"Wow!"
"Amazing!"
"Look at that turn!" A group of children exclaimed as Inala in his Stage 2 Partial Transformation of Wing made complex turns and went through all the hoops with perfection.
"No, you guys keep practicing." Inala said upon landing before the group of excited children, "I have to talk with your instructor a bit here."
"Okay!" The children turned into Quip Zingers and resumed practice.
Staring at Kenzar, Inala asked, "How many Life Bombs have the Zinger Queens created?"
"Three million." Kenzar said, "We have only been supplying them with limited Prana as our focus was on other fields."
"It's a decent number for now." Inala nodded, "Begin preparations to transport them to the Dieng Canyon."
"But isn't it too soon?" Kenzar asked in a hurry, surprised by the command, "Wasn't the plan to accumulate five million first before making the trip?"
"There's a chance we'll have to go to war early. So, it's of importance we don't allow the Dieng Canyon's numbers to fall." Inala said, "I'll increase the resources allocated to them. Ramp up the production."
"I'll get on to it immediately." Kenzar saluted and began to make the necessary preparations. They were already given plenty of Gold Biome Bombs to store the Life Bombs and transport them.
The ones making the journey will be the Homing Satellites that Kenzar had created until now, shaped into a fish and created using a body of water. The water wasn't compressed as much as the Attributed Region, for accumulating the amounts necessary for it will take too long.
Instead, it was made by taking advantage of the compressed water at the bottommost point of the ocean in the Ravaged Federation, which was easily accessible. As a result, the Prana condensed into water within the Homing Satellites had the same pressure as the water at the bottommost point. As a result, these Homing Satellites were strong enough to face Silver Grade Pranic Beasts.
And since he would be sending around two hundred of them, there would be no problems with the transportation. By now, they had already identified the stream of water leaving from the Ravaged Federation that would join with a water body closest to the Dieng Canyon.
Kenzar had made the trip personally and finalised a route to the Dieng Canyon, having left some of his Homing Satellites along the way for protection. As bodies made of water, these Homing Satellites camouflaged themselves in water bodies, avoiding detection.
In their deactivated states, they didn't expend or emit any Prana. Only when activated using a key—a specific Zinger Shriek—would they move around. Kenzar intended to visit the Dieng Canyon in the future and leave Homing Satellites for each elevated plateau.
He could condense Prana within the Homing Satellites into terrain matching the Dieng Canyon's, hence perfectly camouflaging them with their surroundings. They'd take action only when the Dieng Canyon is dangerous.
At the end of the day, the Ravaged Federation was merely a resource collection spot for the Quip Clan. Their home was the Dieng Canyon, and hence plans were being made to shift base eventually. There was still close to a decade for that to happen.
However, Inala brought the plan forward, not knowing the variables resulting from Orakha and Virala discovering the route to the Ravaged Federation. Hence, he started the plan to shift bases already. And to begin that, the Dieng Canyon must be strengthened first.
The three Zinger Queens and the three Empyrean Zinger Queens were in Inala's custody. Without them, it was impossible to replenish the population of Zingers at the Dieng Canyon. To avoid Brangara killing them and obtaining their power, he kept them by his side.
For the past decade, the population of the Zinger was slowly declining due to deaths they faced while attacking the travellers frequenting the region. Due to their sheer numbers, this drop in population wasn't much.
However, they hadn't been replenished by newborns for a decade already. If there's too much gap, it'll be hard for the new Zingers to accustom to the place and learn the ways of their predecessors.
Originally, Inala wanted to bring the Life Bombs alongside the Quip Zingers to the Dieng Canyon. But now, he planned to send the Life Bombs first, since the Quip Zingers were still training at the Quip Clan Settlement.
They had yet to inherit the full capabilities of their race, especially the Tertiary Nature that Inala had finalised upon, which he too would possess.
After giving orders to Kenzar, Inala exited the Quip Clan Settlement and arrived at his spot that was within line of sight from the Biome Lattice. Placed there was a cluster of Biome Bombs of various grades, containing all the stuff that he had made or accumulated over the years.
Of them, there existed a Gold Biome Bomb filled to the brim with Nectar. He had been farming them from the Comb without issues. After all, through his experimentations, Inala managed to form a new route from the Comb that led into the Quip Clan Settlement.
The ones entering through this path were Biome Bombs, armed with Skills that Inala had created just for this task. The Skills had no practical value, but when the Comb detected their entry, they were matched against each other.
After all, the chances of them killing each other was a hundred percent. If both the fighters were at the same Grade and had a hundred percent chance of killing each other, the Comb would pit them against each other.
Upon figuring this out, Inala turned his Biome Bombs into perfect opponents of each other. Through the wealth of Keys he had amassed from the Phells dying to the Biome Lattice, Inala equipped them onto the Biome Bombs and sent them into the Comb.
One of the Biome Bombs would cut off the Key from itself immediately upon entry, allowing the Comb to judge that the battle had ended. The Keys fused with the skeleton of the person. As Gold Biome Bombs, they were able to condense bones within.
Inala experimented with the process until he found the combination of bone material that the Comb judged as a skeleton for a living being. Once in a chamber, the Biome Bomb would simply spit out this bone part, after purposefully making it decay.
This fooled the Comb into thinking that the battle had ended. Once it condenses a droplet of Nectar within the hexagon chamber, one of the Biome Bombs will grab it. The two Biome Bombs would then link themselves and morph their presence into unison, allowing the Comb to judge them as a singular entity.
