novelraw Chapter 301 - 300 - Strange Inheritance
Chapter 301 - 300 - Strange Inheritance
Far to the east was the start of the Endless Ocean. No one remembered who named it but Lind suspected it was someone that had looked at the whole mortal realm and saw the void lay beyond the waters.
On the golden cliffs of eastern Indelia, there was a strange open space of silence in the constant punishment the rest of the Rakathi Wastes endured. The boiling black clouds were still there so no Sky Realm could fly over and find it, but down on the ground, an eerie expanse of silence was found.
Lind had spent a few weeks traveling with Nolan's guidance and supplies from Katie and Beth. His departure was kept a secret so far as where he went, but his leaving was a huge party as the locals tried to drink him into a stupor once more.
After over a month of living there, Lind had built up a tolerance to the water of life, but only just. Instead of feeling dead, he only felt slightly dead come the morning.
Afterwards, he donned new blue robes and even colored his hair as it was likely he had more hunters he had no idea about. Nolan merely smiled strangely when seeing Lind off at that moment as if he hoped to find more people to target!
Sighing, he had endured the hugs, tears, and joy from the locals. They also tried to pawn off several bottles of the water of life, but Lind did not want to see that drink again for a very long time!
Life in the village had dulled the first leg of his journey, but the journey east harshly reminded him of the reason it was called the wastes. The empty blasted land was frequently struck by powerful lightning.
Beasts did survive and Lind was a tasty treat until he used his presence with the dragon soul to keep most away. It was tiring so some battles were unavoidable but the constant flux of the storms made Arts useless.
World Arts needed a firm control of the external Qi, so Lind had to rely on his strength and internal power only. A few techniques from normal cultivation helped but it still severely limited him. Any other cultivator would have died by the imbalance, but Lind's body was a weapon unlike any other.
His ability to control his new strength improved but it was a bloody mess. He had to rip the beasts apart with his bare hands at times, yet he felt no disgust about the act itself. He was more irritated that such weak beasts challenged him in the first place!
"You have the pride of a dragon in you, junior. You must learn to master it, true, but I think you are doing fine." Senior dragon soul calmed Lind's worries about his change in emotions, but it still rankled him that he had not even noticed until he knew what had happened to him.
As the journey continued, he did see his control improve but the brutality did not stop due to his lack of options. By the time he entered the eerily quiet area, his robes were drenched in blood and he looked more like a beast than a human.
His Eyes and Touch were suddenly unimpeded and while the clouds were painful, the barren land was different from the rest of the wastes.
It had the signs of scorching but it was ancient. No life had returned because of a lack of water, light, and the right kind of insect or animal life to nurture it.
"So whatever happened only occurred once and was stopped after that?" Lind mumbled a guess but he doubted he was right. If something could stop the lightning like that, why did it allow it the first time?
It was odd but nearly as odd as the feeling of serenity everywhere. He could not place where the feeling came from, but there was something familiar about the silent expanse despite never setting foot in Rakathi before then.
"Senior, what am I feeling?" A wisp of her aura flared but confusion only came back.
"I am unsure what you are feeling, but it is alien to me. There is some pressure I do not recognize in the air. It has, seemingly, dispersed the wrath of Heaven for the area in a way I do not grasp." Lind was shocked. While he did not have a grasp on Immortals, he knew the tiers. If he was right, senior dragon soul was at least a 2nd tier or more before she lost her physical form.
It meant she had lived for millions, maybe even billions, of years yet she knew nothing while it was familiar to him?!
Where could he have felt it before?
Lind did not move and assumed the lotus position. He dove into his mind but the external world went through a change. Particles of dust began to glow faintly with emerald light yet neither senior dragon soul nor Lind noticed.
He had to go back almost to the beginning of his journey when a study suddenly blared in his head.
The fine tea, furniture and his own voice coming from the ether around him.
The future! It was from when he visited the future! The feeling he had was like that room!
"Interesting, the sensation does seem to match but I still do not know of it. Did your future self give you any clues to what realm you reached?" Senior dragon soul did not seem surprised that Lind had traveled through time.
Given her long life and that there were cultivators that followed the Dao of Space, it was entirely feasible the Dao of Time was followed as well. It made Lind very curious to talk about Daos as his own was a bit difficult to define.
He definitely was looking at all the elements, not just the base 6, but demonic and anti-Qi as well. He wanted to understand but that was not all there was. His head began to throb before a draconic roar snapped him out of it.
"Strange, you suddenly were in danger. It was as if your mind was being guided against your will to go beyond what it could handle." Senior dragon soul had saved him but Lind now felt it. Aside from the eerie silence, it was almost as if there were whispers just beyond normal hearing.
His new senses felt it, but he could not defend against it without being aware.
"A kind of test?" Lind wondered but then began to progress per the map in his head. He could not see it but the citadel had to be ahead.
