Chapter 644: Bloodline Resonance (1/2)

Zac refused to believe that even the universal Bloodline Method wouldn't work on his body, so he kept squeezing out more and more mental energy. The churning ripples of [Bloodline Resonance] were quickly descending into a chaotic storm. His whole body felt like it was under assault, and blood started leaking down his nose.

The Bloodline Method should normally not be dangerous, but Zac had long exceeded the recommended usage. Following the manual one would create a new ripple every second, which meant that after fifteen minutes there would be 900 ripples bouncing back and forth. These ripples in turn tried to create a resonance with the bloodline hidden deep in his cells through weak collisions.

Most bloodlines would respond after just a minute or two, but the more stubborn or impure bloodlines could take a bit longer. However, Zac was already approaching 45 minutes by this point, and the number of ripples was over 2500. And not only that, but Zac had also started cranking up the force in each ripple.

If a normal ripple used one unit of mental energy, the ones in his body had been cranked up to five units each by this point. The normal ripple collisions were like gentle nudges at his body aimed to elicit a response, but Zac's method was essentially akin to slapping his organs to shake his bloodline awake.

He understood why the manual had said to stop after 15 minutes. The danger started to increase exponentially as the number of ripples increased. The increased density of ripples created a far higher number of collisions, and each collision impacted his body. Each collision by itself could barely be felt, but when there were thousands every second? It quickly started to stack up, especially with him also increasing the power.

Zac knew he was being foolhardy, but his eyes were already bloodshot as he kept going, increasing the intensity every second. His whole body screamed for mercy, but there was none to be had. It was lucky that his soul had undergone so much tempering up to this point, as he would already have passed out from soul exhaustion otherwise.

Finally, after a full hour, the raging storm had turned into a world-ending cataclysm in his body, and even Zac couldn’t withstand it any longer. Even his pathways and skill fractals were starting to get damaged. If he didn’t dispel the ripples now he would get some serious internal wounds, the kind that you simply couldn’t fix with [Surging Vitality].

There was too much at stake over the following days, and he couldn’t take that risk.

But just as Zac was about to give up he felt an extremely weak response from the depths of his body. Zac almost lost control over the chaotic storm of ripples in his body from his extreme relief, but he quickly refocused since he knew his job wasn’t over. The pain was intense, but he kept the ripples going as he focused his attention on the resonance of his bloodline.

It gave off the same sensation of antiquity as the skills he unleashed with the Void Energy, like there was something billions of years old hidden in the depths of his cells. It felt like he was rousing something ancient and reluctant from its slumber, but Zac refused to let the resonance recede into his cells.

Rousing that response was the first step of [Bloodline Resonance], and the second was quite straightforward as well. He was supposed to take charge of the mental energy that coursed through the body and merge it with that resonance to form a lasting bond. The problem was that Zac had gone overboard with his energy expenditure, and there was no way that he could control that much mental energy in one go.

Zac figured that he could only do it piecemeal, and he took roughly five percent of the rampant energies and crammed it into the resonance. His energy disappeared like Cosmic Energy entering a Node, and Zac quickly fed it another chunk. More and more energy entered the resonance over the next minutes without any change, but Zac didn’t worry.

As expected, he felt a new sensation in his mind the moment all the accumulated mental energy was exhausted. There was a direct correlation between the number of ripples you needed to form and the amount of mental energy needed to form the spiritual connection. It looked like that balance still held even after Zac started painting outside the lines.

He had succeeded, and Zac marveled at the unique feeling in his body. It was extremely odd, like he had grown a new limb that he could instinctively control just like his arms and legs. But it was actually his bloodline that he had connected with, allowing him to rouse and suppress it at will. There was no circulation or enhancement provided by [Bloodline Resonance], but just some rudimentary control was a huge step forward.

Zac was about to start experimenting with his skills, but a wave of exhaustion hit him the moment he relaxed. He had forgotten the state of his soul from the excitement. Over eighty percent of his mental energy was exhausted from forming the ripples, though he wasn’t completely full when he began.

Running around on Memorysteel Mountain with his soul exhausted was extremely foolhardy, so he immediately took out two Soul Crystals as he ate a top-quality healing pill. There were some minor wounds all over his body from the ripples, but he had thankfully completed his goal before getting completely in over his head.

Of course, if he didn’t have his remnant-refined soul and unnaturally durable body, he would have died long before [Bloodline Resonance] would manage to find a connection to his Void Emperor-bloodline.

Thick streams of pure mental energy poured into his mind from the Soul Crystals, and the exhaustion was quickly washed away along with his splitting headache. However, he only had time to fill the tank up to half before his communication crystal vibrated. Zac sighed and immediately stopped, knowing that his people wouldn’t contact him unless it was urgent.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to disturb you, but I think you need come here,” his sister’s voice echoed out through the communication crystal.

Zac grunted in affirmation before he got back to his feet. People talked about spending centuries in secluded cultivation, but he somehow couldn’t even find a few hours. He thought he would have another hour or two considering the army’s speed had slowed down the moment treasures started appearing in caves again a few hours ago.

At least he had managed to make the connection, which was the most important part. From now he would just need to get used to it.

It took a few tries, but he eventually managed to disable the Bloodline Talent so that he could use [Loamwalker] without burning his remaining Void Energy. It was still half-empty, though Zac had already found at least one way to refill it already; Attuned Crystals. He had been looking for the wrong thing back when he absorbed the Divine Crystal, and had missed that a part of the energy disappeared and never his energy reserves.