novelraw Chapter 1023 - 1022 - Terrifying Man
Chapter 1023 - 1022 - Terrifying Man
Lind had been happy with his modified soul traps. Soulmancers had made him consider entirely new ways to use his weaving ability but most were so specific and prone to abuse he kept most of it to himself.
The soul traps were only useful due to him being a True Lord, otherwise they would essentially just be annoying distractions at worst. Still, he did not want others realizing the extent of harm those traps could become.
Thus he made them complicated with his command intent.
It was something he discovered by accident with an experiment of imprinting his Will on an object. If he used his weaving, he could leave a simple command with the backing of his True Lord Intent on it.
It could not be complicated in its command at all, in fact more than 2 words was simply the limit.
He would have to make a weaving on the scale of a small city to make anything like a 4 word command.
All he had done for the moment was try to pacify the many battles going on across the forests. It was actually very tiring as there were far too damn many!
Compared to the wars he fought in the past where there were clear battlelines and places of safety, the entire forest was like a battle amusement park! Varying forces met, fought, and retreated at random!
Death was so common that they did not seem concerned at the insane state of affairs! How could they let it go so long without coming to a resolution?!
A Divine Ruin was a temptation but the sheer stupidity he saw made it clear something was wrong. Cultivators were practical creatures at heart, especially in regards to powerful organizations.
Wasting resources included personnel and all he saw was waste! Entire sects had been wiped out from what he had gathered but the war did not stop!
Someone or a group somewhere had to be purposely stopping things from reaching a resolution. It would have been better for the supreme powers to ally and manage the Ruin afterall.
Better a lionshare of the profit than the waste he was witnessing.
The frustrating part was not a single person seemed to know a thing either!
He had spied on several camps since his aura was fully powered, he had no need to get close at all. All he gathered though was attempts to sneak a path to the Ruin.
Various battle plans for scouted enemies were normal but no matter the level of meeting, not one ever considered an alliance to share the Ruin!
It was unnatural!
Long before the Fiend War in the Heaven Realm Lands, Immortal Ruins had been fought over but if no clear winner could be decided in a century or after a costly battle, the higher powers of the area would jointly take over and administer it.
They would then assemble teams by some method to enter the Ruin and the rest was left to fate.
It was long established and confirmed over and over no matter where he found old records. So why was that not being done here?
After he gathered what intelligence he could, the traps began to do what he desired. Deaths dropped like a stone and the command he gave affected those trapped to simply leave. What bothered him was how effective it was.
Normally, he had to actively enforce his commands but the staggering effectiveness showed he was right. Something was very wrong with the war.
He felt not the slightest drain on his life no matter how many traps he used and that was the most telling thing.
It meant something violated the rules of Heaven and Earth!
"You have that look on your face I have come to fear, Lind." Delenn suddenly poked her head into his workshop. The cavern the brothers led them to had been transformed by them both into a much better place.
Lan had been dancing around in awe as the comfortable beds, workshops and storehouse were appearing as if by will alone. The little boy had been laughing and running around as he should at that age.
Bori had wept seeing it.
It had apparently been a long time since either brother could laugh.
"I am not that scary, am I?" The blank stare from her told him volumes about how other people perceived him.
"When I met you, you were a lot more naive but struggling to move forward anyway you could. In fact, I was concerned how kind you were, but inside you was a monster waiting to snap out at the world. You have literally overturned the way cultivation was understood and then proceeded to prove how powerful a being you are when put into a corner." She began to list off how far he had come and he could only nod.
He had lived it but hearing it did bring some perspective. The old him would not have been so willing to use his current tactics, but he was not harming his targets. The impulse was not strong enough to be permanent.
He also noticed karma played a part in how effective it was. Those with strong restitution seemed to feel no threat and actually aligned with his command but those harboring retribution suffered immensely if they tried to resist.
He noted it down but pushed past it as he looked at the current item on his work bench.
