In an instant, a flood of concepts flashed through Chen Xu's mind.
Eggs, cocoons, embryos.
By what means should these future denizens of the undead descend upon this world?
Furthermore, by what means should they continue their bloodline?
Since they possessed the powers of both angels and demons within their bodies, neither the Land of the Undead nor the Undead Dao Court could provide those two forces—unless Chen Xu could refine both Heaven and Hell.
To obtain a large number of Nephalem, he had to give them the ability to self-reproduce.
Chen Xu hesitated, unsure which form was best suited for this conceptual race.
Should it be the egg-laying method that nurtured legendary creatures like dragons and phoenixes? Or the miraculous cocoons that allowed for a myriad of transformations and metamorphic development? Or perhaps the embryos used by the vast majority of races found throughout the myriad worlds?
Or perhaps something like those unique existences born from Heaven-Earth Spiritual Roots? Like the Calabash Brothers or the Great Deity of the Three Altars, whose combat prowess was quite impressive.
However, the yield of such special products like Heaven-Earth Spiritual Roots was too low; it was difficult to form a scale.
Chen Xu didn't want just one or two, nor did he want a few dozen. He wanted a race—a race that could wage war across the myriad worlds, a race that could dominate them. It had to be numbered in the hundreds of millions at the very least.
After much deliberation, Chen Xu decided to use humans as the base template, then add some magical modifications to form the foundation of the Nephalem race.
Human infants were fragile, so Chen Xu modified and extended the embryonic nurturing period. He stretched it from the standard ten months to three years, ensuring that the newborns would possess a sturdy physique the moment they entered the world.
The bloodlines of angels and demons were overbearing and mutually exclusive; a common mortal coil would find it difficult to make them coexist. Thus, Chen Xu put these two bloodlines into a state of dormancy, only to be awakened when the proper conditions were met.
It was just like the humans of Blue Star, who only awakened their talents and stepped onto the transcendent path of job-holders upon reaching adulthood.
Hmm, perhaps he could change it to a sequential unlocking. The powers of angels and demons didn't necessarily have to awaken at the same time; one could awaken first to provide combat strength.
Beyond the bloodline power of angels and demons, the Nephalem also had to possess excellent cultivation aptitude. Chen Xu didn't want a bunch of bloodline sorcerers who only knew how to use their inherited power; he wanted a powerful race that could continuously grow and even break through their limits.
Cultivation aptitude boiled down to two points: comprehension and root-bone.
The latter was easy to handle. Bloodline itself was considered a type of root-bone. With the bloodlines of both angels and demons, their cultivation aptitude would naturally not be low.
Chen Xu also planned to integrate some other things into them. He had disassembled quite a few traits from his own perfect clone. Although they couldn't reach the level of the original, these weakened versions of the clone's traits were still not to be underestimated.
With a three-year gestation period, there was no need to fear that the newborns would have unstable foundations.
The only catch was that the energy supply during the gestation period had to keep up; otherwise, developmental issues would surely arise.
Compared to the latter, the former—comprehension—was more difficult to manage. After all, comprehension was a somewhat ethereal thing.
Take the human race as an example. From a physical perspective, there wasn't much of a difference between individuals. There was no obvious gap in head size, yet their wisdom—or rather, their comprehension—was worlds apart.
Some were well-versed in the classics, knowing astronomy above and geography below, treating the Great Dao of the world as something to be played with in the palm of their hands.
Others were muddled and confused; even after reading a scripture until the book itself recognized them, they still failed to grasp its true meaning.
In the realm of comprehension, even Chen Xu, a unique-tier Dao Lord, was helpless.
He could only try his best to make the souls of the Nephalem stronger than those of normal humans. Once the soul was strong, all other aspects would improve.
Using the powerful shaping abilities of the Authority of Creation, Chen Xu kneaded a vast amount of soul particles into the materials he needed and then assembled them one by one.
Soon, a human embryo was formed.
Next, he used the power of creation to permeate the angel wing fragments and demon blood in his hands, refining the bloodline essence from them.
