Chapter 186

In the dead of night, within the most secluded meditation room of the workshop, Luo En sat cross-legged in the center of a magic array, surrounded by a circle of extinguished magic crystal lamps.

Only two blue candle flames burned before him, the flames remaining perfectly still in the windless environment.

This was a meditation environment he had specifically designed for the second stage of "The Star-Eater's Babble," capable of isolating external interference to the greatest extent and enhancing spiritual resonance with the "starry sky."

Taking a deep breath and clearing his mind, Luo En slowly closed his eyes and began tonight's meditation practice.

The familiar babble soon echoed in his mind, but unlike the fear and resistance he felt when first encountering it, he had now learned how to coexist with it.

As the depth of his meditation increased, Luo En felt as if his consciousness had left his body, drifting in the boundless starry sky.

All around were countless flickering stars, and in the distant, dark depths, some vast and ancient existence seemed to be gazing at him.

The feeling was both terrifying and strange, causing one to tremble yet unable to resist.

Those babbles echoed in his sea of consciousness, while Luo En used the mental barrier constructed by the "Erosion Movement" to resist them, guiding the flow and accumulation of spiritual power in the process.

Time became blurred in this state; it could have been one hour, or perhaps three.

When Luo En finally awoke from his meditation, he found that the sky was already brightening, the first rays of dawn quietly spilling through the gaps in the window.

But what shocked him even more was the change in his internal spiritual power—having broken through to become a high-level apprentice only about two months ago, his spiritual power had actually reached an astonishing 4.4 points!

"This growth rate..." Luo En looked at his attribute panel in disbelief: "It's at least several times faster than the first stage."

This was indeed no ordinary meditation method, but a shortcut capable of significantly accelerating spiritual power growth and leading to a higher realm.

"The entry-level method of the Wang Guan Meditation Method..."

Luo En softly sensed the abundant spiritual power within his body: "Then how astonishing must the effects of the Wang Guan Meditation Method itself be?"

He could understand why the dissemination of this meditation method was strictly restricted.

With such rapid spiritual power growth, without corresponding protective measures, one would soon lose control due to spiritual corruption.

Luo En took out the Time Guardian pocket watch, gently stroking the pattern on its surface, his heart filled with gratitude.

It was precisely this extraordinary ancient item that allowed him to walk safely on this dangerous path.

But when he activated the purification program, he discovered that the energy required was more than any previous time.

【Successfully reset negative status: Spiritual Corruption, Energy -10】

"The consumption increases every time..."

Luo En frowned.

This meant that as his spiritual power further increased, the complexity and intensity of the corruption were also growing in sync, potentially soon exceeding the pocket watch's single-use clearing capability.

"Must accelerate the practice of the 'Furnace Concept'."

Luo En decided that before his spiritual power reached the critical point, he must find a more fundamental solution for handling corruption.

But this problem was still controllable for now; the urgent priority was to utilize this time to let his spiritual power reach the highest possible level, preparing for the trial of the bloodline altar.

Luo En walked out of the meditation room and came to the main hall of the workshop.

Li Liya was already up, preparing breakfast.

Seeing Luo En, the young girl greeted him with a smile: "Good morning, Teacher. How was the meditation effect last night?"

"Exceeded expectations." Luo En answered briefly, taking the hot tea handed over by Li Liya: "Where are Daier and Ailan?"

"Sister Ailan went to the back mountain to collect medicinal herbs, saying that several types of night-blooming plants needed to be harvested before sunrise."

Li Liya answered while busy: "Daier is still sleeping; yesterday's training made her very tired."

Luo En nodded; although the little sea siren's growth was astonishing, her physical and spiritual recovery speed still couldn't compare to an adult sea siren.

Proper rest was very necessary for her.

"I have prepared the breakfast you like." Li Liya placed a plate of food that was appealing in color, aroma, and taste on the table:

"Do you have any special plans for today, Teacher?"

"Same as usual, staying in the laboratory; you can just keep the lunch warm for me."

Luo En answered while enjoying his breakfast: "Some findings from the past few days are very interesting; I want to conduct further research."

He turned his head to look at the young girl: "What about you? What are your arrangements for today?"

"I plan to organize the herb storage, then continue practicing the basic potion-making you taught."

Li Liya answered earnestly:

"Sister Ailan said she would bring back some fresh Biyu grass, which is a key ingredient for making strengthening potions."

Luo En nodded with satisfaction.

Her learning attitude had always been upright, and she progressed rapidly.

"Very good, come find me anytime if you have questions."

Luo En finished the last sip of tea and rose to head to the laboratory.

