Defiance of the Fall

It was impossible not to have heard of Zenith Elixir during the gathering. Truga Ur himself mentioned it in passing. It was Black Zenith's most famous product, and having a monopoly on its concoction was an important reason for Truga's unshakeable position. There were multiple stronger Monarchs in the region, but no one wanted to harm the goose who laid the golden egg.

"Unfortunately, young master should've heard that the purification takes a significant amount of time. Every day, a single drop is added to the stockpile, and there are many who clamor for the Zenith Elixir," Truga continued, looking forlorn. "At most, I can gift young master one vat."

"One vat," Zac slowly said. "I'm afraid that's not enough. I was thinking ten."

"Ten?!" Truga Ur yelped, looking like Zac had asked him for his heart. "Impossible! That's millennia of accumulation! I might barely be able to scrape two vats together by calling in a few favors."

'This old man has eight vats stockpiled in the basement. Maybe I should steal the other six to teach him a lesson,' Esmeralda said, looking ready to sneak out of her shrine again.

Half a day had passed since they entered Black Zenith, which had given Esmeralda enough time to perform a series of experiments. She could freely interact with the environment now that Zac provided passage. Zac had also gained newfound admiration for the toad's methods. She'd come and gone right under the nose of the guests, even explored the mayor's mansion without triggering any alarms.

'There's no need. I know a way to make this old scammer open his wallet.'

Instead of throwing out a counteroffer, Zac silently placed a bottle of pills on the table. Truga looked at the bottle with confusion before his eyes widened with genuine shock. Soon, he couldn't help himself. He picked up the bottle and gingerly poured one pill into his palm, acting like the common Healing Pill was a priceless treasure.

"There's not a speck of Earthly Taint!"

With Earthly Taint being ever-present in the pre-System age, you'd find it in everything from pills to equipment. An important part of any craftsman's skillset was minimizing the contamination. There were countless methods to extract the good and leave the bad. Even so, not even grandmasters could craft pills as pure as the ones Zac presented. Such things could only appear when the materials and environment were rid of Earthly Taint.

"Like I said, any worthwhile undertaking comes at a cost. Nevertheless, the Empire wouldn't do something if they weren't confident in success," Zac said, giving the Monarch a pointed look. "Pills like these cannot be mass-produced yet. At most, they can act as a proof of concept, showcasing the value of the Imperial Road Project."

"How marvelous," Truga Ur muttered, and Zac could see the wheels turning. "Ten vats is still impossible, but I might be able to scrounge up a little more. I keep a modest emergency stockpile for periods when the Refinement Array malfunctions. How about three—"

Zac inwardly laughed, knowing it was just a matter of striking the right balance now. He could easily have taken out a small mountain of such pills, but he still showed a reluctant expression as he took out another bottle. Twenty minutes later, the negotiations were complete, with each side feeling they'd pulled one over on the other.

"The Wendimars are as straightforward as the rumors say," the Monarch said with a pleased smile.

Twelve pill bottles and three boxes holding unblemished Natural Treasures flew into one of Truga's sleeves. Zac similarly put away a Cosmos Sack holding a small fortune of refined Spiritual Crystals. They were the predecessor to Nexus Crystals and Cosmic Crystals and the Limitless Empire's unofficial currency. Some spending money could come in handy further down the road since taking out his System-era materials would always come with a risk.

"Six vats it is. The final refinement will take six days," Truga said.

Zac took the news in stride, having already learned this during the banquet. The final refinement was critical to creating a product fit for consumption, but it resulted in an unstable product. The elixir would only remain fresh for a few days after being completed, so it was stored in a semi-refined state until it was time to be used.

"Accommodations have been prepared; feel free to explore the city until the refinement is complete," Truga continued.

'He wants you to fan the flames even further,' Esmeralda laughed.

"Thank you," Zac said and left after exchanging some pleasantries.

He'd been given a large courtyard reserved for esteemed guests. Zac ushered away the servants before sitting down by a large pond. The gentle rain of memory lanterns was muted in the night sky, causing the waters to ripple with an ethereal glow. The tranquil atmosphere soothed Zac's mind, and he took out a piece of wood and an artisanal axe.

