Molting the Mortal Coil

Sage felt his soul getting ripped and torn apart by the raging winds overtaking his spiritual sea. Gradually growing smaller as he felt the meager amount of spirit power remaining within him. The Eye of the World had nearly drained him completely and his time was about to run out. The hope that the Eye was growing weaker was nearly completely gone now and Sage gave up with his attempts to subdue it with flame. Is there really no way for me to get out of this situation? It seems to fit with that saying I’ve heard here: ‘A bird dies for food and people die for wealth.’

He had been hoping to damage the Eye enough to weaken it, at least enough to let him pull back his spirit power and escape. Never would he have imagined that simply trying to examine the Eye would lead him to this state and send him speeding towards death. It was no wonder there were so many warnings and statements of caution in the treasure hunting guides. There was no telling just how these things would react. It’s just too bad that all the treasures aren’t like that Seed of Life and just happily jump into my body of their own accord.

That random thought suddenly stopped Sage’s mind. He remembered the Heavenly Treasures guide listed two qualifications to capturing the treasures… getting it into the body and resisting its power. Sage suddenly tried to pull the Eye of the World into his own internal space, just like how it was currently within the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent’s body. The Eye completely resisted him, he felt like there was a barrier around the Eye that separated him from it like oil and water. Wait… how did I even bring it into the Serpent’s body?

With this idea in mind, Sage realized that the Serpent’s spirit power was unaffected by the strange suction force. A completely insane idea popped into his head. Within the True Insect Immortal Index the ‘Merge’ technique’s final level was a forbidden ability. The capability to truly and completely merge the Cultivator with their linked Chong. At the time Sage had thought of it as a Spirit Insect whenever he read the word ‘Chong’, but at this point after having experimented for years and linked to a Serpent this time around he realized how wrong he was. The forbidden ability was one that had led to persecution in the past and also destroyed the future of many young cultivators who had irreversibly turned themselves into monsters. I don’t want to turn into a monster, but what other choice do I have?

Sage manipulated his Dantian and sent his Qi soaring through his meridians in a specific pattern. It was just like he was practicing a special Qi Cultivation Method, but used only for this forbidden ability. At the same time he formed seals with his hands and extended Qi from all the open Qi Pores in his body. The Qi Pores were the method by which the Qi within the body could exit the body. Circulating Qi within the Meridians inside the body would create a reinforcing effect for the physical body, but only with training could Qi Pores be opened up and allow the Qi to affect things outside the body. The Qi Pores in the hands and feet were usually opened up on their own with enough strenuous training while the other Qi Pores would only be opened if needed for certain special Qi Techniques as they were much more difficult to open. Sage had eighteen more Qi Pores opened on his body than a normal cultivator. They had been opened when he trained the true version of the Hive Body Technique. The Qi Pores were the method by which the Spirit Insects could leave his body, so having more of them let them swarm out far faster.

While he was circulating his Qi, Sage also ordered the Twin Ringed Serpent’s body to also circulate Qi. As every linked Chong was different, the requirements for it were far different. It merely had to match the same rate of circulation that Sage was maintaining and give up all resistance. Thankfully, the earlier mental fog along with the Serpent still being weak from its linking, Sage was able to keep it docile as he enacted his final option.

The energy being released by Sage passed out of his body, transforming into a unique formation around him and slowly growing in size as it filtered into the Serpent’s body. The pulsing Qi of the two bodies matched up in a unique rhythm. The pace suddenly starting to build as the energy released grew to greater and greater amounts. A sphere of power started to form around the Serpent and also Sage’s body. Slowly the two spheres began to rotate, spinning around them at exactly the same pace. Sage found himself drawn out of the Serpent’s inner space and the Serpent entered his own inner space. Yet at the same time he felt that he hadn’t left the Serpent’s inner space. It was like he existed in two different places at the same time.

If there was an outside observer they would see that two bodies, one a man the other a serpent, were floating side by side within a rapidly spinning and transparent energy sphere. A few moments later, the two bodies superimposed over each other, somehow seeming to occupy the same space. The spinning energy sphere began to transform, shrinking smaller, the view within becoming vague. What had once been a clear picture of the man and snake was soon replaced by an opaque glow. A few moments later the oblong shape stabilized, the spinning of energy suddenly stopped. At the bottom of that shallow Well, where the spinning energy sphere had been, there was only a large azure colored cocoon. Not even a ripple of energy, aura, or sound could be felt coming off of it.

Inside the cocoon was a completely different matter. Sage felt like he had fallen into a dream state, losing control of his body and mind, feeling like he was floating in a cold sea on his back, staring up at a dreamy blue sky.

Moments earlier, his consciousness had been thrust into his Spiritual Sea. His soul clinging tightly to the light of the Seed of Life, huddling away from the rapidly encroaching whirlwind of fog. A moment later, the Twin Ringed Serpent’s soul entered the area where his soul was. The Seed of Life no longer harming it as a special sort of energy drew the Serpent’s soul towards Sage’s. At the last instant before they touched, the Serpent’s Twin Soul suddenly rushed over and tried to separate them. Fighting frantically to keep the two souls, man and serpent, from combining. The Serpent made a desperation move, the Twin Soul actually twining together with it before slowly being absorbed. The energy that made up the Twin Soul was absorbed into the Twin Ringed Serpent’s soul, causing it to grow larger. The Serpent Soul was as large as an arm of Sage’s soul, and it seemed to be not nearly enough as the technique was unstoppable at this point.

The two souls began to meld together, the mind and consciousness of the two being smashed together. Sage was dropped into a dreamlike state as his memories, personality, and even his identity was merged together with that of the Serpent. The strength of the soul determined how they combined, which meant that Sage made up the majority of the combination. At the same time, the melding of soul and mind meant that the end result of this fusion would create a creature that was completely unique from either of the originating beings. The fusion of souls losing their shapes, swirling into a cocoon shape within the Spiritual Sea just like that around the body in the physical world.

As the mind and souls of the Serpent and Cultivator begin to combine and slip into a state of unconsciousness, the physical body of the two combined in a far more drastic way. Every inch of the two began to combine, taking aspects from the two creatures and fusing their qualities. A serpent had nearly twice as many bones as a human, but the variety among the bones was far less. Snakes were mostly made up of vertebrae, ribs, and a complicated skull. On the other hand, humans had much more variety among their bones to support their limbs and create their dexterous toes and fingers. Sage’s began to transform from the ground up, his spinal column and ribs changing to be like those of a snake. His vertebrae and ribs multiplying in number, gaining movability, and shrinking as they line his body. His pelvis gained flexible joints to allow it to compress, and more drastically his legs disappeared. That previously vestigial tailbone turned into the continuation of his spinal column. Sage’s legs were quickly replaced by a massive snake tail, transforming his body shape into that of a half-man, half-snake. The combination giving him a body matching that of the Mythical Naga or Lamia.

His breastbone disappeared and his shoulders gained extra joints just like his pelvis, giving this new body the ability to squeeze through tight spaces. Sage’s head also underwent massive changes, his forehead shortening, skull elongating and the connection point with his spine moving up towards the back of his head. If he were to now tilt his head upwards it would be long and narrow just like a snake. Most drastic was the addition of extra joints around his jaw and face. An extra hinge on his jaw increased the vertical width his mouth could open, his chin was split in half and another set of joints allowed his mouth to open horizontally, and lastly another set made it possible to swing the upper jaw and now flattened nose forward. Along with a special throat tube, this new Naga body would be just like a snake that could swallow larger creatures than it’s own body.