Chapter 696: Aethergate (1/2)
Zac had been worried until now that any pill he’d swallow would be insufficient to provide the energy needed to break open a middle-stage node since his foundation made things ten times harder compared to the average cultivator. Thankfully, those fears were instantly dispelled just a second after swallowing the [Aethergate Pill].
The leveling pill was Pseudo D-grade, and it showed considering the shocking amount of energy it contained. It was like eating something like twenty of the pills he used back when he had just evolved. The pill formed a cool swirling whirlpool had appeared in his body, but Zac felt a pang of pain even when the Pill Energy wasn’t chaotic at all.
The pill was simply meant for Late E-grade elite cultivators, those who needed a shocking amount of energy for each level. It was a bit foolhardy to eat them at level 101, but Zac knew his constitution could take it. The Pill Vortex rapidly shrunk into a size no larger than a button, but it still retained the same amount of energy as before as it moved toward the next node.
It was located on his shoulder just like his last one, but this time on the left side. It was just a few centimeters away from the pathways of what formerly was [Cyclic Strike], and Zac looked on with rapt attention as the whirlpool burrowed into the Node. Zac felt a slight pain as the Pill Vortex gradually cleansed and empowered the node. It was like the whirlpool acted as a motor that kickstarted the slow swirl that already existed inside, while also feeding it a boatload of energy.
After a few moments, Zac felt a snap as the node fully opened, and a radiating wave of pain spread out through his body as a small gash appeared on his back. It was like he had been struck by lightning and his pathways had become a conduit. The feeling was all-too-familiar; the backlash of opening a node. It was just a shadow of the agony that had left him bedridden for months when reaching level 101, but it still caused some sweat to run down his forehead.
It was no wonder it took Catheya a full decade to enter the late stages of the E-grade even when having a Peak Monarch to assist in the process. Zac felt he would be able to keep going for a while, but any dreams of rushing straight through the middle E-grade with his Pseudo D-grade pills were instantly dashed the moment he saw the damage to his foundations.
The [Stone of Hope] didn’t seem to help either. He had hoped that it would lessen the damage, but it really looked like it was more of a fateward-type item that protected against deadly harm when cultivating. Opening a node with a pill was just the standard path of leveling and not something where this odd treasure would assist with. [Chainbreaking Pills] might help, but the damage wasn’t big enough to warrant the cost of using those things unless he was actually forcing open the nodes.
The good news was that the Pill Energy wasn’t exhausted even after opening a full node. It looked like it wanted to keep infusing the recently opened node with energy, but Zac rather pushed the vortex toward the next node instead. Meanwhile, [Purity of the Void] was already working on overdrive, steadily preventing at least some of the Pill Toxicity from settling into the depths of his cells.
The second node was slightly below his shoulder-blade to the side, and opening it would definitely have punctured a lung if forced open. Another wave of pain erupted through his body an hour later, and Zac spat out some black ichor as he inspected his state. The physical damage was still nothing worth mentioning, but the intangible damage had superimposed on the first set of wounds, together creating more harm than they would do on their own.
Zac pushed the pain away as the [Aethergate Pill] still wasn’t done, and he urged it to set the foundations for breaking open the third node before its energy was exhausted. The pill had absolutely exceeded his expectations, though so had the pain. Not even cultivators had it easy, it seemed. Zac took a ragged breath before he took out a Supreme-Grade Miasma Crystal.
He also popped a top-quality healing pill as he started absorbing the huge amount of Miasma within the Miasma Crystal. The nodes were opened, but he had actually not gained the levels just yet. The healing pills wouldn’t really work on the hidden damage to his foundations, but it would at least patch up the wounds.
There was also some damage to the pathways around his opened nodes, and Zac spent three hours redrawing them with the help of [Spiritual Anchor]. It took two full days to fill the two Nodes, even when using the Supreme Miasma Crystals which were so energy-dense that they caused Zac some pain as they flooded through his pathways.
But it was worth it. He wasn’t in a rush this time, and this way he’d avoid accumulating any unnecessary Pill Toxins. When he ate a bunch of pills just when reaching E-grade he had used pills for the process, but that was because he was flying toward the Dead Zone. This time there was still almost two months before the Twilight Ascent started.
If anything, he didn’t want to leave the courtyard at all since there might be more thieves and assassins roaming about. After seeing how things progressed he had Vilari send a command to delay the meeting with whichever living attendant the hotel could enlist before he continued the process.
One node after another was opened and then filled with Miasma over the next ten days. Unfortunately, it was like a wedge had been inserted into Zac’s body, and every node being cracked open added a hit of a sledgehammer to that wedge. Eventually, Zac was forced to stop, lest the wedge cracked him in two. The hidden damage he had accumulated by that point was pretty serious, though far from the debilitating effect of doing things like a mortal.
Zac knew that he was just at the precipice of causing some real damage, but he should be fine as long as he took things easy until the Twilight Ascent started. After that, he would only have to wait for a few months before he could start another round of pill-popping. Because thankfully, while the accumulated damage had reached his limits, neither had the Pill Toxicity or his immunity.
It felt a bit bad to stop prematurely, but the gains were still quite substantial. In fact, they were even better than what Zac had expected considering he had already reached Middle E-grade. Zac opened up his status screen, and a smile spread across his face when he saw the result.
Name
Zachary Atwood
Level
109
Class
[E-Epic] Fetters of Desolation
Race
[D] Draugr - Void Emperor (Corrupted)
Alignment
[Earth] Port Atwood - Planetary Lord
Titles
Born for Carnage, Ultimate Reaper, Luck of the Draw, Giantsbane, Disciple of David, Overpowered, Slayer of Leviathans, Adventurer, Demon Slayer I, Full of Class, Rarified Being, Trailblazer, Child of Dao, The Big 500, Planetary Aegis, One Against Many, Butcher, Progenitor Noblesse, Duplicity Core, Apex Hunter, Heaven's Chosen, Scion of Dao, Omnidextrous, Eastern Trigram Hunt - 1st, Tyrannic Force, Achievement Hunter, The First Step, Promising Specialist, Tower of Eternity - 8th Floor, Heaven's Triumvirate, Fated, Peak Power, Monarch-Select, Frontrunner, Apex Progenitor, Pathstrider
Limited Titles
Tower of Eternity Sector All-Star - 14th, Weight of Sin, Equanimity, Heart of Fire, Big Axe Gladiator
Dao
Fragment of the Axe - High, Fragment of the Coffin - High, Fragment of the Bodhi - High
Core
[E] Duplicity
Strength
5008 [Increase: 105%. Efficiency: 228%]
Dexterity
2373 [Increase: 75%. Efficiency: 187%]
Endurance
4373 [Increase: 96%. Efficiency: 228%]
Vitality
3255 [Increase: 84%. Efficiency: 228%]
Intelligence
1176 [Increase: 69%. Efficiency: 187%]
Wisdom
2211 [Increase: 76%. Efficiency: 187%]