Chapter 85: Growth and Plans 2

Chapter 85: Growth and Plans 2

Word count = 1125 on 9/22/2023

1125->2964 when I put in updated status page at the bottom.

After settling down his recent growth in power. He holds in his hands while cross legged, 3 times. These 3 items are Vin, Cruise and Cy. Vin is called the Ring of opening which was the source of power for his rings. Providing a 20% boost in exchange for a 25% boost in energy drain. Cruise is the necklace/amulet that assists in his energy regeneration. Then finally Cy was given to him by his parents to hide his energy signature which was very useful during his Slaughter City escapade

These items are not as useful as they used to be. Sure 20% might seem good but for someone like Xue Tie who obtained the manufacturing process of these items from the ancient subordinate clans of his. He knows how to reforge them….without smithing through a hammer.

This is done through a sort of ritual circle that looks incredibly close to a magic circle. The goal is to change the format of the item's energy pathways or how it interacts with certain energies.

As such, Xue Tie needs to do some tests to get the chance of using this knowledge and test how even Death energy would influence these items. He knows the energy is far more pure and thus higher quality than normal spirit energy due to its unique properties and how it's able to convert souls into more of its energy. Perhaps he can convert some new form of energy that was never really discovered due to the intricacies of the soul. As such, he gets to work.

A month later he got the results. The conclusion is: that Death energy is too volatile for any 'mortal' material to handle it. To a point where once it hits a certain instability point, it explodes. Xue Tie's workshop has been ruined so many times because of this that he had to experiment on the edge of the volcanic region. Out of sight of tourists, he caused many explosions that he was forced to cause even more destruction due to a few streams of lava being made that are slightly in the direction of the nearby villages.

He can only scrap the idea until maybe when he ascends, the other possibility is that he needs something like spirit bones to use as the base material but slaughtering so many 100k year old beasts for just their bones would put him on the same level as Qian Xunji and why he hunted down Ah Yin for that reason.

Xue Tie shakes his head. 'Best to just change my focus instead of worrying about artifacts of death energy. Ill just modify the current trinkets to suit titled douluos instead of just everyone which is why it was usable by me in the first place' With his focus reconfigured. He gets to work again in his labs.

Unknowingly, a thick tanned fox beauty had been watching his experiments around the vicinity of her volcanos. She licks her lips in interest but then diverts her attention to something that is quite threatening to her and her home.

Another month later, Xue Tie emerges from his workplace with a colorful aura circulating around his body. After a few moments, the energy converges into a new necklace around his neck. This necklace has 3 gems in a triangular formation with circuit-like structures built into the necklace plate itself.

"The Eye of Xue. Didn't think i'd actually be able to accomplish this" Xue Tie marvels at his creation as halfway through upgrading each of his 3 items, he had an intrusive thought on integrating all 3 items into one for convenience. He thought of various forms and was stuck between making something like the one ring but he found the design to be too ugly and ditched it. As such the final result is the Eye of Xue or Eye of Blood. Each of the gems serves a single purpose.

The red gem in the center is based on Vin, which means it's the power boost effect. As compared to it's original 20% power boost of spirit rings in exchange for 25% energy drain was exchanged for a 50% boost of spirit rings in exchange for 55%. If he went any higher then it would have been a 60% boost in exchange for a 80% energy drain which was too drastic a change for his tastes.

Moving onto the second. We have the blue gem which is based on Cruise, the energy recovering necklace. It's was originally providing a 2x boost in energy recovery which is not bad but at the later levels of cultivation, the energy drain is massive and so 2x is not worth it. The newest and tastiest result is a 6x boost in energy drain and it has a momentary active state that temporarily converts the other gems to it's purpose and thus can even reach up to 9x regen for an hour but then the necklace cant be used at all for 3 hours.

It's this feature that took the longest to integrate as he had to remodel the energy pathways for the other 2 gems multiple times so they could fulfill their original purpose as well as provide the active state.

The final gem is a Green gemstone which works a bit differently than before. It originally worked by absorbing remnant energy that naturally seeps out of it's owner and changes it's properties to be different. It's like taking a complete rubix cube and undoing all the work to give the impression that it's normal spirit energy. This was also applied in regards to his scent and footsteps when it's activated as it takes the active energy and essentially coats his body in it like a thin film of energy that muffled his movement to provide the sneak effect.

The new gem instead absorbs the energy of nearby terrain and then through Xue Tie's energy would coat his body in that same energy. Using the energy film principle, he takes on the status of his environment. This is more seamless than before and actively changes even when he moves or flies. It suppresses his energy much better than before even when he boosts himself with primal burst (robes 6th ring).

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Short Authors Note:

I apologize for the slightly shorter story chapter. Switching between this book and the unpublished bleach one messes with my mind. It also doesnt help that i've been having intrusive thoughts for a souls borne fanfic but my hands are already full so I have to put something into a coma or simply change how I am working.

