Free Web NovelChapter 577: Chapter 577 - Offspring
The next day, Lucien went to the North Branch. Or rather, to the place that would become the North Branch.
The instant-teleportation array had already been completed by Lilith.
He stepped through the array.
Soon, the North Continent greeted him with wind.
Before him stretched a vast construction field at the edge of a protected valley.
The chosen location was excellent.
To the west rose dark mountain ridges. To the east, long roads curved toward old northern trade routes. Several valleys met here, creating a natural convergence point without pressing too closely against any one major power.
The North Branch was still young compared to Grand Confluence, but it already carried Lootwell’s unmistakable rhythm.
Workers moved through assigned lanes.
Lilith’s Dawnbirth Anvilheart flashed in the distance as she adjusted the foundations of a central structure.
The wyrms under Vaelcar helped too. Several Liberators directed them from below.
Lucien turned.
Vaelcar stood there in human form.
"Brother Oath-Buried."
"Little brother."
The greeting was simple.
But there was warmth in it.
Vaelcar looked at Lucien more carefully.
"You have returned greater."
Lucien sighed softly.
"That phrase is becoming popular."
"It is accurate."
Vaelcar’s mouth curved faintly.
Then he looked toward the construction site.
"The Collegium scholars are here too?"
Lucien’s gaze moved toward a cluster of robed figures near one of the temporary planning halls.
The Obsidian Collegium Scholars. They were Lootwell’s first major ally in the North.
And among them stood a familiar figure.
A scholar with a third eye.
Arctyx.
The moment Lucien’s gaze landed on him, Arctyx turned.
His third eye opened.
A faint glow passed through it.
Then his expression changed.
Recognition. Then a helpless kind of disbelief.
Lucien walked toward him.
"Long time no see."
Arctyx stared at him for a moment.
Then exhaled.
"A very long time indeed."
His third eye glowed again as it observed Lucien more deeply.
Then Arctyx’s expression became complicated.
"And your progress is monstrous."
Lucien smiled.
"I worked hard."
"That sentence is insulting when attached to your current result."
Lucien laughed.
The two met like old acquaintances who had once stood on uncertain ground and somehow returned to find the other still alive.
Arctyx had changed.
The sharpness in him had matured. The restless competitiveness remained, but it had gained discipline. His gaze was steadier, his aura cleaner, and the third eye on his forehead no longer seemed like something he merely carried.
It was part of him now. A proper visionary of the Tri-Sage Ophidians.
Arctyx looked at Lucien again and sighed.
"I once thought of you as a rival."
"Once?"
"I am deciding whether continuing to think so counts as courage or stupidity."
Lucien’s smile widened.
"Both can be productive."
"That sounds like something said by someone already standing unfairly ahead."
Lucien shook his head.
"Do not worry too much. Since the Obsidian Collegium has partnered with Lootwell, you will catch up faster than you think. Partnering with my territory will not make you regret."
Arctyx raised a brow.
Then laughed.
"Then thank you in advance, our benefactor."
•••
The conversation soon shifted.
Arctyx expression lost its earlier lightness.
"You remember what I told you before about my clan?"
"The Tri-Sage Ophidians," Lucien said.
Arctyx nodded.
"A race of visionaries. Strategists. Seers. Record keepers."
His hand rested on the edge of the table.
"During the Millennia War, we were one of the reasons the thousand races gained an edge. And we preserved the records that others could not afford to lose."
Lucien’s expression grew serious.
"And your clan was destroyed."
"Yes."
Arctyx’s third eye dimmed slightly.
"The attackers were strange. At the time, I called them anomalies. Their souls were wrong. They destroyed my clan and burned the important records we safeguarded."
Lucien did not speak. He remembered this.
"I finally found out what those anomalies were."
Lucien’s eyes sharpened.
"The Primordial Incarnations?"
That was the first answer that came to him. Their souls were strange. Their existences felt wrong.
Arctyx nodded once.
Then shook his head.
"I thought the same at first."
Lucien’s brows drew together.
"They are not?"
"They contained traces of the Primordial Incarnations."
The room became quieter.
