novelraw Chapter 430 - 429 - The Second Circle
Chapter 430 - 429 - The Second Circle
Lind had learned a great deal in the decade with the Circle. They taught him finer control and regulation of his soul power. Sigils and engraving were the key to advancement but only to a point.
Each and every weaver was stuck at the peak of 3rd Tier Sky Realm, if they made it that far. The thin silvery line always held them back. They spread the story that it was an imposition put upon them to let others feel comfortable using them. It worked.
What was strange was the grade restriction. Grade 4 was as far as anyone could go, but never grade 5 despite being in the Sky Realm. Why? What was the issue? Knowledge was expanded and finer arrangements were made to improve existing engravings but that was all.
Advancement seemed as locked off in weaving as cultivation.
The Fiend had done Lind a favor. Sigils were so finely blended into the silvery line he could barely make them out. It would have taken likely thousands of years of study to piece it all together, but interference and its effects greatly narrowed down some mysteries.
Why was his body and cultivation so severely affected by touching that silvery line in his Sky Core? Why would everything be fine but not working with a single weaving from an enemy?
Weaving used the soul and while cultivators may not intentionally study the soul, they comprehended the elements and Daos of the universe to advance. The knowledge was there for any to see but especially 6 elementals!
Why had they been thought to be useless for billions of years? It was because the understanding of all 6 elements was limited to combinations. Humans adapted to what they could get to work but that limited method left true balance and harmony out of it.
Lind realized the same was true of weaving and souls. The understanding was flawed. The soul was deeply involved in weaving but it also put the soul in danger. Heaven put a safety valve on weavers that were foolishing pushing ahead!
The Fiend made it so that Lind understood. The silvery restriction was not a restriction at all, it was the test to see if one could advance! It was not meant to be broken, but integrated!
It was a part of him! Now that he understood that facet, the rest seemed to break a dam in his mind! The silver sigils blazed as Lind's fingers glowed in his outer body. The pressure of Heaven focused on him and he understood his fate was in his hands.
Lind starged engraving each sigil in sequence. It was difficult as it had to be so fine but with each advance, the yellow covering fell away. It could not stop him anymore! Fey and the Fiend were unable to look away. Any action might draw Heaven so neither could move.
Time became immaterial as Lind slowly turned a whole 360 degrees until a silver circle was around his body. It began to resonate with the one in his Sky Core and finally he understood. He had to complete the circle to advance!
It was only starting as the pressure from Heaven increased. He was touching on the soul, the life granted by Heaven and Earth to all. Weaving stepping over the line between manipulation of materials to peeking at the actual truth behind it all.
His mind began to understand exactly how weaving worked. He always thought it was a special kind of inscription and formation combined but like elixirs and Forging, he was only half right when he started.
Elixirs were about extracting and combining the pure essence of the materials. The superfluous and the limit of powders was broken by bypassing the material entirely. Forging was about merging Qi and materials to achieve the desired effect. Rather than have the user channel Qi into inscription pathways, it was directly impressed into the object.
The only limit was what Lind could unify with his Qi and the material's capacity.
Weaving was about making that most ephemeral material few could touch on, the soul. All cultivation started and ended with the soul. Lind began to grasp that weaving was so powerful because it directly connected to Heaven and Earth without a medium like a formation plate or array materials.
Lind still needed Qi, but his soul was the only other ingredient! Thus the restriction. If a weaver could not integrate the first circle into their dantian, they would never be allowed to advance. If a subcore was created, as seemed mandatory for the derivative professions, then the cultivator could only ever reach the 3rd tier of the Sky Realm.
It all came together in his mind as he kept engraving into the external circle around him. The Fiend wanted to stop him at all costs but if it even tried, Heaven would destroy it! It could only exist inside the illusion before it had to abandon the former demoness' body.
Fey simply felt like her recent enlightenment was expanding in her mind. The Dao of Life and Death was not simply deciding who to kill or save but deeper. Her alchemy was tied to it as well and for the first time, she felt the bottleneck on her progress begin to evaporate.
In a mere half a day, Lind had seemingly performed miracles that stripped away all obstacles for her but she could only try to take in the pillar of light building around him. As the silver ring glowed and thickened, the pillar of light intensified as the clouds above grew.
"He was only in the First Circle, how can he be breaking through to the Second so soon?" The Fiend's words snapped Fey out of her trance. Her wounds were still troubling her but she noticed that her major injuries were fading!
She quickly examined her body and found it was healing at a rate she could see! The light was beneficial but she noticed it did not touch the Fiend at all. He had a few injuries but nothing serious. She could strike him now!
She was about to attack when she felt pressure build on her. Heaven did not want her to move! Why?!
She looked back and shock flooded her body.
Lind was glowing with emerald light as the silvery ring solidified. The profound sigils were far above anything she had seen in the village or anywhere save back in the contest all those years ago.
Lind was covered in sweat but his dark green eyes were fervent. He was at the final step. He had answered the puzzle of the ring in his Sky Core but now had to bring the 2 together.
