novelraw Chapter 1598 - 1597 - Wilds Between Civilization
Chapter 1598 - 1597 - Wilds Between Civilization
Lind had not been sure what to expect on the roads of the Divine Lands. Most realms followed the normal expansion of civilization as it pushed back the natural world. It preserved or nurtured what was useful while discarding or tolerating the rest until it could be dealt with.
Roads spread, villages become towns, then cities as resources dictate. Discoveries important to any power were quickly locked down with manpower and structures to efficiently manage them.
His understanding was some powers only cared about their main focus and would not expand as such but import quite a bit for resources while managing something others needed badly.
So he expected the area around a major port city to be well maintained and at least 2 or 3 major roads to carry goods to the next major stop.
He was not even remotely close.
He had forgotten 2 very important words. Teleportation arrays.
While lower worlds had far more mortals or lower realm cultivators that could not afford teleportation arrays, they were essential in the Divine Lands. Things were just too damned far apart!
It did not help that in the Divine Lands, most people were cultivators at birth and reached the Immortal Realm by adulthood!
As such, instead of clear roads and well maintained guideposts to tell someone they were on the right track, it was natural wildlands!
An ancient forest cast the trio in shadows that danced with sunlight by the wind. The chirps of birds were there but so too were the cries of far more powerful beasts.
The fact Lind had seen a manticore and neither of his companions found it worrying told him how insane the local flora and fauna were!
What was legendary elsewhere was commonplace in the Divine Lands?! Even the Celestial Fields were not that crazy!
If they had a legendary creature, it was treated as such!
Misham seemed to know the general way through the forest to the nearest teleportation array but Lind thought it was a bad idea for him to use it. He was already exposed. It was a given that any nearby teleportation array, flying artifact seller, or any mode of transportation would be under the baleful eye of the Fiends at least if not others.
Yet, the distance to his current goal was unimaginably far. If he was to guess based on the current journey, it would take centuries to reach and he may not have that kind of time anymore.
The longer he gave them to setup traps, spies, or any other method to hinder him, the worse things would be for him. He had to purge his body of Immortal Qi, upgrade his skills, Arts, and other facets to bring himself back to his true peak power.
He also had to advance!
That last one was the ultimate goal but the bottleneck on his Samsara Layer was frustratingly sealed tight. It was like he missed the point of Samsara but he lived it! How was he missing the point?!
He now understood why so many Divine Realm cultivators got stuck. If even a reincarnated person could not even grasp how to advance into the layer that allowed them to exist in the first place, what chance would normal people stand?
Life and death were a fact easily grasped and affected each person deeply in different ways. Those that became cultivators saw how deep those aspects truly could be too and thus after their long journey to the Divine Realm, could condense their Mysteries after some reflection and deduction.
Death, in his case, had far more potent power than other aspects but his time in the Divine Inheritances brought clarity that shaped his Mysteries later.
Making a concept into power would have made no sense to him even as a Sovereign Tier Immortal. It was no wonder knowledge of the Divine Realm was restricted. There was literally no point in explaining to a mortal ant about calculus. The concept was simply beyond it!
Yet, despite his success, he was now truly stuck as his concepts of Samara seemed too weak to condense a single Mystery!
A branch suddenly snapped and brought him back to the present. It was none of his party that had done it.
He did not even need his aura as his draconic senses were enough to narrow in on the offender. A massive hawk with midnight black feathers swooped down on what appeared to be a rabbit with tiny horns!
The expected outcome did not happen as the rabbit turned into a blur before its hind quarters slammed into the hawk's head! While fast to others, it was slow motion in his eyes.
He then saw the rabbit cart off the hawk's body! Misham and Karu sensed the battle but neither could keep up with the speed like he could. Misham was better in water and coastal environments while Karu simply leaned in another direction with her bloodline.
It took over 7 months of trekking through the wilds before they came upon a village. That was the term both Misham and Karu used but Lind would have called it a fortress!
