novelraw Chapter 626 - 625 - Heart demons Take All Shapes
Chapter 626 - 625 - Heart demons Take All Shapes
Any doubt Lind had about the foundation of the Orwellia Empire had vanished seeing that book. It was far too thick to be just the story he was overall familiar with, but the fact a cultivator made it all the way to the Heaven Realm and still clung to it was disturbing.
Why?
Why would someone that had walked the path of cultivation enough to become a Heaven Realm cling to that idea?
He carefully set the now sleeping Empress down and summoned a large pillow to keep her comfortable. He then examined the small room and noticed a few jade slips on a simple wooden desk.
It had no fancy decorations nor any arrays he could detect. He did notice that the inner wall leading to the door had a burnt out crystal in it. Based on the traces, he was stunned to feel karmic Qi in it!
So the battle had broken the lock!
Still, how had someone harnessed karmic Qi for a locking formation?
He examined the jade slips and what he found left his soul cold.
[I am unsure how long I was in that damned fog again. I keep losing time since my ascension. I remember the lightning coming down from those terrible black clouds but then it gets foggy after a while. Gemma was there with her smile afterward so I simply accepted all was well.]
[It was sometime afterwards I realized I was losing time. Gemma began to act strangely and so did my friends. They were not angry but they became colder to me over time. Why? We had traveled together for so long and Gemma had been with me since I reincarnated in this world. What had suddenly made them distance themselves from me?]
[The world is all lies! I can see it now! She never loved me, she simply pretended to until I was no longer useful. The Elders of the sect are the same. They have started to work against me! The voices tell me the real truth! They tell me what I must do!]
[It was far too easy. I simply reverted to how they thought I should be and they suddenly all smiled at me again. They spoke of how they had been trying to find me a healer as they had thought I had been ensnared by a heart demon in the tribulation. Ha! Like I am so weak! I know the truth, they are plotting to kill me!]
Lind felt like echoes of his old pain resurfaced. It was nothing now, but back then he had almost lost himself in the delusions of the heart demons. It was so easy to let go and you had to fight! You had to face them head on or you would be lost!
Qing had helped him after his fallout with the Heavenly Maiden Sect and Fey's near death to her own heart demon but he had come much farther in strengthening his own will.
The farther he read the more he felt a twinge of pity. The heart demons were not the same for everyone. Some were common enough to be battled or be clever, but this man's heart demons hid.
They then took over when he was distracted or simply tired. Likely they laid seeds that slowly bloomed to make the man's friends aware something was wrong but not definitive enough to be wary.
When he suddenly seemed normal, the trap was set and none knew the horror of what was coming.
[It is so simple! Who knew Earth could still lay waste to these backwards barbarians! I miss computers and video games but the imitations are not good enough! I want to go back! I want to have my old life back! I can do it now! I recall how from that old book! I can make the world what I want it to be!]
He was slipping away before that entry, but after that, Lind could tell the man had died at some point and the heart demons took over. Many believed heart demons would lay waste to those around them but Lind now had proof that was not the case.
Just as each cultivator must face their own trials, it seemed heart demons came in all shapes and sizes.
The Orwellia Empire was built on the bones of a dead sect! WIth the help of the heart demons and his own prowess in weaving, yes, the founder of the Orwellia Empire was a skilled 7th Circle weaver, he took over before anyone knew what happened.
The brand was perfected in the sect and then slowly spread without any being the wiser until it was too late. The reason was also stunning to Lind.
Karmic Qi!
The heart demons made it so the man could use karmic Qi in his weaving. Compared to Lind, who had deep elemental understanding, the founder of the Orwellia Empire had become a genius with karmic Qi.
It was so damned rare that almost no records existed at all with most treated as legends!
Yet here, in the heart of the twisted empire, Lind found proof. He also understood why the heart demons were so insidious. Karmic Qi was a volatile Qi to mess with. Even the few times he gave up his restitution to others or in the battle previously, he saw first hand how easily it could destroy him if he slipped up at all.
"A karmic tribulation lighting bolt. It must have exposed something he buried." Lind spoke out loud a theory but he had no proof. The ramblings continued for a short time after he conquered the sect but then a change occurred.
