novelraw Chapter 1253 - 1252 - A Glimpse of the Past
Chapter 1253 - 1252 - A Glimpse of the Past
Lind dreamed. It was so rare but he dreamed of his old life.
His mom was alive and well but near retirement. George was spamming him with texts about the upcoming anime series and his new addition to his collection. The man must have wasted gigabytes of storage for all those photos!
Lind was at a gas station picking up some quick food and drinks before heading home. It was not healthy but it had improved far beyond the Russian roulette it used to be!
The legends of eating gas station food were not without merit back in the day!
Still, the burger and soda were hardly much. His budget did not allow much more. The surreal experience shifted to his old apartment.
Calling it a home was stretching credulity too far. It had a bed, a kitchen, and what passed for a bathroom by the barest of margins. It was a place to rest before going back to work and nothing else.
He was saving as much as he could to have a real home but it made going to see his mom all the more special.
It was a pleasant moment but he felt it fade as darkness closed in. He felt no fear, just like he was expecting it.
The darkness was eternal and forever but a simple turn of his head found himself in a very familiar place.
Golden skies, silver clouds, and an ever shifting world were around him, but not the one he quite remembered.
The one in front of him had many spirits happily buzzing around more solid figures. They were from all races from what he could tell but he saw Celestials as he had met in the 1st layer so long ago!
There were so many!
He also saw something new when he looked at their souls. They were all so fragile. They were barely held together compared to the other souls.
A glimmer of understanding passed through him but the dream did not stop as it shifted to a young man with pale skin, gray eyes, and very dark hair. He was a Celestial but that was not all, he was a reincarnation!
"But why? Why was my life cut short when others can go on?" A familiar figure was smiling down at him and patted his head as she looked into his eyes. Her own eyes were pale even then but seemed brighter in the dream.
"True Cultivators interact with the world but they cannot strengthen their own souls. Only souls able to withstand the maximum tribulations can survive them. Even then, it is a rare thing for your kind to become Divine Realms. In exchange, you are nearly unstoppable inside your realms." Lind was shocked. He had never considered the problem from that angle, but didn't that mean there was a solution?
He was about to think about it when a realization passed over the young man as well.
"So, if I could strengthen my soul, I could live again and move forward?" Lind felt a tremor in his heart. Something about his tone felt off. Maybe it was the gray eyes too. It was as if they were not quite right for just a moment but it passed as the old woman nodded.
"There are indeed some treasures for that purpose but if you rely on them too much it will be the same as those cultivators that rely on pills or elixirs. It is not your own effort and will also reach a limit." Again, it made sense but Lind was sharply looking at the young man.
He caught it that time. Just a flicker of the mask breaking but a familiar being looked out of the face of that young man!
The dream then seemed to shift as the gray eyes looked towards him directly.
[So, the spirit world. You are still alive but trapped like I was. That is almost funny. You are no longer a threat so just enjoy the time you have left. Before I go, do you want to see it? Do you want to see the day I grasped my true path to defy those bastards?]
Lind had no ability to respond to the oppressive aura as time flew forward. He saw disturbingly similar experiments but with his understanding he saw the truth. The man was not making a new body! He was learning about souls for a very dark purpose!
"NO! I WILL NOT–" He tried to resist but his harmony barely flared before a dark laugh pushed him down.
[You have no power here. I can't kill you but neither can you stop me. Just watch. Watch my greatness at defying those arbitrary rules those bastards impose on us!]
It was an accident, like so many terrible things could be, but one of the aether children about to be born had its soul stolen by one of his weavings. Even the pale face had true surprise and panic as he screamed for help.
Lind would almost have believed it if not for the glint of victory. The spirits were just as panicked and he desperately was playing at wanting to undo it but it was too late.
Such a fragile soul could never be separated from him once pulled out of its vortex. He was severely punished but as he was showing remorse and begging to fix it, that was all. The fools!
Did they not see his soul gain in strength? Did they not understand what he was doing?!
