Slowly, Arnin's body began to heal. Even the Demon Lord show began to dissipate into nothingness. He couldn't help but sigh a little at the sight of his body. His blood reverted back to being two different colors, while his two seeds were completely healed. Not only that, but his insights on his blood component began to rush to his brain.
'Seems like I will be able to break through into Essence Manifest very soon. If I am able to create an elemental seed for my blood component, then I should easily enter Essence Manifest - Earth.' Arnin thought in his head as he felt that his aura was much stronger than before. He was currently at pinnacle Orb Birth - Heaven.
The Elemental River was of no use to him anymore since he just needed to create his elemental seed for blood, which required lots of blood essence, something the Elemental River lacked.
'What place would lots of blood essence?' Arnin thought about this and then remembered about the last zone in the battlefield. It was some sort of body tempering zone where others would have to go through extreme torture in order to improve their bodies.
Arnin walked towards Canae and Sinfallel who looked at him with different gazes. "Take me to the last zone. I have something to do there." Canae immediately nodded her head and led the way.
Seeing how obedient Canae was, Arnin was a little startled. 'Seems like this slave is slowly turning into an obedient commander.' he smiled slightly as he walked behind them.
As they made their way, Arnin saw two people blocking his path. He was familiar with the two and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as to their sudden appearance.
"What do you two want?" The two in front of him were none other than the rank twenty Adilis and his fiancee Clareena.
Adilis walked forward and slightly bowed towards Arnin. "I don't know if you remember me, but when you were in your berserk state, I was someone who faced your head on." Arnin, of course, remembered this annoying ant.
"I will ask you again, what do you two want?" Arnin was in no mood to talk with others since he knew that breaking through into Essence Manifest was only a step away.
Adilis was startled and then smiled bitterly. "I just wanted to thank you for a great battle and hoped that in the future we could have a fair fight." With that, he turned around and disappeared.
Arnin couldn't help but snort coldly. "Next time, I will make sure your girlfriend is humiliated thoroughly if I see you come face me." He stated this coldly as he followed Canae.
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They soon made it the Body Torture Pillar zone. Unlike the name it was given, one could see hundreds of pillars. There wasn't a single pillar at all.
The second he saw the pillars, Arnin smelt a strong stench of blood and could feel a vast amount of blood essence. 'This is it. I just need to cultivate here for a while and I should be able to break through.'
"Both of you follow me. I need to go and cultivate in this area and I need you to watch out for any trouble." he waved his hand and headed deep into the zone.
"AH!"
"This is HELL! WHY THE HELL AM I DOING THIS!"
"Screw this! My girl can just enjoy my flabby body!"
People were screaming loudly as he made his way through. The pillar was covered in lots of blood and the torture methods were extremely gruesome. Sometimes, people, would e burnt by flames that wouldn't take their life but would cause them immense pain and refine their bodies.
Other times, they would be poisoned causing their skin to corrode and then regrow. There were even pillars that would continuously stab the cultivators, making them feel the pain of slowly being pierced by blades.
Although the method was painful, it was extremely beneficial towards the bodies cultivation. It would increase resistance towards pain and bodies sturdiness. Not only that, but the cultivators would also have their mental states baptized, making them more clear-headed during dangerous situations.
Overall, the benefits far exceeded the determinants. Arnin didn't really need the mental state baptism and the body strengthening since he was already at the peak of them. It wouldn't benefit him too much. His body was continuously refined by extremely pure essence since he was a baby, plus his Demon Lord powers had also helped him. Even the Seed of Rebirth increased his physical bodies strength by multiple folds, what could torture do to him now?
As he made his way towards the center of the zone, he felt that blood essence thickening. He hurriedly closed his eyes and began to slowly debate on the mark the blood element should take.
As he finally reached the center of the zone, he quickly sat down and took out a piece of paper from his interspatial bag. He began to continuously draw marks, trying to find the perfect and most efficient way to create the elemental seed for blood.
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Inside the cave where the elders gathered, they all watched the different students undergoing the exam, however, they would always glimpse at the screen that showed Arnin.
"What is he doing now?" An elder couldn't help but ask.
Fae looked at elder and smiled. "This is something I secretly witnessed once. Did you know that this child is a really talented Mark Master, already at the Pink level?" When she said those words, others looked at her with shock.
"That may be great, but what does that have to do with anything?" The confused elder asked once more.
"It has everything to do with this." The elder just stared at her. "Well, he uses these marks in order to create the elemental mark. It is quite ingenious if you ask me." Everyone in the room, including the Headmistress, sucked in a breath of cold air.
"Elemental mark? Aren't only Essence Manifest cultivators able to create those? At most, Orb Birth cultivators should be able to sense and absorb the elements, but creating elemental marks?" The elder spoke with an astonished voice.
"If you can't do it, does that automatically mean it's impossible to accomplish?" Fae looked at the elder with scorn. "Arnin is a genius and has high talent in many fields. He was able to figure this method out himself without anyone's help, if not for his talent, why would I be so adamant on protecting him and bringing him here?"
"Haha! My disciple is indeed a monster in human form. Haha, you have done a great deed Fae, you have done a great deed." At this moment, Elder Kocyte laughed loudly as he looked at Arnin's screen.
"Hmph, just make sure you train him well or else there will be consequences." Fae couldn't help but feel unpleased at Kocytes casual comments. The latter completely ignored Fae and happily looked at the screen that Arnin was in.
"Does this mean he is creating a new elemental mark?" The Headmistress looked at Fae questionably. The latter nodded her head.
"He should be creating the mark for blood because of the dense blood essence in the Body Torture Pillar zone. If not that, then he could have just stayed in the Elemental River zone." When she said those words, Fae looked at Kocyte subconsciously. "You are really lucky after he creates this mark he should have much higher control over blood than before."
