Chapter 785: High Ascension I

Every single cell in Michael's body screamed in a mixture of joy and terror, desiring to devour the highly potent energy that could be found everywhere around him.

His pores opened wide, creating numerous openings for the energy to enter him. But that wasn't enough. The energy was too thick and potent. It swamped Michael and squeezed through his pores, tearing his skin apart to make more space. Michael would have screamed if he had sensed the pain, but his entire being was shrouded in a warm pool of high, nutritious energy.

His skin was ripped into shreds, only for his natural regeneration to pick up. His natural regeneration skyrocketed thanks to the massive amount of nutritious energy passing through him. His torn skin was repaired moments after it was ripped into shreds.

This process repeated itself numerous times, and various Seals manifested all over his body. The first Cursed Seal expanded Spirit Eyes' stigma, whereas the remaining Cursed Seals traveled down his neck until they spread across his chest.

Dark, almost black, chains of thousands of wrinkled, dried-out seals connected to the active Cursed Seals. The miniature seals formed a chain that covered Michael's entire body. It almost looked like Michael was the one sealed rather than the Curse he contained.

The World Serpent's Living Image moved across his back in response to the miniature seal chains. It slithered upward, coiled around his neck, and traveled down his chest. The World Serpent ignored the active Cursed Seals but coiled around the inactive chained seals as if inspecting them before moving onward. All of a sudden, the World Serpent's Living Image disappeared. It traveled deeper inside Michael, where it consumed a tremendous amount of the highly nutritious energy that permeated through every cell in his body.

It devoured the energy, transformed it, and unleashed the altered energy in all directions in a burst. Michael writhed in unbearable discomfort. A wave of pain swept through him.

The pain didn't last long as his body secreted a sickly mass. A dark, badly reeking, viscous mass flushed out of him following the burst of the World Serpent's energy. If Michael was fully conscious and not entirely focused on his High Ascension, he would have noticed that the black viscous mass was a good portion of the remaining impurities that had been clinging to his body.

Even using Extraction when he advanced to the next Tier didn't allow him to remove that many impurities before. The amount of impurities covering the golden pool was several times the amount he'd managed to extract until now. But he was still not void of impurities just yet.

The Wolf Curse made its move. It activated Extraction inside Michael. However, Extraction's potency was nowhere as fragile as Michael's 7-Star Extraction at this point. The Wolf Curse used a trace of its Essence to use Extraction's true power. However, instead of extracting only the impurities within Michael, Extraction's full potential threatened to remove much more.

The World Serpent hissed at the Wolf Curse and was about to attack when a growl reverberated through the Ancient Isolation Chamber. The World Serpent and the Wolf Cursed went silent. They conversed using their curse power and...combined their powers to make full use of the opportunity they - and Michael - had been granted.

The Origin Sap was not something they could quickly obtain. It was already tricky for Divine Lifeforms to obtain them, but Curses and beings like the World Serpent were even less likely to procure a drop of the Origin Sap. They desired to reap the benefits of the Origin Sap. Therefore, they had to join hands, even with Michael, no matter the consequences.

The Wolf Curse accepted this, even if that meant it would have to give up controlling Michael Fang to the fullest. The child had been more resilient than expected. The Origin Sap would help him grow even more resilient. However, at the same time, the Wolf Curse would be granted access to more of its sealed power. It was only a matter of time before...

The Wolf Curse growled quietly and used its Essence to cleanse Michael, all while the World Serpent infused its power into Michael, influencing his body to trigger the first of many sheddings.

Michael's skin sharted shedding, one layer after another. Even the hair all over his body was removed with the shedding.

The initial shedding removed the impurities clinging to his skin. His pores expanded temporarily in response to the shedding, creating wider channels for the highly nutritious energy. Michael's entire being was overflowing with energy once more. However, Michael wasn't the only one tapping into the highly nutritious energy this time. His Curses, the Soul Sphere, and the Soultrait Symbol also reached out.

His hair was growing back rapidly as the Wolf Curse's presence spread through Michael. However, his hair didn't remain long. It was removed with the second - and every subsequent - shedding. His skin was vibrant pink, and one may wonder if Michael was being cooked alive, but the vibrant color of his skin didn't last long. The pinkish tone died down quickly, revealing unblemished fair skin underneath.

His veins, muscles, and energy paths thumped vigorously, almost like everything in Michael's body had their mind and desires. A single glance at his hide revealed his energy paths and the energy coursing through him, his muscles and how they responded to everything around him, and his vessels alongside the blood flowing through him.

Michael looked like the sculpture of a god as his High Ascension continuously changed - improved - everything about his very existence.

Michael's power increased exponentially. His presence changed as his physical prowess skyrocketed. Michael didn't move in the pool, yet his presence was enough for tremors to run throughout the Ancient Isolation Chamber.

His Soul Sphere manifested before Michael's closed eyes and expanded. The Soul Power nurtured within his Soul Sphere expanded explosively before it was compressed, forming small spheres filled with droplets of Soul Power around the Soultrait Symbols.

Michael wasn't sure what the changes entailed, but he could tell that he was growing stronger. He continued relying on his instincts and moved onward. His mind told him to tell the Wolf Curse and the World Serpent to stop, but his instincts urged him to continue. Thus, Michael continued.

His origin power spread out, annexing every little bit of energy it brushed past, only to recede suddenly. The origin energy within his body clashed as it was pressed together by force. The clash transformed and changed all of a sudden. It was almost like one of the energy particles emerged victorious from a vicious fight. The origin energy in his body compressed, forming a single droplet.

The first droplet of origin energy took an eternity to form. That wasn't uncommon. However, uncommon were the golden thread-like vessels that spread through the energy droplet.

The changes that accompanied the creation of the first droplet were tremendous. His physical prowess increased even further, reaching a state that wasn't supposed to be attained by someone who was on the verge of ascending, his mental power expanded by more than ten times, and his Soul continued growing stronger, far stronger than anyone had anticipated.

Even the World Serpent and the Wolf Curse were taken by surprise. They stopped moving, their attention locked on the golden-veined power droplet that coursed through Michael's body, enhancing his entire being with every circulation.

Eerie silence spread through Michael's entire being. No one dared to utter a single noise.

A trace of the Origin Sap's essence entered Michael's body.