Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 1097: Unequal Exchange

Zac didnʼt have to wait long before the Hidden Node in his chest began dumping vast amounts of energy into his body. [Void Heart] had returned something that was both familiar and foreign. The aura of the Abyss was somehow still there, yet it wasnʼt holding the Dao of Death. It had all been stripped away, turned into amorphous energy that was neither attuned nor unattuned.

One moment, Zac was looking at something very similar to the universal Kill Energy that the system used. The next, he felt like he was looking at inverted Abyssal Energy holding Void of Death instead of Dao of Death. It refused to be categorized, but Zac could tell it was incredibly dense. Just the first thump released enough energy to overload your average Peak E-grade cultivator, yet Zac could sense vast quantities were still stored within [Void Heart]. It would take half an hour for the Hidden Node to release it all.

Interestingly, Zac found that the Hidden Node released equal amounts of energy to both his bodies in an impressive quantum feat Zac couldnʼt begin to comprehend. Manually taking control of [Void Heart] with his Heart Cultivation let him shift the distribution until one body got nine parts to the otherʼs one. Being unable to completely plug the Hidden Node in either wasnʼt a problem right now, but it was worth remembering when around the prying eyes of the Undead Monarchs.

Despite the energyʼs impressive density, Zac was slightly disappointed after seeing it. Heʼd hoped a special source like the Abyssal Lake would produce something equally unique. There was no point in crying over spilled milk, though. And if he didnʼt do something soon, the energy would start leaking from his bodies.

The refined energy should improve his cultivation more than the Life-attuned D-grade Core Nurturing Pills heʼd used over the past days, and it came without pill toxicity or risk of forming a resistance. Zac corralled into his Specialty Cores from both bodies, the infusion resulting in an uncanny split-vision. The refined Abyssal Energy entered the Specialty Coreʼs quantum aperture in two states, just like how the pathways in his Cosmic Core simultaneously existed as Dao and Void of Dao.

The energy smoothly reinforced the pathways, and Zac was happy to see the refined energy even work on the parts of Life and Void of Life despite its clear Abyssal aura. It really was like Kill Energy in that regard. The effect was quite pronounced, too. Heʼd already reached level 156 by relying on the pills, but that was because he was somewhat close to the threshold from the beginning. The refined Abyssal Energy could potentially take him all the way to level 157, a cultivation speed that could only be called monstrous in the D-grade.

However, Zac urgently stopped the infusion upon seeing that his Draugr heritage finally stirred. The swirls in his cells came alive, and it felt like an intangible darkness spread through his body. He was becoming a humanoid lake of darkwater, though Zac quickly realized something was wrong. The deepening darkness didnʼt lead to the Abyss.

Instead, Zac could sense the hints of the ancient aura of his Void Emperor Bloodline in the depths of the pond-like swirls in his cells.

Zac still wasnʼt sure how his situation worked. Truthfully, he hadnʼt expected a second Bloodline to appear on his Status Screen after his dip in the Abyssal Pond. Having multiple Bloodlines really shouldnʼt be a thing. You either inherited a bloodline or formed one through special encounters or reaching a high enough grade. If you had multiple Bloodlines competing within your body, theyʼd either fuse into something new, or one would push out the others.

Therefore, Zac had always assumed itʼd look like his human side after awakening his Draugr heritage; heʼd get a Branch of Eoz ”Constitution” while his Void Emperor inheritance remained predominant. The fact that his Children of Draug-bloodline didnʼt appear by his Race on his main Status Screen didnʼt help, either.

He was entering uncharted territory, and there was only one way to figure out how things worked. Strictly speaking, if the option were between feeding his insatiable Void Emperor Bloodline or progressing his Cosmic Core, heʼd pick his core. The energy demands for upgrading his mysterious Bloodline werenʼt of this world, and his E-grade [Void Heart] didnʼt have the capacity to even move the needle.

Zac still diverted as much of the refined energy as he could into his Draugr form, feeding it into everything from bones to surface skin to gauge the reaction. The value of the information he could glean from the situation easily surpassed that of gaining a level, especially considering that the golden swirls in his human form were completely uninterested in the energy.

Innumerable streaks were absorbed, and the feedback was one heʼd seen many times before. The energy dragged into the vortices was sent to the inaccessible Void where heʼd never see it again. Yet Zac persisted. He hoped for a similar situation as the one in the Abyssal Pond, where he could progress his Eoz bloodline as long as he first stuffed his primary one.

After five minutes, the response heʼd prayed for finally arrived, though not in the way heʼd expected. The vortices continued to swallow everything Zac imparted, but it was no longer a one-way street. Ancient force appeared out of nowhere, reeking of Death and power. It definitely wasnʼt Abyssal Energy, yet it naturally blended with the Abyssal darkness in his cells.

