Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 324 - 323 - Impossible Place

It took another 2 weeks after the battle with the beasts to see a strange horizon ahead of them.  Based on the map Lind had seen, it should have been a skyline of advanced buildings with various giant gates but there was nothing but lightning.

Unlike the rest of Rakathi that had been turned to waste over countless years, a blazing sheet of colored light rose in front of them.  Lind had not been sure what to expect, but the sheer crushing power of heavenly lightning was beyond anything that could be explained with words.

Only death awaited anyone trying to go forward, but that was not the only shocking thing to Lind.  He expected to feel the conflict of the lightning as it tried to reach its target yet there was only the lightning.

The world burned with the wrath of Heaven, but it was denied by a void.  It was the only word Lind could give what his senses could pick out of the chaos.  At the heart of that terrifying attack was just nothing.

Lind had experienced Ruins, Relics, Inheritances, and shards of realms inserted into his own, but nothing felt like that void in front of him.  It made no sense.

A void should absorb or swallow Qi, yet this one deflected only.  A void might withstand such an event but there would be nothing else but the void there, yet again the deflection made no sense.

Tal rubbed her snout against him in fear but Kora simply grasped his shoulder a little tighter.  She had shrunk herself to a size that could ride his shoulder.  He was not sure how she had done that but it was clear the lessons of her mother covered more than transformation to a human shape.

Still, he could tell they felt the terror all life would facing the pure wrath of Heaven in the shape of a solid wall of power.  No sane being would even dare to advance but Lind strangely was not afraid.

He was not the target of the wrath and he had begun to suspect that whatever drove the attack was frustrated.  Was it alive?  Was it aware?

He was unsure.  From what he could tell, there was something cultivators tapped into but it was neither good nor evil when judging them.  Rather, it was as if the universe operated on certain rules and so long as one did not violate the rules, it was simply the struggle to survive.

Only when the rules were broken did the veil get pulled back a bit.  There was a higher order, a bottomline that once crossed would not be tolerated.  Karma was one aspect of it, but it was simpler.

Karma was personal to an individual, but the wrath of Heaven came for something far more serious.  Still, it usually stayed localized, but this had become twisted.  Heaven was truly angry at whatever was on the other side of that void.

It had broken the rules and somehow avoided the punishment.

It should not be possible yet there it was in front of him.

A sudden memory came back to Lind.  He was trying to figure out how to reproduce Soul Arts without pain when he stumbled on to an idea.

Science.  He used the science of Earth to safely use his elements and produced results far beyond his wildest dreams.  The tradeoff, however, was he had to have the right conditions or be able to instigate them.

The lightning he used against Ryu was solely due to the storm that had come that day.  Once he was in the World Realm, it had become so much easier since he controlled both his own Qi and the exterior Qi around him.

Lind had not entirely abandoned it as his Forging needed it for ideas, but he hardly relied on it anymore.

In front of him was proof that he was not quite right about that.

Science had limits of the mortal world to Lind's mind but that void had no Qi at all, yet deflected the lighting without issue.  That kind of power in the dome was at the peak of the mortal world.

"Was that the sin you wanted punished?  Did someone tread on your provenance without earning the right?"  It was possible.  If someone like him was reborn into a royal family or other power with near unlimited resources, they might be able to bring science to this world.

Science was not limited by cultivation, only the foundation of knowledge.  He had basic science that was pulled from his memories of high school and college.  He also had a smattering of trivia he had been curious about after talks with George and some of his friends, but that was it.

In other words, elementary science at best, but it was a start.  Combined with the long life of a cultivator, it was enough for the right mind to pursue science.

"I was wrong, it was not a cultivation Relic, but a different kind of relic."  It should have been impossible but clearly it was not.  Lind then made up his mind and moved forward.  Tal and Kora trembled but he kept a hand on Tal while Kora was already on his shoulder.

The trio approached the wall of lightning yet were never struck.  In fact, the wall parted to allow them to pass!

It was a strange feeling to Lind.  He just knew he would not be in danger as he walked through literal death if they were so much as scratched by that much lightning.

Since he had fully integrated his soul and foundation, his cultivation had advanced incredibly fast.  He was already at the peak of low Gold Tier after only a few weeks.

