novelraw Chapter 362 - 361 - Pace of Change
Chapter 362 - 361 - Pace of Change
"Sect Mistress, we have–" Tessa was bringing a report to Kexin when she froze. The office had changed little from before when Lind held it but now she saw things missing. Shelves had gaps where none had been before and certain artifacts had been replaced with much higher quality ones.
She also saw arrays were altered to work with demonic Qi where before it was a mix.
Tessa looked at Kexin to see her looking forlornly out at the sect grounds.
"Lind is gone." Kexin spoke softly but Tessa felt her heart skip a beat at those words. Lind Frey had been a totem for not only the Moebius Sect but much of the world in the last century and a half.
His discoveries and ideas had changed the cultivation world but then he went and exposed dark secrets while building a sect that was unlike any other in the world. He then somehow resolved the long standing devastation in Rakathi.
The revelations coming out of that region continued to progress the world as well but few understood the cause of the wrath of Heaven originally. Lind never spoke about it publicly. The few leaders than knew clearly kept it away.
As if that was not enough, he revealed a stunning advance of his professions beyond the mortal realm. The rise of Moebius Sect after that was unstoppable. The 6 elementals, once stuck at Iron Tier, exploded all the way to Diamond Tier as if simply waiting for his lead.
The shortness of the latest war was solely down to both the power to allocate and strategy to predict the Demon Empire attacks from Moebius Sect.
Now that she thought of it all, Tessa realized the world had been stagnant for millenia. Lind Frey had woken it up and now cultivators were pushing the boundaries all around the world due to his influence.
Not all of it was good, but not all of it was wicked either. Tears fell from her cheeks as she realized she did not want him to go, but it was inevitable.
The chains holding him back never stopped him, so now he was facing the last bottleneck of 6 elementals. He was going to ascend!
⬧⬧⬧⬧
Salt air was heavy with the stench of decay and animal filth but the creak of the deck was welcome to Lind. His hair was now dark with his skin deeply tanned. His eyes were still dark green but they were so dark that the skin made them look nearly black.
His robes were plain gray with no emblems or badges on them. He had a few pouches at his belt but the single item that stood out was the black ring on his hand. Despite all efforts to remove it, the sinuous dragon ring refused to move from his finger.
It marked a cultivator better than anything else, and few knew of his ring's details so he let it go. It drew some attention but only a little. Other cultivators wandered the world for centuries with little else to show for it.
"You left so much behind, junior. Surely that will be a detriment to your future?" Senior dragon soul sounded so weak but Lind smiled. He did not answer her as he had chosen to secure Moebius Sect against any sneak attacks or fools.
The sect was strong but a few hidden cards never hurt.
The flying disc was left with Kexin to hold as she wished. She could not use it but others could start to. Compared to Lind's capacity, other humans were laughable but that was not to say another could not come along that could use it for the sect.
He had cut ties with the sect for now, but one thread remained. If he succeeded, he would have one last lesson to impart. For now, he was taking a slow moving transport boat to Cimmeria.
People would know he left the sect soon enough and be looking all over Sarth for him. Indelia would become more intense but he had plans to be far by then. The current boat route was the longest in the world.
Rakathi had built a port on the most northern coast that was not impossible to reach. A sort of safe path existed for boats to traverse but some still became lost. Lind knew, however, that the current boat would be left alone.
He was letting his dragon soul barely flare enough to discourage any aether beasts from coming close.
It took months to cross but the coastline was visible as the western side was steep cliffs until Rakathi flattened out to black sand beaches. The land was still blasted wastes for the most part but life was returning.
The beach was the result of many thousands of years of lightning strikes from the Heavens. Oddly, aether beasts still avoided the place even after 40 years. Lind suspected the race memory of the lightning killing beasts was impressed on them for now.
Given time, aether beasts will return but in the same manner, the cultivators would have time to fortify the ports.
"Welcome to Brythia Port! Please present yourself to the guards here to enter the city and state your business clearly!" A flying man called out as all realized a Sky Realm was at the port of the city.
