Path to Transcendence

Chapter 613: Corrupted Limb

It wasn’t that bad. If he was being honest, he had been expecting something a lot more… exigent.

At the moment, he was more offended by the smell and dreary look of the forest than the danger it presented. The corruption was strong, there was no doubt about that. But it didn’t seem to affect him adversely.

He was a little let down about that. Maybe he was a masochist. Because he realized he would have much rather been crippled from this corruption than the boring walk it had become.

He paused for a brief moment and pinched his chin, deep in thought. After a minute of internal debating, he said fuck it and dropped all of the protections around his body. He welcomed the corruption inside of him. Hell, he did more than welcome it in, he rolled out the red carpets and flooded his veins with the putrid energy.

He could feel his body instinctively reject the energy. He didn’t even need to do anything; his entire system attacked this foreign substance, and he let it play out. He didn’t offer any help, and he didn’t attempt to stall it with his aura.

He watched in fascination as the corruption chewed his whole body apart. Everything. From veins, to muscles, to bones, to mana channels, everything was attacked by this energy. It was quite impressive to see. It was like the energy had a mind of its own. If it held any importance, it attacked it.

He collapsed to one knee as ropes of black energy twisted beneath his skin. His mind felt like it was dipped inside a vat of oil. But he didn’t lose focus or concentration. He relied on his instincts and willpower to guide him.

He examined how his body handled the corruption. His passive regeneration put up one hell of a fight. It desperately clawed at the corruption, and despite it being a losing fight, it never gave up. It continued to squeeze every ounce of potential out of itself.

It was nice to see his passive regeneration being overcome, and only when he felt his organs failing and his mind decaying away, did he finally activate his healing skill. Like an empty lake getting refilled after a drought. The corruption was halted by this vigorous energy, and like the life mana in the forest, it tried to consume it.

At first, it worked. Instead of cleansing the corruption, it fed off his life mana and got stronger. He groaned as blood trickled out of his ears. However, he infused his Seed of Authority into his skill, and he felt everything change.

The Seed of Phoenix’s Ruin clashed against the corruption and came out on top. His life mana was no longer consumed by this corruption. Instead, the corruption was the one being devoured. His life mana was transformed into something truly dangerous. It swarmed the corruption and bent it to its knees.

Powerful surges of fire and ruin were rippling outward. The corruption didnʼt stand a chance. It was pulverized into ash, and his healing skill used this ash to keep it fueled. He closely examined the corruption done to him. He didn’t find anything worrying. All the damage it had done was healed by his skill and authority.

Only then did he start the cleansing process. Once he was completely cleansed, he took another deep breath, filling his lungs and pores with corruption.

He let it circulate through his body, feeding off his newly healed body before waiting a moment to heal his body. Just like the previous time, the corruption was ground into dust, and his healing skill came out on top.

He nodded to himself with a satisfied grin. He got back up to his feet and quickly made his way deeper into the corrupted part of the forest. He had a feeling that he could handle the corruption well, but was glad to see that he was right.

He also recognized the opportunity before him. He clenched and unclenched his fists as he let his healing skill destroy and repurpose this corruption. It was a perfect opportunity to see how well his healing skill worked.

He was a little upset about how much mana the skill used now that his body was Tier 4, but he got a lot of mana to compensate for that. Furthermore, he believed he had found a good way to level up [Phoenix Renewal] a few times.

He smiled, his eyes fixed on the dark forest, where the corruption was even denser. Hopefully, he could find a place that will push his healing skill to its limit.

***

The good news was that he found the place he was looking for. The bad news was that it wasn’t the most pleasant experience. It was stinky, dreary, and painful. The silver lining of this was that his healing skill was getting a nice workout.

The corruption was quite potent, and his healing skill was activated at all times. He dealt with the monsters that tried to attack him. They were rabid, and there was no intelligence in the way they fought. They were acting out of pure rage.

He stepped around the corpses of the wolves he killed and dodged the swipe of the final wolf. As the claw was passing him, he grabbed a hold of it and brought it to his face, headbutting it with all his might.

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The crunch of bones came from both him and the wolf. However, while his skull repaired itself back into one piece, the monster fell to the ground, struggling to get back up. He didn’t allow it to. He grabbed it by its spine and, with a grunt, tore it from the creature’s back. Black goop went everywhere, and he yelped when some of it got all over his face.

He frantically rubbed his face and tried to scrub the nasty stuff from his skin. He let out a sigh of relief when he was clean again.

Okay, no more of that, he thought with a shiver.

He continued on his way and finally made it to the source of the corruption. He said this because the corruption was so thick and dense that even without mana senses, he could see it. Black wisps of corruption floated in the air. Each surface infected with this corruption released even more of this black substance into the area.

