novelraw Chapter 1243 - 1242 - Flight
Chapter 1243 - 1242 - Flight
Lind spent a long time entertaining the young child spirit. They were joined by quite a few more. The old woman had informed him that age was merely a perspective for them. Some enjoyed imitating children, while others were like her.
None of them could explain it perfectly as it was the closest word he could use, imitating. It might be better to say they shifted perspectives and really became what he saw. He wondered if it was like he had become a dragon once his soul finished transforming his body but it might not be quite the same.
His base persona was not altered. It was more like it was modified and he had to either learn to control it or be controlled by his instincts.
The spirits, however, were drastically different. They were never corporeal in the first place so conjuring bodies was a conscious choice compared to having to adapt.
Assuming they only interacted with souls or observed them as they were reborn, it meant they learned a lot in those moments and found things they liked.
There was no disguise or any illusion to their forms either. He could truly tell they were children as they laughed at his stories.
They never asserted their age like that until they reverted. They would pout, throw tantrums, and even play games!
The old woman told him his presence brought forth memories of earlier times when they all tried to grasp the life that had been born in the physical worlds.
He was confused as he only saw humans but he was a dragon. Even as a soul, he could tell he could shift forms if he desired. It was not like before either. He would simply become his dragon form in an instant.
He even tried it out only to have the children beg for rides and yank on his mane!
Unlike his headaches from examining the spirit world, he felt no pain when they did that, only a slight discomfort. He also could not fly! It was annoying!
Still, he took them around and he noticed one more change. His human form seemed to consolidate a white stone surface wherever it went but his dragon form inspired a more natural path.
It looked like a craggy mountain valley with some scrub brush and trees occasionally but it appeared and vanished so quickly he was not sure to the extent of it.
After a long time, the children got tired and took a nap around him. He was dog piled by them! Still, he smiled. It had been a very long time since he could just relax and play.
He found his stress had been relieved to an extent he had not known he needed. He recalled all the darkness he had been fighting recently. Even with all the good he did and found, it had been a heavy burden.
"I wish I could fly." He let the words leave him as he looked up at the inviting sky. He missed the feeling of flying and it was the one thing he was missing.
"Hmm?" The original child was leaning on his left arm and awoke at his words.
"Sorry to wake you, you can go back to sleep if you want." He whispered but she shook her head as she looked at him strangely.
"You want to fly, then fly." He realized she had read him again but he shook his head as shrugging might wake more of the tiny forms clinging to him.
"I tried but nothing happened. Even the Celestial Qi does not seem to work the way it should for me. I am missing something but I have no idea what." She tilted her head before floating slowly upward like it was nothing at all.
"Fly." She held out her arms and twirled around as if showing someone the simplest thing in the world.
Lind realized it might be a communication issue. He used his thoughts to conjure how cultivators flew. He even focused on his memory of flying as a dragon.
The little girl tilted her head once more but then looked confused.
"Why try so hard when you can just fly?" He felt like she was truly a child at that moment. Only a child could dismiss the complicated math, power, and stamina needed to fly.
He wished it was that–
Wait, he was not in his world anymore! He was trying to use forces that did not exist!
There was no gravity, up, down, or even just a breeze that really existed as more than a fleeting moment. The Celestial Qi was not working because he was trying to exert control on forces that did not exist!
He did not even have a body as he understood it either!
He looked up at the confused child before a smile spread on his face. He recalled the feeling of the wind as it moved over his scales or flesh. The cooling atmosphere as he went higher as well as the dance of elements in his body.
The children all shot awake as they were carried into the air. The spirits all froze as an entire section of their world suddenly rose into the sky!
Lind had his eyes closed but the ground rising with him began to change into a massive dragon shape! It had no wings but it was a sinuous form with a head that had 3 horns. The massive mane was made of all 18 elements!
A breeze brought him out of his imagination to a shocking scene. The children were flying around a figure that had once been the ground he stood on!
"Wha–?!" The small girl rushed over to him and bowled him over as he realized he was also flying!
"You controlled the world! Good job!" She was laughing but he was studying the creature he had created accidentally.
Controlled the world? As soon as he tried to focus on the concept the conjured dragon quickly became chaotic until it returned to the world.
He still flew but it was sheer will. It was not instinct or elements doing it. He was just flying!
Laughter left him as he quickly zoomed across the golden skies. The silver clouds were heavier than he expected but like everything else, they were always shifting shapes. The color was not due to metals or elements either, it was the refraction of light alone!
He found it fascinating. The dance of colors should have been white or black but instead it was silver. Was it due to being in a golden sky? Why was the sky gold?
More questions came to him but he just relished being able to fly by his will! Wind did not flow the way he was used to but it did not impede him no matter what direction he chose.
That was not all, the world he left behind suddenly appeared in front of him. He got closer at first but then it veered off to the left. He had not changed course, but it had! The world was not fixed in any one place!
He relished the novelty for a time before he actually tried to grasp if there was any pattern. For all the chaos, he had already noticed a pattern in the landscapes, so the skies should be the same.
Unlike the world, however, there were only 2 features. The golden sky and silver clouds. While the clouds were shifting, it was just shapes and light Qi so far as he had seen.
He flew into a few of the clouds and examined them closely until he began to realize something.
Natural Qi. It was all natural Qi in the silver clouds! He examined the golden sky all around and was not surprised to see it was shifting patterns in Celestial Qi.
"Natural Qi clouds and Celestial Qi enclosing it all. The world has all 18 elements but no demonic piece?" It was then he felt a massive disturbance not far from him as a vortex coalesced.
He saw a faint soul being drawn in but he frowned. Where were the souls coming in?
He had been delivered by Heaven and Earth so he summarized a connection but the dead just arrived?
He observed the vortex before he was shocked by what he noticed.
Demonic Qi was the entirety of the vortex! As he watched he noticed that a faint silver cloud appeared once the vortex was gone!
He spent time watching before a different kind of vortex formed. It was made up primarily of 2 elements and he recognized a small figure forming before it was sucked away.
An aether child!
They were born from the golden sky and the silver clouds! He saw the Celestial Qi refine the leftover elements into demonic Qi that seemed to disperse but his Eyes saw a thin layer hidden away with fine threads spread outward.
He slowly pieced it together and became immersed in his study when his vision blanked out. He had glimpsed something powerful that was far above him and it made his body actually shimmer before he could calm himself down.
"What–what was that?" He only spoke aloud out of habit but an all too familiar voice spoke up solemnly.
"Heaven and Earth. It is the bridge to the cultivation worlds. You cannot look at it directly like that without paying a price." Lind saw the old woman floating near him. He had not even sensed her arrive!
"What?! How can I see Heaven and Earth?!" He almost wanted to try again but she put an arm on his shoulder.
"Don't. You have been given a warning. If you try again, you will be killed." A rumble filled the sky. He recognized that pressure.
"Can it let me see my family at least?" A contemplative look crossed her face but then she shook her head.
"We are too far removed but we can send a request. Come, you will exhaust yourself if you push yourself like that." He did suddenly feel tired but he grasped it was not the flight that caused the exertion but his Talent and the warning.
He flew back to the spirit world and began to plan. He hoped the patterns would lead him to some hopes of getting a body. If there was anywhere he could build one, it was the spirit world!