Chapter 736: Limitless (1/2)
Evolving his bloodline was risky considering the chaos he had caused when awakening it the first time, but he didn't have many options if he wanted to get out of here. It was either that or wait in this cave until the trial ended. This place seemed safe enough with the flowers eating all the Twilight Energy, but he refused to just sit around for over two whole years.
Besides, wasn’t this the perfect opportunity? There shouldn’t be a single cultivator able to reach these depths, and he hadn’t even seen any beasts except that monstrous thing. Meanwhile, there were dozens of peaks all around him, many of them no doubt containing extremely valuable treasures he was simply unable to find.
Along with the absurd amount of ambient energy in the Twilight Chasm, he had the perfect stage to breakthrough, no matter how much energy his bloodline demanded.
He needed to make some preparations before taking that step though, and he started setting up a series of arrays in the middle of the cave. It wasn’t the usual illusion and isolation arrays he used when arranging a temporary cultivation cave, but rather protective arrays. Last time he had formed a huge vortex, and he was afraid that he’d drop the mountain above him right on his head if he didn’t think things through.
That’s why he arranged two layers of protection. One offensive array to blast a large hole in the rock above his head in case a section fell toward him, and another to block any errant debris.
He also started digging through the stone with [Love’s Bond] having all four of his free chains entrench themselves in spiraled patterns downward to secure him in place. The cave didn't seem connected to the ocean outside, but there were no guarantees that would still be the case that vortex Ogras described appeared again.
After that, Zac wasted no time, and the [Cardinal Kernel] appeared in his hands. His cells were already extremely agitated from the flowers around him, and Zac's hands even started shaking from barely constrained hunger as he cut a small wound in his hand and let his blood drip down on the dark-green crystal before he firmly gripped it in his hands.
The Natural Treasure hummed to life as it went from green to red, and Zac soon found a stream of primal energy entering his veins. His heart started to furiously beat like a war drum, and the energy quickly spread through his whole body.
His body greedily sucked more and more energy out from the crystal, causing the air to twist around the heart-shaped treasure. Eventually, it cracked, completely drained by the Void Emperor-bloodline. Zac wasn't satiated at all though, and he felt a familiar state of madness brought on by hunger coming over him.
This time he wasn't completely out of his mind thanks to his strengthened soul, but he still started to greedily chow down on the hundreds of fruits he had found just a few weeks before. Each one of them contained so much energy it would take a normal E-grade cultivator weeks to refine, but the energy had all been absorbed by his cells before the fruits even had reached his stomach.
The more he ate, the more voracious the hunger became. He could feel it. He was still incomplete, and just like last time, the promise of perfection loomed in the distance. He was reaching the tipping point, and he pushed away any final misgivings as he swallowed one fruit after another, madness and desire burning in his eyes.
Something far in the distance cracked, and Zac's vision started to blur. He first tried to fight it, but his mind was swiftly dragged away. The last thing he sensed was tens of thousands of gates appearing in the area, each of them taking everything from their surroundings.
He had once more become the void.
-----------------------
“I’m here to help clean up,” Karz said demurely without lifting his gaze from the ground.
“Ah! Gar, eh, Karz, is it?” the quartermaster coughed. “Well, chambers 2, 14, and 28 will need cleaning today.”
Karz’s heart beat an extra time when hearing he had been assigned to a single-digit chamber, and number two at that. This would be a pretty big haul. Still, he controlled his aura and expression as he walked toward the inner parts of the Alchemy Hall. Thanks to months of building his ‘reputation’, he passed straight through the security checks without causing any waves, gaining access to an area that not even Inner Disciples could enter.
The scheduling formation indicated that chambers 14 and 28 would open in an hour or so, while chamber two was more imminent. Karz walked over to the finely decorated waiting hall and sat down in a corner where he wouldn’t be in the way. Even then, his appearance caused some ruffles, and he saw two cultivators looking at him with frowns on their faces.
