novelraw Chapter 178 - 177 - Multitasking
Chapter 178 - 177 - Multitasking
This is the start of Volume 3: Hail to the King
Deep in the heart of the Relic, the 6 Qi streams danced around a naked man that used a staff like a supreme expert. The agile twirl of the staff as it changed directions instantly caused all 6 elements to dance around him like a deadly light show.
Lind was covered in a thin sheen of sweat as he completed his tempering routine. A smile crossed his face as he felt his fonts had improved once more! It was satisfying to see the fonts improve and then the swirling mass of sand at the center of his dantian also improve.
World Realm was so much easier than Soul Realm!
He had no idea how much time he had lost after arriving in this chamber but once he broke through, his sense of time became much better. It had been 4 months since he broke through to mid-Sand Tier and he had polished his cultivation base as well as mastered using his new fonts.
It was a strange sensation. He was used to moving the Qi in his meridians and using a medium to channel his Qi to achieve his effects. His elixir making would be a thousand times more efficient without relying on his Sky Touch anymore.
He also enjoyed the full capability of his staff. At the Soul Realm he had reached the limit of it helping him but now that he could control World Realm Qi, the staff made an excellent magnifier to draw in even more Qi than he could on his own.
As it was the only time he could safely use in the chamber, he was still stark naked, but he was used to it. He could endure more now that his body had improved just by breaking through. He would need a tempering bath if he wanted to improve more a technique to do so but he put all that aside as he assumed a lotus position to digest his gains.
The surges no longer bothered him as he simply rode the increase now to bring more Qi into his body to cultivate. His innate cultivator talent still reared its drive to push ahead but Lind no longer was afraid of it.
The World Realm required his fonts to be stronger to improve his foundation so now they went hand in hand.
He had made many comprehensions and did his best to note down the most important to immediately fill jade slips on later. The only other thing he had discovered was how the indents worked.
He stood up and brought the Qi from the fire and light streams together and a massive bolt of lightning smashed into the indent marked for it. Arrays lit up as he kept the reaction going until finally a gold and crimson stone plinth surfaced from the sand.
Lind's Eyes worked safely once more now that he was in the World Realm and he was fascinated to see the flow of combined Qi fed back to generate the stone pedestal that could easily allow an individual to stand on it.
He repeated the process individually for each blending of dual elements and 6 pedestals grew out of the sand. By the time he circled back to lightning, it was cracking and falling back into sand.
"Even if I feed it longer, the time does not increase." Lind had discovered the purpose of the chamber. It was to teach World Realm cultivators to work together to create the most basic forms of blending elements.
Blending World Qi was far harder than Soul Qi as the latter was all internal and needed mediums to enhance or ease the results. Lind's use of physics still needed mediums but his deeper understanding of science gave him options most cultivators did not consider.
Science, sadly, did not help him here.
The first layer was dual blending to make stone, tri-blending to make iron, quad-blending to make gold, and penta-blending to make diamond. The final part was directly above his head in the center of the ceiling. He suspected all 6 elements would be needed at that point to leave this part of the Relic.
"It is an education trial. Cooperation is the only way to leave and you need all 6 elements to do it." Lind had been stumped but his time as an elixir master and Forger had given him a solution to at least the first 2 layers.
Multitasking.
He could divide his senses to achieve the result of rising up but this place was never meant to be used by a 6 elemental. He would run out of Qi long before he got to the gold level.
Thus began a round of experiments but he ran into a problem very quickly. If he only focused on a single column of indentations, it would not react one row up so long as the other 5 columns were unlit.
Thus, he quickly used fire, light, and earth to created a storm of lightning. Many bolts thundered across the distance between him on the sand island and the 2nd row. The arrays lit up and the cracking stone gold and crimson plinth solidified and grew larger until an iron platform began to rise up.
It was working but then all the arrays went dark and he looked over to the light and water stone pedestal that was already mostly disintegrated.
"So, I have to do it all at once or not at all." Lind was contemplating when he noticed something. The 5 stone pedestals collapsed but the lightning combo stone and iron remained far longer. He kept counting and a long time later the iron shattered completely, taking the stone with it.
He realized his Qi could recover but that was not all. The pulses had reacted strangely. The cycle was Sand to Diamond Tier and repeat but when Lind started creating the pedestals, the surges actually reset.
"Time keeping, they made a time keeping method for this place." He smiled as he realized how it worked. The Sand Tier he was essentially standing on was unaffected and constantly renewed forever. If a stone pedestal appears, the cycle immediately resets and then once Lind stops channeling, it took 2 cycles for the stone to shatter.
The iron addition, however, lasted for 6 cycles.
"So it doubles the specific layer and adds to the lower one." A cycle lasted half a day from start to end so just making up to the iron level bought him 3 days. "I can recover a quarter of my Qi in that amount of time but that is not the biggest problem."
