Pandora Unchained - a Cultivation Progression Fantasy

Sorin was naturally unaware of the discussion that transpired outside the room or the significance of what was occurring. For all he knew, it was only natural that a divine book would be able to transfer large quantities of knowledge directly into his mind and spirit. After all, he already had the Ten Thousand Poison Canon and the Kepler Clan's secret research notes tucked away in his spirit, to be opened later.

Having cultivated the subsidiary life mana cultivation art, the Art of the Living Sage, and having witnessed his father practicing medicine, Sorin instantly recognized the unique energy of the Divine Medical Art as the Divine Medical Codex initiated the transmission. His body shook with anticipation, and for a moment, all was right in the world. He would soon reclaim the legacy that was rightfully his and regain his status as a physician.

Yet before the Divine Medical Art could infuse itself into his mana in imprint itself onto his spirit, the corruption in his body flared up. It was incompatible with the Divine Medical Art, and it refused to give up the position it now occupied opposite Sorin's Ten Thousand Poison Canon.

Sorin gritted his teeth and mobilized his divinity to suppress the corruption. It took time, but eventually, he succeeded. Yet by then, the Divine Medical Codex had already given up on the transmission and had no interest in making another attempt.

No! Try again! Sorin reached out to the Codex and attempted to force a transfer. The divinity in his blood glowed with a familiar golden light, with such intensity that the fox head medallion on his chest could no longer conceal it.

If I'm exposed, so be it. No matter what, I can't give up on the Divine Medical Art. With it, he would be able to cultivate life mana and might even be able to return to being a practicing physician. It was much preferable to the corruption that threatened to consume him in body and soul,

Unfortunately, the Divine Medical Codex did not respond to his demands despite the presence of Asclepius's God Light. However, it did sense that there were other things it could transmit to him and, therefore, initiated another transfer.

Four sealed orbs of light corresponding to the third through sixth sections of the manual flowed into his body, and this time, the corruption didn't respond. Even if Sorin couldn't cultivate the Divine Medical Art, the knowledge in the Divine Medical Codex would be useful to the wielder of the Ten Thousand Poison Canon.

The transference of knowledge greatly exhausted Sorin's God Light, but much of it remained. The Codex, seeming unwilling to further displease the inheritor of Asclepius, summoned nine more information packets.

Sorin realized these were skills of the highest quality as he reached out to the nine packets. What's more, they're compatible with the Ten Thousand Poison Canon. Sorin had spent a lot of effort perusing the Adventurers Guild and Mages Guild in every city they'd been to but had been unable to find any skills compatible with his overbearing cultivation art.

There was a total of nine skills he could choose from:

Coldblooded, S-Tier Skill—Grants the user complete control over his emotions.

Grove Keeper's Touch, S-Tier Skill—Used to nurture herbs, plants, and insects using blood, mana, and external items.

Basilisk, S-Tier Skill (Eye): An optical attack that targets the spirit, resulting in temporary petrification in most cases. It may cause instant death to weaker enemies. Note: Only one eye skill may be cultivated at one time. Eye skills are likely to conflict with detection skills.

Ferryman's Eyes, S-Tier Skill (Eye)—Allows the user to accurately determine a creature's remaining lifespan. Grants intuition on matters of life and death. Note: Only one eye skill may be cultivated at one time. Eye skills are likely to conflict with detection skills.

Aura of the Sage, S-Tier Aura Skill—Influences the minds of nearby creatures and changes their default inclination to favorable or peaceful. Greatly increases the efficiency of knowledge transmittal from the user to recipients. Recipients will be more likely to accept good and sage advice from the user. Note: Only one aura skill may be practiced at a time.

Eyes of the Sun and Moon, Divine-Tier Skill (Eye)—This skill grants the ability to perfectly conceptualize a target or a patient's anatomy with a single glance and makes the user aware of their critical injuries or weaknesses. Note: Only one eye skill may be cultivated at one time. Eye skills are likely to conflict with detection skills.

Ophiuchan Simulation, Divine-Tier Skill—Allows the user to form a link with the Ophiuchus Constellation and use this astrological connection to simulate matters relating to healing, poison, cultivation, body enhancement, and all other matters related to bodily functions.

