780 Digestive Cloning
"I see, you've managed to capture a Celestial Boar body." Grehha muttered, his eyes twinkling in excitement as he stared at Inala, "Can you give me his stomach?"
"I can, but what do you need it for?" Inala asked, curious about what Grehha had planned. After all, since the very beginning, only Inala and Grehha had shared a similar thought process, intending to use versatility and swarm tactics to win against Brangara.
Due to their circumstances, Inala was forced to take an abundant number of risks, which also resulted in his growth spike. In contrast, Grehha lived a sheltered life in the Mammoth Clan, reducing his exposure and speed of growth. But at the end of the day, they were the ones whose thoughts were aligned on the same page. Grehha was the closest anyone in Sumatra got to being his friend.
"Isn't Brangara a Major Treasure?" Grehha asked, "And based on what you've found out, his stomach is the Major Treasure, right?"
"Yes," Inala nodded, "It is indeed a Major Treasure. Which is why only one of its kind can exist per body."
"I thought so," Grehha nodded, "But I don't need Astral World itself, you see. I simply need his stomach."
His eyes glinted as he stared at Inala to ask, "Tell me this…Inala. If you were to extract Astral World out of Brangara's body, how long would it remain a Major Treasure?"
"Hahaha!" Inala burst into laughter and bumped his fist lightly on Grehha's chest, "You're right. Since it's his Tertiary Nature, the moment Astral World is extracted out of his body, it becomes a mere Celestial Boar stomach, and the real Astral World forms in his body the moment his stomach finishes regenerating."
The entirety of the Celestial Boar's power was concentrated in his stomach—the Astral World. Based on what Inala figured out, even if Brangara's heart and brain were destroyed, and all Prana in his blood extracted, as long as Astral World exists, he'll revive.
"I only require that stomach of his," Grehha nodded and pointed at the Minor Treasure of Corporeal Mixer nearby, "Do you know what I intend to achieve through this?"
"A mutation of sorts, I guess?" Inala assumed as he stared at the Minor Treasure, "Though I'm not sure exactly what kind of mutation you're expecting here."
"Originally, I would be obtaining it in around two decades. That was my plan. But since things have changed too much, help me accelerate the process." Grehha asked, "The Celestial Boar's stomach is exactly what I require to hasten my build."
"Alright, give me a few minutes." Inala threw a Biome Bomb towards Grehha and vanished, stunning the latter. A few minutes later, he returned, carrying with him a new batch of Biome Bombs, contained in each was a Celestial Boar's stomach.
Grehha touched a Biome Bomb and trembled upon feeling the suffocating presence emanating it, enough to condense a faint image of a voracious mouth around it.
Grehha picked up one of the Biome Bombs and spoke, "The Celestial Boar is even greater than the Empyrean Boar King when it comes to consuming things and digesting. And such digestion capabilities are exactly what constitutionalises the foundation of Mystic Bone Art."
"The Minor Treasure of Corporeal Mixer was born out of a Mammoth Clansman." Grehha as he enveloped the Biome Bomb with an Empyrean Incubator, asking Inala to remove the Biome Bomb.
Once it had been removed, he immersed the Empyrean Incubator in the blood sea, watching it rapidly absorb the Prana collected in the blood and infuse Empyrean Tusk essence into the Celestial Boar stomach.
While doing so, he activated Mystic Bone Art, surprising Inala as the pillar of light emitted by the Minor Treasure gradually bent in response before funnelling into the Empyrean Incubator.
"How are you doing this?" Inala expressed his shock before he figured out the cause, 'It's exactly what I've done with the Royal Zinger genes for the Quip Clan.'
Mystic Royal Art was capable of accumulating Royal Zinger genes in the bodies of Quip Clansmen as they cultivate over time. And the greater the Royal Zinger gene accumulation, the stronger they would become.
Moreover, by using the Nectar procured from the Influenced Region of Sanctuary, he accelerated the acquisition of Royal Zinger genes, thereby allowing the Quip Clansmen to evolve to higher grades at a faster pace.
However, Mystic Royal Art in itself was derived from Mystic Bone Art and other cultivation techniques that Inala had acquired the knowledge of. Both Mystic Bone Art and Mystic Mist Art had a certain characteristic that manifested once the Clansman's gene accumulation had reached a certain level.
For the Mammoth Clansmen, it was the Fragment Disease. And for the Cooter Clansmen, it was the Buoyant Disease.
For a Mammoth Clansman, living with the Fragment Disease was no different from getting a dead sentence. After all, at the slightest exertion, their bones would shatter. However, this phenomenon happened only because they had enough genes to become an Empyrean Tusk but remained a human.
It was why when the Mystic Seven obtained Internal Inertial Gravity, their Fragment Disease was cured, which was also why Yennda's body remained brittle, for he never cured it until now.
"But brittle bones are the characteristic of an Empyrean Tusk. And when this is combined with Internal Inertial Gravity, you obtain the toughest material on all of Sumatra." Grehha smiled as he tapped himself, "I currently possess seventeen times the Empyrean Tusk genes I was born with."
Grehha grinned, "There's enough Empyrean Tusk essence in me that I can have four children who are Empyrean Tusks without crippling myself."
"You…have the Fragment Disease?" Inala muttered as he observed Grehha, feeling faint crunching sounds from the latter's body.
"Yes," Grehha smiled, "It has reached a point where even Internal Inertial Gravity cannot handle it completely, which is exactly what I want. Even though my physical body is weaker than when we were in the Spirit Stage, it allows me to do this…"
The pillar of light from the Minor Treasure of Corporeal Mixer bent around him like a serpent, heeding his will, "My control over Mystic Bone Art has exceeded even Resha. Did you know this, Inala? Even Resha hasn't fully explored the possibilities present in Mystic Bone Art."
