Chapter 285 - Sealed Card
With the invitation set to expire within twenty-four hours, Han Wu hastened back to Imperial College and submitted an official request to utilize it. The college promptly approved his petition and granted him ten specialized crafted cards designed to aid his mission.
Upon examining the cards, Han Wu discovered they could seal any body part from his units, allowing for seamless grafting onto his corresponding anatomy without risk of rejection. In short, they could alter his physical appearance.
The Hell Civilization presented unique challenges. Humanoid forms were exceedingly rare there; most inhabitants boasted monstrous shapes and forms. To infiltrate such a place, Han Wu would need to transform his own appearance.
Han Wu smiled wryly. He didn’t actually need the cards for transformation. He could simply request the Origin of Mutation to reshape his body through Gene Recombination. It could effortlessly craft a three-headed, six-armed form using diverse organisms.
Suddenly, a troubling realization struck him. Despite the improved relationship between them, Han Wu knew he had to remain vigilant against the Origin of Mutation. Allowing it to modify his body was far too dangerous.
What if it implanted something sinister within him? By then, it would be too late to rectify the situation.
He dismissed the notion of using the Origin of Mutation to enhance himself and turned his attention to the ten cards instead. Each one could seal a body part from any race under his command. Once sealed, he could graft it onto his own body and gain the corresponding power. He needed to choose with care. A single mistake could waste a card on a body part with no practical value.
Han Wu surveyed the races within his divine realm, beginning with Alpheus. The Great Dragons were formidable life forms recognized throughout the Divine Civilization, yet Han Wu wasn’t one of them, limiting his ability to utilize their full combat potential. He needed to choose carefully.
After careful consideration, he used three cards on Alpheus—two for the claws and one for the scales.
The scales of a Great Dragon were exceptionally resistant to both physical and magical damage. Grafting them to his body would be like encasing himself in living armor. The claws needed no explanation. They were razor-sharp and impossibly tough, able to rip through nearly anything. He considered them powerful enough to justify the cost of two cards.
He then turned to the strongest unit in his divine realm, Steely. The Swordwinds were a race renowned for their swordsmanship, and Steely stood above the rest. With four greatswords in hand, he had torn through entire armies.
Han Wu resolved to use four cards to seal all four of Steely’s arms before grafting them onto his own body. A surge of surprise and satisfaction washed over him as he realized each arm retained Steely’s innate talent and skills.
His body now bore Great Dragon scales, two formidable claws, and four of Steely’s arms. He resembled a scaled monstrosity with six limbs, yet somehow maintained his basic humanoid form.
With three cards remaining, Han Wu contemplated his next move. The scales provided defense, the claws and four arms served as weapons, but survival would require additional capabilities.
In any dangerous situation, powerful legs proved essential for escape. He considered the minotaurs and Tigermen before settling on Hu Chi, whose legs had been trained to exceptional strength through year-round conditioning. With these two legs, Han Wu could outpace many pursuers.
That left one final card. He used it on his core race, the locusts. Their most remarkable trait was their reproductive ability, but that served no purpose now. He would be alone in that place. Even if he grafted on their reproductive organs, he doubted they’d serve any purpose.
Instead, he focused on their stomachs, enhanced by the Law of Gluttony to digest nearly anything, including poisons. With a stomach like that, he wouldn’t need to worry about food. He could restore his energy through whatever he consumed, recover from injuries more efficiently, and tap into the power of Famine to accelerate digestion. It was a deadly combination.
Han Wu used his final card to seal Dark Locust’s stomach and graft it onto his own body. That marked the end of the ten cards he had received from Imperial College.
Just as he prepared to use the invitation, his master, Xu Hai, approached and handed him five more cards. This was a master’s gift to his disciple.
Han Wu understood the weight of that gift. After using ten cards himself, he knew how rare and valuable each one was. Xu Hai’s offering made it clear that he held Han Wu in high regard, and the gesture moved him deeply.
“Master, I shall repay your generosity when I return,” Han Wu vowed.
Xu Hai urged him to utilize the cards immediately. “Hurry, don’t disappoint me.”
Han Wu nodded and assessed his remaining options. So far, he had already grafted the stomach of a Locust, the legs of a Tigerman, the four limbs of Steely—imbued with his innate talent and skills—and the scales and claws of a Great Dragon.
He expected to encounter harsh terrain in the Hell Civilization and wanted wings to help him navigate it. Naturally, the Great Dragons’ wings represented the pinnacle of aerial mobility, so he sealed Alpheus’ wings and temporarily grafted them onto his body.
That left him with three cards.
He reviewed the rest of his available races to see what he could still use.
The Scorching Dwarves possessed formidable forging skills, but those abilities weren’t tied to any specific body part. That made them unusable.
The minotaurs had immense strength, but it didn’t come from any one limb or organ. Besides, Han Wu didn’t plan on fighting in close combat. He was about to become a God. When the time came to kill, he would rely on his Divine Authority to strike from afar rather than clash in person.
Then there were the skeletons, known for their formidable bones, especially the Crystal Lich. Its bones rivaled diamond in hardness. If Han Wu wanted to replace his entire skeleton with crystal bones, it would cost him at least five cards, more than he had left. In the end, he chose to graft only the Crystal Lich’s skull, which would serve as an impenetrable helmet to protect his brain.
Now left with two cards, Han Wu continued his search.
He examined the Epistians first. They were renowned for their intelligence—their brains possessed extraordinary power, enabling them to absorb knowledge at an astonishing speed.
Han Wu yearned for such cognitive enhancement and sealed the brain of the most powerful Epistian, grafting it onto his own. The moment the card activated, an unprecedented clarity flooded his mind.
Finally, Han Wu took the last card and prepared to make his final choice.