novelraw Chapter 557 - 556 - Dark, yet Useless
Chapter 557 - 556 - Dark, yet Useless
"I am afraid I do not know what Soulmancers are exactly. Are they a kind of formation master?" Lind kept away from the word weaver but saw only confusion on all 3 of his hosts.
"They take the souls of the innocent and use them as weapons against us all!" Benny spoke up again but Gail hushed her but Old Wan nodded slightly.
"We do not understand the method exactly, it seems to be an inborn Talent, but they have demonstrated publicly extracting a soul and then carving into the very air the power they have." Lind frowned.
It was definitely a wicked weaver but the public part was impossible. Rather, it was wasteful. All he had read about and been warned about affirmed that extracting a soul, especially an unwilling one, would have to be done very carefully and isolated from the Will of Heaven.
Taking a soul, save in self defense, would be instantly punished by Heaven.
"Do they have a special place to do that?" Again, the 3 looked at him as if he was an idiot.
"Have you lived in seclusion all your life, lad?" Old Wan looked at Lind in concern but he waved the kind man off and nodded.
"In a way. I am not from here originally. I landed her by accident when I became a Moon Tier." A knowing glint came to Old Wan's eyes but Gail and Benny still thought he sounded crazy.
"You were in the mortal realm?" Lind saw no need to hide it anymore because the answers he was getting left him deeply concerned. The soldiers seemed to think Fiends were legends and these Soulmancers were doing impossible extractions in broad daylight.
A sudden thought occurred to him.
"Do you know what a sun and moon are outside of a dantian?" The 2 women frowned but Old Wan nodded fiercely.
"Mortal realms have them to mark the day and night cycle. The Heaven Realm is a bit special. It is the bridge between the mortal realms and the Celestial Fields." At the last Old Wan looked sad. "Unfortunately, the Cataclysm during the legendary Fiend War broke something precious. Any Immortal that tries to ascend via their tribulation dies."
Lind's eyes narrowed as he finally found a piece of information similar to what he knew of the past.
"So, the war is over?" Benny was the one that hopped up that time.
"The last Immortal sacrificed himself to drive the Fiends out of the Heaven Realm to save us all! He entrusted the 6 great empires to the Soulmancers to make sure the Fiends could never return." Lind saw the 2 older people nod but he had many red flags go off.
An Immortal fighting an invasion of Fiends was perfectly fine, but a single Immortal driving them out of the whole Heaven Realm? Impossible. Even his most outlandish ideas ran into the simple issue of quantity over resources.
He could hurt them or make their artifacts malfunction but even in a single mortal realm, he had to lean on the power of Heaven and Earth to keep them out.
He did not know the full rules, but Heaven seemed inclined to keep Fiends out of the mortal realms unless the centers of power were broken.
He did not think the Heaven Realm worked that way, but he honestly did not know.
As to the last part, any one raised on Earth knew history was written by the winners. It was too neat and tidy. It smacked of propaganda or at least a slant to make the current rulers legitimate.
In the cultivation world, tradition and power were enough to bind people even when they were suffering.
Lind noted to look into it but he changed his tactics.
"If the Soulmancers were trusted by the Immortal, why the Two Rivers Bandit group?" It was a contradiction in how they spoke.
They revered the Immortal in the story but hated the Soulmancers of the present?
"As with all things, the once honorable people long passed on. It had been nearly a million years since the Cataclysm that cut off Immortals from ascending. The Soulmancers changed over time and became cruel." Old Wan spoke up.
That kind of time was enough for generations of Heaven Realm cultivators that averaged 5000 years lifespan. Lind's own life span was unknown but Ethry was around 40,000 years but she made it seem like that was only at the Star Tier.
Being a progenitor, he would be closer to the Divine Guardian so he could live a damned long time.
He filed away his stray thoughts but felt confused. If Soulmancers were weavers, why did they turn? He could already pull off amazing feats back in the mortal realm, so a true Heaven Realm weaver should not need to take a short cut.
Even if they did, why did all of them do it?
