novelraw Chapter 978 - 977 - Stone in the Pond
Chapter 978 - 977 - Stone in the Pond
The day the Triple Maester emerged from the Golden Vermillion Inn was like the slow start to a landslide.
There were small clues experts could begin to pick up to warn the less informed to be careful but inevitably, nature would take its course once enough momentum built up.
The landslide will eventually be unleashed and transform the landscape irrevocably. So long as locals prepared, they would survive and rebuild, but many could be caught off guard and caught in the danger with no way out.
The Maester Taren Cord had not only revealed active Fiend agents close to 2 of the major powers in Kun City, he found an actual Fiend liar!
No one recognized his Art but that was but a minor thing compared to the rest of the rumors.
He could tear through space! A gift of Immortals lost for the last million years was his to use! Could he fly?! Could he do all Immortals used to do?!
If the landslide of Fiend revelation was massive, the abilities he demonstrated were a stone tossed into a pond. Rather than small ripples, it would cause full waves!
Bernard had returned to his office to inform the harridan that things would not go her way. The Triple Maester was actually a minor aspect of Taren Cord!
The ripples did not stop at Kun City as many Immortals felt the wave of pure Qi for the first time in a million years and desperately wanted to know the source! As none knew the truth, not even in Kun City, Lind was safe for the moment.
Yet, there was 1 race that felt the ripple of Qi in a vastly different way.
Ravines so deep they were an abyss of darkness to the peaks of mountains brushing the clouds, ancient monsters stirred from their slumber.
Most were alone but a few disturbed cities as the cracking of rocks were heard before what was thought to be cliffs shattered open to reveal mighty beasts within!
Scales shimmed under both sun and moon light as sinuous to mighty dragons roared to cause fear in the world.
They spanned kilometers long but were quickly brought crashing to earth as the Corruption invaded their mighty forms.
None were killed but the slumbering beasts were not fully awake yet so had been caught off guard.
Telepathy did not work but they had no need of it as more roars filled the lands.
A young woman sprinted across the floor of a valley to a plume of dust rising into the sky. The great ancestor had been awakened and she knew why. Her hair did not move as it should because it was actually metallic strips!
They flowed down her back while her robes shimmered with silver flecks and black background. Her lithe figure was a blur to many but a few experts noticed her yet did nothing.
They knew better than to impede one of her kind.
She finally flew right into the plume of dust spreading across the valley and it became dark as night compared to the daylight she had just been in.
It did not impede her at all as her eyes glowed in the instant sunlight was stripped away. The robes also seemed to shine with their own light but not enough to give away her location. She slowed as she felt a change in pressure ahead and knelt on one knee.
She held still until a growl came from ahead.
"My father died over 200 thousand years ago. He was hunted by the humans and we avenged him. I am the current head of the Star Clan, Ancestor." She spoke quickly but more growls followed and she furrowed her brow.
"It would take too long to explain but the world has changed since over a million years ago. Corruption has swept the lands and reduced man and beast. Only Law Bindings can purify a contained area but advancing is far more difficult even for us." The succinct words brought silence as the dust finally began to settle and light returned to the world.
A massive man with metallic hair draped across his shoulders stood in front of her. His eyes were vertical slits of silver and black like her robes.
The aura in front of her was oppressive but unstable.
"I want a full accounting but you felt it, yes?" His booming voice made her flinch as she nodded quickly.
"It also happened while you slept. A True Lord rose up recently but we did not know he ascended to our layer. It has not been possible to go to the lower layer at the same time as Corruption. It is possible Heaven and Earth protect him from its effects." The man slowly nodded as he glanced up at the sky.
Anger flashed across his face as she knew he tried to fly. Unless they had actual wings and the right bone structure, flight was no longer possible in the current world.
"Send out messengers to the other clans. The True Lord must be found and protected. He may be a Crystal Tier but the other races will come for him. Are the other ones alive?" She knew who he referred to.
She slowly looked up and was grim.
