novelraw Chapter 421 - 420 - Comprehending Harmony
Chapter 421 - 420 - Comprehending Harmony
After the events of the attack, Lind and Fey quickly gathered the artifacts of the 2 demons struck by Heaven while Lind carefully stored away the corpse of the other demon. The mystery of how he died had to be tabled as the pair had to face the locals.
The changeling was staring at Lind in particular but Fey was not left out. All had seen the headless demon try to do something to her that triggered Heavenly punishment. It had also been very precise.
Lind now understood why the Fiends wanted Fey dead. Whatever he had done to her with that elixir had drawn Heaven's attention. If a Fiend or their agents tried to feed off a living cultivator, it drew the wrath directly.
Unlike the rest of the time, Heaven did not observe things that closely or, at least, it did not react to the vast majority of interactions between cultivators. Lind knew karma was there but it took time to build up in either direction and then a dramatic event to trigger it.
His own life gave a very high bar for such examples.
Fey was some kind of locus or at least could be seen like a star in the night sky. The star could be seen by the naked eye but the myriad celestial bodies around it were invisible to the same eye.
If that star suddenly flickered, a person would take a closer work. If they had the power to resolve what they saw, they would act. It was also possible that Fey's own karma played into it but there had been no sign of that in the punishment sent.
The group returned to the center building, which Lind still thought of as a tavern but likely would be simply a hall used for serving food than an actual tavern.
He found an empty table and laid out the dead demon. His eyes were vacant and there was a slash across his chest but there was not a mark on him otherwise.
"I won a lot of Sky Stones the day you fought those 2 demons, Master Frey." The androgynous voice was still. The tone of male and female seemed evened out as the changeling was very respectful. Even the other humans actually looked more alive than compared when the pair first arrived.
The defeat of their killers and giving them a face seemed to revitalize the once burnt out villagers.
"I would appreciate it if we focus on these creatures. They look like demons, but I suspect they are only half at best." His words made all clearly recall the headless demon still living when it should have died.
Sky Realms had more vitality than the lower realms. Injuries that would cripple or kill World Realms and below would only inconvenience most Sky Realms. Beheading or shattering the Sky Core, however, were as lethal as always.
It just took more power to pull it off.
They all turned to the corpse but one of the men looked confused quickly.
"That injury in the chest is too shallow and there is no festering of the skin. It was not poison, so what killed him?" Lind nodded but began to set up several artifacts to aid his analysis.
His skills were not bad but that was with normal demons, humans, aether children, and aether beasts. He had very few chances to examine something like the current demon.
At first glance, its Sky Core and meridians seem normal but as he pushed his Eyes and Touch to the limit, he found an almost ephemeral system almost hiding behind the demon's cultivation.
The cells also were strange. They looked normal but the complete lack of degradation even after a short time was odd. A dead being began to decay, even a high realm cultivator. He wondered what was preserving it when he saw traces of his harmony more clearly everywhere.
The Fiend traces were almost completely wiped from the body, which seemed to have killed the demon.
Lind tried a few of his diffusers and the anti-Qi appeared which made some back off immediately but Fey only looked on in full trust. The changeling was actually stunned for a change and had no words.
Lind carefully watched but the expected reaction did not occur.
The anti-Qi he created seemed perfectly fine with his harmony Qi and seemed to do nothing. That was until it made contact with the demonic core.
The dead core suddenly sprang to life briefly but then cracked. Lind instantly retracted the Qi he controlled. What had just happened?!
Lind then saw a few traces inside the Sky Core and carefully pulled them out. His harmony tried to flare instantly, but Lind isolated the few pieces of Fiend Qi. It was his first real attempt to study it.
There were differences to his anti-Qi. It was definitely very close to each other, however.
"So the Ruin was not a Fiend one, then what was it?" LInd had been confused about that for a long time. The Ruin had been antithetical to demons and others but only at a Qi reaction level. It did not actively try to kill people.
His harmony had protected him but did not try to change it all on its own. Yet when he came in contact with that demon, it had wiped it out entirely. Why?
Was it because his harmony was now tied to his dragon soul?
"No, that is not it. I already had the ability before then, so what is different?" Lind focused hard on his harmony as he broke the protection on the Fiend Qi. An emerald flame shot from his hand and the Fiend Qi was gone!
