Chapter 799 The Broodmother Makes Her Move
Kael still needed another six hundred thousand Galactic Points to reach the Eternal Realm.
At present, he possessed barely fifteen thousand.
Unless he killed several Eternal Realm cultivators, including at least one powerful late-stage expert, he had no hope of accumulating enough Galactic Points.
For a moment, Kael wished he could erase every other progress bar on his status panel, reclaim all the Galactic Points he had invested in them, and pour everything into his cultivation realm.
Otherwise, he would remain entirely at the mercy of the Machine Race for the next thousand years.
Kael rose from the bed and left his cultivation chamber. After several spatial shifts, he reached the outermost edge of the Machine Patriarch’s Inner Cosmos.
A vast gray expanse stretched before him, filled with raw chaos.
Kael released a Beetle and sent it flying into the gray region.
The nearly indestructible beetle shattered instantly.
Unwilling to give up, Kael slowly extended his smallest finger and touched the gray boundary.
His finger exploded and disintegrated into ash.
Two enormous eyes abruptly opened within the gray chaos.
One was organic.
The other was mechanical.
“Kael, abandon any thought of escape. I noticed you the moment you left your cultivation chamber. Do not force me to punish you.”
The two enormous eyes blinked several times as the Machine Patriarch’s voice filled the world.
Kael returned to his cultivation chamber and sat down in silence.
Origin Power flowed through his hand, rapidly regenerating his missing finger.
Inside someone else’s Inner Cosmos, his every move was under constant observation.
His only possible opportunity would come if the Machine Patriarch encountered danger in the outside world and was forced to devote his full attention to it. Only then could Kael continue testing the gray boundary.
But the Machine Patriarch was second only to the Broodmother within the Galaxy.
Who could possibly pose enough of a threat to distract him?
...
At the center of the Blood Jade Galaxy floated a pink planet.
It had no rivers or oceans. Almost its entire surface was barren.
At one end of the planet, however, stood an enormous mountain that towered more than twenty miles into the sky.
The mountain was no ordinary landmass.
It was alive.
Its surface pulsed and writhed. Every contraction released countless fleshy grubs from around its base, and the creatures grew at an astonishing rate.
A dim cavern lay at the mountain’s heart.
The floor, walls, and ceiling were all formed from writhing, milky-white flesh.
After an unknown length of time, two figures—a man and a woman—materialized at the center of the cavern.
When they first appeared, both possessed only Great Ascension cultivation.
Then the entire living mountain began pouring nourishment into them.
In less than a day, both had reached Eternal Tier 9.
“Goldgnaw. Soulweaver. Go and bring back the human named Kael. He cannot be allowed to remain inside the Machine Patriarch’s Inner Cosmos.”
A woman’s rich, magnetic voice echoed through the cavern.
“Mother, how am I supposed to extract Kael from the Machine Patriarch’s Inner Cosmos?” Goldgnaw asked.
His voice was cold and utterly devoid of emotion.
“Soulweaver will handle the parasitism. You will burrow into his Inner Cosmos and retrieve Kael. Bring him back inside the Brood Mountain.”
“Yes, Mother.”
The two figures vanished from the cavern.
A moment later, they appeared in outer space and raced toward Machine Race territory.
...
“Patriarch, you still haven’t given me today’s Immortal Spirit Liquid.”
Inside the Inner Cosmos, Kael looked up at the sky.
“From today onward, I’m afraid you will receive only seven drops per day.”
The Machine Patriarch’s voice came from above.
“What? At seven drops a day, won’t the devouring beast consume me from within after only a few months?”
Kael immediately grew uneasy.
“There is no other choice. Of the three bottles of Immortal Spirit Liquid I confiscated from you, only one remains. We must begin conserving it.”
The Machine Patriarch appeared in front of Kael.
“You are still more than halfway from the Eternal Realm, aren’t you?”
“Yes. If there is only one bottle left, there is no possibility of me reaching the Eternal Realm. Once I die, I will no longer be able to refine Immortal Spirit Liquid for you.”
Kael’s voice was grave.
“Let me think.”
The Machine Patriarch considered the problem for a moment.
“I have a supply of Blood Dragon Pills. Their energy cannot compare to Immortal Spirit Liquid, but I possess them in enormous quantities. You have a Blood Spirit Root, don’t you? The pills may be able to delay the devouring beast’s backlash.”
He took out a spatial ring and tossed it over.
Kael caught it and immediately examined the contents.
Countless red jade bottles were stacked inside. Every bottle contained more than a dozen Blood Dragon Pills.
“There’s no other choice.”
Kael took out one bottle and poured every pill into his mouth.
The entire bottle provided less energy than half a drop of Immortal Spirit Liquid.
Left with no alternative, Kael continued swallowing Blood Dragon Pills.
After consuming more than a dozen bottles, he finally swallowed one drop of Immortal Spirit Liquid.
“Well?” the Machine Patriarch asked anxiously. “Has the devouring beast settled down?”
Kael himself was an invaluable treasure, capable of producing an endless supply of Immortal Spirit Liquid. The Machine Patriarch was reluctant to lose him.
More importantly, Arno had yet to learn even the fundamentals of Kael’s alchemical techniques.
“Barely. My meridians can’t withstand this many pills every day.”
Veins stood out across Kael’s forehead, and painful pressure filled his skull.
“Then there is no other solution. Teach Arno as quickly as possible. Once he learns the process, there will be another alchemist producing Immortal Spirit Liquid.”
“How many Blood Dragon Pills do you have?”
“More than enough. The Machine Race has little use for pills, but we require enormous quantities of spirit liquids and immortal liquids. As long as you remain here and cooperate, I guarantee that you will receive as many Blood Dragon Pills as you can consume. The spatial ring I gave you contains enough to last one month.”
Kael weighed the spatial ring in his palm.
Even if the Machine Patriarch opened the Inner Cosmos and allowed him to leave, Kael no longer dared escape.
His Immortal Spirit Liquid was in the old man’s hands.
So were the Blood Dragon Pills keeping him alive.
“As expected of the leader of the Machine Race. You planned this well. You haven’t merely imprisoned my body. You’ve chained my will as well.”
Kael stared directly into the Machine Patriarch’s organic eye.
The old man chuckled.
“When it comes to strategy, the Machine Race has no equal in the universe. How could minds bound by flesh and blood possibly compare with ours? I will send two more talented alchemists to assist you. Once you teach them the refinement process, your burden will become much lighter.”
Kael studied him more closely.
The stone patches covering the Machine Patriarch’s right arm had spread.
The old man was suffering just as much as Kael.
“Fine. Send them in.”
Kael drew a deep breath.
“Then I will leave you to your work.”
The Machine Patriarch vanished from the Inner Cosmos.
A short while later, two figures appeared from nowhere.
“Magnus Stahler. Orson Stahler.”
Arno identified them both.
Apparently, Stahler was the dominant surname among the Machine Race.
“What is your Patriarch’s name?” Kael asked the newcomers.
“That is none of your concern,” Magnus replied coldly. “All you need to do is teach us how to refine Immortal Spirit Liquid. Everything else is irrelevant.”
His gaze held a trace of mockery and an even heavier measure of contempt.
“So this is the human they tricked into the Patriarch’s Inner Cosmos?” Orson asked. “He really is as foolish as they said.”
The insult nearly shattered Kael’s restraint.
He came within a breath of attacking them.