Usan heaved a long sigh, as though he had expected Liam’s response.
“Has anyone told you you’re a shameless prick?” he insulted with a slight scowl.
“Many,” Liam responded curtly, unfazed.
“In the first place, your body cannot handle something of that caliber. Most of your centers of power are too weak to even utilize the Miracle Fruit’s nourishment.”
“You’ll simply explode.”
Liam imagined that much.
“But there has to be some sort of way to make it work. You can’t say it’s impossible for sure. A tiny bit wouldn’t hurt too much, would it?”
Usan remained silent for a few seconds.
“If we win. And if your contributions are good enough, then yes. I’ll give you a very, very small portion of the fruit.”
‘Good enough,’ Liam thought, satisfied.
“Until then, get as strong as you can. The rules themselves aren’t set in stone, so there’s no telling what they might try to pull off.”
Liam nodded.
The two parted ways afterward.
Liam headed straight to his home.
‘Now I definitely have to make the Ravenous Leash Arts work.’
With the eight month time period, he could do several projects, and Liam didn’t waste a single second.
Firstly, he began with the Ravenous Leash Arts.
Liam needed to find a way to make it work for his Blood Shadow.
The heart of the technique was centered around the Beast Will.
As long as the process stayed the same without changing its core functions, switching it to his needs was actually not that hard.
Liam got to work and entered his Inner World.
For weeks on end, he stayed within the enclosed space and rigorously tinkered with the technique.
He was already 70% through with it.
On the side, Liam put more effort than usual on his cultivation.
He was close to breaking through to the third Rank of the core, after all.
Despite how excited he was for that event, Liam first needed to get the Ravenous Leash Arts in order.
He even temporarily halted the Triumvirate Body’s development and everything else to quicken the process.
All the hard parts were cleared.
Now, only the minor details remained.
Inscribing with his new Blood was… a disgusting headache.
Everything hurt.
Even Liam’s eagle-like vision started to swim and blur due to absorbing Rank 3 Blood.
Nevertheless, as Liam continued the inscribing process, he quickly realized how powerful his Blood had gotten.
Now, he could fit a ridiculous amount of Meanings into a compact droplet of ichor.
Even though his comprehension wasn’t anything little, his Ink was his greatest aspect when it came to inscriptions.
Like so, two months passed.
/// 𝗼𝐯𝗹．𝐞𝘁
Liam crushed a Rank 1 Spirit Beast’s core in his hand and absorbed its Will.
One second passed.
Liam had tamed the Beast Will.
A moment later, he put a finger on his temple and pulled out the ethereal Beast Will from his mind, fixing it to his Blood Shadow.
Liam’s shadows squirmed and twisted.
Slowly, it was starting to take a bestial form, letting out a shrill hiss and lengthening.
Liam watched with constricted pupils as his three-dimensional shadow grew serpentine scales and two little horns on its head.
A minute passed.
There it was.
An actual Rank 1 Snake made from Liam’s Blood and Shadow!
Although it was just a Rank 1, its strength was actually on par with a Rank 2.
This was due to Liam’s Rank 3 Blood.
It naturally boosted the strength of his Shadow Beasts.
Liam commanded the horned snake to curl up his body with a single instinctual command.
Then it bit him.
The snake couldn’t even nick his skin.
‘But you’re still too weak…’ Liam sighed, grabbing the snake in his hand…
And crushing it.
There wasn’t any blood or viscera, but the snake broke apart ethereally and silently.
Liam watched as his Blood Shadow simply… reformed it again.
This was the selling point of Liam’s new and improved Leash Arts.
He spent a good amount of time transforming his Shadows into Blood Shadows.
Then using his Blood Shadow as a material, he could simply reform his beasts.
This ‘reformation’ naturally consumed his blood, even without him using the Black Hole, since he’d designed it to do so. Without that aspect, everything fell apart.
Only… Liam could do the process with only lower ranking beasts, but this was a temporary issue.
‘I need to make them into something that actually increases my battle prowess.’
‘In a normal battle between people my Rank, one Rank 3 beast would just be a bother.’
More weeks passed as Liam hammered in the work, adding more than a few features to a process.
By then, more and more people joined the Temple of Shadow.
Now, they were a solid 10,000 in number, with a few Zeniths in the mix.
Another two months passed and Liam finally fixed the Ravenous Leash Arts!
Finally!
He did the same process as before, except with a Rank 3 Spirit Beast core.
Except now…
He added Meanings to that Beast Will.
Putting the Beast Will inside the Blood Shadow, Liam leaned back to watch intently as it transformed into a glorious Rank 3 Twilight Wolf.
Liam smiled.
‘Now, if what I just did went correctly…’
Speaking verbally to the beast wasn’t a requirement, but Liam did it anyway.
“Shoot a beam of darkness at me.”
The wolf growled, which grew louder.
WHOOOF!
A condensed beam of gaseous and liquid darkness shot straight at Liam, who tanked the attack with a smile on his face.
As it cleared away, Liam’s slightly corroded flesh instantly reformed.
It worked!
It actually worked!
Liam could now tap into a Spirit Beast’s innate abilities.
Mainly due to adding Meanings into a Beast Will, which didn’t conflict with the Ravenous Leash Arts.
But Liam didn’t call it the Ravenous Leash Arts anymore.
Liam had restructured, enhanced and rebuilt it.
It was his!
‘Blood Bond.’
‘I have enough Blood Shadow for one more Rank 3 beast. A long-ranged beast is preferable, but close-range isn’t bad either.’
Like so, another two months passed.
…And Liam’s core rumbled with power.