Using the same technique as before, Resha made his way to the last obstacle. Two masters stood guard there. They were at the end of the channel.
The channel spread into a massive chamber of bone. In its centre was a ginormous heart. But there were no signs of thumping.
A biological heart just wasn't powerful enough to pump blood through an Empyrean Tusk's mountainous body. Usually, large creatures had secondary hearts to pump out blood at farther reaches from the heart.
But the Empyrean Tusk had only one heart. And it wasn't even that big, just a sphere with twenty metres in diameter. Structurally, it made no sense, for such a small size just wasn't enough.
That was only until one thought about the Empyrean Tusk's innate power.
Primary Nature—Internal Inertial Gravity!
The gravity within the heart was so powerful, space bent there, actually storing enough volume of blood to fill up the entire Empyrean Tusk hundred times over. Empyrean Tusks stored vast amounts of resources in their bodies.
In terms of water, they had enough in their bodies to fill up a small sea. The water was stored in a compressed space working similar to a Storage Lantern. The case was the same for food and other resources the Empyrean Tusk consumed.
It was because the Empyrean Tusks also treaded regions like the Ennoudu Plains that were bereft of resources. In such situations, they needed a vast sum of resources to upkeep their functions. Therefore, all storage organs held volumes of resources many times the total volume of the Empyrean Tusk itself.
The heart was one such organ, possessing enough nutrient-rich blood to satisfy its energy requirements for a year on its own. Adding onto the various stored resources, it could go for a decade without any external intake.
Empyrean Tusks were that much majestic and impressive as living creatures.
'That's the final obstacle.' Resha frowned in worry. The powder he brought wouldn't be effective on someone at the Life Stage.
When a cultivator entered the Life Stage, they became a special being. In the Spirit Stage, one cultivated their Spirit. In the Body Stage, they cultivated their body. Similarly, in the Life Stage, the cultivator cultivated life itself.
Depending on their cultivation level at the Life Stage, a master had multiple lives. Moreover, they could split their bodies into as many copies as the number of lives they possessed.
The split bodies weren't clones but were the actual cultivator. If a cultivator at the Life Stage was killed once, they would lose one life and could continue battling.
The problem wasn't with this but with the aspect of their bodies being split. 'Even though there are two masters here, I cannot guarantee they haven't spread more versions of themselves around the heart.'
This was the actual problem.
Resha used all the prepared powder and waited until it took effect. But just as he was about to go ahead, he noticed another master, a version of the one standing guard, 'Indeed, there are more of them.'
"I just yawned for a moment."
With the slightest disturbance, the effects of the powder vanished. Resha couldn't take the risk anymore and he began to retreat, 'This was supposed to be the safest option. But since it doesn't work, I should enter a capillary and head directly to the heart.'
As he was a Mammoth Clansmen, the Empyrean Tusk would consciously affect the gravity around his body to prevent him from getting crushed by the liquid pressure in the capillary.
Usually, there were nodes in the blood vessels to filter out any foreign substances. Oftentimes, during an invasion, a few Mammoth Clansmen had by mistake fallen into a bloodstream, mostly when the Empyrean Tusk was wounded.
In such cases, they would arrive at a node and be kept safe there. Eventually, once the invasion ends, the Empyrean Tusk would send them into a channel. That was why Resha couldn't jump into a blood vessel.
He would be filtered out.
There were no nodes this close to the heart. That was why he took the pains to infiltrate this close.
He made his way through an intersection channel and sneaked in a certain direction, sighing upon seeing a broken channel.
This was broken when the Mud Vipers invaded during the First Minor Crisis. Yes, they had almost reached the heart. If the Empyrean Tusk hadn't broken the channel, they would have invaded its heart and devoured it whole.
The students in the Academy of Refinement weren't the Mud Vipers' target. Therefore, only a small number of the weakest among their numbers arrived there. The majority of their peak forces were concentrated in the invasion into the channel leading to the heart. A bloody battle had been fought there between the Mud Vipers and the Mammoth Clansmen.
An Empyrean Tusk corpse would provide enough food to a Mud Viper nest for a century, also proving them surplus Prana. Hence, it was a delicacy.
Resha extended a ribbon from his cloth towards the broken region of the channel, watching it disintegrate instantly. 'The gravity's messed up.'
He inhaled a deep breath and gently extended his hand forward, pressing it upon the chaotic gravity-infested area. The Empyrean Tusk instinctively suppressed the chaos there, keeping him safe.
But since it had voluntarily destroyed the channel, even it felt difficulty in fully calming the gravitational flux. His bones caused crunching sounds as a dozen places cracked in the first second.
'I can't last long.' Gritting his teeth, Resha jumped into the chaotic region, falling out of the channel. His limb bones were crushed into powder, causing them to flail about like rubber appendages. They were given up to ensure his vital organs were safe. The pain was unbearable, even for the regressor.
When the Empyrean Tusk couldn't fully save him, it focused on keeping him alive, allowing him to plunge into an open blood vessel. That had been torn off when the channel was destroyed.
The Empyrean Tusk suppressed the blood from spilling out through gravity. Problem was that it was too old by now. As a result, even its body couldn't heal from a simple wound such as this.
During the First Major Disaster, when Resha fights the Zingers through this region, he falls in through this cut wound. It remained unhealed until then.
But at that point, the Empyrean Tusk was in its death throes. It didn't have enough attention to focus on protecting him. Therefore, Resha experienced hell as gravity destroyed his body while his Mystic Bone Art rapidly sucked in Prana within the blood vessel, healing him back.
It went back and forth, allowing him to barely cling to life.
'At least, it's not as horrible in this life.' Resha thought as he was carried through the blood vessel. Even though he had no Prana, his body began to naturally absorb Prana from the blood like a sponge.
He couldn't activate his Mystic Bone Art to make the Prana his. Like the flow of blood, the Prana mended his destroyed limbs and the excess simply flowed out.
Without any nodes to filter him out, Resha eventually entered the heart, staring at the sea of blood all around him. He swam towards a wall and got into a crease there, taking a meditative pose. Even though it was full of blood, he wasn't affected by the pressure, thanks to the Empyrean Tusk's care.
Moreover, his body was naturally absorbing all necessary nutrients from blood, including oxygen. He wasn't breathing, but his lungs were constantly replenished with oxygen, allowing him to survive in such an environment.
'Now, I need to meditate and succeed.' Resha's eyes were cold, focused, 'A few more years remain of your lifespan. In this life, I'll prevent your premature death. The only death you'll experience is one of old age.'