Beyond the Adventurer's Advanced Supply Camp, Gaia had other plans. However, Greenland had very few usable people, and Gaia couldn't find anyone to assist her for the time being.
Returning to her room, Gaia retrieved the alchemical syringe purchased in Modo and opened a wooden box beside her bed. Inside lay a leaf from the Bloodthirsty Nightmare Orchid. Though several days had passed, the leaf remained fresh, still emitting faint, alluring starlight.
After a moment's thought, Gaia fetched a stone pestle used for mashing potatoes. She chopped the leaf into pieces and tossed them into a bowl—once detached from the stem, the leaf became extremely fragile. Gaia carefully mashed the fragments into a paste, diluted it with water, and filtered it through gauze. The result was a bottle of green liquid, faintly glowing with starlight.
Gaia filled an alchemical syringe with the liquid, closed her eyes, and offered a silent prayer.
Though most in the Abyss crafted mana conduits from the bodily fluids of magical beasts, Gaia lacked the means to capture powerful creatures. Conduits made from weaker beasts proved utterly useless. The moment she picked up this leaf, she'd resolved to take a gamble.
Having become an Infinite Devouring Body, according to Hoganberg's theory, he should be able to assimilate any external substance. Thus, using a plant to create a magic energy medium seemed perfectly plausible.
The harsh conditions of Greenland made him desperate to grow stronger. The helplessness of lacking self-defense capabilities was unbearably tragic. He could not allow himself to remain this way.
The alchemical syringe pierced the vein in his left arm, and the pale green magical energy medium slowly injected into his bloodstream. As it flowed through his veins, they turned a deep, inky green. Gaia was in agony. Ever since the medium entered his bloodstream, he felt his veins constantly contracting, pulling at his muscles and tendons with a pain like shattering bone.
The magic energy medium coursed through his entire body with his blood. A faint green hue settled beneath his skin, making him look utterly bizarre. Immediately after, his blood vessels began to wither. Gaia could even hear his veins crackling like dried-out tree trunks!
He opened his mouth to scream, but instead bit down hard on his pillow, tearing out cotton stuffing—he couldn't let Anderson outside worry.
Even in this extreme agony, Gaia forced himself to suppress his feelings. For a moment, he truly believed he couldn't endure it. His entire vascular system had withered, blood seeping from ruptured vessels. His skin turned a terrifying purplish-blue as the blood vessels in his lungs also burst, filling his alveoli with clotted blood. He could no longer breathe.
Just as Gaia's vision blurred and consciousness began to slip into darkness, a warm, soothing energy suddenly surged through his body. Its origin was unknown, yet it brought immense relief. After circulating through his system several times, his damaged body began to repair itself. It wasn't merely recovery—the magic energy medium had penetrated every cell. These cells were now absorbing certain properties from the medium, continuously strengthening themselves.
The ailment he'd carried since birth was being gradually neutralized.
"Huff..." It was finally over. For over ten minutes after the fusion with the magic energy medium completed, Gaia lay utterly exhausted, unable to move. When he finally caught his breath and opened his mouth, a mass of cotton-like phlegm spewed out.
His clothes were completely soaked through, a testament to the agony he'd endured.
Gaia flexed his arms, but felt no noticeable change. His heart sank: Had he failed?
With mounting unease, Gaia leapt from the bed and retrieved the magic gauge from the bedside drawer.
Cupping the device in both hands, a soft click sounded as a line of numbers appeared.
Bone Quality: 670, Muscle Quality: 980, Fighting Qi: 9286.
Gaia stared at the gauge, stunned, then burst into joy. He had finally succeeded! Though his previous Fighting Qi index had been astonishing, without a correspondingly formidable physique, he'd been unable to unleash its full potential.
Only now could he confirm that his "Infinite Devouring Body" truly offered a path to continuously strengthen his physique. The road ahead finally brightened before his eyes...
At this moment, even with the storms of two lifetimes behind him, he couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. His eyes stung, and tears nearly spilled.
After the initial surge of emotion, he remembered his magical attributes. He flipped the magic gauge to its magical side, where another set of numbers appeared:
Magic Sensitivity: 400, Magic Control Index: 400.
Gaia froze, murmuring to himself, "Could it be... by continuously enhancing myself with the Magic Energy Medium, I might one day master both magic and martial arts?"
According to the data, Gaia's physical condition already fully met the standards of a low-tier Bronze Warrior. With his current level of fighting spirit, if he forced himself to activate it, he could at least reach the level of a high-tier Bronze Warrior. If he truly pushed himself to the limit, this fighting spirit with over 9,000 points could unleash terrifying power.
His bone quality index had reached 670, exceeding the standard by over a hundred points. His muscle quality had been enhanced to nearly match that of a mid-tier Bronze Warrior. This reminded Gaia of the bloodthirsty nightmare orchid's resilience—Old Anderson had shattered a waist-knife before finally severing that leaf. Perhaps precisely because of this, the mana medium crafted from that leaf possessed an exceptionally potent effect on muscle enhancement.
