"So, it's called Mystic Mist Art…" Auta muttered when suddenly, he noticed that he had forgotten what he was talking about when trying to mention the Mystic Mist Art. When he dropped the intention, he recalled everything.
After a few more attempts, he realised that he couldn't reveal his possession of the Mystic Mist Art to anyone. He would simply forget what he was about to speak whenever he tries that.
Auta wasn't bothered by it, knowing that revealing such a piece of information would cause his death. He was simple-minded but wasn't a retard.
Of course, nothing changed even after he obtained the Mystic Mist Art. He wasn't compatible with it, since it could only be cultivated by Cooter Clansmen. He couldn't control fluids like Spirit Weapons by employing it.
He also couldn't gather more Prana by cultivating it, since it wasn't a Free Human cultivation technique.
Even though they all looked like humans, there was a significant genetic difference between Free Humans and Clansmen. But the fact that he practiced Mystic Mist Art itself was something to be happy about.
After all, it influenced his Spirit Container, one that had never been influenced by a cultivation technique before. All Free Humans under the Cooter Clan never practiced a Free Human cultivation technique, having not been taught one.
After some time thinking of a future of grandeur, while being unaware that he couldn't achieve anything through a cultivation technique unsuitable for him, Auta fell asleep. Right as he did so, the Empyrean Zinger Scout arrived beside his bed and used its Prana to probe him.
By injecting a trace of Prana into his blood, it waited until the blood carried it toward his Spirit Container. The ambient Prana there rejected its Prana and caused it to dissipate. Based on the reaction, the Empyrean Zinger Scout determined that Auta had successfully learnt the Mystic Mist Art.
It slowly crept towards the mine's entrance and remained in wait for a few hours, letting out a shriek only when there was no Cooter Clansman in the vicinity. Even though its shriek was in a frequency range of sound inaudible to the ears of Cooter Clansmen, it still exercised caution.
Following its shriek, it ran deeper into the mine and hid in a corner. The Cooter Clansmen never entered the mine. They at most did it once a year to inspect and tally to concentration of mineral ores. After that, they would leave everything to the Free Humans after setting them a quota to be met daily.
As long as the Empyrean Zinger Scout hid deep in the mine, it wouldn't be found.
At an altitude of eight hundred metres on Fral Island's mountain, playing with Wittral in a painting contest was Inala. His expression remained unchanged as he heard the Empyrean Zinger Scout's shout.
"I won," He grinned and finished painting a realistic landscape of Fral Island. He then stared at Wittral's art and laughed, "What is that?"
"Five lines and a bunch of colours? That was all you did in an hour?" Tears streamed out of his eyes as Inala patted Wittral hysterically, "Man, you're horrible at this."
"I have never painted before," Wittral set aside the painting brush and complained, "I'm good at making sculptures, you know."
"Why don't we compete in that next?"
"Sure," Inala nodded as under Wittral's command, Nurnur brought in two bowls of clay. "What are we making?"
"Same," Wittral said and touched his bowl of clay, "A realistic figure of this island."
"Alright, let's start." Saying so, Inala had just begun to knead the clay when there was a completed figure on Wittral's side.
He simply used his Primary Nature to mould the clay into a perfect miniature version of the Fral Island, down to the intricate details.
"That is very cheap of you." Inala rolled his eyes and laughed sarcastically, "You probably have a Primary Nature related to moulding clay. That's why you challenged me to this contest."
"Your fault you accepted," Wittral shrugged, turned around, and ran away, "See you tomorrow, loser!"
"Wait, come back!" Inala shouted shrilly, expressing anger in his voice. Ten seconds later, he turned calm, no longer acting like a woman irritated by Wittral's antics.
He focused on his ears, nose, and finally his eyes, detecting Nurnur next to the house's side wall. She was slumped on a chair there, fiddling around with a bamboo stick out of boredom.
'Okay, her attention isn't on me.' Thinking as such, Inala sat on his straw bed and focused on his biome. A moment later, he spat out an Empyrean Zinger Scout and fed it the necessary information through a Bone Slip. Immediately after, he swallowed it, watching it relay the message to the rest of the Empyrean Zingers in his stomach.
Mystic Mist Art—Water Slip!
This was the Bone Slip equivalent for the Cooter Clan. But unlike the repeatability in use of the Bone Slips, Water Slips were one-time use each. After all, it had to be consumed for the information within it to appear in the mind of the consumer.
But unlike the Bone Slips which could only be accessed by Mammoth Clansmen, Water Clips were universal in nature, if the creator intended for that.
After all, as long as someone ingests the Water Slip and waits for their body to naturally digest it, once the resultant energy enters their Spirit Container, all the information contained in it would appear in their mind.
It was by using this advantageous factor that the Cooter Clan set up multiple Ravaged Tribes as their satellite stations, extending their influence through these satellite Ravaged Tribes that heeded the Cooter Clan's commands.
Using Lurt's data, Inala figured out an ingenious method of refining the Lifeforce-rich Life Bombs into Elixirs. These same Elixirs would allow the consumer to increase their Prana by large amounts.
The Life Bomb—containing Lifeforce from Iron Grade Pranic Beasts—could be refined into a Low-Grade Elixir.
The Life Bomb—containing Lifeforce from Silver Grade Pranic Beasts—could be refined into a Mid-Grade Elixir.
Inala's current expertise only allowed him to refine Low-Grade Elixirs, that too ones with such low quality that they only granted the consumer ten Prana. The Low-Grade Elixirs refined by his Empyrean Zingers were even worse.
But that wasn't his goal here. By fusing the Elixir with the Water Slip Skill, through the Mystic Mist Art, Inala generated a new Skill that could be activated using Mystic Bone Art.
It had to be noted that using Mystic Mist Art had consequences. The moment he uses any other cultivation technique, he would lose Prana permanently while his Spirit Container suffers damage. He had gone through that in the Sanrey Plains once already.
Using Mystic Mist Art would cause serious damage to him, making him lose tens of Prana with every activation. Hence, Inala couldn't use it unless necessary. Yes, he planned to use it later, but for his end goal. His current scheme didn't require that.
Through his Mystic Skill Creator, he was able to use Mystic Bone Art on his Prana Bomb's shell, able to influence the lifeforce-rich liquid within into becoming the fluid that Auta consumed.
Mystic Bone Art—Mystic Mist Elixir!
The consumer of the fluid present in this Life Bomb would gain the information stored in it. In Auta's case, that was information about the Mystic Mist Art and also a Skill that prevented him from disclosing the information to others, derived from his Prana Domination Skill.