It had been over 18 days since the knowledge transplant had started. When the procedure first began, some unknown measures kicked in. All the doors were locked and several energy barriers appeared around the room.
"The last one," Ensis mumbled staring at the last memory globe in his hand. Even though they were called memory globes, Poriverse had only transferred his knowledge and interpretations in there, leaving everything personal out.
Hao Xuan's larynx was shredded half a day into the procedure and since then, he had not been able to make any noise. Ensis had not taken into account the damage Hao Xuan's physical body would receive from this procedure, which raised quite a few issues.
The white light contained within the memory globes was a type of actual light energy. A little bit was fine and with proper rest between each transplant, it would not cause any long term damage. Unfortunately, there was thousands of years worth of knowledge in there and they had very little time to use it all.
Three days into the procedure, Hao Xuan's spinal cord started glowing and the tissue around it started burning up. This was due to the raw heat from the light energy. It was one of the side-effects of the procedure.
Five days in, Hao Xuan's eyes liquefied.
Six days in, his eardrums exploded.
On the ninth day, the severe damage caused the Immortal Devouring Demon Physique to be kicked in on its own. It was an automated response to protect critical lifesaving systems that were necessary for Hao Xuan's survival. The physique started devouring Hao Xuan's own legs and arms to heal the more important areas such as the spinal cord and the brain stem.
By the eleventh day, all that was left of Hao Xuan was his upper body and head. Both his arms and legs were gone and what was left of him was in terrible condition.
Seeing no other option, Ensis decided to use half his God blood to replenish Hao Xuan's energy and Qi.
The result was more than successful.
The energy from the God Blood was enough to restore his limbs with more than enough left to keep him going till the end.
It would take Ensis several months of cultivation to restore the used God Blood and he would not be at full power until then. Right now he was barely a bit more powerful than an Elementary realm cultivator.
He looked at Hao Xuan with many emotions going through his head. When this procedure was finished, it was entirely possible that the old Hao Xuan would disappear. With Millenniums of knowledge in his head, he was sure to change. His behavior, his attitude, and outlook on the world would be vastly different from before.
Perhaps for the better, or perhaps, for the worse.
*Clink*
He inserted the last globe into the table and the energy was quickly extracted. Within a few minutes, the last globe rolled off from the table.
*Crunch*
*Craack*
*Schlick*
All thirty-five needles closed up and withdrew from Hao Xuan's body. Pieces of black blood and skin were stuck to their edges and a smell of burnt meat spread out in the library.
Ensis moved closer and looked at Hao Xuan expectedly, but he didn't open his eyes. His eyeballs were moving left and right rapidly, but they were still closed.
With a deep frown, Ensis picked up the metal board and went over everything related to the procedure. He let out a sigh of relief upon finding the answer he was looking for.
Because of the stupendously high amount of data in his brain, it would take him some time to get used to it all and wake back up.
"Good, it worked," he smiled and slumped against the glass in front of Hao Xuan.
Ensis had been awake for three weeks straight, working non-stop. He didn't even eat or drink this whole time so he was utterly exhausted at this point.
His eyelids became heavier and heavier as he slowly closed them and soon fell into a deep deep sleep.
Two more days passed just like that before Hao Xuan finally opened his eyes.
*Blink*
Still a bit confused, he looked around at the surroundings and saw Ensis sitting a few feet away from him.
"I'm sorry master, just a few more days and all of Poriverse's knowledge will be yours."
Ensis's words echoed in his ears as the memories came flooding back.
*Bzzzzt*
A stream of symbols and numbers appeared in front of his eyes, floating in the air. The symbols were the same as the one on the metal board but now Hao Xuan was able to understand them.
They read;
"Why did we come to be?"
"Was it just a series of coincidences?"
"Or Something more?"
"What is the meaning of life?"
"You're born, you fight, kill and destroy, and then what?"
"Is there really no other reason?"
"Is my existence just a fluke of the universe?"
"What…am I? What are…you?"
"….."
'Great. Just my luck that of all the ancient creatures, I get the knowledge from an emo.'
The symbols vanished like mist as if they were never there. Hao Xuan closed his eyes and started circulating the Qi and energy from his meridians.
Bubbling sounds came from his body as his muscles expanded and contracted with every heartbeat, undulating incessantly. He could feel that the Physique had progressed a lot during the last few weeks, a bit more and he could break through to the first level after passing the 'trial'.
*Crack*
Cracking noise came from his bones when he lifted his hand. He got out of the 'cross' and stretched his body. With every single movement pops and cracks could be heard.
He bent down and picked up the storage rings that had fallen to the ground when he lost his arms. With a wave of his hand, a new set of clothes appeared.
'Ah, almost forgot.'
He turned around and put his hand on Ensis's head, recalling him back into the mind palace.
Throwing out the portable camp, he quickly went in, took a shower, and changed into the clothes. Then he started cooking. Making over fifteen different dishes he ate without a care in the world.
With a loud burp, he recalled the camp with a grin.
"Now I can finally loot to my heart's desire," he cracked his knuckles with a beaming smile on his face.
The information regarding the contents of the vault in the middle hallway was in his head, along with the info about the creature in the tank in the rightmost room.
