Lind awoke in a room lit by the twilight sun. He felt fear briefly cross his mind as he realized he had passed out in front of a Master Tier and Journeyman Tier that could have easily sealed him, killed him, and harvested him for parts or turned him into any power currently seeking him.
He felt like he was waking from a fever and it was not entirely wrong. His ti in the Wild Sea had been not just isolation but a ti for him to grow unhindered or distracted. Once the invaders ca, it was the King Kraken that actually dealt with most of them. He was just an assistant.
There was also the long pause between the incidents.
That was frustrating but he could not escape it. Then he ca to the massive palace of the rulers of the Wild Sea. He saw wondrous things and was getting ready to hit the mainland running.
He took on the mission to help the demon fox tribes but then the problem ca. Karu.
He had co to realize there was sothing he hated as much as Fiends. The machinations of fate! Karu had not revealed herself at first but the death of her family seed to destabilize her act.
She did not realize how much she was showing either. Sotis she got a look of shock at what he did that the comparison made it easier to parse the act from reality.
The more he noticed, the more irritated he beca but he had to keep burying it. Revealing he knew was not a good idea while depending on the krakens and leviathans to reach the mainland.
An oracle was one thing, but he quickly noticed she reacted to him way too strongly to be just visions. It was like so things were expected but others threw her off constantly.
That was not prophecy, that was mory! She was rembering the future!
No one had confird her exact race abilities but few would. It would be the sa as revealing weaknesses but he did know one thing.
His future chats with himself confird that ability was not his own. A Divine Realm had a lot of power but if they could manipulate the past so easily to help themselves, then why didn't they?
So likely had and never ntioned it but Heaven and Earth were fair. Such direct manipulation had likely harsh limits or penalties. Yet, he had t himself multiple tis across many tilines it seed.
That last part had only been revealed by the last eting. He had only a handful of encounters but each ti was apparently the last mont of each of his future selves. He had long wondered if was simply on a track he could not change but the whole point had been to avoid exactly that.
It still left a crucial facet behind. How had he pulled it off? No matter how he studied Daos or the newly discovered Mysteries, his skill set simply did not conform to such manipulation.
Now that Karu had revealed so much, a suspicion blood in him. If he was truly losing or saw no way to win, but he knew a way to change the past, there was nothing he would not do to save the future.
If the Divine Realm could not be changed once achieved, then the path leading up to it had to be. Still, did that an there was only 1 tiline?
Instead of multiple universes, there was only 1 and he had ddled with it without consequence?
That did not line up with what he knew about Heaven and Earth at all. The ability could exist, but such drastic changes could not be possible.
The rules of Heaven and Earth were not so mysterious that it could hide such a restriction.
A Divine Realm was power incarnate but they were not Gods. They could not toss out the rules of Heaven and Earth at a whim.
His frustration kept mounting from the fact Karu was a living mirror of what he detested most. The chains of fate.
They had cajoled and wound him up. He could not bla them for his actions but they had definitely nudged him in certain directions. Many events both personal and far from him had brought misery on uncounted lives.
In that one regard, the Great Bastard and he agreed. Heaven and Earth are cruel bastards sotis.
So, was Karu the answer then? Was her abilities how he rigged the ga and changed his ultimate fate? Lind did not know but the feeling of being a puppet was not nice.
When the bounty hunters threatened Shadow Seal Cove and the state of those cages were revealed, he will admit he vented quite a bit but it only highlighted Karu once more.
She showed the events of Shadow Seal Cove not only resolved but she knew other ways it could co undone as well!
It was not just one tiline she rembered by all of them!
The possibility he had t soone that was responsible for his life turning out as it had picked at an old scar in his heart. He hated being used!
His father had used people like disposable tools and had caused misery without care. The Fiends consu all life but it is all in service to the Great Bastard who would happily let all life die so long as he could keep living.
The examples were 2 extres but haunted his past, present, and future. Karu was a living archive of the fact that maybe he was on a path he had not changed as much as his forr future self hoped.
Was he still trapped in a loop or had he truly broken free? The question plagued him and now that soone was nearby with answers he could not easily ask drove him mad.
The abominable attack on the village had enraged him beyond all hope of reason. He had to kill them!
His rush and vicious actions were so unlike him that he should have realized long ago his ntal state was affected. He was insanely lucky not to be dead right then.
He actually took in the decently sized room. There were finely crafted lights embedded in the walls and near his bedside. He also saw several artifacts for communication as well as a sealed jade slip waiting on a desk.
The spectrum of fiery colors affird who had brought him there and where he was. The Eternal Fla Guild, not the first of its na he had encountered but there was a stark difference from those other sects and the current one he was in.
In the lower realms, nas of sects, powers, or groups were a mix of arbitrary taste and often legacy, but in the Divine Lands, it ant sothing more literal.
For instance, the longti power in the supre powers, the Heavenly Maiden Sect, could keep their na but it designated them without a Master Tier.
They were a strong local sect to their area but it must be a low level area where Master Tiers so nothing worth their ti but that was not the only reason. Just as the Sylvan Alchemy Guild lost their Master Tiers to fading, new ones could not always rise up to replace them in ti.
Heavenly designated a forr power falling but still respected by other Master Tiers. Immortal designated a power that had a rising Master Tier behind them but it was not used much save by pompous people.
They often fell before they knew what happened when the Master Tier was killed or t so horrific crippling event.
Divine ant at least 2 Master Tiers and if they were able to keep it going for 1 or 2 generations of that level, so to speak, they were considered a pillar of their area.
Eternal, as one could imagine, ant a staggering number of Master Tiers at 6 or more!
Such a powerhouse was not to be trifled with but they were rare. Even given such a staggering number of Master Tiers, the fact such a power could not dominate a continent spoke for the sheer size of the land and limits of their power.
Trillions of lives could not stop them at their level but neither could they help them advance! They spent possibly billions of years trying to progress so there was simply no ti.
So having more Master Tiers did not make one an unstoppable force, just one not to trifle with!
His fresh perspective and the reality of his situation made him more closely examine the room. Just because a cage was pretty, did not make it any less a cage.
Yet, he saw nothing aside from robust Qi gathering arrays and so security arrays as he would expect in any room for a guest. There were also a few dormant arrays but he suspected they were related to a professional using the side room with a hearth for making elixirs or pills.
So, not a cage but no sign of Karu. Another failure on his part. He was sent to help her break her people free from the Glass Palace but now he had no idea where she was.
"It is past ti we had that talk. Waiting will only irritate
further." Lind quickly imprinted a communication jade and sent a ssage. He was awake and it was ti to get his head on straight and get stronger.
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