novelraw Chapter 373 - 372 - Progenitor's Ascension
Chapter 373 - 372 - Progenitor's Ascension
The Saint Kingdom was a vast stretch of the south eastern Sarth continent. It laid claim to areas bereft of people, but still, it was a supreme power of the mortal realm.
It had many subordinate powers, both legal and illegal, but overall, it had risen up with a human supremacist point of view. It disdained not only demons but demanded that aether children are the 'gifts' of Heaven and Earth to serve mankind.
The Moebius Sect was a slap in the face of their power as it accepted all races equally so long as they agreed to their rules. The fact it had thrived so much as their power remained stagnant had rankled.
When the opportunity to attack Lind Frey, the founder of the sect, came, they took it. They expected to be compensated or to be able to curtail the growth of a competitor. Instead, an entire continent seemed to have been handed over to his sect!
When the man was out in the world alone, they immediately sent out various bounty hunters or missions to bring him down and enslave him. They wanted to provoke the Moebius Sect especially now when the leader was a demon!
Instead, their capitol was cracked open like an egg while the city was being ravaged by a tribulation. It was a grave crime to face a tribulation in the middle of a city that was normally condemned by all powers.
In the current instance, however, the Saint Kingdom could not claim innocence. They had gotten their wish. They had provoked a response from Lind Frey and could only blame themselves.
The politicians, nobles, and powerful sect leaders thought they could lay the loss of life at Lind Frey's feet, but despite the destruction and loss of resources to them personally, not a single commoner or innocent was harmed!
How did he know?! How was he controlling the tribulation?!
After the 6th bolt, the world felt pressure. It was no longer contained to just the Saint Kingdom capital, but spreading across all of Sarth.
The 7th bolt was changing not only in quality but in the kind of Qi it was. Sky Realms could be successful by surviving the first 3 bolts, but a single bolt could also carry one into the Sky Realm.
In both cases, they would be considered barely worthy. They would never progress passed tier 3 of the Sky Realm, assuming they could even reach that. If a cultivator completed 6 bolts, that was very good.
That was in fact closer to the cream of the crop most powers wished for. Such Sky Realms could reach the peak of the Sky Realm, but are unlikely to advance to Heaven Realm without assistance.
That last part was considered very normal.
It was the last 3 bolts, however, that separated the geniuses from the monsters. Surviving the 7th bolt would make a cultivator a powerhouse desired by all powers and offered resources without contention.
The 8th and 9th bolt were the territories of monsters incarnate. The jump in power was massive and surviving made it just as massive of an improvement. Such cultivators found the tiers below 5 a joke. They would breeze through them where many struggled.
They bowed to no one.
Lind Frey's 7th bolt matched in power what many considered a 9th bolt strike. Lind looked at it in some confusion as the feeling was still oppressive but familiar at the same time. It was recent too.
Lind cast his mind back and recognized it!
Weaving! It felt like when he was weaving Qi into sigils. The 7th bolt gathered power before it turned into a sparkling color of white! Lind's eyes were perhaps the only ones that could see such a detail but the power of the bolt was terrifying.
Lind summoned all the Qi he could while preparing for the impact. The bolt hit him but the expected pain did not come right away. He thought something was off when suddenly his harmony strained his meridians and dantain. It was his harmony!
The last 3 bolts would be hitting the very core of his being!
Blood sprouted out of his mouth, eyes, nose and ears like a fountain as the damage was severe. Lind let his instincts take over and his hands glowed brightly with Qi as he carved sigil after sigil into the very air.
As he carved, the atmosphere changed as the sigils connected and began to help him siphon the excess Qi from his body. His draconic ability to recover was of no help to his soul. Lind had to channel all his Qi to recover his harmony and thus his soul at the same time.
The pain slowly faded but only in time for him to see the crimson and black 8th bolt building power far above the last one. He did not need any great analysis to recognize his Forging ability.
The smelting of materials was closely associated with fire while the darkness was likely in reference to his mind. Lind now had a better idea and immediately summoned his smelting pots with any ore he could think of.
He had barely protected them with sigils when the bolt shattered the upper floors of the council hall. It was now fully exposed to the outside but Lind remained still technically 'indoors' where he stood.
The bolt hurt his body this time but only partially as his mind reeled from it more. He understood. The 3 aspects of derivative professions were their source. Weaving was the soul, Forging the mind, and elixirs the spirit.
He understood the final bottleneck of why he could not progress because he treated the spirit and soul as the same but they were not. The soul was him, all he was without a body, but the spirit was cultivated within his dantian.
It was the fire of life that kept the body going.
That realization made him realize what was coming but had to work quickly to control the rampaging Qi in his mental landscape.
Ore was smelted on instinct as he Forged masterpiece after masterpiece of armor, weapon, and artifact.
