novelraw Chapter 1234 - 1233 - Regrouping
Chapter 1234 - 1233 - Regrouping
Lind's party drew many eyes but none barred their path. He was already well known in the 3rd layer but a single battle was enough for the 3 demons in his wake to be legends as well. Further, the male of the trio was an Akashic Bloodline Physique!
All the demons bowed low or knelt as he passed and Lind suppressed a smile as Kal looked uncomfortable. In his suppressed state, he was much closer to the precocious young man that followed his sister into the Moebius Sect all those millennia ago.
He came to a large dark violet tent that almost qualified as a building but it was still only a single level. Guards were posted but he noticed their robes and armor were patched up from previous damage.
Inside, he found a buzz of activity that froze at their entrance. Lind paid them no mind as he zeroed in on Evie. Today she wore a voluptuous disguise but she seemed like a child almost hopping from her chair as he approached.
A cot was swiftly brought out of a storage treasure to let Lina sleep. He noticed his Mother took up a guard position and pitied anyone foolish enough to underestimate an alchemist.
"Finally awake–" Evie was about to start her usual antics but he let his fingers glow as complex sigils were engraved on the very air. Those that had heard he was a Maester lost all doubts about it at his expert weaving.
A dome of illusions and isolation cut off the immediate area around them. The few peak Radiant Tier Immortals were shocked that they could not pierce it at all!
Lind was still only a low Radiant Tier but his work far exceeded his foundation!
"Where are they?" He had no desire to play her games but she immediately started pouting. Honestly, she was such a child!
"Answer him, now." A chilly voice from behind seemed to flip some kind of switch in her. The odd thing was it was not Kal but his own Mother that spoke!
"Apologies for my rudeness. Here is the slip with the battle updates but the surviving soulless fled north for some reason." He knew why. It also confirmed they had been moving the hordes via the bridges.
Just how many did they not know about and unknowing flew by? How had they been built with no one knowing? Of course the area the Knife Edge Bazaar was built on was only discovered by accident due to the extreme situation of the 3rd layer.
No, not an accident. It was by design.
He sighed as he pushed his thoughts aside and confirmed what she said. Most sects had persevered as suddenly the numbers were not so endless anymore. The tactic they could never understand now made sense.
The damn bridges had been supplying numbers until the battle was recalled. It even explained the delay without a signal. If the Fiend was at the extreme range or had some kind of weaving embedded in the soulless, they could just barely conduct a battle with a delay!
He never found anything because he was looking for a commonality but different Fiends had different techniques! It would be like trying to compare alchemists or any expert.
The broad strokes are the same but the finer details could be infinite!
Now that he knew that, he might be able to devise a jamming device but the base nature of the soulless would remain. Their power had nothing to do with being controlled.
"Lina here broke their supply lines but they might be able to fix it given time. I am unsure. North, however, is the origin of all our woes." His casual revelation made even Evie become serious. "There is a barrier similar to the land we stand on. It makes it so we do not even notice it at all despite its size. There may be more as well."
Lind had simply followed a process of elimination before but that did not mean he assumed he had caught everything. Fiends were notorious for having backup plans.
The current long term scheme was a good example. Despite obvious dominance with the soulless, they slowly let the demons believe they had a safe haven until the Fiends were ready to strike!
Even with help, the loss of powerful fighters was bad. It would take time to raise more and time was something he felt they did not have.
If a Sovereign Tier was truly in charge, they would not allow the current advantage to vanish. They were not retreating, they were regrouping. It was a nuanced difference but critical.
Retreat could lead to the end of hostilities but regrouping was merely a pause. It was an attempt to focus power for a new offensive.
"To the north? There are no peaks or anything there at all. Are you sure?" Evie seemed to want to consult a jade slip but frowned as it was clearly not the one she wanted. The loss of the auction house meant all the archives were likely ripped apart in several areas.
Geography would not be of the highest concern outside of the areas the horde could hide and sects.
Empty expanses were not of any interest to them.
Lind felt that was the point. He suspected the Fiends had begun so long ago that useless areas had been hidden away before they were transformed.
The Bazaar had been slowly built over time but the land itself was worthless aside from being hidden.
Even if it had been exposed for all to see, it had no benefit to build there at all. In fact, if the hordes were resolved, it would likely start to die if not for the feature of being hidden.
A hidden place was a powerful base to hold but Lind suddenly had a thought.
He looked around and realized he could see all the bridges clearly! It was not just the base but the entirety of them!
His aura expanded outward but stumbled as the weaving had exhausted him.
"I will save you time, the Knife Edge Bazaar is fully exposed now. We know it is a tiny floating island almost at the peak of the sky." Evie spoke but even she seemed shocked as such positioning was not possible before.
It also confused Lind from how he used the barrier before the attack. It had felt below the Icy Path so what was with that?
He could not focus on it at the moment as it made him wonder if the island in the north was now exposed too!
"Do we have any communication actively or is it only relayed to us?" Evie nodded as she motioned to a silver pedestal with a sky blue gem mounted on it. He saw Tessa quickly retrieve it before returning inside the barrier.
He saw Evie quickly connect to it and knew she already was hunting what he feared.
Her frown became a grim visage as she looked up.
"The Heaven Thorn Sect reported a shadow near the bottom of the layer before they went silent." The Heaven Thorn Sect was a demonic sect that focused on combat to supposedly defy Heaven and Earth.
They had Arts and formations that could enhance their power near to quasi-Sovereign Tier. They had thrived in the last million years of battle.
Them going silent should have been impossible as they loved to brag about their progress as individuals and a sect. In fact, they were worse than his first demon battle maniac, Ryo!
"Anyone else up there?" She consulted the jewel but her visage only worsened.
"There are 2 other northern powers that have seemingly gone silent but only now are people asking why. The other sects are recovering from attacks lesser to this massacre but they were still attacked." Lind joined her in being grim.
Not only had the most powerful cultivators been severely depleted by the attack on the Knife Edge Bazaar, but the remaining guardians were at least injured if not also killed. Death was inevitable when facing the hordes.
"What is the most northing contact point still remaining?" Evie quickly sent out her request when all the blood drained from her face. Her lavender skin was almost white!
"The Serenity Sect." Lind's eyes went wide in shock. There should have been more. A lot more powers had sprung up over the last 1000 years but they were all gone save the healing focused sect?!
"Master, how quickly can we get there if we left now?" Kal spoke up but Lind shook his head. Even in his peak condition, it would take months. At that rate too, he would be exhausted upon his arrival.
The bridges did not shorten the journey in any way, only hid them normally from predators and soulless.
"Can the 4th layer help us?" Kexin asking for help only hammered home the danger. She acknowledged the level of threat to the point even her harmonic domination had to accept assistance.
"They can't. If the north is exposed, even a cursory glance would reveal the nightmare there. I only got a glimpse and it was horrifying. Billions upon billions of soulless just waiting for orders. The Fiends were never going to lose a direct confrontation but that was not their goal." The others looked at him in confusion.
Why wouldn't they take the easy victory?
"Their point was to delay. They were to act as a plug for any superior Radiant Tier force that could be sent down while the other 2 facilities refined all of existence. We were meant to be food for the Great Annoyance." Shock filled all their faces, even Evie's, at his revelation.
Lind knew his family and friends were aware of the Realm Refiner but not the true extent of the whole operation.
It was never about winning for the Fiends. It was always about consuming all life for their master. Now that that option was gone, a new object was set up.
War.