novelraw Chapter 688 - 687 - Changing Tack
Chapter 688 - 687 - Changing Tack
Some had wondered if the Sanctuary Empire would push its advantage against the weakened empires but the sudden death of all the demonic seers shocked all. Rumors went rampant but there had been no Heavenly Wrath nor any other sign of karmic retribution either.
In fact, some reported the seers in other locations dying just as suddenly at the same time once the reports were confirmed.
Only 1 survived.
According to rumor, Lind Frey's personal advisor had lived but was in a weakened state as she recovered. She clearly had been attacked as well but somehow survived.
Once some tests were done, the Fiend Qi had been discovered but it was a horrifically powerful version none could understand.
Lind stood over rows of corpses as he saw what looked like burnt and consumed bodies. The demonic Qi was completely removed as well as any vitality from the bodies. It was not like the thrall technique at all, but it was similar to the Fiend farming weave patterns he had seen in the barren realm all those centuries ago.
The stronger a Fiend, the more cultivators they had to consume if a roughly equal realm version was not available.
A Heaven Realm could only advance with sheer quantity but a single Fiend could only do so much without assistance from a weaving.
Yet, the entire Law Binding had seen a similar effect without the use of a weaving at all! There were no traces, even Lanbao and Linghu felt nothing in the bodies, but Lind did.
He felt something familiar but he could not place where. It was not a weaving, though, but a Fiend directly applying a technique.
There was one body separated out but none knew how Lind knew it was Seras. The bodies all looked like husks to them now, but he could feel a faint trace.
"My Emperor, what did this?" Haim loomed nearby but he looked like he had aged centuries compared to when Lind last saw him a few months ago. In fact, he noticed all the demons looked like their vitality was affected save those below Iron Tier. Only Nyota was spared.
"I do not know but I do know it was a Fiend far beyond any of us. I think they broke some rule and were stopped as well based on a few clues I have pieced together." Lind suspected all the demons were supposed to die, but had been saved at the last moment.
None of them realized what happened until it was all over, yet the seers were clearly a primary target.
"I can no longer advance." Lind whirled as he saw Haim looked almost forlorn! The massive demon had never been anything less than a warrior born with too much energy to spare! Since Lind had healed him and others with demonic elixirs, they had easily reached the peak of the Sun Tier and simply needed to leave to advance.
Now, he was telling Lind it no longer mattered. That was very different from the thrall technique! Their very potential had been consumed with their vitality! It was not just life taken from them!
Lind shook with rage but then let it go. He was simply not strong enough. He could be angry but it served no one to let it rule him.
"What do you want to do?" Haim seemed to think about Lind's question but he had no answer at the moment beyond burying the bodies they had gathered together.
Lind felt no Fiend Qi to undo so the most that could happen was to evaluate the demons in all of the Law Binding to see if the entire race had been affected.
Haim left as several soldiers began to carry out all the bodies to be buried at a place set aside for them.
"Lind." Lanbao appeared with a deep frown on her face.
He looked and felt a sigh forming in his throat before she said anything else. He felt her worry nearly as clearly as he once felt Ethry's emotions.
Unlike that bond, however, it felt muted even when she was right in front of him. Still, he pushed aside his observation and waved for her to continue.
"Linghu got in contact with the Moebius Sect. They confirmed strange flows of Qi they could not explain at almost the same time as the demons were attacked. Now, the Fiends are making very aggressive moves as if they do not care if they are spotted." Lind felt a tightness in his chest.
In the grand scheme of things, he was not nearly powerful enough to stop Immortals, but Fiends were something of an exception. He recalled how fearful the Shard Tier and Sliver Tier Immortal Fiends were of his harmony.
"And the Gate of Heaven?" He already knew the answer but she looked away in disappointment. It seemed even grade 7 masters would take years to comprehend what he was able to create from what a friend explained to him.
Was it really that hard? What was the difference between the large scale and the small scale that made it so hard for them after all the discussions and even an example?!
The vision from Nyota was making him worry on top of the news Lanbao brought him. Time was slipping away but nothing he did could really speed things up.
Lind paced in for a bit in the open air before he sighed and took to the sky. Lanbao followed him. Normally, he would have far more guards but Lanbao was more than sufficient. At least she made it clear she was to the overprotective Emerald Souls.