"You say they rule the 6 empires but why? Can't the Sun Tiers overpower them?" Lind may not know everything but no matter how powerful they were, weavers were rare. Over time, Sun Tiers should outnumber them easily.
Gail frowned but for once it was not at his question being absurd. Old Wan looked grim while Benny simply was glum. What was going on?
"Sigh, back then there were empires in name only. They worked together and the Soulmancers were like an outside force to keep the peace but the way they did that was controlling the resources." Lind frowned deeply.
That was just asking for trouble but weavings, especially if they were complex enough, could be impossible to unravel unless the cultivator was a weaver themselves. If the Soulmancers might be scouring the empires for any weaver to keep their numbers up and keep the resources like a carrot.
All the while, things turned because those that held all the resources would become corrupted as time passed.
It was all guess work but he had seen enough examples just in his own mortal realm. Still, it was pointless to take the shortcut with other souls in that instance.
They already held power, so why use other souls?
It was like being a dictator and still killing people even though no one revolted. Why do it if it only encouraged your enemies?
"So what about the beasts? Surely they don't let things stand like that?" Old Wan shrugged and Lind instantly understood. Since Qi stones and other resources were restricted, beasts would be hunted constantly.
It made even less sense. It was going to end up with a dead stretch of land one way or the other. So why go so far?
He was barely ascended and in some strange area that thought the Fiend war was over and that there were only 6 empires. He could list a dozen sects nevermind guilds but that would be his final test.
"Have you heard of the Heavenly Maiden Sect or Divine Sword Sect?" All 3 looked mystified and settled a few things for Lind.
He closed his eyes and organized what he had gathered from his 2 encounters with the locals.
They believed the Fiend war was over. They knew of the Cataclysm, whatever that was, and that Immortals could no longer ascend.
They called weavers Soulmancers and if they were using other living beings as engraving material, the soldiers' fear of him made more sense.
The few confirmed facets lined up but left giant chasms of mystery.
Where were the Fiends? Why weren't they dominating the area or where was the Alliance?
A sudden flash of him slamming into a Law restriction he thought was natural but a sudden idea came to him.
He used his Heaven Eyes and Touch to look at the world around him but all he saw was a barren cave and the wounds he had seen before but he now tilted his head at them.
Old Wan might be at the end of his life to explain the damage but Gail and Benny were a mix of old injuries and something he had missed.
Faint sigils cracked and dispersing slowly from their dantians!
Why?! Why would any wicked or righteous weaver do such a thing? His emerald eyes narrowed in anger as he understood what he was seeing.
"They brand you?" Shock flooded all 3 faces before Gail slowly nodded. They all felt his anger rise before he calmed himself down.
"So, they not only control the resources, but your cultivation as well?" Old Wan nodded firmly and some dark pieces fell into place. Technically speaking, a branded item belonged to a cultivator.
In other words, the public soul extraction could be done without issue via that brand. Only weaving could do that to a dantian but again, why?
It was twisted and wicked but it had no point! It still lead to a dead end from any angle he could look at it. The desperate man from the caravan flashed in his head and he now wondered if there was a reason the man felt pushed to steal from such dangerous beasts.
He was about to ask more questions when the cloth was whipped aside. A man in a frayed cloth vest and short pants looked enraged as he flung a spear at Lind. If the man was not near crippled at the Star Tier, he might have been a threat, but Lind simply caught the spear with his bare hand!
"And a warm hello to you too sir, my name is Lind Frey, how can I help you?" His aura flared and all understood his cultivation was intact! Unlike the 4 of them, he was whole!
The man roared and Lind just sighed as he seemed to vanish from all sight before the man was slammed into the stone floor as Lind pinned him to the ground.
"Monster! You work for them! EVERYONE, AN ENEMY IS HERE!" Lind never got a chance to speak before many feet came running. Annoyed, Lind put out his full power. Everyone in range save Old Wan, Benny, and Gail, were flattened to the ground by his will.
"Everyone calm down and let me speak! Now, just to–" Lind was about to begin when a sword came flying into the cave and struck his backside. Rather than blood flying, the sword cracked and lost all Qi in it as Lind simply looked at it and felt tired.
Would he ever get to speak at some point?