17 Mortal Ranks

Next morning.

It was time for breakfast at the family table. Everyone was asked to come down.

Me and my mother didn't get enough time to even have a quickie because of these shitty rules of the family of eating together at breakfast.

With unhappy faces, we both went down to the dining room and saw everyone seated around the long rectangular table. My father, Patrick Ignis, was seated at the head position while the rest were seated as per their statuses.

There were no concubines, only the wives of my father and his children.

Despite not being a pure blood, due to my mother alone, I was sitting right beside my father. My mother had gone to sit on the opposite side.

As usual, my mother was about to take a bite and leave, when a red-haired, short statured boy sitting at around the middle of the table said,

"I don't understand, father. How does that Leonard get to sit so close to you? It's been a month, I am sure he's a crippled already. Why keep him there?"

His words caused my mother to frown. She would've killed this boy right here and now, but she didn't want useless trouble to come bothering her, so she might've kept quiet.

She finished her single bite and said, "Leo, let's go—"

"No, mom. Let cousin Andreas continue," I flashed a cold smile to my mother and said. I had my plans for today.

What was going on in Leo's head, Anne didn't know, but she trusted her son and decided to stay at the table for longer.

The boy, Andreas, thinking he was doing some good job for mocking me, continued, "Cousin Leonard, the crippled Viren and Saif have lost their minds. I am happy that you haven't succumbed to such a state, but I do hope you understand that your position has been lowered in the family."

A black-haired woman with brown eyes and in a sexy dress, said, "It is a pity that such an event has occurred, my heart goes out to you, Mistress Anne."

Nobody had the balls to call my mother without honorifics, not even the true main wife Ming Gengxin.

This woman, Ming Gengxin… She was the instigator of all the vile plans against me and my family.

She was a bitch who always tried to appear as the best possible woman to Patrick. She was also the leader of all my stepmothers and cousins.

Everybody listened to her and naturally, in the past, she was able to orchestrate a great plan that led to the downfall of my mother's business empire and had me and my sisters taste the ruins.

I hated this woman with every cell of my body, however, I had that man Patrick even more than her. He was obviously involved in the plans of Genxing and without him, it wouldn't have come to fruition.

Their plan started off as simple. Patrick couldn't rebuild his relationship with my mother, so my stepmothers did their best to amend all the broken strings between them and my mom.

My mother was always cold to them, but slowly but surely, they showed their loyalty and worth. They went as far as to even cuss Patrick and give him cold shoulders right at the dining table.

Even my cousins looked at Patrick as if he was a scum. This was all a great act, though.

My mother was suspicious about it, but these fuckers had brought a pill from somewhere and put in her food. Even though my mother usually took one bite, the pill showed effect.

The pill wasn't poison or harmful, it simply played with one's psyche and this led to my mother lowering her suspicions and trusting these bitches.

These guys then got into my mother's business, then fucked it up in the absolute best possible way.

I was in the Eastern Continent so I wasn't in the know of many things, neither were my sisters.

My mother was fighting alone and eventually, she had lost this battle.

Our statues were really lowered, but my mother's strength still kept us all safe.

She lived like a beggar in a small place in the archipelago while me and my sisters struggled in the Eastern Continent.

Eventually, my mother lived her life in seclusion and I was doing my things away from her. I visited her from time to time, and she seemed so sad that my heart ached. I could do nothing because I didn't have the strength and just cried after getting away from her.

Life was a bitch.

In any case, I had sworn to take revenge and it was a dish best served cold. I'd not let these guys go so easily.

This bitch Gengxin started the plans, I'll start my revenge from her and slowly have everyone pay for their wrongs.

For now though, I just had to let some build up arise, because of course, these guys were innocent at this point of time.

Gengxin wouldn't start her plans at least a few weeks from now.

My mother, who had heard Gengxin's passive aggressive words, was probably wondering in what ways she should chop this woman up and to whom to feed.

I didn't let the fire die down due to my mother's lack of response and said with a smile, "First mother's words are appreciated, but first mother should choose her words wisely."

Gengxin turned to look at me, and so did everyone, the tall and skinny shit Patrick included. That man looked like a peadophile and in reality, was one.

He wasn't a scum, he was the scummiest of scums, leaving not even minors if he fancied them.

"I think I am soft-spoken, Leonard," Gengxin said.

This bitch, she called me by my name. I had to fix this as soon as possible.

I merely smiled at her words and continued on with my food.

A round of mockery began, the culprits being my cousins, namely Kane, Eric, Priscilla, and a few more small fries.

