Born in Blood

Chapter 442 Flashlight

As time passed, Liam adjusted to his new mind.

His mental waves were incredibly dense, and were enough to affect physical things!

Liam could shatter a Rank 1 and Rank 2 mind with funny ease.

However, a Rank 3 mind may or may not take longer to crush.

However, contrary to expectation, the mental sphere did not improve Liam's spell arsenal.

Rank 3 mental spells functioned the same before, only they had more range and could be used heavier.

Other than that they were the same thing. They weren't built for a Rank 4 mind, otherwise they definitely would have improved.

Also, Liam finally tinkered with his King's Eye.

He could finally change the color of it to whatever he wanted.

From golden yellow, to sapphire blue, to ruby red, to plain white.

He could also constrict and dilate his pupils to fill out the sclera, which was a neat little party trick.

Pretty useless, but otherwise neat.

However, out of all of Liam's spells, the Shadow Clone spell had advanced!

Accompanied by the Empress, Liam used the spell and watched as his core produced an identical copy of himself.

Just one.

Liam raised a brow.

The Shadow Clone looked at Liam with a blank expression.

It was still fully black, made from darkness, but its form was much more rigid and sturdy.

"Do you... have your own mind or something? This seems like a downgrade."

Silence.

Then…

The Shadow Clone nodded!

It seemed to have some part of Liam's consciousness.

Liam could still control it.

Except other than that, the clone could control itself and move wherever it wanted to.

"Can't speak, though?" Liam asked the shadow.

The Shadow Clone shook his head.

Still a little surprised, Liam nodded satisfyingly to himself.

"Good, good."

If speech was from silver then silence was gold. A wise saying by wise men.

"You can't… stab me in the back, right?" Liam asked again, a little seriously this time.

The Shadow Clone raised a brow, shaking his head silently, then making a quiet chuckle.

The Shadow Clone didn't seem like it would dissipate any time soon.

Wondering how long it would last, Liam sent the Shadow Clone outside, but not before adorning it with his King's Eye.

The clone would not last indefinitely.

It had a timer ingrained into it, and once it ran out, the darkness-made fellow would crumble apart.

Liam just didn't know when.

"Just don't cause too much havoc, yes?" Liam told it. "I've had enough problems on my hands."

The Shadow Clone smiled broadly, then nodded before leaving.

As it left, Liam couldn't help but feel a little bit worried.

"Shouldn't it have been a nod, then a smile? He did it out of order."

Oh well, what's the worst that could go wrong?

Liam looked back at the Empress with an assessing gaze. Now that he realized, he never really did use Spirit Sight on her!

Just then, Liam used Spirit Sight.

It was like his vision was filtered with a lens.

'Damn it, I can't see her insides clearly...'

To his dismay, the Empress' body was too powerful.

It treated Liam's Spirit Sight like it didn't matter.

Liam pursed his lips in thought.

He had an idea.

Shuffling through a few items in his rings, Liam found an inscription device some nifty Elders had invented.

It was a black cylindrical device, the top of which was flat and covered with a piece of mirror.

Behind the mirror was a tiny Sun Stone, which absorbed light.

On the side of the device was a tiny switch.

Liam flicked it on.

WHOOM!

The Sun Stone flashed with blinding light, filling the entire office with glaring radiance.

Essentially, it was a giga-powered flashlight!

Rank 4 to be precise.

Liam put the Flashlight straight on the Empress' figure, then used his Spirit Sight again.

He could see through her now!

Just a little, though.

A few minutes of adjusting the perfect position, Liam placed the flashlight under her to brighten her entire figure.

Now, he could see her perfectly!

Liam focused.

The first thing Liam noticed was how jam-packed the Empress' body was with ethereal dark energy.

It swirled through her being like human nerves, but it wasn't disorderly or jumbled together.

'It's steadily weakening, though.'

In the center of her chest was where it was most prevalent.

The solar plexus.

All the energy was emerging from there, like a small coal burning with violent flames.

The anatomy of her body was relatively normal.

She had a regular skeleton with the necessary organs, like the heart, brain and lungs.

Her core was dormant, and the Empress' darkness aura wasn't visible because of it.

Since she was dead, her mental sphere had long cracked and disappeared.

'I can't see what's in her chest, though,' Liam thought. 'Is it unique to her path or something?'

Liam didn't know.

But a bright idea surfaced in his mind.

What if he used the Black Hole to suck all that energy out?

'And do what with it, genius?'

Indeed... Liam had no surefire way to entrap and secure such an energy.

Could he even do so?

'Maybe once it weakens to a certain point... until then, I can find a way to ensnare it somehow.'

A moment later, Liam ordered Kerian to help him cut a bit more of the Empress' flesh.

Despite 6 years passing the Empress' hands were just slightly softer than normal. He was barely at her wrist in terms of progress.

After hours and hours of groaning effort, Kerian managed to rip out a small thumb-size amount of meat, before excusing herself.

Months passed idly as Liam slowly digested more and more pieces of the Empress.

His mind scattered like clouds in every direction.

Liam wanted to make new techniques.

He wanted to update his arsenal.

Make a new weapon.

A new sword perhaps!

Or something entirely unique.

He could definitely do it. Make something in the middle-tier or upper-tier of Rank 4.

After all, Blood Weaving and Primordial Forging went hand-in-hand, boosting each other in amazing ways.

In fact, Liam was intent on upgrading the inscription and forging methods themselves!

But once his blood advanced, it would take it to new realms.

And not long after, Liam's blood churned.

It was happening.