Of course they didn't. What he was doing was so depraved and unexplored that no one had ever delved into it. Lind wanted to scream but it was the past. He could not change it any more than he could travel there.
[Ah, it was a happy accident that revealed the final step. They had lied! There was a way for me to live forever just like everyone else! They just chose to give me the short end of the stick because they feared what I could become!]
Lind actually wanted to roll his eyes at the last line. The truth was he was afraid of dying. He admitted it felt unfair to be reborn only to learn your life was limited but he still lived for over 2000 years!
That was far more than his original life!
Lind would have tried for solutions too but there was a massive chasm between the 2 of them. The bastard wanted to consume others to live a perfect existence. He wanted to avoid paying the price of other methods to become stronger!
He just wanted to be a God.
[Not far off but even I will admit the next part was unexpected.] The dark humor was clear but the scene shifted to a shocking scene. A dark vortex was forming a body with golden skin, pure white hair, and profound power in its flesh.
It was a Celestial body! It could be done!
The pale boy smiled but there was no pure joy in it. It was vile! It was the joy of the monster before he consumed his prey!
"IT WORKS! I WILL LIVE FOREVER!" He quickly fused his soul to the body but the instant he did so, dark tendrils shot out in all directions. They ensnared every soul in the spirit world.
Screams of terror and pain filled the world. It was not just the spirit world either, the cultivation world trembled too! He caught a glimpse of it and nearly stumbled in shock!
A desert was forming the Heaven Realm lands that he recognized! It was the same desert he had set up his ascension pool all those thousands of years ago!
"STOP! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" The old woman tried to reach out to stop him but was flung back as her hand was nearly corrupted by strange Qi. The body opened its eyes and all too familiar disturbing eyes were revealed.
"I exposed the lie! You all lied to me! I can live forever too! I will make Heaven and Earth acknowledge me!" As if waiting for his words, black clouds with black lightning began to gather above, but the nascent being sneered. "Too late!"
Sigils flared and a primitive Void of Heaven formed. It did the job as the clouds no longer formed! They dispersed!
Shock filled the old woman's face but then anger replaced it.
"You may have done something to Heaven and Earth but we can still see you! So can it!" Panic actually crossed the face but then a smile filled it as the screams faded.
"It is too late! I will rise up the realms and make Heaven and Earth bend to my will! I will never be controlled again!" The laughter that followed was truly vile. It grated on the ears but Lind froze as something strange happened.
Fractures appeared in reality itself.
[The Covenant of Souls is broken. All will pay for your transgression.] The forming body suddenly thrashed as something horrific was done to it. The skin became ash gray and the Qi seemed to scream in protest as it was corrupted by the source!
The vortex flared and the being, the first Fiend, was born into the world but so was every single Celestial turned into a Fiend at the same moment!
The images faded and the pressure went with it. Darkness returned but Lind then heard a faint voice.
[The Covenant of Souls, what a pathetic final defense. They thought to make me reviled when I became their only hope! Billions of years have passed since and I am so close to my goal! You have been a thorn in my side but no more! Wallow in your failure, Lind Frey!]
The darkness swallowed him before Lind opened his eyes to the golden sky of the spirit world. The old woman looked at him grimly as he looked at her. She actually looked older than in the dream he had just seen.
"Why?" His voice croaked as if he had a dry throat only to realize he had been screaming in his sleep.
She looked forlorn at him.
"Because you accepted the mission, you were allowed to see a glimpse of the past. It was unexpected he would control it until it was too late. He did not alter events. It happened as you saw." Lind closed his eyes as he felt even more anger at the Great One.
It was all intentional. The moment he came to the spirit world, that creature had known he had to grasp any resource to live or he was going to die once more. He had to be stopped.
"Let's talk." He sat up and looked at the old woman as he started to plan. He had a lot of work to do and time seemed like it was no longer far away to him. In fact, he felt desperate to get back to progress properly to stop that vile creature from succeeding!
He had to do it! They were all running out of time!