novelraw Chapter 437 - 436 - Inferiority Complex
Chapter 437 - 436 - Inferiority Complex
Lind had not grasped everything about how beasts decided borders, but it was generally accepted that barring an area a Heaven Realm could not use, the territory was at the range of the highest cultivation realm.
At that point, it came to when 2 beasts sensed each other at a distance. It made borders sometimes a fluid concept. Afterall, beasts fought and died everyday in the life of survival of the fittest.
It got a bit more rare in the Sky Realm higher tiers, but Star Tiers would sometimes fight it out to expand territory or simply their instincts demanded them to fight.
Lady Gua had been a relatively stable position in the Mengcong but letting Lind build a sect was likely to make ripples in all of the Wild Heart Isle. Ironically, Lind had calmed many aether beasts that had been disgruntled with his draconic roar on his first day there.
Now, they flew through the air to the edges of the current border.
The Mengcong had giant trees with large green leaves that made a shadowy jungle that held in mists in much of it. The bark was very dark to light depending on how much sun the trees got.
As they reached the border, the trees began to shrink and thin out until he could see a massive mountain range in the distance. He was curious about the races that lived there but Kora had actively been against it.
Rocs did not get along with phoenix bloodlines any better than dragons. Ethry and he had been accepted by her long ago, but it seemed it was deeper with fellow birds.
It was not one of them, however, that waited for the pair, but another arachne type being. Lady Gua was elegant and clearly pure blooded as no other beast bloodline seemed to contribute to her form, but the being in front of Lind seemed like an amalgam.
While a spider bloodline was clear, the limbs and body had fine white hairs that were not like a spider fur but something closer to a rodent. Lind also noted that the fingers seemed to have poison in them.
He at first thought it was simply an extension of perhaps another insect, but then his eyes narrowed as poison Qi was evident around the aether beast.
Demonic Qi! Lind had not met many demonic beasts at all and most of them were the result of corruption to demonic Qi. It was not the same feeling he was getting from the beast in front of him at all!
His Eyes could not pierce too much but the flow of poison was combined with shadow and acid Qi. A full demonic beast with no signs of corruption from natural Qi!
"What do you want, Jing?" Lady Gua was displeased but Lind just quietly stood at her side. The 8 beady eyes of the visitor narrowed at him but no pressure came, yet Lady Gua's rose sharply.
A deep frown crossed the pale faced man.
"You should know why any of us come here, my bride to be." Lind arched an eyebrow but Lady Gua merely smirked at his words.
"You need to have your nearly useless eyes checked, you are not stronger than me anymore!" She flared her air, darkness, and earth Qi. Lind also noted a few motes of fire Qi starting to float around her and smiled to himself. Her progress was excellent.
Shock flooded Jing's face and anger was directed at Lind but he calmed himself it seemed. He then opened his eyes once more before a smile spread on his face.
"Congratulations on your progress, but you are not the only one to advance!" Lind could not gauge between them but the quality of Qi around Lady Gua was much higher while Jing's Qi seemed odd.
Lind narrowed his eyes as it looked familiar but he could not place it.
"You are still beneath my level, Jing. Now, state why you are here or I will toss you back to your hovel!" The man blanched but strangely smiled once more which sent an alarm up Lind's spine.
'Ethry, keep an eye out for uninvited guests.' Now that he was that close, they could touch each other's minds once more. Especially as his dragon soul advanced, her voice was much easier to hear than before.
He felt her acknowledgment but smiled at her subtle web. Next to Lady Gua, Ethry had the widest sense ability.
It seemed Lady Gua noticed but Jing did not.
"I am here for him. More specifically, we are here for him. I am offering you a chance to–" A slender black leg seemed to vanish as it slammed into Jing. The leg reappeared but cracked the earth due to its weight.
Earth Qi was much higher in it but darkness had been included to increase its mass!
It was a delicate balance but Lady Gua did it well after only a few months! She had studied earth Qi for centuries but it was still a quick adaptation after only recently acquiring the element.
"You will regret that wench!" Jing was about to use acid in the shape of a spear but both froze as it was scattered by blue flame! A normal flame would have ignited the acid but blue flame did not! Both swiveled as Lind had narrowed his eyes looking at Jing.
"I understand now. I wondered why your Qi was so strange, but when you conjured that spear I recognized the similarity to what happened before." Both Star Tiers were in shock. A tier 3 Sky Realm, a child to them, had somehow dispersed a Heaven Realm technique!
Lind tilted his head and then looked angry.
"Kill them all." He spoke the words coldly before the skies lit up with prismatic flames. A gigantic golden bird with black tipped wings suddenly appeared and other powerful Arts protected the sect in the distance.
Jing sneered but then a flaming corpse was tossed at his feet.
It was a Light Raven! It was the tier 8 sent to command their forces!
How?!
"I always find it wise to prepare for the worst, especially after being nearly killed by Immortals." Lind's words made both jump. Immortals?! When did he face Immortals?
The lack of contact between cultivators and aether beasts reared its head. It was almost refreshing for Lind but he did not dawdle.
