novelraw Chapter 179 - 178 - Comprehension of the World
Chapter 179 - 178 - Comprehension of the World
2nd Chapter of Volume 3: Hail to the King
There were 6 streams of Qi flowing into Lind at the bottom of the Relic as 6 blended streams flowed out. The pressure was building as the arrays steadily lit up until a massive stone slap rose from the center of the shifting sands.
Unlike when he lit them up one at a time, it took far longer for the arrays to fill when he did them at once. It had taken almost a year to successfully guide the blended streams of lightning, illusion, mist, vacuum, gravity, and magma glowed at the stone column solidified beneath his body.
Lind smiled to note it was emerald in color rather than evenly split between the 6 elemental colors. His harmony was not accounted for but when his 6 elements came together, the sand had changed color first before the stone formed.
His progress was slow but getting better. The combined column lasted far longer than the 6 individual stone pedestals. It took more than half his Qi at first but as time moved, he realized this Relic was the best place to temper his fonts.
The column rose as the pressure did in his dantian until a thud reverberated in his body. Peak Sand Tier! It had taken a year but he had gotten through the Sand Tier far faster than tempering his Soul Realm ever did!
He felt the stone stop rising as all the first level of arrays were lit up and he let go of the Qi. He cultivated and kept an eye on the column but it already made it past 6 cycles before it began to crumble.
The sand in his dantian already filled it up but he had to recover his fonts as well. He polished his foundation until he looked at the next layer. Lightning blast, thousand mirrors, typhoon, vortex, tornado, and volcano flowed out. He had learned that as he shifted, the element to the left of each lower blending was added.
Lighting blast added earth, thousand mirrors added fire and so forth. The stone column shook and solidified quickly but no other change occurred for a long time. Hours passed but his Qi was about to run out when iron finally appeared
The arrays were half filled before it appeared at the 2nd level. Lind exhausted his Qi and only filled up 3 quarters of the 2nd layer. He thought he had failed but was stunned when the half formed iron column remained and the arrays slowly drained. He could never recover in time but pulled Qi from the streams to speed up the process and began channeling once more.
He was sweating profusely a full day later when the iron column was complete. Lind lay flat on his back exhausted. He was still at the peak of the Sand Tier but he still held back despite the desire to break through.
The Stone Tier might help but he wanted to study what he had to do next first. One tier to the next was far different from advancing within the tier. He could be interrupted inside a tier and not suffer any ill effect, but if the column collapsed at the wrong moment, he could have severe Qi deviation.
"Let's see what I have to work on." The 3rd layer was visible from below but he had hoped he had misread it.
Following the same pattern he started with, Lightning storm which would include darkness becoming the source rather than his Qi. Labyrinth added earth to the illusions. Water drake added fire as an attack to the created creature. Whirlpool was suddenly there when light was added to darkness, light, and air. Blackhole was created by adding water to earth, darkness, and air. Earthquake was the final slot.
He felt a headache just looking at them.
Lind assumed the lotus position and recovered his Qi as well as digested what he had felt reaching that point. By his estimation, he should be able to reach the top in the Stone Tier, but only just.
The World Realm was always a qualitative change. Sand to Iron was steady but efficient until then. Gold Tier was a massive leap, hence the Lotus Empire had one as its emperor. Diamond Tier was another massive leap even from Gold which made any power with one at its head a considerable one in the 3 continents.
He tracked the time then studied the next layer before he felt his jaw drop.
Sand storm destruction was the first one to catch his eye due to lightning. Lost dimension was the next one. Hurricane was next and Lind just shook his head at even conceiving of trying that one. Endless depths was harder for him to grasp but cultivators were dramatic beings. Collapse was at least feasible to his mind but still the last one just made his mind break. Submergence. Lind realized that was the total collapse of the earth similar to endless depths.
He had trouble enough but then he saw the final layer and was confused.
Fire, light, water, air, darkness, and earth. He then looked at the final set of indents and realized what the last layer was. The myriad disasters could only occur in 1 place, a world.
"Audacious." This Relic taught cultivators to use their primary elements together to achieve insane results. If there were 6 cultivators it would be fairly easy but alone, he would be pushing his dantain to the maximum.
He resumed his cultivation and noted that it took 18 cycles to finally collapse the entire structure of stone and iron. Nine days were not enough to break through, but he had recovered more than enough Qi to soften his fall.
Now that he was back at the sand island, he prepared to break through. He timed the surges and accepted the flow of Qi for several weeks before a massive shockwave spread out. His fonts were now sending much higher quality Qi compressing the sand back into the center of his dantian until the floating particles solidified into a single ball of Qi.
Emerald stone took up the center of his dantian as his capacity and quality improved immensely. His once full dantian now felt empty and so he continued to cultivate his low Stone Tier as he refilled his Qi.
Even with the relic chamber, it took close to a week to refill his Qi. He suspected the issue was the competing elements that slowed him down. Lind then spent the next few months testing his limits but he could not advance to the gold layer.
It took close to half a year before he made it to the mid Stone Tier and finally summoned about ⅓ of the gold layer. Even with recovery, he only got to the halfway mark before he could not summon any more Qi despite the constant flow from the 6 streams.
He had only recovered half his Qi when the whole structure of stone, iron and half gold collapsed. He was able to save himself easily but the long slog continued.
A whole year passed after that and he was at the peak of mid Stone Tier before the full gold layer was completed. He wanted to continue but he was completely exhausted. It took him a month to recover and the whole pillar had collapsed by then but his fonts were far more stable than before.