The disturbance of lightning was gone but Lind felt a kind of pressure as he advanced. At first he worried it would stop him but his harmony flared in response and the pressure was simply a sensation much like the feeling of wind on the skin.
His analysis though told him it would have to be 4 to 5 times gravity so how was his harmony defying it? He followed the flow of Qi in his meridians and smiled.
Anti-gravity. He was producing a counterforce due to his understanding of earth science.
"Newton would be proud." Confusion came from the senior dragon soul but Lind was now convinced he was being tested. It was odd though. The underground caverns that were connected by caves with maps; the sudden mental trap in the eerie silent space; and now pressure most cultivators could not overcome.
It was vastly different from the Inheritances he had encountered at the tournament. Those were Heaven and Immortal Realm Inheritances but everything was inside. The entrance presented itself by resonance to the cultivators present.
Do fully manifested Inheritances have external trials like that?
Lind could only push it aside as senior dragon soul was unsure. She had built one but it was self-contained as the ones he had encountered before. She had never heard of such elaborate or extensive abilities from even the most powerful cultivators she knew.
He marched on but there was a new change. The pressure vanished and Lind felt lost. His senses seemed fine but his instincts from his dragon soul told him to stop.
He tried to perceive anything with his Eyes or Touch but they told him the same as his normal senses. Since that was the case, Lind closed his eyes and let his dragon instincts guide him back.
The moment he took a single step, there was a shift in the wind and scents that made him snap his eyes open. A gigantic citadel had appeared where only the horizon had been before.
"It seems I passed." He looked it over but it was hard to make out the finer details. There were only 3 large towers merched into a base structure. It was all made of black stone that seemed to glow to his eyes but the profound feeling was only comparable to that old memory.
He also saw the source of the serpentine symbols from the cavern. It was aether beasts, massive aether beasts.
They had whiskers on both sides of snouts but their skin was scaly, yet not like a dragon. Their eyes were golden yet Lind could not perceive any orbs. The thing that made sweat break out on his body was the aura they put out.
He had never felt anything like it. Dwarfed Delenn and Younger Twins' auras by a large margin. What was he facing?!
His dragon soul flared in rage but Lind tamped it down. The beasts were not wandering, they simply looked at him before the closest one floated out to him.
"Strange. Your essence is human, but your soul is a dragon. We also sense the touch of our fellow travelers just faintly on you. Of all to come here, you are indeed qualified." The voice was very gentle but Lind felt his skin harden as emerald scales appeared.
A smirk spread on the beast's face.
"Ah, a dragon soul. You passed a Soul Trial. The spirits rarely grant a second life." Lind nearly wanted to giggle. He would technically be on his third then.
"Honored Seniors, I came in part for curiosity but also because I hoped to see if I could learn anything to help me advance to the Gold Tier." Lind allowed his harmony to flare and understanding passed on all the beasts.
"So, you are the revered figure of Lind Frey?" Lind jumped as he had been identified so quickly, especially by such a remote area. His surprise was clear but the beasts purred loudly that Lind took as laughter. "We are not restricted by distance to learn of the realm we are residing in."
The beast came closer, yet Lind no longer felt afraid. Its aura washed over him and Lind had nothing to hide. A flaring of eyes did occur on the beast though.
"Peak Iron Tier, flawless foundation, Divine Fonts, and an emerald harmony. Your dragon soul is nascent but I sense another living soul guiding you. It is impolite for juniors to not introduce themselves." Lind was stunned at how perfect the beast saw him.
A roar came from the senior dragon soul. The beast's reaction was odd.
"I see. My apologies, junior. Still, your time is slim, relatively speaking. Use it wisely." The beast then turned its attention back to Lind. "You are a different matter. You have struggled but have not lost yourself to success. You have suffered betrayal and disappointment, but strengthened your heart. You are worthy to face our father's Inheritance."
Lind was tempted but he calmed his heart.
"May I ask one question?" The beast nodded and Lind stretched out his senses entirely. A reaction came from within his soul as his eyes became emerald slits and scales spread on his body. The transformation allowed him to have the most precise instincts but when he got his answer the shock made blood trickle from his lips.
"That was unwise little junior." The beast did not admonish but Lind only smiled as he let his body heal.
"May I ask how a Divine Inheritance can exist in a mortal realm?" Shock was not only from the senior dragon soul but the aether beasts as well.
The beast in front of Lind came so close he could smell the untold millennia of dust on its breath from living in the wastes for so long.
"Fascinating. You have more knowledge than most yet I can determine this is the first life you have cultivated. Your history is interesting yet clearly we have not seen it all." The implication was clear that these beasts were not infallible. "You are correct, this is the Divine Inheritance of the Skinwalker. A once powerful Journeyman of Heaven. Will you risk your existence, little junior?"