Immortal Kingdoms

An unknown amount of time later, Leonardo opened his eyes that didn't have a trace of color with the exception of black.

A depthless black of no beginning nor end, a reflection of Leonardo's sea of consciousness that was a rolling dark sea at the moment. These were but a few waves that escaped the ancient gate due to the momentary instability and cracks in Leonardo's spirit, seamlessly integrating into his primary consciousness after his secondary consciousness split apart and joined the soul pearl.

Try as he might, Leonardo could no longer revert to having a pair of inconspicuous eyes— he could only condense his desolate martial intent into two inverted dull gray triangles in the center of that all-encompassing darkness— merely a bid of diluting the aura of his infernal bloodline.

After making that conjunction about the Exiled Paradise, he assumed that if anything could muddle the aura of his bloodline, it would be the desolate martial intent derived from that weird space.

It was a frightening set of eyes, with the triangles slowly yet perpetually spinning. Leonardo turned his head in Rosaline's direction, the embryo had expanded considerably as swirls of black and red danced about its surface, occasionally viewing the nude figure of huddled up beauty within.

Long black hair that fell to her buttocks, pale white skin, and a dense miasma of blood essence entangled with a bleak, dark, and sinister aura of absolute coldness.

"She's slowly transforming into the Second Twilight," Leonardo muttered to himself as he spotted a few silver strands of white hair emerging from her cranium, deeply concealed in the river of darkness.

"She must have inherited a sliver of my infernal bloodline after being nourished by so much blood essence with my body as the medium," Leonardo touched his chin and whispered thoughtfully.

After checking things on Rosaline's end and making sure everything was going smoothly with the refinement of blood essence, Leonardo made a few hand seals as eight energy streams that had been pouring into the spot where the soul pearl disappeared split from the original flow, directly rushing into Leonardo's body instead.

While the secondary consciousness was deriving and fixing the laws all the while completing the technique of compressing the independent domains into explosive projectiles— that would be one of his fatal techniques upon achieving rebirth and the sooner he accomplished it, the better.

As for the little bit of ether, he drew to himself— that wasn't for his cultivation but for the gradual development of the mutated bloodthirsty armament— an amalgamation of his foundations into a regal armament.

Just like that. Leonardo stood silently to one corner of the platform as ether rushed into his body and blended into the fluctuating laws of his martial intents, weaving about his body while Rosaline floated in another corner, cold darkness and blood swirling about her.

While tentacle-like vacuum tubes stretched from the huge embryo and stabbed into the floor of the platform, the substantial martial intents around Leonardo also began to manifest physically, starting with his very first manifestation— the halberd.

With a thought, a sliver of pure blood essence in the lake was drawn over and entwined with the original yet transparent halberd that stood three meters in length.

A body of deep crimson, symmetrical dull gray blades akin to crescent moons flanked a long and sharp blade at the crown. There seemed to be some great synergy in play as the threads of black lightning surfaced from Leonardo's skin, almost immediately drawing out desolation essence and blood essence from the halberd to engulf Leonardo in an embryo of energy just like Rosaline.

Under the guidance of his deliberate mediation and innate martial intent, as well as the chanting of his new cultivation method in the infernal tongue, the streams of ether seamlessly blended into the embryo of intertwining intents.

…

"Keep on monitoring the changes to the other 105 blood essence pools, don't worry about the three main castles. If anything, they should show the least signs of purification as the contamination levels didn't strike that high," Warlock Siegfried commented from the peak of his castle, standing by the edge of a balcony that allowed him to view the majority of the hidden dimension.

From his point of view, it had already been two weeks since Leonardo went to the bottom of the lake and the initiation of the formation network underground.

In at most a few more minutes the first cycle of blood from the lake would overflow to the blood essence pools and Siegfried wanted immediate results.

Thus as he spoke, his voice echoed almost in every corner of the regions populated by vampires, but he truly didn't need to do this as the other clansmen were just as on edge as he.

Zaylee was currently in a mansion erected on the mountainside of the 83rd peak.

As a branch family under the descendants of the 83rd clan lord, it was only natural for her family to occupy a spot on this mountain, anxiously looking up at the castaways above and the stream of trickling blood rivering down from blood essence pool in the attempt of revitalizing the blood essence energy in the air.

As always, this blood was diluted and had a pungent odor but they had to flush out the old blood if they wanted to recycle fresh and purified blood from the lake in the depths of the hidden dimension.

Zaylee's parents and the elders of her clan were also present, nervously observing the slowly trickling stream of blood.

Not only them, but many branch families and even the remnants of the main bloodline families of the original clan lords were also on edge while surrounding either the towering mountains or the sacred grounds of the blood essence pools within the fortified castles.

"It's coming!"

A cry of alarm anonymously erupted from 105 different directions, causing the red clouds in the skies to twist and churn while the mountains rumbled.

After a moment of dormancy, it was as though volcanoes erupted as fountains of blood blossomed in the blood essence pools inside every castle, a dense bloodline resonance was immediately felt by the various elders surrounding the immediate vicinity of the pools.

This sense of resonance quickly began to permeate each castle respectively, some elderly were unable to control themselves— immediately kneeling down and thrusting their heads into the gushing pool as though they were crazed animals in a desert finally finding water.

No one laughed at them, however.

Some were visibly trembling, some shed tears, and some had their faces flushed so much red they eventually fainted from excitement.

The ones who were excited the most were obviously Zaylee and her family— as the credit for all of this would partially land on Zaylee as she had invited help to the hidden dimension.

In the highest castle on the balcony of his imperial study, Siegfried clenched his fists yet his face didn't betray a hint of emotion as an elder stood behind him, shaking while reporting the latest developments.

"This is merely the first wave of purification, it remains unknown whether or not he can refine the accumulated pollution of hundreds of thousands of years yet," Siegfried's words were like ice dousing the excitement of the elder, immediately having him come back to reality.

"My lord is right, he is but one man after all…" The elder muttered seemingly to himself.

"That's right," Siegfried nodded, Leonardo is only one person and his abilities are limited.

Unless…

Siegfried's eyes glimmered with an unknown light as his eyes turned to the ancient books that seemed like they were about to crumble into dust at any given moment.