novelraw Chapter 1038 - 1037 - Inner Dance
Chapter 1038 - 1037 - Inner Dance
It took a day to finally notice a change. He found the storm fading as the dark metal faded to white.
The change in material was not just in color, he could tell the metal had become stronger in some way he did not fully grasp. It frustrated him but he could only accept what he could grasp.
A new ring greeted him but there were no hatches, instead he was dazzled by the rainbow.
Rays of light danced in intricate patterns all around him. He even accidently got in the way of a few but felt no danger. Instead, he felt more energized than ever before! His crystal happily shimmered and he wondered if he could breakthrough here!
[It would be unwise to cultivate here, Master. Those are another formation.] He was stunned as it was not an inscription or array but an active formation of light!
The beams moved in an intricate and gorgeous way. He watched and understood that there was a mirror-like surface on either side. He had never seen something that could reflect Qi like that before!
What could reflect Qi like that?
He was feeling the itch to know and to delve into the mystery of it but he had just learned a harsh lesson not long ago.
He looked at the shining surface but it was not as simple as a mirror. It was more like a prism made up of pure Qi!
It took in the various elements and bounced them around like a LASER until they came back out as a coherent beam.
The reflections were very precise to build up power and then project a consolidated beam of all 6 natural elements.
Unlike the outer core, the inner core made far more sense to him!
It was a resonator for the Qi! It allowed the various elements to build up to a certain level of power before bouncing between the 2 walls of the chamber.
He did not know why though. It was pretty and powerful but could not produce the storm of Qi he had seen in the outer chamber by any measure. It would more likely just focus a formation in the current setup more than anything.
What was it for?!
He found a similar path to walk the circumference of it and the intricate dance was propagating along all of it. It only took a full month to complete a circuit as he found himself back at the pathway outward. There were stairs at intervals as well but he had yet to explore them.
"Any ideas, Haro?" He asked in the hopes his ring spirit would know but he was disappointed.
[While it is ingenious, it is not known to me at all. I have never seen a formation made in this fashion before nor heard of it.] His Master was clearly a genius but he doubted it was his own creation.
"His wife or another close person was a formation genius. Interesting." LInd had his own expertise but Annabelle would be the kind of person he would turn to for work like he was looking at.
The thought made him consider a possibility.
Annabelle was a master of illusions but her formations in general were considered above brilliant. She had not rested on her laurels of natural mastery alone.
He pulled out a few of her formation plates and found the one he was looking for.
It was a formation to project an image. It was not just an illusion but to create as realistic a projection of a desired subject as the user wanted.
Lind summoned a projection of a skyscraper as it was unique to his own memory. The building he chose was rather famous as the Empire State Building. The simple image seemed to appear at a little under half his height.
He studied her arrays carefully but they were truly inspired compared to even his own weavings. She far surpassed him in many ways.
She could not touch on the current formation beaming around him but she could inspire him to understand it.
It was all he could do but even then he just understood how profound the inner core was.
He could tell it was powerful and it was regulating the power somehow but not the purpose beyond that.
It was not his goal to learn its purpose but to find if he was at his goal or not.
[You are not at the heart of it, Master. If they are employing what I think they are, there should be a Dao Heart at the center of this Ruin.] He was surprised he had not felt a headache at that revelation.
"What is that exactly?" Haro tried to speak but his vision went dark at that point. He woke up later feeling horrible.
[It seems you can know the name for some reason, Master, but nothing else.] Lind found it absurd that words were restricted like that but likely there was an intent behind them that was actually hurting him.
So it was odd he could be told but it might be due to the badge changes he was only just noticing.
During his time unconscious, it seemed to have changed.
The badge had been crystalline and shifting colors before while still allowing the clear symbol of his profession clear to see as a Law Grade elixir master.
He now felt like a subtle pressure was coming from it and the colors had changed to his own! It had all 18 elements!
How was that possible?!
He then had a thought and activated his Eyes. The natural Qi beams became more detailed to him but he carefully saw traces of demonic Qi. There was no Celestial Qi but to see the layer beneath included demonic Qi was enough to make him smile.
[Master?] Haro could feel him smile but not why he was doing it.
Lind tried to fly and was not surprised it was restricted. He could only do one other thing.
Emerald Qi began to flare around him before he concentrated it to his right hand. He waited for the pattern to repeat until he put his hand directly into a burning beam of fire Qi.
Emerald light danced along the beam and his senses began to spread as he touched various beams until the process became self propagating.
He assumed a lotus position and let his harmonic Qi flow along the entirety of the structure. He could finally scan far beyond his own limits with the method in the inner core. The Qi was truly dancing!
It was like a score of music and he had to see the notes. Emerald light began to dominate the beams slowly but surely. His senses encompassed it and realized it was not a formation of Qi beams, but formations of reflection using the Qi to connect it!
Any medium would work but the elemental Qi was acting like a regulator between a core area and the outer core. The storm of Qi was generated by the formation!
"Chaos and order. Yin and Yang. Balancing acts to pull out maximum power." He began to perceive the structure but there was no entrance inward. He found that odd but then noticed something far down below.
It was like something was just slightly off before he smirked.
"A dance indeed." He moved down until he came to a place where light beams dd not strike. It was still the same reflective surface but his Eyes revealed the section required an input from a cultivator.
He took a breath while taking a stamina and Qi recovery elixir. He was going to need it. He examined the dance of Qi in his mind once more before assuming a stance and using all 12 natural and demonic elements into a delicate arrangement at the mirror surface.
The beams responded instantly but that time he intercepted them into himself.
He began to move quickly, faster than he would normally but steadily in time to the pattern. To any observer, he was a blur but the results were not. Each elemental beam locked in place as he moved.
He leapt stairwells 15 steps at a time. He leapt to the bottom at times but always moving. The elixir did its work to help him recover but eventually a complex array was built over the course of 7 months.
His crystal was bone dry as he collapsed back at the starting point.
A hiss was heard as the mirror section smoothly disappeared as if it was water vapor. He stumbled through before it quickly closed behind him.
He seemed to be standing in midair but he felt a hard surface beneath his body as he lay recovering.
[I have heard of that array, Master. It was the Echoing Phantom Array. I have never seen a dance used to unlock it before but it is an ingenious key for it. Complex arrangements that seem random but when locked in place make a profound formation lock and key all at once.] Haro praised the arrangement but Lind had no time to listen.
He had barely made it! If he had to go even a few more days, he would have failed and had to start over!
He was just going to lie there and rest until he could move on his own again.