novelraw Chapter 800 - 799 - Celestial Child
Chapter 800 - 799 - Celestial Child
Lind carefully examined a hut near the edge of the village that was not in the best of shape. He also noted several bodies buried in the yard. Their decay was not too old and he could still detect how they died.
Their meridians were shattered by some force that wrecked their bodies and killed them outright. It was odd but he had seen something similar. The Soulmancers shredded their bodies as they consumed souls.
Humans were not meant to do that and paid a price. They could mitigate it being weavers but the damage accumulated regardless. Some techniques could repair it for a time but would always need increasing resources to do so.
Still, the damage to their bodies was far more extensive. That was odd since he had seen a living Celestial in the Heaven Realm. Was it because Timat guided the process as an experiment or was there more to it?
He did not know but he did find it odd that the single Celestial he detected was a child on her own! She was barely 10!
He confirmed the Qi in her body was not Fiend at all but very weak! Unlike the kind he had to create thanks to comprehending all the elemental systems, hers felt very different. It was not awakened yet but still present.
He had to wait until nightfall but he saw several groups of kids throw rocks at her house yet she never stopped them or reacted. She was alive but injured. Why was no one trying to heal her?
The Fiends acted incredibly normal thus far but now left a little girl to fend for herself?
Did they view Celestials as another race? The kids did not seem to think so, just normal bullying for a random reason.
He let night fall before he physically moved. He was very careful as possible as the villages still had some defenses. His normal use of weavings had to be avoided as Fiends were especially sensitive to such actions.
He was impressed with how meticulous the patrols were but he confirmed that the defenses were the real threat. They did not injure or contain but gave exact coordinates of the intruder to the nearest patrol.
If he tried to dismantle them or fly over them, the result was the same. He had to admit it was clever, but he had a wife who was better than anyone.
A formation plate made him vanish entirely. Annabelle never handed out that particular formation to anyone but him and her sisters. Not even the kids got them.
The formation plate had an extra security measure of having to be bound to the user. It also had limited uses.
Lind had never used it before but had seen it used. It seemed like he created a special realm just for his existence but it took a lot of Qi to do it.
It was enough to get him in but cracks formed on the plate surprisingly. It showed how much strain those traps put on it.
Still, nothing reacted so he was inside the village. The hut in front of him looked far worse with his actual eyes than his senses extended from his cavern.
He made a careful examination of the wooden walls but no further issues were found. He still remained paranoid as he stood in the moonlight as still as a post. He was glad he waited as a tiny form swept aside the black cloth that covered the door.
She did not have the ash gray skin but he would hardly call it golden under the moonlit sky. It was more pale and ghostly at that moment but he noticed she was limping and covered in scars.
Her hair was choppy and clearly ripped out in places. Her eyes, unlike other Fiends, were crystalline but dull. It was clear she was blind.
Why did they go that far?
She was carrying a small bucket and he followed her down the empty streets to the well at the heart of the village. His senses were carefully attuned but he frowned at what he sensed.
Small forms stuck to the shadows silently and were holding sticks from trees or simple walking sticks. He noticed they did nothing as the child reached the well and barely had the strength to use the pulley to obtain water.
Cultivators could conjure water but he was surprised to see the Fiend children use normal water and food until they consumed souls. He expected they needed compatible food and drink, yet they were fine with the same humans could use.
He also noticed her arms were not the correct shape. It was clear she had healed improperly broken bones in her arms and left shoulder.
She took a few sips before lifting the now full bucket to head back but stopped as figures emerged from the shadows.
"So, this is how you are staying alive." The oldest boy with shoulder length white hair held the branch compared to all the others. The girl shivered as he sneered and the others laughed.
They were going to kill her. He had no doubts about it at all and the adults simply ignored it. It was strange they let 2 Celestials give birth but perhaps there had been a reason the Empire wanted them to reproduce.
He knew the Fiends may want to break free of their reliance on souls to live.
Yet, the clear prejudice even in just the children showed the true face of the Fiends in the villages. They treated all that was different as enemies.
"---to die." Lind froze as a whisper of a voice barely reached even his ears despite being so close. He knelt down even though none of them could see him and heard her mumbling. "I don't wanna die. Please, I don't wanna die."
Her tears were actually golden in color but Lind closed his own and sighed. A choice had to be made but not the one he expected. He had assumed the human pens would make him take action but instead, it was an unexpected child.
"You are an eyesore and we are done tolerating you. No one cares what we do with you." The older boy looked excited in a way Lind was all too familiar with. Many Fiends looked like that when about to kill.
Lind then stood up and looked at the sky. He could not invoke Heaven as it would give away what he was more than anything but he could do something else. He quickly used a formation plate and then opened his mouth.
Before the children could rush forward a thundering roar filled the skies. It was not just any kind of roar but a horribly oppressive aura filled the village and all the nearby villages.
Even before the adults could get outdoors, a response came from all the forest around them. Every beast in all directions answered Lind's call. He quickly snatched up the child and sped out of the village.
The chaos he unleashed was a pseudo-beast tide. They would not actually endanger the villages but make a lot of noise and act like they were going to.
The children had scattered to the wind but the oldest boy narrowed his eyes at where the girl had been.
"I knew she was a curse!" Lind sighed but paused at the edge of the village. He could not take chances other Celestials would suffer from his actions.
[What I do with my food is my business. If you bring me annoyances, I will come back for you.]
The oldest boy shook like a leaf in the wind as he wet himself and began to cry. Any guilt Lind might have felt was dispelled by recalling the clear planning that went into almost killing the girl squirming in his arms.
He used the formation plate once more and barely got outside the defenses before it shattered to powder. He frowned at the kind of power that could break Annabelle's formations but it might also simply be the strain on the plate material itself.
[Please be quiet, little one. I mean you no harm.] He felt surprise in her mind but moved quickly before he was safe inside his cultivation cave.
He set the child down who quickly shuffled to the back of it in fear. He stood over her for a bit before he placed a few more formation plates at the entrance of the cave. Once he confirmed all were working, he smiled.
A simple fire was lit in a pit he had dug earlier. He also summoned out some water and beast meat. The smoke and light were contained by a simple distortion formation while the scents were dissipated by a simple formation that shot them into the air.
The rumble of her stomach made him smile as she carefully crawled forward. He tapped the bowl of water so she could find it.
She drank it down before dropping it and leaping back in fear.
"I told you, I will not harm you, child." She did not seem to believe him but he conjured some Celestial Qi that caused a change. She was blind but could clearly sense what he was doing.
"A–a–are you like me?" She carefully crawled towards the fire again.
"Not quite but that can come later. Eat and drink your fill. Then sleep. I will watch over you." The tiny girl seemed to focus as he placed strips of meat in front of her on a simple ceramic plate.
She wolfed down food with water before passing out entirely.
Once she was out, he examined her more completely. The more he saw the more angry he got. Her internal body was barely functioning!
He began to formulate some plans but for the moment he enjoyed the show from the villages. The scrambling figures preparing for a beast tide that would never come made for a long night of hilarity.