'Intending to exhaust me first?' Panting a little, Torq eyed Runthral, having figured out the latter's plan, 'You can get things done when you put your mind to it, huh?'
'Even if you're shit, you're still a Deity. Is that it?' Four students were lying beside him now, unconscious, with their Spirit Containers in the process of breaking down. Tears uniformly streamed out of their eyes, containing rich traces of Prana.
Mystic Mist Art!
Torq focused on gathering the tears and refined them first into a medicine. 'This actually works to my favour.'
The medicine had properties of replenishing his Prana. However, that wasn't what he wanted. The raw materials had broken down fragments of a Spirit Container, which was steadily collapsing structurally to turn into Prana.
Eventually, this Prana will break down into the individual energies of the body, mind, and soul, where it would fully dissipate into the atmosphere. That was an absolute waste, especially since the broken Spirit Container shards were extremely valuable, when used well.
'Only when we have the same Build as Cooter Clansmen could this be used from the Body Stage onwards. But here, at the Spirit Stage, it's universal.' Torq smiled as he employed Mystic Mist Art to focus on refining and controlling the Spirit Container shards.
Instead of breaking down into Prana, they retained their properties and homogeneously mixed into the tears. Prana, in its inert state, latched onto blood and was pumped throughout the body by the heart.
It was why Spirit Containers were located in the heart, for the circulation of Prana was done by the heart.
Spirit Container, in essence, was a tangible substance formed by the condensation of substances present in the blood plasma that was capable of interacting with Prana.
Prana's interaction was directed by influence. The influence given by Mystic Mist Art, in a Cooter Clansman, caused these beneficial substances in the blood plasma to latch onto the Prana. And when the blood passes through the heart, the Prana flows through the Spirit Container.
At that moment, these substances, under the cultivation technique's influence, deposit on the Spirit Container. In a process no different from pearls forming in the shells of clams and the growth of corals, the Spirit Container continues to grow.
Mystic Mist Art creates a blueprint for the Spirit Container's final structure and controls its direction of growth accordingly.
Since the Spirit Container is an amalgamation of deposits, it is fragile, especially when the Prana capacity increases, which heightens the pressure it places on the Spirit Container.
The most a Cooter Clansman could do to increase their training speed was to increase Mystic Mist Art's influence on their being and handle the consequences. The consequences varied from severe thirst to rampant dehydration, even in cases the body is fully hydrated.
The degree to which a Clansman can handle or endure these consequences declares their talent. The higher their endurance capability, the faster they could cultivate. But no matter how fast they could cultivate, it still took them years to reach the peak of the Spirit Stage.
Boiboi, with his talents, was capable of reaching this point by the age of eleven. But even for him, no matter how hard he worked, the most he could accumulate was 20 to 30 units in his Spirit Container before graduation time.
Hence, Torq directly targeted the finished product–Spirit Container shards–leaking out of the students in the forms of tears. Using Mystic Mist Art, he was refining the shards to ensure his body didn't reject them as a foreign substance.
By influencing the Prana forming them, he was rewriting the energies of the body, mind, and soul forming the shards, to make it seem as if they were the shards created from the shattering of his Spirit Container.
Torq was neither innovating nor was he employing a hidden facet of Mystic Mist Art. It was a known secret even for the first generation that formed the Cooter Clan around thirteen millennia ago.
Mystic Mist Art–Spirit Elixir!
The sequence of influences that could be generated using a cultivation technique to bring about a certain, tangible result was termed a Skill. By treating Mystic Mist Art as a lego set, only favourable pieces were picked from the whole set to form a new shape.
This newly formed shape was termed a Skill, and every function part of it was derived from the cultivation technique.
'Hardly anyone uses this Skill, because they don't want a Clansman to develop at the cost of others. That's fundamentally destructive to the Clan's growth, especially when they aren't desperate to do so.' Torq thought as he used the Skill, 'However, the first generation was different. Back then, the Cooter Clan wasn't as powerful as it is now. So, they created such a Skill.'
'I know because I learnt it from the person who created it.' Smiling, Torq observed the sphere of medicine hovering before him getting compressed and refined until there was a spark of energy within it.
Low-Grade Elixir!
Parute Fruits, despite their incredible usage, only had a shelf life of one year, post which they wilted. Hence, many powerful forces on Sumatra created refinement processes to gather the essence of Parute Fruits and condense them. The result was Elixirs.
Even though there was a drop in the quantity of Prana they offered, Elixirs were preferred since they had a shelf life in centuries.
The higher grade Elixirs easily withstood the test of time. Generally, the ones that got destroyed first were the vials storing the Elixirs, more than the Elixirs themselves.
And throughout Sumatra, the place most versed in the creation of Elixirs was none other than the Cooter Clan. They had methods of Elixir refinement that didn't even involve Parute Fruits.
The Skill of Spirit Elixir was one such example.
"Sumatra…" He unleashed his trump card once again as another student rushed at him. And once the latter collapsed, his tears flowed into the sphere, adding to the Low-Grade Elixir.
'It's still not enough. My Spirit Container can handle further stress.' Torq observed that consuming the Low-Grade Elixir at present, would increase his Spirit Container capacity to 40 units. That was too little.
Low-Grade Elixirs were capable of building the Spirit Container anywhere from 20 to 100 units. Once consumed though, the Spirit Container would be in a severe state of strain.
The cultivator would have to avoid building strength in their Spirit Container for at least a few months. The greater the development granted by the Spirit Container, the longer their waiting period.
In this period, their body would gradually adapt to the increased strength and slowly reduce the strain felt by the Spirit Container.
Hence, Torq had to keep refining the Low-Grade Elixir, until with one gulp, he would obtain enough Prana to reach the peak of the Spirit Stage.
It didn't matter if he couldn't progress further in strength for a few months after that. The only thing that mattered at the moment was to graduate successfully.
"How did that bastard get his hands on such a Skill?" By the time Runthral realised what was happening, it was too late. As of now, eight students lay unconscious beside Torq. "Hmph, I won't allow you to benefit!"
Primary Nature–Subtle Terrain Domination!
The floor beneath the students turned into a platform and moved towards Runthral. Now, Torq couldn't refine his Elixir further.
"I should have done it like this first." Runthral grunted as the floor cracked and parted away, intending to push Torq into the cracked ground and close it shut.