad by the pain. For the first time in his life,Neo wished he could faint, but he didn’t succeed. He endured the pain throughout, as if some impartial force was exacting retribution for his excessive use of power earlier.

“Nancy, you should have explained the consequences earlier!”Neo gritted his teeth in pain.

“Experience the characteristics of a highly activated state of strength, comprehend the methods of wielding it, and let your body remember and adapt to this state. Appropriate danger is beneficial to you; with continuous light meditation as a safeguard, I have great confidence in your self-discipline and self-control. Moreover, on this matter, I feel it’s necessary to teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.”
“But we’re not yet completely free from pursuit, and I don’t even have the strength to move a finger. If anything changes, it will be disastrous.”
Nancy smiled. “You forgot—we actually have reinforcements coming to help us…”
Neo raised his head and, in the darkness at the end of his sight, saw two points of light, coming from eyes that were not human.
“It’s him!”……