The First Store System

Chapter 965: The Grief of Losing!

Aakesh got what William wanted from the determination in his eyes, so it was now up to William to overcome the challenge.

At the same time, Aakesh asked the system to oversee the situation and not let William die or become crippled.

The system wouldn't help William overcome the challenge, but if the situation were bound to fail, the system would act and forcefully overpower the blood. It would stop William from dying or becoming crippled, but it wasn't like there was no cost attached to it. Even if the system acted, the internal injuries due to the violent rampage of the bloodline would be so severe that William would become bedridden for tens of thousands of years, if not centuries.

Aakesh had already told William about it. If William wanted, he would be saved without any backlash right now, but if he chose to go ahead, he would either succeed or become bedridden for years.

"Store owne-"

"Argh!"

Elle wanted to ask what was happening to William when her voice got stuck in her throat, and she heard a painful scream.

Elle had always prided herself on having self-control, but even she couldn't control herself as the scream was like a knife cutting through her heart. Her eyes turned moist as she rushed at him.

Elle had only taken one step when a large hand grabbed her and pushed her back, stopping her from going any further.

"Why are you stopping me?" Elle angrily asked Aakesh. Her eyes held no respect for Aakesh this time.

"He had made his decision," Aakesh expressionlessly responded and then turned around to leave the room.

It might take moments but also hours for William's struggle, and Aakesh wasn't going to stand there during all that.

Aakesh had already done the best he could do as the store owner, but now things were left to William's fate. Either he would come as even stronger or become bedridden.

Elle wanted to speak, but suddenly she heard another painful scream as William squirmed in pain on the floor.

"How can he make his decision in this situation?" Elle complained, but her eyes were still directed at William.

Aakesh didn't care and had already left the room.

Since Aakesh had left, the thought of going ahead emerged in her head, but soon after, loud bells began ringing in Elle's head, warning her not to take the step forward. Elle didn't dare test her intuition, and her heart grew heavy.

The system had created a transparent, invisible barrier around William. It doesn't matter who it is; if anyone attempted to step inside the marked area, the system would consider that person as William's enemy and take action against them.

***

"What is this?" William mumbled as he found himself in an unfamiliar area.

"Ugh!" William suddenly groaned in pain as he looked at his body.

The next moment, the memory of what happened in the room flashed through her eyes. He finally understood why he felt an unbearable wave of pain attacking him.

Suddenly, the aura in William's surroundings fluctuated as a creature stepped out of the newly-emerged portal.

William's face grew shocked as the figure was none other than Asquith, the founder of the Sun Elves. William seemed to be here and not here at the same time as suddenly a wave of enemies appeared out of nowhere and charged at Asquith while passing through him as if he were a projection.

'It's bloodline memory,' William suddenly thought. Some memories were so significant that they branded themselves into the DNA of the creature, without even wanting to, and the memory in front of William was one such collection.

It was the memory of Asquith seeing his son's corpse for the first time and the aftermath that entailed.

Asquith was in bad shape as he fought hordes of creatures. There were more than billions of creatures, ranging from Divine Transformation to Sacred Monarchs in the army, while Asquith was also a late Sacred Monarch.

Since there was a creature like the Primordial World Tree standing behind Asquith, no cultivator of the Sacred Creator took part in the onslaught.

Being a direct descendant of the World Tree showed the difference between him and the army. Despite them outnumbering Asquith by an enormous number, Asquith fought with his all and even survived at the end, as he stood alone in several mountains of corpses and gore.

Asquith stood there gasping for breath when suddenly a projectile came flying at him.

Asquith effortlessly dodged the projectile and focused on the creature that threw it at him.

A cackle of eerie laughter suddenly sounded in the area as a gigantic creature flew above Asquith. Asquith's face became solemn as he realized the creature flying above was from Vritrasura's direct army, not a subordinate faction.

The creature in the air floated for some time but soon left, its eerie laughter still echoing in the area.

Asquith finally had the time to check what the creature threw at him. As he saw it, Asquith froze, and soon his body began trembling.

Asquith was someone who was seen as having a calm and cold personality, but his scream the next moment broke that image.

The body of Asquith's son was lying in a terrible state on the ground in front of him. Many parts of his body were missing, and there were teeth marks around them.

It was as if Asquith's leg had given up; he fell to the ground. At that moment, a drop of tears formed and streaked through his cheeks.

The place where the drop of tears fell has now turned into a forbidden area in the Sacred Dimension for creatures below the Sacred Creator level. Not only did a lot of different kinds of creatures fall there, but a father's sadness turned into a scary ghost creature.

That ghost creature has long since died, as it attacked someone it shouldn't have, but the area is still desolate and hasn't seen any signs of life for the past countless years.

William's eyes became moist as he saw the crying Asquith.

William finally got the answer to why the presence of Suleon wasn't public knowledge for the Sun Elves and why there wasn't a memorial for Suleon.

Asquith grabbed the corpse and turned it into ash, and then disintegrated it further, erasing any proof of the Suleon's body.

Asquith suddenly turned around and looked at William with cold eyes.

William felt a chill crawling down his spine as his body began trembling from fright.

Asquith's eyes went back to normal just as his cultivation level began to decrease at a rate that had never been seen before.

***

In the third dimension,

Asquith was meditating when he suddenly opened his eyes in surprise. A grieving expression appeared in his eyes as the memory of his son flashed through them. But the next moment, it returned to normal as he pricked his skin, and a drop of blood fell.

The blood didn't fall to the ground, but it turned into a cluster of light particles as it began to disappear slowly.

Asquith then closed his eyes and returned to his meditation.

It wasn't the first time Asquith had done this. He created a test to honor his son because the loss of his son had affected him deeply.

Whenever any Sun Elf would hear about the Suleon, there would be a chance of their bloodline awakening.

It wasn't as harsh as what William faced, but when his eyes saw the Suleon itself on the screen, the grief in the bloodline exploded and forced William to the edge of death.

***

The cultivation power of Asquith in the memory started to decrease at a never-before-seen rate as the blood completely vanished in the third dimension.

It only stopped when it reached the intermediate Higher God. The Asquith in the memory then exploded as his blood spread across the entire area.

Not a single drop of blood touched William, as if someone were manually controlling it.

As the drop of blood touched the corpses on the ground, they began to mutate at a rapid rate. It wasn't the end, as they began to stand up. Their eyes were lifeless as they stared at William.

"Survive the battle or die!"

The next moment, a statement appeared in his head.

William's bloodline had gone so deep into the memory that the test had become a life & death challenge for him.

The drop of blood wasn't there to test William; it was only there to unlock the memory test.

Soon, creatures with levels varying from early Divine Transformation to peak Higher God appeared in the area.

***

Around three minutes passed as Elle stood fixed on one spot, not taking her eyes off him for even a moment.

There was finally a change in the room as a golden light with a mixture of black engulfed William.

***

A/N: Sorry, only one chapter today!

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Please comment on what date in February I should do a mass release!