Immediately after, he put these active angel and demon bloodlines into a state of dormancy before gradually merging them into the embryo before him.
As the bloodlines slowly merged into the embryo until they were completely absorbed, Chen Xu finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that no adverse reactions occurred.
This counted as the completion of one embryo, but to achieve natural reproduction, Chen Xu had to continue making more.
By a rough estimate, the angel and demon materials in his hands should be enough to make nine more embryos.
Thus, Chen Xu summoned a large amount of necrotic aura to gently support the embryo, letting it float in the air.
He turned back and immersed himself in the creation of the next embryo.
With the experience from the first one, Chen Xu's movements became much more proficient. Before long, the remaining nine embryos were completed one after another.
These ten Nephalem embryos—five male and five female—would be the progenitors of this race.
The great responsibility of expanding the race would rest entirely on these ten.
Chen Xu looked at the embryos in the air but did not immediately perform Spirit Ignition to grant them souls and intelligence.
Instead, on a sudden whim, he decided to let these ten embryos undergo a normal gestation process.
Of course, the person carrying these children certainly couldn't be Chen Xu himself.
Otherwise, if word got out that he, the grand Lord of the Undead, had ten in one litter, it would be too embarrassing.
The subject Chen Xu chose for the gestation was none other than the Undead Dao Court itself.
Children of the world, nurtured by the world—it was perfectly logical.
Chen Xu reached out and thrust his hand into the Dao principle layer of the Undead Dao Court, pulling out one strand of each principle contained within.
He used these Dao principles to weave cradles, then manifested them and placed the ten embryos inside.
Outside the cradles, Chen Xu used necrotic aura to mold ten high towers to protect them. He also set up formations and left behind a full thousand unique-tier strength Spirit Shields.
This was all to prevent them from being caught in the crossfire of the random brawls within the Undead Dao Court.
At this thought, Chen Xu looked up at the Roc and the dragon in the sky.
Sensing Chen Xu's gaze, Sindragosa immediately shifted her form, turning into a dragon-kin and landing before him.
Kunpeng's strike had missed, and it was confused. Just as it was about to give chase, it looked down and happened to meet Chen Xu's eyes.
"Wuuu~"
Kunpeng let out a weak cry and immediately reverted to its Bone Kun form, jumping back into the Inverted Sea.
Sindragosa approached Chen Xu, her eyes sweeping over the surrounding high towers and the Nephalem embryos within.
"My Lord, is this another of your great miracles? Another creation that will shock the myriad worlds, following the Undead Network?"
Faced with Sindragosa's flattery, Chen Xu did not deny it.
"Perhaps. When they are born, the entire Undead Dao Court and the entire Land of the Undead will whisper their name: Nephalem."
"This name will spread throughout the myriad worlds. They will spread the prestige of the undead, execute my will, and conquer my enemies!"
"My Lord, what a grand and beautiful vision! I believe that day is not far off."
With that, Sindragosa withdrew her gaze and looked at Chen Xu.
"My Lord, why don't I take care of these ten lovely children? I will guard them for you, nurture them for you, and train them for you."
"I will make them true warriors, the sharpest blades in your hand."
"You?"
Chen Xu felt a bit uneasy. Letting a dragon raise children? It didn't seem like dragons had a very good reputation when it came to babysitting.
However, these embryos were within the Undead Dao Court and would be under his constant monitoring. There shouldn't be any problems.
Thus, Chen Xu agreed to Sindragosa's request.
"Fine. Then you shall watch over these ten children until they are born."
"I thank you for your mercy, Great Lord of the Undead."
...
In the Universe Daoist Academy, 'Chen Xu' climbed up from a jade bed and looked around, finding that Li Taiji's domain had not yet dissipated.
He jumped off the bed and walked toward the edge of the domain.
Just as he left the Yin-Yang domain, 'Chen Xu' saw a scene that left him utterly shocked.
"Xiao Jiu, what are you and Zhenyuan doing?"
Rate on N.U.
