FAMILY ABOVE ALL: BATTLING AGAINST GODS

Two days later.

Inside Arlo's room.

Still in a lotus position, Arlo gazed wondrously at his right hand.

Even though his body was soaked with sweat, and his face pale, the exhaustion couldn't hide the excitement that was flashing deep in his eyes.

At this point, his hand had regenerated up to his digits. Aside from his missing fingers, his arm looked perfectly normal. In fact, Arlo could somewhat tell that it was better than its previous one.

'Warriors are amazing.' Arlo thought as he felt excited about the abilities of warriors that he would also soon wield fully.

Thinking about all the effort, along with the commitment and dedication he put into his training this past two weeks, Arlo felt it was all worth it.

During these two weeks, aside from cleaning the castle, feeding the bloodhounds, and getting some supplies in the city, Arlo spent his entire time training.

Speaking about feeding the bloodhounds, Arlo had already overcome his fear of them, after all, all he had to do was throw the crawlers into their range. Therefore, he hadn't seen what they looked like, not that he cared in the first place.

Also, after every two days, he would have to return to the city to get more crawlers. The second time he went, Joe decided to tag along once more, however, they were both surprised to encounter the beautiful young vampire once again. She decided to also tag along, even though the duo didn't need her guidance anymore.

Since then, Joe hadn't followed him to the city, as he seemed to have not overcome his fear of Arianne.

During these past few weeks, Arlo and Arianne had become quite close. He wouldn't call her a friend per se, but they were not far off.

Arlo was also happy with his new acquaintance because aside from the occasional questions about his relationship with Scarlett, how he came to know her, and his family background, Arianne didn't seem to harbor any other intentions.

He could tell that she was simply filled with curiosity toward him. Moreover, he didn't mind such questions, as it didn't beat having a companion with him every time he entered the city full of only vampires. So, he had become quite close with her to the point that he always looked forward to returning to the city to get more supplies, and he could tell she felt the same way.

Their meeting had become quite a routine at this point.

Removing all these distracting thoughts, Arlo wiped the sweat off his forehead with his left arm and focused on the task at hand.

He closed his eyes and willed the surrounding Ki into his body.

According to the artifact spirit, the body was like a container, and the Ki was water. Once the container becomes filled to the brim, it won't be able to hold more water. However, for some reason, Arlo could do that, even though it placed a lot of burden on his body.

After absorbing twenty percent more Ki than his body could hold, Arlo closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He could feel the Ki that was evenly spread within his body.

With a well-focused mind, he willed all the Ki to move toward his right hand.

*Swoosh!* A vibrant whitish smoke surrounded his right hand, as Arlo grunted from pain.

The skin on his right hand cracked open from the burden and blood seeped out as they dropped onto the floor. However, this effect couldn't compare to his fingers which were slowly but surely regenerating at a visible pace.

The artifact spirit had also told him that concentrating more Ki on one part of the body should be impossible, but for some reason, it wasn't for him. And the only reason he could come up with was that Arlo possessed some sort of special physique, which would also explain why he could absorb more Ki than his body could normally hold.

As to the veracity of such a thing, nobody knew. Nevertheless, with time, Arlo believed he would unravel all the mysteries surrounding himself.

Arlo had to maintain this state until his fingers fully regenerated. He almost collapsed several times, however, he gritted his teeth and bore through the pain as he was fully determined to break through today.

His mind was not at rest at all.

The artifact spirit had told him not to attempt to break through until he regenerated his hand.

However, that wasn't what placed his mind in unrest.

The second day after cleaning the castle and after not encountering anybody in his house one more, Arlo decided to approach Joe to dispel his doubts.

Joe had said, "I saw them leaving the house in a hurry as they discussed going to the capital to enroll into the 'Darkblood Academy'."

What threw his mind into disarray was that Joe said he heard the little boy Bon talking about bloodline awakening, and then teaching Arlo a lesson when he comes back.

He didn't know what this bloodline awakening was, but from the name, it was safe to assume that it was something very important to the vampires and would probably boost their powers.

Since then, he felt this heavy pressure weighing on him, which was why he gave his all to training.

Something that surprised him was that, Joe also seemed to be training, as he spent the majority of his time just outside the castle.

After three hours of excruciating pain, Arlo couldn't feel anything happening, so he opened his eyes to look at his hand.

In his vision, Arlo could see his fully regenerated hand, however, his vision became blurry, and he finally succumbed to the pain as he collapsed onto the floor.

*****

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