Firm stone walls with pristine grade 8 inscriptions protected it and easily had a gate that could withstand anything he could think of for quite some time before putting even a dent into it!
"It will be only to the next major city, but there should be a teleportation array here. The Sylvan Alchemy Guild set up this village to help get the precious shadow type herbs and some of the beast cores here. I was surprised we did not see any groups on the way to be honest." Misham spoke and Lind felt his forehead twitch.
Do cultivators not know about flags? Do they not?!
Misham approached a metal plate set into the wall by the gate. He infused not just his aura but activated a certain sequence on the array of the plate. A code? Not a bad idea.
Registering everyone locally was the common practice but if external contacts were given codes to identify themselves, it could lead to breaches unless it was combined with their aura as well.
So an authorized person but quickly identified as someone not of the village.
They waited but only silence greeted them. Lind extended his aura carefully and frowned at what he sensed. The wall was not flowing with power at all. The inscriptions were not totally familiar but he could deduce enough to know it had an ambient absorption structure so only if it was intentionally turned off would it not be working.
He moved past Misham who looked concerned but Lind touched the gate and easily pushed it aside. It was sturdy but the hinge system was counter weighted to allow it to be opened by a single person.
He noted the system could be severed easily to make it nearly impossible to move the door as it would settle into a slot along the base as well.
The structures inside were pristine but the stone paths were empty. There was not a soul anywhere.
His emerald eyes flared before he turned to Karu. His unspoken question was answered by a quick shake of her head. She had no idea what was going on and the fear on her face was definitely real.
His aura swept outward. Hiding was pointless as he could tell. There was no one alive in the entire village.
The complete lack of violence in the form of battle damage or Qi traces was damned odd but Lind had a sinking feeling.
"You said this village was tied to an alchemical guild?" Misham nodded. Lind summoned an elixir from his ring. It was a dark gray but glittered with golden flecks. He cast the elixir down the street and it shattered on impact.
Dark gray tendrils flared outward but quickly died and made Lind narrow his eyes.
"Do not enter, there is poison, a lot of it." He then directly walked in as the other 2 wanted to object but they saw the shimmer of emerald light up on his body.
The elixir was a simple one but difficult to make. It was literally set to react to a pure atmosphere. If the tendrils had spread unhindered, nothing was there but the fact it was quashed so quickly told Lind he was dealing with a tenacious and powerful poison.
His Eyes and Touch went into effect and he saw it. A dark pallor in the air, the buildings, and even the arrays! A Qi poison! It latched onto the Qi and was absorbed by any cultivator!
The wall acted as a natural barrier and it was thin enough that it could not affect him but Karu and Misham were safer outside as the air was blowing inward.
He then found piles of powder. They were mixed with clothes and told him everything. His eyes narrowed as he saw a flow of Qi that was moving through it all without hindrance but it was days old.
"Erosion Core Poison. Bastards." He followed the traces and sure enough found the warehouses, artifacts, and any place valuable things could be were emptied out calmly. They took time to catalogue everything while the village died around them!
Lind also confirmed at least 1 or 2 traitors were needed to bypass the security but the poison was tenacious not just to living things but anything that carried the intent of a cultivator. It was why none of the formations were working.
It hollowed out the host from the dantian outwards and unless caught in the first few moments, there was nothing to stop it.
The fact he was seeing an improved version that could be set loose on an entire village did not please him.
He eventually came to the teleportation array and the controls were destroyed by some kind of artifact after they left. The array itself was fine but if they thought it would stop him from tracing them back, they were sorely mistaken!
His fingers blurred as sigils began to appear in the air. Traces connected and touched the teleportation array. The emerald light burned the poison that tried to attach itself to his work.
A complex set of symbols appeared before he was able to convert them to coordinates. His head snapped to the west and saw a faint beam of light follow his expectations.
He knew where they were. Time to go hunting.