Legend of the Empyrean Blacksmith

THE COMING

Lino’s decision was not rash or made in an outburst of unbridled rage; rather, it was calculated and cold . During the short period of silence, he conversed with the Writ over his options, and learned of the particular function: forcibly crossing Realms for the short period of time .

Afterwards, Writ tried to explain the consequences, but Lino hardly cared . Anything short of permanent death was acceptable to him . After all, if he couldn’t vent the anger in his heart, he was certain he’d never get a wink of sleep for the rest of his life .

Naturally, he didn’t plan to exterminate the entire Su Clan; most of them were completely innocent and unaware, and however enraged Lino was, he wasn’t blinded by it . Revenge and massacre are two things he didn’t dare mix together . Thanks to Lucky, he already had a vague idea of who exactly to target which simply meant there was no reason to delay it any longer .

Because he couldn’t fly, he knew it would take a bit too long to walk over to Su Clan - perhaps half a year at the very least - so he had Lucky lead him to the destroyed teleportation platform .

Tattered stone lay around, the circular formation cracked over its entire surface seven or eight times, with runic lines nearly entirely perished . He studied for a moment and, to his relief, realized he could fix it . It should be enough for a trip over there . . . and back here .

Lino didn’t immediately go after Demons even though it may make a bit more sense to a bystander; though he very much wanted to save Freya, he knew that Prince Yox had long since left, especially because he couldn’t find Lino . In the end . . . I just hope he won’t do anything too quickly . . .

He set about to fix the formation while Lucky sat on the side, occasionally nibbling on some seeds while trying her best to suppress the surging screams . The already clouded sky grew even darker as heavy rain began to fall, soaking both of them . Yet, neither seemed to care much; Lino’s mind was entirely focused on the formation itself .

He didn’t know much about it but, thanks to his experience with arrays, he at least had some idea on the direction . Thankfully, he also had more than enough materials to fix it temporarily . After all, he didn’t need it to be perfect or to transport hundreds of people numerous times . Making it stable for a day or two was more than enough for him .

He patiently worked through the entire night before a faint smile crept up on his lips . By now, clouded sky, as though pierced by an unknown power, was gone, replaced entirely by blue expanse with the golden sun slowly rising in the east . Lino wiped sweat off his brow as he looked up toward the horizon and sunrise . Though it was beautiful, it hardly impacted him much . It was time, he realized .

He looked at Lucky who didn’t say anything and instead got up and walked onto the formation, followed by Lino shortly after . He took a deep breath and flung nearly twenty thousand Qi Stones he’d already prepared at the specific points of the formation . Even if he didn’t know all the details, he knew the overall structure; formation served to rip open a void between two points in space - no matter how far away they were .

As space itself was extremely durable - even here, where Qi was rather weak - to do that required enormous energy, something Lino couldn’t provide himself . After a void was torn open, space was bent between two points until the distance narrowed to measly few meters .

All this knowledge stemmed from his attempts to understand the Laws of Nature, as well as his reading in Ava’s library . He came to understand a bit more about the world itself and how it functioned; for instance, he knew that clouds didn’t simply ’appear’ in the sky . Rather, they were formed from the invisible water vapour rising high up, where the temperatures drop and vapour in turn condenses - into clouds .

Similarly, he knew that space itself wasn’t as flat as he imagined it to be; though the books he read on it were rather vague and didn’t provide any definitive answers, by contemplating himself, he came to some conclusions in which he was quite confident . For instance, he believed one couldn’t physically ’tear open’ space; what they did was simply displace it, revealing the void behind it . At the very least, that’s what Lino thought . He was too weak, though, to confirm it .

As he watched the formation light up and felt space around him vibrate, he realized that his conclusion seemed to be right; though it appeared as though space around him and Lucky was being destroyed, it was simply being ’moved’ in a sense to create a hole . That hole was a spinning vortex which was just large enough for a person . Usually, large-scale teleportation formations would make the ’mouth of the tunnel’ immensely vast, but the size of the tunnel itself connecting two points couldn’t be too large . As such, though it seemed everyone was teleported at the same time, the reality was that they crossed the tunnel itself one by one and then were forced to wait - without realizing it - for others to catch up on the other end of the tunnel .

