novelraw Chapter 121 - 120 - Defective Process
Chapter 121 - 120 - Defective Process
The staff of Myriad Treasures had become used to not only Lind leaving early for the day but any fresh apprentice struggling with making cores could stop and leave covered in dust and debris. Thus, when Lind had left, with soot covered skin and sparkling crystals in his hair, no one expected him to return.
Wild laughter announced his arrival as he waved happily to anyone that looked at him. No one knew what to say, even powerful Iron Tiers just looked in shock as the tier 8 Soul Realm seemed to have found the secret of all Dao as Lind walked by.
He had disappeared up the stairs when 3 very beautiful women in the white robes of the Heavenly Maiden Sect slowly entered. The shock of Lind's entrance made everyone just sort of stare in surprise at 3 Maidens suddenly showing up. In a rare moment, World Realm cultivators wondered if they were dreaming when they slept far less than before.
Master Harold had come out of one of the work stations on the ground floor to see the 3 Maidens and everyone just staring at the entrance of the shop or looking upstairs through the floor above.
"How may I help you, honorable Maidens?" Harold had a very high opinion of the Heavenly Maiden Sect. The Divine Sword Sect was fine but their obsession with their swords even put Cain off of them at times. Being 2 incredibly powerful forces on the 3 continents, however, it was pleasing to see how humbly they operated so long as no one crossed their bottom line.
"W-we followed Lind here, senior." A lovely young aether child stuttered as she spoke but the name she gave surprised Harold. He had been sure Lind gave up for the day. He could pull off 4 elemental cores at low grade 2, but nothing higher or more complex from what he had heard from Mya.
"If I understood him correctly, I believe he has had enlightenment." A bright blonde woman at the same tier as himself volunteered more information but Harold was stunned. It had only been 3 weeks, could Lind have really had a breakthrough so soon?
"Let me check on him, one—" Harold was about to go upstairs when all of them felt it. All the Qi in the air started flowing like a storm towards the 4th floor of his shop. It was feeling very profound as emerald light began to flare from the windows near where Lind's station should be.
"What has he done now?" The dark green haired woman seemed more mischievous compared to the other 2, but Harold was distracted by the feeling of the Qi spiking up far higher than anything that should be for cores before another explosion went off.
Emerald light blasted out of the 4th floor windows on all sides while 2 sets of windows blew out entirely.
"LIND!" All 3 Maidens rushed past and none dared to stop them as the power of the Heavenly Maidens Sect was unchallenged. Harold felt shocked as he knew precisely how many formations were put into the windows and walls of his shop. How much power could a Soul Realm possibly generate making grade 2 cores to damage them?
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Laughter was coming from a pile of debris as Mya and other apprentices were picking themselves up after the stunning explosion of Qi. No one was allowed to experiment on higher grade cores due to the very real danger of devastating power let loose, but all knew Lind was only working with grade 2 materials.
How in the world did he make such a powerful explosion?
"I was right! I was right!" A singed and blackened Lind Frey slowly emerged from the pile of debris. His robes were nearly completely gone with only his waist area barely covered. His lean body and well muscled legs were exposed but the blood and pain were ignored as he seemed to be giddy.
"It is defective. All of it, top to bottom, is defective." Lind was on a rollercoaster of emotions as the bottleneck finally vanished. He had focused so much on tempering and fixing Soul Arts to work for him that he never realized all of cultivation was based on bad assumptions.
Formations, alchemical pills, refining, elixirs, and Arts were all created without taking into consideration 6 elemental dantians. The simple reason was the emergent property of the harmony and the inability to use the compromise all worked with at the lower realms.
The 6 primordial Immortals had tried to address the deficiency of mortal 6 elementals that could not safely progress due to the constant backlash they suffered trying to follow the whole cultivation world.
Lind realized what they had.
The current cultivation path was the best they all could do, but they were wrong. There was a better path. Lind had already proven it! His modification to Soul Arts up to tier 8 and learning how to use his elements with their relation to each other was all due to the staff covering for him as he stumbled in those early days.
Lind's mistake was trying to follow the experts in their field without questioning why they do things. He had tried to mimic and pick apart where he was going wrong, but it was the reverse. The world was wrong!
His raging emotions calmed down as he stared at the charred hole where his workstation used to be humbled him. The power he had lost control of was his full power and the full power of grade 2 ingredients. Rather than rely on the premade connection paths as he had always done, Lind allowed his understanding of the relationship of the 6 elements to build the paths between his ingredients.