In terms of magical prowess, though his indices hadn't yet reached the standards of a magic apprentice, they were already very close. Compared to before, when Gaia couldn't sense even the slightest magical fluctuation, he could now at least meditate.
Gaia suddenly remembered the ring he'd found on Hoganberg. He fished it out of his pocket: "This spatial ring might contain Hoganberg's battle energy inheritance."
Previously, Gaia had no mage nearby to unlock the ring. But now that he could meditate independently, opening it posed no difficulty.
Though Gaia wasn't favored by Sean, during his time in the imperial capital, he remained Sean's nominal son. This granted him access to numerous introductory books on magic and martial arts. Thus, he wasn't entirely ignorant of magic.
Crossing his legs, he closed his eyes and entered a meditative state. With a Magic Sense sensitivity rating of 400, he detected the presence of magical elements within minutes. Though this was his first attempt to manipulate these elements, his equally high Magic Control rating of 400 allowed him to successfully channel a thread of magical energy into the ring after just seven tries.
With the infusion of magic power, a faint blue glow brushed across the ring's dark surface. Instantly, a shimmering light screen projected from the ring, where wisps of flame formed lines of text upon the azure display.
Gaia was utterly astonished. He had assumed this was merely a storage ring, but it turned out to be a martial energy inheritance! The top row of those flame-like characters clearly read: Martial Energy Inheritance of the Soldier's Nature!
Weapon-Nature Battle Qi was Hoganberg's most formidable combat technique. It made sense he would carry this inheritance with him. Gaia, who had been fretting over how to cultivate Battle Qi, couldn't help but laugh aloud three times upon discovering this inheritance. He mused inwardly: Could it be that even the heavens felt they owed me too much from my past life, now repaying me with good fortune in this one?
Well then, so be it. Debts of gratitude and debts of enmity must be repaid to everyone—even that thieving Heaven itself.
Gaia kept adjusting the ring. The azure light screen slowly lowered, revealing the entire Battle Spirit Qi inheritance before him. It detailed the cultivation methods for every rank of Battle Spirit Qi across all professions, from the lowest tier of Level 1 all the way to the highest tier of Level 7.
Gaia's heart burned with growing fervor. He understood the cultivation methods of this world. Within the entire Abyss of Chaos, only five lineages allowed cultivation from Level 1 all the way to the advanced seventh level. None of the others could reach the advanced seventh level.
The seventh-level practitioners who appeared were mostly at the beginner or intermediate levels. Those who reached the advanced stage were extremely rare.
Throughout the entire Abyss, only five Level 7 High-Tier lineages existed.
The first was the Dragon Emperor's Crimson Flame Body, the secret scripture of the imperial Dragon Clan within the Shenglong Dynasty. It is through this supreme legacy that the Dragon Clan has maintained its grip on the Abyss's imperial lineage for millennia. Though supreme power has changed hands multiple times, it has always remained within the Dragon Clan's own family—uncles usurping nephews' thrones, brothers seizing their elder siblings' dominion. Any rebellions by other races were ultimately crushed by the Dragon Clan's formidable individual combat prowess.
The second is the "Sacred Codex of the Demon Cups" from the Demon Abyss's foremost academy, the Tathagata Demon Martial Academy. This legacy is engraved upon the academy's nine demonic cups. The Tathagata Academy's millennia-long reign as the Demon Abyss's premier institution stems directly from possessing this high-tier seventh-grade legacy.
The third and fourth are held by two rival churches: the Dark Church's "Ancient Dark Scriptures" and the Lord of the Underworld Society's "Lake of the Underworld Scriptures."
These two churches are the largest in the Abyss. Smaller churches struggle to survive unless they align themselves with one of these two. These two legacies are also the supreme scriptures of the churches.
The only Level 7 High-Tier Legacy known to exist outside these circles is called the Apocalyptic Prophecy Book. This legacy has only ever existed in legend; no one has ever laid eyes on it. Consequently, many alchemists in the Abyss have long doubted the existence of the Five Great Level 7 High-Tier Legacies, believing the Apocalyptic Prophecy Book to be merely a myth unworthy of inclusion among them.
Yet now, Gaia held a seventh-tier advanced martial energy tradition in his hands. Though the five great traditions encompassed all three professions and were far more precious than his single martial energy tradition, for Gaia, this was sufficient!
Given time, once he refined the nine clusters of soldier-type battle qi Hoganberg had left within him and ascended to a high-tier seventh-level practitioner, the moment would come to hold his head high and return to Dragon Fury City to exact his vengeance from Xien.
Gaia's hands trembled. The chance for revenge he'd once deemed hopeless had suddenly materialized in his grasp—how could he not be overcome with excitement?
Just as his hand shook, it accidentally brushed against the ring once more. The ring shifted, and the azure light screen lowered slightly. A line of fiery characters leapt into Gaia's eyes: The cultivation method for the eighth-level beginner-stage fighting energy...
Gaia's heart skipped a beat: "This can't be!"