One look at this old man’s visage and the faces of the family disciples instantly lost all color.
His eyes were bloodshot beyond recognition, so that they were almost fully black. Blood seeped from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth in endless trails, yet the most horrifying sight was his skin itself.
It bulged like swelling and twitched as though it was alive, even shifting unnaturally as though something was moving inside.
The ancestor lurched forward before collapsing onto one knee with a wet splatter.
"H-Hex..."
He coughed violently while trying to reach out his hand towards them, but only managed to gurgle and spray a mouthful of blackened blood across the ground, causing the family disciples to recoil in horror.
The blood hissed faintly where it landed, carrying an unbearable stench that resembled rotting corpses soaked beneath stagnant water for centuries.
"There’s... a hex..."
His voice sounded strained and broken, barely resembling human speech anymore.
The old ancestor clawed at his chest desperately.
Then they heard it.
A sickening sound echoed from within his body.
Another followed rather quickly.
Then another crack echoed like a heartbeat.
The disciples stared in frozen horror as his ribs visibly shifted beneath his skin.
His bones were breaking apart inside him.
"No... no... impossible..."
The ancestor’s breathing became ragged.
The water-darkness bloodline aura surrounding him suddenly erupted outward, but instead of the familiar pure undulations of the Miredon Family bloodline, it carried a foul and corrupted presence that made everyone instinctively nauseous.
"Eearrghhhhhhh!"
The old man screamed, his cry no longer resembling that of a human but of an animal being skinned alive.
One disciple stumbled backward and vomited onto the stone floor. Another collapsed onto his rear, trembling uncontrollably. They were struck with fear when they watched the ancestor’s flesh suddenly split open along his arm as black-red blood burst outward.
Something beneath the skin writhed before dissolving into black sludge that stopped moving, but flowed like a puddle staining the ground.
"Call the elders!"
"Get the physicians!"
"Quick!"
The family disciples could barely hear themselves under their pounding hearts and panic.
Several disciples ran deeper into the estate while others remained frozen in place, unable to tear their eyes away from the horrifying scene unfolding before them.
The ancestor convulsed violently on the ground.
His fingers bent backward with snapping cracks, and veins burst across his body one after another.
The disciples could notice the corruption spreading beneath his skin, like ink diffusing through water, but they dared not approach him to help. They could only watch him writhe miserably while choking in his own blood before he suddenly clawed at his own throat, tearing flesh apart as though trying to rip something out from inside himself.
His chest abruptly sank inward before blood exploded from his mouth.
His eyes widened so far that the capillaries around them burst apart.
Finally, he stopped moving and collapsed.
"..."