It had been far smoother as it came together but Lind, in his excitement, let it slip through his fingers and the energy blasted outwards. He had protected his body at the very last moment with his own dantian elements but his clothes defenses were not activated at all.
The damage to the building made Lind smirk a bit. Formation arrays, the building blocks that allowed a formation to work, were built by people that had misunderstanding about the relationship between elements.
However, since all formations needed was Qi to work, it avoided the backlash Lind would normally suffer. Weapons and artifacts require more active participation from a cultivator thus Lind suffered a backlash. His misunderstanding was the cause of all his frustrations.
Lind had thought since formations worked for him, they were fine, but he was wrong. All of the cultivation world was built on the concepts that people got to work and comprehended. He could not speak for Heaven Realm where supposedly all 6 elements were the goal for all, but below that realm was everyone doing their best to progress.
Lind wondered why there was a difference between natural 6 elementals and cultivators that collected them later but he may learn that in the future. His present was both wonderful and back to a snail's pace. He had to do it all.
Lind sighed tiredly when suddenly 3 people tackled him and proceeded to look him over in embarrassing detail. The cool hands and hair colors told Lind he had worried them again. He was going to be in trouble.
"I am sorry. I got too excited and needed to see if I was right. I protected myself, but I will need new robes." Lind was trying to calm them, but slowly they began to glare at him. All 3 women knew him. They knew he loved puzzles and he would work on new puzzles to the exclusion of food or water at times if someone was not there to stop him.
"We will be having a long talk about your foolishness later. First, come apologize to Master Harold for the damage you have caused!" Qing grabbed his ear and began to drag him away. The other apprentices had reactions ranging from shock to mirth. Mya was shaking from trying to hold in her laughter as they passed.
"Little brother, you should be very careful in the future or you will not survive your next mistake." Lind was not happy with Mya's words but he was downright depressed as even Shoti nodded in agreement!
"Lind, stop hurting yourself!" The tears in Annabelle's eyes nearly broke him. He had been a bit hasty but now he knew he had to start from scratch. He had almost made it just then but let his emotions distract his control.
A bit of shame flashed through him as he realized he had indeed put himself at risk. He had not set up formations to guide the energy away nor any extra safety as he normally would with elixirs.
"I am sorry, truly. I let my frustrations with my failures drive me when I finally grasped the solution." His heartfelt words at least earned his ear some freedom but none of them moved away from him. Many men would be jealous but Lind knew he was being marched off for a lengthy lecture he deserved.
Some men cursed him as they passed but a few that were happily married looked on in empathy at Lind. A few even sent up small prayers to the spirits for their mercy on the boy.
"Lind! Are you ok? What happened?" Master Harold saw the singed boy and breathed a sigh of relief as the reactions of the group showed that nothing serious had occurred up above. Lind bowed from his waist in apology.
"I apologize, Master Harold. I let my excitement at solving a 6 elemental core get away from me–" Lind was in the midst of speaking when 2 callused hands pulled him up. The gray beard on the older man was whipping in a breeze as Lind realized Master Harold had used his full peak Iron Tier strength to move towards him.
"YOU SOLVED IT?!" Master's Harold's voice reverberated across not only the shop but shook several buildings across the streets in all directions. Lind, being right in front of him, felt his head nearly split open but was quickly covered in soothing energy from Qing.
He nodded slowly and was then picked up like a small child and whirled around the open ground floor. Lind was not sure what was going to happen next but then a chilling aura spread throughout the Myriad Treasures workshop.
"Master Harold. Put him down, now." Lind had never heard Qing being so cold but she was nearly on par with Harold's cultivation, plus the prestige of the Heavenly Maiden Sect gave her more authority than most currently there.
Looking like a child with his hand caught in the cookie jar, Master Harold set Lind down who wobbled until Annabelle and Shoti caught him. Qing again infused him with some healing techniques until he felt normal again.
"We are taking him for the next few days. He will return and you can resume your experiments then. Please deduct costs of repairs from this account at the Sapphire Auction House." Qing was now God so far as everyone was concerned. It was clear she had reached the end of her patience.
"You thought I was a handful, Lind, now you see how she really is." Shoti's words were softly spoken, but in the dead silence all heard them. No one disagreed as they watched Lind get marched off and Master Harold looked like a small child denied his favorite toy.
Rumors swirled about the events that happened at the Myriad Treasures workshop, but none got close to the truth save in 1 respect. All agreed Lind Frey had angered 3 Maidens and would be lucky to be able to make any decision going forward about his own life.