He'd picked up carving while working on his Cosmic Core. It helped him express the blueprint, and he'd used the same method many times since. Today, he wasn't cultivating. He simply carved because he wanted to. The block of deep-red wood was the most similar to the trees in the Pangonian Wilds his undead side had on hand.

The only sounds in the courtyard were those of crickets and woodcarving. The piles of shavings grew as a bust started to take shape. The tranquility was shattered when a huge toad appeared out of nowhere, turning the pond into her bath. Zac didn't react, calmly continuing his work.

"We're clear," Esmeralda confirmed, comfortably stretching her long legs. "You know the mayor intentionally exposed his plan, right?'

"I know," Zac said. "No fool could reach Monarchy in the shallows. He understands balance, that he needs to pay a price to get what he wants. It's one thing to scam the local warlords, another to make a Founding Family an unwitting accomplice. He wouldn't be able to stay inside the Empire."

"I listened in on some conversations while I investigated the city. He's quite popular. The weak lead better lives here than in most settlements," Esmeralda hummed. "Maybe he's a noble thief, just like me."

Zac had a feeling that Esmeralda was closer to a wealth-hoarding dragon than a Robin Hood type but saw no reason to call her out. Neither was Zac convinced Truga Ur was a slimeball hiding a noble heart. Like everyone else, he was a mix of good and bad. It didn't matter to Zac. They were only passing boats in the night, using each other to get what they needed. ꭆΑＮồВÊＳ

Zac continued working on his sculpture until distinct features appeared. He eventually stopped, intentionally leaving some roughness in his work. The lack of details made it impossible to guess her age, trapping her in a state of uncertainty. Only time could tell what was real.

"Not bad. You managed to replicate a hint of true fire. If you keep at it, you'll reach the level of an artisan. At that point, you can imbue your works with actual power," Esmeralda said. " Who is it?"

"Terea Wendimar," Zac said, stowing it away. "Are you sure about this?"

"You think the mayor's going to silence you?" Esmeralda curiously asked.

"No. A son of the Ironblooded Wendimars disappearing in Black Zenith would cause him no end of trouble. I think he'll send me off under great fanfare, praying I'll never come back," Zac said. "I'm talking about the delay."

They'd originally only planned on staying the day before continuing toward the Mercurial Court. Losing connection with his other half wasn't that big a deal. He couldn't share senses, but Zac still shared one soul and Cosmic Core. He'd already worked out a few simple messages by drawing on his core and Mental Energy. His other half knew he'd encountered an opportunity and would take a while.

"We shouldn't be overly anxious. This trial won't be over in a day or two. We'll only harm our chances if we ignore the opportunities along the way," Esmeralda said. "We could both benefit from the elixir, so we should just set the time aside."

"You're right."

Zac spent the next day touring the city, both out of interest and to collect information. His understanding of the Limitless Empire improved a lot despite Black Zenith being an unimportant frontier city. Reading historical records couldn't compare to actually walking through history.

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Beyond information, Zac also tasted the local cuisine and traded for some interesting materials. Zac could see how the atmosphere grew more heated by the hour. Everyone was discussing the Imperial Road. The rumors reached a fever pitch when three pill bottles appeared on display at the city's Auction House.

New information was added to the rumors—the Imperial Road would open the path to cultivation. Living close to it would transform the fate of one's descendants, removing the blight of Earthly Taint. As unbelievable as it sounded, the unblemished pills acted as proof. Zac could barely walk the streets despite having guards keeping people at bay.

It was obvious the mayor would use the pills this way. It was the only reason Truga was willing to pay such a hefty sum. The elixir was priceless. The few vats that appeared on the open market went for the equivalent of multiple C-grade Nexus Coins. Some bottles of Early D-grade pills couldn't compare, even if they were free from Earthly Taint.

Zac didn't go out the following days, partly because of guilt over his role in Truga's scam. Facing the misguided hope was uncomfortable, even if it was all ancient history. Zac didn't have time to spend the whole week sightseeing anyhow. Things had finally calmed down, and there was much Zac needed to catch up on.

Black Zenith remained stable throughout, showing no indication of collapse or other discrepancies. The golden shimmer of Imperial Faith gradually faded during this stay, but it was nowhere near as noticeable as the end of his previous vision. Zac could stay for well over a month at the current rate of expenditure.

