novelraw Chapter 1622 - 1621 - Empty Skies?
Chapter 1622 - 1621 - Empty Skies?
The wooden hull was far more solid than any ore or stone might be but its greatest advantage was its flexibility as a material to absorb stress on the entire structure. The creak of it gave the illusion of being at sea while in the sky.
Lind sat in one of the control chair positions as the clouds went by. It had been a long time since he could leisurely enjoy being in the sky. Flying was still a strain on his stamina as a dragon.
It had gotten better but the higher he attempted, the greater the strain. Flying as a cultivator was chaotic at best.
According to Karu, only Journeyman Tiers could truly dominate the skies but it still was a costly affair.
Artifacts were the standard by far to fly anywhere more than a day away.
Since they could not use teleportation arrays and flying artifacts would exhaust them long before they crossed the Void Ocean between continents, his old ship design needed to be updated.
The 4th layer of the Celestial Fields had given him a broad foundation to build a new ship that resulted in the current design. Unlike that lower realm, the Divine Lands were more chaotic due to the density and shift of background forces than the intent of a Sovereign Tier.
Still, similar rules applied and were actually much easier to account for. The lower decks had the equivalent of capacitors and processors to take in various energies as fuel and then regulate their dispersal by various artifacts and weavings to fly.
The result was going well but he noticed an oddity as a week had gone by.
There were no beasts in the sky at their level. He had seen some below the clouds but they never came up above. Why?
Karu had no answers as the ship was an entirely new thing to her. He had never made them before.
Their speed was nothing to sneeze at but forget a dragon, a simple eagle could keep up with them if they tried. At least the Divine Realm should be able to.
Yet, he had seen nothing for a week solid above the clouds.
He extended his aura actively to see if Elementals filled the air like in the Celestial Fields but there was nothing.
In fact, he felt a lack of profound aura above the clouds. It was as if something suppressed everything below the clouds but their ship bypassed that restriction by virtue that it did not operate on the principles of the user supplying energy but the background energies of the world.
He concluded a Divine Realm would quickly tire at such a height so they saw no need to go that high but it intrigued him.
Such a limit seemed arbitrary to him.
Heaven and Earth were many things, but never arbitrary. Stubborn, unyielding to screams for pity, but not arbitrary.
He ensured Karu and Gaia were good to pilot for a time without him and emerged onto the main deck.
He felt a bracing wind but nothing else. The sun blazed from above and the piercing blue sky seemed endless. It was a wonderful view, yet he had seen something similar many times before.
Why was it restricted? He floated above the deck and felt no restraint on his body. He then went to the top of the mast and grabbed the tip before looking up and around.
He saw many fluffy clouds below like many other realms. Massive to small shadows moved inside his vision but none pierced the clouds.
Nothing that good could exist for him. Unobstructed flight was a dream for them and he would not accept such good fortune with ease.
His emerald eyes shone with his full Talent as he tried to pierce the veil of what was going on and what he saw shocked him.
No matter where he was, he could perceive chains of fate of all kinds in all places. Density could shift or be altered to an extent, but they were always there. Yet, as he looked out around his vessel, there was nothing!
The sky above the clouds was completely empty of fate!
A thought took hold and he quickly leapt off the main mast into the sky. He flew with ease! He felt no restriction at all!
He transformed into his full dragon body and he easily outpaced his vessel. He was finally flying! It felt so good that he roared in joy!
His blood sang with the cold breeze and his mane flared outward as he coiled in any direction he chose!
After a brief time he returned to the ship and calmed down. He had enjoyed it but it left a mystery he could not understand.
Why was the cloud cover the limit? What was going on?
He then had a new thought and his aura flared.
[Can you hear me?] He appealed to Heaven and Earth. He waited but there was nothing. He heard nothing at all respond to him and a chilling realization dawned on him.
Heaven and Earth had not placed the restriction, but something else had. He was an anomaly outside whatever rules had been put in place.
The chains of fate could not extend beyond the cloud cover and thus even Master Tiers were held back from rising! His vessel suddenly took on a whole lot more worth for what it could do!
He cupped his hands and bowed low before putting his full power into a message.
[To whatever Senior has allowed this, please indulge our passage if you also are an enemy of the Great Bastard,]
His words flowed along his power but nothing answered. Could it be something left over from so long ago the owner was long dead?
He bowed again but then froze. The air stopped flowing and a feeling of dislocation came over him.
{Respect. A rare thing. I have no love for the traitor to creation. You do not break the rules put in place but be warned, do not make any more of that vessel. If anyone else uses it, they will be obliterated from existence.}
A shiver went down Lind's spine. He had confirmation of the next realm at that moment and there was nothing he could do against such an existence.
The gap in power was insane.
The voice was neither male nor female but the words themselves imprinted on his mind.
[If junior may be so bold, why have you not stopped him?] He was pushing his luck but he had to know. Why would such powerful beings not intervene?
Silence followed and he assumed he had asked too much when pressure brushed against his soul. He felt like his entire existence flickered before everything settled.
{Do you understand?}
He swallowed as he nodded. Just a brush and he felt like the entirety of the Divine Lands had been on a knife edge.
It was not a question of want but a question of price. Would destroying all of existence be worth killing one being?
The result would not change the outcome, only the cause.
Lind bowed low once more and said no more. Time resumed and he noticed damage to the ship that was not there before. He quickly went about fixing it but began to understand he was still just a tiny ant in the grand scheme of things.
A thought then occurred. He poured out all his knowledge to the empty air. He went until his dantian was exhausted but he gave it all.
There was no direct response but a feeling of slight improvement in the sensation of the empty skies around them.
Lind was about to go back inside when a sliver of knowledge entered his mind. It shook him to his core.
Did he tell Karu? Would she be able to accept it? He did not know but he had to digest it completely first.
He closed the hatch behind him and went to cultivate to recover his expended energy. The 2 women inside were confused as to what happened but he said he would explain later.
As he entered his cramped quarters, he felt the knowledge flow in his mind once more.
{The future was not changed but sacrificed. Just as the traitor consumes to advance, her Talent was made to consume the possibility to shift reality. The deterioration cannot be avoided normally but you took on a portion of it the last time. You consumed your own existence to change your past just enough to make a new possibility.}
Lind swallowed as the last part that shook him came to the fore.
{Understand you face 2 battles. Your current incarnation versus his in the restricted realms and the version of him locked in place until the past resolves with us. You will face him twice before it is all over.}
Lind had thought beating the Bastard once was all they needed but it was not! The next realm seemed to shatter causality in some aspect and thus a version of the Bastard was beyond the Divine Lands!
The fact it was still affected by the battle here meant there was hope but how much? He was already facing an uphill battle with the current incarnation let alone a likely billions of years old version existing beyond time!
Why was nothing easy?!
The feeling of needing to grow stronger was rising in him but with a new goal. He had to become more powerful than he ever had in Karu's memories. He had to shatter it all or they were all still doomed!