Chapter 173: The Pain of Growing Ki Hearts

The process of growing Ki Hearts was just as hard as Howard thought, but a lot more painful. A Horned's biology was different from a normal human's biology in that there were 60 meridians instead of the basic 12 main meridians. 

10 of these main meridians were located in both arms, 20 in the heart region, 20 in the leg region and 10 in head. However, most people only ever created roughly 5 Ki Hearts in one of their arms before they would give up. It was simply too difficult to endure the pain of supplying Ki to your Ki Hearts.

A Horned got their Ki Hearts to grow by using the ki frequencies around them to activate the Ki Cells in their body to their maximum potential. Once these Ki Cells were super charged, they would naturally begin gravitating to the meridian in question and rapidly building the structure of the heart. However, while this was happening on Howard's first Ki Heart, it felt like a punch was hitting him in the gut almost every millisecond. In fact, it was so painful that he was surprised he was still awake.

'I-I have to calm down. I died hundreds if not thousands of times before in the prison,' Howard closed his eyes tightly and just decided to focus on one area of his body. Because of how numerous his Ki Cells were to a regular person, at first his body had instantly tried to build 5 Ki Heart Chrysalis.

A Ki Heart Chysalis was what would begin forming before a Ki Heart was fully generated, and would then morph into a powerful, but small beating heart that would house Ki Cells and generate them rapidly! Ki Cells, to be more specific, were like little supercharged magnets that attracted Ki in the air into the body of someone like Howard. By growing his Ki Hearts, he'd be able to have more Ki Cells to use at once, which would rapidly shoot up his strength!

He closed his eyes and slowly focused on the growth of a single Ki Heart while Oclen watched ihm patiently from behind.

'He's taking it slow, which is exactly the opposite of what they teach in Arthraku Nation! The slower you take it, the more your body is going to be worn down!' Oclen's Golden Maiden had yet to activate any of her abilities. After all, if he had to activate her pain reduction skill already Howard might be unable to grasp forming a Ki Heart. 'Yet, for some reason, I'm getting sick. It's like part of me knows Howard is going to succeed.'

###

Two hours later,a droplet of sweat fell onto the black tile floor around Howard while the pillars around him began to glow a strange, fiery orange.

Oclen, looking at the pillars, sighed while a powerful surge of Ki entered into the room. Of course, he wasn't surprised, he realized what those pillars were when he entered into the training room.

"Ki Supplementing Pillars. Ugh, I can't believe I'm helping him get stronger in aroom with Ki Supplementing Pillars. He doesn't even seem to need my help, and he's already up to his 10th Ki Heart!"

"Yet, if the Ki Supplementing Pillars are activating already, hmph, I doubt he'll even make it to his 20th meridian. I don't understand why Harkel would ruin Howard's future just to stop Armecolith! Isn't Howard supposed to be the next demon king? How can he do that if he only has 20 Ki Hearts?"

At this moment, the Ki Supplementing Pillars sent a surge of Ki into Howard's body while Oclen decided to activate the skill pain reverence. What it did was instantly make the feelings of pain Howard was experiencing dissipate. 

Boom!

A surge of Ki entered into Howards body from the Ki Supplementing Pillars that instantly made his tired Ki Cells instantly gain their vitality back to full. However, for some reason, Howard looked intensely angry. It's like the entire world had to be crushed by his two hands!

"Stop it! I want to feel the pain!" Howard screamed, "Give me a little more time!"

"You look like you're going to passout," Oclen shook his head. "Are you sure? Once you get up to the 20th Ki Heart it will become hundreds of times harder."

'I don't care! I need to feel the pain to know when to form the Ki Heart!" Howard slammed his hands into his black jeans while blood started to drip down from his cheek! "I died more times than I can count! I can handle it!"

"Hmph, suit yourself," Oclen lifted his hand up and the Golden Maiden's healing touch instantly deactivated. Howard's face, which had looked rather calm, suddenly grew veins almost everywhere it could. His forehead seemed like it was about to burst while the black hair around his body surged with an orange flame. It looked like a being was shimmering in the center of a black space. However, Oclen instantly grew suprised.

'Wait, is he up to 15 Ki Hearts all of a sudden. Wait, no 18 Ki Hearts,' Oclen gasped while he used his Ki Sensing abilities to dive into Howard's body. Howard, at one moment, had turned 8 entire Ki Chrysalis into Ki Hearts! In less than an instant, that number went from 18 to 20!

"He-he's beginning to use that other type of Ki, Emperor's Ki I think they call it, to draw in energy from these damn statues!" Oclen's eyes flickered over to a statue that seemed to be shimmering with a bright white color. "Damn it! Those must be Demon King Earl's Emobied Ki Projections! Why the hell did I agree to help him here!"

Demon King Earl had indeed made the statues around Howard, and they were indeed made for his successor to enter into the S rank, however, Howard hadn't yet fully used that resource. Right now, he was almost completely using his regular Ki to build his Ki Hearts by using all the pain he ever experienced to draw them out. In a way, Howard had experienced more pain than Oclen could ever imagine, even Harkel could ever imagine! The pain of having to be killed every day was really something hardly anyone could experience, yet at this point it was turning into Howard's greatest weapon.

Though his body should've instantly collapsed passed 15 Ki Hearts, because his Ki Cells had had to revive him so many times, they seemed to have an endless amount of energy when they went from heart to heart.

