novelraw Chapter 1022 - 1021 - Soul Traps
Chapter 1022 - 1021 - Soul Traps
The stretch of wild forests around Crescent City once were only known as its lands. The border was tenuous to its neighbors' reach but the backing of the Fionan Empire gave it more say in a longer reach.
Even so, there were no real resources or beast clans living around them that would interest Immortals. Lower realms could thrive anywhere in the Celestial Fields, but Immortals only cared about Immortal level resources.
Thus the forests were left to those that wish to trailblaze on their own. Tributes were still required to the city but in exchange they could get protection from bandits or beast tides.
That all changed when a Ruin plopped down in the empty stretch of plains in the forest. Immortals cared nothing for who they trampled trying to get at a Divine Ruin!
All promises and security was washed away as the countryside was leveled in the early battles. It was only when far more righteous powers put a stop to it but the dead were already piled very high.
After that, mostly due to the Corruption and the imposed restrictions of war towers of those powers, the war became very cold. The raging Immortals had to restrict themselves to duels but Sky Realms became the bloody arena.
Their power was not insignificant but it could not cause destruction on the scale Immortals still could.
The Corruption inadvertently gave them a blessing in that department as well as all the lower realms also could not bring their full power to bear. The once Qi filled battles became direct weapon and fist attacks.
No one could pull ahead, not even the supreme powers, as any that did so got hammered back by impromptu alliances without any pause in combat!
Thus, it was disturbing when a new force was being felt.
War Maiden Katara was heading to a meeting in neutral territory of a camp set up for the exact purpose of the supreme powers gathering.
It was not only Eternal sects but Vile ones as well. They were enemies but the current situation made them more in line with the goals of keeping things on an even keel.
She put her hand on the hilt of her Breaker. The spirit inside responded with a wish to strike but she just smiled and comforted it that it would get a workout soon enough. The flap of the large white tent revealed an intricate set of formations that cut off all sound and spying inside or out.
She saw a handful of heads turn but she frowned as a few were missing. The Divine Sword Sect was very far away but she had been late, so why were they not there?
She also noticed the Vile Scar Sect was missing. A demonic sect that believed it was the goal of all cultivators to engrave formations into their very bodies. It was a rather powerful but twisted technique as it affected the mind and souls of the cultivator.
Demons relished the power but ignored the side effects. They also killed to increase the power of their body formations, or at least that is what they claimed.
The last one missing was a bit of mystery as they owned the tent!
The Gilded Lotus Guild was the trade administrator of the area. Like Midas Throne, they were technically neutral at all times but of course their interests were profits. Whoever finally laid claim to the Ruin would lead to profit for them.
The absence of the woman normally there was extremely odd.
"If you are looking for our esteemed colleagues, they are not coming. Or rather, they cannot. Hehe!" A demoness in a form fitting blood red outfit lounged one leg over an armrest as she drank wine from a silver goblet.
Her hair was dark silver and lengthy but lustrous.
"Your amusement must mean they are embarrassed?" Katara saw the seductress of Eternal Sin Sect laugh at her question. It all but confirmed the sect master of that contradictory sect was having a lot of fun.
The Eternal Sin Sect existed in a sort of gray area unlike any other sect with that title. Demons and humans believed that confronting the sins and vices of life was wiser than trying to deny them.
The resultant strength they had made it hard to argue but it was risky. Falling to temptations led to powerful heart demons. It was not unusual for them to fall to them in much larger numbers than even Vile sects.
"Your disgusting presentation aside, those 3 suffered a loss at the issue we need to discuss." A slim man with a delicate pair of glasses stood to the side of the table looking down at marked maps.
He had pale yellow robes and an open book symbol on his right breast. The mark of the Keeper of Divine Knowledge Sect.
It was not a combat sect in any way but even the seductive demoness bowed in respect to him. The Keeper was like a Grand Elder but the man was clearly very young looking. His dark hair and handsome features were impossible to deny.
War Maiden Katara also bowed with respect to him as any sane cultivator would do. Even the most battle crazy maniac would avoid the Keeper at all costs.
The reason was simple. The standard to become a Keeper was to master a level of knowledge to terrify even the old monsters in the world. WIth that knowledge, using any Art was about as effective as screaming into the wind!
