Chapter 246 - Would You Believe?
More Demon beasts arrived and as they did, more tentacles stretched out of the ten that were already connected to beasts and connected to those beasts as well and even those newly formed tentacles formed more tentacles that connected to even more beasts.
The branching out never stopped and soon, Hal was at the center of blood tentacle connection between the thousands of beasts in Tretch forest and began to force their evolution.
His face was covered in sweat as he groaned from the load and became pale from the blood loss,
"Arya" he called and the Alchemist who came forward and retrieved the Blood replenishing pills to begin feeding them to him.
Little by little and only to alleviate his pale complexion.
She was well aware that she could not just feed him everything as his Blood would only be replenished to his body's limit and the rest of the pill's energy would go to waste.
It was a long and quite arduous ordeal that went on for at least two hours as Hal fed the Beasts his Blood while also taking care to make use of that medium to bind them all to his will and his Mid-World Devil network.
Soon, the beasts' evolution reached its cap and the whole experience came to an end as the tentacles pulled out of their bodies and retraced their formation steps to return into his body.
*Whump*
Hal fell on his ass soon after while breathing heavily.
As it usually is, the theory was nothing like the practical.
He had expected it to be stressful but his mental preparation had not prepared him for how weak he was feeling at that moment.
Arya fed him the few Blood replenishing pills that remained and his skin regained a pinkish hue but he knew it would still be a while before he could consider himself back at full strength.
All the Demonic beasts were quiet and watching Hal with respectful expressions as though they were awaiting his orders and as Arya watched them, she could not help but ask the question she had been thinking to ask for a while,
"Why?"
Hal smiled weakly,
"Why what?" He asked in return.
"Why did you do this?' She asked.
With her level of cultivation, she could feel his Blood's energy had been quite effective for those beasts and she could also observe the wild beasts among them becoming Demonic beasts.
The strongest of them all was at the Mid-stage of the natured beat realm.
"Would you believe me if I said I pitied their situation? After all, their future is to either become slaves of the human race or die" Hal said with a weak smile.
There were many things Arya wanted to say to that and most of it was not polite so she said instead,
"I won't"
Hal nodded,
"Smart. This is an experiment. The first part of it has already been accomplished. None of them have a hint of an ancient bloodline like Sassy here and I have already gleaned from your head how rare of a find Sassy was for you..."
Rare not because of the Bloodline which was actually quite common in Dystopia but rare because those with ancient Bloodlines all have humanoid forms and reproduce in those forms.
That she was still an Egg was what was rare.
"And I lost her to you" Arya said as she eyed the serpent who flicked her tongue at the green-eyed lady.
Hal shook his head,
"You were never really serious about keeping her with you. Probably felt she would garner too much attention while you prefer to be as stealthy as can be. Why else would you keep her here as a trap rather than an asset?" The question was not rhetorical.
"Because it was only a hint of an ancient bloodline. The fact that her Bloodline is now so powerful is owed to you" Arya admitted with a sigh.
"Exactly" Hal said.
"As I was saying, the first is complete. The second is out of curiosity for what would be done when it is discovered that no beast is left in Tretch forest. I wonder how the news will be received.
The people of Sapphire city would have to become vegetarians though"
This was an inevitable eventuality as at some point during cultivation, no resource would be gotten from meats anymore. Or at least not from beasts of this level.
The idea of delicacies in capitals after all are prime cultivation resources that are actually quite as delicious as any meat-based meal.
Tretch forest was quite rich with those sorts of resources but for factors relating to the lack of the right sort of chefs or refiners, it merely remained untapped potential.
Back to the matter at hand,
"The third is that I am considering a revolution. It might prove impossible to avoid or even very important to instigate and Demonic beasts would be perfect for it.
The fourth is a probability. They could prove to be good bargaining chips should I ever be in the position where I actually need to bargain."
Hal stood shakily to his feet while Arya was quick to assist him.
Once standing upright, he withdrew into Grimoire to pay about 50000 gold coins to enlarge the size of the Forest habitat he had opened for Sassy previously.
It could only hold half of them before and Hal suspected Grimoire was cashing in on this by making him pay Five times the amount he had paid to open the forest habitat in the first place and the Book being Adamant that all prices were predetermined by its creator did not ease him one bit.
Especially since the space only became four times larger.
He opened the portal but before sending them in, he made it known to them all telepathically that Sassy was in charge and would be whipping them into shape.
Sassy had complained that they would disturb her naps so Hal told her she was allowed to kill whichever one of them invaded her personal space.
A permission all the Beasts heard and hence decided to give the serpent a wide berth.
Hal knew serpents couldn't smile but he could have sworn Sassy was smirking and that evaluation had nothing to do with her smug thoughts.
They all moved into the forest habitat where they would be able to cultivate, grow stronger, and further their evolution process. Because while they had no hint of an ancient Bloodline, that also made them wide open to Hal's devilish corruption and he could sense them becoming Devils.
Not demonic fiends like the Blood knights.
But actual Devils which was a development he was pleased with.
Of course, he could already feel the next curse Tribulation being strong enough to kill him just by appearing in the sky.
Inside, they met Borus who Hal had put into the habitat prior and was actually the main reason Sassy was spending more time outside it.
The Bear-like demonic beast had been stripped of all his pseudo-fiendishness when Arya absorbed all of his essence and Hal returned only his cultivation later on.
That said, he had already been privy to Hal's blood and well underway to become a Devil like the other Demonic beasts.
"Well, now that that is over, Arya assist me in harvesting all these prime resources.
Since we're here, I might as well gather the main ingredients for a nice meal."
"Master, you cook?" Arya looked surprised.
"Not this type of meal, but how hard can it be" he shrugged.
'After all, I have a gigantic cookbook in my head' he thought.
'You take that back' Grimoire piped.
'Will not'