novelraw Chapter 1567 - 1566 - Life Layer
Chapter 1567 - 1566 - Life Layer
Another century passed since the invaders were killed by the kraken. Lind had not found anything else new after he accepted the deal with the creature that seemed to live near the island.
The tedium returned but he at least had a goal and a deadline now. Yet, despite the easy start right after he began, the final piece of the life layer was eluding him.
It was not as simple as a few words but the whole idea behind them.
Life Defies Obstacles was a bottomless well of conflict. The moment life begins in any form, it struggles to exist and will not bend to death. It will do everything to endure and overcome any impediment to its continuance.
He discovered he could refine it further like Laws or Daos before it but it was vastly more difficult.
Still, he focused on the first one he had created and noticed the white energy in his dantian outer ring did get brighter at the very edge.
Life Vanishes with Neglect was a bit more straightforward but seemed far more difficult. Just existing was not life. A person could wake up, eat, work, and sleep but never really live. Opportunities also could slip by if they held still and refused to take risks.
It was not the opposite of his first Mystery but it did complement it. Once he had that thought, he began to ply the 2 ideas and plumb the depths of both together.
It had increased his progress until he slammed into a bottleneck unlike any he had felt before. Previously, when he reached the peak of a minor realm or tier step, he would feel a sort of counter pressure push back or gradually see slower and slower returns on his progress.
His current issue was closer to driving into a steel wall at full speed with his eyes closed. He was flying along when he suddenly slammed to a stop with no warning!
Haro confirmed that was normal on both sides. The 3 facets would fuel each other ideally but his speed seemed to shock the ring spirit. Lind felt like the bottleneck had an obvious solution then.
He needed to round out his Life Layer.
Easier said than done and he spent the better of the last century stuck! He took breaks, even trained his skills. He was able to start understanding what Haro meant about adding the new energy to his various abilities.
Weaving had been laughably simple. Since his harmony already possessed it, so did his soul. Thus it was but a thought to start testing sigils and traces as he engraved into the very air. The engraving was, however, horrifyingly exhausting.
Where once he could engrave thousands of sigils in a few breaths, now he was lucky to get 10 done in half a day!
Compared to his other 2 professions, however, weaving seemed like a dream. Forging was harder to practice due to a lack of good resources but he was able to succeed once.
It had turned all the materials to ash after a moment but it did work and left him near collapse when it was done!
Elixirs were a different beast all together but had the same issue in the quality of materials. The island did have some herbs but they were all grade 7 and of middling quality. There was never a chance he could use them for experiments!
The very few peak ingredients in his ring also got destroyed every time he tried to use them with the new energy at his command.
The sole exception were the peak Immortal Qi stones. They endured for a while before shattering to dust.
He was able to infuse both his water and flames without much issue but he grew exhausted very quickly. He did not even dream of trying to use the tools he had created as he now understood that pseudo Dao grade was nothing to the Mystery Grade he would need.
A true Dao Grade item would work, even Haro confirmed it, but it would wear out quickly.
Aside from that, he also practiced using his Dao Weapon. The staff was intricate and oddly delicate when it came to infusing his Mysteries into it. Not all of it responded and Haro affirmed it would take a very long time to upgrade the conjured manifestation of his Dao of Defiance.
Still, the Dao Weapon gave him the best practice out of everything. The pure emerald was slowly having color added to it but he did not fully grasp why those parts were responding. He would have expected light, dark light, and Celestial light to react to the Life Layer but it was darkness and earth variants that seemed to respond.
It made him curious but ultimately, no answers could be found in his current situation. He had nothing to test the weapon on and no desire to be wiped out by the kraken he knew was not too far away now.
The only other facet of his life was the red stone in the cavern. Haro had no idea what it was or why he could not sense it, but the fact remained it existed. Lind refrained from touching it but he used his Eyes and Touch to study the flow of energy.
The strain on both Talents had been long absent in his life so he knew they were evolving. Haro confirmed they were likely mid Dao Eyes and Touch thanks to all his work and progress as an Immortal with Dao.
Otherwise, he would have been blinded for a time and even his normal vision and senses would have been dulled.