Inside the laboratory, the puppet, which looked unremarkable on the outside, lay quietly in a specially made energy isolation box.

Luo En carefully took it out, placed it on the central experimental table, and sensed the strange energy fluctuations emanating from the puppet.

Research over the past few weeks had given him a deeper understanding of this abyssal treasure.

The substitute puppet could not only replicate the user's appearance and basic abilities but also gain additional traits and power by absorbing abyssal biological tissues.

The initial discovery was purely accidental.

During a routine energy test, the substitute puppet was placed adjacent to a manticore tissue sample.

Luo En was surprised to find that the puppet began to exhibit an abnormally active state, seemingly attracted by those tissues.

After a detailed energy scan via "Extraordinary Identification," Luo En discovered that the substitute puppet had a reaction of near "craving" toward the manticore tissue, as if it had recognized some energy fluctuation from the same source.

"The substitute puppet comes from the fourth layer of the abyss, while the manticore is from the third..."

Luo En recalled the descriptions in the "Abyssal Creature Illustrated Guide," and a bold guess formed in his mind:

Between items and creatures in the abyss, there might exist a certain degree of mutual affinity, capable of energy resonance or fusion under certain conditions.

With this guess, Luo En began a series of strictly controlled experiments.

He first let the substitute puppet come into contact with a tiny amount of manticore tissue to observe the reaction;

Then he gradually increased the contact amount while closely monitoring the puppet's energy fluctuations and morphological changes.

Today, he intended to conduct a bolder experiment—letting the substitute puppet absorb some of the manticore's main tissues.

Luo En took two storage boxes from the cold storage; after opening them, one could see dark green tissue and a huge heart still emanating astonishing vitality.

That was the manticore's tail poison gland tissue and its second heart, which had maintained vitality after special processing.

"If the experiment succeeds, the substitute puppet should be able to gain some of the manticore's abilities."

Luo En activated the surrounding protective magic array to ensure that even if an accident occurred during the experiment, it would not cause a dangerous leak.

After everything was ready, he took a deep breath and gently placed the poison gland tissue and the heart on the puppet's chest.

In just a few seconds, a strange change occurred—the tissues began to melt, turning into a dark red liquid that quickly seeped into the puppet's body.

At the same time, the patterns on the puppet's surface began to undergo subtle changes; some lines became sharper and more twisted, emanating a faint purple light.

"The reaction is stronger than expected..."

Luo En closely observed this process, recording every detail.

After the absorption was complete, the puppet's surface returned to calm, but its overall aura had undergone a clear change:

A dangerous and aggressive energy surged within it, just like a crouching beast.

【Automatically absorbed active abyssal matter, charging progress +1%】

【Current energy: 1%/100%】

"This... it turns out the puppet can actually charge after absorbing active abyssal matter; this was a happy accident."

He felt a slight surprise in his heart; if he relied purely on Krypton magic stones for charging, his current small treasury really couldn't handle it, as one magic stone only provided 1% charging progress.

However, for now, let's first try the strengthening effect produced by the puppet absorbing abyssal matter.

Luo En put a small portion of his consciousness into the puppet, attempting to activate it.

The puppet immediately reacted, slowly standing up, its movements more fluid and natural than before.

But the real surprise was yet to come—when Luo En tried to mobilize the just-absorbed poison gland energy...

The puppet suddenly underwent a mutation, a sharp tail barb growing from its back, the tip shimmering with purple toxic light.

"Too amazing..." Luo En praised softly, controlling the puppet to wave that poison barb, drawing a purple trajectory in the air.

Subsequently, he tried further deformation control, surprised to find that the puppet's entire structure had become exceptionally malleable.

Not just the tail barb, the limbs could become stronger and more powerful, and even the face could partially mutate, showing beast-like features.

"It's simply like..." Luo En's eyes lit up: "A biological fusion!"

He suddenly remembered the description of "deformable resin" in the "Abyssal Creature Illustrated Guide."

This special substance from the fourth layer of the abyss could blur the boundaries of life forms, allowing objects to gain the traits or abilities of other creatures.

The substitute puppet clearly contained this substance or similar components.

Even more surprising was that when Luo En reduced his consciousness input, leaving only basic control, the puppet actually exhibited a near-instinctive combat intuition.

It autonomously adjusted its posture, performing a series of defensive and offensive actions, as if it had inherited part of the manticore's instincts.

"This is like gaining a semi-autonomous combat partner."

Luo En was ecstatic, watching the puppet move flexibly under his minimal control.

These findings immediately made him think of more possibilities: if the substitute puppet could assimilate manticore tissue, then theoretically, it might also be able to assimilate tissues of other abyssal creatures?

