Chapter 1,373 – Status Quo

Void and Dao coursed through Zac’s body as he approached the distant sphere and the Natal Treasure waiting within. Simply rotating his energies was fast becoming insufficient for enduring Poised Meadow’s whispers. The pure Primal Life at the realm’s center was different from the rest of the Divine Energy.

It didn’t act through a forceful infiltration that awakened life; it felt more like it had the power to elicit an innate desire to live in anything. The Primal Life would provide the necessary fuel, but the actual awakening was triggered from within. This proved much harder to defend against, but Zac had more than one method of protecting himself.

A simple hatchet appeared without a ripple of energy, stabilizing his Dao Heart from outside interference. Naturally, he had already entered his improved Void State, which was the reason he’d gotten this far without any support. Next came his Hidden Nodes. Zac had intentionally relied on his Void Emperor Bloodline and Eoz hidden nodes to a minimum to save on Vigor. Now there was no longer any need to hold back.

[Purity of the Void] began exerting its influence, removing Earthly Taint while weakening Poised Meadow’s life-affirming power. Eoz further shored up his defenses through Immutability and Adamance. Mei’Er’s melody proved to be a surprisingly effective counter throughout. Humming Hope allowed Zac to leave his mark on his immediate surroundings, breaking the poised silence and subverting that inherent need for awakening.

The melody also piqued the curiosity of the local tyrants, allowing Zac to safely join the ranks of islands surrounding the teardrop. The sphere that looked solid from a distance had gaps hundreds of meters wide, and Zac picked an empty spot between two gargantuan islands conveying more goodwill and Imperial Faith than the average.

There was no second line of locals waiting behind the first layer of silent islands. The sea of Primal Life he’d crossed could only be considered the teardrop’s runoff. Meanwhile, the giant sphere’s interiors were made up of the Natal Treasure’s true domain. The massive islands loomed right at the border, afraid to take a single step inside. They’d moved as close to their source as was possible without getting burnt.

Warning bells in his mind—from his danger sense rather than the enormous lifeforms around him—told Zac against going any further. Enjoying the purest source of Primal Life should be more than enough for his purposes, and he wasn’t arrogant enough to think he could set his sights on the whole Natal Treasure.

Staying by the border was already testing Zac’s limits, and he’d run out of Void Energy and Vigor within the day. Going further would drain his reserves much faster, provided he could withstand the inner domain at all. There was a massive qualitative leap of energy beyond the invisible border, and stepping inside would put him in direct contact with the teardrop.

As for snatching the treasure, how was Zac supposed to do that? He had no Spatial Treasures strong enough to contain it, and his personal Void would immediately explode if he sent it inside with a Void Vortex.

Observing the teardrop in person was completely different from seeing it in the vision. It radiated such an exalted aura that Zac couldn’t directly observe it for more than a few seconds at a time. The short glimpses did confirm one hunch and corrected another. First, the teardrop wasn’t actually the gateway to the true Poised Meadow.

It looked more like the Natal Treasure had swallowed the realmgate to sustain itself and recover. The enormous islands weren’t necessarily guarding the teardrop so much as hoping it would step aside and let them leave through the passage. They’d reached the limits of this domain. To grow any further, they needed to return to their origin.

The teardrop was also in a much worse state than he’d expected. Zac could feel a great fragility coming from it, making him wonder if releasing so much energy was a form of appeasement. Zac looked at the silent monoliths around him, wondering why they were content staying this way.

The combined might of these lifeforms should be enough to force open the path, yet they stayed their hand. Did they know something he didn’t? Were they afraid of becoming casualties in the struggle? Or did they simply not know that fighting for their future was an option after a lifetime characterized by enduring silence?

Zac was more than happy to let things stay this way. The teardrop’s seizure of the realmgate was likely the reason he remained safe. There was still no indication of the Realmlord noticing his presence, even after releasing his aura to its limits as a test.