It was conceptualised out of the characteristics of an Empyrean Tusk. And the greater the Empyrean Tusk's characteristics, the stronger the effect of Mystic Bone Art. Since Corporeal Mixer was created out of a Mammoth Clansman, Grehha was able to influence it through Mystic Bone Art.
"Just watch me, Inala." Grehha smiled as the pillar of light continued to seep into the Empyrean Incubator, making changes to the stomach within, "My build takes a lot of time to show its effects. But it's perfect."
Grehha grabbed the Biome Bomb with the Celestial Boar's blood from Inala and dumped it into the blood sea, watching the Pranic Beasts there become high in response, intoxicated by the sheer quality of the blood.
Under his orders, they worked as intended, resulting in the Spirit Moss on the walls growing richer in quality, the changes visible to the naked eye. A few hours later, the Celestial Boar stomach had vanished within the Empyrean Incubator, replaced by a small, ivory stomach.
It continued to drink the Empyrean Tusk essence funnelling into it nonstop alongside the pillar of light unleashed by the Minor Treasure of Corporeal Mixer, constantly mutating in response until it resembled the stomach of an Empyrean Tusk.
The moment it reached that point, Grehha poured his Prana into it, using it to regenerate the organ. From the stomach outgrew the food pipe at the top, and the small intestine at the bottom. Gradually, the entire digestive system appeared.
Thump! Thump!
A heart began to thump the moment it had formed, gradually developing everything else that happened to a baby in a womb. In a few hours, a small baby had appeared, gradually growing in size. It completed the growth a human baby—achieved through nine months in the womb—in nine hours.
Boom!
Grehha's body burst suddenly as the Empyrean Incubator cracked open, revealing the baby that was gently carried by a Pranic Beast that jutted out of the blood sea and presented to Inala.
[This is a new me!]
The pillar of light emitted by the Minor Treasure of Corporeal Mixer curved around in the air to form a set of words. The Pranic Beast carrying the baby dripped a few droplets of blood into its mouth, little by little.
As the baby drank the drops, a powerful presence emanated from it, having activated Mystic Bone Art.
Ingestion! Digestion! Absorption! Assimilation! Ejection!
The five processes repeated in a cycle, at a rapid pace as the baby began to grow quickly, aging by a year every hour. A day later, the process ended as a young Grehha stood before Inala, muttering with an elated expression, "The Celestial Boar's body is a panacea. I've never finished this process so damn quickly."
Expert Silver Grade Pranic Beast—Empyrean Viper!
Primary Nature—Spirit Bone!
Secondary Nature—Internal Inertial Gravity!
Tertiary Nature—Empyrean Incubator!
'That was his original build.' Inala recalled Grehha's initial information, frowning upon observing no change in the latter, "Why are you the same? I thought you were about to change into a new form."
"If something isn't broken, don't fix it." Grehha chuckled, "When you woke me up, I was in the process of rebuilding a new body, so my Natures got messed up. I've simply stabilised myself now."
His Empyrean Incubator was pretty much created out of the Supreme Tusk Gannala's womb. And all Grehha did was basically close himself by taking advantage of the Life Stage.
All the bodies of a cultivator in the Life Stage, if within Spirit Weapon range, would synchronise with each other. By taking advantage of this process, Grehha cloned himself using the Empyrean Incubator and destroyed the old body right as the minds of the two synchronised with each other.
"Before you get disappointed, remember that I'm not going to fight Brangara like this." Grehha patted himself and created another Empyrean Incubator, repeating the previous process by placing a Celestial Boar stomach in it.
"Well, truth be told, I don't intend to fight him head-on. My only goal is to assist Resha. So," Grehha pointed at his Empyrean Incubator, "I need to clone myself multiple times with minimal genetic variations each time until I obtain my final result."
"Here, catch." Grehha called out as he threw a piece of bone at Inala, muttering right as the latter was about to catch it, "Watch out…it's kinda heavy."
"What the…?" Right as Inala was about to question Grehha, his hands caught the piece of bone, grunting as he was pulled to the ground due to its sheer weight, watching his fingers get crushed as they slammed into the ground.
'I might be in my human form, but it's the human form when I'm at the Mystic Grade. Moreover, the damaged portion is my fingers, which is where I'm at my toughest.' Inala alternated his gaze between the piece of bone and Grehha, asking a few seconds later, "Did you use…Internal Inertial Gravity?"
"What else?" Grehha laughed.
"This density is beyond what Internal Inertial Gravity can create. Maybe if it's at the Mystic Grade…" Inala stopped smiling, watching Grehha's smile widen in glee upon hearing his words. "Don't tell me…"
"My every cloning attempt is an extreme situation where I'm causing my Natures to adapt to my ever-growing Empyrean Tusk genetics." Grehha winked, "And you do know how Mystic Bone Art gives us the greatest possibilities for a mutation due to its digestion capabilities in an extreme state."
"You see…" Grehha let out a long breath as he stared at the Gold Grade Pranic Beasts around him, "When I read Sumatra Chronicles, what enamoured me the most, even beyond this incredibly terrifying but grand world was these majestic beings known as the Empyrean Tusks."
He joined his hands in prayer, expressing his awe, "There will come a point in the future where multiple Expert Gold Grade Pranic Beasts exist, including even Mystic Grade Pranic beasts. However, one thing will never change."
"On Sumatra, only two races are worthy enough to be worshipped as Deities."