Chapter 216-1: Ecstasy Faction, Welfare Intel (1) |
[Purchase successful. Deducting Ecstasy points: 39,000. Beginning Mirage Mist Body bloodline enhancement.]
The enhancement stele released black light that enveloped Yang Xiu, forming an energy cocoon.
He instantly felt as if his body had become a boiling furnace.
His blood turned into scalding mist flowing through his veins, and every bone screamed under unbearable strain.
Black energy repeatedly washed over his body like a heavy hammer pounding him again and again.
Looking down, he saw dense cracks spreading across his skin.
Agony like thousands of red-hot steel needles stabbed into his marrow. Yang Xiu threw back his head, a beast-like roar bursting from his throat.
No anesthetic, no mental shielding. The bloodline enhancement required him to endure it with sheer will. He watched his own bones splinter inch by inch beneath the cracking skin, yet under the shroud of black energy there was bizarrely no spray of blood, only beads of blood slowly seeping out.
Then black mist rose from the bone seams, reassembling the broken bones and weaving them into a translucent, glass-like structure.
Calling it a bloodline, in Yang Xiu’s view it was more like a body replacement.
“Fuck.”
Yang Xiu clenched his teeth as his ribs exploded within his chest cavity.
The violent pain nearly made him faint.
Just when he thought he might not withstand such torture, his pupils suddenly contracted into two silver lines.
On retinas stained red with blood, kaleidoscopic phantom light bloomed.
Countless interlaced scenes flowed through his vision, giant whales dancing over coral reefs, a bronze city inverted upon the clouds, a desert oasis burning with ghostly fire. The bloodline memory of the Mirage Mist Body was rewriting his life code, yet the pain had strangely vanished.
The problem was that no warning sounded in his mind about touching the guardline.
This proved that a 100 percent pain-blocking mode had not been activated.
It felt very strange. Innumerable illusions flickered before his eyes, and each one brought him a kind of pleasure.
“Guide bro, what is going on?”
[Ecstasy brand anesthetic, used in a small dose on you. They fear the transformation process would seriously impact your mental state. If an outsider accidentally strayed into the Palace of Ecstasy, the dose administered by the Lord of Ecstasy would be three hundred thousand times what you are enduring now.]
Hearing Guide’s explanation, Yang Xiu instantly understood why.
He was now an elite player, no longer a newbie the Lord of Welfare could sacrifice at will.
The treatment was naturally different.
The transformation continued. What seeped from the skin cracks was no longer blood beads but mist with a pearly luster.
This mist did not dissipate. It condensed into liquid, flowed back along the cracks into his body, and wherever it passed the texture repaired itself like living jade.
No longer in pain, Yang Xiu lowered his gaze to his heart.
Beneath the remaining skeletal shell, the thing pulsing in his chest was no longer a living heart but a nebula-like vortex that kept collapsing and expanding.
Crack.
A crisp sound came from behind. Switching to Guide’s perspective, Yang Xiu looked.
To his shock, his entire spine broke in the middle and, the instant it left his body, misted into thousands of silver threads.
It then fused with the black light shrouding him and recombined.
When the new spine formed, flowing dark patterns covered its surface. It seemed he only needed a thought to disassemble that vertebra back into mist.
Other parts of his body reassembled at this time as well.
When the last bone was reconstructed, Yang Xiu raised a trembling palm to see three spiral light marks in his palm, each corresponding to a core ability inherited by the Mirage Mist Body.
He switched to Guide’s perspective to look at himself.
The cracks covering his body twisted, and the old skin flaked off piece by piece like a weathered clay figurine.
New skin shone with a soft radiance like moonlight passing through thin clouds.
When the last wisp of mist drilled back into his body, Yang Xiu fell heavily to the ground.
A halo like a lunar corona flowed beneath his skin, and each breath left a briefly congealed mist-trace in the air.
The raised palm had a transparency he had never seen before, as if it could dissolve at any moment into countless floating crystal motes.
[Mirage Mist Body initial transformation complete. Awakening degree 13.7 percent.]
The cold prompt of the Ecstasy main gods sounded in his mind.
He was now completely changed. In Guide’s perspective, he had a youthful countenance and silver-blue vertical pupils.
He tried clenching his fist, and his entire forearm suddenly misted into a semi-transparent state. Applying more force, his body fragmented bit by bit into tiny crystals.
With a thought, his right arm recomposed.
Some crystals still clung to the skin surface and could not merge back in.
Yang Xiu knew this was due to insufficient control over his new body.
This was also the biggest difference between Ecstasy players and authentic players like them.
After each enhancement, he had to go into the illusion provided by the training space to familiarize himself with the ability, unable to perfectly master it the way an Inherited soul ability could be embedded.
Crack.
The black cocoon shattered.
Yang Xiu’s figure reappeared before the black stele.
He turned his head and saw his teammates also wrapped in black light cocoons, all undergoing bloodline enhancement transformations.
Touching the stele again, Yang Xiu spent points to enter the training space.
He needed to master how to use this new body as quickly as possible. He had to figure it all out by reading the manual.
Half a day later, Yang Xiu’s figure returned to Death Space.
His teammates also came back from the training space at this time.
Looking up.
Gargoyle had chosen the Collapse Rock Body bloodline for enhancement.
His height had clearly increased. Blue-black skin was covered in cracked basalt layers. Molten red-gold veins were embedded in the grooves of every muscle.
Hexagonal-prism crystals had grown at the shoulder blades. His spine jutted segment by segment like a crustal fault line, with serrated rocky spines extending from the end.
Most striking was his right arm, a full size larger than his left, with a savage and domineering form.
He already looked nothing like before.
Black Serpent had chosen the Phantom Body bloodline for enhancement.
The black robe she originally wore had been replaced by a fitted outfit that hugged her graceful figure, perfectly tracing her slender waist and long legs. Her skin had become as fair and delicate as mutton-fat jade, with a faint luster as if veiled by gauze, exuding a subtle, elusive allure.
A head of glossy black hair fell like a waterfall down her back, the slightly curled tips swaying gently with her movements, adding a touch of charm.
Her eyes had grown bright, shimmering with a ghostly green radiance like a cat’s eyes in the night. An inadvertent blink could hook the soul.
Beneath a high nose bridge were slightly upturned red lips. She was looking at him expectantly.
“Captain, my Poison Sting weapon has also risen to level 5.”
When Black Serpent spoke, her brows bloomed like a rose in full flourish, alluring and dewy.
“Mm.”
To this, Yang Xiu nodded coldly.
A trace of disappointment flashed in Black Serpent’s eyes, but she quickly pressed down her emotions.
“Can everyone skillfully control their new bodies?” Yang Xiu continued to ask.
In response, the Inherited soul squad players all nodded.
Although three days remained before the mission would forcibly start, Yang Xiu had no intention of resting.
As an authentic player, he knew clearly that the various forces in Monster World were all striving to develop.
The intensity of future wars would gradually escalate.
If he wanted his teammates to survive, he had to speed up their growth and show the Lord of Ecstasy their value.
Perhaps one day in the future, these teammates could be heavily utilized by the Lord of Ecstasy.
Like Champion Fighters in the eyes of the Ancient God race.
At that point, the forced missions would end completely, and his teammates would no longer be cannon fodder who could die at will.
He carefully analyzed the Lord of Ecstasy’s method of building a player legion and was reminded of the Anti-Tide Legion.
Both were legion models of multi-race integration, and a grand legion warfare model would inevitably be established in the future.
At that time, capable Ecstasy players could stand out, take command of sub-legions, and make their mark.
His teammates had no objections to his decision.