Born in Blood



After the ship safely began to sail, Liam found himself a room inside the ship's cabin.

The Blood Troupe members cleared up a way for him, leaving him the biggest and most spacious room to rest in.

Truthfully, the organization was getting more and more useful in Liam's eyes. 

They knew their place and never spoke out of turn, like maids and butlers except infinitely more useful.

'Is this the power of influence? I can see why nobles cling to their status so much.' 

As a lone cultivator, Liam didn't really recognize the benefits of having greater numbers. 

However, he still believed in increasing his own strength by himself. 

Relying so much on others would only make him more dependent on them.

Dispelling those thoughts, Liam closed the door behind him and inspected the room. 

It was a cozy space lit by a single light hanging from the top, swaying left and right as the waves crashed against the ship.

Besides that, there were random books laying around here and there, with a single bed facing the wall.

Done with that, Liam sat cross-legged with a groan. Although he fought roughly 4 days ago, his body was still in severe pain. 

All his muscles ached with each movement, ringing with agony. Backlash from using his Ashura form with chaos for too long.

Liam thought back to the results of the fight. 'Why couldn't she affect me with her mental waves? She was a Rank 3 Magus, wasn't she?'

It took a solid minute for Liam to understand why.

To attack the mental sphere, one had to find it through the body and damage it from there. Mental waves had a limit of what they could pierce through. 

'...That means my body is hard enough to block out mental waves… I'm only at the third Rank too.'

Smiling, the first thing Liam did was check if his cultivation worked the same.

To his relief, it did. 

'Ora' gathered around his core and nourished its insides while expanding its walls. Yet even though Liam hadn't cultivated in the months he was running, his organ naturally expanded itself.

This was because Liam's centers of power were of a much higher rank. 

With a Rank 3 body nearing the fourth, and a Rank 2 sea of consciousness, Liam's body was rapidly nourishing itself to align the centers of power. 

'A week or two should be enough for a breakthrough.'

Liam smiled.

His Half Ashura form allowed for normal cultivation. 

'How do I cultivate this pearl thingie, though?' Liam wondered as his solar plexus gathered chaos. 'It probably doesn't require techniques… if it does I won't be able to do anything with it for a while. I'll have to experiment with it later. I can't use my chaos here.'

Training with the Psionic Rune was the same. 

Just to be safe, Liam entered his sea of consciousness. There were no major differences… but his mental energy was a bit darker than usual, a tinge of red mixed with the black.

Liam grimaced. 

'This is why I blacked out… the transformation was bound to have an effect on my mind.'

After practicing a bit with his mental energy, Liam realized the issue was deep rooted. He couldn't get it to change by simply removing it. 

It was a part of him now.

Liam sighed.

A problem for another time.

'What about my blood?'

Liam began willing out his crimson, forming a bent dagger in his hand that crystalized shortly after.

Unlike in his Ashura form, where it was pure white, his blood was back to normal, albeit somewhat brighter than usual. 

'Did its purity go up?'

Using the dagger, Liam formed a cut on his arm. 

It pierced the skin and dug into the flesh, drawing blood.

'It did! It's probably an upper-tier Rank 1 item on its own.'

Incredible physical prowess, an entirely unique and destructive element, paired with higher blood purity than his own species. 

The loss of reproductive capabilities and bestial nature was a small sacrifice for someone like Liam. Not to mention, he had a sea of consciousness and a core too!

While humans had three centers of power, Liam had four. He was in another realm of cultivation.

Even thinking about his progress made his body tremble from excitement. 

Ashuras were too strong. Liam was too strong. 

It begged the question, how come the Opposition wasn't suppressing him as of this moment?

'As if I can find the answer to that. Maybe I'm just too weak as of now… there's still time for everything to go wrong.'

Leaving that for now, Liam shut his eyes and got to work. He took out any pills in the rings he looted which would strengthen his absorption of 'Ora'. 

Among those there were pills that were specific to a user's element, which Liam couldn't really use. 

There were tempering methods, cultivation techniques, 'Ora' Stones and even Psionic Runes in the first and second Rank.

'Maybe I should spread these to the Blood Troupe. Most of them only have Rank 2 bodies and lack cultivation techniques. They don't have many Magi either.'

He would hold off on that for the moment. A hungry dog would come back for more, and his trust in the organization wasn't solidified yet.

Sitting cross-legged and closing his eyes, Liam began cultivating.

///

Two weeks passed.

Liam consumed all the usable pills for both his body and core.

Despite that, his previous estimation of a week for a breakthrough was off the mark, even though he used pills to speed up his progress. A realization made him slightly grimace, but in truth, it was a reasonable penalty.

Liam's cultivation progress was slowed.

Much slower than the norm.

Liam thought it had something to do with how rigid and powerful his body was, making it difficult for his core to expand, but it was the same with his mental sphere.

'So much for lack of suppression. I just had to jinx it didn't I...'

Though, it generally made sense. Liam had four centers of power, and alignment of them would take longer because of that exact reason.

Doing his best not to lament, Liam smiled broadly as he inspected his Rank 2 core.