Lind listened to the history of the man in front of him. The Fiend agent had recruited Shu who then beca a powerful pawn for them. In the course of his rise, those culprits suffered horribly under him.
They were not allowed to die easily. It was not difficult to alter pills that should heal and restore to slowly poison the foundation instead. They would seem to work but slowly torture the person over ti.
It would take millennia to die and even then, it would not allow for an easy death. Lind found it awfully convenient.
He also found it familiar. The man in front of him was calm and held nothing back. It was like a confession yet Lind knew it was more than that.
"They used
and Lin, didn't they?" Lind looked up and nodded.
"Your gifts were apparent and while there may have been natural jealousy, alchemists and elixir masters that are generous are rarely crossed. It is better to build a good relationship with staged saving at worst." His words only seed to affirm Shu Oda's only suspicions.
His grief and pain made him miss it until it was far too late. He had served the Fiends and they owned him. His end was set by that choice, even if it was engineered by the Fiend entirely.
Lind sighed as it was a very old story. The Fiends did not always recruit from the underbelly or from corrupted demons. They wanted skillful cultivators as pawns as much as any power.
Instead, they looked for cracks around the target and widened them or used them. It was likely that the jealousy of the life Shu lived had been flad to an unnatural height by overtures from other Fiend agents.
The violence to wipe out half their team just to claim Lin Song was too extre. It was too unnatural without an outside influence. An opportunity may be explained away but such direct action took planning and soone covering up the inconsistencies.
"What happened when you beca a Divine Realm?" Shu seed to shake his head and beca bitter.
"I did not even enjoy it but I succeeded. I was then escorted to a strange place that felt so wrong it nearly made
puke." Lind tilted his head but then grasped it was likely a true Fiend lair.
Shu described a rough teleportation followed by the description of a dark fortress. It was not just cold stone, the very air felt like it was vile. It was like he had intruded in a place no life was ant to be.
He had been left in a room with a window on a large room. He then was made to watch as droves of humans, demons, aether children, and all kinds of life were fed into arrays for Fiends to refine.
They were always alive and he felt dawning horror that his fate might be what he was looking at.
Lind sighed. Another tried and true tactic. It was one thing to theoretically grasp how Fiends work, but it was entirely different watching it. The horror of the act of refinent of souls was not sothing words could convey.
It was similar to how humans knew they were going to die but when the mont ca, the desire to continue to exist caused a person to desperately cling on to life. It was only when the true finality settles on them that the horror of death truly takes shape.
A few months passed before he was taken to the massive throne room. There were thousands of Fiends silently kneeling towards the shadowy figure with white eyes looking down at them all.
Shu was not alone. There were 3 others but he could not discern their features. It was like reality had been distorted rather than an array or other skill to hide them.
He was allowed to stand but he felt like a spec of dust in front of the being in front of him.
"He gave us a choice. We would be made to serve the Fiends as thralls or we could have our lives returned to us in exchange for a task." Lind finally perked up. He had reached the part he wanted to know.
"What task?" Shu shrugged at the question.
"I agreed to the task. I felt sothing enter
and was taken ho. I was told to continue to grow stronger and only keep secret what I had done. It was only when the Fiends erged that I was pulled back into active service." Lind frowned.
That was not normal. No instructions nor explanations? Had he tried to use the technique against the Bastard before? Karu never ntioned it.
"Did you notice any change?" His question was not imdiately answered. Instead, Shu deeply thought before he nodded.
"I know my pills. I knew every detail of what they would do but after I got back, they changed. It was not sothing I could totally explain as there was no improvent nor danger. After millions of years I confird anyone that used my pills had an oddity at death." Lind turned sharply at him.
The man was pointed at the ground. It was like he could not fully say it and Lind knew the truth. Shu was dancing at the edge of a restriction. The Bastard was not a fool as they well knew.
Lind narrowed his eyes before a smile slowly spread.
"They never change. They can only use the energies that exist and consu them. They needed people to act as a bridge to weaken the Divine Lands." Shu's eyes went wide as Lind had hit the bull's eye.
Now that he knew what they did, his hands moved in a blur. Lind's weaving quickly took shape and connected to the dantian of Shu Oda.
The man could not resist as the cell sealed his defenses. The man seed resigned but Lind was focused on what he was looking for. The dantian was no longer blocked to his Eyes. he could see the Mystery layers shimring with bright light.
He ignored the profound energies as he looked for his old enemy. The Bastard was tricky but his tactics never changed.
The story of Shu and how he was treated only affird that no matter how clever the Bastard seed, he was a being set in his ways.
Sure enough, he found traps inside the dantian and soul of Shu Oda. They were interconnected and for anyone else, they were certain True Death. Lind sneered as he delicately touched each and every piece.
He traced every root and branch until he had a full picture of what was going on.
The Bastard had basically planted a current of Fiend Intent inside Shu Oda. It had but one purpose. It was to incorporate Fiend Qi into every creation and action. The energy would be processed by animal and plant life to be absorbed by the very soil.
Heaven and Earth would be chipped away at and over billions of years, who knew how many pawns would wear away at the normally indomitable Heaven and Earth.
Lind's harmony danced in his control as he found every node connecting the Fiend Intent. He recognized the danger was keyed to him too. The only issue was it was designed for the old him.
The Bastard had not grasped what he had beco.
The Mystery of Defiance would not be tad!
He felt a shift in his dantian but ignored it as he attacked the Intent. It was isolated instantly and removed from Shu Oda.
As he ca back to the world he felt pressure in his dantian. The harmonic energy throughout his dantian. What had he done? Lind could not tell but the internal storm was settling.
He was going to have to look into it later as he had to focus.
"May I know what that is?" The man looked hollow. His once robust features were now gone. His skin had a sickly pallor and his foundation felt unstable. Lind had protected his life but it was never going to be simple to remove the Fiend Intent.
"It was your mission. Now that I know how it works, I can attempt to improve our odds." He did not say anything else but paused. While Shu Oda had been tricked, he still worked for the Fiends knowingly.
He would die for that, yet he was likely far from the only one misled down the path.
He sighed before he used his Divine Authority. He felt a small drain on his vitality. It seed he had not judged the man wrongly.
"Consider this the only compensation I can give you." Shu Oda tilted his head before shock splayed out his features.
A fair young woman faintly appeared next to Lind. Her narrow face suited her as her eyes looked at Shu sadly.
"You do not have long. Say your goodbyes." He stepped back as the long separated lovers wept and spoke the words they had been denied.
The Bastard was predictable but so was he. The won then gently caressed Shu's face as he wept openly on the ground.
He had not asked for forgiveness. He had killed those n without remorse. Shu was a pragmatist it seed.
The woman then bowed low to him and he smiled at her.
"I cannot dictate your next life but his soul is still his. I pray the spirits grant you both another chance in your next lives." Shu looked up with gratitude as the light went out in his eyes.
Lind had killed him personally as the woman's soul dispersed. The tragedy had been repeated too many tis. Lind left the tower then and began to prepare for his own next steps.
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