Time was limited, and yet, Zac spent the next hour simply letting the Primal Dao of Life wash over him. So long as it was controlled, it was a precious tonic for his body and soul, and it held countless valuable insights. The teardrop’s whispers weren’t like the twisted enlightenment from the Lost Plane.

The Dao of Life radiating from the treasure was aligned with the Heavens; it was just that most of it didn’t pertain to Zac’s path. It was still a worthy subject of study and an opportunity to witness a Dao of Life approaching perfection. Just as importantly, Zac needed to study the near-limitless energy trapped inside the inner domain to gain the greatest benefits.

The respite also gave Zac time to refine two crystals placed inside [Purity of the Void]’s purification space. They were the unique crystals originally meant for Astora’s tracking array, chock-full of corruption and Ultom’s insights. He’d already updated his other half about his plan. Having access to distilled enlightenment was a precaution, and they’d used the crystals since his Draugr side couldn’t find any corrupted zone inside the Peregrine Islands.

As much as he wanted to bask in the teardrop’s radiance a while longer, Zac understood he needed to get going. Encasing the C-grade seed in a shell of protective Dao and Void Energy wasn’t enough. This close to the source, some of it invariably managed to seep inside, and Zac needed to take charge of the process.

Thankfully, approaching the teardrop had given him a direction to pursue, and meditating before it had filled in the blanks. He had a plan, and there was only one way to see how well it would work.

Zac took out a clay pot filled with paste crammed full of Divine Energy. He quickly shaved down some of the local bark he’d pilfered, along with a few other local resources he’d collected over the past few days. The resulting concoction was by no means optimized or even stable. The wastefulness didn’t matter to Zac, and the benefits greatly outweighed the drawbacks.

With the concoction complete, Zac started drawing the runes of [Void Vajra Sublimation] across his body. Zac had considered various ways to guide the seed’s awakening, and he’d arrived at an unavoidable conclusion: he couldn’t. He didn’t have Tavza’s knowledge or K’Rav’s tricks. Even after decades of tempering his soul, his control could at best be considered mediocre.

Trying to control the evolution with his Evolutionary Mold wouldn’t work. Where would he get the necessary Dao of Conflict to balance out the realm’s overwhelming Dao of Life? The balance would instantly shatter, and he would simply be introducing unstable heterodoxy by infusing his Dao of Defiant War.

Since controlling the seed’s awakening wasn’t an option, Zac would indirectly guide the process by influencing its surroundings. Just humming Hope had a measurable effect on the Primal Life, and practicing his manuals should have a much greater effect.

It was for the need for balance that Zac chose to focus on [Void Vajra Sublimation], despite Poised Meadow’s flavor of life being more suitable for advancing his soul. His Soul-nurturing method relied on both life and death to progress, and Zac lacked a source of death that could match Poised Meadow’s life.

Zac would naturally still practice [Nine Reincarnations Manual] to bring out the most of [Void Emperor Apotheosis]‘s synergistic effect, but it wouldn’t be the star of the show. Even so, Zac expected a decent boost to his Evolutionary Core in his Soul Aperture through the concept of body nurturing soul, and vice versa.

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There was one more reason Zac landed on using [Void Vajra Sublimation] as his method of influencing the seed’s awakening. He was very close to the limit of the fifth layer, and the teardrop presented an opportunity to make the final leap in one go.

Back at Joyful Gardens, he’d perfected the fifth layer’s cultivation method thanks to the priceless treasures provided by the sect. Since then, he’d spent months digesting those items while shoring up his cultivation. Being forced to stay outside the memory domains for so long had left him with ample time to advance his constitution. Finally, having his body reforged through his month-long internment in Fertile Earth’s blessed soil had left him ready to give it a go.

Drawing the complex runes should have come naturally, and yet Zac nearly slipped up a few times. The additions to the mixture helped bridge the gap between his Earthly Dao of Reborn Life and the local Dao, turning the runes into a breach for Poised Meadow’s spirituality. Zac didn’t have the mental capacity to deal with the sudden influx while protecting the seed and finishing drawing the patterns.