Marina’s Spirit Sense drove into the ring with combative force, but the fierce struggle she expected never came. Information flooded her mind as the ring immediately acquiesced to her control.
“Whoa” Raul muttered in pained shock as his ring glowed blue and the same information flooded his mind. It wasn’t the first time he experienced this. The same flood of simple instruction on their workings came when he first bonded with his Mirror and Spatial Ring, but this couldn’t even compare to that.
He felt like he just got a thousand paged book crammed into his head… in a language he couldn’t understand. While it wasn’t literally in another language, it was so full of technical terms that it might as well have been.
Raul got the gist that it was some kind of Physique sharing ability, but everything else went completely over, or in this case, through his head.
Meanwhile, shock grew in Marina as she digested the information. A lot of it was too technical even for her, but she understood enough to know that her father had truly made an unbelievable artifact.
‘He’s a genius.’ She hated to admit it, but it’s undeniable. Complex feelings flooded her as memories of her father surfaced.
“Ouch! Oi, watch your nails.” Raul said in annoyance as her nails dug into his skin. This broke her out of her thoughts long enough to look down and see her knuckles turning white from her grip.
“Sorry.” She muttered while letting go quickly. She took several deep breaths to steady herself and stimy the unwanted thoughts. Her father didn’t matter now, he died a long time ago. Now what he built was in her hands to use as she pleased.
“…Want to talk about it?” Raul asks after her breathing returned to normal. “I might not look it, but I’m a pretty good listener.” He continues cautiously, not sure if this overstepped some boundaries.
For some reason, he got the sense that Marina’s reaction didn’t have to do with the ring. He could count on one hand the number of times Marina showed vulnerability before him, yet now, she seemed… frightened.
“Thank you for your concern, but I’m fine.” She said in a cold voice, completely shutting him out.
“Got it.” He could still feel the slight tremor of her fingers, but he didn’t insist. Marina didn’t dig into his personal life, so he had to do the same.
“At any rate, the experiment is far more successful than I could’ve hoped. We can start the process at any time.” She changes the topic. The ring had completely given over control of the Physique Entanglement function when she caught it.
It was truly unexpected that it would just hand it over without a fight, but she wasn’t complaining. A replica of the core of her physique currently resided in her ring. She simply needed to give the ok for it to transfer to Raul’s and start building the physique within him.
“Ah? Right! This means you're giving me a physique!” Raul’s energy ramped back up as he took the bait. Marina told him that Physiques didn’t necessarily equate strength, but he couldn’t help getting excited at the prospect of having more. He couldn’t help it. The stories and fables he’d heard growing up emphasized Physiques to mythical proportions. Even obtaining the weakest Natal Physique filled him with joy, he could barely wait to get another!
“No squirming!” Marina scolded as she grabbed him again. She commanded the ring to proceed with the process. Her ring glowed red as Raul’s glowed blue before the two resonated with one another and turned a deep purple.
She watched closely as the so-called core of the Physique moved over to Raul’s ring. Physique Core is what the information given by the ring called it, but truthfully Marina couldn’t make out what she was looking at. It was beyond her current understanding; she could only tell that something was indeed moving.
The core paused after entering Raul’s ring, awaiting his permission to start the process. Marina arced her eyebrows as she didn’t expect this requirement. It’s obvious from his notes that her dad isn’t exactly a humanitarian who cares about things like consent, so what gives? ‘Is it required?’ She speculated.
The rings should be based on her father’s study of the Divine Pairing Hearts Technique. Unlike most Dual Cultivation Techniques, it has a strong focus on connection and equality between the pair, giving them equal authority. That nature might be enforced on the rings.
In the first place, the rings primary focus is to enhance the Pairing Hearts… but is that truly the case? To begin with, it’s her father and the ring that told her that, but it’s clear now that they didn’t reveal all their secrets. Plus, the Pairing Hearts didn’t have a Physique Sharing ability at any Realm as far as she knew, this is an entirely new function. So why would it have the restrictions of the Pairing Hearts? And if it isn’t a requirement, then why did her father make them require permission?
A single design choice was enough to throw Marina’s thoughts into a confused spiral. What was he planning? Just what is this ring?
“Got it!” Raul exclaimed happily with sweat on his forehead. It’d taken him a little while to figure out how to accept the core as the process was more complex than giving his consent. He could’ve just asked Marina, but he had the instructions for it and could cross reference when needed, so he took it as a challenge and worked it out himself.
