"Impossible, how can she have a complete Dragon God bloodline spirit?" Julian mumbled to himself when he saw the bloodline tattoo on Jane's forearm.
Magnus also did not expect that the bloodline spirits of the two kids would mutate under the influence of the Rebirth Nectar.
"Their spirits are not linked anymore. I hope what you asked is fulfilled here," Magnus said indifferently to Julian.
Julian gave a sidelong glance at Alvin and, with a snicker, walked toward the way he came inside.
Zerra hurriedly picked up the still unconscious Jane, and after giving a grateful bow to Magnus, she also followed Julian.
Two of Magnus's guards followed them to lead the way.
"How do you feel, kid?" Magnus asked Alvin after everyone left.
Alvin shakily stood up from the ground. "I am fine. It's just that I am feeling a little weak."
Magnus nodded. He held Alvin's right hand and looked at the new bloodline tattoo on the back of his palm. "It seems like your bloodline spirit has mutated in an unknown direction, unlike Jane, who obtained a known spirit."
Alvin frowned. "How is that blockhead? Is she alright?"
Magnus smiled. "She is fine. I didn't expect you to actually be more worried about her than yourself. It seems..."
"My axe is with her. She forgot to give it back to me," Alvin interrupted Magnus halfway.
Magnus held his forehead. "Looks like you will remain a bachelor for the rest of your life. By the way, is what Julian said about you killing all those beggars true?"
Alvin fell silent when he heard this question. After some time, he said with a sigh, "I myself am confused about the whole incident back then. Yes, I am the one who killed all of them, but at the same time, I am not sure whether the people I killed are really the ones I had known until then..."
"Huh? What is that supposed to mean?" Magnus asked in confusion.
Alvin shook his head. "That is a past that I hate to recall, so don't ask me any further about what happened back then. As for what you found out about me from your investigation, that's the story Alice made up to hide my identity from the world. Only the members of her mercenary group and herself knew my real identity."
"Yeah, she covered your tracks so perfectly that even Julian, who was a high-ranking officer of the Celestial Alliance, was fooled by her..." Magnus said with a half-smile. He was not ready to admit that he was also fooled by Alice, so he directly pushed everything onto Julian.
"Grandfather, can I ask you a favour?" Alvin suddenly asked.
Magnus's eyes lit up. This was the first time Alvin ever called him grandfather, so he hurriedly nodded. "Of course, of course, ask away."
"Take Alice's daughter with you. I can understand the reason why you are hesitating to bring me into your family. In my place, give that life to her. Adopting her as a member of the Nyxborns won't be a problem, right?" Alvin asked.
"Why? Don't you want to keep her with you?" Magnus asked with a frown.
"With me?" Alvin pointed at himself mockingly. "Like how that old man said, I am a cold-blooded animal. She won't find a peaceful life if she stayed with me. Let me tell you a small story."
"I used to live in the village orphanage of a small tribal village of the Heavenly Wood City until the day the villagers decided to abandon the village for some reason," Alvin began saying as he sat on the couch to the side.
"I was very little back then. When we reached Heavenly Wood City, the villagers were not able to find any jobs since most of them were just normal people without any cultivation. Relying on the few cultivators from the village was also not possible since there were more than two thousand villagers in our group at first."
"Slowly, the people who were able to find jobs moved away from the group, leaving only the helpless bunch behind. We started begging for food in the streets of Heavenly Wood City to gather enough to just keep us alive."
"Eventually, most of us died out of hunger and various diseases. That included the rest of the kids from the orphanage and our caretaker who looked after me until then."
"My brain was not so sharp at that time. Unlike now, I could not even speak a sentence correctly. This sure earned the pity of many of the people I begged. They would often give me more money compared to other kids of my age."
"But most of this money would be taken away by the other beggars. They would sometimes give me something to eat in return, otherwise they would just shoo me away. You know, each family would have a temporary tent with them. They would spend the nights inside the tents."
"I was the only one among the kids who had no adult to look after me. So naturally I didn't have any tent to spend the nights. I would often sleep on the bare streets even if it was cold outside. If it was rainy season, I would have to squat under some street lights most of the nights without even getting an ounce of sleep."
"At those times, I dreamed of myself walking through the streets while holding my mother and father's hands, wearing new clothes which had different pictures printed on them. In my dreams, my mother would buy me everything I pointed to and my father would rub my head affectionately like how other parents did. But when I woke up, everything would vanish like a cruel joke."
"To be frank, I did feel jealous of all of these kids back then. They had parents to feed them, while I had to drink plain water to fill my stomach most of the time. They had someone to look after them when they fell sick, while I still had to drag my tired body to beg if I wanted to eat something. They had parents who would protect them if someone bullied them, while I would often get beaten up for no reason..."
Magnus listened to Alvin's story without saying anything. He too was deeply affected by the story, and unknowingly, he clenched his fists to suppress the complicated feelings in his heart.