Serpentine Approximation, Divine-Tier Skill—By drawing upon one's innate serpentine nature, the user can approximate runes and complex spell circles using serpentine glyphs. Complex spells become easier to learn and less troublesome to cast. This greatly increases spell learning speed and decreases casting effort and time.

Cosmic Molting, Divine-Tier Skill—Allows the user to condition their body with poison or other natural materials. Conditioning will result in the amplification of some abilities and the loss of others. Note: This ability may conflict with or complement other body cultivation skills. Combining skills without appropriate knowledge is not recommended.

The first thing that stood out to Sorin was the rank of these skills. Sorin wasn't aware of the ranks of Cobra's Glare, Adder Rush, and Toxic Metamorphosis, but he did know that his heroic ability, Toxic Metabolism, and his evolved ability, Hand of the Medicine God, were both Divine-Tier skills.

Skills and spells were ranked similarly. The same rankings could also be applied to medicinal pills and poisons. It was clear that these were all peak-level abilities. In fact, Sorin wanted nothing more than to violently snatch away all four divine skills and see if he could get away with it.

Fortunately, the divinity in Sorin's blood was still active; he immediately noticed the influence of Violence and suppressed his natural urges with cold, detached reason.

It's not guaranteed that I can obtain any of these skills, let alone four divine ones, Sorin analyzed. Therefore, it would be a good idea to prioritize according to my needs. I shouldn't have any problems killing things, and Cobra's Glare is already an eye ability. So, I'll discount Basilisk and Ferryman's Eyes for now.

Then there's Cosmic Molting. It's probably of a higher tier than Toxic Metamorphosis, and I can also intuit, using the knowledge I just imbibed, that these body cultivation arts are compatible. Even so, my strength and defenses aren't weak. I'll set it aside for now, even though it's a divine ability.

The Aura of the Sage skill was tempting, as it would greatly increase Sorin's ability to further his goals. However, it was also a rare aura skill, difficult to find and normally unable to be cultivated before the Flesh-Sanctification Realm.

Even so, something about manipulating the minds of others rubbed Sorin the wrong way. He, therefore, discarded Aura of the Sage and paid closer attention to his remaining choices.

The remaining skills were Cold Blooded, Grove-Keeper's Touch, Eyes of the Sun and Moon, Ophiuchan Simulation, and Serpentine Approximation. Cold-Blooded would solve his emotional control problems, while Grove-Keeper's Touch would aid him in pursuing his career as an apothecary. Eyes of the Sun and Moon was a conflicting eye technique that overlapped with Cobra's Gaze, but the ability to see an enemy's weak points or injuries and perfectly decode a creature's anatomy with a single glance was extremely powerful and worthy of a Divine-Tier skill.

Serpentine Approximation would aid Sorin in the spellcasting department, but in the end, he decided that Ophiuchan Simulation would be more useful. Sorin might not be a physician, but he still needed to unseal his companions' bones. There was also the matter of concocting new poisons since it was now clear that most of the poisons in the Ten Thousand Poison Canon were obsolete. There was also the most important reason to take it: the Divine Bone Rot in his system. Even now, it was wearing away at his bones and would likely finish him off before the Shine Descent took place if he didn't find a way to suppress the poison.

Sorin, therefore, didn't hesitate to choose the sphere representing a divine ability. It easily merged with his blood, mind, and spirit and discreetly forged a connection with the Ophiuchus constellation. He was now aware of the constellation's position in the sky and would be able to point to it even on a cloudy night or in the daytime when the stars were hidden.

A cursory inspection of the skill revealed a few important pieces of information. First, Sorin would be able to simulate anybody he had thoroughly analyzed and could even simulate hypothetical cases, assuming he understood how they function. Second, he could perform instant simulations regarding his own body—something that would be of great aid in selecting poisons and other matters of cultivation.

Third, a simplified version of the skill could be imbued into items with a small sacrifice of blood and energy from the user. Typically, these items would take the form of an enchanted mannequin, which other physicians could then use to test medicines and poisons or simulate grave injuries and practice surgeries. It was clear that the clan's unique medical mannequins were products of this technique.

Securing Ophiuchan Simulation proved exhausting to Sorin. Moreover, it expended a great deal of God Light. A little less than half the God Light remained, indicating that Sorin could either choose two S-Tier skills or one Divine-Tier skill.

