Bloodline Tree

Chapter 44 - Lucky

Just as Shu Yang had made the decision to go looking for his son, a new, much smaller rush of power spread through Shu Yang’s body, bringing him out of his thoughts.

‘Looks like another grandchild has been born.’ Shu Yang thought with a small smile, gaining some comfort from the happy news.

He took a look inside himself to see if there was anything special this time around, not expecting much. But to his surprise, there seemed to be something other than just an increase in Bloodline Power.

“Dad, dad! My niece is here!” Tianyi came out running and yelling.

“So it’s another granddaughter? Let’s go take a look then,” Shu Yang said, grabbing his daughter’s hand. Besides Tianren’s first son, the other three were all daughters. Shu Yang had initially been hoping for a few more girls to enter the family, but now there seemed to be a lack of boys instead.

“Dad, this is Xinxin,” Tianren said, carrying a small baby in his arms as Shu Yang stepped inside.

“Congratulations,” Shu Yang said, looking down at his granddaughter with a smile. He really enjoyed seeing more children being born into the family. He thought it was good for the kids to grow up alongside other kids their age, so that they could grow close from an early age.

His own children had been born one after another, so they were quite familiar with each other. The exception being Tianzheng, who was six years younger than Tianxu, and seven years older than Tianyi, making him a little isolated. Thankfully, he had grown to be quite sociable and got along well with the other kids his age in the village.

“What do you think, does she have any talent for martial arts?” Tianren asked, like he usually did when Shu Yang first took a look at his children.

Shu Yang quickly focused on his connection to his granddaughter through the Bloodline Tree.

[ Name: Shu Xinxin ]

[ Bloodline Power: 0.49 (Mortal - Low) ]

[ Traits: Lucky ]

‘Lucky? Luck can actually be a trait?’

Shu Yang would definitely not look down on something like that. Even if it was just a little bit of extra luck, it held great potential.

“Who can tell for sure? But talent isn’t everything, just look at your sister Tianyue. Isn’t she doing well for herself despite not having any martial strength?” Shu Yang asked.

Tianren nodded, seemingly understanding that this daughter hadn’t inherited his talent either. Otherwise, he knew that Shu Yang would have said so.

“But she is a bit special,” Shu Yang continued.

“Special?” Tianren asked.

“Doesn’t she seem like quite a lucky girl?” Shu Yang asked, pinching the girl’s cheek lovingly.

“She does?” Tianren asked.

“Definitely,” Shu Yang said with a nod.

‘Her luck might help me a lot during this trip. Maybe I can find Tianhu and get him home.’

Shu Yang stuck around for a while longer before leaving Tianren’s house with his family, leaving the couple alone.

As soon as he got inside his own house, Shu Yang took out a pen and a piece of paper and sat down at the dining table. He took out a coin from his pocket and flipped it in the air.

‘Let’s see if we can test how effective this luck is.’

Luck was a truly strange and ethereal ability, and Shu Yang’s only idea of testing it was by doing a bunch of coin flips, to see how the trait could affect random chance.

He flipped the coin over and over, calling it to land on heads every time. When he had flipped it a hundred times in a row, Shu Yang felt he had a pretty good idea of how lucky he was.

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‘54 heads and 46 tails…While it is better than nothing, isn’t this very close to random chance? Maybe the trait doesn't have any effect at all, and I was just…lucky.’

‘Huh, this is confusing.’

‘Either way, it’s not a bad thing. I’m sure the trait will grow more powerful in the future. It would be great if I had a trait that made me the fortunate son of heaven or something like that. How nice would it be if I could walk around and stumble upon treasure after treasure, never having to worry about my family, all misfortune avoided.’

Shu Yang shook his head slightly. ‘That day is still a long way off. For now, I need to look after my family myself. I can’t leave it up to chance.’

‘But with Tianhu’s increase in Bloodline Power, and Xinxin’s birth, I should have gotten quite a boost.’

[ Bloodline Power: 8.12 (Mortal - High) ]

[ Traits: Good martial arts talent, Clear Mind, Piercing Gaze, Trash-grade spiritual roots ]

‘Like I thought. My Bloodline Power increased by a whole 1.38. That’s a huge increase considering how hard it is to gain Blooldine Power now that it has reached such a high value.’

