"You're not lying to me or anything, right, Resha?" Grehha frowned as he stood inside a wobbling house's living room and stared at the figure of Resha calmly seated on a sofa, alongside Yahira. "Will the Chief give me the Minor Treasure of Corporeal Mixer if I were to support you?"
"I'm neither proposing an alliance nor asking you to support me." Resha said nonchalantly, staring Grehha right in the eye, "I know what you want. The same goes for the remaining five."
"It's a mere transaction, nothing more, nothing less." Resha said, "Oh indeed, you'll obtain Corporeal Mixer when you accept this job."
"How long do I need to assist you in this role?" Grehha asked, "I won't be able to dedicate all my time to this, you know. I still need to work towards my own development."
"Eight hours a day, for as long as I desire." Resha stated the terms, "It may be done in a year, a decade, or many decades. But once you accept it, you'll need to see through it to the end. Otherwise, the Minor Treasure of Corporeal Mixer would be confiscated from you."
'Eight hours a day, that's a lot of time. But,' Grehha analysed the pros and cons, 'With Corporeal Mixer, I can digest food and Parute Fruits to replenish my Prana at a faster pace. With the aid of Internal Inertial Gravity, my recovery would reach new heights. It'll help me since I need a voracious amount of Prana for my development.'
Grehha's growth was directly related to how Prana he could use through his Tertiary Nature. Hence, he was limited by his Prana replenishment capacity. Moreover, when Resha and others selected a Minor Treasure from the Mammoth Treasury, Grehha refrained from doing so.
It was simply because he couldn't find a suitable one there. There were a lot of good ones there, but none fell in line with his expectations. While he was worrying about it, Resha approached him to strike a deal.
By refraining from picking a Minor Treasure now, Grehha could accumulate his contributions to eventually aim for the top three Minor Treasures in the Mammoth Treasury.
Since Resha took the Spectral Eyes Minor Treasure, that left the Minor Treasures of Extreme Sensitivity and Corporeal Mixer. Upon hearing their details, Grehha became interested in the latter.
But it wasn't easy for Grehha to get the clearance necessary to lay claim to the Minor Treasure of Corporeal Mixer. With Resha's convincing, Raaha finally accepted the proposition, which took effect today.
"I'll do it," Grehha said, his tone firm, understanding that his growth would be faster than present even if he ended up wasting eight hours every day on Resha.
"You can head to the 1st Settlement three days later and claim the Minor Treasure." Resha said and then pointed at the nearby room, "Now, put your Empyrean Incubator there. I want to use it."
"What about her?" Grehha stared at the figure of Yahira who hadn't uttered a word until now. She remained still like a statue, eyes closed, her breathing subtle.
"She'll be staying here to keep a watch on you," Resha smirked.
'Dammit!' Grehha cursed mentally in response, knowing that Resha didn't trust him enough to expose a vulnerable side to him. The moment Grehha tries anything towards Resha, no matter how minor, Yahira would strike him down.
Not for a moment did Grehha think Yahira would hesitate. No, this woman had stabbed even Resha, her most beloved multiple times in Sumatra Chronicles. She definitely had a few screws loose in her head.
'I have no reason to sabotage him, since that would end up crippling my growth too. But still,' Grehha sighed in realisation, 'Resha isn't taking chances anymore.'
"Say," Grehha stared at Resha, "When will you be ready to face the Boar King?"
"Once I succeed." Saying so, Resha entered the nearby room and sat in the centre, watching the walls turn green as Grehha layered it with his Empyrean Incubator.
Minor Treasure—Spectral Eyes!
Resha observed a turbulent stream of Prana exit Grehha and flow into the Empyrean Incubator, causing the latter to consume it voraciously. Following that, gentle streams of energy filled the interior of the Empyrean Incubator.
To the normal cultivator, the space in the Empyrean Incubator would have appeared empty. But to him, it was filled with greyish-green energy, emanating the same energy levels that Mammoth Clansmen with the Fragment Disease emitted.
Basically, this was the essence of an Empyrean Tusk!
The Empyrean Incubator was capable of generating the essence of an Empyrean Tusk, which was something the Supreme Tusk Gannala had been preparing all her life, to create a path that allowed the Mammoth Clan to develop without limits.
If any Pranic Beast were to soak into this Empyrean Incubator for enough time, it would develop the characteristics of an Empyrean Tusk. Of course, this wasn't possible within a single generation. But for Iron Grade Pranic Beasts with insane fertility and short maturity periods, it wasn't an issue.
This was why Grehha selected a Mud Viper, for it was the perfect fit for his abilities. By imbuing the Empyrean Tusk's essence into Mud Vipers, generation after generation, Grehha created the Empyrean Viper race.
The Empyrean Viper was a Mutated Expert Silver Grade Pranic Beast, with its Secondary Nature being Internal Inertial Gravity. Only after the egg it was in had reached such a level of development did Grehha fuse with it.
His path was very stable, for he could take his time developing things to his favour.
'I understand his abilities better now.' Resha thought as he began to absorb the Empyrean Tusk essence, watching his Primary Nature flare up in response. He closed his eyes and meditated, falling into a trance.
Using the ambient Empyrean Tusk essence, he activated Mystic Bone Art to the limit, bombarding the final level of the cultivation technique that represented the Transcendent Stage.
By the end of his previous life, Resha was at the 2-Life Stage. Hence, he had already locked the first three levels of Mystic Bone Art and was already a great deal into unlocking the final level. He had obtained enough fortuitous encounters that he was just a sliver away from attaining it.
And now, by gathering the Empyrean Tusk essence, he bombarded the thin filament that existed between the third and fourth levels of Mystic Bone Art. It had already been beaten and battered by the end of his previous life.
Once he started attacking with the Empyrean Tusk's essence, the filament dissolved, for Empyrean Tusks ought to know all four levels of Mystic Bone Art from the beginning. The essence only strengthened his abilities as an Empyrean Tusk and granted him full access to Mystic Bone Art.
Boom!
A torrent of Prana billowed out of Resha, unleashing enough pressure that the air around him ionised.
"Keuk!" Grehha grunted and increased the Prana supply to his Empyrean Incubator, trying to contain the volcanic energy from spilling out.
'Amazing! This is an Empyrean Tusk.' Yahira's eyes shot open as she stared at Resha admiringly, 'Deity husband is the best!'
A torrent of information appeared in his mind right as the filament broke down. The volume of information would have shattered the brains of Inala and Grehha. But for Resha, with his mind developed to the level of an Empyrean Tusk, this was nothing.
In a matter of hours, he finished digesting everything regarding the Transcendence Stage, 'So that's what it means to be a Transcendent.'
He then stared at a cup hovering before him in his mind space, covered by mysterious symbols laden with information, dense to the extent that even he felt his head spin upon staring at them.
Resha calmly observed the cup and smiled in realisation, 'You are truly one of a kind, Gannala.'
'So this is the Mystic Path.'