Cursed Immortality

Chapter 1289: The Stolen Sacrifice (4)

The moment that thought occurred, Jacob’s hollow sockets burned brighter. Suddenly, just as the thought had barely formed, the Life Bane Wheel behind him trembled.

‘Hum!’

The entire wheel seemed to respond to his intention as the three existing sections rotated in perfect synchronization.

Pitch-black, pure white, and ghostly dark purple: three completely different powers, yet all of them originated from the same fundamental principle: Life!

Jacob’s gaze became increasingly focused, as he had always treated the three aspects of the Life Bane Wheel as separate abilities because their functions were fundamentally different.

Life Devour stole vitality, Life Injection restored and converted vitality, and Spectral Despair separated and purified negative life force.

But now, he suddenly realized something. They weren’t three abilities, but they were three expressions of the same principle, and if that was true, then there was no reason Life Injection had to remain limited to simply storing or restoring vitality.

It could convert, and that was its fundamental nature: starting from conversion, then transformation, and finally reconstruction.

Moreover, Jacob had already come into contact with Soul Vitality through the Nightmare Eater and had absorbed it through the Dreamscape Realm of Whiteness. So, the structure of Soul Vitality wasn’t hard to grasp for him.

Jacob’s skeletal finger slowly lifted. “Life Injection: Soul Life!”

‘BOOM!’

The white section of the Life Bane Wheel erupted with dazzling radiance, and the purified vitality stored inside the Wheel instantly began moving as countless crystalline droplets shattered into streams of pure energy.

But instead of flowing toward Jacob’s body, they began circulating around the white section, going through one revolution, then two revolutions… ten… a hundred.

The vitality became increasingly compressed, and Jacob’s Eyes of Judge narrowed as he watched.

The enormous amount of vitality that had originally been separated from the sacrificial energy was being reduced at an astonishing rate. But it was not destroyed or consumed; instead, it was being converted.

The vitality slowly lost its original characteristics, and the traces of blood vitality vanished while the remnants of fleshly vitality disappeared. Even the tainted traces of dark life force that belonged to countless different undead creatures were stripped away.

What remained was something far purer, and almost transparent, yet beneath that transparency was an indescribable depth.

Jacob’s pupils contracted with a hint of ecstasy. ‘Soul vitality!’

He could recognize it, as this was the same fundamental type of vitality that Nyx had been producing through the Nightmare Conqueror Seeds.

However, this was different, as the vitality produced by the Nightmare Conqueror Seeds was extracted from dreamscape realms and transformed through Nyx’s unique abilities, but this was being converted directly by the Life Bane Wheel.

Jacob’s expression became strange. ‘It really works.’

The next instant, he immediately ordered Nyx, “Now!”

Nyx didn’t waste a single moment, and the invisible connection between her and Jacob suddenly strengthened. The purified soul vitality inside the Life Bane Wheel began flowing into Jacob’s soul.

‘BOOM!’

Thereafter, Jacob felt as if his entire soul trembled as a terrifying feeling of warmth spread through his consciousness.

His soul, which had been exhausted countless times through years of cultivation, battles, transformations, and the horrifying consumption demanded by the Cursed Immortality, suddenly received an enormous influx of nourishment. It was like a dying ocean receiving an endless rainstorm.

Although Jacob’s body didn’t change. and his skeletal frame remained exactly the same, deep within his soul, something was changing as he could feel his lifespan begin rising. It was slow at first, but then faster, and faster still.

Jacob’s hollow sockets flickered as he didn’t even need Cursed Immortality to see the augmentation in his lifespan after he had started to grasp the Nightmare Eater ability.

‘One day…one year…ten years…hundred years…one thousand years…ten thousand…one hundred thousand…’

Jacob was shocked after sensing those numbers continued climbing, yet he wasn’t excited anymore. Instead, his expression gradually became solemn.

Because the amount of vitality entering his soul wasn’t decreasing; instead, it was increasing, as the sacrifice of the entire Undead Skyfall Canyons was simply too enormous.

For countless ages, every undead creature within this territory had been contributing something through every battle, every death, every wound, every moment of fear, every fragment of vitality, every trace of faith; everything had accumulated, and all of it was being funneled into this place.

Now Jacob had inserted himself into that process as he was stealing it, and not a portion or fragment, but he was siphoning away an entire tributary of the sacrificial river.

The more he absorbed, the more he realized just how terrifying the original river truly was.

Jacob’s eyes narrowed as something came to mind: ‘Just how long had this ritual been prepared?’

He had no answer, as this entire setup seemed calculated and crafted for a specific situation. It was probably prepared for hundreds or even millions of years, and perhaps even longer.

The Undead Skyfall Canyons had existed since an era so ancient that even the Legendary Plains’ surviving records couldn’t explain its origin. Perhaps this sacrificial ritual had been operating for longer than the current civilization had existed.

Jacob’s expression slowly became complicated, but then he flashed a vague, eerie smile, and it was the smile of someone who had suddenly discovered an absurd opportunity.

‘Since you have been planning it for so long, and only chose this specific time to implicate this…’ His gaze turned toward the endless streams of vitality. ‘…I’ll help you spend some!’

The Life Bane Wheel accelerated instantly.

‘WHOOM!’

The black section devoured, the purple section separated, and the white section converted. The entire Wheel began functioning like an incomprehensibly complex mill, taking the endless sacrificial energy and processing it at terrifying speed.

One stream became ten, ten became a hundred, and hundreds became thousands as the sacrificial river visibly thinned.

But then, Jacob noticed something strange as his Eyes of Judge suddenly flickered; the profound-colored particles were changing, but it was not the vitality or faith; something else.

The moment the Life Bane Wheel began converting the vitality into soul vitality, the remaining sacrificial energy became clearer, and hidden beneath the countless layers was a fourth current!