Mixed Blessing System

"How am I supposed to know that?" Viktoria said to Lothur as she sat down on the outside area of her residence. "How many people with complete Soul Bone set and cultivation of at least 4th stage do you think there are out there?"

"And even if there are such people on the continent, do you think I would have access to them to ask questions?"

"Tsk!"

"As I said before, this is a legend, and the fact of quasi-immortality may very well be the fantasy part of the story to make it more attractive. However, it is a fact that the spirit body arises with the Soul Bones and that it has its special peculiarities."

"A single Soul Bone can already increase the vitality of a 1st stage cultivator by a few hundred years. But what about the complete set?"

"So, even if that is an ancient legend, there are indications enough for us to believe that something special happens when we gather 10 Soul Bones."

"I see..." Lothur muttered as he sat down in front of Viktoria while looking in the direction of where Annaliese was absorbing that Soul Bone.

At this point, even outside his wife's residence, Lothur could feel the vibrations of the Fusion Ceremony, with waves of energy hitting where he was, along with a constant humming sound.

In addition, Annaliese's grunts of pain kept escaping from her throat, drawing the attention of those two.

"Anna will take a few hours to finish going through the baptism of that energy generated by the Soul Bone. So, there's no need for you to hang around here anymore..."

"No, I'm going to stay here until she's finished. I want to see what changes she will go through." He stopped her from continuing her words.

"Uh?"

But before Viktoria began to question him about his interest in Annaliese, he used the momentary silence to ask about his wife's words earlier. "By the way, what was the exception you spoke of earlier? What species other than ours can absorb Soul Bones?"

Upon hearing that, the look on Viktoria's face became solemn, with her eyebrows narrowing and a sharp look appearing in her eyes. She then said. "There is an exception for the absorption of Soul Bones. They are terrifying creatures in our world, hated by the heavens and feared by the earth."

"Half-breeds of humans and demons!"

Species capable of achieving humanoid forms in Concordia could interbreed and generate fertile offspring. For example, animals capable of cultivation eventually became beasts. However, with cultivation, these beasts could gain the ability to transform their bodies into humanoid forms.

In this way, beasts could interbreed with, for example, humans and generate mixed offspring of both species. In this case in question, this was the origin of the race of Humanoid Spiritual Beasts, which had characteristics of both species.

In the case presented by Viktoria, humans and demons could also generate a mixed race, which shared characteristics of both species.

"What? How is that possible?" Lothur stood up from where he was standing, finding this possibility impossible. After all, humans and demons hated each other and were natural enemies.

So, how could demons and humans be willing to interbreed and generate offspring?

Viktoria nodded at him, understanding Lothur's doubt. "It seems impossible, but it's not."

"There is no way for a human and a demon to fall in love with each other, as is possible between beasts and humans, as well as other species mixtures. However, demons of weak lineage are extremely volatile in their emotions."

"Some of them are capable of raping their victims before devouring them."

"However, after committing a **** on his victim, the demon may be unable to kill her. That could be because he was killed before he had the opportunity or for another reason. Hence, humans and demons can deliver offspring."

Gulp!

"In any case, because these beings share characteristics from both parties, they can absorb Soul Bones. But before you ask, that's not possible for other mixed species of humans."

"I see..." Lothur sat back, already a little calmer. "Why did you say the heavens hate them? If they are descended from humans, shouldn't they be able to control their bloodlust more easily?"

"No, they can't..." She then told how these beings had become enemies of all living things.

"In the remote past, a high-ranking female demon, for some reason, decided to do experiments between humans and demons. As a result, she coupled with several of her victims in search of fertilization."

"Eventually, she succeeded."

"Unfortunately, that creature shared the cultivation talents that we humans have, but also the vitality and power of demons."

Demons had extremely strong vitalities and could live dozens of times longer than humans of the same cultivation range. That was their unique characteristic, the reason that even though there were few of them, they still existed.

As for humans, although they could not live as long as other species in this world nor had high-level regenerative abilities, they possessed one of the best cultivation speeds.

To make a long story short, what an ordinary human able to cultivate could achieve in 100 years could require thousands of years for an ordinary demon.

"At the same time, he could strengthen himself by devouring human blood and flesh, but also by adding Soul Bones to his constitution."

"To make matters worse, he shared the uncontrollable side of demons." She clenched her fists, feeling a little fear in her being. "Ultimately, this first half-breed killed his mother, devoured his father, and all the people that demon had kidnapped."

"After tens of thousands of deaths, the little devil, only 10 at the time, was exterminated by a group of high-level cultivators. From that day on, all species, including the demons, began to persecute these abominations."

That had been the story behind the emergence of the first half-breed of demons and humans. However, this was only a narrative created by the powerful ones of this world. The real story was much more frightening!

The first of these beings had appeared after a low-level demon had ravaged a village, raping and devouring many women on the day in question. Unfortunately for him, the village was saved by a demon hunter, who saved the lives of a few dozen people in that place.

However, one of the surviving raped women had become pregnant!

Then the worst came out.

For some unknown reason, half-breeds of humans and demons were extremely beautiful and were loved unconditionally by their creators. Not only this, all the remnants of that village eventually developed feelings for that creature, having helped it develop in its weaker moments.

Eventually, after devouring its mother and the village it grew up in, that being exterminated an entire human empire, having killed hundreds of thousands of demons and millions of beings of other species.

That catastrophe caused the greatest experts of that period to leave their seclusions, fearing the sudden end.

Fortunately for the other species of this world, even such a terrifying being had its limits. It was eventually killed by an alliance of Concordia's ten most powerful species.

From that day on, all the species pledged to pursue and eliminate any half-breed of humans and demons.

The most recent case happened 400 years ago when something similar to the first case happened in a village in Leopoldine. After that creature was born, someone managed to identify it and report it to the demon-hunting guilds of this empire.

The next day more than 300 3rd stage cultivators appeared there. Then, they exterminated the newborn and everyone present.

These were terrifying creatures that could not be allowed to grow. As such, to avoid trouble, even babies were persecuted, and their creators shared the same fate as them.

No one with close contact with these abominations could be allowed to live!

In any case, although the actual story was somewhat different from the one known to Viktoria, the abilities of these half-breeds were as she had told Lothur.

"Unbelievable!" Lothur said in a low voice, feeling how terrifying this world could be. "For that matter, do these half-breeds produce Soul Bones?"

"As far as I know, no. But most of these half-breeds were killed while still in their infancy, and demons in their infancy don't produce Soul Bones either, so I'm not sure." She said in an uncertain tone, watching in her sister's direction.

"In any case, they are the only ones besides us capable of absorbing Soul Bones..."

After many minutes of talking about that, Lothur suddenly asked his wife. "Honey, how does one become a demon hunter? Is it enough to kill beings of that species to become someone like that? Or is there a procedure behind it?"

"You want to become a demon hunter?" She laughed but did not stop answering him. "But seriously speaking, do you think a cultivator without certain technical knowledge can kill a demon?"

"Of course, if the level of such a person is many times higher than that of the demon, then he may be able to eliminate one of these. But most likely, a person without in-depth knowledge will be fooled by the demon."

"Many of them can survive even after their bodies are sliced apart!"

"Oh?" Lothur's eyes widened at such information.

"So, anyone interested in doing that must seek out a demon hunter's guild and learn the techniques necessary to eliminate these beings truly."

...