Fang Chang nodded again and again. The sacred horn on his head swayed, shining with a starlike radiance that soothed the heart.
“Yes. I want to become human again.”
Li Zirong rummaged through her store of knowledge and explained very seriously, “There are two ways to become human again. The first is to smash your body and rebuild it using a human as the template. But you’d lose most of your power, and the different energies inside you might even turn on you. In the end, you could wind up with nothing. The other way is to use divine power to elevate your monster form into an ‘existential image,’ then transform it into a divine body. That would restore your human form while also improving your power.”
Fang Chang immediately blurted out, “The second one! I choose the second one!”
“Don’t rush. Let me finish what I was saying.” Li Zirong pressed both hands down, stopping Fang Chang’s outburst. “There are risks with this method, too. Since you’ll be elevated, the divine body you form will look very different. In the end, you might look nothing like you did before. Can you accept that?”
Fang Chang’s smile froze.
That was basically plastic surgery!
If his whole appearance changed, who’d recognize him when he returned to the Present World? Was he supposed to tell them he’d gone to Korea?
“I…”
Fang Chang hesitated. On one hand, there was his power; on the other, his appearance. It was a difficult choice.
Compared with power, his appearance wasn’t all that important. As long as he could keep a human body, he wouldn’t mind being ugly. He could blame that on a botched plastic surgery—but losing his power meant danger, and danger meant death.
He clenched his fist. The colors of the shield in his palm shifted back and forth, giving off tiny sparks.
“I’ve decided. I’ll choose the second method.”
“A wise choice.” Though Li Zirong had gone on and on earlier, she actually agreed with the second option. In The Game, power was always the most important thing. And if Fang Chang chose this option, the plan she’d just come up with would fall neatly into place.
Fang Chang sighed. “I don’t have much of a choice.”
Afterward, Li Zirong led him into a special room. It was completely out of place beside the laboratory outside; strange runes covered the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling. Once the two of them entered, the runes began to flash red. A powerful force seemed to lie within them.
Fang Chang lightly kicked the floor with his demonic hoof and found that it was so sturdy even his strength couldn’t damage it. He immediately grew curious.
“What is this?”
“Magitech. Rune technology. It’s essential to transforming you,” Li Zirong replied. “It can turn you into an existence that can only be described, and connect with Gods from another world to grant you their blessings. Then I’ll fit your existence to a human template, so you can regain your human form while keeping your immense power.”
As she spoke, she slowly backed out of the room, reminding him, “Try to relax. Keep your instincts in check, and don’t fight it. If you resist, I’ll have no choice but to increase the mana output. I can’t say what you’ll turn into in the end.”
Fang Chang nodded and watched Li Zirong leave the room. Only then did he look around at its arrangement and remark, “Mana technology? Rune technology? So magic can follow the path of science, too?”
Fang Chang’s demonic feet felt the uneven rune-covered floor beneath him. A pure energy lay within the runes’ red flashes. It was sealed away, with only a trace leaking out, yet even that was enough to stir his demonic feet and make the flames around his hooves burn brighter.
Fang Chang knew very clearly that if he called on his Demonflame talent here, the flames he produced would be far hotter than they would be outside.
“Going by how things work in novels, this place is full of spiritual energy—a blessed paradise. If I trained here, I’d get twice the results for half the effort.”
Fang Chang was still marveling when the floor beneath him suddenly boomed, making him jump. The eight limbs on his back instinctively sprang into action, continually lowering the gravity around him. But Fang Chang quickly remembered Li Zirong’s warning and hurriedly restrained his instincts. The gravitational field returned to normal, and his body, which had begun to float, settled back into place.
Before long, the uncomfortable red light in the room flared brighter: first the floor, then the walls, and finally the ceiling. The red grew as thick as blood. Once the light became dense enough, it actually seemed liquid.
Fang Chang fought his instincts as hard as he could, enduring the red light’s assault. He didn’t know how long he’d been immersed in it when a faint dizziness slowly came over him. His vision began to change, too. Everything before his eyes faded; light became tightly packed particles, and the runes turned into indescribable specks of light. Beneath them, an enormous source of energy rose up like an iceberg. To the eye, it seemed cold enough to freeze him through, as if it would freeze his very vision. But when he paid close attention, he could sense that it was a mass of burning fire. Its flames leaped, and the sparks that occasionally flew off were the energy escaping from it.
Unable to bear the changes in his vision, Fang Chang began to perceive the world through his senses instead. He found it much clearer than ordinary sight: everything around him appeared in a full 360 degrees, with no blind spots, and even the tiniest details stood out.
The energy’s flames leaped and leaped. As they did, an indescribable Shadow quietly emerged.
It was an indescribable mass of darkness. It flowed like liquid, yet wore armor.
The moment Fang Chang saw it, his senses began to reel. A vast voice exploded directly inside his consciousness.
It was hard to make out the quality of the voice, and its language was as muddled as a dream. Yet Fang Chang understood what it meant.
“O mother of the ascended corpse poison, I have heard your call and understood your purpose. For the power you have offered me, I grant you a name—Mother of Veris.”