He didn't have much time, and after weighing the pros and the cons, he decided that the best choice was Grove Keeper's Touch. For one, it shored up his shortcomings in the herbology department. For another, it complemented Ophiuchan Simulation and would likely aid him in finding a cure for his Divine Bone Rot. That wasn't even mentioning how much it would help him in concocting the ten poisons he needed to cultivate the Ten Thousand Poison Canon.

Obtaining the second skill reduced the remaining God Light by half. The remaining light was only enough to obtain the remaining S-Tier Skill, Cold-Blooded.

Yet just as Aura of the Sage rubbed him wrong, the Cold-Blooded skill made him wary. How would a skill that allowed him to control his emotions at will influence his mind? His personality? Would he become a cold and logical killer who didn't care about kindness and mercy?

Although it was unlikely that he could obtain it, Sorin decided that he was better off giving up on Cold-Blooded to try grasping Serpentine Approximation. He reached out for the fading skill and exerted his divine blood to his limit. Yet try as he might, the sphere continued fading just as the other skill spheres were also vanishing.

Sorin gritted his teeth at the sight. He was unwilling to give up. As far as he was concerned, these spheres were subservient, just as the book was subservient. He was the predator here, and prey was to be taken, not given.

Fortunately, divinity isn't my only tool. I'm not just a God Seed… I'm a corrupt God Seed. The Violence in my blood is difficult to control, but there's one situation where it's much easier to control: fused with my divinity!

At his urging, the Violence in his blood merged with his divinity to produce God Light with a tarnished gold coloring. They're definitely keeping an eye on me, but that shouldn't matter. Tarnished God Light and normal God Light are very similar. Moreover, the Hero Stele said I'm the first Corrupt God Seed in history. With the help of the fox head medallion, I should be able to cover up the corruption and pass it off as variant divinity.

Having confirmed that the elders were unlikely to sense anything amiss, Sorin reached out with a hand of Tarnished God Light and caught the rapidly fading sphere of knowledge. It squirmed and tried to return to the horrified Divine Medical Codex, but try as it might, it couldn't escape. Sorin succeeded in pulling the technique into his body. Serpentine Symbols filled Sorin's mind and spirit, as did hundreds of application methods. Even without concentrating on the one-star spells he knew, he naturally began to reshape the spells according to the new serpentine structure, then began applying that same structure to Spear in a Haystack.

Unfortunately, remodeling Spear in a Haystack required a lot of time and vast amounts of mental energy—energy he no longer had after wrestling with the Divine Medical Codex. Exhausted in both body and mind, Sorin retrieved his Tarnished God Light and stumbled away from the Divine Medical Codex. Threads of mana caught him before he could hit the ground.

"Rest now, Sorin," said Elder Nolan as he entered the room. "There's no need to say anything. We witnessed the whole process and have naturally become aware of certain matters. Rest assured that aside from the Grand Elder, we won't disclose your secret status to anyone else. We will also provide you with whatever support we can."

"What abilities did you get?" Elder Claudius asked hoarsely. "Off the record." Elder Nolan frowned at the elder but gave a gentle nod to Sorin, indicating that he could share any information he liked.

"Ophiuchan Simulation, Grove Keeper's Touch, and Serpentine Approximation," said Sorin, figuring that if they were already aware of his God Seed status, sharing a little more to establish better relations wouldn't hurt.

"Three abilities!" exclaimed Elder Claudius. "That's wonderful. If this doesn't lead to our clan's resurgence, I'll eat my hat!"

"You'll have to forgive Elder Claudius," said Elder Nolan. Typically, he and two others bear witness to such ceremonies. Due to your complicated status, we decided to keep things simple.

"Just know that you shouldn't easily share this information with others, especially the presiding elders; it's typical to only receive a single skill from the Divine Medical Codex when inheriting the Medicine God's legacy. And it's normally not a divine skill, despite the fact that you clearly obtained two."

Sorin suddenly felt extremely thankful that he'd shared this information. Knowing that three inherited abilities were unusual, he could now take steps to conceal them and prevent his enemies from discovering the extent of his capabilities.

Ophiuchan Simulation should be easy to hide, but Serpentine Approximation and Grove Keeper's Touch will be more difficult. I'll need to be careful before I use either ability in public.