novelraw Chapter 790 - 789 - Survival on the Edge
Chapter 790 - 789 - Survival on the Edge
The blocked off areas were not much more than Heaven Realm beasts setting up a few natural barriers as they learned how. It also topped out at a single Heaven Realm in each little barrier.
He did not bother them as they did not have what he wanted. He also saw brutal beast wars.
It was only after another year passed that he realized an oddity.
No aether children. The records were clear they still manifested just far less than mortal realms. Elementals could condense after all but in the current conditions, he would be seeing aether children, yet there were none!
A dark thought crossed his mind. Aether beasts usually manifested among packs but aether children were alone. They were never a part of a community.
"They die." He felt sad about that.
As he moved deeper into the healthy area, he saw more Law Traces but he now knew it was a lingering gasp of the Celestial Fields. There was simply not enough of it left to come back in the current state.
Still, something had to be doing more than what he was seeing or it should have completely collapsed long ago.
He found several herbs native to the Heaven Realm after only another year! He had covered a distance that would easily have taken him to the Law Binding and the Alliance several times over yet he had not any inkling of circling around!
How big was the place?!
His markers were all connected but they had to be hidden now as the lush forest was not as accepting of new things. He had no doubt they would be picked up by the Heaven Realms at least for study.
He could not allow that as he had no maps and it was damned clear despite its decrepit state, the Celestial Fields were still huge.
He saw entire packs wiped out not by battle, but by consuming too much Qi too quickly. They could not endure afterwards as he had feared.
He set up a few more weavings to strengthen the Qi, but that was all he dared do as he did not want to leave too many clues behind for the intelligent beasts.
Their pride would likely make them destroy or attempt to move the beneficial weavings. He would not allow it.
The delicate balance was likely beyond them to comprehend until the Sun Tier at least.
Lind was no longer sure of his track of time either as he had noticed a problem he had missed.
The realization that things were crumbling made the sky dim at the edge and clear up as he moved inward. Yet now that he was in the more rich and living areas, the sun changed positions!
It was not gradual either. He had been trying to calculate how far he had come when the issue came up. He was able to gauge his speed relative to the surface when he flew or walked but based on that, the days had gotten longer!
He did not mean more daylight either, the actual stretch of time from one sunrise to the next was longer than normal. Why was time thrown off?
It only took a moment for him to understand it was the same issue as everything else. The Laws were that broken, including Time itself!
It gave him a headache but he noted the changes and found it.
The barren areas had fairly short days, shorter than any realm he had been in, but the mortal areas, as he called them, got longer but not so much he noticed.
It was only when the strain finally lifted on his body from Qi density that there was a massive jump. He wished he could know why they got so much longer, yet it was one of many things he had to figure out later.
If he used the current area as a standard, he had possibly only been in the Celestial Realm 5 years instead of over 10!
Time passed differently?!
He pushed it aside as the sounds of a new battle of life and death reached his ears, but he froze when something new was added.
"Drive them off! Don;t let those cursed humans win!" He quickly located the source and shot into the sky. His dragon flight was safer compared to Qi flying. He made sure to keep his aura suppressed as the forest blurred.
Some beasts noticed him still but anything moving that fast was best not to annoy. It took him a few breaths to cross to the fight.
He had to have covered over 100 kilometers before an actual Qi Art entered his senses! It was almost enough to make him smile ear to ear! It was a simple Flame Arrow Art, but it was still the Art!
The principle was clear as day to him and familiar!
He carefully landed on a branch far above the newly created clearing. Smoke and fires had chewed up some of the plants. He saw a small band of humanoids fighting against stone drals.
The voice came from a girl on their side and he sensed she was a Moon Tier. It was the first he had encountered!
The humans made him frown. They were using Arts certainly, but he saw how crudely they were using their Qi. It was like they were mimicking something they had learned from reading only. They had not had anyone to ask to correct them or guide them.
There were 3 men and 1 girl on their side. Their clothes were a mix of leather and wool clothes. They were not great either. No inscriptions, refining, or any sign of real protection from the power of the stone drals.
Yet, he saw the beasts were barely winning. Despite the increased Qi, both sides were not the best quality of either race. He noticed a few predators looking on greedily. There was a panther with black fur carefully hidden just below Lind.
[Leave.] He sent a direct message and put his power into it. The panther vanished into the shadows like it had been lit on fire. He did the same to the others he could detect. He would not lose a chance for answers!
The woman in the humans was the strongest at the Star Tier but he found her foundation very shaky, The men were worse. It was no wonder they were stuck at the Sky Realm.
It was a miracle they got that far from what he could tell. The Moon Tier aether beast was not attacking not out of some kind of honor, but because she was out of Qi. She also had a bad foundation for some reason where a beast should have an advantage compared to humans.
After the sun passed the peak of the day, both sides pulled back, bleeding and tired. It seemed like there was some unspoken agreement that if they could not pull it off, they pulled back. It made a kind of sense given the status of the realm.
He now had a decision. Talk to the beasts or the humans? Normally, he would go to humans for more knowledge but based on what he was seeing, that would be a waste of time.
The Moon Tier beast had a possibility of race memories that could help him far more.
"Leave, our cave is ours! You will never take it from us!" The young girl in the stone drals screamed but it looked almost comical how the exhausted humans could not even summon the energy to care.
The other stone drals fell back and she followed them. Lind took a glance at the humans before putting a marker on the tree.
"Keep safe, I will be back." He felt the tree respond obligingly before he flew off to follow the pack. The girl transformed back and he was surprised. She was not a stone dral.
She was a crystal dral! A rare one!
Where stone plating was on the lumbering beasts around her, she had glowing crystals that shifted colors. Had she evolved when she ascended? It was possible.
Before the sun set, a small mountain appeared with a large cave and many more stone drals laying about. He thought they were resting but his eyes narrowed.
They did not look well.
[Sorry, everyone, we were attacked again. I will find a cure soon!] A voice was sent out in general but Lind grasped the situation. A quick inspection of several beasts left him confused.
Physically they were ok, but their cores were sickly colored. What was going on?
He gently swept the cave and found it ran very deep into the ground but a sensation came back he did not like at all! It was Fiend Qi! It was weak, but it was there!
He flew inside without any detection and eventually found what he was looking for but was stunned.
It was something he had suspected would exist in the Celestial Fields but had never seen once in any other realm.
"A Fiend earth treasure." The pulsating vein of metal was very small but he could easily see it. He also understood what was happening! The Fiend Qi was killing them! It was naturally changing the most important element to any stone dral, earth!
A flick of his emerald Qi would fix it, but he had to play things smart.
"Time to make a bargain." He returned to the surface to find the 6 moons in the sky. He would normally wait till dawn but it was a serious situation and took too damned long.
[Good evening. I am called Lind Frey. Who leads this pack?]