In a way, reincarnating so many times had been a strange type of training for his Ki Cells! It made them especially fast when it came to building Ki Hearts! So fast that Oclen was beginning to have second thoughts.

'If I kill him now, I will die as well, but this monster will never be born!' Oclen looked at the silver statues around the room and shook his head. 'But damn it! Those statues are at least in the S rank, and the strongest seems to be in the SS Rank. I have no idea if I can cut off his head before one of them chops me to bits!'

'I-I only have one choice! Not use the golden maiden on him to help him' Oclen sighed while Howard gre whis 22nd Ki Heart and then his 23rd. 'I-I can only hope that by himself he'll be unable to achieve more than 30 Ki Hearts! Even if he's a monster, his body is still in the middle levels of the A rank. He will most likely pass out no matter how strong his will is once he crosses the bridge to 30 Ki Hearts! The bridge where even genius dies! The bridge that only less than 100 Arthraku warriors have ever crossed! The bridge where my father sits at the end on the throne! The man with over 55 Ki Hearts!"

###

5 hours passed so slowly for Howard that it literally felt like he lived a second life.

However, even with this considered, he seemed to be smiling. He smiled while the 31st Ki Heart in his body started to grow.

Swoosh!

A powerful force shot out from Howard in every direction causing Oclen's Golden Maiden's dress to instantly flap in the wind.

The pillars that had been supporting Howard with a radiant light instantly began to glow brighter while all the sets of armor in the room began to shimmer brightly as well.

'I-I can do it," Howard smiled, "Oclen, you can step back. I-I don't need your help, haha! I-I can also tell that you're scared of me right now right? You must be wondering what type of life I lived to turn into such a monster?"

"We all lived hard lives," Oclen crossed his arms, "However, if you think I'm just going to leave the room so you can explode your insides, think again! I'm going to do what my teacher did, and tell you the best point to stop! I have a feeling Howard, if you go passed 50 Ki Hearts, all your other Ki Hearts will explode! I'll be right here to make sure you don't kill yourself!"

"Hehe, you noticed it too?" Howard sighed when he focused on the meridians near his face. "I-I don't think I can activate the Ki Hearts on my face. It's like there is a wall there."

"Hmph, get the other 50 first, and maybe I can give you some pointers," Oclen's mind had gone a thousand and one different directions in the last 5 hours. At first, he didn't want Howard to succeed, but then he remembered how badly he wanted someone to kill his father. He couldn't help but plotting internally that if Howard got passed 50 Ki Hearts, his father might have a worthy adversary in the future, and if Howard even killed his father, he would have a way of becomming ruler of the Arthraku!

Oclen wanted to rule the Furnace with an iron fist someday, and couldn't help but see the potential of Howard as an ally. However, the only way he could even dream of becoming an ally with him was if they were able to kill his father! He sighed, and put his hand on Howard's back, before a surge of energy soared towards Howard's Ki Cells and almost instantly made them glow a brighter hue!

"That's a skill called recharge," Oclen put his hand of Howards back and then crossd them in front of his chest. "I don't think reducing the pain would help at this point. You're on your own from here. Maybe with a miracle, you'll even get up to 40 Ki Hearts."

"Hehe, I'm about to try something really stupid," Howard said with a smile. "You might want to stand back. I'm not sure what will happen."

###

Howard knew there was one obstacle to him getting passed 50 Ki Hearts, and that was the fact that his head meridians seemed to be unreachable by his Ki Cells.

However, he thought of a way around it, and he wasn't sure if it was a good idea or a bad idea. There was one thing he'd 'built' inside of him that just so happened to be right against his meridians, and it just so happened it would supercharge the Ki Cells in his face.

His meridian channels on his face were simply not wide enough to support the amount of Ki Cells he needed to make Ki Hearts on his face, but this would all change in a moment. Activating Fire King's Last Stand, Oclen could only stare down in shock before a powerful white flame begin to burn around Howard.

Boom!

A massive surge of Emperor's Ki from the nearby silver sets of armor flew into Howards body before 41 out of 50 of the statues dropped onto their knees. They slowly began to dissipate into dust like they almost expected at this moment they'd have to give Howard all of their Ki!

"He-he's activating an array inside of himself to try and grow the last 29 Ki Hearts at once? Is he completely nuts! If he fails, not only will he explode, but every bit of him that ever remained will die as well!"

Oclen's brows trembled before he nervously fell down on the floor and watched Howard begin to float in the air with endless streams of Ki flowing into him.

'I-I made a great mistake! Even compared to my father, Howard is 10,000 times more dangerous! I have to kill him now! I have to kill him now before it's too late!"

"Stop!" A gigantic silver statue appeared right by Oclen before his hand could even move. A large ax stopping inches away from Oclen's neck while Howard's body rose in the air. "If you get close to him now, you'll most certainly be killed!"

'What is he talking about?' Oclen trembled before he noticed something strange surrounding Howard, however, the next second he noticed that Howard's Ki seemed to start possessing a will of his own. "What the hell? Is he unknowingly beginning to master the 6th barrier of the SS rank? We're doomed! I should've never let this happen! A true monster is about to be born!"

"AAAHHHHH!" Howard screamed and held up his arms before a large cloud of blood shot out of his mouth. "I can't take it! I-I can't take the pain! I'm going to crush it with my bears fists! Now grow you damn last Ki Heart! Come on! I don't care if my meridians can't take it! Please! I've suffered too much to just fail here!"