Chapter 683: Now to disappear into the-Where’d you come from?
‘For real though, Frosttusk. Can you still handle these flames?’
[I should be fine…just going to need a bath and a nap after this.]
‘Agreed.’
As a former avid reader of cultivation novels and comics, Zhen Liu was fairly familiar with the age old trope of protagonist devouring questionably powerful sources of energy in order to enhance their cultivation.
From a certain alchemist that devoured flames born from the creation of the universe to a plucky punk with a wolf-life libido that stole concentrated Earth Essence from under the nose of dragons, Zhen Liu had read up on all sorts of stories on how these protagonists made use of all sorts of drugs, weird abilities and straight up gumption to absorb the energy of the universe and become insane powerhouses of cultivation. And now he was joining those ranks.
Granted, instead of absorbing any of those aforementioned powerful “elixirs of nature”, he was trying to absorb something that was essentially a curse in the form of a fire.
He managed to pull this off by combining three factors: [Will of the Salamander], Frosttusk and [Chaos].
One of these factors by themselves would not have end well for Zhen Liu, or Frosttusk for that matter, but combing all three helped to make this moment possible.
By making use of the [Will of the Salamander], a skill that had been inscribed into his soul, it enabled Zhen Liu to absorb sources of heat and energy to restore his energy as well as convert his innate, neutral aether into fire aether. By leveraging this skill, it allowed him to more or less “consume” the [Ghost Flame] before it could do any real damage to anybody. That being said, the [Ghost Flame] was still incredibly hot and dangerous by itself and [Will of the Salamander] still had an upper limit due to Zhen Liu not really taking the time to enhance this particular part of himself. If Zhen Liu had tried to absorb the [Ghost Flame] by using just this skill, his insides would’ve been scorched…which is where Frosttusk comes in.
Frosttusk, by design, was able to absorb heat and fire and use them as a means to produce powerful jets of ice. By combining with Frosttusk via the [Regalia] and [Bestowal] method, Zhen Liu was able to increase his heat tolerance and natural defenses by several degrees. Theoretically, Frosttusk could’ve extinguished the [Ghost Flame] by absorbing all of its heat, but there was no way him to deal with the innate death aether that composed the flames as well without unforeseen consequences. Thankfully, this is where the [Chaos] factors in.
Zhen Liu had no aether channels in his body, however, he could temporarily make them via the usage of [Chaos] and/or having the kaijin posses him. In order to properly absorb and refine the [Ghost Flame], Zhen Liu had created the channels necessary to facilitate the processing of both fire aether and death aether, mimicking a formula that Logos and Pathos guaranteed was able to fully handle this process.
Of course, Zhen Liu right now couldn’t really focus on just how insanely lucky to have all of these things add up to his favor, he was more focused on maintaining those artificial channels long enough for the refinement process to finish. That and a more…banal thought.
‘Alright, how did those other protagonists do this sort of thing? This tastes nasty!’
Due to his mouth being the means in which he was absorbing the [Ghost Flame], Zhen Liu had been forced to taste it. Needless to say, it was nasty.
Thankfully, Logos and Pathos were there to offer him words of wisdom and comfort…that or at least distract him from the pain in his mouth/face.
‘Still though.’
=To be fair, you are absorbing a mix of fire and death aether. Those two forces of aether are dangerous by themselves, and downright deadly when combined. Its good thing this is the relatively low ranking [Ghost Flame] and not something worst.=
‘Is…is it safe to assume that this [Ghost Flame] is part of a series of “Cursed Flames” or something like that?’
=If you mean if there’s a specialized series of aether flames associated with the undead like the [Ghost Flame], the answer to that is…kind of. Technically they’re all the same type of flame, just different levels of purity and potency in both death and fire aether.=
‘Wait, so this thing can evolve?’