His ring was swiftly being emptied but there was nothing he could do. It was let the Qi rip his mind apart or bring it under control using his Forging skills. It felt like his mind was on fire until it finally began to clear up.
It could have been an eternity but Lind could see the items around him were barely cooling. The pressure from the boiling clouds sky rocketed. There were no comparisons for the final bolt that was coming, but Lind knew it was not the end.
He was not normal.
The final bolt shimmered between clouds as the other bolts of lightning seemed to be refined and separated down to their very essence. Myriad colors coalesced into a single massive bolt that was glorious for all to see.
Many felt inspiration just being near it, but the terror of its power stilled all their hearts.
The final bolt slammed down and the council hall was completely obliterated. All that remained was the stage where Lind stood revealed to the world once more. The mountain that had once stood there was gone.
The trees, fountains, and treasure vaults were all gone.
Even if no one died, the Saint Kingdom was crippled in a single move, the chaos to follow was a given. Many Sky Realms looked on in anger at the man that dared disgrace them. They summoned their weapons but watched on as the 9th bolt continued.
Lind finally felt less pain than expected. Elixirs were his strongest talent and he quickly had vials and Qi flowing. He made low Heaven grade 5 elixirs as easily as breathing and the rampaging Qi in his dantian was brought under control.
Now that he had a moment, he knew he had to finish his Sky Core or become a cripple.
Lind saw a small sphere floating in the center of emerald as 6 shards now aligned to each font. The tendrils of emerald harmony were now very thick between each font.
The light of the sun exists in all places of the sky. One merely must be able to fly to chase it. The wind roars in your ears and commands the storms to fly where they must, but cannot chain a cultivator that commands them. Water brings life but it too can fly as clouds and mist. Darkness, like light, exists in all places and the unfettered can stay in it as long as they move with it. Earth wants to bring you back but gravity can no longer weigh a cultivator down. Fire burns all shackles to free the trapped heart.
It was far more poetic but the visions of flying were the core of a Sky Realm. It was the basic skill they possessed and Lind yearned to be free of the World. It was the freedom that drew him forward and shaped his path.
He dreamed of being free!
The shards slowly touched the center and became lightning rods for each element as the fonts shattered into mist. However, the colors remained in distinct spots. A giant circle filled the dantian with the most solid colors at the center.
Crimson, gold, green, sapphire, black, and brown held the positions as massive crystal facets to make up his Sky Core. At the very center was an emerald sphere that Lind did not recall hearing about before but attributed to his being a 6 elemental.
His body was now flush with power. His body was healing very quickly as he became a Sky Realm, but the clouds did not vanish and the final bolt did not come to restore him. The final battle had come.
The boiling clouds now spread across the world as Sky Realms everywhere were sent tumbling from the skies. None could fly right then as lighting raced across the mortal realm. The Floating Isles were cut off as well and shocked that none could face the power of the storm.
The Saint Kingdom wailed under the power as a shape appeared in the skies. It was a dragon! A dragon made of lighting roared as it shook the world.
Lind felt some fear but he recalled what he learned in the Divine Inheritance. He was a progenitor. His tribulations would always have a battle save one. The step into the Heaven Realm was apparently different from tribulation.
Now, Lind faced the lightning beast and summoned his harmony.
His muscles bulged as his robes tore. Scales much thicker than before covered his skin as his hands and feet turned into claws. His face elongated and his teeth became fangs as his eyes became larger vertical slit emerald orbs.
He still retained the shape of a man but his hair was now a lighter emerald mane as he roared up at the sky. Rather than wait for it to come, Lind launched himself into the air.
All looked on in awe as the 2 collided. Lind's scales were shattered easily but he did not flinch away. The lightning beast lost its limbs as its sinuous body tried to coil around the tiny man in front of it.
Lind did not stop and his own body was surrounded by a much more opaque sinuous dragon as well. The emerald phantom was much smaller than the lightning one but the quality seemed equal.
The battle caused shockwaves that devastated more structures and areas. Even so, not a single life was lost. It was impossible but many witnessed stone being atomized before it could crush a family of mortals running away. A metal statue was turned to liquid that was then parted around a young man trying to simply look at the spectacle.
Over and over such things occurred but no one could explain how.
The battle raged and the Saint Kingdom leaders could only bleed as they saw their city wiped from the face of the world. Worse, secret caches of resources were also wiped away no matter what formations protected them.
At last, bloody, beaten, but alive, Lind roared in the sky as the lighting beast was consumed by him. His body was rejuvenated as the final bolt of restoration fell. Peak tier 1 Sky Realm! He was already at the peak!
The many vengeful people could not enact their attack as their storage treasures and weapons were all gone. The storm left them with nothing and Lind Frey looked down on them like an unbeatable god.
The Saint Kingdom had been destroyed and Lind Frey ascended. That fact spread across the world creating waves unlike anything before.