Once he had settled in his new home, Grehha grabbed one of the newly laid Mud Viper eggs and placed it before him. He then closed his eyes and focused, churning Prana throughout his body before focusing it on his stomach.
Tertiary Nature—Empyrean Incubator!
His prana covered the Mud Viper egg in the form of a sphere and gradually solidified into the Ovum. Following that, his Prana was rapidly sucked into it as the Ovum transformed it into the essence of the Empyrean Tusk, fusing it into the egg.
Empyrean Incubator had the property to genetically imbue the essence of an Empyrean Tusk in the target entity. Of course, that was easier said than done. Two hours later, the Ovum exploded, causing all the contents within to spill out.
“Damn!” Grehha flinched at the explosion, covering his face from the splash. He then swerved his head to stare at a tiny entity that had slammed into the wall. It was tiny, barely the size of his finger.
It was a Mud Viper hatchling but hadn’t finished developing fully yet. Moreover, unlike a Mud Viper hatchling that looked no different from a tiny worm, this one had developed a tiny exoskeletal skull. But it was deformed, cracking all over.
Moreover, the tiny tusk growing out of the skull had pierced its body, stabbing its heart. It was dead.
“Where did it go wrong?” He frowned and carefully scooped the hatchling corpse and secured it in a container, labelling it ‘Experiment 1’. He then looked around and noted down the environmental condition, his Prana condition, the egg’s condition, and everything he could remember.
“I’m genetically alerting it. Of course, it wouldn’t be easy.” He sighed and began to collate his thoughts. From the failure of the first egg, he realised that this would be a long, arduous process.
Too many variables would affect the success. Hence, he would have to map out all the variables and the effects that had on the end result. “I need to purchase a bunch of long scrolls.”
He then expanded his Prana and felt around the Mud Vipers, ‘Good, they have mostly recovered their toxins.’
Grehha collected the toxin in a container from the Mud Vipers whose venom sacs were full, making an estimate, ‘There’s around 800 millilitres. Since I extracted it, their refining efficiency drops by twenty times. But that’s fine. This would still net me 40 millilitres of the Mud Viper Tonic.’
And the number would only increase when he grows more Mud Vipers. It was best to not bring Inala to his house.
Until now, he fooled the latter by making him assume the Mud Vipers brought to Inala’s room were the same. But in truth, he was swapping them with new ones, ‘Inala didn’t notice back then because he didn’t know I could breed them. But since he saw me selling Mud Viper eggs, he should be aware of what I’m doing.’
Bringing the Mud Vipers to him would be too risky. Instead, he could simply bring the toxin. Besides, with a bigger space, he could grow enough Mud Vipers and obtain enough Mud Viper Tonic to reach 100 Prana in a few months.
He could spend the remaining time refining the egg that he could fuse with after reaching the Body Stage. “I should pay Inala a visit now.”
“He probably won’t do it for free anymore.” Grehha thought calmly as he stared around before finalising, “I can provide him with the resources necessary for his work. He would have no choice but to accept the deal.”
…
While Grehha made his way to the 44th Empyrean Tusk’s Ovaries, another individual had the same thought. But he was making his way towards one of the most guarded regions.
‘There are many elites standing guard here.’ Resha thought as he hid behind a wall at a curve and peeked. In the channel leading to the Empyrean Tusk’s heart stood four elites. But this was just the entrance.
There were multiple chambers within the channel, with the strength of the people stationed within increasing accordingly. At the end of the channel were masters, cultivators at the Life Stage.
Resha sniffed himself, nodding upon failing to notice any scent. He had not only taken a bath and changed his clothes, but he also doused himself with a scent-inhibiting powder that he had prepared.
He was currently barefoot, for only then did he have confidence in walking without making any sound.
Resha took out a pinch of another powder from his pocket and gently sprinkled it in the air, waiting for a few minutes until he calculated its travel, ‘It should have reached them.’
He was just about to tread forward when he stopped. His heart thumped as Resha was nervous, ‘No, there’s no guarantee.’
‘I should wait a bit more.’ He told himself and waited patiently. He peeked gently, watching the eyes of the four elites slowly droop. It was a sleep-inducing agent and affected someone through their Prana. The particles in the powder had an affinity towards Prana and were drawn in its direction. 𝒪𝗏𝓁xt.𝗇𝓔t
Since he had no Prana, Resha wasn’t affected. He bode his time and waited, watching the eyes of the elites close one after another. Right as the eyes of the fourth elite closed, he tiptoed through the section and walked past them, nervous all the time.
In the channels, only the Mammoth Clansmen could see. Therefore, if any Pranic Beast were to enter, its only means of travelling would be to transmit Prana and rely upon its Prana senses. Therefore, as long as they spread their Prana around, the moment their Prana feels a foreign Prana, their skin would prick.
That would alert them of an intruder. As they had been at the job for years, they got accustomed to using their Prana. It became their habit. Resha took advantage of their refined senses.
As he didn’t have any Prana, he didn’t trigger their radar. Moreover, the sleep-inducing agent’s effect was short-lived, barely spanning twenty seconds. So, they never felt anything amiss.
‘Haah…huff!’ He gasped as silently as possible and hid in a tiny protruding. He had gone through this route once in his previous life. And that was during the First Great Disaster.
At that time, when the enemies barged into the channels and made a beeline to the Empyrean Tusk’s heart, he chased after them. Eventually, he received the cure. It was the most vivid experience in his life.
Hence, even though he had only travelled in this channel once, he could never forget even the tiniest of details here, having planned everything, including rest stops that were away from the eyes of the guards stationed in the channel.
‘I’ll get there earlier this time, unnoticed.’ He thought, moving once he caught his breath. This time, there were too many variables. Hence, he wished to settle things in advance.
Resha was heading to the heart!