The night air in the Jade Palace felt thick and heavy. It was like a soup that Lu Ran breathed in with every inhale. The air was full of pressure. Every breath he took felt like he was swallowing shards of glass.
The System told him his Humanity Quotient was dropping.
[Warning: Host Vitality at 82%. Mana Deficit: Critical.]
[Embryo Growth Rate: 400% above baseline. Parasitic Draw: Active.]
Lu Ran sat at his workbench. His face was pale. His eyes looked sunken. He resembled a ghost more than a high-fashion model. The Golden-Tier heir inside him was a god. It was eating his muscle mass. It was consuming his marrow. It was devouring his soul. The heir was constructing its draconic nervous system.
"Pip " Lu Ran croaked.
The boy appeared from behind a rack of drying herbs. His eyes were wide with fear. "My Lord! You look... You look like you're fading!"
"I'm not fading, Pip, " Lu Ran said. His voice was a rasp. "I'm being redistributed."
He asked, "Did you find them? The Emperor's private stores?"
Pip swallowed hard. He looked toward the doors. "The Vault of Solis. It is guarded by two Stone Golems and a sequence of flame-runes. Only those of the Draken bloodline can enter without being turned to ash."
Lu Ran stood up. His legs trembled. He gripped the edge of the table. His knuckles turned white. "Bloodline you say? Well I am currently housing the concentrated sample of Draken blood in the kingdom. If the door wants a signature I'll give it one."
He grabbed a syringe. He had made it from a hollowed-out bird bone and a bladder of rubber. He didn't hesitate. He plunged the needle into his arm. He drew out a gold-flecked slurry of blood.
"My Lord! You'll bleed out!" Pip cried.
"I'm already bleeding out Pip, " Lu Ran muttered. "One. Another."
He capped the syringe. "Take me to the vault. Now."
The Vault of Solis
The walk to the levels of the palace was a blur of pain. Every step felt like the embryo was shifting. Its tiny unformed claws tensed against Lu Ran's walls.
[System Note: Host is experiencing 'Mana-Starvation Hallucinations.' Please consume high-density energy immediately.]
They reached a door made of obsidian. It was etched with a dragon's head the size of a carriage. The eyes of the dragon were two rubies. They seemed to track Lu Ran's movement. As they approached the air grew hot. The flame-runes on the floor began to glow a deep threatening crimson.
"Stop!" Pip whispered. "The golems!"
Two massive statues of basalt shifted. Their joints ground like plates. They raised stone halberds. Their featureless faces turned toward the intruders.
Lu Ran didn't stop. He walked up to the obsidian door. The heat blistered his skin. He felt the "Dragon-Fever" rising in his chest. The embryo reacted to the proximity of mana.
"Identify," a booming magical voice echoed through the corridor.
Lu Ran raised the syringe. He sprayed the gold- blood directly onto the dragon's carved snout.
The obsidian hissed. The rubies flashed. For a second the flame-runes flared white-hot. They signed the hem of Lu Ran's silk robe. Then the grinding of stone ceased. The golems returned to their pedestals. Their weapons lowered.
The massive door. Swung inward.
Inside the Vault of Solis was a cathedral of light. It wasn't lit by candles or crystals. It was lit by the unrefined power of hundreds of Mana Cores. They were the hearts of high-level magical beasts. They sat on velvet cushions. They glowed in every color of the spectrum. There were deep ocean blues. There were greens. There was the blinding gold of the sun.
Lu Ran stumbled inside. The sheer density of the mana hit him like a wave. His lungs expanded. The pain in his abdomen dimmed.
"God, " Lu Ran whispered. His scientific mind reeled. "The energy density here... It's higher than a cold fusion reactor."
[Ding! High-Density Mana Field Detected.]
[Current Absorption Rate: 0.01% (Passive).]
[Recommended Action: Direct Ingestion or Cellular Grafting.]
"I'm not eating a rock system, " Lu Ran thought. "We're going to do it this way."
The Bio-Hack
For four hours Lu Ran turned the vault into an operating theater. He sat on the floor. He was surrounded by glowing cores. He used his 'Microscopic Vision' to analyze the lattice structures of the crystals.
Most people in Aethelgard used mana by channeling it through their meridians. It was an inefficient process. It relied on meditation and "spirit."
Lu Ran thought that was garbage.
"Energy is energy " he muttered. His hands shook as he broke a Storm-Griffin Core into smaller shards. "It doesn't care about your 'spirit.' It cares about conductivity."
He began to arrange the shards in a geometric pattern around his body. He mimicked the cooling fins of a high-performance CPU. Then he used a shard of obsidian to make an incision in the palm of his hand.
"Pip if I start to smoke, throw the bucket of water on me " Lu Ran commanded.
"My Lord please—"
"Do it!"
