novelraw Chapter 850 - 849 - Broken Dao
Chapter 850 - 849 - Broken Dao
Before Lind could process what had happened, a massive flash of pain went through his mind. He slowly looked around and saw Zhihui was frozen but not just her. All of it was.
The previous flood of information from the dragons in the world had become still.
[This child cannot withstand us for long so we stopped the flow of your time. Time, a strange concept.] Haro now had a voice that sounded at times like a group of people all speaking at once then a small child to an old man.
Lind tried to grasp how the world could be frozen but his eyes narrowed as Haro seemed to suddenly become much more solid than before and stronger!
[Interesting, the flow of High Laws are intact. The Guardian Rings were never meant to be pushed so hard.] So many questions came to him from those few words but he discovered he could not speak!
[We do not have the flexibility to debate your future. We acknowledge you as True Lord of Dragons. The final Inheritance will need to be faced per the Laws of Order, but you have full power and authority.] That coherent sentence was fine but then Haro seemed to become fascinated by something.
His eyes were clearly looking through Lind but his harmony flared as a strange sensation passed through his dantian.
[Your Dao is new. New is not possible but there it is. Why? Why do you exist?] The voices kept shifting.
Lind began to understand what Haro meant. There was clearly intelligence, but the spirits were not able to understand the flow of conversation.
As he had not truly met them, it was likely their existence was akin to early Elementals. Life, but not life on a plane he fully understood.
[Broken and new, why do people of your world do this?] He felt shocked at the causally spoken question. The spirits knew! They knew what he was!
"Spirits of Heaven and Earth, how is a world like mine connected to this one?" The question flew from him as he desperately wanted to know.
Haro's face looked surprised but then changed as if Lind was a particularly slow student that did not understand how something would fall if let go above the surface of the ground.
[We exist everywhere, but not equally. Life requires spirit Qi to exist. So long as there is life, we are there.] The chorus returned but then Haro's face became angry. [You should not remember.]
He was suddenly slammed onto the stone at Haro's feet. He was helpless! The shifting of colors slowed until a foot was slammed into him.
Lind heard his ribs crack and pain lanced over his body. What was going on?
[Broken, all broken because of you. You broke it!] Further hits and kicks slammed into him and he could do nothing. If he had only been human, he would have long been dead!
"I just wanted to find a solution for 6 elementals! Was that so wrong?!" It was the only thing he could think of but it froze Haro in place. The feeling of being examined remained before awe flashed over his face.
[Wrong one, not broken, new. You are new. Why are you new?] The voices began to shift and Lind slowly grasped what was going on.
"Spirits of Heaven and Earth, you came to me for a reason. I understand you are all fascinated and perhaps it is a rare opportunity, but this realm is dying. Can I save it?" He tried to corral what had to be literally all of the spirits using Haro like a radio.
Each station was a new group or individual. He was not sure how it worked but they clearly were not all on the same page message wise.
Worse, they did not seem inclined to stop until he guided them back.
Haro became blank faced before slowly returning to a serious look.
[The Dao was broken epochs ago and yesterday. The Dao will vanish in time. The Dao is dying yet flourishing. The realms of all are being consumed.] LInd only followed half of it but a flash of a dark shadow went through his mind.
"The one the Fiends call the Great One?" A force slammed Lind into the stone. More bones cracked and blood was coughed up.
[GREAT?! HE IS NOT GREAT! HE IS A COWARD THAT KILLED ALL TO LIVE!] A single voice, a woman's voice, screeched. Lind began to bleed from his eyes, ears, and nose as well. He was unable to do anything as both his arms broke.
Before blackness closed in, golden Qi began to flow around his body. He recognized it after seeing it so often, but strangely, he was not the source!
A little girl had walked in!
Hope!
[Stop hurting Big Brother. He is kind and good. He heals what is broken and soothes what is bad. He brought me back from a bad place. Open your eyes ancestor.]
Her words shocked him! Her tiny body was even more so in front of the torrent he felt but it slowly eased as Haro was crying!
The spirits gently knelt and cupped Hope's face. A smile crossed his handsome features and suddenly the room felt too small. Haro had cracks form on his skin but Hope simply smiled and patted his body.