No, it had been transformed. The once anti-fire, air, and water were now their normal Qi signature. Lind had changed it to normal Qi.
Lind then summoned the same exact anti-Qi of those elements but his harmony had no reaction at all. A sharp glint entered Lind's eyes.
"I see, so that is the difference." Lind then looked at the demon and examined the cells once more. They looked healthy but were dead. He slowly understood the cells had already been dead or dying, but his harmony had restored them.
"Restoration, balance, and resonance, my harmony does all these things yet others do as well, but mine can affect others. I seem to be connected to the world outside of me. These things consume against the natural order but the Qi is a side effect, not the cause." Lind finally grasped the difference.
The Qi he diffused was conversion the same as demons did if needed. They could convert natural Qi into demonic with some arrays but it was just refining the Qi into a compatible form.
The anti-Qi Lind generated was the same. It was just a conversion from one form to another. It was possible thus, Heaven allowed it. His harmony had no issue with it because it was part of him but also because it was normal.
The Qi in the demon, on the other hand, seemed to occur as a side effect of the technique of refining living beings. It explained the demonic Qi in the desiccated corpses.
They were directly draining everything from a living cultivator for their own cultivation increase or more. The technique then bridged that energy by creating Fiend Qi. It made the process of what was taken be able to be absorbed. He had seen something like that in Cimmeria with the aether children, but far more incomplete.
"They die if they do not keep feeding." The final piece clicked into place. Why would any sane person keep doing the horrific technique even with whatever benefits they obtained? It was because they had to.
Once started, they could never stop.
Lind purified the demon so it died because all that was keeping it alive was the Fiend Qi.
"Big Brother, are you saying the demons were feeding against their will?" Lind quickly shook his head.
"Unlikely, it is more like they enjoyed it from what I could see. It is possible their mentality has changed as well as the technique progresses but without a living subject it will be hard to tell." Lind stored away his artifacts as he considered all he had learned.
The revelations of the demons were helpful but did not lead to the source. Further, it did not answer why his harmony acted without his input.
Lind closed his eyes as he pictured the scene once more. The freshly desiccated corpse and the feeling in the house. He had been unable to contain himself and transformed. It was not because of his dragon soul, but his harmony lashing out.
His dragon bloodline was riled but under control, only his harmony remained.
The emerald center of his Sky Core began to glow and the resistance to his progress began to lessen. The Qi in the village began to move as Lind absorbed it like a sponge. All were in shock as he reached the peak of tier 3 right in front of their very eyes.
The moment he did, the silvery line in his core solidified and stopped him but Lind did not care. He was focusing on another aspect of his cultivation.
"The balance of elements is not all there is to the harmony. It is also my soul, my very self that forms it. What did I form? Why am I the enemy of Fiends?" Lind drifted all the way back to when he died.
He stood in front of the blonde and brunette. They were explaining Fate to him and how he had changed the Fate of others. He had somehow been able to do so without severe repercussions to himself or others.
A final piece clicked into place but the puzzle was still vague. Even so, the pressure in the hall suppressed everyone nearby, even Fey, a full tier above Lind, stumbled as he opened his eyes.
Instead of dark green, they glowed emerald. They were still human! He was not transforming!
"I understand. The branch of Fate can be seen, the branch of Fate can be chosen, and the branch of Fate is not set." His words made all nearby feel sharp pain in their skulls. They had heard something they were not ready to understand and Lind was not immune to it.
He was shocked out of his trance but he recalled what he had grasped. His harmony was somehow tied or touched by Fate. He was not controlled but somehow could feel the moments Fate was strong with people. He could then help guide them.
His Sky Core felt incredibly light despite its new restriction, yet Lind smiled. He had comprehended his harmony at last. It was only a start but he had been in the dark far more than others. They could compare to each other or similar colors to draw parallels, but he was the only emerald 6 elemental harmony.
The crystal in Rakathi was the beating heart of the lattice but Lind only found it to be what gave the oases life. They were all connected but it was not the same with him.
Lind felt exhausted and yet elated all at once. He then shook himself free as he began a more standard examination of the demon's belongings. They had an enemy out there and it was time to see where they came from.