novelraw Chapter 488 - 487 - Know Your Enemy
Chapter 488 - 487 - Know Your Enemy
Lind had been interrogating for a week straight but he had learned more about Fiend physiology and cultivation than he had why the new Overseer was hunting him.
It seemed it was fairly common knowledge she had a grudge against him but little else. The ones that knew were also only recently brought down to the current Mortal Realm.
Compared to that, he began to have suspicions about Fiends.
Each one he used his harmony on lost all their Fiend Qi instantly. The soul inside their dantian was also released back into the world. Their bodies then deteriorated and died.
That last part was odd.
All the demonic Fiends he had purified were left behind with absolutely pristine corpses. They were dead, but their physical bodies were just fine. While the Fiends obviously had nothing but Fiend Qi, his flames did not attack their bodies.
In fact, it was not his harmony destroying them at all, but the world itself! The Fiend Qi was both their cultivation and their protection!
After 4 more died like that, the others finally cracked. All save their commander. She remained steadfast and silent. She sneered at the begging of her former squad.
Still, Lind only looked on as he thought.
It was as if Heaven and Earth restricted the very places Fiends could go. He had never heard of such a thing before. So long as the cultivation realm was correct, any being could go anywhere.
A Soul Realm had no restrictions moving from the Celestial Fields all the way down to a mortal realm. It would be a massive loss of high quality resources and Qi but they could do it.
It applied equally to the other cultivation realms.
There were a few things, however, that did not descend even though they could.
Aether children and aether beasts formed from their native worlds. In other words, a manifested beast would never come down, only up. It was an instinct. Beasts could be moved, but their cultivation suffered immensely if they went from the Heaven Realm just to something like the Floating Isles.
It was not a restriction since they could simply return but it was a fact between both races.
An aether child once said it felt like Heaven was unhappy when they tried to descend once according to the records he had studied. Humans and demons only lost access to higher quality resources but had no such feeling.
Fiends, it seemed, were different. It did not matter their cultivation realm, they were being attacked at all times by Heaven itself!
Yet, it could not always be true. If Fiends were being killed all the time, how could they ever survive being born? A Void of Heaven was a difficult thing to create. While clearly they could now walk the current realm with impunity, the mountain invited the Wrath of Heaven.
What was the difference?
Lind shook himself from his reverie and began a different line of questioning.
"You say you were sent here. How? This mountain was the link between the Heaven Realm and this mortal realm." The Fiends seemed surprised but they quickly started talking.
It seemed a bridgehead was more than just an invasion point, the complicated array was also a direct link to their forces in the Heaven Realm.
Armies would be sent enmasse as it tore a void bridge open to do so.
It was more than a teleportation array, it was a gateway.
They also described how the current setup worked. The natives were allowed to raise themselves for the local Fiends. In other words the Mortal Realm became a farm for them, while the central hub raised humans, demons, and aether children with skills to the highest realm possible before shipping them to the Heaven Realm.
They never knew real techniques or skills as the Fiends only wanted the cultivation base to be raised. Tribulations for Sky Realms were easy to overcome when protecting World Realms. The low quality made it a breeze.
The casual way they spoke of the camps made Lind enraged but he held back. Still, his aura scared them and they spoke faster.
He now had a rough layout of the main hub and how it worked but it was not what he was interested in.
He wanted to know more about the array.
He has studied only one, but if they were similar he could plan. Unfortunately, it seemed that it was a unique array. It still existed but was no longer in use. It could be turned on if massive forces were needed but otherwise it was left dormant.
The good news is it was not as heavily guarded as the others.
A plan slowly came together in Lind's mind but it was suicidal at that point. He needed to understand how his enemy thought.
The silence seemed to scare the few prisoners as they begged for mercy. Compared to the cold and arrogant creatures he had met thus far, he was actually glad to see they had similar aspects as humans to them.
It did not make him forgive them, but it meant they were not as cold as they seemed. They cared about dying.
"I think you all have given me what I can get about the central hub. I now want to know about this." He pointed at the dead Raptor around them. They all looked confused at him. Why would a human want to know about their artifact?
Before anyone could blink, however, Zihao tried to use an Art she had been gathering the entire week. She had been careful and it was subtle but the instant shadows moved they were sucked into the strange artifacts around them!