They would then return.
In this process, Inala was farming Nectar with a negligible Prana expenditure. Around a thousand Gold Biome Bombs were used for the task, with their numbers increasing steadily as Inala's understanding of the Comb deepened.
In the future, Inala would refine this Nectar alongside a pile of his Silver Grade Royal Zinger corpses into a substance termed the Royal Elixir, which had the same effect as a Quip Clansman consuming Inala's corpse and drinking Nectar.
As the Quip Clansmen were still in their growing period, accustoming to their techniques, Inala hadn't refined too much Royal Elixir. He inspected the respective Biome Bomb and judged that there was still enough available.
He focused and condensed two Mystic Biome Bombs, connecting them to form an hourglass. He entered the upper half of the hourglass while causing its lower half to extend strings of Prana and form tunnels. One of the tunnels connected with the Biome Bomb carrying the Nectar.
Inala grabbed a Sumatra Gold dangling in the Biome Bomb at his hip and threw it into the narrow section of the hourglass, watching it fall into the lower half. At his will, a second tunnel extended from the lower half and came in contact with a glowing orb—a Biome Bomb containing a Bolt of Transcendence.
"There's enough resources." Inala mentally tallied the quantity of Nectar he had, the number of orbs in his possession, and finally, the Prana reserves in the Biome Lattice. Upon connecting the transmission lines leading from the Biome Lattice into the hourglass, Inala now had enough Prana to draw upon.
He expended Prana from his body, crossing the usage limit as his strength fell sharply, stabilising once he was at the Expert Silver Grade. Immediately in response, he felt relief, no longer feeling as strong an ego as before.
The OCD he experienced due to the library of information from the Brimgan Founder too subsided until it wasn't an issue anymore. At the Silver Grade, his brain's capability was similar to a Free Human. Due to the limited thought and processing capacity, the brain naturally shut down unnecessary thinking, which worked in his favour.
Secondary Nature—Perfect Biome Domination!
Inala absorbed the influx of Prana, accumulating enough in his Spirit Container until he condensed a second body, entering the 2-Life Stage. He had done this process enough times to become accustomed to it.
To the current him, entering the 2-Life Stage was child's play, something he could do even in his sleep.
The moment it was condensed, Inala split off the second body and kicked it into the narrow section of the hourglass. Once the body arrived at the lower half of the hourglass, he used Perfect Biome Domination to gradually assimilate the Sumatra Gold into the second body's Spirit Container.
Right as the process concluded, Nectar poured into the mouth, forcing its way down the throat. Immediately after that, a Bolt of Transcendence sparked through the head, killing the second body. It retained most of its power, only consuming a small amount.
The Bolt of Transcendence circulated through the body once, vaporising everything, the flesh, and the Nectar within the stomach. It circled within the lower half of the hourglass once, carrying with it the fusion between the genes of the corpse and the Nectar. It slammed into the Sumatra gold and became one with it.
Gong!
The Sumatra Gold whirred and produced a strong presence, one that died out a few seconds later. After resting a little, Inala kicked down another body of his. And once the body consumed Nectar until its stomach was about to burst, a second Bolt of Transcendence vaporised it.
The fusion from the trio was carried in the remaining power of the Bolt of Transcendence as it slammed into the Sumatra Gold.
Inala repeated the process, starting with fusing the changing piece of Sumatra Gold into the body's Spirit Container.
He was attempting a failed entry into the Transcendence Stage. A normal cultivator would have to reach the 10-Life Stage first before gaining the qualifications to enter the Transcendence Stage. Bolts of Transcendence would be summoned upon them, one that would begin fusing their stack of ten bodies into one.
If they succeed, they'll become a Transcendent. But if they fail, they'll be vaporised fully. However, if they half succeed, they'll become a Minor Treasure or Major Treasure depending on their Grade.
Ten bodies need to fuse into one through the Bolts of Transcendence. That was the condition. Inala was doing the same here, just not at once.
Each body of his was undergoing the process, with its accumulations stored in the Sumatra Gold. He split off the process into stages and through the Nectar, maintained the power of the individual bodies.
This way, the end result would be no different from him half succeeding, creating a Minor Treasure. However, it was easier said than done.
In the Life Stage, the slightest imperfection among the bodies will become more pronounced the greater the stack, resulting in an implosion. Through Perfect Biome Domination, Inala was stacking the nectar-fused accumulations of each body, stacking them within the Sumatra Gold.
But as this was his first attempt, his control over Perfect Biome Domination in the stacking process wasn't precise enough once six bodies had been fused into the Sumatra Gold.
With a spark of presence, the Sumatra Gold exploded, producing sparking particles of sand similar to fragments of destroyed Minor Treasures.
"It's a failure." Inala sighed as he used Perfect Biome Domination in the lower half of the hourglass, causing the dispersed power of the Sumatra Gold to condense back into a piece. But everything that he had fused into it was gone now.
"Haah!" He gasped in exhaustion, slumping on the floor to sleep. Once he woke up, he observed the quantity of Nectar remaining and the number of orbs in his arsenal. After a moment of calculation, he firmed himself. Upon inspecting his condition and judging it to be optimal, he began the process once again, 'I need to hit a stack of ten and succeed. And I need to be specific with my purpose, otherwise the Minor Treasure will be something unnecessary.'
Taking in a deep breath, he absorbed Prana through the transmission line leading from the Biome Lattice, condensed a second body, and kicked it down into the lower half of the hourglass.