novelraw Chapter 1298 - 1297 - A Shift in the World
Chapter 1298 - 1297 - A Shift in the World
"Master! One of them came back to life! They are in the middle floors!" Abby, now a woman of her early 20s, was wearing a silvery set of robes and smiling ear to ear. It had been almost 2 centuries since the Inheritance had been under his control but she was still very much a child.
His wives and mothers had taken to doting on the spirit but she only wanted his attention for the most part. He knew that would change soon but Haro had assured him she was doing fine. Spirits did not have the biological impetus to affect their mentality.
It would take a long time for her personality to mature so he was careful in nurturing her.
He used his palm on the surface of his desk and the sigils shimmered as a pocket of space opened to reveal the cylinder.
{Open Slots - 33}
{Potential Inheritors - 0}
{Trial Progress - 42%}
{Legacy Claimed - Samsara Soul; Dancer of the Null; & Oblivion Buddha}
{Living - 57}
{Dead - 9}
{Resurrected - 1}
The new line told him there were more functions but the Inheritance takers had to meet them to unlock it. It had nothing to do with him.
He suspected the Samsara Soul Legacy was the currently resurrected individual. It had not been there before. The other 2 had long left the Inheritance to study their legacies.
Since the individual was still inside, it meant there must be more to it or they had the opportunity to continue.
Roughly 300 individuals had attempted the Inheritance. A few rules for the dead were now known to him. So long as the number was not zero, their soul endured. Eventually it would vanish but as time passed the living endured longer than the dead.
The spirit of the Inheritance had not spoken to him once since giving him the cylinder but Abby sometimes zoned out and he suspected she was talking to it.
Her excitement was unusual so the Samsara Soul Legacy must be important but still no Inheritors showed on the list.
She seemed so happy but he put the cylinder away.
"I hope an Inheritor is found soon." She smiled wide but then sat down to contemplate the scrolls he had given her. While spirits from artifacts don't cultivate, their ability to control their powers stemmed from comprehension. She had much to learn!
He then frowned as another lamp went dark in the Hall of Souls. It had not been something noticed immediately but while some dying due to missions was accepted, there was a thread of dead Clan members that struck Lind as odd.
The reason they were odd was because their roles were non-combative. While all cultivators had to fight, some settled for a more mundane life after a certain point.
He noticed a thread of deaths that was coming from that line of support. It was slow, careful, and not even remotely suspicious but Lind felt something wrong.
It was like a slightly off note in a familiar song. Even if 99% was right, that wrong note could change the piece one loved drastically.
He had no proof but he trusted his instincts. All investigations led nowhere but he did not like it. Further, the pattern was moving ever closer to the core of the Frey Clan.
He looked over the names of the dead and tried to piece together a pattern but it eluded him. Death was a common companion of cultivators but there had to be a pattern!
He had been looking for 50 years now yet he could not trace it back to an origin! Why?!
"It is not a Fiend or my weavings would have found it long ago. A thrall would be just as easily discovered. What can possibly bypass my defenses?" He spoke aloud just to vent but a voice perked up.
"It exists but does not have a body. If it was a soul, it would be detected but something else just as ephemeral would be able to bypass it, Master." Abby was studying but he slowly looked at her as clarity filled his emerald eyes.
He was an idiot!
He had been looking for his old foe or something obvious but there was an existence he could never defend against because of its nature!
An Elemental!
They become corporeal but it was not required to do so. They had to shed their core to create a new one.
If they became a kind of possession expert, they might be able to keep an existence that used bodies to complete their cores!
Unfortunately, trying to separate an Elemental from a living being was next to impossible. It seemed able to maintain the life of its host to avoid detection. Only when moving on did the host die.
There had to be other limitations. Such an Art could not keep a dead body going forever. The soul would dissipate no matter how hard they tried to contain it.
"How do I find it? If it can hide for that long that I only picked it up later, there has to be a limit." He was musing out loud but Abby raised her hand like a student in class.
He smirked and pointed at her.
"A soul of the Heaven Realm would be the minimum requirement. Below that, it would be too fragile to survive. Once killed, possession could only suppress death for a handful of years unless they take an Immortal and trap them in their crystal." She spoke proudly but none of that information was from the materials he gave her!
She had learned from the Inheritance!
"I don't suppose you have a way to find our infiltrator?" He asked with only a half hearted hope but Abby closed her eyes. Silence stretched but then she looked confused.
"Ummm, look for a shift in the world?" She did not seem to understand but Lind did!
Rather than trying to locate the target directly, try to find where the world changed! He had created the folded dimension so it was his to know! He closed his eyes and let his aura wash over the folded space.
It took weeks but finally he felt something shift.
He focused on it and saw a servant of his beloved Ethry kill a vault Elder. He saw the Elemental appear briefly but he could not stop it as the Elder was already dead.
Having his theory confirmed did not please him but he crushed an artifact in his hand. Several sigils flared but only he knew what would come next.
The vault Elder was guarding their treasures meant for sale in the subterranean markets. The true treasure was kept in special spaces guarded by himself and his wives.
He was still trying to devise a level of security that could be moved swiftly if the folded space had to be collapsed.
The Elder was placing his identity token on the entrance slot. It shimmered and confirmed the soul matched the token. The Elder was still alive!
He hoped he could save them but it would depend on how the Elemental was moving from one person to the next. He also had no idea why they were doing it. Stealing from the treasury was a goal a thief could have but why go so far? Alone too?
Regardless, that being was responsible for the death of members of his Clan and who knew how many others.
"Abby, stay here." The young woman nodded but was looking at what was going on in the Inheritance anyway. He shifted himself without causing a ripple. One advantage of the folded space was he could alter his location at will without warning.
It required having full authority with the weavings he had set up and still leave some restrictions for privacy, but important areas were not included in those restrictions.
The vault was obviously under his purview.
The world seemed to dim partially around him. It was like he could see the ever howling storm beyond the barriers before he appeared behind a panel in the vault. A rack of spears was in front of it but he simply observed for the moment.
"Where are they?! This trash is not as good as the items of those people! They have to be here!" Lind confirmed they were there for Clan items but while they called them trash, many cultivators at the Heaven and Immortal Realms would want them badly.
There was something else they were looking for.
The elder was normally a calm man but he was ripping aside wards to see items up to grade 7 but that was all that was in the vault.
"USELESS! Where are they?! I know they are here! Damn weaving bastards always use them, so where are they?!" Confusion filled Lind. Weaving? Nothing in the vault had that aside from some weaving plates and those were limited given the nature of the Icy Path and the Inheritance of Death.
He had actually been learning to expand his Laws in both regards to make better weavings. He did not think that is what they were looking for either.
They were desperate. Extreme actions, desperation at the final perceived step, and dismissal of high quality items most would happily take if they could.
Put that list together and some kind of fanatic comes to mind but to what purpose remained to be seen.
He exerted his full Radiant Tier aura. Weavings lit up inside the room that had been dormant and the elder was frozen in place as a blue halo covered their body. Blood began to flow from their nose and he appeared in front of them.
"You have killed quite a few people already. I would prefer to save the Elder if I can but if you leave me no choice, you will die before I do that." The eyes looked at him with a level of hatred he did not understand.
The Elemental was not trying to steal, it hated. Why did it hate him? They had never met? He hoped to get some answers.