Born in Blood



All the remaining energy was poured into Liam's Chaos Pearl. 

There wasn't much left, since most of it had been siphoned into regenerating Liam's arm. 

Although letting his hand heal as well sounded enticing, Liam could afford to let his Blood deal with that on its own. 

But his Chaos Pearl on the other hand was the organ with the most stability to absorb the tides of energy.

It just kept absorbing the 'Ora' that the morsel provided. 

The brass walls of the pearl slowly buckled and creaked, but didn't break.

It was made out of the same material as Liam's Ashura gauntlets, after all.

It slowly enlarged. The chaos inside it roiled in Liam's solar plexus, boiling the rest of his body.

From 9 basketball-sized spheres of chaos, it went to a solid 15.

Eventually, the stream of energy started to die down a bit. Reforming the phantom limb took most of its potency away. 

The arm wasn't supposed to be regenerated.

It had been 'deleted', in a way. 

That had sucked away most of the morsel's pure 'Ora', leaving the rest for his body, core and pearl.

The stream of energy died down after a few minutes.

What remained was invigorating power that coursed through Liam's veins. 

He was pretty sure he saved at least 3 to 4 months of constant cultivation for all his centers of power.

Except his mental sphere. But even that was slightly expanded due to everything else being raised.

There were no advancements, though.

The only thing that wasn't boosted by the Miracle Fruit was Liam's Blood.

That would only get better through devouring and absorbing Lifeforce, which the fruit did not have.

However, his Chaos Pearl felt incredibly strong. At least 5 to 6 months of its growth were expedited. 

…But now, Liam seriously needed to lie down and rest.

His body and organs were extremely sensitive to touch. Even a light brush of air sent pangs of nervous stings running across his skin.

***

When Liam woke up, he took a quick peek into his Chaos Pearl. His organ hadn't advanced, but it was far stronger.

There were only two spells that Liam had for his chaos – Focused Havoc and Controlled Chaos.

'If I'm entering a Celestial's inheritance, I'll need at least a Rank 3 chaos spell before I enter.'

That party sent before?

Definitely dead. And it wasn't just Liam's paranoia that led him to believe that. 

Liam had basic studies of inheritances, but he knew that some of them weren't exactly 'good hearted'.

Some were straight 'pranks' made by sadistic cultivators to torture anyone that might enter them, seeking a reward or whatnot.

There was one by a Zenith called the Crimson Edge.

The man forged an inheritance that advertised a groundbreaking technique, guaranteeing the heir's passage into the Celestial Ranks.

In reality, it was just a torture pit that kept the victims alive for centuries until they could be saved.

All that remained of them was a broken shell of what was once human.

Yeah… there was no way Liam was going in there barehanded. Another round of techniques and spells had to be made.

'I have to complete the Triumvirate Body before I enter,' Liam thought with a steely look. 

Eight months.

Liam thought he'd need at least a year or two for the whole technique to be perfected. Time went by too fast whenever he started a project.

But at the end of the day, all it depended on was the research subjects and how extensive Liam's findings were.

Now that he had his Shifter Octopi, though? Brute-forcing the entire thing was a possibility.

'I need to get a little rougher. But I can't afford to get tunnel visioned.'

Liam called Jargon.

***

'Subject No. 93. Fail. Died roughly 8 seconds after Core extraction.'

Liam jotted down on his inscribed notebook. All the written lines were magically sorted by his mental waves, stored in its pages for later study. 

To Liam's left was the cleanly cut body of a chained criminal. His abdomen, flesh and brain had been incised with a near perfect precision, bloomed open with the fleshy bits on display.

The criminal looked… empty.

To Liam's right, was a mold made out of a Shifter's skin, shaped to a humanoid form. It was filled with the criminal's grimy muscles and flesh, but the handiwork was crude and amateurish. 

A month had passed.

Liam's findings were… adequate. 

There was a constant trial-and-error process that Liam went through to perfect the technique.

Mind Isolation was the most difficult one to do. 

Liam's entire life depended on it.

Well, his life depended on the other two as well. 

The order of the Triumvirate technique went from Body Integration, True Transfer, then to Mind Isolation.

First was the mold, followed by the extraction, then the Mind Isolation that contained Liam's consciousness. 

Truth be told, Liam was worried. There was no telling what could go wrong with such a fragile and dangerous technique.

One misstep was death.

Elder Jax and the Golden Cranes had given Liam a helping hand in his experiments. They couldn't do much inscription-wise, but provided valuable insight.

'First, I have to make sure my mind stays intact.'

'If it breaks during the transfer, I'm dead.'

'If the Body Integration fails to carry over all my strength and bodily functions, I'm dead.'

'If I don't have my centers of power by the end of it, I'll kill myself.'

…

This was difficult.

Thankfully, all Liam needed to do to clear 1 out of 3 problems was perfect the mold that he needed to throw his body into.

Egg and Yolk's children would come in use.

***

7 months passed.

Liam stood beside Subject No. 421. His body was perfectly intact, marking the beginning of the Triumvirate Procedure. 

To his right was a more refined, cleaner version of the Shifter skinsuit that would soon become Liam's external. 

Surrounding the subject were the Elders specialized in helping Liam complete the procedure.

All kinds of Formations riddled the ground.

Like all the others, this was a test run. 

But unlike all the others, this was the second last skinsuit that Liam could afford to make.

What would follow next was the real thing.