Chapter 736: [Ghost Flame] Advanced Applications
‘Then again, I did absorb those [Ghost Flames] in a very haphazard manner…the [Will of the Salamander] portion of my formula still looks to be intact though…granted, it now has a pervasive aura of undeath…’
The world of Valresta was home to many strange elemental energies that formed due to natural and unnatural circumstances. Depending on the cultivator, these energies could be captured and utilized in many different ways.
For example, alchemists would go out of their way to acquire the innate flames or spiritual waters that certain breeds of aether beasts produce, such as the [Crimson Scorpion Dragon’s Flame] or the [Black Snow Ape Life Water], in order to enhance their medicine making abilities.
In some regions of the world, there existed a type of lightning known as [Heaven’s Punishment], a very strange type of lightning that carried this aura of pure [Judgement].
Most sane cultivators tried to avoid this lighting like the plague, and on a completely unrelated note, many lighting aether cultivators weren’t sane.
There was, however, one thing that united all of these unassociated naturally occurring weird energies, acquiring and maintaining them was a massive pain in the ass.
It didn’t matter if it was the most “gentle”(read: none of them were this) or most “brutal” (read: all of them were this) of elemental treasure, they all required some special method of being able to, at minimum, interact with one.
Some of them required pills that had to be made in a certain way, most of them required a specialized formula to even qualify to use them and an unusually large amount of them could only be acquired after murdering the previous owner of a particular treasure.
Under normal circumstances, the only way a cultivator could get their hands on a [Ghost Flame] was to either risk a trip into a part of the Umbral Spider Continent that loosely translated to, the Boneyard of Eternal Hellfire, and they had to cultivate a formula known as the [Torchbearer’s Eternal Vigil], which was significantly more sinister than how it was named.
This formula required the user to acquire several different types of [Ghost Flame], all of which were acquired from specific types of undead monsters and environments.
However, these weren’t normal circumstances, Zhen Liu wasn’t a normal cultivator and he had something stitched onto his soul thanks to the bored meddling of a spirit of emotional madness that allowed him to capture [Ghost Flame] from a dirty aether bomb.
And now he was going to use something that was considered an A-Class aether treasure known for its killing potential, for the sake of creating and enhancing life.
‘I feel like there’s some irony to this,’ Zhen Liu mused as he stared at the portion of his formula where the [Ghost Flame] was being kept. In his eyes, the flame looked like a spectral face that was screaming in constant agony or sorrow. Not exactly something associated with the bestowal of life.
‘I really should’ve at least identified what kind of flame tho was before doing this…but I got other things to worry about,’ Zhen Liu said in order to psyche himself up.
‘Now, this should work like the times I converted my aether to Ignati aether…just a different output…’
As Zhen Liu focused on channeling his power into the part of himself that could summon and control [Ghost Flame], his body began to release an aura of death.
‘Okay, now I just…wait a minute…hammer is acting funny… I should probably focus on that later though…’
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How this all looked from Jinju Ren’s perspective…
‘By the scales of my father, what is he doing?,’ Jinju Ren asked herself as she watched Zhen Liu continue to keep his eyes closed like he’s been doing for the past six minutes.
As of this moment in time, Jinju Ren was situated on a bench at least a dozen feet away from Zhen Liu and the platform where a strangely curvy skeletal woman was standing.
Supposedly, this skeletal woman was going to be turned into a monstrous warrior similar to the ones that he had used against in the arena not too long ago, but Zhen Liu hadn’t really done anything except close his eyes and hold his hammer.
Honestly, she was expecting a bit more-FWOOOSH!
“Now that’s what I was expect-wait a minute…”
Zhen Liu had suddenly opened his eyes and released a breath of ghastly green fire that enveloped the skeletal zako woman while bypassing the glass orb that was surrounding her.
From what Jinju Ren could sense, this flame was [Ghost Flame], or to be more specific, [Ghost Flame: Banshee’s Balefire].