Even assuming you caught him by surprise, there was a damned good chance he had a formation plate that would safeguard his life and end the attackers before they knew how they died!
More distressing was the fact that even in the tent they stood, it was entirely possible the formations were completely under his command by eyeblink alone!
"Enough, the Maiden is here, let's get this over with." A hooded figure slammed their fist on the table. His robes were tattered but the aura was just as powerful as the rest.
"Vile Jade Sect is impatient as always." The demoness sneered but an object was frozen directly in front of her face before anyone registered she was attacked!
"No fighting." The Keeper only said 2 words but the hooded man only nodded before waving his arm and the blade turned to dust before returning to his body!
"Please, let us discuss what is going on." Katara took her seat as did the rest. The Keeper actually pointed at the red flags on the map. She saw a small stone used to mark the Ruin but she frowned as she saw a couple of red flags near it.
"We were not sure at first but in the last week there has been a massive uptick in specific attacks that are unusual and effective." A dark metal plate was placed on the table and Katara felt woozy just looking at it.
Her instincts did not feel danger but the fact it affected her so much was staggering. She was an Immortal! Even with the Corruption, affecting the soul of a cultivator so easily was terrifying.
"I have never seen anything remotely like this. The closest we have any record is of the Fiends battles. They would ensnare a cultivator in traps that would prepare them like a fine meal for later." The Keeper's words caused a stir.
The demoness actually sat up seriously and the hooded man seemed to be just as focused.
"To be clear, this does not harm the target. It incapacitates and seals cultivation, but only temporarily. The mechanism is unclear to me but the exquisite engravings show the user is highly skilled and familiar with it." A weaving! Katara had never seen a plate that held such a complex weaving so completely!
They could be used as anchors certainly but it was like a grade 7 formation plate when she looked at it.
"If it is only temporary, how are not more people dead in such a moment of weakness?" A broad shouldered man spoke up. His neatly trimmed beard of golden hair made him look like a warrior God made manifest as his starkly blue eyes stared at the plate.
"It is not a single target item. It can cover a massive area or focus to speed up the process if only a few are in range. How it knows, I do not understand but it has been observed enough to confirm such a function." Katara now stared at the plate like a foe she had to defeat.
"Will spirit shields work?" She asked the most logical question but a bracelet was tossed out that was a burnt wreck. She needed no prompting to know what she was looking at.
"How?!" The question was asked by several but the Keeper could only shake his head.
"I do not know. It is not a question of power either as that is a Law Grade spirit shield. It was not overpowered, it failed for reasons I cannot yet determine." The group became solemn.
"So what happens afterward? No one is dead and 3 of us are incapacitated but you have not come to that part." The demoness spoke seriously for a change and none called her out on it.
"It is the next part that is more terrifying. This plate incapacitates via a soul attack. Once it settles and seals their cultivation, all the victims state the same thing. A compulsion to get away from the Ruin at all costs. They don't seem possessed or controlled, but they are definitely being commanded." Katara's eyes narrowed.
She knew that feeling!
"How can you say they are not controlled?!" The bearded man bellowed as he stood upright but the Keeper waved his hand. That motion alone calmed the room.
"They can make any choice they want, even to combat the impulse but it makes them uncomfortable. The thing I do not grasp is the range of effects. A righteous sect, like the Divine Sword Sect, seems very congenial to go along but any member of a wicked sect feels intense pain if they resist." Katara was no longer sure at that point.
No one in the tower had felt like that when she checked. Still, it had to be them!
"Someone is trying to clear us out. How mean!" The demoness spoke up and pouted but all knew she was angry. It was a clear demonstration of superiority to their authority. They would not let it stand!
"We have another problem. There are at least a dozen beings with this skill against us." The Keeper's words made Katara freeze. A dozen?!
He then began to point at the map and moved his finger to 7 different places.
"There were no traps there before a week ago but the time to travel without being seen would be close to 3 months yet the traps were set up in a week. A new force has moved in that can lay these soul traps and evade our best detection arrays. They also have a being not seen in over a million years." The Keeper then looked grim as a tome was laid open on the table with a detailed image and 2 words above it.
It was a dragon, black shelled tortoise, white tiger, and phoenix arranged in their cardinal directions. The purest bloodlines were drawn even with Katara's limited knowledge could make it out. The 2 words however brought it all together for her.
{True Lord.}