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Status:

Name: Xue Tie

Race: Human (transmigrator)

Age 20 (34 if counting previous life's 15 years of age)

Bloodline: Mohg, Lord of Blood.

Martial Spirits: Blood Trident-mutated, Robes of Blood (used to be gloves of blood, gained wings)-mutated by contact with Blood Trident)

Level: 97 Titled douluo - no title yet

Cores: 3 Soul Core

Robes of Blood Spirit Ring composition: black, black , black , Black, Black, Black, red, clear/transparent red

Blood Trident Ring Composition: Black, black-red, red, orange. black-flame, black-flame.

Robes of Blood Spirit Ring Ability names: BloodFlame Talons, BloodBoon, Immutable, Blood Trace, Blood Vortex, primal Burst, martial Spirit Avatar

Blood Trident Spirit Ring Ability Names: Refinement, Evanescent Path, Tiger Roar depicting death, Turbulent Air

Robes of Blood Spirit Ring Abilities effect:

1:BloodFlame Talons: The user's claws are covered in a red aura. Users can claw out to enable a 'scratch' on whatever surface they find (air, rocks, people, etc). That scratch will explode in a flurry of blood flame 1 second later

a.Divergent applications: Xue Tie has trained to be able to suppress the activation of the follow-up explosion up to 5 seconds later.

2:BloodBoon: Users' hands manifest blood flame which they may throw at a target. As long as Spirit Energy is provided, more blood flame will be created. Thus creating a flamethrower of sorts for reference.

3: Immutable: a defensive ability where the Robes of Blood cover more of the body and provide a 5x defensive boost as well as a .5x boost for every ring possessed by the user. Current Bonus = 8.5x. The negative is that the user's total weight increases by the same amount as the total bonus. All attacks cause a counterattack explosion-mutation caused by hedonistic peach.

4:Blood Trace: As long as the user is either within 20 ft of a target or as long as the user has obtained enough blood, a trace can be established. The trace comes in the form of a red circle around the target. The ring can not be dispelled by anti-status abilities. Can be applied 3 times for better effect.

a.Application: the trace assists in both Bloodflame talons or Bloodboon to gain the 'Seeking' property. The seeking property lasts for 1 second after activation of mentioned spirit skills. Additional traces extend it up to 5 seconds

B. App2: trace increases the effectiveness of spirit skill the more traces there are. 2 traces = 25% damage boost. 3 traces = 50% boost.

5: Blood Vortex: A Wind based technique that summons a tornado that revolves around the user that can be directed with the casters hands to produce shredding attacks into the distance. (imagine Godrick the grafted when he shoots out wind blasts)

6: Primal Burst: Based on Flame Grant Me Strength. Users receive a 40% boost while suffering from self harm via immolation. This can be applied multiple times for a 40% boost each time but a 6x multiplier for self harm(stacks)

7: Martial Spirit Avatar: a clone of the Blood Robes that has access to all the robes spirit rings below 7. Can act independent of the user.

a. Does not have access to spirit bones or Martial Skills like Nihil.

b. The armor itself is empty and supported purely through spirit energy.

8: Deadzone: Siphons the air out of an area that weakens all inside and can knock them out if they aren't careful (takes internal air aka breath). The air can be returned in the form of an explosive shockwave. 80ft range .200k year old ring-Pale Blue

Blood Trident Martial Skills

1: Refinement: Anything stabbed by the martial spirit begins a cycle of refinement via compression and evolution.

A: The refinement can be applied to anything that can be physically interacted with. ie : Blood, bones, muscles, spirit rings (spirit rings can normally not be interacted with but this ability changes that fact)------This had been changed to no longer needing contact but works within a cone area in front of the tridents pointed direction.

2: Evanescent Path: Coats the trident in Special flames hotter than lava. Lasts for 5 minutes before having to be reapplied

3: Tiger Roar depicting death: releases a sound that calls upon all nearby blood to be pulled towards the user. Originally a debuff ability from the trident as it lets out a chime of doom to weaken targeted foes. but Mutated after consuming the Flame fruit from the Volcanic region. half dmg of regular nihil as well as half range but at much lower energy cost. Debuffs targeted enemies by an additional 15%

a: Blood Trace ring provides the same boost to nihil as it does to this but also to the debuff. Total dmg possible with 3 rings is 22.5% of enemy health and targets are also weakened by that amount on top of that. Max range is 40ft

4: Turbulent Air: releases a noxious poison around the trident courtesy of a frogs acids. this poison leaves a trail where the trident is. This poison can be set ablaze to cause an explosion akin to using blood flame talons.

5: EarthQuake: 170k year old ring

6. Black Blade: Ring created through the power of Death. Send out a blade aura of black and red which drains the struck targets of their current lifeforce. Takes 4 hours to recover

7. Destined Death: Ring created through the power of Death. Slam Trident into the ground or into a target and release 50 black blades that go in all directions of the trident. All struck targets are drained of their current lifespan. Takes 4 hours to recover and reverse effect.