Lu Ran closed his eyes. He initiated the 'Arcane Bio-Hacker' protocol.
By letting the mana flow through his veins he directed the System to "gate" the energy directly into his mitochondria. He bypassed the magical pathways. He overclocked his biology.
[Absorption Initiated...]
[100 Units... 250 Units... 400 Units...]
[Warning: Cellular Temperature Rising. 102°F... 105°F... 108°F...]
Lu Ran screamed. It wasn't the scream of a victim. It was the sound of a man being rebuilt. His skin began to glow with a bioluminescent blue. The dark circles under his eyes vanished. They were replaced by a sharp clarity. His hair once jet black began to shimmer with threads at the temples.
Inside his womb the embryo let out a pulse of golden light. It was no longer starving. It was a feast.
[Ding! Mana Absorption Complete.]
[Total Units: 650.]
[Skill Unlocked: 'Cellular Regeneration (Level 1).']
[Physical Status: Evolved (Grade-1 Arcane Human).]
Lu Ran slumped against the vault wall. He gasped for air. He felt... Powerful. His senses were dialed up to eleven. He could hear the heartbeat of the guards three floors up. He could smell the ozone on the stone walls.
He looked at his hands. The incision in his palm was already gone. It left a faint silver scar.
"Bio-hacking successful, " he whispered. A dark triumphant smirk crossed his lips. "I'm not a vessel anymore. I'm the power plant."
The Transformation
When Lu Ran emerged from the vault at dawn Pip followed him like a puppy. Lu Ran didn't walk; he glided. The "softness" of his body was gone. It was replaced by a predatory grace. His skin had an iridescent sheen. His obsidian eyes now held a rotating ring of gold around the iris.
He didn't return to his bed. He went to the main courtyard of the Jade Palace.
The morning training session for the Royal Guards was in swing. At the head of the formation stood General Valerius. He was a man who had been a critic of the "Gifted Consort" since day one.
"Look at this " Valerius sneered as Lu Ran approached. "The Emperor's little pet has finally crawled out of his lab. You look... Scholar. Did you find a shade of silk?"
The guards laughed. Lu Ran didn't.
He walked up to Valerius. He stopped inches from the man's chest. The air around Lu Ran began to vibrate.
"General " Lu Ran said. His voice now carried a resonance that made the nearby training dummies rattle. "I require a sample of the 'Dragon-Slayer' steel you use for your swords. Now."
Valerius's eyes narrowed. "You require? You are a consort, boy. You are here to look pretty and stay quiet. Go back to your bottles before I—"
Valerius reached out to shove Lu Ran.
Lu Ran didn't move. He didn't even raise his hands.
[Activating: Cellular Regeneration (Kinetic Burst)]
As Valerius's hand touched Lu Ran's shoulder, a wave of pure blue force exploded from Lu Ran's skin. The General—a man who weighed two hundred pounds in plate—was sent flying thirty feet across the courtyard. He crashed into a stone wall with a crack.
The courtyard went silent. The guards froze. Their swords were halfway, out of their scabbards.
Lu Ran looked at his shoulder. Then he looked back at the groaning General. "Interesting. The kinetic feedback is 15% higher than I calculated. I'll need to adjust the dampening."
"What... What are you?" one of the guards stuttered, his voice shaking.
"I am the Senior Fellow of the Bio-Molecular Wing " Lu Ran said, his eyes with gold rings scanning the crowd. ". I am now carrying the next Emperor. If any of you touch me again I will break down your body before you can blink. Do I make myself clear?"
The guards fell to their knees. Not because they respected him. Because they were terrified.
The Emperor's Return
Two days later the sky above the palace turned purple. A loud roar came from the mountains—a sound that made the city shake.
Kaelen von Draken had come back.
He landed in the palace square on a winged creature, his armor covered in the black blood of Shadow-Stalkers. In his hand he held a bunch of Lilies, their petals glowing with a dark light.
He was tired, hurt and smelled of death. He had fought hard to get the medicine his "scholar" wanted.
He expected to find Lu Ran pale and crying in bed.
Instead he found Lu Ran standing on the balcony of the Gifted Pavilion wearing a midnight robe reading a scroll while a blue mana ball lit up the area.
Kaelen jumped over the railing landing hard. "I have the lilies, " he growled, dropping the flowers on the table. "You... You look healthy."
Lu Ran looked up from his scroll. He didn't bow. He didn't rush to Kaelen's side. He just adjusted his glasses—which he kept for the look of authority.
"You're late, " Lu Ran said. "I've already started the phase using your father's mana cores.. The lilies will help with the second-stage neural development. Thanks."
Kaelen stared at him. He saw the silver in Lu Ran's hair. He saw the gold in his eyes. He felt the huge amount of mana coming from the man who was supposed to be a " vessel."
