novelraw Chapter 1572 - 1571 - Death is but a Door
Chapter 1572 - 1571 - Death is but a Door
After Lind recovered from his last attack, he headed out to examine the remains of the cultist camp. He also noticed his body felt immensely lighter!
He examined his dantian and the Life Layer was like a blazing sun! It felt far more profound and he asked Haro about it.
[You could consider that similar to polishing the foundation but unlike preparation for a tribulation or major breakthrough, the 9 layers can be further improved under the right conditions or revelations. It is not wrong to say that only completing a layer is the most basic of basic steps.]
Just when he thought he had a handle on the Divine Realm, it added a new set of options to his workload!
Haro did confirm that while there was no set path, it was possible to continuously enhance a layer so far as he knew.
Naming them Mysteries made more and more sense as time passed!
The previous cultivation realms had rather definite goals or milestones that could be grasped but the Divine Realm was literally fumbling in the dark until things just felt right!
He moved onto something more concrete to wrap his mind around. The cylindrical ship had some resources stowed away that he happily confiscated. It also was used with both natural and demonic Qi.
It had been made by a combination of formations and refining. In fact, he found a distinct lack of the derivative professions compared to previous encounters in the Celestial Fields.
[Elixir master, Forging, and weaving are far more tailored affairs in the Divine Lands, Master. Generic creation is not something done for fear of wasting materials.]
Lind could grasp a bit of that but something seemed wrong about it. He would need more data later to figure it out.
Aside from that, he studied the ship from stem to stern. While it yielded a lot for him to think on, it had one major drawback. It was stone dead.
Nothing was broken exactly but it also did not respond to him at all. He spent weeks trying to figure it out before Haro made a suggestion.
The main arrays were controlled from a room on one end of the cylinder. It had places to insert a Qi stone or other resource but nothing he had caused a response. He used his flames and skills to find the place where the pedestal and hull met.
He then took it apart to find a complex array unlike anything he had ever seen. It was so dense even his incredible Eyes had trouble picking apart what it was.
[It is an imprint, Master. This artifact was tied directly to the life of one of the Divine Realm cultivators. Once they died, this artifact became useless. Even you can't refine it. It is designed to destroy the vital functions permanently.]
Lind was able to finally see the damage and it was true that he could not fix it. It also was not a bad idea but it took things too far.
Haro seemed bothered by something when he spoke but he never said what.
Once he was done with it all, he decided to melt it all to slag before tossing it into the Wild Sea. Haro had recommended it as it served to show he was taking his job seriously.
Now that he had had his fun, he had to focus on getting stronger. There was no way the 2 forces that lost their members did not know of it and would be sending more powerful parties. Haro had no idea on the timeline but he went with the worst case scenario.
It took 1 century between the last 2, so he stuck to that.
There was nothing else he could really do, anyway.
As he looked at the wreckage of the faction camp, he looked a bit sad at the bits of people left to rot. They had come to steal, true, but death was never expected like that.
Still, the truth that death was but a step comforted him. He smiled as he looked up at the peak.
"Death is but a Door." The words left him before a storm of energy flooded his body! He had not expected it at all! Further, it was far more fleshed out as he quickly assumed a lotus position.
The next layer darkened by quite a bit as he formed his new Mystery. Death was but a Door was so true it hurt. He knew his first life had ended but it was not the end, merely a pause.
He had to step through death to get to the next phase of life. Further, he had lived in the spirit world. He had seen so many souls reborn, reformed, or generally continue. Death led to many paths but it was only a threshold, not the destination.
He saw corridors racing along existence but the points were all starting with death. A life must end for a new one to begin.
The third of his Death Layer was so dark in stark contrast to the Life Layer that it seemed he grasped what had happened.
Mysteries were not simply about concepts or ideas, but the fundamental truths he had grasped in regards to each layer. Heaven and Earth laid out a path but he had to grasp it himself.
He had studied various things but Mysteries were more about what he experienced. The revelation made him smile as he now had a better idea of what to look for when trying to make his Mysteries.
Once it settled or something became a focal point the Mystery could form and fill in the layer in his dantian.
[Very good, Master. It usually takes others a million years to figure it out. Telling someone does not help as it is something that has to be grasped by the individual.]
All the restrictions began to make more sense to Lind. An Immortal might, conceptually, understand but when confronted with the reality of it with any preconceived notions might stunt them forever at the threshold of the Life Layer!
Ideas were powerful but they could be both boon and bane in equal measure. While education could be considered a process of exposure, memorization, and repetition, it was not wrong to say that the student had to choose to understand any material put forth.
Something they misunderstood or rejected, would become a struggle no matter how much effort they put in. The former was the worst as time went on. The longer someone held onto incorrect information, the more difficult it would be to correct them.
The darkest parts of his old world and even his current one stemmed from that very fact.
Learning from his past experience, he did not immediately explore any other concepts of death and simply consolidated his current gains. His power was incomparable to before!
If he was to gauge it, he had increased far more than a simple step between quality of tiers previously. A low Sovereign Tier was terrifying but could still take on a peak Sovereign Tier with some hope of success.
Lind felt like the Life Layer was a joke now! It was so much power but now he felt like he could squash his old self easily! He could fly 10 times longer than before with either method.
His senses did not drastically improve like the rest but the quality of information was much better. He now noticed another oddity of the island.
While simple life did exist on it, none of the local life had intelligence even though it was in the Immortal realm as well.
Further, the quality of all of the flora and fauna was much lower than he was used to feeling even in Immortals that were pill made.
It was like something was suppressing the advancement of anything native on the island. Was it due to its isolation? It was not nearly big enough to support even a modest society.
There was very little chance of anyone reaching the mainland below the Divine Realm too, yet why were all the lifeforms so uniform in their existence?
"There is something about this island and that red stone they know but we don't. Anything, Haro, even a rumor would do." His ring spirit, however, was as in the dark as he was.
[I know people attempted coming to the Wild Sea but very few ever returned. Some were simply escaping pursuers or even just trying to desperately change their fate. In all cases, only a handful of survivors described an endless vista of the Void Ocean and death.]
Lind could not argue the latter. He had seen 3 parties wiped out on the island. Still, there was too much unknown. The goal was clearly the red stone or the mountain at the heart of the island but why?
The power it had resonated with helped him immensely but it could not possibly be enough for the risk to reach it.
The answers were not going to be found so Lind refocused on mastering his new strength with the limited resources on the island. He would get stronger and prepare for whatever was coming next.