Chapter 249: Creation and Oblivion (1/2)
“The trial to reach D-Grade is to successfully form a Cultivator’s Core, also called a Cosmic Core. This is not something that happens naturally. There are various methods to do this, but they all have high requirements, and just a minuscule fraction of all E-Grade warriors manage to take that final step,” Anzonil said with longing.
“If you almost succeed in forming the core but fail at the last step you have two options. You can let the core shatter and try again at a later date, but doing this will leave you seriously wounded. Even worse, every following core-forming attempt will be even harder.
”The second option is to force your failed core to stay together, which stops the core from completely breaking apart. It will maintain a small part of its original function and you will see a slight boost to your longevity. But if you do that you are still not considered as D-Grade by the System, and you will cut off your path of advancement forever,” Anzonil explained.
“I had already failed my evolution two times, and I knew the third try would be my last. Alas, I failed that time as well and took the second option to at least be able to protect my sect a bit longer,” the old man sighed.
”In any case, there were far stronger forces all around us, and we constantly were under the threat to be swallowed whole. Luckily we suddenly saw an opportunity to rise. The son of the Sect Master was the greatest talent our sect had ever seen. He grasped not only our insights into the study of formations, but he was also an extremely adept warrior with deep insight into the Dao.
”I took him as my Terminal Disciple, pooling all my efforts into turning him into a powerful pillar of the sect. We had no doubt that he would become a true D-Grade warrior in the future, and help our small sect rise given enough time. But war came to the continent, and forces like were destroyed or swallowed up one by one.”
“That’s when that man arrived at our sect,” Anzonil continued, for the first time showing smoldering anger in his eyes. “That accursed man. He appeared to be a rogue cultivator and a complete lunatic. He destroyed half our sect and caused so many deaths with his sinister spells.”
Zac nodded and remembered the sword scars that covered some of the structures up on the surface.
“Through our arrays and great sacrifices, we finally managed to kill him. But that wasn’t the end of it. Out of his body two crystals emerged, emitting boundless power. As you understand one of them was the one that I managed to move to the underground cavern, where it has rested since,” the old man continued.
Zac had a pretty good idea what happened to the other one, and Anzonil soon confirmed his guess.
“The other one was taken by Raval, my disciple.”
Zac’s thoughts turned to the spectral cultivator who blocked his path right at the end, who asked him to apologize to his master.
“After seeing the crystal with your own eyes you must think my disciple to be a brash fool. But those were desperate times. The fate of our sect was already hanging in the balance even before the arrival of that man, and we had just lost a large number of our forces and hidden cards to kill him.
“The moment the surrounding sects learned what happened to us they would immediately launch a full assault. It wasn’t greed or personal gain that drove Raval, it was his wish to protect the sect he loved. As expected the surrounding sects soon arrived with their armies, but Raval exploded with never seen before prowess. He single-handedly pushed all our enemies away, killing dozens of elders and other powerhouses.
“We were all elated, and I even thought of having someone else absorb the other crystal even though it emitted such ominous energies. After that battle, all the surrounding sects stayed away, but Raval started to change over the following years. He got aggressive, moody, and unstable,” Anzonil said with a shake of his head.
“Finally I had to confront him, and that’s when I learned what was truly going on. That’s when he showed me the large square far beneath the surface and the massive tunnel-system he had created. In fact, those tunnels you walked were not made by me, but rather by Raval himself.
“He felt himself getting corrupted by the crystal, and he had no means to remove it. It had completely fused to his very being, and it didn’t even let him kill himself. So he hatched a plan. He created an enormous circle that runs beneath the whole sect and turned that into an array whose purpose was to purify the crystal.
“He circulated the dark energies through this massive array in hopes to slowly grind out the sinister and corruptive elements of the Crystal. After I learned what was going on I spent years working with him to improve the array, and initially we thought we were on the right track. Unfortunately, the power of that cursed object was just too massive,” Anzonil said. ”I think you can imagine the rest.”
“I was actually stopped by Raval in the last cavern,” Zac said, making the old man’s brows lift in surprise. “He asked me to relay that he was sorry.”
“Sorry?” the man repeated with sadness in his eyes. “It is I who should be sorry. If I was stronger he wouldn’t be forced to infuse himself with that cursed object to protect our sect.“
The two stood in uncomfortable silence for a bit until Zac finally couldn’t stop himself from trying to gather some more information about the thing in his mind.
“Did you ever learn what that crystal is?” Zac asked.
“Raval called it a piece of the [Heart of Oblivion], and after expending a large portion of my wealth I learned a few things,” Anzonil nodded.
A sour feeling entered Zac’s mouth after hearing that the old ghost had actually already spent most of his money, but at this moment the knowledge might be even more important now anyway.
“My research pointed me toward an extremely old scripture that described the source of Dao and the universe itself. Those things are highly debated topics, so I do not hold much faith that the old sage who wrote it got it exactly correct.
“But when it spoke of the creation of the multi-verse it touched upon a subject of interest for my research. It said that in the beginning there was only Chaos, but from Chaos both Creation and Oblivion were born, the two highest Daos apart from Chaos itself.
“These two Daos created the multiverse, and all the lower Daos were birthed from them. I do not know if it is true since those kinds of Supreme Daos are far beyond my understanding or reach. But I managed to confirm that the Dao of Oblivion does exist, and that it is extremely powerful,” Anzonil said with a face conflicted between hate and longing.