Arctyx continued, "but they were not the Incarnations themselves."
"What were they?"
Arctyx’s third eye opened wider.
"Offspring... Or perhaps that is too natural a word. Engineered biological weapons would be more accurate."
Lucien’s expression changed.
Arctyx continued, "Their bodies carried genes derived from the Primordial Incarnations. Their authorities were incomplete, but related. They were not true Primordial Incarnations, but they inherited fragments of their nature."
For several breaths, the planning hall was silent.
Lucien slowly leaned forward. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
"Engineered?"
Arctyx’s face turned grave.
"We do not know yet. We assumed it was the Black Mass monsters who made them."
Lucien’s mind moved at once.
His fingers tapped once against the table.
"And the records your clan protected?"
"Likely destroyed because they contained early evidence of their existence," Arctyx said. "Or because my race could identify patterns others could not. To a hidden weapon, visionaries are inconvenient."
Lucien’s eyes cooled.
That made sense.
And it made the matter worse.
Arctyx’s expression grew heavier.
"My master divined one more thing."
Lucien looked at him.
Arctyx said, "These offspring are currently spread across all five continents."
The room turned cold.
"They act like normal people."
The words settled like poison.
Lucien felt the danger immediately.
Hidden enemies inside the continents, living as ordinary practitioners, elders, merchants, disciples, servants, scholars, mercenaries, perhaps even heroes.
Waiting.
Or not even aware of what they truly were until activated.
If war came again, those hidden offspring could break defenses from within.
A world connected by Lootwell would become stronger.
But if hidden enemies existed inside that same network, then connection would also give them targets.
Lucien inhaled slowly.
"Does the Collegium know how to identify them?"
"Not easily," Arctyx said. "Their disguises are deep. Ordinary bloodline tests will fail. Soul inspection may fail. Divination sees them as blurred or incorrectly placed."
"Can your third eye see them?"
"Yes..." Arctyx’s expression was grim. "But not reliably yet. They are designed to escape ordinary recognition."
Lucien fell silent.
Hidden biological weapons carrying traces of Primordial Incarnation authority.
This was exactly the kind of problem that destroyed civilizations before the real war began.
And they had found it early.
That was the only good thing.
Lucien looked at Arctyx.
"Thank you for telling me."
Arctyx nodded.
Lucien’s eyes sharpened.
"Then our goal is clear. We root out these pests before they become knives inside our ribs."
Arctyx’s third eye glowed.
"The Obsidian Collegium will help you craft a plan."
Lucien looked at him.
"That would be great."
The tension loosened slightly.
Then Arctyx extended his hand.
Lucien took it.
Their hands clasped.
An old friendship.
A new alliance.
A hidden war.
Arctyx smiled. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
"You have our backing."
Lucien smiled back.
"Then let us make the monsters regret leaving evidence."
•••
After the meeting, Lucien oversaw the construction of the North Branch.
The branch would follow the Grand Confluence model in broad structure, but not copy it carelessly.
The Middle Continent valued prestige, visibility, and status.
The North valued endurance and memory.
So the North Branch had to feel different.
Less like a grand meeting point.
More like a fortress of civilization built for harsh times.
The architecture would carry the North’s temperament.
Lucien watched all of it.
And beneath the satisfaction, urgency remained.
He would need to build faster. But not carelessly.
He had one hundred and ten merged Origin Core fragments now.
He could improve the systems.
Maybe the Origin Core network could detect contradictions in existence, false continuity, or traces of foreign Primordial authority.
Possibilities unfolded in his mind one after another.
Lucien smiled faintly.
The monsters had hidden blades inside the world.
Then he would turn the world itself into a sheath that rejected them.
•••
After finishing the construction review, Lucien returned to Lootwell.
He did not rest immediately.
The news about the engineered offspring had settled too deeply inside him.
He went to the Origin Core Shrine, then Lucien stood before the fragment.
His smile slowly faded into focus.
He began experimenting again.
He remained in the shrine for the rest of the night.
Outside, Lootwell continued breathing.
Inside the shrine, another part of Lucien’s growing system began to take shape.
Soon, another progress would begin.