During her younger years, Jinju Ren once attended a sibling’s wedding, where the bride-to-be was a warrior woman who happened to specialize in using [Ghost Flame]. She was a nice woman and was a surprisingly doting mother in the future, but she was as pale as corpse and mildly creepy. After meeting her though, Jinju Ren was given a chance to learn about [Ghost Flame] and the various subtypes that composed this group of violent aether flames.
‘But wait.. most [Ghost Flame] is too dangerous and wild to use for anything other than combative purposes,’ Jinju Ren recalled as she remembered the demonstrations she was once shown as a child and the warnings that she was informed about in regards to [Ghost Flames]. ‘Even alchemists only use them for poison crafting because how dense the death aether involved is, so why would-what the hell am I sensing?’
Jinju Ren brought her focus back to the raised platform where the skeletal zako woman was standing, expecting to see nothing but green flames and a scorched pile of bones.
She saw plenty of green flames, but there wasn’t a scorched pile of bones. Instead, she had a front row seat to the scene of this strange skeletal woman, rapidly absorbing the [Ghost Flame] into her bones in order to refine and reinforce their structure.
A part of her was also under the impression that the skeletal woman was somehow getting curvier, but that shouldn’t have been possible given obvious reasons.
Needless to say though, she was gobsmacked at the scene…and not just because this was happening in the first place.
‘Other than Zhen Liu providing the [Ghost Flame], I don’t feel him providing any other input,’ Jinju Ren observed. ‘If anything, it’s like this zako knows instinctually how to make use of this flame in order to strengthen and shape her body…but why is she going for such curvaceous shape? Or does my future darling have a secret dirty side that I don’t know about…’
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‘Huh..is the curvaceous shape because of how the zako wants to present herself once she has her full identity as a kaijin, or because of the innate [Lust] that got baked into her structure after Paralust did her thing?’
∆Honestly, it’s a little of column A and B.∆
=Most zakos would based their future forms on the kaijin or warriors that trained/controlled them. Wouldn’t be a massive stretch to assume that she’s doing this because the only influence on her was Paralust.=
‘Huh…well, might as well move on to the next part. Because I think while the overall shape is fine, I need to hammer out the details.’
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Eventually, Zhen Liu stopped exhaling any more [Ghost Flame] and lifted his [Hammer of the Dearly Departed].
Zhen Liu held the hammer aloft, waiting for a moment that only he knew about.
As far as Jinju Ren knew, this hammer was a cursed weapon that could turn anything it touched into a weapon, but drove the wielder mad in the process.
The fact Zhen Liu was wielding it for this moment, gave her the impression that just like the [Ghost Flame] there was something about it that only he understood.
‘What is he going to do with it?’
*CLANG!*
‘Ah, silly question…wait, how is that hammer bypassing that glass sphere?’
Once the last of the exhaled [Ghost Flame] was absorbed by the skeleton woman, Zhen Liu brought down his cursed blacksmith’s hammer upon the zako’s body.
One would normally expect to hear the crunching sound of bones breaking being impacted by a heavy kinetic force at this moment, but instead, the sound of metal smashing against hot metal echoed through the room as Zhen Liu made contact.
With every blow of the hammer, the zako’s body began to glow a brighter and brighter shade of red and took on a more and more solid shape.
That being said, Jinju Ren couldn’t help but notice that the skeletal woman was looking even curvier than how she had initially formed her body.
‘On the one hand, I could be jealous or weirded out over the fact that my future husband can basically make beautiful kaijin women at the drop of a hat, or I can use this as ammunition to tease him more,’ Jinju Ren thought to herself. ‘Probably the latter, he doesn’t seem to view his kaijin in any sexual way given his other warriors…’
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‘Am I going crazy or is she strengthen parts of her body on purpose in order to direct the hammer to impact in certain ways? Is that normal?’
∆=She is, and no it’s not.=∆
‘Huh…’
