Chaos Heir

Chapter 1365: Knowledge

When the first strand of white-azure energy entered Khan, a strange confusion spread inside him, or rather, his mind generated that feeling, finding that entire training session pointless.

All things considered, Khan was truly pursuing a wasteful approach. After all, mere flesh and bones had their limits, and empowering them would inevitably lead to an insurmountable bottleneck.

The matter felt even stranger since Khan knew what the correct approach was. He didn’t have to empower his body. He had to abandon it, shedding his flesh to reach a formless but superior state of existence.

At that point, Khan would be capable of creating whatever suited him best, even equipping it with all the right features. As long as he knew the specifics, his mana would provide, building something even better than what he was trying to obtain now, without limiting him to that singular shape.

’But that would create issues with reproduction,’ Khan considered. ’Liiza wants more kids, and we both happen to enjoy the baby-making process.’

Khan’s gaze had grown unfocused while those realizations spread through his mind, but thinking about sex snapped him out of that strange state. He forcefully shook his head, his eyes landing on the reptilian face in front of him before peeking at the spinning sphere below.

As strange as it sounded, Khan had never lost his sense of self even once, so snapping out of that state didn’t lead to any confusion. His awareness had remained active the whole time, so he knew exactly what had happened.

That tiny strand of white-azure energy had changed Khan’s perspective, broadening it on many levels, temporarily making him see his body as disposable.

The change didn’t come with any warning signal. Khan didn’t even sense it. It had happened naturally, organically, and suddenly, bringing an undeniably superior awareness.

To make things worse, that awareness had been entirely correct, albeit with caveats. The flesh had clear limits, but only beings with no attachments or basic drives would accept giving it up.

That wasn’t a perspective proper to individuals. It was more suited for grander beings, existences that bordered on impersonal godhood.

Nevertheless, that awareness wasn’t permanent. Unlike the snake’s memories, the absorbed knowledge slowly vanished without leaving foreign instincts or drives inside Khan’s mind.

Khan only retained some vague, extremely basic knowledge on how to assemble bodies with the mana. Everything else disappeared, even making him forget why he had ever considered those crazy ideas.

Needless to say, the event was concerning. Khan knew a thing or two about putting his sense of self at risk, and that experience had been greater, worse, but subtler compared to his time with the snake’s memories.

The inability to sense when the change of perspective happened made it extremely dangerous, basically ensuring it would take Khan by surprise every time.

Moreover, that knowledge made sense. It wasn’t something foreign that didn’t belong to Khan’s body or anatomical shape. It was perfectly doable, and Khan would find it hard to refuse it rationally.

Still, there was a positive side to the whole experience. The new [Blood Vortex] absorbed energy at unfathomable speed, almost failing to store any of it due to how quickly his cells devoured it.

However, after that strange experience, Khan found his body brimming with energy that his cells had yet to absorb. Even days spent training with the previous version of his technique wouldn’t have brought such incredible results.

Obviously, the white-azure strands of mana were incomparable to the planet’s energy. They carried dangerous knowledge but also more energy than Khan could fathom.

While Khan was still busy with that inspection, another white-azure strand of energy detached itself from the spinning sphere, flying along the [Blood Vortex]’s suction force to enter his body.

Khan didn’t know why he had thought that reproduction would have been an issue. Simpler creatures indeed had to copulate or engage in other primitive actions to create an offspring, but he knew a more efficient, superior way.

Genes weren’t the only way to classify a being as another being’s offspring. The mana could easily act as a replacement, tainting others with specific features, evolving them to share similarities with the eventual progenitor.

Some beings would reject the mutations, but others would improve significantly as overall creatures. They would also lose their flawed sense of individuality, obtaining a shared understanding and will that went beyond the primitive concept of family.

Khan abruptly snapped out of those thoughts, shaking his head again. He closed his eyes, slightly disgusted by the ideas still lingering in his mind, waiting for them to vanish from his brain.

That broader understanding vanished once more, leaving behind a fragmented sense of ownership over the mana as a whole. Khan had already expanded his mastery in that field, but something told him he could push it even further now.

Nevertheless, Khan opened his eyes as soon as he went back to normal. The continued destruction of the valley and surrounding areas gave him a clearer idea of how long he had spent immersed in that broader perspective, and one detail immediately became clear.

If the spinning sphere had wanted to, it could have sent more white-azure strands toward Khan, worsening his strange state, potentially deepening it until he couldn’t find a way out anymore.

Except, the sphere didn’t. Its white-azure mana had opposed the [Blood Vortex]’s suction force, seemingly on purpose for a reason Khan struggled to believe. That energy was giving him time to fend off the profound awareness to lower the risks of its absorption.

The mana was restraining itself for its heir’s sake, aiding Khan’s will as best as possible. He couldn’t endure the entirety of the sphere’s knowledge, so the mana would give it away bit by bit, waiting for him to recover before sending the next.

The spinning sphere seemed to confirm Khan’s conclusion by sending another white-azure strand of energy into the technique’s pulling force as soon as he looked down at it.

The strand of far denser energy went down the snake’s mouth, and Khan’s mindset broadened once again, imparting another lesson that he would only partially remember.