Chapter 303
Chapter 303. Arrangements Before the Trial (Part 1)
With only one day left before the Trial of the Sun, Fulan was holed up in the large house she had rented, making her final preparations.
She took out the material she had commissioned from the Adventurers’ Guild at the Spirit Realm market and placed it on the table.
Fulan looked at the soft solid before her, which emitted a cyan glow. When she poked it with a finger, she could press a dent into it, then watch as the solid bounced back.
She had only asked for this one thing from that magical creature’s body, because the magical creature that migrated through the ocean was enormous, a full five meters long.
With a body of that size, merely transporting it to the Spirit Realm would cost a large sum of Spirit Crystals, so Fulan only wanted the thing she needed most.
What Fulan had commissioned was a Black-Striped Giant Shark, a type of magical creature very common in the ocean.
Black-Striped Sharks were magical creatures that moved in groups, while Black-Striped Giant Sharks were the elites or leaders of those groups.
Finding this kind of magical creature was not difficult, because groups of Black-Striped Sharks could be seen everywhere on the sea.
Even so, the hunter had still spent a great deal of effort before successfully hunting down a Black-Striped Giant Shark that often hid behind the Black-Striped Shark group.
Fulan continued looking at the cyan soft solid. It had been dug out of the Black-Striped Giant Shark’s body, and its position had been roughly a little behind its brain.
Its main function was to command the overall movement and attacks of the Black-Striped Sharks. This cyan solid emitted fluctuations that only Black-Striped Sharks could understand.
And this was precisely the ability Fulan needed, because the Song of the Deep Sea sequence stated the following.
[Sequence 5: Obtain an ability whose range of effect expands in the ocean. This ability must be capable of using seawater as a medium to expand its range of effect. Only an ability from a First-Tier Monster can satisfy this requirement...]
The cyan solid from the Black-Striped Shark before Fulan happened to satisfy this requirement exactly.
As long as Fulan could obtain the Black-Striped Shark’s ability, she could reach Sequence 5 of Song of the Deep Sea and further strengthen her own abilities.
The problem was, how was she supposed to stuff this thing into her body?
Fulan looked at this thing, which was almost as large as her entire head, and knew that there was no way to insert it into her body through normal means.
“I will use this method, then.”
Fulan sighed and began the operation.
First, she drank an entire bottle of liquid from the Infinite Health Bottle, filling her body with life force.
Then she faced the mirror, canceled [Hard Scaled Rock], and used Wind Blade to cut open the front of her body. After that, she used Telekinetic Hand to pull it open, revealing the organs inside.
As she opened her body, several rays of light appeared over it. She quickly used [Form Maintenance] to maintain her body in its current state.
“I will use this, then.”
Enduring the pain, Fulan directly removed her own liver and brought it into contact with the cyan solid on the table.
That was not the end. Fulan then used the Harmonization Method from a distance, melting the cyan solid into fine particles and attaching them to her liver.
During this process, Fulan’s life force was continuously draining away, and she could also feel pain, but as a Professional, she could still endure it.
Only after seeing that her liver had also turned cyan and had grown slightly larger did Fulan finally stuff it back into her body.
She used life force to reconnect the liver to her body, then closed her chest.
If this process had taken place in Fulan’s previous life, she most likely would have died from infection.
But this was another world. After referring to the modification procedures here, Fulan discovered that such a rough method was already enough to complete a Modification Surgery.
After all, in Fulan’s previous life, there were no “superhumans” like Professionals.
After finishing the modification, Fulan first sat in the chair and recovered for a while. After all, splitting her body open involved this “tiny bit of pain.” Although the attributes enhanced by the panel allowed her to endure such agony, the pain had truly appeared in her body.
Only after she had slightly caught her breath did Fulan begin checking her current condition.
She placed her finger over the line where she had opened her body. Although she could see no trace on the surface now, when she touched it with her finger, she could feel a thin line.
At the same time, Fulan looked toward the floor. There was a large pool of blood left behind from Fulan’s violent operation earlier, and it glowed faintly as before.
Fulan tried propping her hand against the armrest and attempted to stand. Her body only leaned forward slightly before she smoothly rose from the chair.
“Not bad. It has not affected my movements.”
Fulan jumped a few times, then squatted down, testing what changes had occurred in her body after the modification.
She now discovered that her basic movements were largely unaffected, but another portion of her Mental Power had disappeared. This portion of Mental Power was attached to the liver beneath her chest.