What kind of ability changes would tissues of different types of abyssal creatures bring?

What effect would fusing multiple tissues simultaneously produce?

Luo En's "Concept" trait was running at full power at this moment, and a grand blueprint gradually took shape in his mind:

A super substitute that combined the traits of multiple abyssal creatures, possessing various environmental adaptation abilities, multiple attack methods, and perhaps even a certain degree of autonomous consciousness and judgment...

And when the substitute puppet's charging reached 50%, unlocking the dual-intercommunication function, and then with the help of professional advancement to become a 【Demon Hunter】, these abilities would leap forward again!

And all abilities could be fed back to the main body simultaneously, allowing him to reap all the benefits without incurring any risks.

………………

Deep in the earth's veins, a beehive-like cave was surrounded by thick black fog.

The cave walls were covered with a layer of constantly wriggling mutated tissue, dark purple liquid flowing on the surface, emanating a suffocating, fishy stench.

In the deepest part of the cave, a mass of semi-solid, semi-liquid disgusting foreign matter was slowly wriggling.

At first, it looked like some kind of huge rotting mushroom.

But careful observation would reveal that the surface had countless tiny tentacles and bumps, opening and closing with a certain rhythm, as if breathing.

At the core of this foreign matter, two human-like silhouettes were vaguely visible, tightly intertwined, as if engaged in some twisted embrace.

"We... survived."

A voice emanated from this disgusting mass of flesh.

The voice was muddled, yet one could vaguely recognize it as Oliver's voice, only mixed with some kind of foreign sensation.

"Of course."

Another voice sounded, moist and viscous, like liquid flowing in a narrow crack:

"Although Hayek's attack was terrifying... fortunately, Mr. Saint Plate gave me a good thing."

Cynthia's voice was less human than before, and her tone carried a strange sense of euphoria.

That wriggling mass of flesh gradually stretched and deformed, slowly revealing a more concrete form:

Two bodies were connected by some kind of purple-black tissue, sharing some organs like conjoined twins.

Oliver's upper body barely maintained a human form, only his skin presented an unnatural gray-white color.

The right side of his face was completely deformed, where a huge tentacle eyeball had grown, constantly contracting and expanding with his emotions.

His left arm had completely disappeared, replaced by a thick tentacle covered in suction cup-like organs.

And Cynthia's change was more thorough; her hair had turned into a mass of blue-purple tentacles, drifting in the air like jellyfish tentacles.

The most bizarre thing was her abdomen, where a huge vertical crack extended from her chest to her lower abdomen, like a giant mouth full of sharp teeth, opening and closing intermittently.

Oliver tremblingly reached out his only remaining right hand, stroking his twisted face:

"I remember we were decomposed into fragments by the energy impact... then your tentacles wrapped around me... the subsequent memory became blurred."

"I used my main body to protect your core consciousness, and then used an abyssal substance..."

Cynthia let out a moist, strange laugh, her voice sounding as if it came from underwater:

"Unexpectedly, at the moment of life and death, that abyssal substance actually fused with us... the stress response triggered by the emergency survival instinct, what a wonderful adaptability."

Oliver was silent for a moment, observing his intertwined body with Cynthia using his tentacle eyeball.

He could feel an unprecedented pleasure flowing through their shared tissues, just as if they were enjoying pleasure together at every moment.

"Abyssal substance? We fused?" His voice carried a trace of shock and confusion.

"Not entirely."

Cynthia's tentacle hairband brushed across Oliver's cheek, the feeling sticky and soft:

"More like a symbiotic relationship. Our flesh and consciousness are partially blended, sharing energy and perception."

Her voice became lower and more seductive:

"How does it feel? The feeling brought by this symbiosis... isn't it wonderful?"

Oliver closed his only remaining human eye, letting himself immerse in this new perception.

Indeed, he could feel an unprecedented power and clarity.

Those frantic thoughts and impulses that once troubled him seemed to have been calmed by some more composed consciousness after continuous pleasure.

"My spirit... is more stable."

He discovered with surprise: "Those crazy impulses and hallucinations are no longer so intense."

"This is the benefit of higher-level awakening."

Cynthia said with satisfaction, her cracked abdomen slightly opening, revealing the wriggling dark red tissue inside:

"When your awakening reaches a certain level, you are no longer passively influenced by corruption, but actively coexist with it."

He tried to move their deformed symbiont, feeling the new power.

The movement was clumsy and strange; Cynthia's countless tentacles wriggled on the ground, driving the entire body forward, emitting a moist friction sound.

Oliver asked, the tentacle eyeball on his face turning toward Cynthia: "What should we do next?"