It didn't matter whose children these people were, they were all going to suffer at my hands sooner or later.

If I were to summarize the wrongs these three people that I named was:

Kane: Tried to r*pe my sister Leya. Tired to harm her when she was young. Tried to interfere in her awakening ceremony.

Eric: Actually succeeded in r*ping my sister Lisa during the family's destruction. My mother couldn't save her as she tried to save me. I'll never forget the horror my sister went through and this guy will never not be forgiven.

Priscilla: Toyed with me, got me punished by the Ignis on accusations of me r*ping her. Destroyed all of my remaining reputation and led me to sink in the worst possible depression.

These guys had quite the thing about r*pe. Since they liked it so much, it would go without question as to what I was going to do.

Priscilla was around my age and she was none other than that bitch Gengxin's daughter.

If her putting me in such distress wasn't enough for her personality to be known, she continuously slept with Patrick, despite being his daughter, and also the other men of Ignis family to get proper resources.

She was the incestous slut of the Ignis and the Patriarch was aware of it, but turned a blind eye to everything as long as he got a blowjob from her.

Her beautiful journey to be a top slut would start shortly after her mother formulates a plan for her to stick to me.

This meant, she wasn't a slut yet. Though, she did sleep with Patrick still. That bastard had a lot of threesomes with Gengxin and Priscilla. He also shared a deep connection with them.

It was for this reason that Gengxin was the actual main wife.

Whatever the case though, Patrick had a lot of feelings for my mother and desired her every second of his life. He thought of my mother while he fucked Gengxin and of my sister Leya while he fucked Priscilla.

My blood boiled just thinking about it and if I could, I would rip this bastard here and now.

Sadly, he was a Rank 3 with probably an Azure stage Mind Sea.

In the mortal realms, there were four cultivation ranks ranging from a simple one to four.

Each rank had subdivisions called:

Scarlet stage

Azure stage

Jade stage

Gold stage

Each of these stages were further divided into initial, middle, upper, and peak.

That's a lot of divisions and subdivisions, but that properly explained one's strength.

Patrick was definitely at Azure stage of Rank 3, but I didn't know if it was intial, middle, or upper.

In any case, I was already an Initial Gold stage Rank 1, so things were fine.

Yes, I had skipped the Scarlet, Azure, and Jade stages. It was all thanks to me sucking up all the Life Essence from that dimension and also suffering through a mighty tribulation.

I was actually dissatisfied with being at the initial level because you know, the tribulation was really strong. I should've at least broken through to Rank 2 or at the bare minimum, be at the peak of Rank 1.

Welp, nothing could be done about it now. I should be happy with what I had.

It was also understandable as to how I didn't cross to Rank 2.

Going from initial to peak wasn't difficult. One could break through by meditation and by having a high attainment in the dao they were cultivating in.

Difficulty lay in going from one stage to another. It wasn't possible in the mortal realms to break through that point without external support such as pills and other things.

If breaking through just stages was this difficult, then one shouldn't even think about going from one rank to another.

A shit ton of resources were needed to go from one rank to another. The biggest difficulty in this realm lay in simply finding the resources for oneself.

Even if I were to empty the entire Ignis family, I would not be able to see the face of Rank 3, let alone be the peak of Rank 2.

That's just how much resources were needed.

Of course, what I was speaking about was solely myself.

My bloodline was too powerful so I needed more, but eventually, I'd also become stronger than most in the same realm.

The most important thing that one had to know was that no matter what, a person of a lower rank could not kill the person of a higher rank.

It was impossible and even if I was a regressor, I didn't have such capabilities or strength.

Even that cringe edgelord Heavenly Emperor had to admit defeat multiple times when fighting against someone of a higher level. He was never once able to kill any entity of a higher rank.

Killing someone of a higher stage in the same rank was possible though.

However, I didn't need to worry about all these things. I could still kill Patrick if I wanted to. I had my ways.

The mockery session continued until the entire breakfast. For the first time, my mother and I ate properly on this table.

Though, I had to warn her about the potential problems that may come. Hmm, but… I think there won't be such problems anymore since she had her bloodline awakened.

She didn't have it last time so she couldn't resist the pill.

This time however, our bloodline made us resistant to all types of poison made from herbs or other naturally found ingredients.

If it's made from living people or something not found in nature, then that's another story.

In any case, my mother and I left the dining table and went about our ways. I had a few important things to ask of her right now.

…..

(*) = nudity, everything else other than intercourse.

(**) = intercourse and everything degenerated

[R-18] = gore, torture, traumatizing content