Elder Kocyte only nodded his head, not replying to her. This caused Fae to snort coldly before looking back at Arnin's screen. 'You really do have such high talent. Hopefully, you can grow up quick enough to accomplish something in this life.'
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Arnin was able to create five different mark patterns. All of them exuded a sense of blood, but each was slightly different. The one that Arnin was debating between was the one that exuded a very chaotic feeling as if the blood would rampage everywhere and absorb everything in sight. The other option that he found was a type of pattern that gave a very hidden and quite feeling. It was as though it wasn't there at all.
'Both of them have their strong points. The chaotic one is probably really good for direct attacks, but I have the Seed of Neutrality for that. The other one is something that I don't have and it might be much more terrifying than the chaotic one.' After thinking for a few more moments he decided to take the silent yet deadly one.
Not only could he use it for sneak attacks, but he could also use it for direct battles, silently poisoning his enemies blood or even manipulating them. It was terrifying to fight against something that is hard to detect.
Closing his eyes, Arnin released his white saber all over his body and began to rapidly absorb the blood essence in the air. Slowly, the Seed of Blood began to form. A large whirlpool formed around him as red mist surrounded him.
Canae who was the closest to him turned her head and her mouth went agape for a second before she shook her head. 'What's the point in being shocked anymore?' She had seen too much around Arnin that it wasn't shocking to her anymore.
This acceptance could be considered as a type of relief for her. Suddenly, she felt as if a dam broke in her brain and water gushed out. She felt faint as she quickly sat down and began to cultivate. Essence also gathered around, being quickly absorbed.
Sinfallel saw this and felt shocked. "Sister is breaking into Orb Birth - Heaven? This is great." She felt joyful at the scene but then her eyes became misty. 'If little sis was here to see this. She would have been so excited.'
She shook her head and just watched the surroundings to make sure no one came and disturbed them
After a few hours went by, Canae snapped her eyes open as a smile appeared on his pretty face. She lifted her hands and stared at them happily. "I broke through. Hehe." With the previous stress of life and death gone, she was finally able to break through.
Although sadness over her sister's death was still there and hatred for Arnin lingered in her heart, she wasn't as upset as before. Rather, she knew that the fault was there and that the only way to move forward just to accept it.
Because of this way of thinking, she was able to break through in both cultivation and her state of mind. Her head also looked at the sky and a small tear fell down. "Little sis, although I am unable to avenge your death, I will make sure to live well in your stead and slowly climb the top. Who knows, maybe one day I will be able to bring you back."
When she thought of bringing her sister back, a new fire burned in her heart. A goal for her to achieve finally appeared in her mind, giving her a stronger reason to live.
She subconsciously glanced at Arnin and her hands tightened. 'If I can only become stronger by following you and you are the only hope I have to bring my sister back, then let me follow you until I can achieve my goal.'
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Arnin knew nothing of what change Canae went through, and if he did, he would have felt surprised yet happy. He had been thinking of ways to make Canae his commander, and now it happened without him even knowing.
Right now, Arnin was very close in finishing his Seed of Blood. A few more marks and he would have a completely Seed of Blood that would be under his full control.
Another few hours went by and Arnin finally finished the creation of the Seed of Blood. Although it revolved around his orb the like the rest of his elemental seeds, some peculiar about this Seed of Blood was that there were red threads coming out from it that directly inserted his bloodstream.
Arnin couldn't help but look at his bloodstream to see if there were any major changes, and when he did even he felt shocked. Previously, his bloodstream contained two different blood colors, red and black. The red was his human body blood and his black blood was most likely related to his Demon Lord powers. Before, they were separate from one another, but the sight in front of him showed anything but that.
With the support of the Seed of Blood, the two different blood began to merge, creating a type of purple blood. It was extremely peculiar, but Arnin didn't know what to say about it. His vision showed that the blood was now purple, but the peculiar thing about it was that others would only see it as red.
It was similar to his Purple Runic Eyes where no one would be able to see the runes in his eyes, only the purple pupil. 'Who knows how strong I am now, but it doesn't matter. With my Seed of Blood formed, I should be able to break through into Essence Manifest - Earth quite easily. My power should skyrocket from there. Maybe sneaking into Lepidoptera Academy wouldn't be impossible.'
After collecting his thoughts, Arnin began to slowly absorb worldly essence. He refined it slowly and began to break through into Essence Manifest.
Unlike breaking from a small realm into another small realm, a breakthrough into a new large realm had a completely different concept.
Not only would he have to absorb a large amount of essence and purify it, but he also needed to expand his orb and orb threads. The process would somewhat painful, but it was a must.
With a deep breath, Arnin began to fill his orb and orb threads with significant amounts of essence. Even when they were filled to the brim, he didn't stop. He kept filling them up and forced them to expand.
*BLEURGE*
He barfed out a mouthful of blood, but he kept going. Although the method he was using was extremely forceful and dangerous, it was alright to him. It had the same effect as others, plus he knew that his method would be very damaging, which was why had the Seed of Rebirth continuously work to heal his body and threads.
Even the Seeds of Blood and Neutrality were in motion. In order to thicken his threads and orb, he used the flames from the Seed of Neutrality to burn them, and the Seed of Rebirth would heal them. When he burned his blood, the Seed of Blood would replenish it.
The cycle went on for another two hours. He spat out lots of blood and his body would ignite in flames at some times, while a green light would cover him in the next.
*BOOM*
A large sound went off in his head as he saw his orb become two times larger, and his threads increase in both numbers and size. Even his elemental seeds and marks (time and space elements are still in mark form) increase in size as they revolved around his black orb with high speed.
"WAOOO!" Standing up, Arnin couldn't help but howl into the sky. He finally broke through into Essence Manifest - Earth.