It was a cylinder with tiny compartments attached to it very neatly. It had a jewel set at the top and a plate just above it. Anyone from Earth would think of a grenade or mine just looking at it but neither was correct.
"My current tactic was to mostly shift things and disrupt the status quo. It worked but now I have to draw out the shadows. To do that, I have to take away their toys." Time was running out so slow tactics were not enough.
He had to strike hard and fast now that he had drawn attention. In other words, he had to become the enemy.
"What exactly will that do?" She had watched him design it but she still did not understand it. He smirked as he simply tapped it.
Before she could react, all the Qi in the room and her body came to a screeching halt! The wards, artifacts, and even the basic structures around them lost all their foundation!
An arch over the doorway cracked and fell apart as it was designed of several parts fused together with Forging.
She had never seen anything like it. It was like she was mortal once again but she felt her crystal was perfectly intact!
What had he done?
It was only at that thought she realized Lind had changed. Emerald scales covered his human body as he was lined in harmonic Qi! It was entirely unaffected!
"W–w–what is that?!" He held up the now swirling orb that floated in his hand.
"It would be best to think of it as something similar to what Fiends do but far less dangerous. My harmony was born when I formed my Soul Cores so I always wondered what would happen if I made an artifact that fused all the elements in a similar fashion." The image of his emerald flame connected by 6 streams of elemental Qi had always fascinated him.
His harmony was always at the center until he became an Immortal. Then it was like his sliver, shard, and crystal became his harmony encompassing his elements and Laws.
While he had been able to store and use his harmonic Qi, he wanted to know what would happen if he generated it.
It was actually the Fiends that inspired him, sad as that was to admit. Refining elements into his harmony had been an interesting idea.
Thus he had tried it on a very small scale and the effect was stunning.
His artifact worked but it was like it was a bottomless pit that could never be satiated! All the elements in all directions were absorbed forcibly. All Qi but his harmony came to stop!
It was not invincible however, as the artifact he used had elements as well.
A crack was heard when the jewel shattered and Qi came roaring back! Delenn felt dizzy as her body was flooded with more Qi than she recalled having.
She slowly calmed it down but saw the destruction was quite permanent around them.
"Just what is that?!" Lind did not answer as he inserted yet another jewel. He tried clicking the plate again but nothing happened.
"Damn it, so it does not work to move the locus to a single part either. I hoped it would." He looked up as he saw she was still stunned looking at him.
"Do not worry, as you can see, it has a limited capacity at this size." He saw that did not get through so he explained the principle but she looked at him as if he was mad.
"Your harmony feels nothing like that! How can it destroy all Qi like that?!" He frowned at her.
"It does not destroy, it converts it into harmonic Qi. The issue is it is not me doing it so it simply goes until the artifact itself is consumed. The harmonic Qi protects it for a short time but it breaks eventually and ends the refinement." Without a dantian, the harmony created by the artifact disperses like a storm back into the world.
The result was quite disruptive but he had to fine tune it so living things would not suffer death from the effect.
It had been somewhat easy compared to his expectations but he did not fully understand why.
"Why would you ever want to make such a thing?" He looked at her seriously as he pointed at the map laid out on the table. She saw the array of many forces and battlefields and a look of horror came over her.
"You are literally going to take away their ability to fight?!" He shook his head.
"How does the Qi feel at the moment?" She was confused until true shock filled her. The tainted Qi was almost nonexistent!
"I am going to strip away their power and then flood them with pure Qi. In other words, the tainted Qi will be disrupted. This entire affair reeks of Fiends. Only they benefit from the constant death here. Someone is manipulating events but even sheer profit would drive any human or demonic power to work together after all this loss." She froze at his words.
Why had she never seen it? It felt like it was obvious but for some reason it never occurred to her. Her own father would have long since moved to benefit even it he could not claim sole ownership of the Ruin.
Why had the war gone so long?
She looked at him in a new light. She knew he was hard working and skilled but she realized with great clarity what all his enemies knew before they died. He was a monster, a terrifying monster!