novelraw Chapter 1515 - 1514 - Stealing Spirits
Chapter 1515 - 1514 - Stealing Spirits
Lind spent a month studying the artifact before he slowly understood the terror of it. It was not just something to gain power but an attempt to convert the spirits of Heaven and Earth to Fiend Qi!
The massive dark metal refined the Qi of the 4th layer, highly malleable compared to anywhere else, and tapped into the spirits directly for power! It had worked too well!
Not only had the artifact tapped into the spirits' power, it had pulled a piece of the spirit world into the 4th layer!
The clash of that incident wiped out the entirety of the territory! The Phantasm Forest was the result as the spirits resisted and tried to return home! Lind realized why the Fiends feared the place.
The spirits were damned angry and had the power to punish them now that they were in the 4th layer! They were limited to the forest but if any Fiend revealed themselves, it would be worse than death.
The Fiend souls were basically purified slowly over time and made to return to attempt to return home! Still, even a Sovereign Tier would not be enough.
Lind only made it to the spirit world due to a tribulation and accident after all.
He found the artifact almost enticing in its ability but he had no desire to create it. Instead, he tried to understand the principles but he felt like someone had tried to do something and went too far.
Still, the basic foundation escaped him! He had realized long ago that returning the spirits was beyond him but he refused to give up!
The screams of the Fiends did not help but they deserved whatever happened to them.
He instead began to study the spirits.
They had been stolen from their world but something was wrong with them. It only took another month before he understood that some kind of restriction was imposed on them.
He wondered about that but instead tried something direct.
[I wish to speak with your leader.] His Authority reacted and he lost a million years!
Even Lind was stunned but a powerful force slowly took shape and then a smile spread on their face.
[I can speak! Finally!] The spirit looked at him before bowing in gratitude.
"Senior, I have been to your world but this artifact eludes me. Do you have any insight?" They had been there for millions of years. There was no way they did not try to destroy it.
[The Betrayer steals our song! Restore the notes and we can be free!] Lind tilted his head as the spirits he recalled did not speak in such riddles. Still, it might be a restriction.
He turned from studying the artifact to the spirits themselves.
It took 10 years before he finally confirmed what he feared. The spirits had been not only brought down but they had been constrained by both Heaven and Earth with the artifact!
The latter he could do a lot but the former was difficult. An artifact, especially a Fiend one, was easily dealt with. Heaven and Earth were not likely to comply with anything he attempted.
His Authority had severe limits in that regard!
Lind questioned the spirit some more but its answers left him scratching his cheek in frustration. Whatever it was trying to convey was blocked by some kind of restriction.
He recalled having fairly normal conversations with the spirits in their world but his memory was sacrificed as the price of his return too. Maybe he was missing something about the rules for them.
It would take more study but he began to look at more than the artifact and the spirits. He looked at the Phantasm Forest at the center of it.
He found the souls mangled and anchored by the spirits themselves! It was a torture for them as well!
Some were kept especially near the core but he realized why that was. They were the ones that anchored the artifact!
The other souls were allowed to be free but they were not allowed to return to the cycle of samsara at all. They were incomplete and broken.
Lind had seen such souls be condensed with others to make a whole, but it was not possible in the forest.
He was still lost but not completely blocked. He looked back at the artifact and peeled away the layers.
It was not like the other structures that he simply understood he had to disrupt them and cause a collapse, but instead he faced a far more difficult issue. He had to understand its principles to reverse them!
The artifact was a literal anchor now but that was not what it was meant to do. It was meant to pry a piece of the spirit world and turn it into something else. The first part worked but the second part did not.
He started with the former as he could compare it to its results. He found the flow of Qi was not what caused it to work. It was Dao. A Dao that made him feel nothing but revulsion.
It seemed the Great Bastard had gone far beyond breaking his former race and the realms. He also broke Daos to conform to his needs!
The principle escaped Lind but he knew the Dao well. It was the very Dao that brought him to his current life!
The Dao of Reincarnation.
It had been twisted and used to pierce into a place few powers could reach. Even Lind, despite getting there, knew it was more accident than design. His Dao of Defiance refused to bend to death and pulled him to a place he could recreate a body perfect for his soul.
What he felt there was the Dao forced to actually steal spirits! Rather than guide spirits into Samsara as it was meant to, the Dao had been inverted and fused to pull the native spirits of Heaven and Earth!
Lind had no idea how it was done at all but he could grasp the concept as it was. The other function had no issue he could see but it was dead. He traced the inscriptions and sigils he could sense but frowned.
It should work. Why wasn't it working? He did not want to start attempting any work on it if it would accidentally trigger the other function.
It took him the better part of 6 months before his emerald flames shot into the sky with anger.
[PEOPLE ARE NOT THINGS YOU DAMNED BASTARD!] True Lord Authority slammed into the world and across the entirety of the Celestial Fields, all Immortals felt something. The other True Lords knew what it was but they felt odd.
It was not normal, and they also felt anger rise in them for some reason.
It passed but they reached out to each other until they confirmed who it had to be. Lind Frey had been angry so deeply he had used his full power!
At the Fiend trefoil artifact, Lind was barely tapping into his vitality. The spirits actually agreed with him!
The reason the other function failed was because the damned foundation was meant to consume all life in a given range to fuel it! There simply had not been enough people to start it up and now the spirits had freed what was left over millions of years!
Any doubt it was a prototype was put to rest as it was similar to other structures he had seen in the other facilities. The damn Fiends learned the 4th layer could not be used due to its instabilities curbing the effects!
That was why it was just cut off and left alone!
Still, it had destroyed millions of lives in an instant and tried to refine their souls to consume the spirits to reduce the 4th layer to a Qi barren land! The reason the Phantasm Forest felt so off was the very life force of the land had been partially consumed permanently and could not be restored!
He was looking at a prototype of the thrice damned Realm Refiner!
By simply lowering the requirement to refine the Celestial Fields, the Great One could consume the entirety in time and not risk the spirits rebelling again! He then increased the scale and put the plans in motion!
A scale covered arm turned into claws as his harmony destroyed those functions with impunity. The artifact screeched as if alive but he ignored it.
All other functions unraveled but he left the first intact. Simply destroying it was not enough.
Lind was heaving heavily but he felt like he was at his peak. His power flowed like thunder in his meridians.
As he looked at the remains of the artifact, he now clearly saw the twisted Dao function in a new light. Rather than the complex reversal he had just been about to begin, a new idea came to him.
He looked at his dantian, at the emerald flame and 9 cores floating in the crystal.
[I am Defiance.] He spoke the words and his harmony answered. Rather than flames, glowing power, or elements dancing around him, the world bent. It strained as he became far more real than the world allowed normally.
He then looked at the Dao of Reincarnation with a fresh perspective. He saw exactly what was done before he had to let it go.
The world became duller to his senses but the danger to it also evaporated. The spirits and fragmented souls seemed changed. The previous chaos had slowed as some souls now looked more complete!
"Time to do something incredibly stupid." He spoke his intent aloud and began to summon ores, crystals, and other materials. He had a lot of work to do!