Two Years Passed in the Blink of an Eye

Although it felt awful, the results were remarkable. After several rounds of enduring the ordeal and using his life force to "boil" his blood, Zul'ra felt his body growing sturdier and tougher, like iron ore smelted and refined into steel.

The further strengthening of his body made Zul'ra feel as though the tusks that had been pulled from his mouth were beginning to grow back. Fortunately, what was growing in their place were molars, not long, pointed tusks. Aside from his body's newfound toughness, he felt as if he had reached the level of Transformation Force.

If he compared his condition after discovering "life force" to Dark Force, then his current state felt somewhat like Transformation Force. The muscles and tendons throughout his body, even the marrow in his bones and organs, had all come within the reach of his awareness. His ability to look inward had grown stronger.

As long as Zul'ra focused his will, he could sense every aspect of his body. With a mere thought, the hairs all over him would stand on end, giving him the feeling that not even a feather could touch him or a fly land on him. Of course, that was an illusion. The hairs on a human body weren't steel needles, though perhaps they could be explained by bioelectricity.

Putting aside his physical enhancements, Zul'ra was overjoyed that he had managed to control his own blood and achieve some of the enhancements he had hoped for. He had only meant to experiment, never expecting it to actually work.

Zul'ra knew his own limitations. He wasn't a professional scientist; what little scientific knowledge he had came either from everyday tidbits or from movies and novels he'd seen online. He was just a blind cat that had stumbled onto a dead mouse.

At any rate, he'd caught the mouse. Building on his discovery, Zul'ra first took some blood tonics and life potions. The process of igniting his blood had consumed a great deal of life force and blood, so he needed to replenish them. There was no strengthening without a cost.

After using blood tonics and life potions to restore his condition, Zul'ra continued his research. He delved deeper into the connection between life force and blood, seeking a way to control life force and then use it to manipulate blood, ultimately achieving the ability to control bloodlines as he imagined.

Life force was what traditional Chinese medicine called qi. Zul'ra knew the saying: "Blood is the mother of qi, and qi is the commander of blood." The two were inseparable, so he decided to start by studying their connection.

Though qi and blood were inseparable, they were still two distinct things, so there had to be a pivot between them. That pivot was the internal organs. Zul'ra found that all the organs in the human body seemed to be connected to blood, and each of their functions governed some aspect of a person's life force.

He tried the same old approach, using magic and life force to sense the organs inside his body and then attempting to control them. But it was no use. The organs each served different functions, and no matter how he controlled them, they remained as they were.

Although he couldn't discover anything by studying the functions of his organs, Zul'ra made another discovery: qi—or rather, life force—was the sum total of a person's life, but like the body's various organs, it also had different functions.

The functions of life force were extremely subtle, almost impossible to detect. But with careful attention, they could still be sensed. The functions of a person's life force were also connected to the five internal organs: the kidneys represented vitality, the heart perception, the lungs courage, the liver spirit, and the spleen willpower.

The various functions of the human body came together as a chaotic mass of life force, like threads of many colors tangled together. To make a beautiful garment, the threads had to be sorted by color, then woven into cloth in the proper order before being cut and sewn.

Though his ideas grew more and more outlandish, Zul'ra successfully concentrated the life force in his body around his heart. Then, through meditation, he sensed the power of perception and awareness within his consciousness. Releasing this power caused the magic inside him to change.

Magic was indescribable; it was the foundation of all spellcasting abilities. Most spellcasters relied on it to connect with energy and gain the ability to control that energy. Few could control tangible matter directly. Those who could usually relied on an intermediary energy granted by Elemental Spirits or deities rather than controlling it themselves.

By sheer luck, Zul'ra released the mysterious power within his consciousness, causing his magic to change. This altered magic not only helped him form a connection with blood, granting him the ability to control it directly as he'd hoped, but also gave him a new way to control life force.

Previously, he could sense the life force inside his body and control it through thought and breath, but it was like mist drifting over a distant mountaintop—ethereal and elusive. Once the mysterious power in his consciousness was released, however, it felt as if that mist had descended from the peak and begun to swirl around him.

The life force seemed to spill out from within him, forming an aura around his body. Through it, Zul'ra could sense every plant and tree around him. He could even tell when someone was looking at him, as if he had the legendary sixth sense. But the aura could do far more than that.

Between handling government affairs and exploring his mysterious power, more than two years passed in the blink of an eye. During that time, through political propaganda and reform policies, Zul'ra had established himself in Jintha'Alor and won the recognition of most of the Vilebranch Trolls and Viletooth Trolls. His influence continued to grow.

As his influence expanded, so did the number of his followers. Zul'ra selected some of them for different kinds of training. Some were sent to Lostro and the others, while he personally taught the rest, training them in voodoo, tactical planning, and military matters.

Besides training new talent, Zul'ra also reorganized his followers. Building on his existing forces, he selected people to form a new military organization called Zul'ra's Fangs, or the Fang Army for short.

The Fang Army had 432 members, enough for a regiment. Zul'ra appointed himself its priest, with his apprentice Bash as his assistant. Lostro was its commander, and Cook, who had been studying under him, was deputy commander.

Besides equipping the Fang Army with steel, Zul'ra also armed them with ideas. He used culture and knowledge to reshape their outlook on life and the world. Their moral values would take longer to change and would require sustained influence and discipline.

After establishing the Fang Army, Zul'ra's first target was the neighboring Witherbark Trolls. They had built Shadra'lo southeast of Shadra'Alor and were poaching Gryphons in the Hinterlands, hoping to use the power of Shadra the Silk Dancer to tame them.

When their attempts to tame the Gryphons failed, the Witherbark Trolls drove Chilga, Shadra's priestess, from the altar. Grief-stricken and furious, she fled to Jintha'Alor to seek Zul'ra's help. He had just found the perfect excuse to deal with the Witherbark Trolls.

Zul'ra ordered Lostro to lead the army in capturing Shadra'Alor and Shadra'lo, freeing the imprisoned Gryphons. Then they crossed the mountains and launched a surprise attack on Arathi Highlands, capturing Witherbark Village and killing Jaka, the Witherbark chieftain. The Witherbark Trolls "willingly" returned beneath the Amani banner.