Chapter 73
He thought about which direction to push Bruce, since that would dictate the runes he added to the brand.
The idea came fast.
Bruce had monstrous physical strength by nature, he was half-human, half-beast, but that mixed blood only changed how he looked, it hadn’t given him much real.
The strength advantage had never fully shown itself.
If he could partially beast-transform on command and unlock what sat in the half-beast blood, that would be ideal.
Spirit race members reaching the Emperor Realm could unleash their true Spirit beast forms.
Beast race members reaching the Emperor Realm could compress energy into a humanoid shape.
Neither race could ever be half of both.
Bruce was different, he carried half a human bloodline, this direction might hand him something formidable and unexpected.
No compressing energy into human form the way other beasts did, instead, all his power concentrated onto a single point and released through a partially transformed limb.
The destructive force would be ugly.
As the idea settled, the runic lines of the Evolution Brand shifted.
Under Bruce’s expectant stare, and the tense watch of everyone else, Soren drove the brand into his body.
The moment it merged, agony twisted Bruce’s face, his blood boiled like someone had lit a fire under it, the flow surging seven or eight times over.
His body expanded and contracted without pattern, size fluctuating wildly, every expansion split his skin open.
In a few seconds he was a man made of blood.
Inhuman screams rolled across the plaza, Bruce ground his teeth, dropping bead-sized sweat dyed crimson.
Ethel covered her eyes, gruesome as it looked, his bloodline fluctuations were visibly strengthening, several times over what they’d been a moment ago.
Bruce roared, both arms expanded, growing out to over a dozen meters.
What surprised Jared and Orathis was that this expansion tore neither skin nor muscle.
He swung them casually, both arms slammed into the ground, and the twin fist forces shattered the earth and streaked forward like lightning, leaving two bottomless trenches behind.
Orathis clicked its tongue. "Partial beast-transformation!"
"And that kind of destructive power! It’s already on par with the fist force of a Lower-Tier Demon Emperor!"
Jared and Ethel were badly shaken.
That had been an ordinary ground-slam, and it matched a Lower-Tier Demon Emperor? Bruce hadn’t even reached Upper-Tier Demon Venerable yet.
While they were still reeling, a thunderous bang went off.
Bruce’s demonic might surged to a completely new level, calling it a dozens-fold increase was not an exaggeration.
"Brother, Big Brother Bruce has broken through to Upper-Tier Demon Venerable!"
Jared’s eyes went red with envy. "That’s right, it really is Upper-Tier Demon Venerable! The absolute peak of it, one small opportunity and he might break through to Lower-Tier Demon Emperor!"
"Good heavens, what did the Demon Emperor do to him? His bloodline evolved, his strength jumped, and he came out of it able to partially beast-transform."
They both looked at Soren again, a faint smile sat at the corners of his mouth.
Shock and admiration came over them like water going over a wall.
Bruce felt the changes running through him, and the worst of the pain had drained off, he bellowed.
"Master!"
He looked at Soren with a gaze of pure, unyielding loyalty, and wished with his whole heart that he were a woman, that he had a more delicate face.
"What are you doing? Why is your expression so sleazy? Take that disgusting look off your face!"
"Hehe..." Bruce snapped out of it and scratched his head.
"Yes, sir."
Ethel took a few tentative steps forward, she didn’t dare go past where Soren stood.
"Big Brother Bruce, I see you’re only one step from the Emperor Realm, it would be a shame to stop here."
"Right now you’re a furnace with heat still in it, wait for that heat to bleed off and it’ll cost far more to bring back up, perhaps Ethel can lend a hand."
Her words went off over Bruce’s head like a thunderclap. "Sister, you have a way to help me break into the Emperor Realm!?"
Ethel nodded slightly, careful not to promise, whether she could do it depended on Soren.
"Ethel, tell me your method."
"In Ethel’s memories there’s a pill called the Nirvana Pill, it can help an Upper-Tier Venerable break through to the Lower-Tier Emperor Realm."
"The herbs aren’t all rare treasures, they’re in our clan’s inventory, the difficulty is technique and timing, you have to adjust the refining intensity dozens of times inside a single hour and guarantee the pill forms in one go within that window."
"Otherwise the medicinal efficacy won’t fuse and the pill is a failure."
"If the Demon Emperor agrees... Ethel would like to try refining a Nirvana Pill for Big Brother Bruce."
Soren’s Strategy Encyclopedia did carry strategies for this, he knew how to push Bruce further himself.
What she said made sense, though, Bruce was a furnace with heat left in it, and keeping that heat avoided the loss of reheating from cold, striking now was better, she was willing and the materials were in storage, no harm in letting her try.
"Be careful when you refine it."
"Yes." Ethel nodded happily.
An hour later, Ethel produced a top-quality Venerable-grade pill.
The Nirvana Pill, swallowing it put your cultivation realm through a nirvana, with an eighty percent success rate for breaking into the Emperor Realm.
She was exhausted to the point of collapse, alchemy experience or not.
Bruce looked at the deathly pale girl handing him the pill, past the worry, something in him turned over, he announced then and there that from this day forward Ethel was his own flesh-and-blood younger sister.
Anyone who dared bully her would get their brains smashed out.
Ethel spoke seriously. "Big Brother Bruce, this pill has an expiration, leave it exposed to air about three days and it turns to waste."
"Take it as soon as you can."
"And the nirvana isn’t pleasant, absorbing and refining the medicinal power alone will take seven or eight days."
"Understood!"
Bruce didn’t hesitate, he shoved the pill into his mouth, swallowed, sat down on the plaza and began.
Jared watched him with a very depressed expression, very depressed.
He’d been overjoyed about Upper-Tier Spirit King to Lower-Tier Spirit Venerable, and the blows just kept landing.
First Ethel, at Upper-Tier Spirit Venerable with an Upper-Tier Spirit Emperor’s alchemy memories in her head.