Much like before, many he met at lower realms had quickly passed him by after he taught them. He simply needed far too much Qi to advance his sun!
The 6 flows of elements were not the only thing he had to do as his sun churned demonic Qi as well! It was far less in comparison but still even more Qi than before! Never mind the few bright sparks of Celestial Qi he made out in the flares now and again as well!
Thankfully he did not need any of that but it was still part of the process slowing him down! He was just barely into the mid Sun Tier as it was!
As he flew higher and higher, he saw the vast stretch of wild Hinterlands get broken up by cities, villages, and even the vast open stretches marking out the old empires.
"Lanbao, would an intent based on a lot of different pieces of knowledge be too much to grasp even with an example?" He had never asked before but he had to now. He needed to make a choice.
He saw her azure eyes look deep for a time until she finally nodded.
"It is impossible for a cultivator to skip ahead without the previous accumulation of knowledge that comes before. Sword cultivators are a good example. While they are all sword cultivators, they are not all the same. Katana wielders' intent is very different from a broadsword." He frowned at her example.
Lind knew that was not entirely true. Weapons all shared the base intent. They were designed to kill. His Battlemaster Aura was a result of a Relic that likely grasped that truth but he got her point.
Teleportation using the manipulation of space was what everyone understood. The small scale tests worked likely because people thought that was how tears in the void worked. It was an accident!
Actually creating a single point from 2 required a level of science knowledge LInd once held in his past life. He was neither a physicist nor an expert in the fantastical knowledge George always spoke on, but he had enough base knowledge for his enhanced cultivator mind to make the leap like he had.
The Gate of Heaven was not going to work in time.
Given enough time, lessons, and a lot of math, he might get a cultivator to grasp it, but it amounted to centuries! Lind had taken his previous life knowledge for granted!
"What would you do with a giant suit of armor taller than one of our fortress spires? It would be piloted by a single person and have a Qi sword with a shield." He spoke of something he had experienced but Lanbao looked confused.
"How would someone even make such a thing and why?" Lind closed his eyes as he finally accepted the root of the problem. Cultivators were not inflexible but they made a lot of assumptions when approaching problems.
It was only moving one piece at a time they could open their minds to what anime and science fiction fans simply wanted to make real if they could.
Earth dreamt of the impossible while cultivators had the power of Heaven and Earth at their fingertips.
"I need to do something a bit drastic." Lind flew back to the Gate of Heaven. He liked that Lanbao did not ask questions as he landed in front of the giant stone circle. It was so close but it was no longer viable in the face of the attack and Nyota's vision.
If he waited, he might arrive in time to see everyone dead and consumed into a Fiend, but if he tried to force the path, it could consume resources to prevent the very same thing from happening.
Either way, his original plan was no longer viable.
Lind paced in front of it as Lanbao and others looked on. No one interrupted him as he finally looked up in curiosity.
"Lanbao, what happens to a Shard Tier exactly? Not ascension to the Tier, but how high can you go in the Heaven Realm?" Lanbao looked chagrined as she pointed at herself.
"A low Shard Tier is actually as far as I dare. Any more and Heaven will force me to ascend whether I want to or not. Also, while I am a Shard Tier, I have barely crossed the line as the Qi here is far too low for me to really progress anytime soon." Lind nodded as he understood Immortals were not meant to stay at any Tier in the Heaven Realm.
"Can a Sun Tier go to the Celestial Fields?" He was simply asking but he saw her slowly nod.
"You could but it would be oppressive since you are an ascender. If you used one of the Ascension Portals, it could help you adjust but it takes massive amounts of Qi to use those if any still exist." Lind found that interesting but then was curious.
"There are no ascension pools?" Lanbao looked at him like he was an idiot.
"Of course there are but they would not let you pass!" Lind shrugged but then froze. A mountain suddenly appeared in his mind. A Barren Realm that had no way to ascend had been rewarded with a way out due to karmic restitution!
He looked at the Gate of Heaven and had a crazy idea enter his mind. The mortal realms were as bound as the Heaven Realm by the Law Binding, but it had a limit!
He looked up and smiled. He will ascend!