novelraw Chapter 1698 - 1697 - Fists are the Answer
Chapter 1698 - 1697 - Fists are the Answer
Lind needed more information. Not only for the trial, but for himself.
If his current guess was right, a Fiend had been on Earth either long before he died or had been inserted due to his previous selves shifting his fate. It seemed guessing some of it made progress but he had to confirm it to make certain.
After 3 days, he finally emerged from the fog and had to orient himself under his nearly mortal condition again. Even his new Mystery did not negate the full restriction of the trial.
He sighed as he flexed his legs and soared up like a missile. The sun was halfway to setting so he had no time to waste. The wind roared in his ears but his eyes suddenly narrowed in on something.
He saw very familiar lakes to the north not far from him. He was near the former Great Lakes! They had been distorted like everything else.
Lake Michigan and Superior had swallowed the upper part of Michigan underwater. The smaller lakes had also merged from his glance save where they met up to the border of the fog.
He saw it had grown! It was larger than before!
Had he done that? He would have to check it later.
As he scanned around the human cities his eyes became grim as he saw the northern area was behind a wall and the columns of dust and smoke showed a lot of work going on. He could not hear that far but his vision saw enough.
Gravity was about to reassert itself but Lind did not feel like running. He tensed his muscles in his arms punched backwards with both arms. The air thundered as he shattered the sound barrier.
He had always wanted to try it and he was not disappointed. The force of the shockwave launched him forward like a bullet. He had always wanted to try it but had forgotten he had no self correction methods open to him.
His body tumbled in the right direction yet he had no desire to congratulate himself on that as he now had to focus on not throwing up!
It looked so easy in movies or even in the cultivation realms but there were ways to orient and maintain a controlled flight after the initial boost.
There was no such thing on Earth.
He would need a plane or glider to maintain control. Failing that, some kind of fins to regulate the flow of air over his body.
A human form was the most inefficient shape to try and fly!
Lind screamed across the reddening sky as the white clouds parted from his path. Any humans that heard the initial boom were already too late. He had no idea if they had sonar or other tracking systems anymore, but the naked eye and his current speed were blink and miss territory.
He felt like he was a Soul Realm experiencing teleportation once more! He hated that feeling more than anything!
The slam into the water was actually welcome and showed he was off track!
The water cracked his bones but that was all. It was more from suddenly slowing down when hitting the water. His flesh perfectly distributed the force to prevent hurting his organs and flesh.
The pain was actually welcome as it cleared his nausea. The water did not taste good at all but it was still welcome too.
He quickly swam to the surface and oriented himself to get to the closest shore. He caused the water to foam and nearly make a wave moving away from his feet as he got to the rocky shore.
Soaked and miserable, Lind coughed up what felt like the entirety of the lake behind him. He looked up blearily and saw several abandoned structures nearby. They were recently made as they were not ruins but he recognized the foundations were built on older foundations.
He made sloshing sounds as he walked up the beach to the dock. The metal and wood extended out to where boats could moor themselves yet nothing was there. There was no sign of damage or a quick exit. Even the white washed wooden long buildings looked fairly well maintained but he could tell no one had been by in a long time.
He found a locked door and shattered the frame easily to get inside. The dust was thick everywhere and he saw the boats on trailers sitting patiently to be launched.
There was no signs of struggle nor any other issue but it seemed no one had come back after the boats had been put away the last time.
Why had they abandoned perfectly usable facilities?
Lind could not scan the lake, true, but why exclude an easy place to explore and start digging into the surface?
He did find a few small submersibles in the building but they were even less used than the boats.
The technology was much more standard for the boats he was familiar with but the submersibles were entirely alien to him.
He did not find a bike or anything to speed up his travel across the land. He did find a road so he sped down it as fast as his feet could carry him.
It was not long before he saw the column of dust marking a mining operation. He slowed down until his own eyes could perceive the details.
He saw a quarry that had been dug extensively but it was not the project size that made him grim but what was revealed. A network of doors and tunnels of some kind of complex.
While that was believable, he could tell at a glance they were wrong. It was not human.
Some might think they were made by an eccentric billionaire or government, but he knew better. He recognized an array when he saw one. The fact it did not work as intended would have made many cultivators dismiss it as a coincidence but it answered one question for Lind.
The Fiend arrays were not as straightforward as other races'.
Other races regardless of elements, always operated on similar principles. Gather Qi, use Qi, or generate Qi to achieve some goal.
Fiends, on the other hand, used their arrays for mostly a single purpose, the use of souls.
If someone was to ask for the best expert on Fiend arrays, Lind would be top of the list with no one else even close.
Even his family, with extensive training from him, never seemed to grasp them like he did. Other 6 elementals were not close either despite their effectiveness in fighting the Fiend race.
Thus, when faced with an impossible thing to other cultivators, Lind saw the truth. A thrice damned Soul Refinement Array on a massive scale!
The one oddity was how it was tuned. He saw it was not tuned to convert souls into Qi or even like preparation to store souls in a dantian. He was unsure what it was doing but he needed to see more of it to confirm his guess.
Aside from that, however, was the rest of the operation. He saw people malnourished and pushed to the brink. They were forced to keep mining and keep moving by people in armor and armed with those beam weapons.
They were not the inferior kind either but the alloy somehow infused with Fiend Qi.
Still, they were no use against him. He cracked his knuckles as a smile spread across his face.
"I am just now in need of some healthy venting." He had his world view broken and all his assumptions about his future battles truly slammed down on his head. He had a mountain he could not even glimpse the peak of in front of him.
He had been so sure of his victory if he kept pushing ahead that he had neglected his other versions' failures. He had been arrogant and just shown how feeble he was.
A single glance of his true enemy and he had been reduced to a quivering mass of pain and flesh.
He had to get stronger but not just in his cultivation. In his mind and soul. He had to stop sprinting and start planning!
His legs pulsed with power and the ground shattered as he launched upward at an angle towards the quarry.
The guards and other people glanced out toward the commotion but he was already falling down into them!
Only 1 young man looked up and it was far too late.
Lind slammed into the wall and shattered the metal and stone like it was nothing but paper! He moved like a blur as blood and death followed in his wake. Not a single weapon had a chance to be discharged.
He used his fists to vent and to focus. He had felt he knew so much more than others but he had just been as tunnel visioned as the True Lords that had their minds messed with.
As he defeated the guards and broke the defenses with his naked fists, he felt a satisfaction he had not felt in a long time. There were no complex political needs. There was no fate of the world riding on his shoulders.
It was just pure vile slavery. Some would say those trapped in the system were also victims but Lind knew it was impossible to verify. Further, guilt and anger created a dark cycle no one could predict.
Even those that truly might repent could be forced to hide it from those they once worked with. Those that survived the purge of slavers would influence generations and the old desire to rule might rise up given a new spark.
Lind just wanted to smash it all. He wanted to leave no trace of what he suspected was going on. The True Lords were being used by the Fiend in the shadows!
He just wanted to rip his enemy into the open and end them! He wanted to learn the truth of what was his fault and if he had set the Fiend on the world or not!