Marina tried to follow the core as it entered Raul. Seeing the changes it would bring would increase her knowledge on Physiques massively, unfortunately reality wasn’t so sweet. She completely lost it the moment it entered his body.
She tried scanning his whole body, causing him to shiver as her perception ran through him, but there was nothing different. It was as if it melded with his entire being on contact.
She couldn’t help clicking her tongue in annoyance. She’d just wasted a good opportunity! Some might get complacent since they could study the process whenever with the ring, but Marina wasn’t a fool.
The Physique Entanglement Function wasn’t omnipotent. For one, it could only replicate the core of a Physique as it coalesced. That means one of them must properly awaken the Physique for the core to form, and the rings can’t make more of them afterwards.
How many Physiques could they realistically manifest? Raul had nine seeds resting in him, but she wasn’t kidding when she said it’d be good if one or two actually resulted in anything. As for her, she had one more broken Physique that should result in a core when repaired. So that’s three opportunities, give or take. Not a lot.
She didn’t include Raul’s Extreme Physique since the rings couldn’t handle powerful Physiques. Physiques came in different levels: Commoner, Noble, Royal, King, Emperor, and Sovereign. The rings only work on Physiques up to the Royal level. Extreme Physiques were outside the usual gradings, and the ring didn’t mention them at all, but Extreme Physiques were incredibly complex. She didn’t believe it could copy them when it couldn’t even manage a King level.
While this limited her chances, this had actually eased her nerves a lot. She didn’t want any possibility of transferring Extreme Physiques. Raul’s eating Physique may just be a minor annoyance, but there was another much deadlier option.
While she may be a skilled Physician, she also understood that she was only Refining Realm currently. Even if she was stronger, Physiques were still an esoteric study that not even the top Physicians in the world dare say they fully understand. This is all to say that she didn’t discount the possibility that Raul’s inability to absorb Qi may have to do with an Extreme Physique. If THAT got transferred to her, then they would’ve been well and truly screwed. Thankfully there was no chance of it happening.
‘Three likely chances then. It’s best I don’t do another transfer until I thoroughly understand all the information on this function.’ She decided. It’d take her many months before she could even rudimentarily understand how it worked, and mayhaps years to master, but the rewards for fully digesting this kind of knowledge were immense.
“Did it work? I don’t feel any different.” Raul asks after several minutes of nothing happening.
“It definitely worked. Maybe try moving around a bit?” Marina suggested in an unsure tone. She had no idea how long it took to take effect. They’d both been equally unaware when Raul’s Natal Physique transferred after all.
“Right. Guess I’ll try tha-“ Raul’s voice cuts off as his attempts to stand lead to him falling onto her. She caught him easily and laid him gently on the ground. His eyes were closed, and his face felt hot to the touch. Her attempts to check up on him with her Physician skills showed nothing wrong with him.
‘Damn it, so there’s nothing to observe from this angle either.’ She sighed. It was a slim chance to begin with. She didn’t really expect to discover anything when Physician Lee with his higher cultivation couldn’t figure anything out when she collapsed. She’d have to wait until she absorbed the knowledge imbedded in the function before she had a chance of understanding this process.
“Well, at least you’ll finally have a decent Physique.” She said before throwing him over her shoulder. The Physique she’d repaired was a prestigious one, called the Core Root Physique. Though it started at the Noble level, it can easily be nurtured to King, and that’s just the basics. With proper care and attention, it’s not entirely possible for it to reach Emperor!
She walked back to her room, her mind still in turmoil over everything. This ring was much more than she originally thought. If it had one secret function, then who knows how many others might be hidden within it. And who knows how many of them are benign.
Ellen looked up from her book as the room door opened. She’d made herself very comfortable on the couch with an assortment of salty snacks to munch on. Her face warped when she saw Raul getting carried like a sack of potatoes.
“Holy crap, what happened!” She came over to help immediately.
‘Ah, right.’ Marina completely forgot she’d have to explain Raul’s state. She couldn’t tell a soul about the Physique Entanglement Function. Even at just the Royal level, the discovery of Physique Transferring technology will undoubtedly lead to war, possibly globally. She needed to keep it under wraps. Of course, that made explaining this current situation difficult.