When she sensed how much Mental Power she currently had remaining, she could not help frowning.
“If I put it in terms of the panel’s values, I only have around thirty points of Mental Power left now. That is almost on the lower end among Second-Tier Mages. This modification truly consumes Mental Power.”
However, Fulan did not panic too much, because unlike those mages of the Modification School, her Mental Power could be directly increased through the stacking of multiple professions.
“After I complete the Trial of the Sun, I should get another Second-Tier mage profession.”
Fulan then cleaned up the scene of the rough Modification Surgery she had just performed. After washing the used glass bottle clean, she placed it aside and sat down in the chair.
After putting on her clothes, she took out a yellow rhombus crystal from her pocket. This was the alchemical creation required for [Heart of Quicksand], the spell she had obtained through the Silver Alchemy Award.
Originally, there was absolutely no way Fulan could have made it within these seven days. Even though she possessed Extraordinary-level Alchemy, she had not come into contact with Second-Tier Alchemy at all.
If she had been given a month to practice from scratch, perhaps she could have made it herself. But there was clearly not enough time, and Fulan needed a Second-Tier Spell as a fallback.
So after obtaining this spell, Fulan had specifically asked Elise to help her refine this item.
Elise had only thought it over briefly before agreeing directly. She then took the silver sheet from Fulan’s hands. One day later, she returned the silver creation to her along with this item.
Fulan raised the yellow rhombus crystal above her head. She could clearly see that there were tiny black specks inside it.
As her hand swayed, those black specks continuously changed position within the crystal.
Even now, Fulan could not help sighing at how exquisite this alchemical creation was. If she had enough time, she truly would have liked to refine one according to the procedure written above.
Fulan lowered the yellow rhombus crystal. Now, she had finished all her preparations and only had to wait to face this trial.
“I have already finished all my preparations... Are those Emissaries of the gods making preparations now? This is a task given to them by a god. They should also prepare properly like me, right?”
---
On the sacred island of the Church of the Goddess of the Currents, it was now deep into the night. Yet at the very top of the island, there was still one room that had not sunk into darkness.
The lights inside were as bright as daytime. The surrounding walls all emitted white light, and on the ceiling, there was a glowing object embedded within it. Around this glowing object, a ring of patterns had been decorated with gold.
Heather was currently inside this room, playing cards with her guard Valerie. That was right, playing cards.
“Haha! I won again.”
Heather threw down the two cards in her hand, placing them onto the pile, and stood up excitedly.
Seeing Heather like this, Valerie could not help holding her forehead. She shook her head and said,
“Your Highness, let us stop here for today. Tomorrow is the day you enter the Spirit Realm to carry out the Lord of the Currents’ task. It is truly too late now.”
Heather turned her head and looked outside through the window. Seeing that the Grand Temple outside had already gone dark as well, she knew it was already late and that it was time to rest. But...
Heather’s originally happy expression immediately collapsed. She complained,
“Why did time pass so quickly? I really want to go back to the day when I first received the Goddess’s task...”
Ever since Heather had received this Spirit Realm task from the statue of the Lord of the Currents, she had completely relaxed.
Using preparation for the Goddess’s task as an excuse, she had put off the higher-ups inside the faith, thereby avoiding the need to go to the Grand Temple every day to pray and preside over activities...
During these seven days, aside from not wandering around the streets so that those higher-ups would not discover her, Heather had thoroughly indulged herself in her room for seven days.
Only now did she realize that tomorrow was already the day she had to carry out the task. Time had passed so quickly...
“How annoying. I have to go sit in the temple for three hours again, and every day before meals, I have to starve for an hour before eating...”
Listening to Heather’s complaints, Valerie smiled faintly from where she stood. She had not exposed Heather’s behavior because she also felt that Heather was usually very tired, and this was a good opportunity for her to relax.
“Your Highness, you have made no preparations at all these past few days. Are you not afraid that the Emissaries of other gods will have made thorough preparations and that you will embarrass yourself when the time comes?” Valerie joked.
“I have used communication to contact the Emissaries of other faiths. None of them have been doing anything proper either...”
Heather immediately retorted, and Valerie merely smiled and let the matter pass.
She believed that these Emissaries truly had nothing much to prepare. With so many Emissaries joining forces, the other side could never possibly pass this trial.
That was why she had deliberately accompanied Heather in playing for several days and had not made Heather do any preparations.
She truly felt that obstructing this Trial of the Sun was far too simple for the Emissaries of the gods.