Chapter 804 The Machine Spirit Root
Even if Kael died someday, his body would never decay. His nails, hair, and beard would continue growing on their own.
But that wasn’t the most important change.
What truly mattered was the sensation of absolute control.
Everything within sight seemed to be his to command, as though he could reshape and transform it at will.
“You...”
Goldgnaw stared at him from a distance, genuine emotion showing on his face for the first time.
“You fought an Eternal Realm cultivator head-on—and actually killed him?”
“What’s wrong?” Kael forced himself to turn around. “Do you still intend to take me back to the insect homeworld?”
Although Kael had broken through to the Eternal Realm, he had no Immortal Spirit Liquid left, most of his Origin Power was exhausted, and the Devouring Beast’s recent backlash had damaged the very foundation of his body.
Strictly speaking, he was only a weakened Eternal, not yet a full-fledged Eternal Realm cultivator. Until he spent several decades recovering from the damage, he couldn’t truly count himself among the Eternals.
Goldgnaw let out a quiet laugh.
“You only just reached the Eternal Realm, and your cultivation hasn’t even stabilized.” He slowly raised his right hand. “Capturing you alive would merely require a little more effort.”
Then he abruptly went still.
A revolting patch of stony mottling had appeared around his wrist.
“How about this?” Kael ventured. “We go our separate ways today and settle this another time.”
Goldgnaw didn’t respond. He lowered his gaze, clearly torn.
“If you insist on fighting today, then victory or defeat hardly matters. Even if I lose, I will never let you take me alive. At worst, I’ll throw myself into that black hole and end it all. But I will never refine Immortal Spirit Liquid for the Insect Race.”
Goldgnaw remained silent for a moment.
“Too many strange things have happened today. I’ll spare you for now. Once I return, the Broodmother can decide what to do with you.”
He gave Kael one final, penetrating look. His body gradually faded before disappearing altogether.
Kael waited another fifteen minutes before releasing his vast Spiritual Sense.
He finally let out a long breath, then turned toward Hadrian’s flying vessel.
Excitement surged through him. After several spatial shifts, he arrived in front of the vessel and tried to force open its hatch.
It didn’t move in the slightest. The hatch seemed to have fused with the rest of the vessel.
Kael tried several other methods, but none worked.
“Do I need authorization?”
After a moment’s thought, he summoned Astral Mountain and slammed it into the hatch.
Crack!
The gap around the hatch widened slightly.
Delighted, Kael continued hammering it with Astral Mountain.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
After dozens of blows, the hatch finally broke free and shot into the vessel.
Kael strode inside.
[Unauthorized life-form detected. Self-destruct sequence initiated. Vessel will self-destruct in fifteen minutes. Vessel will self-destruct in fifteen minutes.]
The mechanical announcement echoed throughout the ship.
Kael tensed and hurried back outside.
“The Machine Race never leaves anything for anyone else!”
Frustration strained his voice.
With Hadrian’s vessel, he could cross the vast empty region within two months. Without it, he would have to rely on his own body, and there was no telling how many years the journey would take.
The barren expanse was one light-year across. Even if Kael could travel at the speed of light, crossing it would still take an entire year.
Under normal circumstances, however, even an Eternal Realm cultivator couldn’t reach one percent of light speed.
In other words, crossing that empty region would take him at least a century.
“To hell with it!”
Astral Mountain expanded rapidly in Kael’s hand.
At the same time, its interior split open, transforming into a colossal metallic maw that swallowed Hadrian’s vessel whole.
Kael immediately retreated a hundred miles through several spatial shifts. Layers of protective aura rose around his body as he stared intently at Astral Mountain in the distance.
The seconds passed.
Thrum! Thrum! Thrum!
A series of muffled explosions came from within Astral Mountain.
The noise continued for fifteen full minutes before finally subsiding.
Kael’s spirits rose. He crossed the distance in several flashes and inspected the mountain.
The internal explosions had warped Astral Mountain, but they hadn’t destroyed it. The mountain had already assimilated a small portion of Hadrian’s vessel, while the Eternal Flame slowly refined everything that remained.
Astral Mountain itself had taken on an eerie gray-black hue.
Kael lightly touched its surface with one finger and felt a faint prickling sensation.
That meant Astral Mountain could now damage enemies on contact whenever he infused it with Origin Power.
“Time to go.”
Kael looked toward the Machine homeworld.
If another Eternal Realm cultivator came after him now, he would have no chance of surviving. His only option was to flee into the empty region as quickly as possible.
With that in mind, Kael attempted to draw Astral Mountain back into his body.
Nothing happened.
He stared at it in disbelief.
After devouring Hadrian’s vessel, Astral Mountain’s mass had begun approaching infinity. Kael’s current body was no longer capable of containing it.
He tried storing it inside his Inner Cosmos instead.
That failed as well.
“Forget it.”
Kael transformed Astral Mountain into a massive greatsword nearly seven feet long, strapped it across his back, and flew toward the barren expanse.
Less than a day later, an enormous flying vessel appeared ahead of him.
Three figures emerged from the ship and studied Kael in confusion. All three possessed Galactic Realm cultivation.
“Kael?” said the leader, a late-stage Galactic Realm cultivator. “You actually left the Patriarch’s Inner Cosmos. Did he release you willingly?”
“Release me willingly?”
Kael arched an eyebrow.
“Then where is our Patriarch?” the Machine cultivator demanded.
“You can ask him yourselves when you join him.”
Before the words had fully left his mouth, Kael summoned the Time Mirror and shone it upon all three of them.
He poured thirty percent of his remaining Origin Power into the mirror.
Kael was now an Eternal Realm cultivator. Thirty percent of his current Origin Power exceeded even one hundred and twenty percent of what he had possessed at the Galactic Great Circle.
The three high-ranking members of the Machine Race couldn’t move so much as a finger.
Kael drew the greatsword formed from Astral Mountain and swept it across them.
Their organic and mechanical halves exploded together.
Kael put away the Time Mirror, strapped the greatsword across his back again, and entered their vessel through several rapid spatial shifts.
The vessel’s hatch was already open, so he hadn’t technically forced his way inside.
He approached the control console and pressed both hands into the palm-shaped recesses on its surface.
“Nothing?”
Kael stared at the silent console.
He clearly remembered Arno controlling the vessel this way.
A thought occurred to him, and he opened his system panel.
At the very bottom was a new entry: Machine Spirit Root.
At present, however, its progress remained at zero.
Kael drew a deep breath and looked toward the Eternal Points displayed on the left side of the panel.
[Eternal Points: 3.332]
He immediately invested all of them into his Machine Spirit Root.
[Human King: 792.639]
[Eternal Realm: 6.32%]
[Stage Twenty of the Fiendgod Transformation: 100,000,000/200,000,000]
[Grand Celestial Manifestation: 1/100]
[Sacred Skin—Fortification: 10,000/20,000]
[Sacred Tendon—Fortification: 10,000/20,000]
[Sacred Muscle—Fortification: 10,000/20,000]
[Sacred Organ—Fortification: 10,000/20,000]
[Sacred Bone—Fortification: 10,000/20,000]
[Supreme Divine Craftsmanship: 4,500/5,000]
[Divine Alchemy Dao: 50%]
[Basic Inner Cosmos: 299/500]
[Myriad Spirit Eye Tier 1: 15/100]
[Sound Spirit Root: 3%]
[Machine Spirit Root: 3%]
The moment the points were allocated, a sudden buzzing filled Kael’s head.
An instant later, he sensed a strange connection forming between himself and the metallic materials surrounding him.