novelraw Chapter 1648 - 1647 - Lifetimes
Chapter 1648 - 1647 - Lifetimes
Lind's next set of trials were clearly based on the prerequisite ones he started with. Namely, he was living other lives!
Instead of a complete lack of context, he awoke in young, old, or even as a living soul in various cultivation realms and worlds. He saw realms with 5 moons instead of the 9 he had grown used to and more than one sun too!
He saw desolate mortal realms barely holding on to lush realms so full of resources that wars were more a matter of pride than any greed!
They were not short stints either. Several lives were lived from birth to death or simply taking over at certain points and living out millennia as the person he assumed.
Some were alchemists while many were just warriors. It was very confusing at first as his own personality was almost detached from the experience until he began to grasp what was going on.
His completion of the Samsara layer had triggered another trial to teach him about the various ways rebirth could work.
He was all races and never locked in one place. He even became an Elemental in several versions!
All of it was helping him as he realized the final layer of the Apprentice Tier was far more profound than the other 2 combined!
Samsara Breaks the Chains of Life and Death.
Samsara Unlocks Hidden Regrets and Opportunities.
Samsara Dances.
The 3 Mysteries seemed far more diverse at first but the final one was actually a bridge for all his layers.
As he lived so many lives, it only clarified that the step between each life was as important as the lives themselves.
He could be a hero in one, an observer in another, and even a villain despite never intending to be. His own personality was but a drop in the bucket before the power of the current life.
True reincarnation was the only way to directly continue or change things as he saw fit. The few times he was allowed to live that way mirrored his path in his cultivation lifetime.
Samsara Breaks the Chains of Life and Death was completely proven as one life did not directly tie to the next. The sins and miracles of one life did not dictate what would follow, yet pieces could endure.
It was not just luck but tied to the next Mystery. Samsara Unlocks Hidden Regrets and Opportunities. While no fate carried over from one life to the next, the highs and lows planted seeds.
If one life was one of misery and missed chances, the next could leap at opportunities even if no one else saw any there. A beast that never left home could lead to a demon that wandered the whole world.
It was not compulsion but simple traces of previous lives influencing desires or instincts.
The final Mystery strung it all together as the pattern certainly resembled a dance. The frenzied lives of adventure and risk would lead to more sedate existence either by choices or the nature of life itself.
It was never an exact reflection but merely a change in tempo.
Lind suddenly felt his silver layer light up as the 3 facets came together and he polished the newly fused energy.
The myriad tapestry of life stopped as he resumed his original body.
He was in a golden plane once more and recognized it as a transition point. Still, he focused on his foundation.
Now that the 3 layers were complete, he had to understand his next steps. As he consolidated his Samsara Layer, he felt the memories of all those lives slowly vanishing from his mind.
It was an odd feeling. They were not fake, but real lives he suspected. The worlds were totally unknown to him but considering the massive number of mortal realms and the now understood nearly endless expanse of the Void Ocean, he knew he had touched places that existed.
Would he one day run into people he had met and only feel they were familiar but not why?
As he contemplated it, he realized that the dance was not always about himself. The web of connections were affected as well.
The reason his original memories of Old Earth had been so much swiss cheese was because his life had started over but it was a direct reincarnation of a mortal, not a cultivator.
Thus most of those memories began to fade until he started to cultivate. Now that he was a Divine Realm, his memory of his current life superseded those lives below his realm.
In other words, if he was still only Immortal, it was likely he would have suffered drastic personality shifts from that experience!
The realization actually helped him.
Life, Death, and Samsara were tied together as a single comprehensive cycle but the beings affected by them were not trapped by it. They were free to choose how they lived, died, and in some cases, be reborn.
Many would never continue while others were sent along many lifetimes to lay a foundation that may one day lead to a cultivation world.
He thought of those prodigies that seemed to explode with potential and felt it was correct that they were old souls finally entering the path of cultivation with a thousand traces of wisdom from many lives.
Each piece was important, but it was only together that the 3 layers truly showed their power. It was not a fusion but a sequence to grasp and understand.
Lind was lost in his meditation for an unknown amount of time but things changed outside of his body.
The golden plane slowly faded until a massive metal platform in the open air took its place. The bright blue sky and sun flared above him with gentle white clouds floating on the wind.
Suddenly, black clouds began to gather and their power was horrifying. The once clear skies were replaced to the horizon with boiling black clouds.
Thunder rumbled so loudly it shook some of the metal joints of the platform but Lind remained unaware.
The 3 Mystery layers were slowly coalescing into a cohesive force and changing him from the inside out.
His foundation had always been profound and well polished but now it was taking on an aura that felt like he was stepping beyond the worlds contained within Heaven and Earth.
The instant he took that step, his eyes snapped open to look above.
Blue-white lightning flared instantly and struck down like the wrath of all the gods he had ever known. The power behind that first bolt would have shocked any other Divine Realm cultivator as it felt closer to the average ninth one!
Lind merely sat there and did not even transform as he perceived the secrets of the tribulation. Behind the lightning and the clouds, he saw powerful flows of gold, silver, and black Mystery energy.
For the first time in his life, he actually understood what was coming completely from the tribulation and he felt it was inefficient. He held up his hand at the last moment and the lightning bolt froze.
He then transformed into his massive dragon body and changes were apparent. His once pristinely emerald body now had traces of gold, silver, and black along the edges.
His eyes were still pure but his mane was mingled with those colors in the emerald. He was not fully fused to his new foundation yet.
Still, he flew up into the clouds and even the Twins appeared shocked at the edge of the platform.
He went into the tribulation and felt Heaven and Earth was angered by his disrespect but he did not care. He was not going to waste time.
His lessons came back to him and his Mysteries flowed along his harmony, joining with it as he touched on the foundation of the tribulation. He felt the terrifying power awaiting to test him but now he took it all on!
A wave of lighting lashed out and shattered his scales like they were nothing. Blood fell like rain yet Lind seemed to recover instantly.
The tribulation aura shifted to the next step, the harmonic section. It was a joke as his Dao of Defiance easily withstood the round as if it was a breeze but that was to be expected. HIs was a Divine Progenitor so it was more of a celebration than a test.
The progenitor tribulation followed. Dragons appeared in the clouds nearly made of flesh but Lind exerted his bloodline with his Mysteries behind it.
None could resist him! The phantoms all knelt among the black clouds and vanished.
His True Lord tribulation followed. It was harsh, and he could not circumvent it that time. Black, gold, silver, crimson, and all kinds of powerful lighting surged over him. He was actually hurt but endured.
Compared to the terrifying tribulations of the past, he was doing quite well and far more in control but the ease ended there.
He flew down and allowed the tribulation to send him some vitality. The next part would be the most terrifying thing he had to face.
The Tribulation of Life, Death, and Samsara!