novelraw Chapter 1071 - 1070 - Flesh Anchor
Chapter 1071 - 1070 - Flesh Anchor
How was such a thing alive? How was it able to speak to him telepathically?!
No Law or anything he could conceive of could explain why the molded flesh over the massive beating heart could respond at all. It would have been bad enough if it was simply preserved limbs and pieces mashed together, it would be bad enough but the reality was horrifying.
It was made worse by how innocent it sounded in Lind's mind!
[Please come. So few come to see us now. Come, come!] The chorus of voices were excited and happy. He felt no danger from the voice but understood it was incredibly stronger than him.
[I am coming.] He answered as he stepped on the dark bridge and crossed the sea of blood that moved in time with the beating of the heart. Its speed did not increase or chance to match the emotions of the voices.
As his physical eyes could see through the darkness and blood mists, he felt his stomach churn. He counted at least 9 different eyeballs with various fused colors in their irises. It meant they were fused from a lot of eyes given they varied from the size of a golf ball to his fist!
The skin was not any color he could place but he confirmed the colored flesh of aether children as his Eyes had seen before. The various protrusions were disturbing to focus on but his damned improved cultivator mind identified them anyway.
Arms and legs were tolerable even if they were at odd angles and disturbing connections to other limbs. The fingers and toes, however, were far too many and spread too wide to be comfortable.
The mound of flesh did not move much but it did flex as if it was respirating as a living being should.
Lind felt sick but hid it deep in his mind.
[So small but you felt large. Why is that?] He was surprised but let his aura flare briefly to reveal the ghostly image of his dragon body. [Pretty! So pretty!]
A very dark thought came to Lind as the chorus kept speaking.
[May I know your name?] There was a pause but then he was sent stumbling to his knees as images assaulted his mind. Information of hundreds of lives came into him but they all ended the same!
As quickly as it started, the flood stopped.
[That is our name!] The chorus was so innocent and happy but Lind was pale just looking at it. It was a gestalt mind but it had become infantile because it could not handle the sheer weight of the lives that made it.
[Do you know where you are?] He finally gathered enough strength to ask but the pause was longer that time. It even felt like the presence was actually unsure how to answer.
[Home? Am I home? Is my family coming back? Are we going back into the light?] Many questions flowed but it was far more mundane compared to the introduction. Perhaps it was a difference of response based on the individual people compared to the uniformity of a greeting.
If uniformity was key then the introduction told him what question not to ask no matter what. He could not withstand the answer to what was the last thing they remembered.
[I do not know. I am looking for a certain item. Do you know anything about many threads coming together here?] He was careful as he was unsure how that grotesque thing would react.
Lind could feel the excitement increase suddenly.
[YES! It is below! It feels good! I can hear the song!] Lind did not dare confirm as he finally crossed the bridge. He now stood over a large beating heart and understood what he was looking at.
He also felt all the blood drain from his own face.
Grade 8! It was grade 8!
His most recent experience with the Divine Ruin was far more informative in identifying such a thing. It also explained how easily it crossed his defenses. He was facing an entity at the level of a Divine Realm cultivator!
He looked up and used his Eyes to confirm his worst fear. A Void of Heaven was all around him!
He was well and truly screwed.
He had not expected the bloodline array eye would be a living object at grade 8! He also did not expect it would be sentient as well. It had the power to snuff him out with a sneeze!
His arrogance that he could destroy it now came back to bite him. He had assumed it was related more to the Fiends but the current creation was pure humanity. Monsters made him forget that humans could be far worse than even the Fiends.
He now grasped why the bloodline array was so strong and recovered so quickly. The blood pool was fed into the heart and it was spreading along the veins of the array.
The flesh construct was the anchor for it all. A heart needed a body but the complex inscriptions for such a powerful array needed an intricate flag substitute. Rather than use high end materials, they used cultivators' flesh itself!
Just like beasts, cultivators' bodies became more valuable as they advanced.
