novelraw Chapter 137 - 136 - Gate
Chapter 137 - 136 - Gate
Lind lost all bracelets and pouches on his person but his storage ring was safely in Qing's hands. The ring was too risky to bring into this attempt but now Lind was glad he had the forethought to keep it held back.
He expected to be led back outdoors but was surprised as they turned down one of the lower halls until they reached a blank stretch of wall. Lind's spatial awareness told him they were directly across from the doorway in the yard.
A much more normal formation flared while the wall dissolved like a mirage to reveal a set of stairs leading down. SImple light stones were used to light the way but using them made sure no formations pulled Qi to draw attention.
Lind noted they only descended a single floor before coming to a wide room. It was full of cages. He no longer hid his rage as he saw the aether children locked up. They sat with hunched shoulders, but he found something curious.
Many of the aether children were in the Stone Tier. They also outnumbered the guards heavily with no signs of slave collars. Why were they not revolting? Were ALL of these aether children bound?!
Binding a single aether child like one would a Qi stone was doable if horrifying, but compatibility was an issue as always. A fire cultivator could not use anything but fire soul stones and so forth. The same would hold true for aether children but Lind saw all combinations. There were a handful of mono-elementals but most were random combinations like any cultivator.
Lind was very confused as that made no sense. His artifacts would allow for it, but the guards around him could not possibly match up to every single variation he made out. There were simply not enough of them.
He was escorted past many cells and saw confused looks on some of the people within but most were clearly broken. Lind tried to summon his elements but it was as if something cold and dark was cutting him off.
He had been restricted before, but nothing like what he felt now. He started using his Sky Touch and was glad to see it worked. His Eyes were not restricted either which told him only his meridians were being affected as someone who understood Qi flow only. Talents were only understood by those with similar talent.
"Here." Drake opened up a cell with a handful of aether children and tossed Lind inside. The cage slammed shut before the other guards moved back towards the surface. Drake, however, stared at Lind and for a moment, a look of guilt flashed over the man's face. He then sighed and followed his men back up.
Lind did not feel the restriction lift from his elements but his harmony was unaffected. He smiled as he began to analyze what was done to him.
"A human? I think in the Soul Realm?" A voice came from behind Lind but he only nodded before concentrating. Murmurs began but he ignored them. An unknown amount of time passed before Lind finally recognized what was used to cut off his elements.
It was indeed anti-Qi as he had felt before but it was different as well. If the Ruin had been a shock, this was terror inducing. The anti-Qi back in the Ruin was simply powerful and frightening as it was not good for his dantain to absorb it, but he never felt threatened just by its existence. The Qi currently in his body was very different.
The anti-Qi inside him was trying to consume him. It wanted to take him apart even as it simply formed a barrier. Lind realized that whatever the source of the anti-Qi was was very different from the Ruin Spirit and its inheritance test.
The feeling of the restriction was much closer to the demons' attitude from the Demon Empire. The world was to be brought to heel and to be consumed for their benefit only. It was the same feeling only magnified a thousand fold. How could those men stand it?
Now that he understood what was done to him, it was rather simple to undo it. Despite the guards being a major realm above Lind, the anti-Qi was not so powerful. It was clear their control of it was subpar but it was mystifying why they used it then.
It only took a few moments to break and expel the anti-Qi. Lind's reinforced meridians easily withstood the discomfort of the dangerous material until it was expelled. Lind did not flex his elements as it would be unwise to reveal he had broken free.
He opened his eyes and found 6 pairs staring at him. Not all were friendly but a few were desperately hopeful. Lind tried to tell how much time had passed but it was not possible without a reference.
"How long was I cultivating?" Lind's question made them turn to each other but all shook their head. They seemed very young as all of them were at the peak of the Soul Realm. Lind also noticed all were mono-elementals. One for each element, which was very hard to find.
The resources and information network to do so was not small by any means. Lind realized they had underestimated the reach of whoever was running the operations but then Drake's reaction was damned odd.
The Starfire House plate proved their time was running out, so taking Lind down here was like revealing everything. The man had to know forces were gathering to stop him or at least demand answers.
"Why were you tossed in with us?" The light elemental aether child seemed sour and very distrusting as he stared at Lind. The man was quite literally golden head to toe. It was said by many that human cultivators who attained the light element were naturally kind and gentle but the man in front of Lind showed that personality had nothing to do with elements.
"I confronted them about their operation and hoped to get a lead on what was actually going on. I did not expect anti-Qi to cut me off." The confused looks on their faces showed they did not understand. Lind relayed what he had felt and learned about a variation of Qi that seemed the exact opposite to all they knew.
"Do you think we are stupid?! Who would believe such a thing?!" The light green aether child was in lockstep with the golden one. Both men seemed very irritated but the other 4 seemed to be staying neutral. There were 3 women and 3 men altogether but Lind did not know if that was intentional.
Light, air, and earth were men while fire, water, and darkness were the women.