Staying that long didn't prove necessary. Right on time, an attendant informed Zac that everything was ready. The servant led him to a guarded basement that had to be dug directly into the skull. The mayor waited before a sturdy door covered in arrays.

"Everything is ready," Truga said after excusing the servants. "I took the liberty of preparing my personal chamber rather than one of the public rooms. It can retain the elixir slightly longer."

Zac nodded in thanks and stepped into the room. It was mostly empty beyond a pool in the middle. It was filled with spiritual water and heated by arrays. Standing behind it were six sealed vats, each the size of a barrel. They emitted a fearsome aura, making it seem like a ferocious beast had been sealed inside.

"Be careful. Any medicine will become poison if taken in excess," the Monarch reminded. "Even refined, there is a significant amount of desolation left. Absorb it too quickly, and it'll affect your mental state. From there, it's a short journey to insanity."

"I know my limits," Zac assured, looking back at Truga Ur with interest. "If I hadn't arrived, what would you have done?"

"I would have invited my contact from the Celestial Workshop to double-check my work," Truga smiled. "Of course, I'd have to provide a few gifts to make the arduous journey seem worth it."

The door closed, sealing the chamber. Zac laughed, having expected an answer along those lines. It was difficult to reconcile an unfathomable undertaking like the System's creation with local politics and bribery, but human nature infiltrated everything. Zac had a feeling Truga Ur did well for himself in the original timeline.

'The room is clean, but I'll add another layer of isolation just in case,' Esmeralda said before emerging from the shrine, directly taking up two-thirds of the pool.

"The Wendimar name made this visit a breeze," Zac commented as he disrobed. "I doubt our reception would have been the same if I'd entered as some random schmuck."

"You'd be swarmed the moment you took out one of your pretty little pills,"Esmeralda giggled.

Their visit to Black Zenith had reinforced just how massive Leyara's favor was. It might not have put him head and shoulders above the other trial takers, considering they had weeks of finding a good memory lantern before the trial began. Still, gaining the identity of a founding family had to be close to an optimal start.

"There's no guarantee that the Wendimar name will work everywhere. We should try and find a memory lantern with a high status in the Mercurial Court," Zac said.

"We'll figure it out," Esmeralda said with a greedy expression. "Hurry up. I want to see if this stuff is as good as advertised."

Zac laughed and ripped off the seal on the closest vat, prompting a desolate roar to shake the chamber. It felt like the huge skull resonated with the elixir, causing a vibration that made Zac's body come alive. Zac's stomach growled with hunger and unease when faced with the viscous tar. The concoction was incredibly potent, far surpassing his Fiend Crystals.

The Zenith Elixir felt closer to the Life-attuned cactus thorn he'd found inside the Centurion Lighthouse, though lacking any specific attunement. What it lacked in attunement, it made up with intensity, and there were six full vats of the stuff.

Zac knew they'd made the right decision staying in Black Zenith. Both he and Esmeralda had greatly overexerted their bloodlines in the Centurion Base, to the point their foundations were damaged. A terrifyingly vigorous concoction like the Zenith Elixir was the perfect nourishment to accelerate their recovery.

"Do your best, but don't get mad if I accidentally take the lion's share," Esmeralda teased as profound runes lit up across her body. "If you have to blame something, blame my amazing talent."

Zac took out a Death-attuned Natural Treasure suitable for body tempering. "I thought you'd know better by now."

On the other side of the continent, Zac's human half waited inside a newly erected Cultivation Cave. He'd spent the last week crossing dozens of mountains, only finding a new hiding spot when receiving the heads-up from his other side. Zac still didn't know what they'd stumbled onto in the memory city, but he was ready to assist no matter what opportunity came their way. He had managed to complete his core formation with his mind separated, relying on instinct and a shared understanding of their path.

Zac felt a prickling sensation, and his body tensed. It had begun. Shortly after, rivers of frenzied energy poured into his Soul Aperture and Cosmic Core's quantum space. The energy was neither suitable for his soul nor core, and its mere presence put the spaces under great strain. Unfortunately, it was the easiest way to transfer energies between bodies since his Quantum Gate was split into the Alpha and Omega Hidden Nodes.

