novelraw Chapter 903 - 902 - Strange Place
Chapter 903 - 902 - Strange Place
It took Ilyria a few days to fully grasp her new abilities but Lind was in the same boat as he grasped fine control of his strength and Arts.
His Storm Arts were now weaker than straight conjuring by blending elements. It would take him some time to adapt them and further he had to study what he could to share with others.
He had already passed along about refining the body for 6 elementals to his clan. They would test and confirm it with those in the clan before disseminating out. He could not risk such knowledge dying with him.
An entire segment of cultivators would depend on it. Unlike long ago, there was more hope for them all but the remaining tiers of Immortality should now be within their reach if something happened to him.
The path forward no longer depended on him like it used to and for that he was eternally grateful.
The one exception would be the next major realm, the Divine Realm. He had no concept of it at all and thus neither did anyone else. Still, that was a problem for the future and whoever got to it first.
The new ship was far faster than his other 2 attempts. It covered hundreds of thousands of kilometers in only a few days without any sign of issues. He purposely pushed it here or there but it was holding up!
The next destination was far to the east and was a bit of a mystery. The maps all said it was once a lush forest but there had been reports of people going missing. The other issue was that it had not stopped even after the Realm Refiner began.
The Sacred Paths opened up nearby so it had been preserved but not a single settlement was made near it due to the stories.
Beasts did live there but again, there were oddities.
None of them had ever been seen to be over the World Realm at most anytime someone checked up on the area. With a Sacred Path entrance nearby, it should have easily supported Sky Realms.
The fact it had been that way before was odd but few cared as the central lands demanded far more attention. The closer to the outer edge, the less resources that could be found usually.
Lind broke through a fluffy white cloud to reveal vibrantly green forests but unlike most areas preserved by the Sacred Paths, it seemed very normal.
The trees were pine, oak, and so forth but he frowned at the results of the artifact scans. He checked with his own senses and the frown deepened.
"What is wrong, Uncle?" He saw Ilyria come out but she was freshly out of a bath as her hair was slicked back but her dark gold robes lined in black were new. He had never seen them but they looked good with her pale skin and dark hair.
Her eyes remained dark but a flicker of emerald seemed to show up when she had intense emotions.
"There is a tract of land ahead we came to look at but has a history of people disappearing. It was from before the Cataclysm but now I see another oddity. The trees, brush, and even the grass itself in a massive area is all the same age." She tilted her head at his words.
He then flipped a crystal switch and she looked at a station with a display and saw the artifact report.
The age of the trees were only a few centuries old but the root system for the smaller plants was the same! Further, no beast in an area at least 50 square kilometers was much over the same number!
"That makes no sense. How can all of it only be a few centuries old? Anything that wiped out such a large area would get noticed." He shrugged at her words.
"It is large to us but consider all we have mapped out. It is just a grain of sand. At the height of the Celestial Fields, there was no traffic out here. No one powerful died so no investigation but even those sent to scout only found the same kind of forest we see now. The only problem with that is the records are over a million years old." Ilyria nodded and infused her Qi into a few controls to see if she could learn anything.
They flew around the area but nothing was noticed which only added to the mystery. The opening into the Sacred Paths was not far and it seemed fine as well.
There was a small village set up near it but it was an extension of one of the Alliance powers. They were clearly spreading and the Sacred Paths were excellent places to improve the chance to comprehend Laws.
The area around the path entrance was normal. Trees were thousands of years old at least but he frowned at the sharp demarcation line where it all became uniform once again.
It was not too bad visibly but the scans of his artifacts helped his senses dive deep into the age of everything and he did not like it.
"Let's take a look." He set the ship down on the normal side to be safe and they both flew out to take a look. The Qi was not any thinner than it should be and the beasts were perfectly healthy.
Lind examined the village and noticed it was only a century old so they would not have any helpful information.
He plucked some herbs but none were higher than grade 3 like everything else. It made no sense as the environment was perfect for nurturing any number of grade 5 or 6 herbs with ease.
The days were spent testing the plants mostly but he also looked at the soil. It was there that things became very strange.
The soil should easily have been billions of years old but was the exact same age as everything else. That was flat out impossible.
He sent his aura as deeply as it could go but it was the same result!
Solid ground could impede him quite a bit but he still cleared 700 kilometers!
Another oddity was the Sacred Paths were laced everywhere in some fashion underground but there was not a single section even touch on the area they stood in.
The Laws were fine, the Qi was fine, but everything else was damned odd.
"Uncle, what was the interval of the reports?" He already guessed where she was going but the answer was infuriating.
"The few that bothered to put a date used a system no longer employed. The Temple of Souls also admitted that due to the Laws of Time being generally disrupted by the Cataclysm, there is no way to know how much everything varies." It was one of the reasons he wanted to map things out.
Everything had gotten a thousand years to settle. Now, they had to figure out if anything on the old maps was accurate, useful, or a threat.
Thus far, the record was not great with a petty Divine Realm and another Divine Will messing around where they should not. Any anomaly like the current area did not bode well to his mind.
Ilyria nodded but then froze.
"Uncle, you said the Laws of Time were disrupted but then how can it be such a perfect circle here? Shouldn't it be more chaotic?" Her question made Lind narrow his eyes. He tried every Law he had comprehended.
He was a relatively new Shard Tier but Space and Time were easier to feel at least. His ability to tear through space was better already but Time was much slower.
Thus, he tried to sense the Laws and finally found something worrying.
The laws inside the forest were seemingly fine but when compared to the exterior Laws, they were vastly different.
The Laws had returned but the feeling between the preserved areas versus the former outer lands was wildly different in quality. Outside the border that remained true but inside he realized they were complete!
That should not be possible!
He now stood at the border but could not find anything that would keep things so cleanly organized. No weavings, formations, or any natural treasures.
"We need to get out. Something is very wrong here." They quickly left but nothing happened. Everything seemed fine but Lind's instincts were starting to warn him to run.
The beasts began to cry out or roar in unrest yet the next moment it was all over.
The feeling of danger had passed but Lind stared at the 50 square kilometers in front of him.
It was gone, just gone! The entire area was missing! He looked down and could not see the bottom of the hole at all!
He turned to talk to Ilyria but was shocked to see her frozen in place! He observed the world around him and noticed all were frozen!
"Outside of time, huh? Why am I unaffected?" He could finally grasp that time was being manipulated but he still could not feel it at all! That kind of power might be from a Divine Realm once more but he doubted it. It was useless.
The world flashed once more and the forest returned! Ilyria was moving normally as was the rest of the world.
He was about to speak when he noticed the shocking change. Every plant, animal, and layers of soil were only a decade old! Further, aside from the beasts, each and every tree was in the exact place they were before!
"Uncle, what is wrong? Are we going to investigate?" Her question confused him as everything seemed fine where they stood. He scanned the area and frowned. It was not time, but a mental field that had swept outward.
He could feel the traces but they were fading so fast he would have missed them in a few moments.
"Ilyria, we are going to reach out to someone. We need an expert." They returned to the ship and began to plan how to investigate the strange forest going forward.