Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-240

Of course Joshua knew Black's gender. As a warrior, how could he not know whether his horse was a male or a female? Although he has never felt such a good spirit from a female horse, the truth was that. God knows what the hell was going on.

But the most important question was whether the Black would still have a gender after it had awakened its bloodline.

On the continent of Mycroft, male or female, sexuality was not the universal truth of this world. It could only be regarded as a common thing people talk about. Regardless of speaking about elemental living beings and that sort of semi-energy living beings, truth to be told, sexuality was actually a strange and rare phenomenon in the entire multiverse. There were numerous organisms and races that could breed all by themselves. They could just divide themselves, and multiply themselves in order to do that. Even the elves and earth dwarves during ancient times did not have separate genders or that sort of thing. The elves were born from the fallen leaves of the Heavenly Spirits Divine Tree. The earth dwarves were born from spurting fire sparks from the Earth's molten core. These powerful creatures with unusually long lives had no need for any future generations or whatsoever. Hence, they did not need to mate in order to reproduce.

Of course, the myths and legends were not necessarily correct. After all, the elves and the dwarves were currently living in this world. They had historical records of their ancestors. Some overly exaggerated legends were proven to be false. However, information about these traditions had been passed down for a long time. This information also proved some things to be true to certain extent.

Hence, there was proof that certain extremely powerful living beings in ancient times did not have genders, and they did not need to reproduce either.

For example, the Ancient Dragon.

Reproduction was to extend the lives of one species. The offspring of one species would represent part of that species itself. Mating, cultivating and fostering future generations were equivalent to continuing oneself, and was also the instinct of all life.

However, that was not the same as ultimate beings such as the Ancient Dragon.

Because they were powerful, they did not need a community or relationships. They did not need to multiply to reproduce any offspring. They were capable of wandering alone and living well on their own. Also, because they could live forever, it was unnecessary for them to breed for future generations. Their power was so terribly intimidating. Their very existence could leave a deep traces on heaven and earth—or even on other races.

Yes, it was the races.

The small snakes on the seashores evolved into sea dragons that could wield the power of thunder. The lizards in the mountains had turned into overlords of the sky. On the earth, in the sky, underneath the surface of the deep sea, there were countless primitive creatures that were wandering between the heaven and earth. They then acquired the gifts of the oldest and most powerful creatures, causing them to become capable of getting rid of the shackles of their own lives. And as they were infected by the presence of those ancient powerful creatures, they gradually shifted closer towards becoming the 'prototype' of the almost-perfect life form.

The Ancient Dragons also had their own individual gender, and they could leave the existence of their bloodline behind through reproduction. However, the Smelting Black Dragon was not one of them. Its bloodline was inherited down through infecting other living beings with its presence, just like how demonized living beings were being infected by the abyss.

Therefore, Ancient Dragon was indeed the prototype of all daemons. Any of the daemon's bloodlines that evolved would eventually return to its origin there.

Black was fortunate. The ancient bloodline that it awoke in its body had the longest life-span and was also the most powerful. However, that strength had undoubtedly changing Black's appearance.

In any case, Joshua had not put his thoughts on those complicated things. Speaking of which, his thoughts were usually very simple.

"If it still has a gender…"

The warrior stood by the window and scowled as he furrowed his brow. "Isn't it possible to breed and artificially create the bloodline of the Smelting Black Dragon?"

He nodded slightly. Then he took the notebook from the table and took the quill that was swiftly passed over by Ling. Then he swiftly wrote on the notebook as he was muttering to himself in a soft voice, "It's worth a shot. I'll ask Black if it is willing to do it."

At the same time, back in the lava pool deep in the Great Ajax Volcano, Black was absorbing the heat and fire when it suddenly felt a chill going up its spine. It could feel that it was being locked on by a great deal of malice. The entire body of the half-dragon felt uncomfortable because of that. For that, it shook its body and swiftly emerged onto the surface of the lava pool. Then it vigilantly turned its head around to observe everything in the surroundings. It wanted to see if there was any powerful monster that could actually wander around the lava pool.

But nothing was discovered. Across the entire area of the underground empty pit, there was only the black rock pathway that was being left behind by Joshua with his footsteps and the blue hole that was floating in mid-air. At the end of the hole, there was a faint light escaping from the hole, along with the refreshing scent of grass and trees. That scent was completely incompatible with the lava pool though.

