'Of course, he would be hiding amongst the Mammoth Clan.' Boar King felt that he was an idiot, having never thought of such an obvious scenario, 'All Empyrean Tusks can sense my position through fear. So, the moment they react, he'll know where I am and could take action accordingly. He'll be the safest there.'
The Boar King had targeted the Mammoth Clan enough times in the past two millennia that he was aware of them being able to sense his position through fear. Nothing could be done to avoid that, since the cause of that was the twenty-plus Natures of Internal Inertial Gravity in his Astral Chart.
Therefore, hiding among the Mammoth Clan was the safest for Loot. He could make plans without worries. And if the Boar King ever tried to approach him, he would know through the Empyrean Tusks' body language and could flee in advance.
It was very clever of him to take advantage of the Mammoth Clan, 'He probably has an ability that allows him to disguise himself as a Mammoth Clansman.'
It would be very easy for the current Loot as he had Inala's Spirit Container, possessing Prana signatures of many people, including three Mammoth Clansmen—Inala, Asaeya, and Gannala.
'Since this happened in the Dieng Canyon, he probably had taken advantage of the Zinger's power to appear as a Mammoth Clansman.' The Boar King thought.
The more he analysed, the deeper into this false tale he went. There were enough clues for him to believe this to be the truth.
It was the easiest to fool those with intelligence. After all, with minimum clues, they could form the entire picture. As long as Inala created a false narrative for the first few clues, the resultant picture created in the target's mind would be vastly different from the truth.
It was a psychological tactic, one that had worked wonders in the current scenario.
'I should spy on the Mammoth Clan next and find more clues.' The Boar King thought.
"Shall we start?" Inala asked as he took a vial and stared at the Free Human Spirit Container inside, one that had soaked up Wittral's blood. Similarly, in Wittral's possession was a vial with a Free Human Spirit Container that had soaked up Inala's blood.
These two Spirit Containers weren't a unified whole, but each was a cluster of a hundred Spirit Containers. The Cooter Clan didn't have the means to make them a unified whole, especially since the Free Humans—from whom they were extracted—didn't practice any cultivation technique.
"Go ahead." The Boar King seeped his Prana into the Spirit Containers after activating his Primary Nature of Voracious Nature. His Prana, filled with the power of the ability seeped into the Spirit Container and influenced it.
Gulp!
Both Inala and Wittral consumed their respective vials, feeling their stomachs turn hot in response. The effect of Voracious Nature caused their stomachs to rapidly digest and assimilate the contents of the Spirit Containers, after they had soaked up some genetic data of the blood they were immersed in.
This was only possible through Voracious Nature, since it was geared towards gluttony.
"Eek!" Inala felt his stomach rumble as he rushed towards the bathroom, experiencing diarrhoea. Wittral was in a similar state. Their bodies were rejecting the influences brought by the contents of the vials.
"Alright, see you tomorrow." The Boar King walked away and left the place, intending to roam the Dralh Sea further for some good Natures to store.
Inside Inala's stomach biome, Gannala stared at the large batch of Spirit Containers before her, smiling, "This is enough, Dad."
The latest batch wasn't as good in quality as those personally extracted by Inala. But they were enough, since Gannala was already close to success. They were only necessary for the final step of the process, especially the Spirit Containers of Cooter Clansmen at the Spirit Stage.
In at most two months, she would obtain the Tertiary Nature of Cultivator. Before he was everything she needed. Smiling, Gannala drank a vial of Influence Easing Elixir, which was what she primarily relied upon to suppress her base instincts as an Empyrean Tusk to transform her organs into biomes.
That was how she was able to live in Inala's stomach biome without causing any issues.
The next day, Inala and Wittral downed another vial with the Boar King's help, rushing to the bathroom as their bodies began to digest it. By the end of a month, the figures of both were thin, malnourished, a result of constant diarrhoea.
But steadily, the effects of the Boar King's Primary Nature of Voracious Nature were affecting their Prana-less bodies, influencing them to accept the genetic material of each other. Wittral's body offered less resistance to the Spirit Containers containing Inala's presence and similarly, Inala's body offered less resistance to Spirit Containers containing Wittral's presence.
The Free Human Spirit Containers were the purest of their kind, unblemished, uninfluenced. Therefore, when it was immersed in a vial of Inala's blood, it absorbed the characteristics present in Inala's blood.
As a result, it took traces of influences to become mildly similar to Inala's Spirit Container. And when Wittral swallowed it under the power of the Boar King, he became more accepting of Inala's Spirit Container, or rather the power forming in it.
As the days passed, the resistance offered by their bodies reduced as their affinity increased. Eventually, an entire nine months later, the offered resistance became zero.
Staring at his reflection in the mirror, Inala failed to recognise himself. He was barely skin and bones. Wittral too was in a similar state, but Inala's condition was way worse. The cause was his stomach biome. It had taken a toll on his body.
These days, he was always exhausted, lacking enough energy to even think. Constantly vomiting the moment he ate a morsel, unable to fall asleep for more than a few minutes at a stretch, a body that refused to cooperate, and leaking blood from his orifices.
"Cough! Cough!" Inala spat out a few drops of blood on the floor, not having the strength to even clean it.
"Do you have to push yourself to such an extent?" Taltal helped him drink a vial of medicine and took charge of the cleanup.
"Yes…" Inala nodded weakly, "It's necessary….to succeed."
Without Taltal's help and the medicines she provided, Inala and Wittral would have died long ago, due to how overtaxed their bodies were, under an extreme state of foreign influence that had skewed even their genetic material.
A Mystic Grade Pranic Beast's Prana was on a level superior to all Elixirs, extremely potent in nature. Both of them were consuming that like water and hence had changed tremendously.
"Can you leave, Madam Taltal?" Inala asked weakly.
"No, the both of you don't have the strength necessary to take care of yourselves." Taltal refused adamantly, "I'll stay here."
"Please...I beg you." Wittral's voice resounded from the side, wheezing, "Just your presence alone might affect us and mess up what we're about to do."
"…Fine." Taltal relented in the end, staring at Wittral's skeletal figure with moist eyes, "All the best. I pray for your success."
"Thank you." Wittral nodded and smiled weakly, saying upon hearing familiar footsteps, "You're here, Sir Boar King."
"This is the final stretch. Hold on and let me witness the fruits of your struggles." The Boar King grinned in excitement as he placed Inala and Wittral beside each other and cut off their clothes. He activated a Centinger's Primary Nature and made a clear incision on the chests of both, "Persevere!"
a Prana Bomb layer covered the inner walls of the house, ensuring no traces would leak out as Prana burst out of the Boar King like a volcanic eruption and surged into the chests of the two. Immediately in response, he extracted their hearts.
