Arthur had a goal, and he was determined to succeed at all costs, so he was not willing to stop for anything. Not even pain could stop him now.
With his mind made up, he said to himself, "It is all or nothing now."
He gained access to the life seed just beneath and beside his heart. The life seed was green, not red like Roar's, because he had created his life seed with the energy refining path and wood element.
There were many large and small vessels and connective tissues that connected the life seed to his heart, lungs, internal organs, muscles, and even bones. All of them were green and bright.
The sight of his internal organs mesmerized him a little bit. But he didn't forget what he was doing. So he quickly lifted the artificial wonder with his bloody hands and held it close to his life seed.
After doing this, he began to circulate the Life and Death Lightning Art. This was the special technique that only those who had cultivated both the Divine Lightning Armament and the Everlasting Wood Art could use.
Elder Storm Hawk had given him the cultivation technique. The technique was basically the Everlasting Wood Art with some modifications. The addition was to harmonize the lightning element with the wood element.
So the Life and Death Lightning Art isn't a cultivation technique on its own. Only with a special foundation that fuses lightning and wood can it become a cultivation technique.
Even then, the power of cultivation will be based on the foundation, not the technique, because the Life and Death Lightning Art is a means of guidance, not power.
As he began using the technique, his life seed and the lightning mark in his mind began vibrating and resonating. As they did, they formed a line of force between them.
This line of force strengthened itself over time. As it did, his eyes began to glow a blue color. The intensity of the glow increased slowly but surely as time went by.
After six minutes of using the technique, the line of force connecting his life seed and the mark of lightning had reached its peak. His eyes had also become as bright as torches.
With the line of force reaching its peak, it was able to sense another connection between wood and lightning nearby. The source of this connection was the rank 3 armament that he had made.
The artificial wonder had both the wood element and the mark of lightning working in harmony. So the artificial element began resonating with the mark of lightning in his mind and the life seed in his body.
Soon, two more lines of force were formed. These new lines of force were between the mark of lightning in his mind and the artificial wonder and between the artificial wonder and the life seed in his body.
Just like the first line of force, these two new lines of force also began to strengthen themselves after establishing a connection. This caused the energy drain from Arthur to triple.
But the energy drain didn't stop there. It increased further because the artificial wonder was a powerful rank 3 object. The artificial wonder was putting a lot of stress on him mentally and physically.
Because of this stress, his mental and life energy began to be drained quickly. Fortunately, he had taken life essence and energy pills, so he could withstand and sustain the energy expenditure for a long time.
As the three lines of force used his energy to strengthen themselves, the artificial wonder began to glow brightly. The breathing of the artificial wonder also began to change.
The different layers within the artificial wonder began to synchronize with his mind and life force, so they began to unite in their inhalation and exhalation of mana. This turned the chaotic flow of mana around the artificial wonder, and it began to become orderly.
This was a sign that the artificial wonder was slowly aligning with his existence. With each progress in the alignment, the rejection reaction between his life seed and this external object will slowly be reduced.
This stage of alignment is the most important stage in establishing a foundation because it will determine the success or failure of the endeavor. The rate of alignment will also determine the quality of the foundation that will be established.
For most people this process can take a day or even five days before the alignment reaches an acceptable stage and then the fusion becomes successful. For the failures, the alignment never reaches the successful stage, so the fusion will fail and they will die.
This was the case when people needed to only fuse with one element, so they only had one to make a connection with their artificial wonder and strengthen a single line of force.
Since he had three lines of force to deal with, he expected to wait for three days before he could move on to the next stage. But it turned out that he didn't need to wait that long.
He didn't need to withstand the energy drain for a long time like he expected. In just a little over an hour, the artificial wonder was ready for fusion.
This was because the compatibility between him and the artificial wonder was very high, and the artificial wonder was also a top-grade artifact with immense efficiency.
These two factors ensured that there was very little rejection reaction in the first place. And the little rejection reaction was quickly eliminated thanks to the high efficiency and compatibility.
In total, he had spent about one hour and ten minutes since he began the process of establishing his foundation. By this time, the three lines of force had reached their peak, and the blue glow of his eyes was brightening and ebbing in sync with the artificial wonder.
This told him that he was ready for the fusion. So he let the artificial wonder finally touch his life seed.