The cracks vanished.
[Tell Big Brother what you need to. He does not want to lose candyman.] Lind would have rolled his eyes if his body was up for it. Haro, at times, spoiled Hope when he manifested. The candy had to be in the ring but it was not in a part Lind could see!
He accused the spirit of spoiling a child but the ring spirit always had an odd look and would say she deserved it.
[You are worthy of being a True Lord. You have resolved the path to true Dao for all cultivators. You have repaired and restored what was savaged by others. You have a new Dao born inside you. You are an enemy to the Traitor of All. Finally, you have restored True Qi to the Dao.
We affirm our choice.] The voice was much more powerful as many more seemed to be talking but then Haro pointed in a direction southwest from them.
[Go to that place. It is the only way to save the realm. Something went wrong or right depending on who you are. If you succeed, there are 2 more above that must be stopped. We await you if you can make it that far. We must tell you what you face if you continue on this path.] Haro was getting weaker all of a sudden.
"Wait, what do you mean by the Dao was broken? How could anyone break a Dao?" It made no sense. New he understood. Something grasped that no one had before could be easily comprehended.
Haro looked down at Hope but the child was now sleeping. Whatever strength karma had pulled from her was too much to stay in the stilled time.
"You are too weak and trapped. If you grow stronger and break free, we will tell you. The limit you can endure the weight is not large. Time is not on your side. You will die, then the realm.] Time began to resume as Haro faded to a mere shell then was snapped back into the ring.
"What just happened?" Zhihui seemed aware that something odd had occurred but was shocked at Lind's condition. He was healing but his arms were in the wrong direction and blood was coming from all over his head!
He also, clearly, could not stand up!
"If I understood things correctly, I was given an edict to get off my ass and get to work." Lind was not being used but he had proven he had the ability so they put him to work. Further, he had no choice.
Now that time resumed, he slowly understood what the spirits meant.
While his ascension to True Lord seemed beneficial to the realm, he noticed his healing was far slower than before. Nothing in life was free or without a downside of some kind.
Becoming rich did not solve all problems, it simply changed them and achieving power only started a longer struggle to hold on to it.
Those 2 simple desires of so many people had caused ocean's of misery to go with the good.
Hope suddenly woke up and looked bleary eyed at the pair. Zhihui was shocked that another person was inside her rooms somehow but even more so when she put together that it had to occur whenever Lind got injured!
"Meanies! Here, Big Brother Lind." Hope summoned an elixir from his own damned ring! How did she do that?
He also noticed her cultivation had advanced some more but still solidly in the Moon Tier.
He had a lot of questions but he suddenly realized a new facet of his existence. His Immortal Eyes had changed! He could see a sort of strange glow to Hope and a dimmer one around Zhihui.
It was not Qi, of that he was certain, so what was he seeing?
As his body healed he tried to look at himself but he only saw his normal flesh and blood. The flow of Qi was a storm if he focused on it but still normal.
He tried shifting through several layers but the glow did not change no matter how he filtered out Qi.
A sudden thought came to him and he summoned a preserved herb. It was in a jade case but sure enough, it had a different glow compared to the other 2.
Life, he could see actual life force! A grim understanding of what that meant and why. It was possible he could perceive all sorts of things he never had before but life was something he had a rather unique grasp of.
He had died once, nearly died far too many times, and had met other reincarnators as well. He could not see his own life force likely because he had tied his harmony to it.
As soon as the thought went through his mind, he saw a soft emerald glow far brighter than anyone in the room around his hand.
The final test took him to the balcony. He saw a storm of glows aside from Qi on all plants, people, and even a few artifacts!
He was enjoying it until he got to the barrier. He assumed he would see nothing but instead he saw a horrific vision.
A faint glow of life was being ripped up constantly by some kind of force and pulled to the southwest. It was ongoing and he could see it reaching out to all the life inside the barriers. The barrier too, was not totally intact.
Tendrils of life near it flowed up and through it into the desolate lands. So it was true, he did not have as much time as he thought as he saw a faint emerald glow to all the land! He was tied to the realm and thus was being directly refined as he stood there!
He had no time to waste!