He also spotted where the corruption had come from. Sitting in the middle of an open area, there was a patch of dirt that was completely blackened. Nothing was alive in this circle. All of the grass was decayed, and even the mana felt fractured.

Sitting in the middle of his blackened circle was a small limb. Julius approached closer to inspect it and froze when he saw what it looked like. He felt his face twitch with anger, and his aura rippled out of him, destroying the corruption that was trying to eat him alive.

The small limb was distinctly human. But it wasn’t just human, it was clearly a newborn’s arm. It looked small and plump, healthy, except for being pitch black.

He couldn’t imagine why a human child’s arm was in here and why it was the source of this corruption. His mind raced as he thought about all the different scenarios. None of them was particularly good.

He clenched his fist and stepped into the circle. The second he did, he staggered as he was assaulted from all sides with the most intense corruption he had experienced so far. He didn’t bother to hold back anymore; he allowed his ruinous aura and healing skill to work in conjunction.

Even then, he was barely able to hold back the corruption from completely overwhelming him. He let out a strained chuckle as each movement became a slog. His mana moved like molasses. The most worrying was its effect on his mind.

He had to rely on [Sage of Savagery] to keep his wits; even then, it was hard. The corruption was a cunning and scheming little thing. It weaseled its way through the small gaps of his defenses. There was nothing he could know either. He was forced to confront the corruption with nothing but his willpower.

Fortunately, he had that in spades. The thing was that he didn’t know how much that would help him in the end. He utilized some of the techniques that Lily taught him, but the results were minimal.

The corruption had already seeped into his mind, and he felt it whispering to him. Taunting and teasing with every second. It wanted him to willingly accept the corruption into his body. It promised power and freedom.

It promised him that he would never be weak again. That he wouldn’t have to helplessly watch the people he cared about get killed. He saw flashes of Lukas and Edwin. Of his friends, too. The only thing he needed to do was accept it. Become one with the corruption.

He laughed heartily. Laughed right in the corruption’s face. He had to admit, the corruption was very good at tempting him. It might have convinced him to accept its offer if this were a year ago.

But it was different now. He understood things that changed his perspective about this world.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t tempted by its promises, but he found them empty and, quite frankly, inferior. Why would he accept its power? Compared to the path he was currently walking down, it was weak.

Power? His newly born Seed of Authority promised him more power than this foul corruption. Plus, it smelled like shit. Why would he want to become one with something that stank so bad?

So with a disgusted grunt, he threw the corruption away, rejecting its offer. He felt his healing skill explode with strength, flames of intense life energy flaring, and his body being cleansed. His skin, which had turned pitch black, returned to its normal shade.

Each pulse of healing magic had the entire force of his will and authority behind it. The corruption couldn’t keep up, and it was eviscerated. Further proving that his path was already stronger than one of corruption.

He took several confident steps forward. His skin was still marred by small, dark lines of corruption, but it wasn’t hurting him. There was just so much corruption that he would need some time to fully heal himself.

Then he reached down and grabbed hold of the child’s limb. The corruption was strong, but since he had already rejected it, he no longer felt that much danger from it. His decision was final, and it could do nothing to him as he channeled immense amounts of fire mana.

His crown activated in full force. He let out a grin when he felt the crown’s irritation. It would appear the crown hadn’t liked the corruption attempts either and was quite pissed. Julius fed into the crown’s irritation with even more fire mana, allowing it to build and grabbed ahold of the ruinous flames it produced.

The crown didn’t fight him at all. It willingly acquiesced all control over to him. The limb was ridiculously sturdy, though. Despite being bathed in flames, there were no signs of damage.

It was fighting back, and the blackened circle grew. The surrounding trees burn into nothing. Even he felt his skin melt from the sheer amount of corruption. He grinned, though, and continued to increase his efforts.

Kinetic energy flared into existence. His [Field of the Shattered Will] boomed as it exploded from his soul, aiding his attempts at destroying this limb. He also took control of his aura to shred the limb.

He used every ounce of his will. Every one of his concepts. He even used [Void Strike] to send concentrated blasts into it. It remained like this for several minutes with no signs of either side faltering. Nothing within fifty feet was left standing; everything had been either destroyed by Julius or the corruption.

Julius was starting to get a little tired, but he dug deep and strained his soul to squeeze even more power from himself. His soul, which had become even stronger from his recent experiences, complied with his wishes, and he finally felt something within the limb crack.

Then, like glass, the entire limb shattered into a million pieces. The invisible pressure weighing down on his shoulder vanished as if it had never been there. The entire forest was silent except for his shallow breaths as he recovered.