novelraw Chapter 1541 - 1540 - Still Stuck
Chapter 1541 - 1540 - Still Stuck
"So, you are saying the Dao of Defiance fused to your harmony breaks all known barriers?" Van, normally fairly stoic, was falling down with his jaw hanging open. The other 2 True Lords were not much better.
Lind was quite calm but that was not the important part to him. It simply broadened his horizons and made his path clearer for the future.
"It allows me to cultivate, after a fashion, for now. Yet it is insanely slow. Even with all that power I absorbed for 60 years, it only restored me to my peak condition. I have made an infinitesimal progress." Kaltara was now the one to fall over.
She was already lower to the ground but the stone actually cracked when she fell! She had not contained her power!
"Lind, do you understand the gravity of what you have just told us?" Helsgath was pale but standing.
He nodded as he did understand. If it got out that he could absorb any and all Daos, every power in existence would come looking for him for that secret!
"While I can feel and benefit from them, I can still feel they are alien to me. I am still a dragon at the end of the day." Relief flowed over all 3 faces. It was one thing to benefit from the Daos, another entirely to freely use them!
"Even so, you said it barely helped you advance?" Lind nodded at Kaltara's question.
"Based on my estimation, it would take me close to a million years to reach the peak of the Sovereign Tier. Still, it means I can defend myself to an extent, if nothing else." His odd optimism left the other 3 confused but Lind could not explain it to them.
He had thought he was truly stuck with his elemental nodes lost to him so having a way forward meant there had to be others!
He just had to find them!
The 4 True Lords confirmed his condition inside and out but then the rest came after that.
The ascension of Fey had left ripples in the world. The Frey Clan, already on par with the supreme powers, now became untouchable. Having a certified Divine Realm rise from their ranks and signs of more to follow made even the most ardent rival back off.
There was also the matter of the Great One's attempt to end everything. It could not be hidden and in some instances, it had begun to unravel around the various puppets he controlled.
If powers were even hinted at being aligned with the Fiends, they were completely exterminated. Proof was just barely found in most cases but that was the worst of the news.
The Tournament of Defiance had started it, but the near extinction that Lind staved off sealed the rifts between many powers. Once irreconcilable feuds were put to rest.
In the face of an enemy that was now known to be able to end them, the various powers finally got the message.
The 4th layer had been cut off for a million years but largely unchanged. They had been able to live normal lives while the rest of the Celestial Fields suffered.
Now, having been exposed to the true terror of the Great One's ambitions, they only then understood how their own greed and desires were used against them all the time. Only now did they understand that to the Fiends, they were not just ants, they were only things to be disposed of when they were useless.
Lind wondered how long the camaraderie would last. Even in the 1st layer, that had been nearly obliterated for so long, it had not taken very long at all for rising powers to bring their battles to the Celestial Fields and the unity all had enjoyed to fall apart.
If he was lucky, his tournament would moderate things to a point or maybe something else would come along.
It was only the final change that brought Lind up short.
"What do you mean I cut off the Divine Lands?" He did not remember doing such a thing at all!
Helsgath led the group out onto the Sovereign Land side of the Throne of Living Flame. Lind was awed once more to see the giant crystal at the heart of the Throne surrounded by various flames that seemed to move in ways to tease the mind.
Phoenix flocks of all kinds flew in the sky or nestled happily in such flames. The sky at the Throne was normally shades of violet to crimson but Lind felt his jaw drop at what he both felt and saw.
A shimmering emerald firmament stretched as far as his eyes could see. He also felt his harmony resonate and he briefly realized his elemental nodes reacted too!
"Did–did I actually make that?" His voice was so soft that very few would hear him but those 3 did.
"Make is not the right word for it. We did not feel either a weaving, Forging, or the dispersal of an elixir so it was not made like you imagine. I suspect that for a very brief moment, you stepped beyond the Immortal Realm and directly controlled Dao." Kaltara was dead serious now.
She was normally playful but now she was dead serious. Lind had no reference for what she was talking about. His Dao Weapon might be the closest thing to such an effect but it was a manifestation of his harmonic Dao.
It was not him controlling the Dao directly to achieve an effect, it was a crystallization of all that had come before to make the Dao of Defiance his defining path.
Compared to what Kaltara told him, it would take the equivalent of grade 8 abilities directly which he had never been able to truly do! His pseudo Dao creations were just that, partially Dao and mostly not!
"What does it do?" The trio looked at him and seemed to understand what he was feeling.
"We confirmed reports that contact with the Divine Lands is intact but no one can descend at all. It is as if the pools simply will not form. Some supreme powers have what you might call permanent bridges to their own high echelon branches but a strong emerald field now bisects them. No one can get through on those either way." Van spoke and Lind grew concerned until Helsgath reassured him.
"There have been 2 more Divine Ascensions recorded since the field went up. Heaven and Earth cannot be denied but everyone else is. You have done something to buy us time." The Phoenix True Lord's words eased him but he frowned.
There was no way he had the power, even with full Dao Nodes, to stop Divine Realms from doing whatever they wanted. The chasm between each tier of the Divine Realm had to be even greater than between the Immortal Realm Tiers.
As if reading his mind, Van gave him a jade slip. Lind used his harmony to read it and nearly stumbled!
A friendly Master Tier had appeared to try and breach the barrier only to have a tribulation lighting bolt strike back!
No clouds and no thunder to warn them either, just pure lighting from Heaven!
"The spirits of Heaven and Earth helped me out?" That seemed to contradict their strict neutrality. Fairness meant they could not directly interfere but Helsgath shook his head.
"I do not think so. The lightning was not strong enough to hurt them, but it did not come from the Heavens. It came from the barrier. I think you touched on something and used it. Heaven and Earth did not stop you but it is not helping you either." Lind frowned.
It might make sense to them but they had not been to the spirit world. While some of his memories were gone, he knew enough about it to know that even for helping people, that would be a violation.
He should have been punished, not rewarded then. So why was he not struck by black lighting at the end? It was that grave in his mind that the best case scenario is that he would have been left weakened and with the loss of his vitality at the end.
Yet, golden karmic lightning had rewarded him for his actions.
He then used his draconic flight to shoot upward. The world became a blur as many phoenixes reacted to his presence but none dared approach recklessly.
He was flying without showing a glimmer of aura! Even normal dragons could not do that so none of the phoenixes knew what to make of him.
He ignored them all as he soared ever higher until he was beyond the clouds. The trio of True Lords following him froze at that.
They tried to follow him but found they were restricted! They were at the limit but Lind flew on effortlessly?!
Lind did not notice as he was too focused on what was in front of him. It was mostly his harmonic Qi flowing with no sigils, or anything resembling a construct.
Yet, he felt no Dao either. Kaltara was wrong. It was not Dao mixed in nor was there any trace of the spirits.
There was, however, something damned familiar.
{KEEP THEM SAFE!} He heard an echo over and over of his own voice in his mind. It was not simply a wish, but a command!
"My Authority. I somehow used my Authority and my harmony to make this." Lind had never heard of such a thing but it explained his reward. Such a massive command would have nearly killed him!
It also made him understand it was limited. The Heavens reacted because it was a True Lord's Authority but even he knew a True Lord was not as all powerful as they seemed to be.
He checked his vitality and sure enough, it was not as high as after the golden lighting struck him. It was not just the passage of time either! Heaven and Earth were very fair. He had gotten back so much vitality to power the field!
It meant, so long as he was alive, the field would stand. Conversely, the day he died, the field died with him. It also meant they were on a clock until someone figured that out! Once they did, Divine Realm enemies would throw bodies at it until he was dead!
He did not have that long! He had to ascend!