Born in Blood



As Darius King, Liam hadn't been able to experiment or experience a proper school life.

All he knew was that little square, moldy room.

But now, things were different. 

Now, Liam could experiment all he wanted. He also ate his fill every night. He also wasn't afraid.

And truth be told, he definitely enjoyed the experiments.

But instead of opening up a frog and dissecting it, he opened up humans!

How fun!

But much more complicated.

Liam had to accomplish several things to perfect the experiments.

One, was to extract the mental sphere.

This was the most important step.

In truth, the Triumvirate Body wasn't just a single, whole technique.

It was a series of techniques rolled into one. 

For the mental sphere, Liam had worked on a technique called Mind Isolation.

It was basically a way to isolate the barrier of the mind and 'store' it.

By far, this was the most difficult process that Liam faced in his life.

Even more arduous than the Struggle Tribulation.

For one, the mental sphere was extremely sensitive when exposed and unprotected by the skull.

Liam used inscribed tools that cut into the test subject's mind – revealing the brain without causing pain or killing them immediately.

That exposed the mental sphere enough for a much more thorough inspection.

But it also made it very delicate and hard to manipulate.

All Mind Isolation did was connect Liam's mind to the subjects, using mental waves as a medium.

It was basically like plugging a cord into the mind, like how a headphone jack connects to a device.

This was why the mental spheres cracked one after the other.

It was the most important stage, because without it, the other two wouldn't work at all.

On Subject No. 34, Liam had succeeded momentarily.

And the results he found were just amazing.

The sea of consciousness was basically the mind and intelligence of a cultivator.

It contained countless memories, emotions, life experiences and more.

What Liam learned was, the barrier walls themselves were what held those things.

Although it was translucent, it was filled with an endless sea of 'raw data'.

When Liam plugged his mind into it, he felt fragments of that 'data' entering his brain!

But none of it was actually coherent and understandable. As though it was encrypted.

Right now, Liam couldn't do much with such a realization.

All he needed for the moment was finding a way to safely transfer the mind into his mold.

But one day, that would no doubt prove an extremely useful ability.

After all, if Liam could manipulate his mind, couldn't he just make it so he didn't feel pain?

Life would get so much easier if he did.

Secondly, what Liam needed to do right after was roll all the strength of a cultivator and condense it into a specific shape.

Sort of like a filling.

Liam called this Body Integration.

But Liam had no clue how to do that.

But Egg was the key.

A week and a half passed.

And Liam actually made a shocking discovery.

His Transfiguration could be used on other people!

Well, only if he invaded the person's blood with his own and transformed it from within, but still.

All he could do was barely manipulate the surface of the subject's skin.

He also needed to maintain physical contact with that person in order for it to work.

Through this, Body Condensation was much easier.

'If my Blood ranks up, maybe I can even use Expel and Admit on other people.'

Liam chuckled under his breath.

Making people explode on touch sounded too amazing.

Finally, there was the remaining transfer of his centers of power.

His Chaos Pearl and core.

For this, Liam had to get his hands dirty.

Well… just the hand.

The other arm hadn't grown yet, but it was healing by the micrometer.

Nonetheless, this was the third aspect of the Triumvirate Body:

True Transfer.

This was the last and final stage of Liam's Triumvirate Body, but just as important as the rest.

The name was self explanatory. 

Liam needed to Transfer his sea of consciousness, his bodily strength and both his core, and Chaos Pearl.

All of this depended on the help of his Elders and the Unforgiven, and Liam had already spread the techniques to Jax, Orisa, Jane, Verium and Aki.

Meanwhile, as Liam was drowning in his work, Jargon and a few other Shadows had actually found another Shifter!

They put the new Shifter right beside Egg.

Hostile at first, the two instantly got to know each other!

In reality, Egg was a male.

And Yolk – the new Shifter Octopus – was a female!

The two instantly connected with each other!

Yolk helped Egg get over his trauma of being knocked out over and over.

And Egg protected Yolk from suffering the same fate from that pesky human.

And from the two, a hundred different octopus eggs were born!

When Liam visited Egg's cage, he let out a slow curse of confusion.

So many octopi!

All of them squirmed together like countless little worms, wriggling over each other and forming a small hill of Rank 1 octopi.

They were just a few inches in length and width. One could call them cute.

Yolk looked at Liam with hostility in her eight eyes, clearly protective of her spawn.

But Egg stood in front of her and almost… 'pleaded'?

Liam furrowed his brows in confusion.

What exactly happened here?

And why the heck did Egg and Yolk look like husband and wife?!

But Liam ordered for all of them to be fed and well taken care of.

Another significant hurdle was cleared away!

With so many tries, Liam could finally get rough with the octopi.

Hopefully they wouldn't rebel.

***

53 test subjects.

Done and dusted.

Liam wasn't able to get all the results he wanted, but he was extremely satisfied with his findings.

'Revel must have felt the same way when practicing on other humans.'

Liam paused, then shrugged.

'It's enjoyable.'

2 weeks were over.

It was time to claim the fruit.