novelraw Chapter 875 - 874 - Fiendish Design
Chapter 875 - 874 - Fiendish Design
It had been a damned long time since Lind was truly alone. He always seemed to find company in some form or another but now, he simply sat as he felt the Wings of Heaven get back into the vital energy flow.
Now that he had full access to the artifact, he could see the extent of its effect.
If they flew straight up for 3 days they could leave the area of effect of the 3 spheres.
The vortex would weaken and they could safely start flying back.
Three days never seemed that long until one had to find a way to kill time. He spent it studying his enemy.
Putting together the events was one thing, but his plan would require a better understanding of what he was attacking.
It took him half a day to compile all the pieces about the processor above his head. It was essentially the artifact equivalent of a Fiend.
It took in the processed Qi, Laws, and life pulled in and broken down by the spheres to convert it to pure vitality to be beamed to another facility beyond his reach.
There was only a reference to it but he had a rough idea of what it would do.
He also understood that each facility cut off each layer from the others. No Immortal could descend even if they were a Sovereign Tier!
It was a natural precaution and bought time for the Realm Refiner to do its job. If the layers could still freely traverse, Sovereign Tiers could have stopped it long ago!
He now had a better grasp of the Celestial Fields thanks to the files he found. The processor was basically just for all life on the lowest layer were Sliver and Shard Tier Immortals thrived.
Crystal Tier would be forced to ascend to the next layer which was like a new realm but could be considered gigantic floating land masses like the Floating Isles had been in his realm. After that, the Radiant Tier would be forced to ascend to the Endless Peaks layer.
It was literally mountain tops far above the Crystal Tier layer.
The final layer was where Sovereign Tiers ruled. It was where most mythical beasts could be found in various pocket realms and far more powerful islands and continents that had a Qi density far above the rest.
There were barriers that followed the rules of Heaven and Earth but the difference was Immortals could descend if they wished. It was not absolute. The main difference was below the layer they were suited to, they could not advance!
The Realm Refiner took advantage of that system to lock in the cultivators that were a threat!
It was not perfect as Inheritances could not be stopped. It explained how Lind had encountered beings far above the power the Refiner should lock away but only under special conditions or places.
They could not break out to stop it as the very rules of Heaven and Earth would punish them!
"Evil bastard. Using the rules of Heaven and Earth to consume a realm. I hope you choke on what I do next." Lind had no illusions.
He had faced near death and in fact died more than once. He had been spared and saved by far too many lucky moments to imagine walking away now.
Karma did not work inside the Void of Eternity. He could tell that somehow. Even so, the level of karma needed would also exceed his entire life's worth if he was right.
He was already a dragon soul and a True Lord. There were no last minute saves coming from that corner either.
It felt odd. He was going to die. He was never going to see his family or friends ever again but he was strangely calm. He would have thought he would be sad or cursing the Heavens for not solving this issue before he arrived, but he was not.
All he could think of was Hope.
She had known she was going to die. His intervention at the last moment of her life was not part of her equations. She went forward knowing it was coming but did it anyway.
"You would be yelling at me right about now, but how can Big Brother not be inspired by his little sister?" He did cry a bit at his words but focused on his task.
The processor was flat out terrible.
It converted energy from one form to another, a rather benign process on paper, but the reality was a nightmare. It used Fiend Qi in a complex array and weavings to shift everything that had been broken down into pure vitality.
What happened at the next step was of no concern to him. It would be Wen or someone else's problem.
They had all the jade slips to study and he meant to give them that chance.
He pored over the design and sighed as he kept coming back to the same conclusion.
There was no way from the outside to control the energies at play. He had to be inside the damned thing!
It was more than large enough but the sheer scale was far beyond anything he had ever dealt with. His harmony could protect him but he had no illusions it had no limits! He had fought hard against the Shard Tier Fiend and it proved he was not invulnerable.
He had an edge, but that was it!
He found 3 easy entry points that had no risk from his current position. It would allow him to bypass the flow of energy until he was at the actual weavings and formations.
It was the next part that engrossed his attention.
Making it overload was actually fairly easy for him. A few swift golden sigils replacing the obsidian ones and it would unravel the flow of power very quickly into an explosion that would rip apart the entire complex.
He wanted to do something else.
He wanted to control the flow of power to destroy the structure but not run wild in its backlash.
Sending it straight up was an option but without knowing how it would interact with the barrier of the layers, it was unwise.
He could simply exchange a horizontal wave for a vertical one.
He spent the next day studying the weavings and actually deepening his own knowledge of weaving as a whole. He quickly felt his new circle restriction loosening as he grasped what it was to be an Immortal weaver.
It was ironic that Fiend weaving was teaching him, but it was a complex step to master the 7th circle.
He also could feel a loosening on his cultivation just from doing that but he did not advance.
The glittering ring was much like his sliver. It had all 18 elements as part of it! He did not know what that meant but he could feel a greater degree of control and was able to make weavings that made his previous ones look like crude drawings!
His sigils were packed so tightly and neatly as to be invisible even to his Eyes!
It made him sad he could not pass on his understanding to others but it was a minor thing as a clearer idea of what he had to do.
The processor was an automatic machine with no feelings or thoughts. It simply did as it was created to do. Lind had to take its place.
He had to change fundamentally what it did while still taking in the massive flow of energy at the same time. He also had to avoid an overload while he did it until the new weavings could take over.
He would definitely die but he had to hold on long enough to succeed.
He began to practice and create what he needed but ran into a problem.
"It needs a mind." Just as the soul said. The machines could not change their nature. They were not artifacts nor spirits infused into artifacts to be controlled by a cultivator. They were built with their purpose and had no flexibility to them at all.
"Looks like I will be using the bad weaving after all." The only solution he had was making his very soul a part of the weaving. It would make him a component, a living component, of the new processor.
Until he died. He would be in total control but it would kill him very quickly. His body could endure quite a bit, but his soul and mind were nowhere near as strong.
Even with what he learned from becoming a True Lord, a few decades were not enough to truly make progress on it. He had had too much to do!
"Master Delenn, I am not going to be able to keep my promise." He spoke of his old promise as he began to weave his own soul. Sigils burned his existence and it hurt!
He also felt how easy it was. A soul was like clay to him. He could manipulate his existence however he wanted!
The pain was horrible but he did not stop until the final trace made the whole weaving glow. It was incomplete but all it needed was for him to weave the greater connections inside the processor.
The final day passed and the Wings of Freedom finally began its journey home.
"Good luck, my friends. Thank you for everything." Lind smiled as he flew up to the hatch on the ceiling and twisted the lock open.
For the complex weavings everywhere else, a simple cylindrical lock was on the processor hatch. It fell downward and he saw with his naked eyes the death of all.
The billowing black mass was almost calm as it flowed upward into the weavings and formations to become the vital energy.
Lind clearly pictured his family one last time.
"I love you all forever. May we meet again in our next lives." Knowing there was a chance to be reborn was a bit of a cheat but it comforted him. He flew up into the maelstrom and his fingers began to glow emerald.