Advanced Iron Grade Pranic Beast—Melcarp!
It had a Prana capacity of 880 and a lifespan of twenty years. Its biggest advantage was a maturity period of fourteen months.
In fourteen months since birth, a Melcarp was ready to mate. And as an Iron Grade Pranic Beast, its fertility rate was insane, capable of releasing close to two thousand eggs in one sitting.
"They are an invasive species due to their fertility rates." Kaikai explained, "We found this in a far away lake. There is no mineral in their bodies and in their daily lives, they cannot even use their Nature."
Primary Nature—Fertile Synthesis!
Similar to Clownfish on Earth, a Melcarp was born a male but could change into a female if the situation necessitated. This was indeed a necessity, as their Primary Nature remained dormant in their male forms.
When the Melcarp mates, and the female’s eggs are fertilised, only then does the Primary Nature activate.
Fertile Synthesis allows the female Melcarp to absorb sunlight through the head while the rest of the body absorbs nutrients from water. This is primarily turned into nutrition and stored in the eggs.
When the eggs are released, they float on the water, imbued with the power of Fertile Synthesis. For a few hours, these eggs absorb sunlight and nutrients from the water to grow in size.
When released, they were half the size of a grain of rice. In a matter of hours, when the power of Fertile Synthesis imbued in them waves, they would have reached thrice the size of a human fist.
Most of these eggs are consumed by the Melcarp, because both the males and females rely on it for nutrition. Fertile Synthesis only stores nutrition in the eggs.
The female Melcarp can only activate it after a successful mating session. And all the nutrition it absorbs in that time is funnelled straight into the eggs. Its body too requires nutrition, which it gets by consuming the eggs after they have grown enough in size.
The Melcarp race cannot cannibalise. As a result, they have to wait for the eggs to grow large enough before feasting on them. And they have to do this before the eggs hatch.
Enough eggs still manage to hatch, which eventually grow into adult Melcarps.
A stream of water flowed out of the vat and gathered into a sphere before Kaikai, who pointed at the eggs within them and said, "Right as they are released, if Mystic Mist Art is used on it while the egg is immersed in a water, it’ll create a Spirit Pool."
"The Spirit Pool is formed based on the mineral dissolved in the water." Kaikai explained, "Through the Melcarp, we have managed to gather all the Iron Grade Spirit Pools necessary for our cultivation."
"This process is limited to Iron Grade minerals alone." Kaikai explained, "For Silver Grade Spirit Pools, we have to torture Silver Grade Pranic Beasts. As a result, even with our best efforts, we have a scarce quantity of Silver Grade Spirit Pools."
"So most of the younger generation will only have Iron Grade strength?" Danhral asked.
"Unfortunately, yes." Kaikai nodded, "At most, the top students from each school are granted a Silver Grade Spirit Pool."
"How many Melcarp Nests do we have at the moment?" Wally asked.
"We have enough to satisfy the needs of the entire Cooter Clan population." Kaikai splashed the sphere of water back into the water, "They are extremely easy to raise and don’t require much resources. Just sea water is enough, so have been able to mass produce their numbers."
"We’ll do it like this then." Wally stared at the Empyrean Snappers to announce, "Our Iron Grade Spirit Pools will be produced from the Melcarp nests. All the Snappers will focus solely on producing Silver Grade Spirit Pools. And your respective Settlement Leaders will have Gold Grade strength."
Before the Empyrean Snappers could ask about how each of their Settlement Leaders could wield Gold Grade strength, Wally switched topics.
"Where do the Free Humans come into picture here?" He asked.
"We supply them Silver Grade minerals. Once they build their Human Avatars out of it, we use similar torture methods done on Silver Grade Pranic Beasts." Kaikai said, "When their Human avatar shatters, it mixes into their blood. But before it gets flushed out of their body, we use Mystic Mist Art and have succeeded in creating a Silver Grade Spirit Pool."
"The only problem with this method is that it takes a lot of time." Kaikai sighed, "They have to build their Human Avatars. It takes decades to fully build a Silver Grade Human Avatar. To quicken the process, we have to feed them High Grade Elixirs."
"The costs are exorbitant, which is why our Silver Grade Spirit Pools are limited." Whether to rear Silver Grade Pranic Beasts or Free Humans, a tremendous amount of resources was required. And in return, only a limited quantity of Silver Grade Spirit Pool was produced.
"Why haven’t you traded with the Quip Clan?" Wally expressed his confusion, "Our Clan’s medicines are insanely valued among all forces. Every single one of them can be sold for a premium. You can use the Prana Bombs given by the Quip Clan to take care of all energy needs, since every Prana Bomb stores a fluid worth a hundred units of Prana."
"We considered it many times." Kaikai nodded, "The Quip Clan has been approaching us to trade all the time."
"Then why?" Waly frowned.
"Because we were hesitant." Kaikai said tensely, "With our Deities gone and the Chief dead, the strongest among us only had Silver Grade strength. If we were to display our wealth and capability, many forces would try to raid us."