=Again, kind of. But the materials to do that are not exactly easy to get nowadays. Well, not easy to get on Valresta…unless…=
‘Ahbababa! We’ll worry about that later, right now I just want to finish absorbing this thing and go find some place safe for me to pass out. I’d rather not be in the middle of the arena floor when this event is over.’
<=As you wish.=>
‘Huh…now that I think about it…Frosttusk, none of this energy is entering your channels, right? Not sure if its healthy for ya to absorb death aether like this…’
[I am fine, minn jarl. I’m technically part of your Regalia right now and not your body, so nothing is flowing where it shouldn’t.]
‘Good…good…’
It didn’t take that much longer for Zhen Liu to fully finish absorbing the [Ghost Fire] at this point, but that was the easy part. The hard part was finding someplace to hide and maybe come up with an alibi.
“Alright, maybe if I just-”
<
“Ah! What the-wait…when did you get here?!”
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“Wait, Spring Brawler! Put me down!”
“Are you sure, ringmistress? Ringmaster said to get you to safety.”
“That spot there is plenty safe!”
“As you wish.”
Technically speaking, the kaijin had no reason to listen to someone like Jin Fang.
They had no spiritual connection to her, she was definitely weaker than them and even if she was possibly the descendant of a previous kaijin lord, it didn’t matter due to kaijin loyalty only extending to the lords that created them.
However, due to a mix of actual respect and the fact that he was their lord’s consort, the kaijin still listened to Jin Fang…occasionally.
As such, Spring Brawler obeyed Jin Fang’s words and deposited her at the very top of the arena’s walls.
She didn’t want to leave her boo alone if she could help it.
“Thank you, Spring Brawler.”
“You’re welcome, ringmistress.”
With her feet firmly on the ground now, Jin Fang repositioned herself to keep her eye on Zhen Liu and Frosttusk.
“Xiao Liu…”
Worry and fear filled her stomach as she watched Zhen Liu/Frosttusk continuously absorb the [Ghost Flame], in a rather haphazardous looking manner. She had no idea whether or not Zhen Liu’s “invulnerability” had a limit, but she knew she didn’t want to find out today or in a way that resulted with him ending up dead.
Unfortunately, the only thing she could do right now was to simply pray for his health and wish him luck.
As Jin Fang prayed at the top of the arena though, an (un)expected guest had appeared by her side, one that had been busy fighting through the arena’s hallways like a mad woman up until this point. She was so wrapped up in the act of prayer though, that she failed to notice when the guest appeared, until she made herself heard.
<
“Huh? Who is-wah!”
“Whoa! Careful there.”
Due to being surprised like this, Jin Fang had almost tripped and fell to the ground. Thankfully, she was stopped by the source of the voice that had addressed her, the Imperial Princess, Jinju Ren.
Jin Fang remembered that there was a double digit number attached to that title, but she honestly forgot which number it was. Right now, she was dealing with the fact that she had appeared out of nowhere like this…and was sounding a bit too familiar with Zhen Liu…hold up…
“There you go. Don’t you want falling to your doom after all of this fighting,” Jinju Ren said with a smile as she settled Jin Fang back on to the ground. “Wait a minute…are you Zhen Liu’s girlfriend by any chance?”
“Wait, what? How did you-”
“You smell a bit like him, but in the way that lovers do after spending a lot of time together.”
“Okay that’s-”
“Wait…you smell like the way chaste lovers do. Really? But it smells like you two have been together for years at this point. Are you two late bloomers?”
“Excuse me?!”
Jin Fang was positively aghast at Jinju Ren’s words at this moment. While the dragon princess wasn’t exactly wrong with her statements, she didn’t have to be so damn loud about it. Evidently, she was so incensed by the princess’s words that she was about to give her a piece of her mind…along side several cuss words.
“I don’t know what they teach you at whatever fancy royal school you attend, but you shouldn’t-”
“Ah, hold that thought. I think Zhen Liu is getting kidnapped.”
“What?!”
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Reason as to what was going on…
[The fuck you mean you lost the matriarch?!]
