Bella waited quietly for ten seconds. Nothing happened.
She opened her eyes and looked carefully at the brazier. Why wasn't there any reaction from the ancestor? Was she supposed to shout some kind of slogan during this part?
But what would she even shout? "For the tribe!"?
That sounded ridiculous. Her longing for supernatural power had her second-guessing everything.
There shouldn't be any fixed lines here, let alone some universal slogan.
Everyone's ancestor was different—different personalities, different backgrounds. There was no single ritual that worked on all of them.
According to Billy Black, sincerity was the key. As long as you reached out with sincerity, that was enough. One ancestor might ignore you, but the next might like you. There were plenty of ancestors, and it went both ways—you'd eventually find one willing to help.
Did the Swan family have any badass ancestors? Bella wasn't sure.
But she did know this: wealth rarely lasted past three generations. In reality, poverty didn't either. If a family was too poor to get married, they naturally wouldn't have descendants.
So logically, the Swan family had to have had some impressive figures in the past, right?
Feeling a little anxious, Bella watched her blood burn in the brazier. She didn't even bother to bandage the wound. Instead, she started retelling her experience from the plane crash, hoping that some ancestor out there might take a liking to her and offer help.
And finally—something changed.
She felt a surge of power in her blood. Her heart pounded, and every cell in her body responded with a boiling energy.
When her blood resonated with the blood burning in the brazier, the call of her bloodline was answered. Bella's soul, drawn by the connection, used her blood as a vessel to sail into a vast sea made entirely of spiritual energy.
It wasn't a dream, but it wasn't real either. Bella had never experienced anything like it. No sails, no oars—the blood vessel moved at her will, gliding deeper into the sea of light.
Her spirit form felt no different than normal. She was Bella, and Bella was her. No outsiders here. Once she adapted to this spirit state, she focused on her goal.
"Please help me. I've been targeted by someone called the Reaper—or something like that." She repeated her plea over and over. As she went deeper into the spirit sea, glowing orbs of light began to interact with her.
These orbs were her ancestors—each one with a connection to her. They watched curiously as this descendant drifted into their realm.
Bella also began selecting among them.
The ones that drew closer were direct-line ancestors—great-grandfathers, great-grandmothers, etc.
The ones that ignored her were from more distant branches—like seventh-great-uncles or ninth-great-aunts.
The orbs varied in brightness. The brighter ones had greater achievements. The dimmer ones were likely just ordinary folks.
But achievement didn't always mean they had supernatural power. Bella had to inspect them one by one.
Doctor? Useless. She was about to die herself. Next.
Factory worker? That ancestor was doing worse than she was. Pass.
Small-time merchant? Money doesn't come with you when you die. Irrelevant. Bye.
Ship's mate? Not really helpful either.
As she drifted deeper, Bella grew impatient. She started to question her whole theory about families never being poor for more than three generations. The Swan family had never been super poor—but they sure weren't rich either. Their history was way too plain. Did they really have someone strong enough to help her fight the Reaper?
One generation every twenty years. She kept looking.
Five generations—nothing in the past hundred years.
Ten generations—still no one notable in two hundred years.
Fifteen, twenty generations—the farther back she went, the more Swan ancestors she found involved with the sea.
Sailors, first and second mates, captains, navigators—some were in the navy, some were pirates.
One female ancestor caught her attention—she knew a bit of magic. But she didn't like Bella, and she wasn't a direct bloodline, so after a brief encounter, they drifted apart.
Where the hell was her badass ancestor?
Bella was speechless. This endless search was draining. Billy Black said this was normal—it was her mental energy being quickly consumed.
The Quelut tribe had a lot of experience with ancestor spirit rituals. Billy's guide specifically mentioned this: the first attempt had the highest success rate. The second attempt dropped to one-third of that. By the third time, the blood resonance ritual might not even work. Ancestors were busy too—they weren't going to check on you every other day.
Bella gritted her teeth and pressed on.
She kept drifting—until suddenly, a huge glowing orb appeared.
As her gaze locked on it, one dim and two bright orbs instantly appeared. Two more orbs were slowly drifting over in the distance. It all seemed to happen in a flash, like they'd just popped into existence.
Do I really have this many badass ancestors? The dim one she ignored, but the other five were way brighter than that snobby witch ancestor from earlier.
Bella looked at the two slowly approaching orbs.
She couldn't help but mutter, "Huh?"
Inside the orbs were none other than the famous adventurer Henry Turner and the renowned astronomer Carina Barbossa.
These are my ancestors? Aren't they characters from Pirates of the Caribbean?! Bella was genuinely stunned.
But the bloodline bond couldn't be faked. Bella's Swan surname came from these two. They'd had two children—one took the surname Turner, the other Swan. Turner was the "safe" choice. Swan, being the Pirate Queen's name, was more risky. Who knew what they were thinking back then?
Bella tried connecting with the two.
Henry Turner had all adventuring-related skills—not really useful for her.
Carina Barbossa, on the other hand, was impressive. The astronomer had once come into contact with the Trident of Poseidon and gained fragments of divine knowledge. Though she only deciphered a small portion before dying, it was still extremely valuable. That kind of divine knowledge was more than enough to help Bella step onto the supernatural path.
If this was earlier, Bella probably would've accepted her help. The Reaper from the plane crash was only dangerous to normal people. To someone supernatural, it might not even be a threat.
But now—Bella had a better option.
Next to Carina's orb were two more—one bright, one dim. They were probably her parents—Hector Barbossa and Margaret Smith.
Old Barbossa definitely had power, insight, and vision. As the Pirate King of the Caspian Sea, he was definitely a big deal—very likely had a way to unlock supernatural powers. But Bella felt like their personalities didn't match. He wasn't the best choice for her.
Then Bella looked at the one in the center—the brightest, most accomplished ancestor: Elizabeth Swan, the Pirate Queen!
This orb felt incredibly familiar.
Without hesitation, Bella fully submerged her consciousness into it.
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