His crystal shards of his core began to drain quickly as Lind started constrict the ring he created. The pressure resisted as the links to each sigil seemed to grow. What had been delicate and fine threads got thicker and thicker as the ring shrunk.
The sigils seemed to adjust but the threads connecting them would be too big if he continued. The Fiend finally sneered at the mistake. The ring would shatter long before Lind could connect the 2.
Lind struggled but he then had a thought.
Instead of shrinking the current ring, could he expand the other one?
Giving action to thought, he tried it and found it worked! The ring that had held him back and ignored all attempts to break it, easily expanded and slowly appeared outside his body. Shock flooded the Fiend's face as awe continued to be on Fey's.
"IMPOSSIBLE! That cannot be done!" Despite his concentration on his task, Lind noted what the Fiend said. It had far more knowledge than he but Lind only followed his instincts and guesses.
Ever so slowly, the 2 rings came closer and closer. The threads of the Sky Core ring were stretching until only very thin lines still connected them. He finally got a better look at the sigils and was relieved at the ring he created.
It complemented it well!
All seemed to finally come to the last step but Lind could not contract his outer ring anymore! A very thin space was between them and neither could be adjusted anymore! Fey felt worry bloom while relief filled the Fiend's face until new connections appeared.
Very tiny tendrils just barely reached out from each ring and seemed to try to touch. It was like watching a baby waving its arms as it tried to grasp something it could not quite see. The desire was evident but the ability was not fully developed.
Finally, the tendrils connected and the pillar of light became blinding as Lind floated in mid air.
He felt pressure in his dantian as the 2 rings merged but also he felt a chain fall away from his cultivation. The wall between him and moving forward fell away. The silvery ring returned to his Sky Core.
A dark bronze ring took the place of the first 3rd of his core while the silvery ring now grew to encroach ⅔ of his Sky Core. The changes did not stop there as his dragon soul seemed to bask in the light from Heaven.
It became less ephemeral and seemed far more solid. His bloodline felt much stronger yet did not slip from his control. His body was also invigorated as his foundation seemed to become more solid than before.
"I see, I have become a weaver of the First Circle." Lind opened his eyes and found the Fiend staring at him in shock as Fey looked much better than before. The restriction put on him by the creature had been burned away.
Heaven knew it was there but did not strike it. Lind did not know why but suspected as he glanced around that technically, it only saw the weaving, not the owner of it due to Annabelle's illusions.
Still, he doubted Heaven was so easily fooled. He used his Eyes and then understood.
"So, that is how it works." The Fiend flinched but the clouds had not vanished. Heaven was still watching. "The technique you gave the demons was a weaving. You engraved their souls to become the equivalent of puppets."
The Fiend actually took a step back but Heavenly pressure froze it in place. It could no longer escape its fate!
"You are not actually here, you are not allowed to be here I suspect. While you have given me a lot to think on, I have to say something before you go." Lind's eyes were cold as he stared at the necrotic creature in front of him. "If you ever lay a hand on anyone I love, I will personally make it the mission of the Moebius Sect to eradicate your kind from all worlds everywhere."
The Fiend sneered once more.
"If you think you are original, I am sad to tell you the line is quite long to eradicate us, but none have succeeded. Worlds have burned that said similar words. We are not simply killed but born from Heaven and Earth itself. We are forever!" There was no response from Heaven so the words were likely true.
Lind smiled wide and the Fiend became confused.
"Thank you for that piece of information, I will keep it in mind." The cold eyes remained but the Fiend realized it had been goaded. Its rage had nowhere to vent as it suddenly felt something breaking deep inside.
It looked within and saw a silvery tendril snapping the sigils apart! It was brutish and not very well made, but effective no less.
"You will never know rest, Lind Frey! We will come for you all! We will wipe your knowledge from the worlds and believe me, we have the power to do so!" The Fiend was losing connection to the body it had taken over but Lind continued to look at it with cold indifference.
"If you knew anything about me, you would know that the moment I get a chance, I will send everything I have learned to every power I can. Tell me, is my name spoken in the Heaven Realm?" The Fiend suddenly froze.
It slowly dawned on him that was exactly how Lind Frey operated. Even now, while avoiding being traced, he had relayed all his discoveries of the Sky Realm and the elements without stopping! He really would do it!
"NOOOOOOO…." The Fiend tried to use its Qi but the sigils were falling apart too fast. It could no longer hold on as the Mortal Realm faded from its senses. Lind fell hard from the air as he was completely out of Qi.
Integrating the First Circle and then shattering the weaving inside the Fiend took all he had but he had learned much. Fey was there quickly but he simply smiled up at her. Both of them felt Heaven's pressure move before bolts slammed outside the town.
The rest of the demonic Fiends were killed by Heavenly punishment. The threat was over on Yinande but Lind doubted the threats to him were far from over. He had something important to do first.
"We have to go back, Little Fey. The Circle must be set free." He then passed out as she caught him and she nodded before darkness closed in. It had been a long night.