Self-made Spirit Skills

1: Nihil: a 40->80(after death rune was acquired) ft radius circle of red smog that anyone within loses 30% of their total life force with each usage.

Divergent: With Blood Trace, Nihil's effect is limited to traced targets only but each trace increases Nihil damage by 75%. 3 traces = 160% damage aka 50% of total life each usage. The range is also doubled (160 ft).

A:Negative: High energy drain that has been reduced after a long study of bloodline

New abilities (self made or otherwise)

1: 1st Spear Technique: Blood Drain- a powerful spear technique that focuses on two aspects. Piercing and then liquid manipulation (specifically blood). Useful to weaken foes by draining them of blood.

Only recently discovered and as such not at full potential aka high energy cost as well as concentration to utilize.

2: 2nd Spear Technique: Comet: the combination of multiple spirit skill boosts, slaughter Assault domain and wings to fly at super speeds to simply stab a target. (this had been used many times before but never named officially)

Blood Gods Domain: 3 states - Domination, Slaughter Assault, Armament.

1: Domination: 60 ft range killing intent domain that debuffs enemies by 30% while buffing self 30%

2: Slaughter Assault, A single target activation of the Domination domain that increases users speed by 150% and a power boost of 50%.

3: Augmentation: a self buff by condensing the domain into a type of shadowy armor. Provides a 70% boost in defense and 40% boost in other aspects

3a: Blood Touch: a mental attack that can only be used in the Augmentation state.It stuns the target for 2 seconds

Temporarily deactivates the domain to focus on attack, leaving one vulnerable.

Vampirism: An effect gained from the Domain seed that first appeared when the blood trident corrupted the seed. It provided a minor healing boost to self when living things come into contact with the trident. Was later boosted when the domain was fully unleashed for a proper vampirism state on both martial spirits and even the regular body.

Self-Martial Spirit Fusion

Form 1: Summons a Mohg avatar that is capable of using Nihil in a range of 500 ft circle (aka 250 ft radius). More damage the closer one is while base is by default 40% and max can be instant death. (uncontrolled state)

Form 2: Summons an avatar capable of using full skills and controlled akin to a mecha. (controlled state) This form has its own set of fused spirit rings based on the combination of both martial spirits rings.

Ring 1: Refined Bloodflame Claws- Wider Clawing radius with 5x original explosive power. Can be used from any part of the body

Ring 2: Bloodflame mist - poisonous mist that on contact with anything bursts into flames

Ring 3: Defensive tiger depicting death: defense and mini nihil

Ring 4: Red ringed Poison- anyone affected by trace rings is instantly poisoned

Ring 5: Volcano- (its kinda obvious by its name)

Ring 6: Blade of Death: The fire buff is turned into a debuff on the struck target. making the lifeforce drain of regular black blade 2x more effective.

Ring 7: Anubis: Throwing trident summons destined death like normal but afterwards the martial spirit avatar is summoned who has its own trident but can wield the original with one hand. (Anubis is the egyptian god to judges souls. which pares up nicely with destined death)

(no more rings due to lack of rings on trident)

Equipment

1: Ring of Opening-Vin: 20% increase in spirit skill power in exchange for 25% spirit power usage.

2: Amulet of Nature-Cruise: 2x Energy regen

3: Band of HIding-Cy: masks/suppresses one's energy signature

4: Armband of Storage-unnamed: 8 crystals that each hold up to 15 cubic feet inside (Xue Tie owns a second storage item that he got from the Food God Envoys in recent chapters)

5: Eye of Xue: Vin effect-50% boost in exchange for 55% extra energy drain for spirit ring usage. Cruise: 6x energy regen. There is also active state

Spirit Bones

1: Drake's skull (77k years old): External spirit bone received after killing the Evanescent Gale Drake at Mt. QiXiao. Effects: mental protection and access to Evanescent Beam. A fire breath attack in the form of a condensed beam

2: Flaying Blood Scorpion Left Leg bone (Currently 30k years old after refinement, originally 20k years old):unknown effects, obtained in chapter 33. Unabsorbed

3: 23k->90k->140k year *Mutated*(->New) oldSheer Wind Harpy Right Arm bone(pterodactyl). Acquired from Spirit hall. Blessing of the wind that gives 2x speed boost. Air cutter from pokemans-Multiple wind blades going after a single target. Hard to dodge due to tracking aspect.

4: 170k->199k year old tiger leg bone (refined before given to Bibi Dong)

5: 190k->220k year old bull leg bone. Dash - 100 to 500ft dash in any direction. Small energy cost. not teleportation but pure speed that looks like teleportation.

6: 230k->299k year old frog arm: Greater Poison resistance.

7: 900k (?) year old skull bone from a nine headed Bat King: 2 abilities. Mind Rise (passive but has active state): increases the comprehensive/mental abilities of the user. Bat Clones (active only)-create up to 9 clones of the user. Clones take 10 minutes to make and possess the users martial spirits and can move independently of the original.

A: the Clone can be temporarily possessed by the main body