"They’ll do to us what we do to the Free Humans." Kaikai said, "To avoid that, we closed ourselves completely and prevented any information about the Cooter Clan from leaving the Tsloch Sea."
Even the Brimgan Empire would grow greedy at the sight of the Cooter Clan’s medicines, not to mention every other force in existence. With merely Silver Grade strength to guard their insane wealth, the Cooter Clan was a wealthy cash cow that was ripe for the picking, and extremely easy to do so.
"If you didn’t exist," Kaikai eyed Wally and then the Empyrean Snappers, "If the world thought all the Empyrean Snappers were dead..."
He sighed, "We would have already been enslaved by many forces."
The group boarded the ship that then sailed towards the headquarters. There was a series of mountains that formed the headquarters. They were the mountains carried on the backs of Empyrean Snappers.
They had been left behind once the Empyrean Snappers gained human forms. And now, the owners had returned, after many decades.
"They’re back!" The Cooter Clansmen rushed out in excitement, tearing up subconsciously as their cultivation techniques flared up automatically. "They’ve finally returned!"
"We apologise for our delays!" Wally announced and snapped his finger, at which Danhral moved away from everyone and unleashed a storm as he assumed Empyrean Snapper form and activated his Secondary Nature of Empyrean Mist Deity, "But we have now returned! Stronger!"
After decades of despair, the Cooter Clan needed hope. And showing the terrifying power of the Empyrean Mist Deity form instantly switched the mood of the Cooter Clansmen from desperation to jubilation.
"I promise everyone this!" Wally roared as one after another, the Empyrean Snappers assumed Empyrean Most Deity forms after turning into Pranic Beasts, "Soon! The Cooter Clan will reign at the top of Sumatra!"
Boom!
Every Empyrean Mist Deity had a powerful presence, significantly greater than an Empyrean Snapper. However, at the end of his speech, Wally released his presence, dark, chaotic, and extremely domineering.
The moment it was released, it was like the sky bent to his will. His presence dwarfed all the Empyrean Mist Deities, enough to cause them to tremble in absolute shock, for an instant.
Wally then retracted his presence, because if he had maintained it anymore, most of the Cooter Clansmen would have gone insane.
’An absolute monster!’ Danhral thought upon reverting to human form. His hand repeatedly patted his erratically thumping heart as the gaze he directed towards Wally was part respect, part awe, but most parts...
Fear!
Wally had been training in the Sandy-Grey Void, where he had to not only guard against the natural dangers of the region but also endure and recover from Transcendent influences. That trained his body, mind, and soul to withstand Transcendent influences and even counter them.
It was why his presence became dangerous, like a Transcendent’s.
Had Wally’s older brother, the Perfect Snapper, Wittral headed to train in the Sandy-Grey Void in the current situation, he would have simply died.
An Empyrean Snapper would eventually conquer the Sandy-Grey Void through Subtle Terrain Domination. And when it did, it would enter the Mystic Grade. However, it didn’t have the capability to do this while in the presence of Transcendent influence.
Wally could only do it because of two things: The Cooter Clan’s Major Treasure and the Minor Treasure he was born with.
Major Treasure—Spirit!
It fused the heart and had an extremely simple function—it allowed the user to harness all the Prana in their Spirit Container instantly.
Every cultivator had to accumulate Prana at a location on their body part from where they unleashed the effect of a Nature. Even the Celestial Boar, with infinite Prana generation, was no exception to this rule.
At present, the one with the fastest Prana accumulation characteristics on Sumatra was the Zinger Representative.
But with the Major Treasure of Spirit, irrespective of how much Prana Wally had, he could use all of it instantly. It was still a Spirit Container at the end of the day, and had the same issues that all Spirit Containers had.
If a cultivator faces enough stress, the Spirit Container will sustain damage or even shatter. The Major Treasure of Spirit didn’t strengthen the Spirit Container.
However, this was where its Influenced Region came into play.
Influenced Region—Teary-Eyed Snapper!
Wally had rebuilt his Spirit Container using the Teary-Eyed Snapper. It was as robust as the body of an Iron Transcendent. Therefore, irrespective of what type of shock Wally faces, his Spirit Container would never suffer a scratch, much less sustain damage.
The Teary-Eyed Snapper strengthened the mind aspect of his Spirit Container, increasing Wally’s natural defence mechanism granted by his Prana. This allowed him to recover from external influences faster and return to his natural state with greater potency.
The Major Treasure of Spirit also allowed Wally to assume the Spirit Weapon form of Cooter Clansmen where they turned into an orb and built a body of their Spirit Pool to fight.
And here, complementing his build was the greatest gift he was given, by his parents. It was what kept him as an Empyrean Snapper, preventing any mutations, despite suffering from Transcendent and even Cosmic Being influences.
Minor Treasure—Buoyant Disease!