Chapter 233: Hoplites
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Chapter 233: Hoplites
The Hoplites had not let him down. Their memories were working perfectly and they could act in complete unified formations. The partial human seals were working quite well, looking like tattoos on their chests over their hearts. Their appearance was shocking enough that the little tattoo was barely noticeable. They looked very similar to humans except at their extremities. From the elbow and knee down they had insect exoskeletons. They also had a carapace on their heads with only the face and a line down the center of their skulls exposed. They looked like they were wearing bracers, greaves, and open faced helmets made out of emerald green bug carapaces.
The Hoplite men had mohawks poking up from the small strip of skin on top of their heads, while the women had slightly more space at the top and back of their head to grow hair so they wore ponytails or other human styles. Aside from their insectoid hands and feet, their most unusual feature was on their faces. Instead of lips they had eight tentacles a few inches lower. The tentacles could intertwine and lay flat to look sort of like lips, but when they ate the tentacles would grasp and writhe around. It was an unsettling sight.
Each of the hoplites was armed with a spear, a silk shield, and silk armor. The equipment wasnt much, but it only took a spearhead and some wood. They wove the silk themselves into thick many layered breastplates and skirts. The shields were just made of wood and covered in many layers of silk. Since they were using Sages current most powerful silk, the shields and armor were stronger than steel and when combined with their emerald forearms and shins their appearance matched Sages name for them. After a few battles, Sage told King to start training some of them as Smiths and Miners. Spears alone werent enough, so it would be a big improvement to get more weapons for them all.
Currently, Sage was standing over the body of the Grim Skywolf and a dozen Hoplites stood guard around him. They had previously been spread out over a large area to keep others from interfering with Sages battle and he called them back once the wolf died. He had fought the natural instinct to just tear apart the wolf and start eating it raw. Previously, hed done such a thing after dying as a way to practice Blood Refining. After eating a beast, he could run the technique passively in his stomach. Such an activity was actually very inefficient.
Sage formed some signs with his hands and then placed his palms against the side of the dead wolf. Blood flowed rapidly out of its huge cuts, pooling on the ground. Strangely, the pool was getting smaller instead of growing larger. Some of the blood that had splashed in the area began to run across the ground. The technique Sage was using seemed to attract all of the wolfs blood into a single puddle, one that wasnt just laying flat. It grew taller and taller, forming into the shape of a sphere and even floating upwards into the air. In just a few minutes every drop of blood in the wolfs body as well as all that had spilled in the area had collected into a large floating sphere.
Normally, the Warp Worm was able to discharge energy in such a fashion because of its body composition. It was a worm with just one simple passage through its body. Sages new body wasnt constructed like that internally, but he got around his problem with another additional part. Hed only added it in on a whim. The Fire Crested Iguana. It was just a silly little pet that had a spine ridge of flame. It didnt seem like much, but Sage was hoping for a technique in its ancestral memories to create the flames. Instead, he learned it was caused by a special organ. It was something like an extreme acupoint or Qi pore. The normal route for Qi to exit the body and affect the outside world, cultivators could open up, widen, and strengthen their Qi pores to perform different techniques. It was like adding in more taps or faucets to release energy.
The Fire Crested Iguana actually had a special organ that Sage had named energy vents. Instead of just an energy pipeline they were like jet nozzles. Using less energy for a much greater effect. The downside is that they were always on. Most of the Fire Crested Iguanas natural Qi recovery was expended on simply maintaining its flaming crest. Thankfully, it had only a handful of those energy vents along its spine, just enough for it to be manageable, but not enough to be all that effective for anything else. The vents were directly connected to its meridians and without a way to close them, they were a constant energy drain.
Sage found a workaround. The Fire Bellied Cobra. It had a whole second set of meridians. It even had its own special cultivation art just for the poison meridians, Blood of Fire. It was something no human could do as they had only one dantian and one set of meridians in their bodies. With the Fire Bellied Cobra, Sage formed a whole second dantian and set of meridians. Using that as a blueprint, he formed a third set of lesser meridians. Since the energy vents couldnt be closed he chose to link them up to a third set of meridians, one that he linked up directly to his mouth. Now, any energy in his mouth could be filtered to the third set of meridians and sent out of the energy vents that lined his spine, tail, and other joints.
Blood of Fire was a strange technique. It drew poison from the blood and body, pulling it into the dantian and combining it with the other poisons there. The Qi transforms into a poison Qi, using the dantian as a mixing pot. The normal set of meridians were interconnected with the body in an integral fashion and if they were suddenly filled with poison it would seep into every part of them and soon lead to death. Theoretically, Sage thought there might be a way for a human to use it if the poisons were combined into a tonic. The only problem is the person would have no other cultivation and if any other poison were to enter their body their tonic would be ruined and theyd be poisoned.
The true second set of poison meridians were carefully placed and sealed so there was only input Qi pores with the only output being the fangs. It was quite an elegant design and when combined with the energy vents from the Fire Crested Iguana and the mouth of the Warp Worm, it made for quite the system. Even so, it only barely matched up with the abilities that came from the dragon bloodline.