His dragon soul flared as his harmony flamed around him. Emerald light now changed the tone of the location and Lady Gua noticed the plants seemed to welcome it! They were happy!
"Lord Jing. You feel an inexplicable pain when you use your Qi. You also have periods of black outs or difficulty thinking. Does that sound correct?" Jing's face blanched but he quickly began to conjure threads of shadow laced with poison.
Lind sighed before he waved his hands once more as metal and dark light dispersed the threads as if they were twigs! Again! Jing had tried to resist but it was as if he was lower in the cultivation realm than the mere tier 3!
"Lady Gua, may I ask for how long you have known Lord Jing." She rolled her eyes but simply thought before another flare of prismatic flames filled the skies. Since Lind showed no concern she ignored it.
"At least a thousand years, about the time I first became a Star Tier." Lind nodded. He then summoned several artifacts that floated around him and Jing felt like his body was being invaded.
He tried to resist, but his power seemed useless. He then tried to charge directly at Lind but the man vanished before appearing behind him.
"I see, you are much farther along and I have a guess but you have always coveted Lady Gua or more likely were jealous of her skills. Possibly some combination." Lind seemed remarkably calm when facing a Star Tier that even Lady Gua questioned his sanity.
It was no secret that Jing's talent was slow, but he had exploded forth in the last 600 years. Clearly, he was not to be treated so lightly.
"How are you doing that?!" Jing felt like his world was crumbling but then the dark green eyes seemed to pierce his very soul at the next words.
"Do you remember your life before, say 800 years ago? It seems different from cultivators but I suspect that similarity remains at the end. How much of you remains?" Lady Gua's 8 eyes shot wide as she understood the subtext.
It explained how Lind was able to disperse such powerful attacks! It explained why she had never heard of Jing making a conquest of a territory despite reaching they pinnacle of power.
"SHUT UP! The past means nothing! I am powerful! Gua will be mine, all of the pythons will be mine! All of the world will be mine!" Jing was now foaming at the mouth as his eyes began to glow.
His cultivation seemed to rise but Lind only frowned before he instantly transformed. She expected him to stop but then the emerald light exploded outward as a massive shape took form.
A sinuous emerald dragon, far larger than Ethry's true form, appeared. Its scales seemed to glisten under the sun as its giant snout roared to the Heavens! The battle that had been winding down froze as all beasts within sight felt compelled to kneel!
Jing, however, was lost to it all. His Qi was running out of control as his body began to corrode.
"You have a heart demon, several I think, tearing you apart. Your Qi weakening was because it was all that stood between you and death. Worse, you can't even hear me or understand me anymore?" A booming version of Lind's voice echoed across the land. "You are not a Star Tier, you merely feel like one because the heart demons are pushing you ahead. The price is quite high as I can tell you."
Lind only understood much later but his power increase was false back in the Lotus Academy. It felt impressive, but it was only that, a feeling.
His Qi would have been barely functional as it was doing all it could to keep him alive. The reason his dantian and meridians had not suffered too much was because of his harmony. That 1 difference saved him from being crippled back then.
Jing had no such hope.
Lady Gua watched in horror as Jing became hollow right before her eyes. A sinister laughter came from him as his body changed. The final transformation had come because Lind pushed it but there was no chance of saving Jing.
He had felt inferior, she recalled. He always whined about how lucky others were but never put the work in himself. Many had wondered how he suddenly moved forward but aether beasts hardly had to fear heart demons.
It was only when they got closer to cultivators' intelligence that the danger arose. Their instincts could be overridden or ignored that would normally protect them. Lady Gua suddenly felt as if she was on a razor thin edge as she saw Jing die and be reborn.
A heart devil was now all that remained.
"Lord Lind, please step back, I will kill it." The giant dragon looked at her as if she had just said the dumbest thing ever.
He then looked up and closed his eyes.
"There is no need, he is already dead." She was confused until boiling clouds gathered. The Wrath of Heaven but why? If Lind's current form cowed the beasts, the current pressure made them all tremble in terror. Only 2 were unaffected.
Lind and the heart devil. It simply laughed in insanity as it drooled acidic spit on the ground. Lind's giant form seemed to become fragile as he became just a man again but the pressure of Heaven locked onto the Devil.
"You started the battle, I will end it and deal with the war after." His words seemed to be the trigger as a massive bolt of lightning slammed into the heart devil. The black and twisted body screamed as it was ripped apart instantly.
A monster that would have likely claimed her life was resolved so easily. She looked at Lind and saw he was trembling and pale. She was about to grab him when a prismatic scaled dragon appeared.
"That was dangerous. Our connection to the Heavens is not to be abused, Lind." Ethry sounded very serious but Lind only nodded before passing out as she caught him. "Lady Gua, we have prisoners of Light Ravens and Fire Hawks. Please come with me."
Lady Gua blanched now. She knew the damned birds coveted her lands but to use Jing as a distraction to get her away from the center of her lands was underhanded! Han was not like that but Lira was another matter. She looked to the mountains before following Ethry back to the Moebius Sect.
War was coming.