Chapter 52: How Many Cuts Do I Need

Chapter 52: How Many Cuts Do I Need "That’s right—the legendary remains of a demigod-level creature: the wing bone of the Stormwind Feathered Serpent God!" Carlos carefully ran his hands over this elegant and mysterious wing bone as memories of its recorded history surfaced in his mind. The once-terrifying demigod-level creature, the Stormwind Feathered Serpent God, had fallen for unknown reasons. Through fate and circumstance, its remains were discovered by a tribe from the old days. They specifically built a tall tower to worship and tap into power from the demigod’s remains. Everything was cool until one night when an enemy tribe launched a brutal invasion. To prevent the remains from falling into enemy hands, the tribe that served the remains sealed them inside a stone pillar at the last second. In the end, the tribe serving the remains was completely wiped out by the enemy tribe, and the location of the remains became lost to history. But history has a way of repeating itself—the enemy tribe was destroyed by an even more powerful tribe... Through the long years, records of the demigod remains were worn away. The masters of the ceremonial tower changed again and again until it completely fell into ruin, yet no one discovered the secret hidden within the stone pillar. Time brought us to the present. "Even a demigod’s power can’t stand up to the mighty force of time." In Carlos’s perception, the wing bone was hollow inside, with no trace of demigod power remaining. Clearly, under the erosion of endless years, the terrifying power originally contained in the demigod remains had long since faded away. Only the reddish-gold wing bone, symbolizing the Feathered Serpent God’s eternal and indestructible nature, remained perfectly intact. "But this is more than enough." Carlos put away the Stormwind Feathered Serpent God bone wing and looked into the distance toward a hill not far away. "There’s a hidden cave there—a perfect place to perform the ritual." Getting into the Iron Palanquin, the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards lifted it and began heading toward the hill ahead... The journey was peaceful. This area was still within Ember City’s sphere of influence, where high-spirituality beasts had either been taken out or forced to migrate, making it pretty safe. Climbing halfway up the mountainside, there was indeed a cave exactly matching Carlos’s memory. The cave was dark and quiet. Carlos had Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard #1 clean out the cave. Drive away the wild animals inside, set up Glow Stones... After cleaning up, two Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards were left to guard the entrance while Carlos went in. The cave interior was lit up by Glow Stones—it was a beautiful limestone cave. Pink crystal rocks were everywhere, sparkling with dots of fluorescent light, gorgeous and mesmerizing. "No wonder this became a scenic spot that casual players raved about in later times—it really is stunning." Carlos briefly took in the view before focusing up. From his storage space, he pulled out a jar of silver liquid. He didn’t immediately draw the magic circle. Instead, he took out a small knife and made a cut across his palm! He clenched his fist! Carlos’s expression didn’t change as blood with a jade-green sheen flowed down, continuously dripping into the silver liquid jar... After a few seconds, Carlos watched in confusion as the dripping blood clearly decreased until it stopped entirely. "Huh?" He opened his hand to look—holy crap, the wound had completely healed. Moreover, the blood he’d lost was rapidly replenishing and had already returned to full. "Is this one of the Child of Nature passive effects: massively enhanced healing ability?" This self-inflicted wound was Carlos’s first time being injured and bleeding since awakening. He got his first taste of what "massively enhanced healing ability" actually meant. In just that short time, the injury had healed and his blood was back to full. While this made Carlos happy, it also gave him a headache. "Oh crap, the silver liquid for drawing the blood-bone connection magic circle must be thoroughly mixed with the caster’s blood. How many cuts do I need to make to meet the requirements?" With the dual purpose of testing how powerful his healing ability really was and speeding up blood flow, Carlos gritted his teeth, took out a bottle of hemostatic alchemical potion as backup, then aimed the sharp knife at his wrist. "Slash!" Intense pain shot up from his wrist as the major artery was severed and blood began gushing out, continuously dripping into the silver liquid jar... Ignoring the pain, Carlos watched with burning curiosity. The wound on his wrist was visibly beginning to heal—in just a few seconds, the wound had disappeared again! Carlos wiped away the remaining blood on his wrist. It was smooth as silk with no trace of injury. "Based on the recovery speed, this is almost the highest level of healing... Even if my heart were shattered, it probably couldn’t kill me. I should be able to regenerate severed limbs too." Based on his memories and experience, Carlos made this assessment of his powerful healing ability. "Should I cut off a pinky finger and test it?" Carlos was getting pumped, but then he noticed the silver liquid jar that had accumulated some blood and dropped the testing idea. He still had important business to handle. The knife cut his wrist again, blood flowed and dripped into the jar, the wound healed again... The blood for the ritual still wasn’t enough, so Carlos had no choice but to grit his teeth and keep repeating the process... "Phew, finally got enough blood." He put away the knife with a shudder. Gently shaking the jar, he activated the special fusion array on it. Carlos’s blood and the special mithril quickly merged, becoming impossible to tell apart... Ten minutes later, Carlos looked down to see that the originally distinct blood and mithril in the jar had completely fused into a single silver-red mysterious liquid. "The blood-secret liquid for drawing the array is successfully refined. Now comes the make-or-break part." Carlos’s expression got serious as he carefully extracted the blood-secret liquid from the jar. On the cave floor, he began meticulously drawing the blood-bone connection magic circle... Time quietly passed, and before long, a magic circle had appeared on the ground. Complex and mysterious, a single glance at it made people dizzy and confused. "Blood-bone connection magic circle, successfully drawn!" Carlos let out a soft breath. Now wasn’t the time to chill out. He carefully took out the Stormwind Feathered Serpent God bone wing and placed it in the bone position of the blood-bone connection magic circle. Then Carlos took out the auxiliary materials he’d prepared beforehand: Dark Blood Crystal, Celestial Vermillion Vine, Hundred-Leaf Rush... After checking them, he placed them one by one in the various sacrifice positions. Finally, Carlos stood in the central blood position. Everything was ready. Spiritual energy surged within him as he began activating the blood-bone connection magic circle while simultaneously murmuring mysterious ancient words—the ritual had begun! The silver-red blood-secret liquid began to boil, and the materials in the sacrifice positions melted one by one, transforming into spiritual mist that filled the air. In the bone position, the Stormwind Feathered Serpent God bone wing slowly began floating under a mysterious force. The deepest primitive power was activated. On the reddish-gold surface, mysterious and complex runes began appearing one after another, connected end to end in dense clusters. An ancient aura spread as the wing bone actually began manifesting golden flesh and reddish-gold feathers... a serpent body... The former ruler of the skies, the original form of these remains—the terrifying phantom of that Feathered Serpent God had reappeared!