"You entered the Vault of Solis?" Kaelen's voice was a dangerous rumble. "Nobody enters the vault and lives. Not even my generals."
"Well I'm not a general, " Lu Ran said, walking towards Kaelen. He put a hand on the Emperor's wounded chest.
[Activating: Cellular Regeneration (External Transfer)]
A warm golden light flowed from Lu Ran's palm into Kaelen's body. The Emperor's wounds closed. The black blood disappeared. The exhaustion in his bones vanished.
Kaelen gasped, his amber eyes wide. He grabbed Lu Ran's wrist. He didn't pull away. "What have you done to yourself Lu Ran?"
"I made the process better, " Lu Ran said, his face close to the Emperor's. "You wanted an heir, Kaelen.. You never asked what kind of father I would be. I am not a victim of this lineage. I am its master."
Kaelen looked at the man before him—the features, the obsidian eyes, the cold brilliance. For the time in his life the Dragon-Emperor felt a tremor of something he couldn't name. It wasn't fear. It was... Awe.
"The High Priest says you are a demon, " Kaelen whispered. "My mother says you are a witch."
". What do you say?" Lu Ran asked, his voice a challenge.
Kaelen leaned down his forehead resting against Lu Ran's. "I say that for the time in three hundred years the Draken line finally has someone worth following."
The Second Trimester: The War of the Womb
As the weeks passed people in the kingdom talked about Lu Ran's change. He was no longer a "Consort." He had taken over the palace's magical operations.
He designed a "Mana-Siphon" system that turned heat from the city's forges into storable energy. He changed the Royal Apothecary into a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant.
The biggest change was the child.
By the month Lu Ran's abdomen showed a slight curve. It didn't feel like a pregnancy. It felt like he was carrying a vibrating battery.
[System Update: Second Trimester Initiated.]
[Developmental Milestone: The Heir has developed 'Arcane Awareness.']
[Warning: The fetus is beginning to influence the Host's environment.]
Lu Ran was in a meeting with the High Council—a group of men who were scared of him—when it happened.
"We cannot allow the tax on mana-crystals to be diverted to your 'research' Consort Lu Ran," one of the elders stammered. "It is tradition—"
Suddenly the elder's voice stopped. The air in the room turned cold. A spectral golden dragon-tail flickered behind Lu Ran's chair lashing out and breaking the oak table.
Lu Ran didn't flinch. He just. Rubbed his belly. "Quiet down one. We're in a meeting."
The Council members scrambled back several of them falling over their chairs.
"He... He's already using magic?" the High Priest Malakor whispered, his face pale. "From the womb?"
"He's bored, " Lu Ran said, looking down at his midsection. "He finds your bureaucracy as tedious as I do. Now about that tax diversion... Do we have an agreement? Should I let the 'Golden-Tier' heir express his opinion again?"
The agreement was signed quickly.
The Shadow of the Cold Palace
However power always breeds resentment. While Lu Ran was rebuilding the kingdom's infrastructure the Empress Dowager Elara was plotting in the shadows.
She stood before a swirling mirror, her hands glowing with a forbidden black frost.
"He is not human " she hissed to the figure in the mirror—a man with eyes like void-glass. "He has hacked the bloodline. He is creating a monster that will answer him."
"Then we must ensure the birth never happens, " the hooded man replied. "The 'Cold Palace Ritual' can be inverted. We do not send him there. We brought the Cold Palace... To him."
Elara smiled, a dead expression. "The seventh month. That is when the Dragon-Fever is at its highest. That is when his 'optimization' will become his tomb."
The Laboratory of Life
Back in the pavilion Lu Ran was working late. He was looking at a 3D-hologram of the heir's heart. It was a masterpiece of engineering—four chambers, reinforced with dragon-scale tissue capable of pumping blood infused with pure mana.
"You're going to be a handful aren't you?" Lu Ran whispered, his hand resting gently on the curve of his stomach.
The child kicked—a powerful thump that sent a spark of gold light through Lu Ran's fingers.
For a moment the scientist's cold analytical mask slipped. He wasn't thinking about data or optimization. He was thinking about a golden-eyed boy who would look like Kaelen but have Lu Ran's mind.
"System " Lu Ran thought. "What are the odds of survival if the Empress Dowager initiates a Level-5 Mana Strike during the stage of labor?"
[Calculating...]
[Result: 12%.]
Lu Ran's eyes hardened. The gold ring, in his iris glowed with a light.
"Then I guess I have three months to raise those odds " he said, picking up a vial of concentrated mana. "Pip! Bring me the Forbidden Scrolls from the Black Library. It's time we looked into Soul-Binding."
He was Lu Ran. He was an A cellular biologist. A god-tier consort.. He was about to prove that even the gods couldn't stop a man with a plan and a system.