Sage made a choice on the path he was going to walk down, and that meant he would now have to make some decisions about the shape and configuration of his body. From the different creatures he’d fused with in the past, there was a whole mess of insect, lizard, snake, worm, and even hawk bodies and parts to choose from. Even with the build to guide his choices, there were still many ways to accomplish the same goal.

If he were to pursue the road of extreme defense, he could try to model himself after a tortoise with a thick shell. Or, he could be like a beetle with a thick exoskeleton. Insects were quite interesting as their exoskeletons acted as both skin and bones meaning they packed in more power for their size, but also meant if their outer shell was pierced they were heavily damaged. There were similar choices and considerations for any of the options he pursued.

The choice of build was not an easy one to make, but the deciding factor was actually the Heavenly Materials that Sage had collected. Each of his options would be able to make use of one or two of them quite easily, but one of the Heavenly Materials would truly shine on one path.

The Eye of the World.

It was the second Heavenly Material he’d collected after the Seed of Life. It was also the reason he was first forced into merging his body with another. Other than acting as a Heavenly Water to round out his Inner World, the Eye of the World had not been all that useful to him so far. The description he had of it was quite simple. The tears that it sheds can nourish the soul. He’d seen such a thing happening when he first found it, where the Soul Taming Abode seemed to have been using it to raise their battle spirits.

For a long time, Sage had no way to use the Eye of the World so it sat dormant. Only after he finally sprouted the Seed of Life and assimilated it could he use the Eye of the World. Even then, it had not been on his priority list as he was busy building the Jade Horde and creating a shield for himself. The Twin Soul was extremely useful as a scout and distraction, and it could also rapidly recover its strength. He hadn’t bothered to waste time and energy using the Eye of the World.

Guan Zhenyan changed his mind. Sure, he could use the Twin Soul to hunt beasts and consume their souls. The problem was efficiency. How many could he find and would they all be at the perfect strength for his Twin Soul to defeat? How much energy would he lose in battle? There were also good odds for the Twin Soul to be destroyed and he’d lose a large portion of strength. The Eye of the World on the other hand, did not require battle and risk to raise his strength. Just like other Heavenly Materials, it would take his Qi and transform it into another form. It could transform Qi into a tonic for spirits and souls. While the speed was slow, it was normally quite hard to improve the soul!

Even the risky method that Sage already had to improve the power of his soul was rare and powerful. Soul Cultivator Sects were quite rare so Sage didn’t know this fact, but Guan Zhenyan did. If they had any other soul related techniques or methods, Guan Zhenyan said that there wouldn’t even have been a choice for a build. The combination of the Eye of the World and any soul related techniques was very powerful. For soul cultivators, the Eye of the World was on their list of ultimate treasures that could provide them with unlimited growth.

Neither Sage, nor Guan Zhenyan had any complete soul technique sets. Even so, the combination of Soul Fragment, Twin Soul, Eye of the World, and Black Enhydros still made it a strong choice. Most efficiently, the Life Nebula, as Sage called the cultivation technique that the Seed of Life taught him, never seemed to run out of energy. The inner core of every Core Formation cultivator would provide a constant supply of energy, that was the benefit of the rank, but usually their rate of recovery couldn’t keep up with their rate of expenditure. Life Nebula had pretty limited output, but it also had a nearly equal input rate. In the past, Sage had not even been able to use up all his Qi. Others would need to be careful when using the Eye of the World in order to not put themselves in a vulnerable state. With the Life Nebula, Sage wouldn’t have to worry about wasting all his energy on the Eye of the World and being caught while in a weakened state.

The combination would provide him with constant improvement without any risk, and independent of whatever conditions Guan Zhenyan might subject him to. If he was going to be a lab rat, the choice that let him continue to improve even if he was trapped in a cage or being shipped like a package was definitely best. The hard part was now settling on a physical form. After discussing with Guan Zhenyan, the abilities he had locked in were the Hypnotic Eyes, the second set of Poison Meridians, and due to his insistence, fast healing. With these abilities, his Body Power would be heavily focused upon the Hypnotic Eyes and that would be further enhanced by a body with comparatively large eyes.

The most obvious choice would be to take the same body type as the originator of the ability: a toad. Their eyes were quite large in comparison to their body size, which they needed to see in the muddy and murky waters they usually lived in, while also helping them hunt flying insects. On the other hand, Sage had no desire to be a big croaking lump. Guan Zhenyan even advised him that their large bellies and throats were also very useful to poison use, but Sage was not swayed. Appearance wasn’t everything to him, he’d refrained from going with a winged fire breathing dragon after all, but it also wasn’t unimportant to him. Not many would choose to give up their appearance in exchange for a large sum of money, and Sage was sure there were plenty of other looks that would be just as good.

He mulled over a number of insect configurations, there were quite a number of creatures with very powerful multi-faceted eyes. It actually made him curious and he started experimenting with the Hypnotic Eye ability and insect eyes. The ability modified the eyes to allow its astounding power, which was the reason it couldn’t just be learned by anyone, just like the other physical powers he gained. They required special bodies and not just the manipulation of Qi. Mantis, Dragonfly, Bee, Ant. Sage gave each of their eyes a check, as they all had pretty good vision among insects for differing reasons. In the end, the combination of insect eyes and the Hypnotic Eye turned out less powerful so he went with something more familiar.

When talking about hypnotism, what came to mind? Cobras of course! Even if the legend was actually the opposite of the truth, a snake still had pretty large eyes and also it would save him energy to take a similar form to the one he already had. It was a shame to lose his limbs and dragon status, but he had the Human Seal to provide hands, so he wasn’t worried. Guan Zhenyan also wanted him around because of the Poison Meridians, and Sage got them from the Fire Bellied Cobra. Taking a cobra form would hopefully make him an even greater asset, and Guan Zhenyan did not disparage his selection. While the toad would make for the greatest Hypnotic Eyes, the cobra form made for the strongest poison.