After a while, Black slowly submerged back into the lava pool believing that it might only be a false alarm that came from its skeptical sense. The core before its chest began to radiate with a strange glow as it was flowing like the color of the sun.

Although it did not possess any memory of its bloodline, Black still knew that the current environment was extremely suitable for it. As long as it continued to absorb the surrounding energy to nourish itself, it would be able to advance further in regards to its power.

In the main city of Moldavia, Joshua had also temporarily given up the unreasonable idea of artificially manufacturing Black's draconic bloodline after he pondered upon such thoughts for a while. If it was truly that easy to acquire the bloodline of an Ancient Dragon, the entire sky across the entire world would have been filled with Ancient Dragons flying around. Those were actually powerful monsters where their souls and powers were fused into one. Their 'Bloodline Inheritance' did not only involved their bodies of course. It would also involve the transcendence of souls. If Black had not followed Joshua into the battle against the Dark Tide, got infected by Chaos and got purified with the power of Order, it would not have awakened such a power from within it.

Joshua cleared away the plans that he laid out a few minutes ago. Now that he had already handled the case about the mythical area underneath the Great Ajax Volcano, he could say that he had become free now. After that, he could finally prepare himself nicely and get ready to attend the celebration feast for annihilating the orcs that would be held in the heart of the Imperial City.

Even though the banquet could be boring, it would still be the responsibility of a count of a territory, also the responsibility of a nobleman to attend it. Furthermore, this kind of banquet could also be regarded as an opportunity provided by the Empire for him to socialize officially with the others. After all, without that, Joshua would not be able to strike deals and make trades with the other territories. The development of the territory would also become slow. Therefore, Joshua needed to make quite a lot of preparations.

For example, an evening suit that could fit him perfectly.

The warrior had a number of powerful armor sets, especially now that the old dwarf had completed half of the magic-enhanced armor for him. Although currently the dwarf only completed half of it, one could already see how strong and powerful it would be when it was completed. However, it was impossible to wear it to the banquet though. No matter how handsome he looked in the armor, it would not be appropriate to wear it to the banquet. Joshua had asked a favor of Vale Dani. Through the relationships and connections of the countess, he managed to contact with a few tailors that worked in tailoring for over a hundred years. There, he sent them a request to make him a suit that would fit his body perfectly.

Sitting by the desk as he was sending magic text messages to the other counts of the four territories in the North to inform them that the threat from the bottom of the volcano had been handled. As for the follow-up detailed report—excluding the information related to the dimensional rift he found—the reports would be delivered to the others in a few days, Joshua found that someone was contacting him through the communication circle.

In recent days, only a few of them would actually contact him. Brandon, the Royal Mage Guild, the pope, Vale Dani… however, there was only one person who would still be so free to contact him.

Activating his communication circle, Joshua touched his chin as he sat by the side of his table. Then he spoke with curiosity, "Master Nostradamus. It's so late now. If you're not dealing with the trivial matters about the academy, what is it that you want to discuss with me?"

Right at the side of the communication circle, a projection of a tired Nostradamus appeared.

The white-haired old mage was in the principal's room of Winter Fort Academy. He was wearing a black robe that suited him very much. It made him looked like a powerful mage with a mysterious presence. However, that feeling vanished after seeing the old mage constantly rubbing the sides of his head behind his eyes. After hearing the voice of Joshua and seeing the projection of the warrior on his end of the communication circle, Nostradamus smiled weakly. "It's so good to know that you remain energetic even after you've returned from the volcano. It's truly good to be young, Joshua."

"You are not bad yourself, Master."

Joshua ignored the tired face of the old mage and spoke directly with simple words, "I see that you're too weary to talk much. Let's talk business straight away then."

"You're right."

The old mage also seemed to agree with that. Then he sighed and spoke concisely, "Two days later, I'll be ready to depart for the Imperial City. Do you want to come along?"

"We'll teleport there directly," he said. In order to demonstrate, a blue dimensional wave was seen appearing around the hand of the old mage.

So he contacted me for this?

After thinking for a while, Joshua felt that Nostradamus's idea was not bad at all. The warrior was happy that the old mage would actually remember him about this. He even felt a little touched. So he straight away rejected the old mage, "Thank you for your invitation but I'll have to pass on this one. However, there's no need for that now."

Then he slowly told the old mage, "I have other plans in mind."