Chapter 1276: Young Hero of the Empire
"Are you ready?"
"Ready enough for some light exercise," Zac smiled at Esmeralda's eager expression. "What's left won't be solved in a day or two."
Eight days had passed since secluding himself. Zac felt like a dried-out plant having recovered after a long drought, filled with energy and desire to explore. New pathways had replaced the broken mess left after his breakthrough. They felt like superhighways able to transport boundless amounts of energy with unprecedented speed.
Even so, a week was far from enough to recover to his peak state. Most affected was his Void Emperor Bloodline. His actions inside the Void Plane had even greater ramifications than Zac feared. His bloodline talents and Hidden Nodes were severely weakened, almost like he'd been pushed back down to E-grade.
[Purity of the Void]'s purification space was closed for business, and Zac couldn't extract the Voids of Life and Death from [Spiritual Void]. Occasionally using [Void Zone] confirmed it was a temporary state. With every treasure [Void Heart] consumed, the nullification zone grew more intense. The same was true for [Void Mountain], which almost felt as illusory as when he first got it.
It would require at least a year of constantly feeding [Void Heart] treasures to fully recover, perhaps even longer. That was too long to go without his strongest ace, and he needed to supplement the process. Opening Void Vortices in energy-dense spots would be the most effective solution, but Zac was too weak to force one open in his current state.
As luck would have it, Zac had a new option: [Void Emperor Apotheosis]. The semi-finished method encompassing Zac's whole path could trigger his Void Emperor bloodline, allowing his cells to draw sustenance into its depths. The ability was an improvement on the experiments Zac performed after the Abyssal Pond.
The method's purpose had been expanded to not only advance his Draugr bloodline. Now, it could also nurture his Void Vajra Constitution and soul. It was how he'd slowly absorbed the Law-imbued treasures, and it should work for the general recovery of his void space. Zac didn't expect to have much free time during the trial, but he should be able to squeeze in the occasional body-tempering session to accelerate his recovery.
The Void Plane's wretched state weakened him short-term, yet it was only the second biggest setback to his cultivation. The Void Plane would resolve itself given enough time—if there was one thing Zac was good at, it was finding and consuming treasures. Fixing his Cosmic Core wouldn't be as easy.