His Children of Draug-bloodline was progressing, and not by a small amount.

Zacʼs real hearts were beating in pace with [Void Heart] as he excitedly watched the deathly vortices expand and grow darker. He knew how difficult it was to improve oneʼs Draugr bloodline outside the Abyssal Lake, so this was a rare opportunity. It seemed unlikely, but he might actually break through again just days after reaching Early Shallows.

The prospect of breaking through wasnʼt the source of his excitement, though. The twice-refined energy that was seamlessly fusing with every part of his body didnʼt even have a hint of the Abyss remaining. It instead exuded the primordial aura he could sense upon activating skills with Void Energy, though marked by an unmistakable hint of Death. It felt like the refined energy had been exchanged for the Vigor of a long-dead powerful beast, yet it improved his Eoz bloodline.

Did that mean other energies refined by [Void Heart] and his cells could do the same?

The implications were staggering. The universe was full of treasures Cultivators disregarded because of their unstable energies, which were perfect fuel for his Void Emperor Node. For example, heʼd bought Beast Cores for a pittance and used them to speed up his leveling. That method had somewhat taken a backseat as the energy demands per level increased, but what if he could use the same method to advance his Bloodline?

If his assumption was right, it meant heʼd found a unique way to progress without locking himself to the Abyssal Shores, which seemed to be a dream of his adopted ancestor. Like Karz in his visions, heʼd be turning trash into treasure.

His Hidden Node released energy for another twenty minutes, and his body didnʼt let a single sliver of it go. The Void continued to return that ancient force for a while longer. There wasnʼt much for Zac to do at that point, so he tried to better understand the process within his body. However, he absolutely couldnʼt find the source of the energy or the process of how it was converted.

The depths of his cells felt like an endless expanse. His Mental Energy threads were lost inside long before they could find anything. Zac shifted his attention, trying to better understand the process itself. Heʼd missed what happened to his body during his day in the Abyssal Pond because of the epiphany and was only left with the result.

Zac didnʼt glean anything special except for his cells slightly expanding without taking up more physical space. He did, however, sense something else—a mysterious resonance was slowly forming now that his body was in an agitated state. Zac didnʼt know why, but the intangible sensation made him think of something like a Skill Fractal, but it was blurry and indistinct.

The hidden font of Vigor eventually ran dry, and the feeling of progress instantly stopped. As expected, the energy wasnʼt enough to let him break through again. Each stage of Shallows required significant refinement of your body, and Zac suspected his unique constitution had increased the energy requirements involved.

As for the intangible sensation, Zac believed it was more than just a representation of the mysterious power fusing with his body. Was it perhaps a Bloodline Talent? Each awakening was supposed to have a high chance of unlocking a Bloodline Talent, especially if you had a pure Bloodline. Zacʼs Bloodline was supposedly as pure as they came, yet he hadnʼt seen a hint of any Eoz Bloodline Talent.

Heʼd figured it was linked to his inability to find any more Eoz Hidden Nodes beyond the first three, that his other Bloodline had blocked them somehow. But perhaps there was yet a chance to awaken a talent at least. In other good news, Zac could also confirm that his Bloodline hadnʼt reached its limits after its third awakening, though that wasnʼt much of a surprise considering his connection to Eoz himself.

What stymied the elites by the Abyssal Shores wasnʼt access to the lake or Abyssal Energy. If you lived in the Draugr Holy Land, you could go for a dip whenever you wanted. The problem was that everyone had ceilings on how much their bodies could take in. The cap could be slowly raised by practicing Bloodline Methods, but inborn talent was the biggest indicator of how far you could go.

Zac had found nothing holding him back in this regard, and he even felt a slight hunger from his body after the feast. Zac was happy to oblige, and a Death-Attuned Beast Core appeared in his hand. A raging storm of untamable energy poured into his body, and the previously wan [Void Heart] perked up with newfound enthusiasm.

The node spat out a few bursts of refined energy a couple of minutes later, and Zac almost screamed with excitement upon seeing the familiar process start anew. The refined core only produced a few strings of meager Vigor, but it proved his idea feasible. Zac burned with anticipation as he took out another item, this one a Death-attuned Natural Treasure holding far more exquisite truths than the Beast Core.

Two hours of experimentation gave Zac a much better grasp of his options. For one, the source material had to hold the Dao of Death to benefit his Bloodline, even if [Void Heart] seemingly removed it. The closer its energy signature was to Abyssal Energy, the better it would work. Furthermore, its grade had to reach a certain stage.

E-grade materials were useless, and even Early D-grade Beast Cores barely made a difference. Heʼd probably have to chow down on cores for centuries just to improve his Bloodline a minor stage. Of course, not even the Natural Treasures heʼd absorbed came close to the Abyssal Water.

