Molting the Mortal Coil

Having bought himself a little time, at least until he ran out of Qi or Warp Worms, it was time to start moving. The armored up Warp Worm slowly inched its way down the tunnel. A fully mature Warp Worm was about three feet in diameter, but the layer of Black Enhydros and coat of large spikes nearly doubled that size. On the plus side, the tunnel the Warp Worm was traveling down was around ten feet wide, so the worm had plenty of room to move.

Sage had no idea where they were within the giant tortoise, but the tunnel only went in two directions. After a moment’s deliberation, they moved in the downhill direction. The slope on the ground was gentle, but it was still apparent. A few minutes later, they came upon a fork, or more accurately a sort of hub. The tunnel they were in lead to a small chamber with a half dozen other tunnels branching from it. The Warp Worm didn’t really have any of its own natural weapons, but he ordered it to bite a mark into the wall to keep track of their route. Unfortunately, even the strange warping power of the worm’s internals did nothing to the rocky tunnel.

Not giving up yet, Sage sent out the Soul Clone. The Soul Clone had been training different Spirit Power techniques for years. After Soul Resonance and Ego Forge it had focused on becoming a more effective combatant. While attacking souls was quite powerful, it was also difficult to perform. Worse yet, if they faced an enemy with adequate soul defenses, like Hei Bai, then the Soul Clone would be helpless. First, it trained in an ability from the Telekinesis branch of that Spirit Power tree: Multi-Manipulation Specialty. It was a simple technique, and while it couldn’t exert much strength it created an invisible force to move multiple objects at once. This was what the Soul Clone used to control and fire a dozen Shard Rifles at the same time.

Next up, the Soul Clone studied a defensive technique. As a spirit type body, purely physical attacks were useless against it, but on the other hand it was quite fragile against things that could hurt it. Not wanting to waste tons of Psionic Crystals to look for special spirit defenses, the Soul Clone simply went into the ‘Second Skin’ branch and learned the specialized Barrier power, which basically used Spirit Power to create a skin-tight forcefield. The term ‘skin-tight’ was a bit odd when considering that the Soul Clone was a spirit type existence with no actual skin to speak of, but the barrier formed around whatever ghostly shape it took, so there were no problems with its use.

The Soul Clone attempted to scratch some marks into the tunnel wall with Multi-Manipulation, but unfortunately it wasn’t strong enough to even leave a scratch. While it could lift and fire a Shard Rifle, the technique was about finesse and not strength. Each rank allowed him to control two ‘manipulators’ without dividing his focus or attention, but at his level they could only lift a few thousand pounds divided amongst them all. While that was very strong in the mundane world, it was nothing compared to the earth shaking power of other high ranking cultivators. That was why it had to be used with finesse and weapons to be of any use. It was also the reason that the Soul Clone had chosen its third technique, the Third Hand Specialty. Similar to Multi-Manipulation in that it was a telekinetic power, it was instead focused on strength, essentially providing a third hand for the user. It didn’t exactly match the strength of the wielder, but as long as their Spirit Power was adequate for their level it would be pretty comparable.

There was a loud boom in the tunnel as that invisible third hand smashed against the tunnel wall. The delicate approach to make a mark was ineffective, so the Soul Clone immediately used a violently powerful strike. It was acting quickly, since the heat in the tunnel was already eroding its barrier. Sage could feel it wouldn’t even last as long as the Warp Worm without the Blacksilver King enhancing it. Luckily, the Soul Clone using Third Hand was strong enough to leave a mark. A blow struck with what he gauged to be near three hundred thousand pounds of force, yet it only formed a few cracks and caused a small bit of stone to chip away from the wall. The Soul Clone smashed the wall a few more times, just enough to leave a crude directional marking, a smashed arrow, which really was more of a large dent with a smaller dent on one side to denote direction.

The Soul Clone returned to the Universe Ring to recover and they continued on their way. Now that they’d confirmed that the Second Skin Barrier could hold up against the heat, at least for a short time, Sage took turns making marks with the clone. They traveled down a tunnel and left a mark to show where they’d come from and another to show which tunnel they traveled into. That way if they had to backtrack they’d have a path to follow and know which tunnels they’d already explored. At the same time, in the Universe Ring, Sage was mapping out their path to try and get a better idea of the layout of the place. Every hour he released a new Warp Worm and transferred the Universe Ring, and Blacksilver King over to it, sending the shriveled up Warp Worm to the Inner World to try and recover itself.

Maybe I’ll get lucky and one of them will adapt to the constant heat and power itself up. Haha, yeah right.

He couldn’t just rely on possibility, but that thought still gave him an idea.

“Ruanfu. Are any of those cultivators fire specialists? We’re trapped inside that giant tortoise, so if anyone in there could handle these conditions it would be great to know.”

“Oh, Sheng! A couple of them use fire, but most of them aren’t very resistant. Only this one fellow might have a chance. Want to give him a try?”

Sage chuckled and looked into the Inner World where Ruanfu was standing next to a slim man in a set of red robes. To answer her question, the man disappeared from her side and Sage brought him to the Universe Ring to give him a once over, “I see. You actually progressed the Fire Eating Art to Foundation Building. Very impressive, but for a rank 4 to face a rank 6 is pretty impossible. Good thing you just have to sneak around inside its body.”

The man seemed a bit nervous, he was suddenly teleported into a different room and face to face with what he’d been told was the Lord of their world. Was the world really inside this man? The whole concept seemed impossible, but he merely accepted the situation when he realized the power gap was so large he felt nothing at all from the man. Being unable to sense anything meant the man was either completely mortal, or way out of his league.

The man gave a bow, “I, Hou Hei, am here to serve. What would you have of me, my Lord?”

Sage waved his hand, “No need for such formality. I only ask for loyalty, no need for flattery or rigid rituals of etiquette. We are currently trapped inside a volcanic beast’s body. I need help exploring. You’ll see the markings the Warp Worm is making, copy it if you can. Head out and explore some of the other tunnels, come back when you can’t stand it any longer, got it?”

Hou Hei gave another bow and then Sage sent him out. Surprisingly, he didn’t burn up instantly. Instead, he opened his mouth and started breathing in the heat from around himself. Impressive. The technique lives up to its name. Now let’s see how this fire spitter fellow does.