209. Blood Gift of Ascendant King
For the sixth transformation of Sanguine Resurrection, I risked capturing a harmonizing vampire—Moonfeather—into my body. I nearly died in the attempt, but it drastically improved the caliber of vampires I could bind afterward.
The Ascendant King stood at the pinnacle of Crystal Realm. Under normal circumstances, this should be the limit of what the Sanguine Resurrection technique could capture. After all, it was merely a Crystal Realm technique, despite bearing an "angelic grade" designation.
But now things have changed. If my conjecture is correct, after capturing the Ascendant King in the eighth transformation, I might truly be able to bind a Vampire King into my body in the ninth, elevating myself to the Fourth Realm using only a Crystal Realm body tempering method.
With this in mind, I cut up the infant bull and quickly consumed it. Unlike the Crystal cores I had consumed before, eating the infant bull was like eating raw steak. It even had bones that were fragile and chewed like ligaments.
As I watched the absorbed lifespan rapidly decrease, I felt a surge of anticipation. The enhancement to my physical body from such powerful vampiric energy was self-evident—perhaps the combined strength of the previous seven vampires would barely match this single one who stood at the threshold of becoming a vampire king.
What I truly wanted to know was what extraordinary blood gift this bull vampire possessed.
Yet I hadn't witnessed the Bull Vampire use any blood gift during its final battle. I would soon find out why.
I calmly observed the prompts on the panel. Since my last battle with the embryo, my consciousness had grown so powerful that it could now detect even the minutest changes in my body with perfect clarity.
I observed firsthand how vampiric energy congealed within an embryo before its transformation into a vampire, and how consciousness gradually formed within it.
The evolution that normally spans thousands of years was now manifesting step by step within my body.
I wasn't certain of the practical value these observations held, but accumulating experience is always beneficial.
Clearly, the Leviasaurs, the primary creators of this technique, were limited in both their realm and vision. While their approach was in the right direction, they utilized resources wastefully.
Using life essence to tame vampiric energy, waiting for it to naturally take form, then slowly nurturing consciousness... Each transformation was equivalent to watching a vampiric beast from birth to maturity, no wonder it was so slow.
The only question was where to acquire more profound techniques.
[Year 7,314, a Vampire Bull forms within your body. You have tamed it with your life and death essences over thousands of years, yet you still couldn't cleanse the demonic energy from its body. It cannot be called a celestial beast; it remains a demonic one.]
[You transform into a Blood Transforming Vampire Bull, devour living beings, use blood and flesh to consecrate your internal organs, convert essence into demon blood, bathe in it, forge the vampire body, cast vampire bones, and attain the supreme Demonic Emperor throne.]
[Remaining absorbed lifespan: 7,573 years]
The transformation process, which had become second nature after eight repetitions, unexpectedly encountered another anomaly.
My heart skipped a beat as a sudden surge of murderous intent flooded my mind. I felt an urge to violently attack people—to devour their flesh and drink their blood.
Fortunately, my consciousness had been thoroughly tempered through battles with the vampiric embryo and was now far more resilient and powerful than before, preventing me from acting on these violent impulses.
I continued to mobilize the absorbed lifespan to completely eliminate the Bull Vampire's influence in one decisive effort.
It took another nine hundred years before the vampire's consciousness was completely wiped out.
The whole thing seemed to have come full circle... the lifespan obtained from the Ascendant King was almost entirely used on subduing itself.
So what exactly is its blood gift? I stared at the prompts on the panel. Devouring living beings? Which vampire doesn't eat people?
With the help of my spiritual consciousness, I quickly regained control of this greatly enhanced physical body. If I were to face the bronze mirror's beam again, I would certainly handle the situation with much more ease.
I stood up, suddenly remembering something. With a strike of my palm against the silver bell, a huge white owl carcass suddenly appeared in the room.
I had originally intended to try it on the Ascendant King, but the creature was too massive to fit in the courtyard, much less this room.
I stared at the white owl on the ground and suddenly opened my mouth, as if driven by instinct.
The next moment, the harmonizing vampire lord rapidly shriveled, its flesh and blood transforming completely into a crimson liquid. This instantly solidified, becoming a fingertip-sized droplet of blood that flew into my mouth.
Tasting the metallic sweetness permeating my mouth, I descended into internal vision. Sure enough, the blood droplet now hung suspended in my sea of essence, transforming from its original crimson to pitch black at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Forge vampire body, cast vampire bones?
According to the description of the blood gift, this substance should be usable to temper internal organs and bones.
But I didn't use it that way. Although the Ascendant King's body was sturdy and powerful, it wasn't particularly impressive compared to other vampiric beasts.
At this moment, I distinctly recognized a familiar taste in this essence-packed blood. Wasn't this essentially a liquid vampire core?
Celestial essence absorbed by vampiric beasts not only transforms into vampire cores but also nourishes their bodies. Simply consuming vampire flesh, however, cannot extract this energy.
The Ascendant King's blood gift was precisely the ability to extract essence from blood and flesh for personal use.
"Blood Transforming Vampire Bull"—so that's what the name meant.
No wonder it reached such a realm in just over 900 years.
This reminded me of my breakthrough to the First Realm. The celestial essence—whether it's dark matter, dark energy, or some other undiscovered mystery of the universe—was a necessary component of the human body.
Ordinary people, despite not practicing essence accumulation techniques, still retain essence within their physical beings.
While this essence is extremely dilute, the sheer number of humans compensates for this deficiency. Other vampiric beasts also consume humans but cannot absorb their essence as completely or efficiently as the Ascendant King does—with absolutely no waste.
Had the bull vampire occupied Cascadia and consumed one city after another, its growth rate would have been simply unimaginable.
I reopened the panel.
My Embryo of Harmony was already just a step away from growing into an Infant, and I had been worried about finding vampire cores. This was truly perfect timing—like someone offering a pillow just as I was dozing off.
Judging by appearance alone, this drop of sangrith blood was no less valuable than Moonfeather's vampire core.
[Year 1, you absorb the essence condensed sangrith blood and begin attempting to grow the Infant of Love...]
Last time, using the old Leviasaur's vampire core, I had already advanced to the final stage, and the consciousness within the embryo had been eliminated.
As soon as this essence-condensed sangrith blood merged with the embryo, it opened its eyes, slowly tore off the connecting blood threads, then rose to sit cross-legged with both palms overlapping before its lower abdomen.
At this stage, the Infant had fulfilled its final purpose.
I infused my powerful spiritual consciousness into it, caught its new trace of awareness, and forcibly merged with it.
[Year 320, you have successfully formed the Infant of Love and gained control over it]
[Cosmic Devouring Crystallization Technique: Grandmaster]
[Remaining absorbed lifespan: 6,323 years]
In an instant, I felt as if I possessed two bodies. With eyes open, I saw the bedroom.
Closing and reopening them, the scene before me changed completely.
Within the hazy, distorted vision lay a dark, sunless prison. Red-glowing nadis extended from the ceiling, making it difficult to breathe.
Beneath that thick, suffocating pressure, I quickly withdrew the suppressive force of the Melting Sun Furnace, which finally brought some relief.
I stood up, attempting to knock on the translucent shell wall of the crystal core.
Thump! Thump!
I then tested it with several punches and kicks, only to discover the shell wall was far harder than I had anticipated.
"Breaking this inner core would mean reaching the Fourth Realm—becoming a Ward of Nature?"
My mastery of Cosmic Devouring Crystallization Technique had reached its limit; all that remained was simply accumulating power.
Accumulating power wasn't a major issue—just a matter of feeding it more essence.
It's time to visit Old General Grant.