The Human Giant



Converting the small amount of crystal dust into crystal energy allowed Yoze to slightly cut down the amount of time he needed to wait for his crystal nerves to collect enough energy. However, the small amount that was converted simply wasn't enough to make any meaningful difference and he would need the crates full of crystals that he had purchased back in New Swampscott City to make a difference.

While he wanted more than anything to race over there and dive straight into the crates and absorb every last crystal he knew that the amount of enough needed to complete that desire wasn't worth the time traveling over there. He could call Tiki and Dreyer over to ask them to provide him with the crystals that they brought over but that would only give him an extra 40 crystals.

After calculating how many crystals he would need to absorb to create a set of crystal nerves at his current level Yoze knew that it was in the hundreds. While it was slower he ultimately decided to not bother collecting those 40 crystals since Tiki and Dreyer needed them more than he did.

At the moment the purple crystal grape was providing enough crystal energy that he should be able to create his tenth set of crystal nerves tonight. He might even have enough crystal energy to spare that he could begin the crystallization process of his crystal nerves.

With some time to spare, Yoze calmed himself down and decided to be patient and allow himself to absorb the Crystal Grape's energy. A minute later he sensed that he had accumulated enough crystal energy and began to create his next set of crystal nerves.

[Nerve Accumulation (Level 7)]

With his newly created set of crystal nerves boosting his brain power Yoze felt his senses dramatically increase and even found the sensation of being empty of crystal energy uncomfortable. Still, he didn't bother to address the issue and simply waited for his crystal nerves to accumulate more crystal energy.

5 and a half minutes later, Yoze decided to create another set of crystal nerves reaching the high number of level 8. It only took another 11 minutes before he reached level nine and was beginning to feel his heart race at the anticipation level 10.

[Nerve Accumulation (Level 10)]

The moment Yoze created the tenth set of crystal nerves, he felt a wave of stress come off his shoulders. Even though he was happy about reaching this stage he could not help but be more excited about the fact that the crystal grape still seemed to be providing him with quite a bit of crystal energy.

If his predictions were correct the amount of crystal energy that the Crystal Grape could provide him should be enough to complete his Crystallization process. Essentially allowing him to complete two whole realms in one go.

Yet at the same time, he couldn't help but feel his suspicion over the Crystal Grape and his distrust of the immortal grow. They had clearly said that each Crystal Grape would only allow for each person to advance one realm.

But like he experienced each realm had different crystal energy requirements and the higher one advanced in immortal cultivation the more crystal energy one needed to complete the levels. The amount of crystal energy that reached the Crystal Skull realm from the Crystal Spine was much more than compared to going through the whole Nerve Accumulation realm.

The additional fact that Yoze had wasted less of the crystal energy that was provided to him by the Crystal Grape meant that he should have a high abundance of crystal energy left to blast through multiple realms. What he found suspicious was that he shouldn't be the only case where this happens. 

Even if someone with an Impure grade-level talent used the Crystal Grape they should have enough crystal energy to at least get started on the Crystallization realm. Much less people who were much more talented in this aspect of immortal cultivation.

That meant that Immortal Patty lies about the Crystal Grape being able to only raise the realm of a rogue immortal cultivator once. 

"Unless there was some other factor that prevented others from continuing further."

As if on cue, Yoze felt the Crystal Grape in his stomach vibrating at an increasing rate as the constant stream of purple crystal energy that he had grown used to suddenly stopped. Before Yoze could get a sense of what was happening, his body instinctively felt that something dangerous was going to occur, and took measures of trying to expel the Crystal Grape from his body.

In less than a second, Yoze coughed up the Crystal Grape and allowed it to roll on the floor as he retreated a few feet away to have some distance in case there was an explosion. After which he observed the Crystal Grape and noticed that its entire surface was covered in black tattoos that wiggled around wildly.

From time to time, the black tattoos would gather together to form black dots that shattered into smaller black dots. Recognizing that this could be an animation of the Crystal Grape being turned into ash or a metaphor for what would happen to him if he tried to continue absorbing energy from the Crystal Grape.

"So this is a warning from Immortal Patty," Yoze whispered to himself wondering if Immortal Patty could hear him.

After the Crystal Grape repeated the animation, of black dots turning into ash, a few times it froze before turning into a black beam of light and broke a hole through the walls racing toward the Branch Forest. Staring at the small hole in the wall that allowed the red-orangish color of the setting sun into the dark room Yoze licked his lips as he couldn't wait to be fully healed.

"Once I'm fully healed and I create my full-body defensive body cultivation method I need to figure out a way to take that Crystal Grape away from Immortal Patty's hands. If I have that grape I can accelerate my immortal cultivation immensely."

"Plus the fact that the Immortal Palace Sect was willing to allow one of their students to carry such a treasure without feeling any heartache means that they should have more treasures similar to the Crystal Grape. They might even have a way to allow regular people to live forever, just like an immortal." 

Yoze's mind wandered back to when he first met Tiki and Dreyer and heard of their plight about being hunted by rogue immortal cultivators that had gathered due to a magical treasure. He initially didn't pay too much attention to that story since the treasure was long gone and should have been either taken by a rogue immortal cultivator or a witch.