The Dao of Blood unfolded before Damon like an endless river stretching across time. He saw ancient battlefields soaked in crimson. He saw bloodlines rising and falling across countless generations. He saw the founder of the clan standing beneath a sky of war, carving his path through enemies with a single understanding.

Blood was life and death intertwined.

Damon's primordial mana core greedily started absorbing all the golden strands more and more enthusiastically. In fact, it was no longer a mana core. It was something new, and the transformation was insatiable. It was pulling in more and more golden strands.

Soon, the entire memory world was long gone.

Damon was back in the trial world with his eyes still closed and his new core still undergoing the transformation. Necrogod, who appeared right next to him, stared in shock and horror. He was fully aware that he was a supporting character now and not the main character. But even then, he was still stunned.

What the hell was going on? Did they actually clear a golden memory world? That just happened?

Before he could even process it, he felt the strange aura seeping out of Damon. It was a kind of power he couldn't understand. The pressure alone was already difficult for him to endure.

But that was not all.

Necrogod suddenly stiffened. Something unexpected was happening. Memory storms began appearing all around them.

Not one. Not two. Several.

They erupted randomly across the trial world like violent whirlpools in space. Each one carried the chaotic fragments of ancient memories, echoes of forgotten civilizations, fallen heroes, extinct races, and shattered worlds.

And every single one of them was heading straight toward Damon.

Necrogod's expression changed drastically. "Damon! Damon! You need to wake up now!" he shouted, his voice echoing across the barren landscape.

Without hesitation, he raised his hand. The ground trembled.

Dark energy burst upward as skeletal arms clawed their way out of the soil. One after another, undead soldiers rose from the earth, forming a defensive circle around Damon. Skeleton knights, bone archers, and hulking corpse warriors assembled into a tight perimeter.

A small army stood guard. Necrogod clenched his jaw as he prepared for the impact. The memory storms approached at terrifying speed, tearing through the sky like golden hurricanes. But just as they neared Damon, something strange happened. They slowed.

The raging storms that had been rushing toward them with destructive force suddenly began losing momentum, as if an invisible hand was dragging them down.

Necrogod frowned. "What…?"

The storms stopped only a few dozen meters away. Then they began to unravel. The violent spirals of memory fragments dissolved into countless golden threads, each strand glowing faintly with ancient power.

Necrogod's eyes widened. "No way…"

The golden threads drifted forward slowly, almost reverently. Then they rushed straight toward Damon. Every single strand disappeared into his body.

Necrogod watched in complete disbelief. One storm. Two storms. Five storms. Ten storms. All of them collapsed into golden threads and vanished into Damon. The entire trial world began to tremble. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

It was as if something ancient had been awakened.

Necrogod slowly swallowed. "What kind of monster are you becoming?"

The trial world trembled more violently with every passing second.

Necrogod could feel it clearly now. This was no longer just Damon absorbing a few memory fragments. Something fundamental inside the trial world had been triggered.

More memory storms were appearing. Far in the distance, the sky cracked open again and again as golden whirlwinds began forming across the landscape. Entire mountains of memories surged toward one single point. Toward Damon.

Necrogod felt his scalp go numb.

"This is insane…" he muttered under his breath.

Normally, a single memory storm was enough to overwhelm even powerful experts. But Damon was absorbing so many of them. Hundreds and thousands of golden strands poured into him endlessly.

Necrogod stood dumbfounded, not knowing what to do now.

And it looked like he was not the only one who had noticed the anomaly.

Necrogod's heart sank further as more and more figures gathered around the area. The empty plains of the trial world were no longer empty. Within a few minutes, dozens of powerful participants had arrived, and the number was still increasing. Their gazes were all fixed on one place.

Damon.

Necrogod could feel the pressure building with every new arrival. These were not ordinary trial participants. These were the elite heirs of powerful factions, the kind of people who were born with resources and protection that ordinary folks could not even imagine.

The murmurs spread quietly among the crowd.

"Hey, isn't that the young scion of the Beluga family? That's the most powerful family in Sector C."

"Did you see the woman standing next to him? She is the young lady of the Bose family."

"You mean the family that rules the entire Sector G?"

"Shush. Are you both blind? Shut your mouths if you know what is good for you. Young Master Darth from the Zader Empire is right there."

The whispers instantly died down. Several people subtly stepped back. Standing among the gathered experts was a young man dressed in deep black armor etched with faint imperial runes. His presence alone carried a suffocating pressure that made the surrounding space feel heavier. He stood with his hands behind his back, his expression calm as he looked at Damon.

Memory storms were still pouring toward the meditating figure, dissolving into countless golden strands that were devoured by the crimson vortex surrounding him.

Darth's eyes narrowed slightly. "Forming a Dao Core inside a trial realm," he murmured.

A woman standing beside him laughed softly. Her silver hair fluttered in the strange winds created by the memory storms. "Well, that explains the disturbance. The trial system is feeding him everything it can before the breakthrough stabilizes."

Someone nearby frowned. "Feeding him?"

The silver-haired woman nodded lazily. "Of course. When someone comprehends a Dao during a trial, the system tries to complete the transformation. Otherwise the realm collapses prematurely."

Her gaze lingered on Damon for a moment longer. "But this much energy… this is abnormal." She added.

Necrogod listened to the conversation while trying his best to hide his anxiety. If even these monsters were interested in Damon's breakthrough, things were going to get ugly very quickly.

Because none of them had come here just to watch.

Another figure stepped forward from the crowd. This one was a tall beastkin with golden fur and massive horns curving from his head. His aura was like a raging furnace, wild and violent. He stared at Damon with open greed. "A Dao Core…" he muttered.

Necrogod felt cold sweat trickle down his back. "Don't even think about it," he muttered under his breath.

But the beastkin had already taken another step forward. Just then… the sky above the trial world cracked open. A thunderous roar echoed across the entire realm. Everyone instinctively looked up.

Another memory storm was descending.

But this one was different. It wasn't a storm. It was a colossal golden vortex stretching across the entire sky like a falling sun. Endless rivers of memory fragments spiraled within it, containing more power than all the previous storms combined. Even the gathered experts felt their expressions change.

The golden vortex descended slowly toward Damon.

***

Chapter 4 Mass Release Sponsored by Syphatrol

Chapter 4 Mass Release Sponsored by Syphatrol