"Shortly before the Corruption swept the land, they were all killed. No one claimed it but it was too coincidental once the Corruption came. My Father once said the hunt for all Divine Bloodlines was clearly planned by the ancient enemy." The man's eyes narrowed.
"I want all the information. Now." She knelt lower and produced jade slips as well as speaking.
This moment was repeated anywhere an ancestral dragon had awakened in some form or another.
Other races felt the wave but only wanted to find the source.
Back at the center of the ripples, Kun City felt a brief respite from the tainted Qi. It lasted all of a day but many cultivators advanced like a storm in that short time! Production masters made breakthroughs they had struggled with most of their lives.
When the taint returned, it was heartbreaking but the advancements were not lost.
On that same day, several more key figures at various levels of government and organizations were found dead as vile Fiend Qi tore them apart! No one could find out why it happened but all were confirmed to be Fiend agents once autopsies were done.
Not all of the news was good, however.
Powers that had risen thanks to the tainted world sensed a threat. Spies reported Kun City to their superiors and that included a rather troublesome sect.
Far to the west inside a pleasant valley nestled inside a small range of mountains was a tower surrounded by a sprawling city. The top of the tower was aflame with golden and crimson flames.
Even with the Corruption, it had never gone out.
The Eternal Flame Sect had once been a highly honorable power but now the city around it felt dangerous if one was not wearing the disciple robes or badge of living flame on them.
Alchemists were everywhere in it but their methods were now vile. They used living cauldrons to maintain their cultivation and make their pills.
There was also a staggering number of slaves.
Normally, slaves would be only kept by the rich or the authorities to be put to work for some crime, but across the rust colored streets were children to old folk with the dark metal collars around their necks marking them as slaves.
What crime could a 5 year old have done to become a slave?!
Of what need was there to enslave an old man who could barely walk without the help of a cane?!
Some might think rape and assaults were rampant but they were not. Slaves had extreme protections against such actions in the city due to the various needs of their owners. Taking the property of another was a serious crime that would result in, of course, being enslaved themselves!
The collars would record anything done to the slave as well so very few would contemplate violating any of them without justified cause.
At the heart of it all was the tower. The flame that gave the sect its name was set by the founder over several epochs ago. It birthed alchemy flames even now that few could match.
At the very top, just below the flame, a massive palatial set of quarters were full of the moans and cries of both men and women. Some were being used as cauldrons while others were simply tools for pleasure.
The man at the heart of it had skin the color of cream yet he touched not a soul. Others worked the slaves at his command as he drew on the souls around him for his current work.
It was a living portrait of a woman with powerful eyes and a much slender figure but Lind would have recognized it as Delenn.
"You may enter." The man spoke as the double doors of gold and jade swung inward to let a nervous young girl in. She had the robes of an inner disciple with more gold than white on. She had her auburn hair tied up in a bun and bowed low to the sect master.
"Sect Master, Kun City agents report the source of the strange Qi waves resides there. He is a Triple Maester of the derivative professions and a Crystal Tier." A pause came across the room as even the slaves were shocked out of their torture or activity at those words.
"Anything else?" The cream skinned man did not care. He cared for little but the next words made him bolt upright.
"Based on portraits and some adaptation, the woman you seek is with him." He turned and his eyes were wrong. They were black as night but no just in the iris. The entire eye was black!
The girl shivered as something brushed her soul!
"I want everything about them, now. Also get my chariot ready. I will head to the nearest Gate once confirmation is given." She bowed and practically ran from the room. If she had been a moment slower, she would have joined the slaves in death as that man cast his hands out to pull the rest of their souls in!
Not only the slaves, but the underlings he had used as tools died with them as well! The power flew into the canvas and the woman in it looked at him in anger as she had the last time they met.
Sigils blazed at the peak of high Law Grade 7! He was a Maester!
"Finally, you will be mine! I could not bring you back but Fate has brought you back to me!" He lovingly caressed the portrait. "Delenn."