Advanced Forms of Life Return

Miming suddenly understood. The reason the Twelve Gods could each wield one of these powers was that they possessed some Celestial Dragon blood! This ritual and the techniques he was about to learn would go wrong without the bloodline of the twenty kings who had created them!

The Celestial Dragons might not necessarily be able to obtain all twelve types of energy, either. There would always be strengths and weaknesses. Some powers were fundamentally opposed to one another; an omniscient and omnipotent god did not exist in this world. As for how much one could absorb, that depended entirely on one's innate constitution and willpower.

Life Return!

Miming knew that when the Marine Six Styles were trained to perfection, one had a chance of awakening Life Return and gaining complete control over one's bodily changes. One could reshape one's appearance and freely control one's bones, muscles, and blood vessels. Even after suffering severe injuries, as long as one still had a breath left, one could replenish one's energy by eating large amounts of food and recover at astonishing speed. Severed limbs only needed to be reattached, and even a hole in one's chest could be completely ignored as long as one's internal organs had been moved out of the way beforehand.

It could be said that anyone who mastered Life Return was basically a monster.

Yet no one had ever imagined that Life Return had a higher level—or rather, that true Life Return could return its original power in reverse, even applying Life Return to someone else!

"Body Enhancement!"

"Bone Enhancement!"

"Mental Awakening!"

"Meridian Refinement!"

Amid thunderous shouts, the Twelve Gods did everything they could to strengthen Miming with their own life essences, allowing every one of his cells to fully absorb the essence of life.

Miming felt his consciousness growing clearer and clearer. Every cell was absorbing energy, followed by intense pain. This pain was not physical but spiritual. To draw energy from mutually conflicting life essences, he had to endure the damage caused by their rejection at the same time. It was like retrieving a chestnut from a fire: to obtain the power, he had no choice but to reach his hand into the flames. The more he could endure, the more he would gain.

I have to obtain as much as possible. I may never get another opportunity like this! Miming struggled to maintain his self-awareness. The pain in his soul made him feel as though millions of needles were stabbing him. Strangely, even though his body had been shattered, he could feel the pain transmitted by every cell. He could even sense the pain from the tiniest specks of dust.

This must be what Life Return felt like!

Miming suddenly realized that the sensation of controlling every cell in his body after mastering Life Return was exactly like this! The only difference was that he had not mastered it yet. Instead, someone else was tearing him apart at will and forcibly performing Life Return on him.

Miming endured the pain and absorbed as much energy as possible while desperately memorizing and growing accustomed to the sensation of Life Return.

No one knew how much time had passed. The vortex of Life Return transformed into wisps of thin spiritual wind and scattered, returning to the bodies of the Twelve Gods.

The Twelve Gods all retreated several steps, feeling somewhat weak. Some groaned, while others were so feeble that they dropped to one knee and panted heavily.

Miming lay on the ground, unable to move because of the excruciating pain coming from every cell.

"Saint Sanming, this is truly astonishing! How did you absorb so much?" Anubis cried out in barely restrained shock.

Although he, as the God of Death who wielded death energy, had suffered no losses, the other Twelve Gods had all lost more or less of their life force. Such a vast amount of soul energy was exceedingly rare! Some of the Twelve Gods were even exhausted to the point of collapsing on the ground, too weak to stand. They had lost at least twenty percent of their life energy—and their bodies had even shrunk by a size!

These signs showed that Saint Sanming's constitution was inclined toward the side of the God of Light, and that his soul's adaptability was extraordinary.

Unlike the strength of the soul, which could be enhanced through acquired training, adaptability was innate.

Miming's consciousness only returned after a long time. The prolonged agony had sent him almost immediately into a deep sleep. When he awoke, all the Twelve Gods except Anubis were gone.

Miming tried to crawl up, but his arm suddenly spasmed, and he fell back down. His entire body hurt terribly, as though someone had beaten him from head to toe.

Am I crippled? Miming was somewhat surprised. Shouldn't he have woken up with a body full of muscle, vastly increased strength, and the ability to run as fast as the wind?

"No, Saint Sanming. In all the years our Twelve Gods have retained their memories, you possess the greatest potential of them all."

Anubis said, "These powers do not truly belong to you, after all, so absorbing them will take a very long time. You absorbed far more power than we imagined, but your body's reconstruction cannot keep up, and you are on the verge of bursting apart. Still, all you need to do now is wait."

"Did I absorb a lot of power?" Miming relaxed after learning that he would not be crippled.

"Atum lost at least twenty percent of his power."

Miming was overjoyed. "You mean I directly obtained twenty percent of the power of just one of them?"

"No. You obtained... about two percent of Atum's power." Anubis clicked his tongue twice. "After all, the conversion rate is less than ten percent."

"Only that much?" Miming froze. Wouldn't that mean an enormous waste?

It made sense when he thought about it. If the Twelve Gods could casually grant a Celestial Dragon immense power, wouldn't that amount to mass-producing gods?

"If Saint Sanming had already been an expert who had awakened Life Return, the conversion rate would naturally have been much higher." Anubis's voice was full of envy. "But for Saint Sanming, who has never undergone any training at all, even one or two percent of that power is already a great deal. This power is enough to lay a solid foundation for Saint Sanming."

Miming came to his senses. Fortunately, he had not obtained more power, or he definitely would have exploded and died.

"Saint Sanming, do you know how long the ritual just now lasted?"

"Two hours?"

"No." Anubis held up two fingers and waved them in front of Miming's eyes.

"Two days?" Miming continued guessing.

"Twenty days," Anubis said.

Miming was startled. It had lasted that long?

Thinking back carefully, even beings as powerful as the Twelve Gods had been exhausted to the point of collapse! It seemed that it was not only because so much energy had been taken from them. Simply maintaining the ritual for that long had been no different from fighting nonstop for twenty days.

Miming grew curious and asked, "What about the others? How long did the longest ritual last?"

"Other than Saint Sanming's, the longest ritual was actually the one held when I became one of the Twelve Gods. That Empowerment Ritual lasted fifteen days, but even the person who lost the most power lost less than five percent." The corner of Anubis's eye twitched, and he was still visibly moved when he recalled it.

When that Empowerment Ritual had been held for him, he had already been an expert who had awakened Life Return, and his conversion rate had reached fifty percent. Yet even after obtaining all that power through such agony, it had only amounted to twenty percent of his current power. The other Twelve Gods had not felt tired at all, since most of them had barely strained themselves. Looking back now, this was naturally because he was not a pure-blooded Celestial Dragon.

"Huh?" Miming perked up. "So I'm pretty impressive after all! Was there a shortest one?"

Anubis was left speechless, though his mask made it impossible to tell.