As Lino wasn’t teleporting a lot of people, he used just enough energy to tear open the hole large enough for a person . Even though he was certain Su Clan had already destroyed the formation on the other end, it didn’t matter; coordinates were already ’installed’ into the formation beneath his feet, and he had rough destination in mind, even if he might be off by a few miles .

Without pausing, he walked into the vortex whereupon he felt strange vestiges of space assail him . Thankfully, the formation didn’t simply open up a tunnel between two points, but also coated it in shielding which made it possible for a person to cross through . Otherwise, only someone who could manipulate space and void at will could cross freely through - something Lino certainly couldn’t do .

Though the journey was short - merely tens of seconds - Lino gleamed a lot from it . Even if he read about space and void and how they function, this was his first time seeing the turbulence of space . With a bit more research, and a bit more strength, he was confident in being able to ’tear open’ the space with his bare hands at will .

It took him a few moments to gather himself after he was spat out on the other end of the tunnel . After getting used to the sudden burst of light, he glanced around and realized he was standing on a midway point of a rather barren mountain . Surrounding him were other, similar mountains, which further encircled a large valley down below . When Lino’s eyes landed onto the valley, the suppressed rage almost burst out from him .

Right there, in the heart, was a massive town - perhaps town was a bit of an exaggeration, but Clan Headquarters hardly seemed to do justice to the size of the thing . Su Clan . . . Lino thought inwardly as his breathing sped up and grew ragged . The town was bustling with life and activity and constant stream of people going in and out of it . South-eastern part of the town seemed a bit cut off from the rest, like a fat bulge at the edge, and sported even grander architecture of which the three massive spires seemed the most impressive .

They were clad in bright, golden color, while slightly shorter buildings were silver . The smallest buildings in the ’bulge’ were bronze-colored, and Lino immediately realized that must be where pretty much everyone who he marked resided .

The three spires formed a triangle and Lino’s eyes immediately lurched toward it; while other Clans and Sects usually hid their Artifacts, Su Clan proudly displayed it right there . One part of it was a golden globe, akin to a sun, resting at the very center of the triangle, spitting out light ceaselessly . Surrounding it were thirteen silver-colored globes, similar to the moon, who continued spinning around it in a specific pattern . Unlike the sun part, which held a hint of warmth even at the vast distance Lino was at, he detected a vestige of cold within the thirteen moons . Lino immediately realized that this was the Clan’s famed Defensive Artifact, one of the most basic requirements of a named Clan or a Sect - [Cycle of Heaven and Earth] .

Su Clan’s Cultivation Method relied on day and night cycles, examining profound meaning behind sun disappearing and moon appearing in the sky, as well as vice versa . It was no coincidence that their unified belief formed the Defensive Artifact that it had, nor that it had such name; in order to practice their Cultivation Method, [Thirty-three Cycles of Heaven and Earth], they had to embody it - believing wholly that sun and moon represented cycles of Heaven and Earth and, in extension, Life and Death itself .

Lino’s eyes focused onto the Artifact as he used the Primal Spirit to examine it . Even though he was unable to decipher its entire status window, he immediately learned more than 90% of people in the Clan itself . Seeing it, though, made his confidence drop somewhat; only now he truly understood why massive-scale wars between Clans and Sects were so rare .

[Cycle of Heaven and Earth - Clan Artifact]

Level: NIL

Damage: NIL

Durability: 10,000,000

Special Effect: [Symphony of Day] - ??? -

Special Effect: [Symphony of Night] - ??? -

Special Effect: [Cycle of Heaven and Earth - First Form] - ??? -

Special Effect: [Cycle of Heaven and Earth - Second Form] - ??? -

Special Effect: [Cycle of Heaven and Earth - Core Reversal] - ??? -

Special Effect: [Cycle of Heaven and Earth - Heaven’s Fall] - ??? -

Note: Defensive Artifact of Su Clan; can only be wielded by the Clan’s current strongest person . Its destruction signals Clan’s destruction .