Nameless smiled as he leaned on the entrance of the cave.
He had never trusted the will in his mind, although it had helped him, he always kept in his mind the thought of getting rid of it as fast as possible.
He could slightly feel that he was manipulated sometimes and although the will always made coherent explanations as to why he was encountering troubles even helping him when he was cornered by rank 4 beasts but he still never trusted it, he merely relied on it temporarily.
The moment the purple will asked the tribe leader to join the Guardians is the moment he firmed his mind to try and get his help to be free of its shackles, it was a risky move but he had to try.
There was always the possibility of the purple will realising his intentions, thats why it was only after consuming the rank 5 anima soup that he attempted it, it was when his sea of consciousness already had active waves due to the meal that he sent a few thoughts to the minimen tribe leader and luckily, the will didn't notice.
The second step was to let himself fall asleep giving the purple will more assurance and removing all possible suspicion of a plot and all that was left was for fate to decide the outcome.
He didn't know what would happen now, it seemed the minimen tribe leader obtained the purple will but the tricky thing was wheter he would find trouble with him or not.
The miniman could easily kill him but that didn't matter, he had tried his best to free himself.
Nameless didn't know but the will had the ability to self-destruct in his sea of consciousness and shatter it or atleast put cracks into it but in this gamble, he had succeeded, the will was no longer in his mind!
He couldn't hear the conversation that was going on between the minimen tribe leader and the modified will, he only saw the will kneel as it responded to the tribe leader's commands.
This scene continued for a few minutes before the will flew through the air rushing towards Nameless!
He was slightly startled and his heart beat but he still didn't show any emotions on his face.
The will moved before entering his sea of consciousness.
"Don't worry, she will just remove the purple dao marks that were ingrained in your mind." the minimen tribe leader spoke before he made a hand sign.
Nameless felt himself floating through the air before black rusty chains rushed tying both his arms and feet!
"You?! What are you doi-- AHHH!"
"Dao marks ingrained in a sea of consciousness are extremely painful to remove but you will have to go through it, so bear it."
"AHHH!"
The will removed the purple dao marks one by one like removing a thread knitted into cloth, it was a delicate and very painful process.
"ARGHHH!"
Nameless screamed as he felt as if his sea of consciousness would shatter at any moment!
"ARGHH!! AHHH!" He gritted his teeth so hard that he felt as if his teeth would shatter at any moment.
The torture continued, Nameless struggled as he bit his lips so hard they bled. It didn't take long before he began coughing black blood.
"The immortal fetus body is even more instable than I thought." The tribe leader expressionlessly said as he watched.
The process continued for 2 hours before he lost consciousness.
The chains retracted and he fell towards the ground at high speed.
Just before he landed however, he was stopped mid-air by a formless force before he was gently let down to the ground.
"Hey, will use the dao marks on his body to heal him."
"Understood."
The miniman was a wisdom path immortal, he could talk to a will even when it was in another person's mind.
Nameless had lost consciousness near the end and had his mouth agape, purple dao marks began to heal his sea of consciousness and the damage he had done to his body, the process ended in fifteen minutes as only an exhausted awake Nameless remained after.
He tried to stand up before failing.
"Kid, this is the price for freedom. Pain is the price for freedom."
"I under- I understand." he struggled to utter these words but within his eyes, a small resolution surfaced.
"It's good that you got it, there are no shortcuts in this world, the only reason I helped you was because I would also profit from this situation and you would be useful to my plan but don't worry, we, minimen aren't as shameless as human beings." the tribe leader spoke before he entered the cave.
Nameless dragged himself towards the cave before he stood up and used the walls and rocks as support to walk.
As soon as he reached the deepest area, he collapsed, falling into slumber.
...
Two days had to pass before Nameless woke up.
"You woke up, it seems."
Nameless's head gave a burst of pain, he felt exhausted and dysfunctional, it took fifteen minutes before he began to feel normal.
"What happened? why does my head hurt? wait?!"
As soon as he noticed the minimen tribe leader, he retreated in anger, his eyes had traces of wariness within them.
"Don't worry, it's not like I'm going to cook you like this squid."
Yugo held a stick on top of a bonfire, the stick had a squid tentacle at its end that was cooking.
"Here, catch!"
Yugo threw a big squid tentacle he cooked previously.
Nameless catched the squid before shooting a wary gaze towards it.
"Eat, it tastes good, your body needs it."
His body was starving but he still waited till the minimen tribe leader appeared friendly to eat.
He put it in his mouth, it was full of succulent flavours, it had a special unique saltiness about it.
He ate as he asked : "What were those black chains you bound me with?"
"It's a rank 3 anima."
"Are animas that important? the will told me before that one can fight without animas and that they were only a long term method of fighting?"
"Well, it's not totally wrong, animas are fixed and hard to refine, it is possible to change their effect by combining other animas with but such techniques are hard to make and even if you had it you can't completely change the true effect of the anima. In the immortal ranks, all these difficulties are multiplied a thousand times."
