[In your daze, you hear the words of the Star Radiance Priest and immediately jolt into crystal-clear awareness, as if the anesthetic has completely lost its effect on you.]

[You realize it is your reflexive use of Flesh Authority that is forcing your blood to reject the anesthetic.]

[You pretend to be under anesthesia, remaining motionless until the tip of the scalpel touches your chest.]

[You once again drive Flesh Authority, blocking most of the pain.]

[The cold scalpel slices down the center of your sternum, cutting open the skin. Then your breastbone is sawed apart, your ribcage lifted up, and your pericardium opened…]

[You can clearly feel your heart laid bare to the air, beating with vigorous life.]

[You hear the Star Radiance Priest intoning a long, complex incantation. Then pinpoints of cold air inject into your heart, slowing the flow of blood throughout your body until your heart gradually stops beating…]

[Sigh, such a perfect experimental heart, and this guy gets to enjoy it. What a pity.]

[Priest Lord, you have already said that several times. Whether this person can accommodate the experimental heart and survive is still unknown…]

[Unknown? You fool. The heart I created is absolutely perfect. It was those previous subjects who were too weak to endure the power of the heart, that is why accidents happened…]

[…]

[The conversation between the Star Radiance Priest and the assistant rings in your ears.]

[Suddenly, the cold blade drops and severs several thick blood vessels connected to your heart…]

[The hands of the Star Radiance Priest move with incredible speed, plucking out your original heart and stuffing an utterly foreign lump of matter into your chest cavity…]

[The chanting of the incantation resumes. Starlight imbued with healing power seeps into flesh and blood, making the blood vessels writhe and align, reconnecting together.]

[Fresh blood flows into the weakened heart and slowly begins to beat once more…]

[The Star Radiance Priest does not hurry to close up your chest, as if waiting for something, while you, at this moment, have no attention left to spare for it at all…]

[Because you feel as if a blazing fire is burning in your chest cavity. That explosive, rampaging power surges wildly, far beyond what your frail mage body can withstand.]

[It is like a horse pulling a carriage, able to keep the whole wagon running smoothly along the road. But if you replace the horse with a rocket, the carriage will fall apart because it cannot endure that extreme speed.]

[Your survival instinct drives you to use Flesh Authority again, trying to make the carriage more sturdy…]

[Your physical body gradually grows stronger. Your muscle fibers become thicker and tougher, but after only a small improvement, the spiritual power inside you begins to slowly drain away.]

[It is not a temporary loss. It is permanent consumption.]

[You understand that this is the result of your insufficient control over Flesh Authority…]

[When you push strengthening beyond the limit of your current control yet still insist on continuing to reinforce your body, you can only burn other potential as fuel to boost your physical strength.]

[And what you are burning now is your greatest attribute, your spiritual power…]

[Please note: The Intelligence attribute of the current Shell has been greatly reduced. The Strength attribute, Vitality attribute, Endurance attribute, and other body-related attributes have slightly increased.]

[The delighted voice of the Star Radiance Priest rings out again…]

[This Star-Favored is lasting far longer than the previous test subjects. If things keep going like this, they will definitely be able to perfectly accommodate the Eyeball Heart.]

[Congratulations, Priest Lord. The experiment has finally succeeded.]

[Heh heh, this Star Demon’s Eyeball Heart really is absolutely perfect. As long as someone reaches top-tier Star-Favored strength, they can endure it… The likes of a Star Spirit Envoy or a Starrealm Envoy will be able to handle it with ease as well.]

[To think the hardest stage, Heart Reinforcement, has been overcome so quickly. Once this fellow wakes up, I will put them through a full test to see exactly how far the new organ has enhanced the flesh…]

[…]

[By the time you have burned nearly half of your Intelligence attribute, your body has been strengthened to an incredible level. Of course, this ‘incredible’ is only in comparison to your previously frail physique.]

[The new heart is pounding violently in your chest. With every contraction and expansion, it pumps blood through your entire body, giving you a sense of power you have never felt before.]

[Seeing that the transplanted organ has finally stabilized, the Star Radiance Priest bursts into gleeful cackling, its raspy laughter echoing through the spacious transplant room…]

[In a little while, it will copy another Eyeball Heart and present it to the Starrealm Envoy. It is sure to earn a generous reward.]

[The assistant at its side reminds it that the corpse material is running low. To gather enough materials for copying, they will at least have to wait for the next batch of bodies to be delivered to the branch.]

[The Star Radiance Priest freezes, then seems to think of something. It stares straight at the heart in your chest and sneers darkly, heh heh, then after the testing is complete, it will just take this heart out.]

[Two rough hands close the incision on your chest. With the accompanying chant, motes of starlight merge into the wound, making the bloody gash heal at astonishing speed.]

[The attributes of your Shell have undergone a drastic change.]

[The quality of your Shell has decreased.]

[Because the transplant of the Star Demon’s Eyeball Heart has succeeded, you have attained the special skill Star-Shattering Storm (legendary skill) through this organ.]

[You have attained the special skill Demon Power (legendary skill).]

Lin Xun’s eyes widened. How had transplanting such a powerful organ actually lowered the quality of the Shell instead?

He hurriedly opened the Shell Panel to check. With the high Compatibility bonus, the essence of the Star-Favored Shell had previously reached legendary+ grade.

But now it had fallen back down to unremarkable legendary grade.

As for the two special skills he had learned, according to the skill descriptions, both had been obtained because of the Eyeball Heart transplant.

It was the same principle as getting the special skill Weak Point Insight from the eyeball of the Pale Dragon of Ancient Sages.

Only this time, one special skill came from a starborn monster, and the other from an Abyss Demon.

When he strengthened his flesh with Flesh Authority beyond his current level of control and still insisted on reinforcing it, his other attributes would be sacrificed to keep increasing his body-related stats.

Originally, Lin Xun had not possessed such an ability. It seemed he had only gained it after his soul’s control over the Authority had increased.

This ability was somewhat similar in effect to a ‘respec,’ able to alter the Shell’s attribute values to a certain degree. For now, it seemed to only enhance body-related attributes and could not target a single stat for independent enhancement.

“This Shell’s template was originally that of a mage, but right now I have respec’d it into a melee mage. The result is that it is not much of a pure mage and not much of a warrior either, so the Shell’s quality dropped?”

“Being good at everything means being mediocre at everything?”

Lin Xun felt this was very likely the case. The upper limit and grade of a Shell’s combat power probably did not follow the barrel theory. The Shell’s combat strength was not determined by its lowest attribute, but by its highest attribute.

To give an example, a full-Intelligence mage with 100 points in Intelligence and 0 in Strength, after being respec’d into a balanced build, might end up with 50 Strength and 50 Intelligence.

Even if the mage possessed both melee skills and spell skills, the damage dealt by either would certainly not be as high as it had been with 100 Intelligence.

“There is also another possibility. Maybe this so-called respec is a loss. After splitting the 100 Intelligence, you might only end up with 40 Intelligence and 40 Strength, which is why the Shell grade dropped.”

“Judging from the current situation, this respec ability is not very suitable for mages. It is instead more suitable for warrior Shells. It can push their attributes to even greater extremes and might increase combat power that way…”

Lin Xun mulled over the new function of Flesh Authority.

Inheriting the authority power of a main god was like inheriting a treasury. Every time his mastery rose by one stage, it would bring him a new ability…

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep