Chapter 36: (36) The first step towards goal
Death wisp coiled around the seven nails, they twisted and slithered wickedly. As if in perfect sync, it poured into all seven of them in equal quantities.
The sensation of foreign substances entering his body was vividly felt by Mangrel. With his deliberate control, the death wisp spiraled around the nail, connecting to each other once at a time.
Along with the death wisp, the origin essence was also mixed in, stably forming seven ring-like structures.
The moment all the seven rings formed to a certain degree, a chain reaction like never before occurred.
"Kuuhh!!" Blood jumped out of Mangrel's mouth, making his face distorted in suffering.
Red veins spread from the rings, and they gave rise to pain incomparable to before. They altered any human parts that got in the way, trying to connect themselves to all the pores of the body.
At that instant, suddenly, all the veins stopped halfway through, not moving in an inch. All the death wisp had long invaded Mangrel's body too.
Mangrel opened his blood-stained mouth, with the sharpest eyes he ever made since rebirthing.
"Hammer the last nail here and then get out of the array immediately!" Mangrel's blood-stained gaze was like that of an injured wild beast, intimidating and ferocious.
Mars's body moved involuntarily after hearing Mangrel's order. It was like the most natural thing to do, it had been carved into his body.
Clank!
The nail entered Mangrel's waist easily, gaining experience in it, Mars could hammer with better motion and appropriate force.
Experience makes even an idiot excel, as the saying goes.
With the nail into Mangrel's waist, Mars hurriedly walked out of the array, like he was fleeing for his life.
With the eight rings inserted, as if hit by a mental shock wave, Mangrel's eyes turned dim and blank in no time. His body tilted and fell on the cold floor, he had died.
However, having expected this, Mangrel had activated the array before even the eighth nail touched his skin. It was just being delayed by his intentional manipulation.
As if the prior strange and spooky death energy were to be just an illusion, A jade green light burst forth from the middle of the array. The origin of the life essence was of course Belvan's corpse.
The eight rings of death was a cultivation technique that only showed its real effect when the practitioner was dead. Temporarily extinguishing the life energy within the body, allowing the death energy fused with the origin essence to spread all across the body, at a speed unprecedented to any cultivation technique.
The veins formed rapidly, connecting to every pore of Mangrel's body, making a natural passage for the origin essence to flow into.
As the veins finished constructing themselves, which did not even take a few seconds, the life essence around the array gushed forth like an unstoppable tsunami, drowning into Mangrel's body.
Like a burst of lightning crashing into a cliff, Mangrel's mind jolted awake, feeling the wondrous feeling around his body.
'I succeeded! At last, I have taken the first step toward my journey!' Mangrel's eyes burned with demonic flame, reflecting his heart's greatest desire.
"Haha, Living is nothing but a cycle of death and life."
"Humans strive to attain the power to fight against their fate. While death follows them in every step of their life."
"None notice the opportunity right beside them! Death is not to be avoided, it is to be conquered! That is the true path to freedom!"
"And today, I have taken the first step towards it! Hahaha!!"
Mangrel's fierce laughter echoed through the cellar, causing Mars to open his mouth wide with surprise.
The ambition contained in Mangrel's words, which flowed out like a poem hit Mars's heart with a strong impact. He felt exceedingly moved internally.
The jade green particles, the life essence, were still flowing into Mangrel's body, showing no sign of ending anytime soon. The wounds on his back were healed, with only the nail head visible with no apparent damage around it.
The death energy within Mangrel's body was consistently suppressed by the immense life essence.
A portion of the life essence was wasted as Mangrel absorbed it, thanks to his trash potential. However, what he was absorbing was not just the life essence, the origin essence of all the 28 origin stones — flowed into his body.
The origin essence flowed through the body, eventually getting pulled into one of the eight rings of death. Instead of absorbing it, the rings independently sent it to the first ring.
Therefore all the origin essence was gathered into the first ring of death.
Even as Mangrel faintly breathed in, origin entered through his orifices, fusing with the eight rings of death.
'This is one of the merits of this cultivation technique, it allows the practitioner to grow, even while he does nothing! In other words, sleeping was no different than training either. Though the cultivation speed is just around ten percent of how much normal cultivating can gather.' Mangrel thought rapidly with a calm face.
Slowly, the cellar grew dim as the life essence was sucked into Mangrel's body. Only the dull glow of the lamp remained, with the existence of the whole array disappearing.
'....Is it not enough?' Mangrel's eyes flashed with disappointment, which vanished as soon as it appeared.
The requirement to awaken the meridian was to have enough life energy within the body, which was met once a person turned 18 years old. Mangrel wanted to achieve this effect artificially, but it seems that he was still not there yet.
'At least more than two years must have been cut with all that life essence. I will probably awaken the meridian when I am 15 or 16 years old.' Mangrel speculated in his head.
A foul stench wafted through the air, which was enough to make anyone choke. However, Mangrel and Mars didn't react much.
Unknowingly, the black particle was excreted from all around Mangrel's body, appearing like a jelly form of charcoal. They were impurities in his body, nurtured from a young age, because of many negative impacts of the living facility.
Noticing the impure substance, Mangrel checked his current potential.
'....Twenty-eight percent, my potential increased by around eight percent at once. Though it's still in the realm of trash, it's better than nothing.' Mangrel didn't have much of an expectation anyway.
With a fully awakened life force physique, Mangrel could have risen to at least below average.
'I will just have to keep looking for more opportunities to increase my potential in the future. Never mind that, but I surprisingly lost around ten years of my lifespan.' Mangrel sighed at this matter.
The Demonic Array — Sacrificial life reformation, It uses the practitioner's life force to fend off impure life essence from the absorbed victim. Of course, impurity would be present in life essence, especially that of a life force physique.
Becoming a rank zero cultivator, Mangrel should have had 120 years to the max, but it was now cut down by 10.
The only other good news was that — one of the rings of death was completed. It gave a boost to Mangrel's strength accordingly.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone