Over the next several years, Ling Zhan expended vast amounts of resources accumulated by the clan on research into bodily modification.
To avoid arousing the Mist Race's vigilance, he stepped down before launching the forbidden project.
He installed Black Wing, a newcomer he had personally trained, as the Spirit Race's new Order Keeper and helped him connect to the Sacred Spirit Consciousness Repository.
Meanwhile, he continued guiding the Spirit Race's future from behind the scenes.
Ling Zhan did not know whether the forbidden project's research would succeed.
But he knew that even if he failed, Black Wing, whom he had personally trained, would inherit both the Sacred Spirit Consciousness Repository and his will, continuing to lead the Spirit Race onward.
Amid day-after-day experiments,
Ling Zhan's body began developing all sorts of problems.
He lost his appetite, often vomited without warning, and countless black spots inexplicably appeared across his body.
Ling Zhan had long been mentally prepared for the side effects of bodily modification, so he did not halt development of the forbidden project.
At the same time, he secretly instructed his disciple Black Wing to create several heroes for the Spirit Race.
Heroes were the direction of a race.
They could give the people goals, as well as hatred for the next stage of the plan.
These heroes were destined to set foot upon the Mist Race's battlefield, and they would inevitably be abandoned by the Mist Race.
In Ling Zhan's eyes, they were the finest kindling.
Once the people learned of the tragedy behind those heroes, the race's flames would be ignited.
Suppressing their anger was an inevitable process, but repression would also make the flames burn ever more fiercely until they erupted one day.
Thoughts of freedom and the fury to break free from their cage would help