He flipped the squid as he continued : "The point is that it is possible to fight without anima but you would need spells, martial techniques and secret arts whereas most anima's effect are immediate though a killer move can take quite a long time to activate but most spells require a long time of practice memorising and practicing the hexagram of the technique in your own mind which can take quite some effort to master but its always more practical than using Animas. Anima have to be fed and nurtured which is expensive, some only eat foods from their environment or other rare foods, add on the difficulty of finding, refining and using them. let alone making killer moves with them."
He flipped the squid tentacle again : "You can now understand how difficult it is, I only mastered a few immortal killer move which I didn't create myself but inherited and I am already well into my nineties."
"You are in your nineties?!"
"Yeah why? because I appear young? I was born before Flobo, you know the one with the beard you called "ancestor" hahaha. I used to tease him about his name, as for why I don't age, its because I'm more powerful, as long as keep becoming more powerful, you won't age."
"Are you going to die in a few years?!"
"Hahaha, of course not, I obtained a 75 years Lifespan anima, thats why I had to fight with the immortal snake. I am not the one who is going to die, the one who is going to die is you."
"Me?! Why?"
"So you really were asleep, no wonder. Well, long story short, your body is extremely instable, it's almost a mess. A normal body has all three centers of power in check meaning the sea of consciousness, the dantian and the body with its meridians exist in a perfect balance with one another, even if there was an imbalance, it fixes itself naturally."
He continued : "But in your body, first, your sea of consciousness is way too different from your body, its almost like you are not compatible with this world. Secondly, the body and its meridians although fit perfectly where they are supposed to, they feel as if they would rust at any moment, its as if you lack what makes a body, a true body. Your dantian while still in the first rank is also abnormal. Normally as each center of power advances, the other centers of power advance too, the three centers of power are almost pegged with each other, they follow each other. Your dantian should have already absored the energy of the world and advanced to a rank 2 dantian without effort simply by the power of your body and mind but this isn't the case."
He removed the squid, putting a raw one and cooking it before he continued : "It is as if your dantian is not a true dantian or it lacks some necessary components for it to function properly. But the main part is your body, the body is like the shell of both the sea of consciousness and the dantian, as I've seen in the wills memories, it seems you can transform into any beast without Anima, simply by looking and understanding an ability, you can mimick it."
He proceeded : "As I've found out, your body, the immortal fetus was made as a rank 6 immortal body and the difference between a mortal and an immortal body is as vast as Heaven is from earth, becoming an immortal is first breaking the chains of mortality that bind your body but your body is still mortal and it seems it was first immortal before it turned back into mortal, this of course allowed you to retain that unique quality but that also made it all the more instable."
"Wait, so there is no hope?! is there anything I can do about it?!"
"A mortal body with an immortal ability, as far as I know in the minimen records, there are only 3 legendary anima that will not only cure body but even make it advance further and adapt to this change, they are Adaptation anima, Mutation anima and Natural selection anima."
He paused making sure Nameless followed before continuing : "The best of these would be Adaptation anima which will help your body adapt and evolve into an even higher form, fixing all the flaws without any repurcussions. The second one however is a gamble, Mutation anima can give extremely positive mutations but there is always the possibility that it can give negative mutations increasing the problem inevitably destroying your body and ending your life. The third one is the second best, Natural selection anima can help you slowly remove the impurities and fix your body while also allowing you a certain amount of progress with minimal repurcussions."
"That's perfect! if I just find them, I wil-
"They are all atleast rank 6 immortal anima with the potential to be rank 8. If it's not rank 6 when you find them, just give up on them. What you also don't know is that only one version of an immortal anima can exist in this world. Meaning there is only one adaptation anima, one mutation anima and one natural selection anima in the entire world."
"What?! so I have no hope?!"
"Depends, I said these are the one that will allow you to not only fix your body but also propell you forward giving you potential to retain the power of shapeshifting and other attributes as you advance to immortal. But it is possible to use high ranked mortal anima to slowly deal with this problem although that would only allow you more years of lifespan. I'd also recommend you begin consuming beast parts in accordance to your body or special plants or herbs, your body is very malnourished and will need near constant nourishment to operate properly."
He carried on : "But the problem will still be that you are using the potential and ability of an immortal body as a mortal body, of course your body is already beyond the scope of a mortal one but its abilities are still ones that are rare even in the immortal ranks, so you will slowly lose the potential of your body and even if you use mortal ranks to add years to your already short life, you will inevitably die and even if you survive, you will lose all your abilities while also being stuck in the rank you will be on forever."
"What?! it's that serious?"
"It's even more serious than you think, all of this is merely theoretical knowledge I thought about but from a cultivation perspective but your body shouldn't exist, I wouldn't be suprised if you exploded into meat paste at any moment."
"What?!" Nameless was startled and shocked beyond belief.
He knitted his eyebrows : "Then why am I still alive?"
"It's for the same reason why you can shapeshift into beasts without problems."
"What is it?!"
"Only an Anima can survive in these kind of conditions. Only an Anima can allow such effortless and powerful transformation."
"You mean?!"
"That's right, You are an Anima."