He made a note to ask before using things he took for granted again.
The last 10 years had been pure observation. He found the patterns fascinating and slowly began to form a hypothesis.
It was not a natural treasure nor was it some kind of artificial creation. He had seen too much thanks to being a Triple Maester not to know the difference between natural and artificial.
That left him with one conclusion. It was alive. Elementals were the closest thing he had found to be inanimate to animate life but even then, it was spiritual energy mixed in that contributed to their existence in the higher realms.
Stone drals incorporated the material into their flesh so they were not born like that either. Golems were generally artificial no matter what shape they took on.
It was not beyond him, however, to accept that in the Divine Lands, the inanimate could also be alive in the right conditions.
"Life finds a way, huh?" He spoke aloud without thinking but then froze. He checked to be sure but no new light glowed in his dantian. A cold sweat broke out as he came way too close to being more cliche than anyone he had encountered yet!
[Master?] Haro seemed confused by his panic but Lind refused to explain how humiliating it would be if a movie line of all things progressed his cultivation.
He suspected his first Mystery was too close to be able to make that thought of use. Still, it inspired him. He might have been going about things the wrong way.
He was trying hard to be profound or look deeply like the other 2 parts seemed to be but it was likely far simpler. It was his journey, not all of existence he was trying to define. The Mystery was what resonated with him enough to condense into energy and manifest.
He was trying to look outward, when really he should have been looking inward.
He sat down and meditated on what life meant to him. As he did so, he came to a greater understanding of the first 2 facets.
The hard bottleneck actually softened!
Life Defies Obstacles could be the theme of his whole damn struggle to advance as a 6 elemental. He had started with the near certainty of dying as a maligned World Realm at best but worked damned hard to blaze a new path.
Each step had been both tenuous and dangerous but eventually, he reached the Heaven Realm where his struggles essentially ended and understanding his harmony became all important to continue.
Life Vanishes with Neglect was a harsh reminder of time wasted. He had lost so much time with his family and friends in the pursuit of power or survival. Despite the time he had spent with them, it had been more for training and education than just living.
His rush to shatter the chains the Great One imposed on them had caused him to sacrifice the one commodity no one could get back, time with loved ones.
It was then that Cyntilla appeared in his mind. Then Hei, and all the children he had either seen or knew had died. Even his grandchildren were with him. Solon's face frozen from when his body had been recovered flashed next with all the other friends he had lost.
He was lost in the past memories for a long time before his body began to glow with emerald light. His body seemed to become more solid as energy flowed into him like a storm.
"Life never ends." Only 3 words but they seemed to shake the mountain and the tide beyond the shore. Massive shadows froze as several pairs of eyes gently poked up above the surface briefly before returning to the depths.
All lives touch each other in some way and so long as even one person endures, those lives would never be truly snuffed out. Memory of a Divine Realm was more than just a bit of information, it was a world unto itself!
The largest ring at the edge of his dantian lit up like a sun in white. His foundation finally advances as he became a fully fleshed out Apprentice Tier at the Life Layer. He felt like he was waking up as he found himself floating in midair with ease!
The heavy restraint had lifted from him!
He still felt a massive drain on his Qi and Daos, but he could fly as a cultivator again! His draconic flight was still drained heavily too but it had also improved!
"One layer down and 8 to–" Lind finally felt something himself as he looked out on the horizon. There were so many powerful beasts around him! He was nearly overwhelmed by the information flowing into his mind.
Yet, beyond all that, he saw 2 specs on the horizon with his emerald eyes. One was an identical cylinder like the first group but the other was vastly different. It was an open topped platform with some doorways that led down into the lower part of it.
A flying artifact? Neither were stopped by the mighty beasts and he saw why. Anything below them was totally isolated to not even make a ripple in the air. So long as the beasts were under the choppy surface, they were ignorant of the invaders.
"Well, more company is coming but it will likely be a fight this time." The interval was too short to be a coincidence. As for the other flying artifact, if not reinforcements, it did not make them his allies.
Lind prepared to defend the cavern as he waited for their arrival.