"Of course, go to the bloodline altar." Cynthia giggled:

"That's right... the very place you've always dreamed of."

Her cracked abdomen opened wider, revealing the accordion-like multi-layered muscle tissue inside:

"There, we can complete the true awakening transformation... raising the awakening degree to a level comparable to a formal wizard."

Oliver fell into deep thought.

The bloodline altar... the opportunity he had dreamed of during his apprentice days.

How many days and nights had he fantasized about obtaining the qualification to enter, using the altar's power to complete a qualitative change.

However, now, they were going in this deformed posture, and the purpose had completely changed.

It was no longer to improve himself further, but to use the altar's energy to complete the abyssal awakening.

"The school will strictly monitor the opening of the bloodline altar." Oliver said worriedly:

"The Vice Dean, other mentors, and that terrifying guardian of the Crystal Spire, they will all be present. In our current state, once exposed, we will be erased."

"We don't need a direct confrontation."

Cynthia's voice became colder:

"The bloodline altar is a semi-plane space with countless secret entrances... and, once the altar opens, the energy fluctuations will cause massive interference, enough to cover our actions."

Oliver could feel Cynthia's excitement, and the intertwined parts were continuously transmitting her sensations to him.

He couldn't help but exhale, having done it again, his eyeball already starting to roll back.

"And more importantly..."

Cynthia was already accustomed to this, just gently stroking Oliver's face with her tentacles: "We will have helpers."

"Helpers?" Oliver woke up with a start, the tentacle eyeball also contracting violently: "Who would help us?"

"'The Eye of the Abyss' was not completely wiped out... Mr. Saint Plate had long anticipated that the school would take action, which is why he left in advance."

Cynthia emitted a moist laugh:

"He will provide us with help at the critical moment, and this time we were able to survive, it was also thanks to the abyssal substance he provided."

Oliver fell into silence.

Mr. Saint Plate, that mysterious representative of the "Eye of the Abyss," he had never truly understood that person's background and purpose.

But one thing was certain—that man was definitely not someone who could be trusted.

"Are you sure he is helping us, rather than using us?"

"Using? Helping? These concepts are meaningless in front of higher-level existences."

Cynthia's voice became ethereal and dreamy:

"We are all part of the 'Paradise Project'... as long as we can complete the transformation and reach a higher level of awakening, everything else is irrelevant."

Oliver wanted to refute, but found his thinking was being assimilated by Cynthia's point of view.

This assimilation was not forced, but a subtle infiltration, like two cups of liquid of different colors slowly mixing.

Their consciousnesses were gradually merging, and the boundaries were becoming increasingly blurred.

"How much longer..." he asked in a low voice: "When will the bloodline altar open?"

"Very soon." Cynthia's voice became ethereal and distant:

"I can feel the frequency of energy fluctuations accelerating. In about half a month, the altar will open."

She suddenly raised her head, as if listening to some distant sound:

"And, I know who will enter the altar."

"Who?"

"Luo En Ralph." Cynthia spat out this name, her voice filled with a morbid excitement:

"That guy who is always full of surprises. He is finally about to step into our hunting ground."

Oliver's emotions fluctuated violently, the tentacle eyeball contracting sharply, leaking a black viscous liquid:

"Ralph?! That damn...!"

Violent changes began to appear on the surface of their shared body.

Black spikes protruded from under the skin, and muscles and tissues began to expand and twist uncontrollably under the stimulation of angry emotions.

"Calm down." Cynthia's voice pierced through Oliver's anger:

"Your emotions will interfere with our fusion process. We are not stable enough yet."

Her tentacles stroked Oliver's face, soothing his emotions:

"Luo En Ralph... yes, he is a threat, but also an opportunity."

"Opportunity?" Oliver's voice was full of doubt.

"He has a certain special aura on him." Cynthia said thoughtfully:

"I have never been able to determine what it is, but Mr. 'Saint Plate' seems to have a special interest in him."

"We need more energy."

Cynthia interrupted Oliver's thoughts:

"Before the bloodline altar opens, we must accumulate power as much as possible and stabilize our symbiotic state."

"Do you have any plans?"

Cynthia's cracked abdomen opened, emitting a laugh:

"This area has many abandoned mines... there are often explorers and treasure hunters inside."

Oliver understood what she meant, the tentacle eyeball shimmering with excited light: "Fresh prey."

"Yes." Cynthia's voice became lower and hungrier:

"Their lives... their pain and fear will all become our nourishment."

The body shared by the two began to wriggle toward the cave exit, leaving a trail of moist mucus.

As they wriggled, the mutated tissue on the cave walls seemed to sense something and stopped twitching.

(End of chapter)