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Chapter 233: Hoplites
The Hoplites had not let him down. Their memories were working perfectly and they could act in complete unified formations. The partial human seals were working quite well, looking like tattoos on their chests over their hearts. Their appearance was shocking enough that the little tattoo was barely noticeable. They looked very similar to humans except at their extremities. From the elbow and knee down they had insect exoskeletons. They also had a carapace on their heads with only the face and a line down the center of their skulls exposed. They looked like they were wearing bracers, greaves, and open faced helmets made out of emerald green bug carapaces.
The Hoplite men had mohawks poking up from the small strip of skin on top of their heads, while the women had slightly more space at the top and back of their head to grow hair so they wore ponytails or other human styles. Aside from their insectoid hands and feet, their most unusual feature was on their faces. Instead of lips they had eight tentacles a few inches lower. The tentacles could intertwine and lay flat to look sort of like lips, but when they ate the tentacles would grasp and writhe around. It was an unsettling sight.
Each of the hoplites was armed with a spear, a silk shield, and silk armor. The equipment wasnt much, but it only took a spearhead and some wood. They wove the silk themselves into thick many layered breastplates and skirts. The shields were just made of wood and covered in many layers of silk. Since they were using Sages current most powerful silk, the shields and armor were stronger than steel and when combined with their emerald forearms and shins their appearance matched Sages name for them. After a few battles, Sage told King to start training some of them as Smiths and Miners. Spears alone werent enough, so it would be a big improvement to get more weapons for them all.
Currently, Sage was standing over the body of the Grim Skywolf and a dozen Hoplites stood guard around him. They had previously been spread out over a large area to keep others from interfering with Sages battle and he called them back once the wolf died. He had fought the natural instinct to just tear apart the wolf and start eating it raw. Previously, hed done such a thing after dying as a way to practice Blood Refining. After eating a beast, he could run the technique passively in his stomach. Such an activity was actually very inefficient.
Sage formed some signs with his hands and then placed his palms against the side of the dead wolf. Blood flowed rapidly out of its huge cuts, pooling on the ground. Strangely, the pool was getting smaller instead of growing larger. Some of the blood that had splashed in the area began to run across the ground. The technique Sage was using seemed to attract all of the wolfs blood into a single puddle, one that wasnt just laying flat. It grew taller and taller, forming into the shape of a sphere and even floating upwards into the air. In just a few minutes every drop of blood in the wolfs body as well as all that had spilled in the area had collected into a large floating sphere.
Normally, the Warp Worm was able to discharge energy in such a fashion because of its body composition. It was a worm with just one simple passage through its body. Sages new body wasnt constructed like that internally, but he got around his problem with another additional part. Hed only added it in on a whim. The Fire Crested Iguana. It was just a silly little pet that had a spine ridge of flame. It didnt seem like much, but Sage was hoping for a technique in its ancestral memories to create the flames. Instead, he learned it was caused by a special organ. It was something like an extreme acupoint or Qi pore. The normal route for Qi to exit the body and affect the outside world, cultivators could open up, widen, and strengthen their Qi pores to perform different techniques. It was like adding in more taps or faucets to release energy.
The Fire Crested Iguana actually had a special organ that Sage had named energy vents. Instead of just an energy pipeline they were like jet nozzles. Using less energy for a much greater effect. The downside is that they were always on. Most of the Fire Crested Iguanas natural Qi recovery was expended on simply maintaining its flaming crest. Thankfully, it had only a handful of those energy vents along its spine, just enough for it to be manageable, but not enough to be all that effective for anything else. The vents were directly connected to its meridians and without a way to close them, they were a constant energy drain.
Sage found a workaround. The Fire Bellied Cobra. It had a whole second set of meridians. It even had its own special cultivation art just for the poison meridians, Blood of Fire. It was something no human could do as they had only one dantian and one set of meridians in their bodies. With the Fire Bellied Cobra, Sage formed a whole second dantian and set of meridians. Using that as a blueprint, he formed a third set of lesser meridians. Since the energy vents couldnt be closed he chose to link them up to a third set of meridians, one that he linked up directly to his mouth. Now, any energy in his mouth could be filtered to the third set of meridians and sent out of the energy vents that lined his spine, tail, and other joints.
Blood of Fire was a strange technique. It drew poison from the blood and body, pulling it into the dantian and combining it with the other poisons there. The Qi transforms into a poison Qi, using the dantian as a mixing pot. The normal set of meridians were interconnected with the body in an integral fashion and if they were suddenly filled with poison it would seep into every part of them and soon lead to death. Theoretically, Sage thought there might be a way for a human to use it if the poisons were combined into a tonic. The only problem is the person would have no other cultivation and if any other poison were to enter their body their tonic would be ruined and theyd be poisoned.
The true second set of poison meridians were carefully placed and sealed so there was only input Qi pores with the only output being the fangs. It was quite an elegant design and when combined with the energy vents from the Fire Crested Iguana and the mouth of the Warp Worm, it made for quite the system. Even so, it only barely matched up with the abilities that came from the dragon bloodline.
