Leylin turned on a series of switches along the a console like system. Different colored fluids immediately began to flow from separate tubes, mixing together as they poured into the massive glass cultivation tank.
As the liquids came into contact with each other, a chemical reaction triggered a dense volume of smoke and mist, which billowed out into the laboratory through the open lid. Within moments, the room was covered in a thick layer of white fog, leaving a heavy layer of foam on the surrounding stone walls and nearby instruments.
Leylin took a step forward. His clothes dissolved as he stepped directly into the giant glass tank and sealed the heavy lid behind him.
He floated naked, soaking in the blackish-red liquid as the mixture began to seep into his pores bit by bit, turning his skin a dark flush.
Leylin let out a low roar as the Giant Kemoyin Serpent bloodline within his body began to violently circulate in response to the foreign stimuli. His pupils instantly narrowed into amber-colored vertical slits, and facing upward, he let out a sharp, piercing hiss.
"Hisssss!"
The sound was fiercely sinister and a dark, predatory aura emitted from his body, carrying the heavy pressure of an ancient apex predator. Black energy spewed from his pores and congealed directly behind his back, taking the life-like shape of a massive Giant Kemoyin Serpent that mirrored his posture.
Rumble! Rumble!
A localized shockwave rippled through the glass container and the blackish-red fluid crawling across Leylin's skin instantly atomized into a dense mist, entering his respiratory system and pores.
"A.I. Chip, initiate the Nascent Knight Program," Leylin commanded internally. "Execute the modifications immediately."
[A.I. Chip Task Protocol: Nascent Knight Alignment. Bloodline Isolation: Filter and isolate the native World Mark signatures from the mixed beast bloodline pool. Processing...]
[Beep!Dantian Reconfiguration: Adjustment of essence matrix of the Knight life core to accept foreign energy frequencies. Processing...]
[Beep!Model Integration: Construct and superimpose Spell Model 12A.4E within the modified life core network. Syncing...]
[Beep!Energy Resonance: Align the host's spiritual force with the native Spirit Aura of the Beast World. Finalizing..]
[Camouflage Overlay: Establish a dual-layer energetic envelope around the Kemoyin bloodline to mask foreign origins.]
[Beep! Modifications initiated. Actively absorbing the bloodline pool.]
Leylin let out a strained groan that shifted into a low laugh, the sound echoing off the walls of the isolated laboratory and he latent energy within his blood vessels surged.
Suspended inside the horrifying blackish-red mixture, Leylin closed his eyes as a severe itch spread across his entire body.
The dense liquid methodically carved its way into his flesh, driven along a pattern calculated by the A.I. Chip.
This mixture was the direct result of dozens of bloodline samples Leylin had personally extracted and purified from the native beasts captured by his summons.
He had combined these strains with numerous rare alchemical materials from his private collection, as well as unique resources harvested from this world that were entirely extinct or unmapped on the South Coast.
Glistening golden particles floated lazily throughout the fluid, it was the crushed remnants of the Spirit Crystals he had excavated from the ruins of the Ancient Spirit Slaying Sect.
By no means was Leylin attempting to fundamentally alter his Warlock bloodline. That was an outcome he neither wanted nor desired.
Merging random beast bloodline would, at best, grant him a mediocre Rank 1 innate spell, which was entirely useless for him.
What Leylin truly wanted was to extract the pure essence of the World Mark embedded deep within the core of the native beasts' bloodlines. By directing this extracted frequency toward himself, he intended to counteract the world's natural law suppression and create a localized spell model that perfectly imitated a native's Spirit Aura.
Then to construct an artificial innate spell, transforming his path from a Spirit Knight to an entirely unprecedented realm: a Nascent Knight.
The Nascent Knight was a theoretical extension of the Knight's path that matched the physical capabilities of a Rank 3 Magus. It incorporated an integrated innate spell, a concept Leylin had deduced by researching the Bloodline Sovereign level through Ivy Langster.
By using his Knight life core which he referred to as his Dantian, Leylin could form an organic camouflage envelope to disguise himself as a native inhabitant.
"Begin!" Leylin muttered.
Ka-cha! Snap!
His internal skeletal structure popped under the pressure. The intense itching sensation abruptly stopped, leaving Leylin panting heavily inside the tank.
He was now surrounded by a pitch-black, corporeal fluid. Small, fiber-like vessels floated within the liquid, slowly etching themselves onto his skin before seeping deeper into his core to anchor directly onto his Dantian.
Leylin drew a deep breath, and the dark coloration of the liquid rapidly faded, turning translucent over the span of ten minutes as his body completely drained its properties.
With the process complete, Leylin stood up and stepped out of the empty trough.
[A.I. Chip Status Report! Modifications: Successful. Native World Suppression has been completely removed. Dantian Status: Accumulated beast bloodline essence released; life core altered successfully! Spell Inscription: Spirit Aura innate spell generated. Spell Model 12A.4E integrated. Innate Knight Spell: [Chimera Berserker] successfully inscribed. Re-evaluating physical parameters and adjusting host data...]
Leylin stood naked before the pod, his expression serious and contemplative.
In truth, ascending to a Nascent Knight did not provide a massive leap in his overall combat strength.
His primary physical attributes as a Rank 3 Warlock already matched a peak Crystal Phase Magus, so adding the early-stage physical power of a Rank 3 Knight wasn't an earth-shattering upgrade.
However, his most critical bottleneck had been solved: the environmental suppression was gone.
While combining a spell model with the Knight's path had been tedious and risky experiment, his calculations had proven flawless.
He conjured a simple grey robe with a wave of his hand and walked toward the center of the laboratory.
Stopping by an obsidian work table, Leylin looked down at a neat arrangement of roughly thirty items. These were various cultivation manuals and techniques he had collected over the past two years. Some were torn, some were ancient, and others were freshly transcribed logbooks.
The vast majority of these documents had been harvested from the corpses of wandering Beast Tamers targeted by his border summons, the Vanguard of Requiem and the Black Horrall Snake.
Though those techniques were generally low-level, they provided excellent reference data.
The remainder of the books on the desk were high-grade manuals he had personally duplicated from the restricted sections of the academy's central library. Holding the highest academic rank possible for a teacher without administrative authority, Leylin had successfully secured access to several advanced techniques utilized by Lieutenant-stage powerhouses.
While these high-grade cultivation techniques were highly restricted to the general public due to strict compatibility limits regarding bloodlines and innate beasts, they could technically be studied by anyone.
A regular practitioner would never be able to unlock the full potential of a technique that didn't match their beast affinity, but to the desperate students and professors of this empire, having a flawed technique was always better than having nothing at all.
Leylin had absolutely no intention of changing his primary cultivation track to match these native systems. However, systematically collecting and parsing these unique methodologies through the A.I. Chip had been incredibly eye-opening, broadening his perspective on how soul force could be manipulated across different planes.