He recognized one of them to be a Core Disciple of the Alchemy Hall, but the other woman was unknown to him. However, Karz guessed that she had already completed her body tempering and entered the Profound Realm, judging by her aura. She was young as well, making Karz believe she had to be some talent among the Core Disciples.
“Who is that?” the woman said with a disgusted tone, and Karz could tell that she wasn’t really trying to hide her voice. “I can smell him even through the medicinal aroma.”
“Oh right, you just came back. I don’t know his name, but he’s called Garbage,” the other voice answered. “An elder found him in the garbage heaps last year and took pity on him. I heard he actually has a Heavenly Affinity barely high enough for him to target Inner Discipleship, but there's something wrong with his head. He’s obsessed with refuse, and is more interested in collecting and disposing of it than cultivating. It’s kind of convenient though, so people just let him do his thing. He’s managing the refuse for most core disciples and even some elders.”
“Should have left someone like that among the trash,” the first speaker spat as the two walked around a corner. “A lowly person will always stay lowly.”
“You’re right. Do you know what a disciple saw when they spied into his courtyard? He actually…” the other cultivator said before the voice got indistinguishable from the distance.
Karz had heard the whole thing, there wasn’t a single ripple in his heart. He knew he was being despised, but what did he care? In fact, it made his goals easier. And if there was one thing he knew to be true in this world, it was that her decree was fundamentally and irrevocably wrong. The only certain thing was change.
However, he couldn’t help but snort at how naïve he was before, back when he still scavenged for scraps a few years ago. Old Vek had talked about the Cultivators as though they were some sort of celestials, full of poise and grace. But coming here he had soon realized the truth.
In some ways, they were even dirtier than the scavengers down at the ground.
Subterfuge, backstabbing, playing little games to mess with each other just to pass the time. They were just mortals who grew increasingly cruel and twisted as their powers grew. They were bound by conventions, fettered by things as honor and reputation as surely as if they were trapped by real feathers.
It wasn't surprising. They didn't understand true desperation, the hunger that pushed you into a fight to the death against another scavenger just for a rotten carcass. They saw him as lowly, and he saw them as foolish. He soon threw that woman out of his mind as he eagerly waited for the door to open.
A dense cloud of medicinal aroma eventually wafted out from the chamber as the thick gates swung open, and his pores opened and greedily swallowed as much as they could without exposing his secret. Following the aroma a young man appeared, wearing an even more exquisite robe compared to the woman before.
His appearance didn’t match his clothes though, as his hair was in disarray as his eyes were completely bloodshot and glazed over. But he still stopped and refocused when he saw Karz sitting outside.
“It’s you,” the young man said with surprise when he saw Karz waiting outside.
Karz knew who this was; Laondio Evrodok. He wasn’t surprised that this man had been allowed to use the second refinement chamber, the second greatest cultivation chamber except for the one the supreme elder used for his experiments. In fact, Karz had heard that Chamber Two had recently been upgraded to even surpass chamber one, all for this man.
If Karz was at the absolute bottom of the totem pole to the point that people actually called him Garbage, then Laondio Evrodok was his polar opposite. The ragged-looking man was actually the greatest genius the sect had ever seen in its four-million-year history, and not by a small degree from what Karz had heard.
He was being personally groomed by both the Sect Leader and the two Supreme Elders, and many hoped he would be the one to move their mountain to even greater heights. His talents were so great that a Herald from the upper realms would descend in a few years to try him out. In a few centuries, he might be a Herald himself, ruling over the mortal realms like a god.
“I’m just here to clean,” Karz said.
“Here,” Laondio grinned as he took out a vial containing a few pills. “A small thank you. Your service is appreciated, but you cannot forget your own cultivation.”
“What’s this?” Karz asked as he looked at the weirdly shaped pills.
“My latest recipe. It’s an impurity-cleansing pill! I call them [Pure as Laon]!” the man said with pride.