Zac, unfortunately, failed to recreate the effect in his human body. Only his Draugr side could improve his Draugr Bloodline, even if its benefits were fully transferred over. Neither could his Void Vajra Constitution take advantage of Life-attuned items similarly. He did find that his efficacy improved slightly if feeding [Void Heart] Life-attuned Beast Cores just before practicing the fourth layer of the [Void Vajra Sublimation], but the effect was very limited for the costs involved.

It was a disappointment, but Zac knew that his Void Vajra Constitution lagged behind by quite a bit. His Minor Sublimation could, at best, be compared to Middle or Late Strand, a whole awakening below his Draugr half. Perhaps he could add this type of feature to the Fifth Layer of his Body Tempering Manual, using the phenomenon on his Draugr half as a template.

However, that was a matter for the future. Zac barely managed to rework the fourth layer inside the Perennial Vastness, using a large amount of Mana to force a series of epiphanies. However, he hadnʼt even begun his work on the fifth. The original version was simply too esoteric, and Zac suspected heʼd need an Earthly Dao of Life before even properly understanding it, let alone rewriting it.

Zac stopped taking out treasures after getting a basic understanding. There was a time and place for anything. If anything, his Draugr Bloodline was already too overpowering. Right now, Zac needed to use every tool available to catch up on his Life-attuned side, so [Void Heart] was better used to supplement Life. That didnʼt mean his Draugr half had nothing to spend time on. There were still 16 hours until they could open a portal to the next battleground, and Zac planned on using that time to upgrade a skill.

Dealing with something as fragile as Skill Fractals in the middle of a battlefield was foolhardy at best, but over two hours had passed since they routed the KanʼTanu. His headhunters would have dealt with the deserters by this point, and he was surrounded by over a million soldiers. So he felt confident as he took out a large bowl—the very same one heʼd used in Kavista. It might have been part of the Sacred Treeʼs cave, but Zac hadnʼt felt too bad lifting it on the way out.

The accompanying platform thumped onto the ground, and a Skill Fractal soon sank into the bowlʼs shimmering waters. There were multiple skills that could be upgraded for a quick boost to his combat strength, but there was one skill that took precedence—[Armament Mastery]. D-grade was the final level of the guiding skill and key to improving his odds against Kator in a month.

He wanted to upgrade his two mastery skills as soon as possible and use the battlefield to integrate their teachings before the duel. The Mastery Skill Fractals were among the simpler ones between his two Classes, and the upgrade smoothly proceeded. The only issue came from his Arcane Pathways, which wasnʼt too happy about the unattuned skills.

It was only a small issue since all mastery skills were quite flexible, but he was probably better off removing the fractals after reaching Peak D-grade and incorporating all their teachings. Technically, he could have infused the skill with the Branches of Pale Seal and War Axe to push them closer to his Inexorable path, but Zac had opted to keep the skills unattuned.

He didnʼt want to use the Mastery Skills as a shortcut, but rather to take their basic teachings and integrate the pertinent parts with his Technique. His goal wasnʼt just to master the Integration Stage but to push his Technique far beyond that level. To accomplish that, he needed to be in control of the direction his stances should take.

With everything dealt with, Zac stowed his mobile camp and cut a path through the dome. Rhubat was still sitting atop it in silent meditation, and clumps of Zhix warriors were resting in the area. They all stirred when Zac emerged but soon calmed down upon realizing it wasnʼt an enemy.

”Anything?”

”Everything is in order,” Rhubat said after jumping down from the earthen dome.

”Alright, letʼs gather the captains.”

A small war council was held where they went over the battle. They all agreed the result was very good for their first battle. Theyʼd taken out an army of millions, yet theyʼd only suffered 20,000 casualties, of which a fifth were deaths. Even Petrus had difficulties pinpointing glaring mistakes, partly because they had crushed the enemy with money.

If there was one thing to complain about, it was the efficiency of their expenditures. With the amount of money theyʼd spent, one could argue that they should have been able to bury the enemies in the rubble before the battle turned into a melee.

Only four thousand deaths to the KanʼTanuʼs millions didnʼt sound like much, but the whole Calamity Company would be dead and buried in a year if they sustained such losses in every offense. The whole reason heʼd rerouted almost all of his Cosmic Vessel Earnings into the War Arrays was to avoid that exact scenario.

The battlefield cleanup finished during their meeting, and a soldier delivered the tally. Zac read the report, feeling a bit helpless upon seeing that the battlefield liches had only managed to scrounge together 13,000 KanʼTanu bodies that could become Revenants. It was roughly half a percent conversion rate. And considering the source, definitely not enough to replace the talented elites theyʼd lost.

So much for increasing their manpower as the war progressed.