If others knew of his speed, they would be green with jealousy!  Getting to the peak of Iron Tier within 50 years was perfectly normal and anything under that considered a prodigy.  Gold Tier, however, was much more difficult to advance.

It was possible to reach it, but then potential could be burned like a wildfire to progress.

Lind, instead, seemed to have gained wings.  Even so, he still made sure his foundation was stable.  So far, he had no issues and realized his hard work as well as a century of healing had actually made an incredibly solid foundation.

He had the same century to study Gold Tier and Diamond Tier so he did not have to fumble as much as the previous Tiers and Realms.  Still, the speed stunned him.

Now, he walked through the field of instant death yet no harm came to him or his companions.  It actually helped stimulate his mind as he approached a dome of midnight darkness.

The bolts deflected off it from afar but up close, Lind saw the truth.

"Superconductor.  It is a room temperature superconductor."  Lind saw the energy channel like mad along the dome until it was released along the edges of the path.  The lightning could not unleash its power because the dome was a bottomless sponge.  It was designed to do exactly what it was doing!

"They knew, or suspected, that they would cross a line.  They prepared for the worst."  The dome was pristine but everything else was destroyed.  Only the grounding leads still existed where a massive capital had once stood.

All the people, every single being in the entirety of Rakathi had not died due to an accidental use of a Relic, but an intentional creation.  Why?

To what purpose could someone have gone to such lengths to survive?

Lind thought they may not have understood the true terror of Heavenly wrath, yet he could not know until he got inside.  It was the mystery he could not solve.

The dome perfectly conducted the danger away but the entrance should be a weak spot, yet none existed.  He stayed away from the charged material while circling it slowly to only find more grounding leads in the stone.

They were equidistant perfectly around the whole circumference.  There was no area that was different from any other.  It was possible they built the dome around whatever it was, but they still had to seal it up inside and out.

If he could touch it, he might be able to figure it out, yet that was definitely suicide.

The bolts may avoid him at the moment, but that dome was pure science.  It could not control the Qi being conducted inside or it would have cracked the dome long ago.

Anything made by man was not perfect.  Even assuming they planned for the tragedy that unfolded, the massive dome could only accommodate a single city.  It was hardly enough and also, how was it hidden from the rest of the capital?

A suspicion grew in Lind's mind.  He looked at the grounding leads and noticed that they really were paths.  They bordered what would have been roads.

The dome had been built as part of the city, it served a function!

"If not above, then below?"  It was unlikely.  Heavenly lightning was like not stopped so easily.  Cultivators trying to hide from their tribulation would be still found no matter how deep in the earth they tried to hide.

Cracks would be used or even passageways they were unaware of nearby to reach them.  The world was made by Heaven and Earth, it could not stop the trials put forth by it.

Lind carefully extended his senses into the stone between the grounding leads.  It was solid rock, but then he felt it.  An artificial material but unlike the dome it was non-conductive.  His Qi was effectively stopped like the strongest formation array had been placed in front of him.

"Of course!"  It made sense now.  The dome above to absorb and disperse while below there was a layer of protection using science as well.  The lightning could not breach it due to the grounding leads.

All the wrath of Heaven was made impotent thus its rage spread across all of Rakathi.

He looked carefully until he finally found what he was looking for.  It was the north facing side of the dome.  There was an entrance but it was not a simple doorway.  It was a revolving doorway like hospitals or other large buildings would use.

It had clearly been sealed but it was still there, as inert material made it up as well.  The seals completed it and left nowhere for any lightning to leak in.

"You stopped the wrath of Heaven, but it is not so easy to stop me."  The stone under Lind's hands twisted aside at his command.  It was still possible to use Arts but the disruption would be too much even for him.

Simple elemental control, on the other hand, was actually stronger since all the free Qi from the lighting was safely led away by the buried leads.  Lind dug a tunnel until he reached the structure below.

It was a dark gray material but it was not metal.  It was a kind of foam texture yet it was closer to plastic in its rigidity.  It felt wrong just seeing it.  It did not belong in this world.

"What have you done?"  The question left his mouth but his 2 companions had no answers.  The 2 aether beasts and Lind approached the doorway and the heart at the mystery of Rakathi.