If Lind wanted to advance, he had to use all 6 columns all the way up the whole room. While he no longer suffered from thirst or hunger at the moment, he would eventually need to eat something or he would begin to suffer once more. He had only bought himself more time.
Sighing, Lind cultivated and focused on his plan.
⬧⬧⬧⬧
It had been a little over a year since Lind Frey was declared dead. It had only been a few months since the heavenly jubilation before the 3 continents settled down. While rumors were spread that he was alive, the more time passed, the less believed.
For the major powers, aside from the Heavenly Maiden Sect, a single cultivator was not a concern to be hung up on.
Solon was covered in sweat as his sword cleaved through the air to slice into 2 the aether beast at the Gold Tier in front of him. Its scales were massive. Some called it a drake but it was essentially a giant lizard.
The scales were burnt orange but the breath was pure darkness that withered all life around it until Solon killed it. His robes had been replaced by true armor and chainmail for this current hunt.
He put his sword tip into the ground to lean on it. Despite being a low Gold Tier himself, the drake was far more powerful than cultivators in the same realm.
"You are acting so old, boy!" Solon sighed but smirked as he looked at his old master. Bord was still in the Sand Tier but he was far more stable and powerful compared to years ago. Even so, the man had not changed from his brash and blunt self.
"You could have helped more–" Solon froze as Bord was calmly sitting on a massive green scaled lizard. It was also in the Stone Tier yet the blade marks were clearly from Bord. How the man fought above his tier was stunning but the old man was full of tricks. Solon had not even noticed!
"Ah, I could have, sure. I am sure that beastie would have enjoyed being tickled by me." Bord smiled as he puffed on a pipe. Solon also saw he was holding a jade in his free hand and frowned.
"What is wrong, old man?" Bord had taken to holding that jade stone when he was troubled. Solon had kept his own but he had begun to lose hope once more.
"I keep an ear out and some disturbing news has come from the south." Solon sent his mind back into any reports he read but nothing stood out. The Demon Empire was quiet for some reason these days but Darkmoor was getting ready for their Queen to ascend to the Sky Realm in a few years.
It was a celebratory time so what could trouble his old master?
"Sigh, you need to care about more things than swords and women, lad." Solon frowned deeply. It was fine that he wallowed a bit when the vixen chose Lind over him, but when news had arrived that the boy died, Solon had been hurting in his heart for months.
Bord had seemed stoic to some but he had changed. He had been as sword crazy as any of them, but after that jade stone was given to them by a Maiden, Bord had become subdued and focused on different priorities.
"Kingdom of Altair has moved to declare Lind Frey officially deceased and has entered negotiations with the Lotus Empire." Solon had not thought of those places in years. The Lotus Empire was a backwater power not worth their time mostly but the relationship with Altair led to Lind even existing.
Also, the way Bord spoke about the news made it seem sarcastic.
"What exactly is the issue that should concern us?" Bord frowned now but he then puffed on his pipe as his wrinkled face looked sad.
"Since Lind, the official heir, is dead the Regent needs to cement his power with a marriage to royal blood and he wants the old blood of the last king." Solon now felt his hand crack as it gripped the sword hilt.
"His sisters?!" There might be little to concern the Divine Sword Sect, Solon would be damned if Lind's family had to suffer. They had been through enough!
"If it were that, I think I could get Valen to let me go, but instead they seem to be targeting the Frey Clan in general. I think the Regent is aware of how risky it would be to target the 2 women he abandoned. The Maidens would instantly snag them up, but they have no authority to stop official negotiations." Bord was shocking Solon with how detailed his analysis was.
Where was the crazy old man he had grown up around?
"My point is this. If Lind does not come back in the next few years, I am not sure he will have a home to come back to. The Lotus Empire enjoyed its time too much over Altair and now are paying the price. The Frey Clan may be sacrificed to resolve it and I think both you and I will not allow that?" Bord now looked sharply at Solon.
He wanted to nod his head. He wanted to take his bloodied sword and march off to the Lotus Empire but he looked down to his right breast and saw the symbol of his sect. A feeling of heaviness came over his soul as he realized he no longer just represented himself.
"I can't. I will do what I can but I can't do that." Solon saw Bord's face grow cold but then a tired sigh escaped it.
"You are right, I am just tense. I owe that boy a debt and I have to pay it back. I could not claim to be a member of our sect if I did not." Solon suddenly felt ashamed. He had thought his master had lost his mind to grief but instead it was the opposite. The Divine Sword Sect swore to live by the sword and follow the dao of their hearts.
Bord was the Dao of Protection. His being alive at all was due to Lind Frey. Of course he took his oaths seriously and that was what drove the change. Bord was living by his sword, could Solon do any less when called?
He looked up at the sunlight and leafy green trees around him.
"Come home soon, Lind, we need you." Solon sent the words out and saw Bord smile as he puffed on his pipe. Both men began to carve up the beasts to take materials back to the sect.