Shu Yang didn’t include the Lucky trait in his own status. Since he didn’t receive the feedback from his own child, but from his grandchild, he only inherited half of it. That wasn’t really enough to make it a full-grown trait for him, even if it increased his luck slightly.

Shu Yang had gotten a lot better at connecting with the Bloodline Tree over the past four years, and he now had a much better idea about his traits.

In order to count as a trait, it has to reach a certain threshold. But that didn’t mean they weren’t there. Shu Yang had discovered that he actually had hundreds of traits already. But those were all mundane traits that everyone carried in their bloodline.

For example, a son might inherit his father’s thick hair or brown eyes, and those were traits just like martial art talent was. But they were mundane, and when speaking about traits, it was never traits of that level that people were talking about. And they weren’t included in the traits Shu Yang saw when looking at his own bloodline.

But that didn’t mean they weren’t there, and for Shu Yang, it didn’t mean he didn’t receive feedback from them.

He had been wondering how his daughter Tianyi could receive so many traits all of a sudden, and some of it could actually be explained by these previously invisible traits Shu Yang had in his bloodline.

For example, Shu Yang had discovered that spiritual roots weren’t actually something rare; all his children had them. It was just that they were of such poor quality that they didn’t even reach the first tier of Trash-grade. But they still fed back to Shu Yang, and when his daughter was born, Shu Yang’s spiritual roots were already on the verge of reaching that level; she was just lucky enough to be born with slightly better ones.

Shu Yang also guessed that luck was something that everyone had to some degree, and Shu Yang received that feedback without being aware of it until he saw it as a trait in his granddaughter.

‘From what I can gather from the Bloodline Tree, all my traits so far seem to be of the lowest possible grade, except for martial arts talent, which advanced slightly with Tianyi’s birth. But as these traits continue to pass on in the future, the feedback I receive should eventually let me raise them to a higher tier.’

‘It will be interesting to see more of these mundane traits pop up in the future. Even the most useless thing might become extraordinary once it becomes superimposed enough times.’

‘But that is still a few generations away, I guess. For now, my bloodline traits can only offer some assistance. The most important thing is still my martial arts. Thankfully, it’s not long before I reach the Master stage.’

Shu Yang had progressed at an incredible speed for the past four years. His daughter’s talent really made a spectacular difference. From one day to the next, it was like everything had changed, and everything became clear to him.

Now, Shu Yang had only been an Innate warrior for six years, but he had already reached the peak of the Innate stage, and he could feel that the bottleneck to the Master stage wouldn’t pose much of a challenge for him.

‘I should probably be able to advance before I reach the Black Beast Mountains. That will give me a lot more confidence in finding Tianhu.’

“Why do you look so down?” Qianyue came over and asked, “You’ve just had another grandchild, you should be happy. Don’t tell me you’re upset that it’s a girl.”

“Of course not,” Shu Yang said, shaking his head, “I was just thinking…I’ll head over to Fugu City again. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Tianyue.”

“Is that something to be upset about?” Qianyue asked.

“Well, I’m also a little worried about Tianhu. I’m going to go look for him again, a little more thoroughly this time. I might be gone for a while,” Shu Yang said.

“Do you think…Is he alright?” Qianyue asked with a small frown.

“He’s still alive. I can feel that much. But I still worry,” Shu Yang said. He had never told anyone about his Bloodline Tree, but Qianyue seemed to believe him wholeheartedly whenever he said Tianhu was alive.

“Well, it really is time he came home to visit,” Qianyue said with a nod, “He has so many nephews and nieces he has never met. And I’m afraid that if he is gone for much longer, Tianxu will lose his patience and go after him.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll bring him home,” Shu Yang said, rubbing his wife’s back.

Tianxu had been eager to seek out his brother Tianhu, but since he was nowhere to be found, Shu Yang had forbidden Tianxu to go. But Shu Yang could only keep him home for so long. Tianxu was already 17 years old, and he showed no signs of settling down and starting a family of his own. Like his brother Tianhu, he had set his sights on exploring the wide world.

If it weren’t for Shu Yang bringing him a sword art from the Sword School, Tianxu might have already left despite Shu Yang’s harsh warnings.

‘I’ll have a talk with Tianxu before I leave. Once I come back from this journey, I’ll let him leave if he wants to.’