[We are free! The empire is born. I have reclaimed my queen from the clutches of that vile sect. She weeps with joy when she sees me but I will take away her tears soon. The new arrays no longer require my weavings to work. Anyone with my blood can use them! I will finally be safe!]
Lind slowly looked over to the plinth. The book cover was clearly from Earth but when he opened it, the pages had faintly glowing engravings unlike any he had ever seen. Normally, he would want to study such unique weavings, but not now.
Emerald flames lit up and he burned it all!
The book resisted at first but a slight golden spark was enough to rip away the veneer of its defense. It was turned to ash in an instant. Lind intentionally closed his eyes to not take anything in. It was best forgotten.
"The damn brands are imbued by using karma." Lind had grasped that much. He had wondered how the branding worked and now he understood. All life had karma. Further, all life had potential for heart demons.
With his genius, the founder had grasped how to control people via their karma by essentially creating false heart demons! Now that he had found the source, the rest he had learned fell into place!
He could save them at long last but it would be far worse than he had imagined. They had been trapped in illusions until he let them out! What kind of lives had they been living all that time?
He looked at the sleeping woman and wondered how many more would be like her. Children trapped in adult bodies.
"You bastards used it too." His hatred for the dead Timat and the other Fiends rose for a moment but he now suddenly lost all pity for Suzen. The man had been a coward and while he had done a vile thing using the Law Binding, he had betrayed the Fiends as well.
That act had actually redeemed him ever so slightly in Lind's eyes but he now knew what kind of person Suzen was. With what Lanbao taught him, there was no way Suzen could use a Law Core and Law Arrays without understanding the consequences.
It had been simplified, but the brand used by the Law Binding had been shifted from controlling the mind to controlling the soul! They simply shifted the damned target!
All they had to do after that was to make the Soulmancers have a slight shift in their brands so they could take since all the souls were connected! It also explained the strange damage the exiles had while still being able to use their Qi.
Karmic Qi! The damned karmic Qi hurt them but protected them at the same time!
The foreign karmic Qi ravaged their dantian but their original karmic Qi kept them alive!
Lind then froze. He slowly looked at his hand as a tiny golden spark jumped from his thumb to his index finger.
A question he knew both Xing and he could not answer was how did Lind ascend to the Law Binding when one of its basic functions was to block such a thing?
Lind had thought that maybe his being a 6 primary elemental or his harmony was the reason but Lanbao had assured Lind Laws did not work that way. Elemental theory was not a bad foundation to build on, but Laws needed true comprehension.
In a way, Immortals had arrived at Lind's understanding far too late to grasp the implication. They just assumed Laws were that profound and lower realms could never benefit from it.
Thus, Lind until he realized the basis of the Law Binding. Karmic Qi! It was based on karmic laws of some kind. Lind had done a lot of things, including restoring an Immortal Guardian to a Barren Realm that had fallen.
He then kept spreading his teachings and faced many hardships with his loved ones and friends. He had likely accrued an insane amount of karmic restitution but what would happen if that was pulled by a massively unfulfilled karmic retribution?
It was like a magnet. The 2 flows of Qi were literally the opposite effect. One was a punishment while the other could bring reward. A million years of a karmic Law Binding used by Fiends had to have become so vile that Heaven and Earth could no longer ignore it.
Heaven and Earth are fair, they could not violate the Law Binding as it was, but Lind presented an opportunity.
He was a Divine Progenitor, a 6 primary elemental, and had accrued a massive karmic restitution. He also had a record of giving it to others. A wry smile spread on his face.
"You could have just asked." He did not get any response from Heaven and Earth, but he did not expect any. "So I was sent here to help, or to at least balance the scales."
It was a highly arrogant perspective but Lind felt he was right. Law Bindings could stop a lot of things but karma could not stop itself. His ascension had been so rushed he barely registered it.
The strongest force would act on him for his arrival and he now knew it was karma. Karma had pulled him to a place badly in need of someone. He sighed and slowly bowed low.
"I will do my damnedest. If you have any help to spare when I am ready, it would be appreciated." Lind stood up but froze as he felt something brush past his moon! He looked inside and saw faint traces of golden karmic Qi!
Unsure what it meant, he simply bowed again and picked up the Empress before looking carefully at the small room. He unleashed his elements like a storm to wipe it all from existence. The man never left his name and Lind did not want anyone ever following that path.
The spell of Orwellia Empire died that day.