Chapter 233: HoplitesThe Hoplites had not let him down. Their memories were working perfectly and they could act in complete unified formations. The partial human seals were working quite well, looking like tattoos on their chests over their hearts. Their appearance was shocking enough that the little tattoo was barely noticeable. They looked very similar to humans except at their extremities. From the elbow and knee down they had insect exoskeletons. They also had a carapace on their heads with only the face and a line down the center of their skulls exposed. They looked like they were wearing bracers, greaves, and open faced helmets made out of emerald green bug carapaces. The Hoplite men had mohawks poking up from the small strip of skin on top of their heads, while the women had slightly more space at the top and back of their head to grow hair so they wore ponytails or other human styles. Aside from their insectoid hands and feet, their most unusual feature was on their faces. Instead of lips they had eight tentacles a few inches lower. The tentacles could intertwine and lay flat to look sort of like lips, but when they ate the tentacles would grasp and writhe around. It was an unsettling sight.Each of the hoplites was armed with a spear, a silk shield, and silk armor. The equipment wasnt much, but it only took a spearhead and some wood. They wove the silk themselves into thick many layered breastplates and skirts. The shields were just made of wood and covered in many layers of silk. Since they were using Sages current most powerful silk, the shields and armor were stronger than steel and when combined with their emerald forearms and shins their appearance matched Sages name for them. After a few battles, Sage told King to start training some of them as Smiths and Miners. Spears alone werent enough, so it would be a big improvement to get more weapons for them all.Currently, Sage was standing over the body of the Grim Skywolf and a dozen Hoplites stood guard around him. They had previously been spread out over a large area to keep others from interfering with Sages battle and he called them back once the wolf died. He had fought the natural instinct to just tear apart the wolf and start eating it raw. Previously, hed done such a thing after dying as a way to practice Blood Refining. After eating a beast, he could run the technique passively in his stomach. Such an activity was actually very inefficient. Sage formed some signs with his hands and then placed his palms against the side of the dead wolf. Blood flowed rapidly out of its huge cuts, pooling on the ground. Strangely, the pool was getting smaller instead of growing larger. Some of the blood that had splashed in the area began to run across the ground. The technique Sage was using seemed to attract all of the wolfs blood into a single puddle, one that wasnt just laying flat. It grew taller and taller, forming into the shape of a sphere and even floating upwards into the air. In just a few minutes every drop of blood in the wolfs body as well as all that had spilled in the area had collected into a large floating sphere. Normally, the Warp Worm was able to discharge energy in such a fashion because of its body composition. It was a worm with just one simple passage through its body. Sages new body wasnt constructed like that internally, but he got around his problem with another additional part. Hed only added it in on a whim. The Fire Crested Iguana. It was just a silly little pet that had a spine ridge of flame. It didnt seem like much, but Sage was hoping for a technique in its ancestral memories to create the flames. Instead, he learned it was caused by a special organ. It was something like an extreme acupoint or Qi pore. The normal route for Qi to exit the body and affect the outside world, cultivators could open up, widen, and strengthen their Qi pores to perform different techniques. It was like adding in more taps or faucets to release energy. The Fire Crested Iguana actually had a special organ that Sage had named energy vents. Instead of just an energy pipeline they were like jet nozzles. Using less energy for a much greater effect. The downside is that they were always on. Most of the Fire Crested Iguanas natural Qi recovery was expended on simply maintaining its flaming crest. Thankfully, it had only a handful of those energy vents along its spine, just enough for it to be manageable, but not enough to be all that effective for anything else. The vents were directly connected to its meridians and without a way to close them, they were a constant energy drain.Sage found a workaround. The Fire Bellied Cobra. It had a whole second set of meridians. It even had its own special cultivation art just for the poison meridians, Blood of Fire. It was something no human could do as they had only one dantian and one set of meridians in their bodies. With the Fire Bellied Cobra, Sage formed a whole second dantian and set of meridians. Using that as a blueprint, he formed a third set of lesser meridians. Since the energy vents couldnt be closed he chose to link them up to a third set of meridians, one that he linked up directly to his mouth. Now, any energy in his mouth could be filtered to the third set of meridians and sent out of the energy vents that lined his spine, tail, and other joints. Blood of Fire was a strange technique. It drew poison from the blood and body, pulling it into the dantian and combining it with the other poisons there. The Qi transforms into a poison Qi, using the dantian as a mixing pot. The normal set of meridians were interconnected with the body in an integral fashion and if they were suddenly filled with poison it would seep into every part of them and soon lead to death. Theoretically, Sage thought there might be a way for a human to use it if the poisons were combined into a tonic. The only problem is the person would have no other cultivation and if any other poison were to enter their body their tonic would be ruined and theyd be poisoned. The true second set of poison meridians were carefully placed and sealed so there was only input Qi pores with the only output being the fangs. It was quite an elegant design and when combined with the energy vents from the Fire Crested Iguana and the mouth of the Warp Worm, it made for quite the system. Even so, it only barely matched up with the abilities that came from the dragon bloodline.
