novelraw Chapter 1345 - 1344 - Origin
Chapter 1345 - 1344 - Origin
A/N: There will be a longer thoughts section addressing my missing updates. Thank you all for enjoying my story!
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Lind reached his peak condition as a soul. He then began to try and see what the next step of his Foundation Trial would be. He noticed while most were human, not all were.
Some were beasts like he had become and cultivators were hit or miss no matter the race. He also saw species he had never encountered in either of his lives.
Aliens. Honest to goodness aliens.
Why had he never seen any such beings as a cultivator? He then recalled several research pieces on why beasts attained a human form at the Heaven Realm. It was essentially that Heaven and Earth aligned with the most numerous species.
Humans reproduced like a plague. Even if an entire mortal realm was wiped out by their own doing, they could not be contained! Further, demons were more of a variant human so they only added to that total.
It left him wondering if there were worlds where alien races did exist but for some reason they did not exist in the Celestial Fields he lived in.
Was there an even wider world?!
The realization had to be pushed aside as he noticed a few of the beings' souls were calling out to him. They were much stronger than the others.
One was a young woman with a slender build and nervous look to her. She seemed scared of being in the crowd and looking for a way to get to the edge of it. Her fine face was cute but not attention drawing.
She was far from displeasing to look at but her clothes were worn and clearly patched up many times. She had been mortal perhaps?
The robust man from before was practically giving him the stink eye but he was the strongest resonance. He was also at the World Realm Gold Tier. His well muscled body was hardly hidden by the vibrantly blue robes he wore.
The last person was one of the aliens. It was difficult to call them a man or woman even with his senses. It was more like they were both? A bluish tinge to the skin was due to how thin it was. They towered over the humanoid beings but their aura was what truly shocked him.
Sliver Tier! An Immortal Realm cultivator!
They had 3 eyes but they seemed quite natural in their larger head. It was closer to an oval with a set of gangly limbs flowing downward. It was not the same number of appendages as a human and they also seemed to be a variable!
He had counted 6 but now there were 3 then 7. What was going on?!
He approached the alien first. They were the most intriguing being to him. The dark orbs locked on to him and Lind felt a wave of familiarity wash over him. More, partial memories suddenly appeared where none had been before!
He saw lands not of soil, sky, and water, but nebulous clouds! He saw elements joining together to form whole entities! It was like the entire world was made for aether children!
[Interesting, your mind is not closed to our shared experience, compiled being.] The looming figure suddenly shrunk and was at his eye level. [I do not know all of what happened but I know I failed my tribulation as it is my last memory.]
Lind knew even Immortals could lose their souls at that moment. The tribulations were unforgiving and would not stop at body death after Shard Tier and above tribulations were initiated.
"How do I have your memories where I did not before?" He thought they smiled but it was hard to tell as they had no mouth nor any other discernible features outside the eyes!
[That is not the purpose here. What do you feel now that we are known to each other?] Lind frowned but focused on it. He felt the memories were not foreign to him but natural. It was as if they were always there but how? The organic brain was what shaped him as James and later as Lind as well. Even with the gaps–
His eyes went wide. Of course!
"I resonate with your thirst for understanding. My soul was shaped by the pieces making it up and influenced my nature!" The large head bobbed up and down. Lind felt a cold sweat break out at that confirmation. He now understood that an age old argument had a partial answer.
In the weight of nature vs nurture, the origin of the soul played a part. Unstable people could give birth to the most empathetic beings as an example.
Some would argue that trying to read a parent whose mood could swing from positive to negative in an eye blink forced the child to have such a skill but it was also possible for a near identical child could be made patterned off of their parents.
Spoiled kids were the easiest to grasp for that. A lack of consequences made them view laws and rules as minor things since they could avoid the fallout of violating them.
While it was true that the nurture aspect could sometimes be very clear, there were just as many cases where it made no sense at all. Innate geniuses were a bad example but in that category was a clear nature argument.
Now, Lind knew the soul was what made up the missing pieces. If a soul had a strong sense of justice, it would shape its life against the nurturing it received! Sympathetic nurture would only enhance it but contrasting nurturing would cause defiance.
What shape those lives took were too much to fully affirm but Lind now realized what he was facing. If he picked apart his soul to the point nothing of himself was left, would he still be Lind or just the various pieces from the beings around him screaming to dominate the new life?
Some were too weak to threaten him alone but quantity could lead to a qualitative effect.
[Fascinating. Your mind is well versed in research and analysis. You are mostly correct but remember, this is a trial. There is a point to this.] The alien snapped him out of his thoughts and he re-examined it. It was true but he did not grasp the shape of it yet.
He cupped his hands and bowed to them as he turned to the robust man. The sneer on his face revealed teeth inscribed with formations! What possible use could–?
Before he could even form a question, a fist slammed into his soul. He was sent flying like a physical body!
Memories flooded him with an almost overpowering intent. Lind felt a threat as it was not simple sharing but actually trying to take him over!
A World Realm was actually a threat to him?!
"We decide how to deal with you and you are a waste! You should slaughter your enemies by any means and dominate the world! You have the power but you insist on hiding away! Pathetic!" The man moved faster than Lind expected but his emerald eyes glowed before weapons appeared.
Shock crossed the man's face as Battle Aura snapped onto him. Lind had been caught off guard but it was hardly the first time his existence had been threatened so horrifically.
"You are not as scary as the Immortal Artificer and I killed him as the World Realm." Lind saw slaughter. Now war or battle, but slaughter. The man killed on a scale that left Lind with only rage.
Entire countries had been crushed by the man in front of him. Ambition and conquest were the simplest aspects but it was more. The desire to rise. The wish to be more than before. The refusal to accept the world as it was.
It came from the robust man in front of him.
His desire to defy the fate of 6 elementals and later the Fiends. His almost insane anger at those that came for his family seemed partially inspired by the man in front of him. The rage in his face made it clear the man was not happy at the result.
The experience, though, taught Lind something. As he picked apart the parts of him that rose from the source, he made himself stronger! The memories faded and the feeling of resonance fell away as the robust man became a shell right in front of him!
"So that is it. I confront the origin and improve myself by understanding the source. I become stronger by incorporating the context of the intent!" His eyes sparkled as he turned to the alien and noticed it had become a faint cloud shape.
A feeling of approval came from them and Lind bowed once more.
Confusion filled him as he turned to the slender girl. She was a mortal through and through but unlike the alien or the robust man, he strongly suspected what happened to her.
She flinched as he approached. Her dark hair was rough and cracked. The moment their eyes locked, he saw something he knew far too much about.
She was not a bad person but she had allowed her life to follow the path of least resistance. If a boyfriend wanted sex, she let him. If someone needed money, she offered. If she wanted to compete but was asked not to, she stood aside.
Compliance, indifference, and something that spoke to him on a fundamental level. The wish to simply walk away. The desire to walk away from the complexity of life because it did not seem worth it anymore.
His recent stunt of distancing himself from his family and seeing Heaven and Earth as playing with him stemmed from her! He was not angry with her but sad. Sad that no one ever reached out a hand to her.
No one offered to help and she never expected it! She assumed that was all she was for! Even in death, she simply allowed her soul to fall apart because she just wanted it to end. No new life and no memory of it.
James. James came from her and his desire to change Fate! The origin of his Dao was the woman in front of him!
He said no words but simply took her into his embrace. She shook at first but then wet tears fell. She wailed as she clung to him.
"Never again. I will never let it happen again." It was all he said but she nodded and clung to him as the others looked on. He saw some understood but others disdained it. He had a long trial to go.