Wasting no time, Zac dragged the incredibly dense Fiend Energy into his body. Zac didn't need to share memories to know what his other half was thinking, and he pulled out a life-attuned treasure. The gleaming stone was meant to be ground into medicinal clay for his body-tempering technique. There was no time for such luxuries, so Zac directly bit into the rock.

The crunch of crushed gravel filled the cave as Zac entered his Void State, taking the first step of his augmented [Void Vajra Sublimation]. The weakened swirls of golden dust inside his cells were reluctantly rallied into action. Zac didn't have to keep them going with willpower alone. If his cells were a rusty old engine, then the incredibly intense Fiend Energy was jet fuel.

The golden hurricanes rotated faster and faster with no hint of running out of steam. Rather, they showed signs of instability. The small amounts of Life-attuned force couldn't contend with the chaotic urges of the berserk energies, and the cyclones representing his Void Vajra Constitution collapsed en masse. A million stabs of agonizing pain almost broke Zac's mental state, but the Cosmos guided his body into the next position of his sutra.

The Void pulled, extracting the Life-attuned stone's spirituality. Joining it were five streams of possibility stemming from the Shards of Creation. Boundless possibility fused with the unyielding hunger of Life's evolution. Together, they became a force of renewal, an incarnation of his Earthly Dao of Reborn Life.

The mixture spread through every nook and cranny, helping Zac in fighting the Fiend Energy's attempts at tearing him down at a cellular level. The golden hurricanes of his Void Vajra Constitution reformed with newfound power, but the Fiend Energy kept coming through his quantum spaces. Whenever the balance was disturbed, Zac consumed another treasure to right the ship.

Over and over, the painful cycle of rebirth tore down his body and rebuilt it stronger. Zac quickly reached the new limits created by the Law-imbued treasures, yet the forces only grew stronger. Zac found it harder and harder to hold on. If he kept going like this, it wasn't the golden hurricanes that would collapse. It would be his body. Was he being too impatient?

Just as Zac was about to disperse the berserk forces and lessen the pressure, what he'd been waiting for finally came. It was like the floor of his cells had fallen out, and most of the accumulated energy disappeared. Eyes blazing like torches, Zac took out two more treasures mid-step. Different from the items before, they were originally meant for his core and were not suitable for direct consumption.

Such trifling details didn't matter to the Void.

The two Late D-grade treasures were sucked dry almost instantaneously, pulled into the Void Plane through millions of microscopic gates. His cells trembled from strain, but the Fiend Energy prevented his bloodline from going back to sleep. Zac knew he couldn't keep going like this for long, and he frenziedly tore into one treasure after another as he continued his dance of Life.

Soon enough, the Void reciprocated. Void-touched Life seeped out of the depths and fused with the golden cyclones. It was less than five percent of what Zac supplied, but that was more than enough to drastically improve the effect of his body tempering. Between the Fiendish Energy supplied by the other side and the infusion of Life, Zac was making extreme progress on his constitution.

The agony was intoxicating. The power was addicting. The hunger was excruciating. He needed more.

The more Zac consumed, the more starved he became. The craving was becoming unbearable, and Zac found it harder to keep his bloodline in check. A wind was born inside the secluded chamber, and dust was dragged toward his body as Zac's senses instinctively extended outward in search of sustenance.

Zac forcibly retracted his will before a scene similar to the Centurion Lighthouse occurred. There might be a huge number of treasures in the mountain range, but there were also dozens of Beast Emperors who would take offense to him gobbling them up. His gains were already good, and there was no point in going crazy with greed.

A pulse of boundless Abyssal Death jolted his soul and overruled his caution. The tenuous balance he'd held onto collapsed, and the cave imploded around him. It looked like a giant had taken a bite out of the mountain wall, with Zac standing in the middle. The burst of unfamiliar power had infuriated the local tyrants. A cacophony of roars, one more powerful than the other, reverberated through the mountain range.

Zac was already on the move, furiously holding back against the madness transmitted by his other half. He would have found the situation funny if his Danger Sense wasn't wailing for him to run for his Life. It wasn't the first time his breakthroughs made a mess of things, but it was the first time he'd experienced the process as an 'outsider.'

He owed a lot of people an apology.

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