His ascension to the gold layer took far less time than before but he still exhausted his Qi by then. Despite having close to 18 days to recover, it was not enough. Lind focused on cultivating and pushing to the high Stone Tier. It was the only way to finish his trials here and he was running out of time.
Hunger was growing inside him and the Body Refining Realm meat was not enough to satisfy him anymore. The column collapsed again and he spent the next few months reaching high Stone Tier. It had been 2 years since he broke through to the World Realm.
He was stunned at his progress but it took so long to polish and recover his Qi at each minor realm. Compared to Sand Tier, Stone Tier took weeks to recover. He knew part of it was pushing himself so hard but the 6 Qi streams fought him when he tried to pry the Qi directly from them too.
Even so, Lind persevered until he finally completed the gold layer and was not exhausted. He not only tempered his fonts but he was comprehending World Qi at the same time. Soul Realm was all about understanding the elements within the body and applying them there, but World Realm was about mastering the Qi around a cultivator and commanding it to obey them.
Sand Tier was like moving mud with his fingers but Stone Tier was grasping the Qi more firmly. As Lind mastered it, his efficiency increased massively. Before, to make the 4 elemental streams took all he had, but he was only down to a quarter of his Qi while at mid-Stone Tier.
"Almost there." Only 2 levels remained but he was still confused about the last layer. He understood the basic idea but did the Relic have a specific goal of all 6 elements or could he adapt things as he had been doing?
He looked down and saw a column with a massive stone column on stabilized sand with an iron layer above it and now gold as well. The ceiling was closer but he could not fly at all. He wished he could cheat with Earth knowledge but it just did not help at the moment without clothes or some medium.
His staff helped his efficiency as well, but only a little.
At the gold layer, he had just shy of 3 months to recover which was more than enough. Unfortunately, the next layer would exhaust him instantly even to try for a few hours. Using 5 elements in rotation at the same time was far above his ability.
Lind experimented for all the time he had left before the column collapsed once more.
He contemplated breaking through one more time but decided against it. Mid Stone Tier should be enough, what was left was comprehension. His other reason was due to the fact that all he had done was rely on his talents and the chamber to progress but he felt something was missing this time.
Sand Tier was familiarizing himself but Stone Tier was where true mastery had to begin for the World Realm. He wondered where things could have gone if he was not in this Relic but he accepted the mercy of fate.
His hunger was rising but Lind was able to push it aside. It felt like he had only skipped a meal for a single day when almost 3 years had passed. He had to complete the column on his current attempt.
This great ease, the stone, iron, and gold layers formed as if it was nothing to him now. His efficiency and potency was the best he could do at mid-Stone Tier. The cylinder of the Relic roared with the forces of destruction and creation. The power that made and destroyed a world shook his bones as the gold layer completed once more.
Half his Qi was gone but the 6 streams flowed towards Lind by his Sky Touch control. Once he was almost full, he began the most difficult step. His mind strained as he sent out 6 streams once more. Each direction was only missing 1 element and his dantian strained to allow the final element to join the other 5.
He learned quickly and it got easier but he exhausted his Qi when a thin layer of diamond appeared. Lind prayed it bought him enough time to recover.
A mere month later and a crack appeared in the column when Lind had half recovered. He desperately wished he could have an elixir but he learned nothing he had made aside from Dantian Recovery could exist inside the chamber.
"I am not falling again!" Lind was sweating heavily as he forced the streams to feed his dantian fonts. In the process of creating the diamond layer, he broke through to the high Stone Tier. He hardly acknowledged it.
The final layer slowly came level with Lind's eyes before finally the feeling of stability shook the column.
Lind was heaving breath heavily when the column stabilized and all the arrays were glowing in full.
The pressure of the streams was the strongest at the current layer as it was where they entered the chamber from outside. Lind was recovering far faster than lower down the chamber but the surges were stronger too.
He rode them like a surfer and stabilized his cultivation in less than 2 weeks. He then re-examined the final indentations and smiled as he looked at the center of the ceiling. The dome had a membrane with 6 covered holes at the outside. He hoped it would go as planned.
With great ease, Lind pictured Earth in his head.
His Qi flowed and commanded the Qi around him to recreate Earth in miniature form. A sphere came together with gravity and storms ravaging its surface until it settled.
"I am the world and the world is me." His dantian thrummed as the Relic shook around him and the column thrust upward towards the membrane that changed shape into a cone opening at long last.
Lind was raised on the column up and out of the chamber after almost 4 years inside at the World Realm. He was almost 30 but he still looked like a teenager. Lind looked around and found himself in a familiar place.
A dome extended far above him and distortions blocked off all routes out of the square he emerged in. Lind smiled as he hopped down and the Relic shook before a beam of the 6 elements coalesced in front of him and produced a token.
It had a profound feeling but the moment Lind touched it, he understood.
The Relic was part of an Inheritance to encourage comprehension before the Heaven Realm. The creator felt it took too long for cultivators to grasp the power of the 6 elements but Lind did not know why that was important enough to create an Inheritance that was not a legacy but a teaching tool.
Regardless, it was a godsend for Lind. He had used his journey combined with the test of the Relic to finally achieve the long held dream of 6 elementals. Now, it was time to go home. Lind saw the flow of Qi far off to his right.
"The Aether Sect is that way." Lind waved the token and the distortions parted 20 meters in front of him. He smiled and began to walk out of the Relic. It had been 6 years since he entered the Relic from what he could tell. "I am free!"