It had been a month since he started staying at the Geyser Leaf of Longevity. Taking advantage of his male form during the nights when he could remain alone, Inala made use of Mystic Bone Art to digest large quantities of food to quickly regain his muscle mass.
Moreover, as he practiced, his Prana grew at staggering speeds even without consuming any Elixirs. After the heart switch with Wittral, his Spirit Container was extremely fragile. It would shatter if he were to consume an Elixir.
It was why he raised his Prana the traditional way while steadily strengthening his Spirit Container. Currently, he had already crossed a hundred Prana, now having enough Prana capacity to perform a variety of activities without issues.
During emergencies, he could always revert to his male form and use a Prana Hand to replenish his Prana.
Condensing a Life Bomb, Inala casually threw it into the air. His gaze hardened instantly as two strings of Prana exited him and coiled around the Prana Bomb. One coiled from top to bottom while the other coiled from bottom to top.
It was difficult to replicate his Skill of Puppetry through Mystic Mist Art, but the result was functional, to say the least. It needed a lot of improvements though, since Mystic Skill Creator only worked on Mystic Bone Art.
It took a bit longer than a second to finish forming two layers of coil over the Life Bomb. Immediately in response, Prana gushed through the coils and into the Life Bomb to shred it into dust, taking five seconds to do so.
Secondary Nature—Subtle Terrain Dominance!
This was a killing move Inala had been developing for the past month. By wrapping the strings of Prana, he prevented all traces of the activities inside from leaking out. The ability wasn't perfect yet and took too long, even for something as small as a Prana Bomb.
But that was merely a skill issue on his part. As long as he continues to train, the ability will become more and more potent.
Both Subtle Terrain Dominance and Tangible Psychokinesis were new Natures. So, Inala had to spend a lot of time training in them to increase his expertise. Even Wittral spent more than two decades using the two abilities and still had plenty left to learn.
Both were extremely versatile abilities and hence would take a lot of time and effort to be mastered. But that was fine on his part, since the more he trained in them, the stronger he got.
Inala then approached the room's wall and leaned on it, inhaling a deep breath before he activated Subtle Terrain Dominance. His figure melted into the wall, causing a lot of ripples in response. More than twenty seconds later, his figure vanished, now within the wall.
Ten seconds later, he exited the wall and stared at the spot he had entered, noticing that the colour of the wall there was dull, with patches of paint disappearing.
To enter the wall, he had to use Subtle Terrain Dominance to push away the particles forming the wall and open a wide enough hole. As he enters it, he will have to close it back while ensuring the arrangements of the particles match their initial position.
This had to be done while accounting for the lack of space caused by his entry. Therefore, the density of the wall had to be changed. All this had to be done dynamically and as quickly as possible.
It wasn't a skill that could be mastered in a short time. Even Wittral wouldn't be able to do it perfectly.
But that didn't mean Inala would give up, since his upcoming plan relied on this. He continued to practice, thinking, 'If I had the Minor Treasures of Water Flow Sense and Wind Flow Sense, I would have an easier time rearranging the particles.'
His actions would have been more concealed in that situation. But it is what it is. He had to make do with the tools at his disposal.
A day later, Inala exited his hotel room, seeing an impatient Wittral seated at a table in the restaurant below. "Were you waiting for long?"
"A bit," Wittral extended his hand, his expression barely able to rein in his glee, "Where is it?"
"Here," Inala sighed and handed out a scroll, 'I should create a situation where this scroll gets coincidentally destroyed.'
"Ho! Hoo!" Wittral laughed like an old man as he unfurled the scroll and stared at the bald image of Inala drawn on it, in a seated pose. The restaurant waiter happened to pass by and stared at the image, growing pale in response as if he had seen a ghost; he fled the place.
"Don't look at it here." Inala cursed in embarrassment, finished his breakfast, and left the restaurant in a hurry.
"I was just admiring it." Wittral carefully pocketed the scroll and kept pace.
Once they arrived at the Labour Association's entrance, the duo habitually wore a wig, for that was something demanded by the Labour Association. As long as Inala and Wittral wear wigs, they'll be granted citizenship once they contribute enough.
The story they went ahead with was that while fleeing from the Rumtara Kingdom, they were poisoned by a strange Pranic Beast. Even though they made a recovery, all the hair on their body fell off, turning them bald.
They hoped to find a cure in the Brimgan Empire, which was one of the leading motivations for which they worked on so many jobs and were driven to chase after success.
For the people of the Brimgan Empire who treated hair as a beauty standard, going bald made no sense. Why would someone purposefully make themselves ugly? Hence, they bought Inala's story.
"You're one of the fastest in this city to lose your refugee status." The Labour Association Branch Manager said as he collected the Refugee IDs of Inala and Wittral and transferred their contents to new slabs.
Following that, he ground the Refugee IDs to dust and gave Inala and Wittral their new, Citizen IDs, "From today onwards, you're valuable citizens of the Brimgan Empire."
"Congratulations on becoming a part of paradise," The Branch Manager smiled, "Let me invite you once again."
"Welcome to the Brimgan Empire."
"We're grateful for your help." Inala smiled as he held his Citizen ID, 'It took me a month, just as I had planned. Now, onto the next step.'
The duo exited the Labour Association and approached the city's railway station. Yes, railway. It existed here. The engine was basically a bunch of Body Stage Free Human cultivators using psychokinesis to rotate a power gear.
Torque was distributed across the engine wheels through this power gear. As a result, the railway functioned as a locomotive. Only due to the Brimgan Empire's stability and longstanding history could they achieve such a feat and maintain it successfully.
The station was a sprawling building, with two tracks running side by side. It was merely a single mountain range that the railway line had to traverse.
The Southern Veins was basically a series of mountain ranges that joined together at the southernmost tip. So, one line forward and one line backward; two railway lines were sufficient for travel.
A train arrived at the station once every ten minutes, allowing for easy travel between cities. There were both cargo and passenger trains.
Arriving at the ticket booth, Inala displayed his Citizen ID and spoke, "Two tickets to Fentan City, please."
The receptionist at the counter used her Spirit Weapon to scan Inala's and Wittral's IDs, receiving their basic information in response that was automatically recorded into her Spirit Weapon—which functioned similar to a Bone Slip.
Upon accessing the database to verify their information, she created tickets in their names respectively, "That'll be 18 Briga."
"That's very cheap for the distance involved," Wittral muttered at the side, amazed, and also irritated that such a thing wasn't created by the Cooter Clan. Though he had left the Cooter Clan, his common sense hadn't. And every single day, as he experienced the Brimgan Empire's technological advancement, his common sense took a hit.
After all, the Free Humans had superior development, unlike what he came to believe all his life. The Free Humans protected by the Cooter Clan were merely sheltered babies purposefully kept ignorant.
Wittral's exposure to Free Humans jumped from the lower extreme to its upper extreme, causing him to develop conflicting emotions towards everything he witnessed at the Brimgan Empire.
