novelraw Chapter 592 - 591 - Frustration
Chapter 592 - 591 - Frustration
Xing listened to the reports being sent in from the 6 empires and frowned deeply. Her little demonstration 50 years ago was still working but only in the major cities.
The outlying villagers and even some trading caravans had sharply decreased in that time. The effects were not felt yet but even the new Emperors were expressing concern at the loss of slaves, manpower, and general cultivation resources.
The mines and farms were still mostly worked by commoners. Herb gardens in some areas too used slaves to keep their secrets but the high consumption rate of the elites had begun to show issues when there was not as much quality product to choose from.
Xing was further irritated because now she was blind to that area of the Hinterlands entirely. It grew every year but she could do nothing to stop it!
The stifling walls of the Core Hall were becoming more and more restrictive to her!
Shi and Linghu were no longer entertaining her either! She had selected 2 more promising Soulmancers for her little council but they were too weak to help her. They were fine in the empires but she needed someone to go to that blasted thorn growing in their side!
She was regretting repressing things so much but she had no choice back then.
If Suzen had realized a Fiend had survived, the cowardly little man would have more than enough strength to kill her. He was still an Immortal Realm.
The Law Binding prevented new Immortals from being born but that was contingent on the brand restricting their cultivation. Now there was a segment free from her control!
She was not terribly worried in the short term. It could take millennia before an Immortal appears but once one did, the Law Binding would try to ensnare them and consume massive resources to do it.
The damned snake was still alive and if Xing tried to keep attacking with the Binding, the Immortal flood dragon would be able to break free easily at that moment.
The tendrils holding onto her were using her as a backup for maintaining the Binding but if too much energy was pulled, the tendrils would be weakened to the point she could break free.
Once that beast was free, the future would not be hard to imagine.
Her usually plain features shifted back to her dark beauty and then settled again.
It was not the first time there had been issues in the 6 empires but the frustrated masses had nowhere to truly go before. The handful that tried their luck in the Hinterlands would be lucky to even make it to other groups carving out a place in that rough terrain.
Now, however, aether beasts seemed to be allied with the intruder! Somehow, he got them to guide the humans while killing any pursuit! The beasts got some tasty food and the rebels continued to grow.
What kind of power did that intruder have to pull that off?! Even the few beast tamers the empires produced could not make that happen.
She finally came to the meeting room and found Shi trying to get Linghu to respond. Normally, that would make her smile at the futility of it, but the words floated over to her made Xing pause.
"...if that intruder can remove the brands, maybe he can free us." Xing touched a bracelet on her right arm and it flared red. Shi immediately screamed in pain as her 'jewelry' lit up with all 6 elements searing into her.
"You are supremely stupid. You think my Art is something as simple as the toy we gave to Suzen?!" Xing was venting but she still did not go too far. She needed the little brat.
Shi had true skill as a weaver that was rare. Unlike the other fools Xing had made the rest of them, Shi and her brother were the real deal.
Xing could not kill them so easily unless she found another good seedling to replace them. Further, the resources to raise them were not cheap.
So while she enjoyed making the little girl scream, that was all she did.
The hall became quiet as Xing let off the punishment but Shi remained on the ground.
"Now, I know you can't leave this place and yet you still have the insanity to try and defy me for a fantasy?" Xing loomed over the beautiful woman. Her body was still twitching from the pain and her skin was burned in a few places but a pill would resolve that later.
It was true. Shi and Linghu were kept inside the Core Hall unless Xing explicitly sent them on a mission. Linghu was limited in range due to the skill controlling him but Shi could go anywhere and still be punished by Xing.
If Shi tried to leave without permission, her restraints would activate a lot more fiercely but it would also punish her brother.
"I want my brother free!" Shi surprised Xing. She was not begging nor was she asking to be freed herself, only her brother. All the anger and frustration vanished as Xing began to shake, then the hall filled with her laughter.
Tears fell from her eyes and even the plain face she currently wore looked lovely as it was flushed with a blush from all her laughing.
"Oh, I keep forgetting you have an unhealthy obsession with your brother. Here." She tossed a pill as her mood had improved. Shi was weak but she had her moments.
Xing pulled on the 'strings' of Linghu and let him move freely for the first time in over 100 years.
"I give you until lunch. Do not waste it." Shi was stunned as her brother slowly moved his arms and legs before he quickly leapt across the room to Shi's side.
Wisely, the boy did not say anything to anger Xing. She left them and went to find the control room.
She had never used the control room so much as she had in the last 50 years. She was constantly checking on the progress of her enemy but when she reached the room, she noticed a change.
The white sphere over the Law Array seemed agitated. She cocked her head to the side before she slapped her own forehead.
"Of course, I have been so busy I forgot to fill you up!" She quickly summoned a seal and pushed a few sigils on it. Ephemeral blue Qi manifested and flowed along channels into a slim figure chained to the far wall of the control room.
The barely breathing form regained a modicum of health before she cut it off. Immortal Suzen was nothing more than a piece of furniture so far as she was concerned but he still needed the occasional topping off to stay alive.
"If nothing else, fool, you proved the concept was valid if expensive. In the future, when I return to the main forces, you will be kept alive over a spit as I slowly enjoy your suffering." Xing was in a much better mood.
She was not the one that came up with the idea to use an Immortal thrall like that but she was one of the ones that knew the most about the Laws imprinted on the core.
It had been a near failure due to how pathetic Suzen really was. The man barely knew anything!
She looked down on the Hinterlands and frowned deeply. The ever growing area was larger still, now on par with a metropolis in any of the Empires.
If that was all, she would not be too bothered as it was normal, but now there were lines in the Hinterlands she could no longer see either leading to large clearings.
"Roads and villages? They are that large?!" How was it spreading so fast?! It was a mystery as large scale construction was still a time consuming and resource intensive process.
Yet every time she glanced, even just days apart, the blasted enemy had miraculously built new facilities so quickly!
What really irked her was not only the inability to see but the instant any resident got near there, the brand would vanish! Any hope of following it in was wiped somehow instantly but the border of that effect was also growing larger each passing year!
She was about to dismiss it when she noticed something odd.
The main mass of growth was almost a perfect circle but the roads were only going to the east and south.
Why?
Why expand towards Dar?
She suddenly narrowed her eyes as a radical idea came to her mind. Surely not! They were going to invade an empire?!
It had only been 50 years! How could they think they were that strong?! Dar was one of the more isolated empires and smaller, true, but it was still an empire!
It had peak Sun Tiers in the imperial family as well as many Soulmancers of the same power.
What she had thought were villages and roads was a supply route! They were going to war but surely they could not have advanced so quickly! Where were they getting such resources?!
While people had left, herbs and ores had not. Some tried to take such things but they were killed instantly. Xing had made it that all pill houses and other storage facilities had lethal protections.
It killed a few young fools who forgot procedures but she did not care about that.
Now, there seemed to be a hole in the net but in 50 years nothing had been reported stolen. So how?!
She quickly sent messages to Dar to warn them and began to plan her own assault. She would stop any further encroachment on her territory. She would not let some meddling ant have his way anymore!