Natural Qi suddenly increased and Zihao looked exhausted. Lind did not even glance up at her.
"I would not try that too often. I am not going to let you recover any further." His voice was cold but Zihao simply looked at him in defiance. She had not once answered a single question and only sneered at her fellow prisoners.
"I understand the flight and attack arrays you used but using grade 6 materials and a grade 6 artifact with Sky Realm tier 2 or 3 Fiends is highly inefficient. So why?" Shock actually flooded all of their faces for a change.
He understood the functions of their artifact?!
"Impossible, you are just a beast! How could you understand our ways?" Zihao finally spoke up. It seemed there was a line she would not let pass. Lind only smiled as he held up the octagonal diamond artifact before Celestial Qi flowed into the Raptor.
The once dead artifact flared to life once more!
It was short lived as many arrays burnt out but then they were stunned as Lind repaired them right in front of their eyes! He did it perfectly so the Celestial Qi would work!
He converted the artifact in only a few breaths of time!
He then produced 2 badges that left them all sucking in their breaths!
The deep jade badges were for peak Heaven grade 5! Even Fiends, for all they consumed the other races, would not kill such a person outright. They would be far too helpful in raising stock!
If the higher ups in the Heaven Realm knew Lind Frey was at such a level, they would send an invasion force for him.
Zihao now looked at him differently. The disdain and indifference was replaced with a smidgeon of respect. It was not easy to become a Heaven grade expert, especially in a mortal realm. Those that could do so, were monsters in their own right.
"Interesting. So these matter to your race despite what I am for? Good to know." Lind was surprised. Compared to all the methods he had used thus far, showing his badges had a much greater effect.
"The Raptors are used so no one can resist. Grade 6 artifacts essentially cannot be stopped by even peak powers in a mortal realm." Zihao stunningly offered up an explanation but Lind still felt it was a massive waste of resources.
He then realized something. There would be a way it was not a waste at all.
"You need the mortal realms. You need the people to be forced to advance faster than they naturally would. Also, if they knew you waited for them, they might not advance at all." He was not asking questions but gauging their responses.
The previously talkative Fiends nodded easily but Zihao looked stunned. She clearly did not expect him to grasp it all from her single explanation.
Lind now understood why the Fiends bothered with such weak enemies. They were threats to the food chain! It would be like if an ant could disrupt the meat market entirely. Cultivators would use their full powers to annihilate a simple insect in that case.
He began to grasp that the Fiends, while powerful, were fighting a war on 2 fronts. The war with cultivators at large and a war with Heaven. They had to have a period where Heaven did not fight them so something they did started it.
He then looked at their dantians and finally thought of a question that had bothered him for a long time.
"Do you actually need to consume living cultivators or could you just convert Qi?" Zihao narrowed her eyes but was stunned once more. There was no disgust or anger on Lind's face. He was honestly curious.
For once, none of them spoke up but it seemed like they were uncomfortable answering.
"The Ritual of Beginning starts us on the path. Once on the path, there is no going back. Defy Heaven and defy Earth. We shall rule all of the universe at the End." Zihao spoke words that made Lind's hairs stand on end.
The other Fiends stared at her like she was mad but she was openly defiant. It was as if she wanted Lind to show disgust but instead he looked sad. He looked like he had figured something out.
"So, you really don't have to but just like the possessed, once they use the technique, it cannot be reversed." An entire race trapped by a cultivation technique. Whoever started it was a sadistic bastard!
Zihao scoffed but inside she was trembling. Could there have been another way? Was there another way?
His words had shaken her inner self unlike any battle. She suddenly did not want to fight anymore. She felt a mountain of guilt.
Her Dao heart collapsed and then her body began to disintegrate. Lind was stunned but realized finally what was happening when he used his harmony on them. He not only removed the Fiend Qi, he took away the technique. They no longer wanted to be alive after that!
He looked at the others before coming to a decision.
"Spirits have mercy on you all." Emerald flames engulfed them but unlike the others, strange smiles crossed their faces. It was as if they saw something better as their bodies collapsed into dust.
The Fiends were gone but Lind was left with the dark revelation that the war would never end because the Fiends could never stop. It was a war of annihilation with no mercy and no retreat.