Of course, the applications for using them were reviled in society but also by Heaven itself. Beasts consuming them was perfectly fine, but the perversion in front of him was an affront to all the world.
[Why are you not in the song?] The voices suddenly seemed to focus more on him and he knelt on the black bridge involuntarily. It was not angry at him, it was just that powerful even unintentionally.
[Your song is dangerous. It hurts others. Many have died.] He did not even try to trick it. He simply spoke the truth. He was unsure how it would respond.
The various eyes narrowed before a deranged giggle filled his head to a level that made a headache nearly split it open. Blood burst from his ears, nose, and eyes yet he stayed conscious.
[All are to be part of the song. The creator told us so! Our siblings sing with us too!] Pressure built on his mind and LInd realized he was not immune to the array at all, it simply had not been able to breach his defenses in the world.
So close to the source, no Immortal could resist!
His harmony tried to flare up in his crystal but it was a tiny candle in the wind. His elements tried to support it to no appreciable effect.
"NO!" He felt his memory starting to be suppressed. The bloodline array was trying to rob him of his sense of self!
[You will become our friend! We miss having new people added. You will become part of the song!] The simple chorus was a lie. The thing in front of him was just an amalgamation of victims but a monster ready to consume the world!
He had only himself to rely on but he was nothing to that thing! He was just a candle flame in the wind.
His life as a mortal was untouched but the rest of it was being modified. He was losing his goal to fight the Fiends at all! Lanbao, the cages in Cimmeria, and all the battles inside the Heaven Realm Law Binding, all of these were being robbed from him!
His emerald eyes flared but nothing he tried stopped the process. He was going to forget it all!
His desperation was rising and he had only 1 gamble left to play.
"I know you cannot see in this terrible place but you are part of everything. Even those damned Fiends need you. You are fair but right now a violation of all existence is in front of me. Use my eyes damn it! See what I see!" He was screaming at the end but no change came over him.
George and his old life was being ripped away from him!
[New notes! He has new notes to entertain us! Yay!] The chorus was joyful but no longer sounded innocent to his mind.
Lind was falling away into oblivion and a false version was taking over! He was clawing in his own mind but all his efforts seemed in vain.
It was only as his mind began to dull that a wave of emerald Qi flared outward from his soul. Golden lightning began to condense around his head while black lightning shot out at the flesh anchor.
[Bad! You are bad!] Lind suddenly felt clear headed but his eyes burned before he could even process what was happening. The golden lightning got stronger and suddenly his body was no longer his own.
[Connection established. Karma is acceptable. Violation confirmed.] The room shook as if the voice had boomed aloud as it did in his head. Lind smiled inside his head as he felt something familiar filling his body.
The spirits of Heaven and Earth!
His body now stood properly fully healed.
[Bad voices! You are bad–] Lind raised his arm and black lightning slammed outward at the grotesque collection of flesh. It burnt a hole right through it!
[NOOOOO! STOP! PAIN!] Screaming shook the entire room once more but Lind calmly took a step forward.
[This is as far as we can interfere. A chance is all we can give, so grasp it well. Your soul is safe due to your karma but your life is not. The choice is now yours.] Lind felt control return but he did not waste time.
Emerald flames exploded from his body as he shot forward. The pressure was rising in his mind once more but now he had a concrete goal. The thing was injured! His hand shot inside and all 18 elements lit up like suns in his crystal of flames.
"GO TO HELL!" He focused all his Laws, elements, and spirit into his harmony as it slammed into the wounded flesh.
[NO! GO AWAY! NO MORE! STOP HURTING ME!] Blood burst out of his orifices but he did not stop. The heart finally became erratic but the blood acted like it was an elixir and tried to heal it.
Lind grasped the essence of the array at that moment and sneered.
"I WIN!" His ability as an elixir master exploded outward and he forced everything into the creature in front of him. He would win or lose, now he just had to hold on!