It took Ilyria a few days to fully grasp her new abilities but Lind was in the sa boat as he grasped fine control of his strength and Arts.
His Storm Arts were now weaker than straight conjuring by blending elents. It would take him so ti 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 elentals 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 segnt 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 sothing 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 kiloters 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 settlent 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 anyti soone 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 seed 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 co 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 erald seed to show up when she had intense emotions.
"There is a tract of land ahead we ca 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 sa 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 sa! Further, no beast in an area at least 50 square kiloters was much over the sa 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 sa 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 seed 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 beca 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 so herbs but none were higher than grade 3 like everything else. It made no sense as the environnt 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 beca very strange.
The soil should easily have been billions of years old but was the exact sa age as everything else. That was flat out impossible.
He sent his aura as deeply as it could go but it was the sa result!
Solid ground could impede him quite a bit but he still cleared 700 kiloters!
Another oddity was the Sacred Paths were laced everywhere in so 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 Ti 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 ssing 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 Ti 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 Ti were easier to feel at least. His ability to tear through space was better already but Ti was much slower.
Thus, he tried to sense the Laws and finally found sothing 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 forr 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. Sothing is very wrong here." They quickly left but nothing happened. Everything seed 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 mont it was all over.
The feeling of danger had passed but Lind stared at the 50 square kiloters 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 ti, huh? Why am I unaffected?" He could finally grasp that ti 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 seed fine where they stood. He scanned the area and frowned. It was not ti, but a ntal field that had swept outward.
He could feel the traces but they were fading so fast he would have missed them in a few monts.
"Ilyria, we are going to reach out to soone. We need an expert." They returned to the ship and began to plan how to investigate the strange forest going forward.
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