Lind was stunned at how vast the city was in such a short time. The walls were heavily reinforced with arrays already but the flying man made him smile in recognition. He was one of the ancestors of the villages he had met underground all those decades ago.
He did not linger on the flying old man and got in line with the rest. There were a few cultivators that tried to cut the line but the guards simply detained them as they were all Diamond Tiers!
The level of strength at the port was already high but Lind noticed they were also 6 elementals! A quick review of the map in his head no longer matched what he saw and Lind realized Rakathi was symbolic of all the changes in the world.
It was racing ahead but the old conventions were still trying to cling to what they defined as normalcy. Lind could see new powers rising in the Rakathi region and few would be able to stop it.
He only hoped there would be smaller battles than wars that wiped out whole powers like in the last war.
The line moved very swiftly until he was before the guards.
"Purpose in coming to Brythia?" The guard was bored but Lind did not expect many would trouble a Diamond Tier.
"I am going to honor an ancestor, so I am only passing through." A slight change in the guard occurred as he reviewed the jade slip handed to him. He nodded and looked Lind in the eye.
"May your journey home be unbothered Brother Cord." As he had before, Taren Cord was being used one last time. While the name was tied to Lind, few knew of it commonly. Lind bowed and moved on.
The small chaos after that gave way to well paved stone streets and he found a caravan heading east.
Once goods and people were full up, the caravan was pulled forward by familiar beasts. Graels had been sold to much of Rakathi as they made better beasts of burden. The shaggy animals were also strangely high cultivation at the Iron or Gold Tier from some he had seen in passing.
Still, the speed could not be argued and few bumps would stop them. The countryside was a far cry from the blasted landscape Lind remembered. When he risked himself back then, the land had been empty and cratered everywhere.
Some were deep but only a few were truly like chasms due to heavier lightning strikes.
Now, he saw green grass and a few slim trees here or there. It would be a long time before it became more varied, but the path cut through an almost idyllic plains. He knew the chasms were still out there with a far more vast diversity of life, but they were far from those.
"I heard the ravines are being contested again. The natives that stayed in those dark days refuse to realize how weak they are." Lind heard some conversations that did not surprise him.
The very first thing that happened after confirming the Wrath of Heaven was gone was various powers trying to lay claim to the wastes resources. The natives, understandably, resisted.
The villages were generally left alone as they were more human stubbornness than any resource rich area, but the various oases ravines were a very different story. Sky Realms thought they could lay their power around but were stunned when other Sky Realms were revealed!
The number of ancestors was never exactly known until then but it was enough despite how hold they were. They repelled the initial scramble of powers but then the high and supreme powers started to come for them.
Moebius Sect then sent help. In a move that frustrated many, Moebius Sect lent its support to Rakathi and while there were no comparisons to the whole world at the time, there were enough connections back then to broker a reasonable peace.
Stardust Emporium had the strongest claim and, as a mercantile power, it saw the profit in cooperation versus war. So the Rakathi villages and oases formed a pseudo block of power that came under the Emporium's protection for a slice of the resources within.
The flow of goods increased and things were good, but now Moebius Sect had moved and the once strong allies were becoming fractured. The Emporium could be swayed easily so long as the profits swapped positions, but Lind hoped there was time yet before that happened.
"It is all changing so quickly." He mumbled the words but no one heard him. He saw larger villages and towns as they moved east and the large caravan split at some crossroads but Lind stayed going east until there were no more stops.
There was still a place no one lived, where no life grew, and no resources were known to exist. The lightning had heavily blasted the area to the point it was almost a desert of black sand rather than stony ground.
Lind found it comforting that this place remained unchanged. He felt something familiar and smiled as he knew his hunch was right.
There had been reports of some kind of forbidden place in Rakathi still but none could figure out what was going on as regardless of the realm, they forgot everything and returned to their starting point.
"Seniors, I have returned to say goodbye." Lind spoke the words as the air rippled before him before it parted. A large flying beast looked down at him with golden eyes surrounded by gray scales.
"Welcome back, junior. You may enter." Lind cupped his hands and bowed as he seemed to be swallowed by the very air before the ripple closed. None watching could have followed but it was merely an empty landscape to all other eyes.