John quickly stood up, shocked by what he was seeing. The mirror was still in his hand, showing him the face of Adam staring back. After a momentary panic, John calmed down and sat back down.
He carefully inspected his face, studying all the small details. He even used his divine sense to inspect his face, to see what his divine sense would see. He continued this inspection for quite some time, and despite this lengthy inspection, was not able to spot any shortcomings in his disguise.
"How incredible. I look just like Adam, with not a single detail out of place. What an incredible item."
John thought back to his actions before, as another thought crossed his mind.
'When I thought of Adam, my face changed to him…I wonder.'
John's thoughts strayed to another person he was quite familiar with, his father, Barden. He focused on his fathers face, and soon after, John could feel a small pull from the mask, as it siphoned Qi from him to fuel the transformation.
Slowly but surely, John saw his face change to that of his fathers. He couldn't tell the difference. John continued to inspect his face, and even assumed the demeanor of his father. If he was in front of his mother, he was sure he would fool her.
"However, it only disguises my face, and not my body, so the disguise would only work if I had the same body proportions as whoever I disguise myself as."
John changed his thoughts, and focused on Elder Ragur. After a moment of slow transformation, his face once again changed. John could feel the same Qi siphoning as last time, but this time, he felt something else.
His face turned slightly grave as he discovered something with the mask.
"I didn't notice it at first, as it was incredibly small, but every time I assume the identity of someone new, the mask siphons an incredibly small portion of my soul to infuse into the mask, to fully transform with no flaws."
While John was fine with the mask siphoning Qi from him, as this was easily expendable, he was not fine with it siphoning parts of his soul. The soul was the absolute core of a human, and was unable to be replaced as easily as missing Qi.
Every time the mask siphoned a small part of his soul, it was as if he was losing part of his identity. Not only that, but his soul power would diminish, which was something John would not allow.
"Thankfully I noticed it so soon. The amount siphoned so far is inconsequential, but if I continued to transform continuously, it would soon add up to something I would not be able to recover from."
John inspected the mask a bit more, and carefully thought back to the details of each transformation. His identity was still that of Elder Ragur, and John felt no more soul siphoning at the moment.
"It appears that the soul siphoning only occurs during a transformation. I'll have to be careful with this mask in the future, and make sure to not use it too much. I can recover from a small bit of soul damage, but anything more will be irreparable."
John continued to inspect his face for quite some time more, to study the effects the mask had on his body. However, even after an extended duration of using the mask, he didn't find any other negative effects.
His hand reached up, and with great effort, the mask was pulled off. His face instantly returned back to his own. A smile lit up on his face as he studied the mask before him, which had now assumed its featureless mannequin-like face.
"This will be quite useful in the future. I'll definitely be keeping this."
John stored the mask in his palace realm, and cleaned up the rest of the junk in front of him. While his gains had not been incredible, they had not been small either. He had obtained plenty of weapons, pills, and other baubles that would be useful in the future.
"Now then. Time to focus on cultivation once more."
John assumed a meditative position and calmed his mind. He appeared in his palace realm, and his face quickly turned into a frown.
"How messy."
John had appeared in the main lobby of the majestic palace within his spatial realm, and was greeted with mountains of items he had collected over the past year. They laid strewn about haphazardly, making the palace look like an absolute mess.
"I really need to do something about this."
His gaze swept throughout the palace, and lingered on the massive doors that lined the side hallways. The doors stretched hundreds of yards high, and had stood closed the entire time.
"I tried to open them earlier, but was unable to do so, and haven't tried since. Maybe there is a cultivation barrier to opening these, or a strength requirement. I should try again."
John strode into the first side hallway, and approached the first door. He was like an ant to the door, which towered over him. Ornate carvings and designs covered the door, making it look incredibly exquisite.
He reached out, and pushed against the door. The door refused to budge, causing John to put more strength into it. His full might was put into moving the door, as his face turned red. However, his red face quickly changed into elation as the door finally began to slowly move.
After much effort, John was finally able to move the door wide enough for his body to slip through.
"It worked!"
After confirming that the door would not close on its own, John slipped into the small crack he had created.
A massive room greeted him on the other side, no less grand and exquisite than the rest of the palace. The room was hundreds of yards wide and long, with a ceiling several hundred yards tall.
Majestic chandeliers hung down from the ceiling, which glowed with ethereal light, giving a soft light to the room. In the center of the room, a large basin was present, which was empty. The basin was also several hundred yards wide and long, and took up around eighty perfect of the floor space.
John walked forward, and peered over the edge into the basin. It stretched down nearly two hundred yards.
"Was this used as a pool by the previous palace owner?" John mused out loud. It was the only thing he could think of, despite the 'pool' being empty.
An idea suddenly appeared in his mind, as a smile appeared on his face. He quickly dashed back into the lobby, and gathered quite a few items into his spatial ring before dashing back into the room.
John stood at the edge of the basin, and waved his hand outwards. Hundreds of wooden barrels appeared in the air before him, suspended in the air by his Qi. They began to tip to the side, and soon, a waterfall of blood tipped out of the barrels and into the hole below.
This beast blood essence was blood from Mist Creation beasts that John had obtained. The blood had long become useless to him, and so John had not used it during his fights. While he was able to technically use them to fuel his body Qi, each barrel would provide him less than a second's worth of Qi, and was not worth the soul power it took to infuse from this palace realm to his dantian.
He would need to go into each barrel and extract the blood essence, which was far more effort than it was worth for only one second of body Qi.
However, if it was all in one spot, that was different.
The barrels all emptied out, filling the bottom of the basin with a small pond of blood. The blood remained there, and John began to laugh like a madman.
"Hahaha, it worked. I now have a pool of beast blood essence, ready for my use at a mere thought. No longer do I have to individually go through each barrel to extract blood essence. I am now the Blood Sovereign, Lord of the Blood Pool!"
John's maniacal laughter continued on for some time before he finally composed himself. He emptied out all his remaining beast blood essence reserves, and stared at the blood pool below.
"It's all Mist Creation beast blood, so it's useless to me, but once I start mixing in Core Formation beast blood and above, it will become an incredible boon for me. Not only will I be able to extract the blood essence to my dantian in an easier manner, I can also store more blood more easily now."
John concluded his business with the room. He strode out into the hallway and gazed to the next door. He pushed on the door with great effort, at which point it too began to part. John happily slipped into the room, but his elation quickly turned to slight disappointment.
"Its empty."
The entire room was empty, with not a single item inside.
"Oh well, this will be a perfect storage room for all my items."
John moved back into the lobby and gathered all his items, before returning to the empty room. Before long, the main lobby was spotless, causing John to nod his head in approval.
"Much better."
John's gaze then turned to the next door down the hallway. After approaching it, John gave it a push, but no matter how hard he pushed, it was unable to budge.
John tried every other door in the palace, but each one did not budge an inch. His elated mood had quickly turned sour as he approached the final door he had yet to try. He harrumphed in displeasure as he pushed on the final door. Just like the first, the door began to part, causing a look of Joy to once more appear on John's face.
Light began to shine out from within the crack he had created, and a strong medicinal aroma wafted over him.