"I do not, but then again I do not understand a great deal about what I am seeing. Sage did not mention there were this many." Lind carefully watched as he saw all 6 go wide eyed at the name drop. Sage was a legend not only to the world but especially to aether children.
He was only a peak Gold Tier but he had made massive contributions and helped make the Aether Sect become far more respectable in the last couple centuries.
"Sage sent you here?" The darkness aether child actually looked at Lind in hope but he shook his head. He then put a finger to his lips and pointed at their cage. It was odd there were no guards but formations could resolve any security issue. It could also use the same formations to listen in.
All 6 nodded at that at least.
"Do any of you understand why there are so many of you here? Or at least, why have I only ever seen a handful at any given time?" Lind had known there were more aether children but not on the scale around them. It also did not match with what entered the folded space.
The 6 looked at each other and then pointed. Lind followed their arms until he saw the far wall they were across from. He had thought it was simply the far wall but now that he used his Eyes he stumbled back. It was not a wall at all!
It was anti-Qi! It was an entire wall of it!
"That is the gate to wherever they are going. They take us and some come back, most do not. Even their men are the same. No one is left that was part of the first batch but some that came back were…changed." Lind wondered what that meant but the crimson aether child pointed at the cage that was nearby.
He saw several aether children in the Sand and Stone Tier in that one but they were…wrong. Lind could not put it any other way. The Qi was disrupted within them but not in a way he had heard of before. There was no sign of anti-Qi, yet Lind assumed it had to do with whatever was on the other side of that inky black gate.
It was not a folded space. Lind knew folded space did not have gates. Ruins were remnants of an Inheritance so usually it was a massive shard inserted into the mortal realms whereas an Inheritance would usually have something profound or conditions set in place to enter it.
Secret realms were similar in that conditions had to be met to enter them but they could not be maintained indefinitely. So what was this gate? Did the distortion above happen because of the gate or was the distortion what made the gate possible?
Someone had known or at least expected it. This place was not built for the folded space, it was already there. It was all set up too well. Lind thought back over the information gathered but he felt like he was missing the key part.
What exactly happened when the folded space came into existence. All agreed a clan existed there, but the information was suspect. Lind began to think that someone was working on something beneath those clan grounds.
"Sigh, it doesn't matter. Do any of you know what they mean by they have what they need now?" Lind glanced at them but all 6 shook their heads. He did not like that phrasing at all as it had been spoken in association with his capture.
Lind looked on as his Eyes saw fluctuations at the gate. Shortly after a haggard group came stumbling out. They were pale, covered in sweat, and the artifacts in their hands were broken much like the one Lind had seen above.
The feeling of wrongness had increased exponentially but then he saw something horrible. The people looked up and seemed mindless as they stared at him. There was a hunger in those eyes.
It could not be fed, it would never be satiated, but it did not care. Slowly, some kind of sanity returned to them, but the coldness would not leave Lind's soul. What was on the other side of that gate?!
"Go, stabilize yourselves." Drake had suddenly appeared and the group nodded as they moved towards the very cage Lind had just looked at. Crying began to spread as all could feel something wrong happening. Lind's Eyes began to see something horrifying.
A dark 'something' reached out from within and began to pull from the strange aether children. They were being consumed! It was not just the Qi, it was everything. The spirit Qi was fighting but it was pulled into each of the humans as they seemed to recover right before their eyes.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THEM?!" Lind's voice was infused with rage. He did not care as his emerald flames engulfed him. The Qi in the cage vibrated until it shattered. It was now only metal and no metal could stop Lind.
"Stop him, now!" Drake gave an order but Lind barely registered it. He was a creature of pure rage. He saw the aether children cowering in all their cages and he seemed to understand something.
It was so simple. All so simple.
He focused on his harmony and the feeling he had grasped. At that very moment, World Realm Qi tried to crash into him but it did nothing. It was like a wave of water passing over him. Lind lost himself in the feeling as the Qi began to flow as he commanded.
Soul Realms normally could only infuse objects or control conjured elements. Controlling the Qi in the world was in the aptly named World Realm but for the first time in recorded history, a Soul Realm gave a command.
Heaven and Earth heard and acknowledged it. All the aether children felt their Qi flow normally once more. The ant-Qi inside each one was purged that has been restricting them just as Lind had been.
It was the limit of what he could do and he should have stopped but he saw the monsters wearing the skin of man eating innocents. If he stopped, he would be letting that darkness pass.
Lind Frey had faced his heart demons and knew one thing to be true forever. He would not let people be treated as things ever again. So long as he drew breath, he would fight.
"After I do this, run. Run until you get to the Heavenly Maiden Sect. Sage is there and people I trust. I swear before Heaven and Earth my words are true!" Lind shouted as he began to feel pain in his meridians.
Much as when he forced tier 1 Soul Arts beyond their limits, he now pushed his body one more time. He did not know what was on the other side of that gate, but it had to be stopped forever.