Chapter 131 - A War For Salvation
Back in the castle carved into the rocky wall of the cave, the head scholar was occupying her seat.
Her head was resting on her palm, and one could see that she had been suffering for the past few days by the sorry state he was in.
The failed operation had costed her a brother, and a sister-in-law. Unfortunately, being the sole leader of the tribe now, she had no time to grief. Instead, she was forced to supersede the division of her tribe.
The only moments of the day where she was able to grief, were when she was left alone in the hall where she, her sister-in-law, and her brother, used to lead the tribe through suffering and harsh times.
A room in which now, whenever she found herself alone in it, she couldn't manage to hold her back her tears.
Her grief was interrupted by the two powerful noises which resounded in her ears, and forced her to cover her ears in pain.
One caused by the activation of the spiritual seed, and one caused by the shattering of the limitation which separated the spiritual plain from their world.
After the two noises disappeared, she got up from her chair, and started to walk out of the room.
A few warriors approached her as she was about to leave the hall, and reported the situation to her.
At the moment, the tribe was splitting into four different parts. Each part was being transferred into one of the four different tribes which had agreed to accepting their people in their territory. Along with each group, a fourth of the warriors, a fourth of the scholars, and a fourth of the hunters would go with the civilians.
After the report was concluded, the warriors left the hall, leaving the old woman alone once again.
The very next moment, the saddened expression came back to her face. She was thinking of what her brother, the strongest of warriors, and her sister-in-law, the chief hunter, would have said about what was happening.
Once again, tears started to form on her eyes.. But before they could stream down her wrinkly face, she heard a voice coming from behind her say.. "Why are you crying, sister?"
The old woman immediately turned around, and standing right in front of her, she found her brother and her sister-in-law standing, and smiling at her.
Behind them, Daniel stood quietly, with a sweet smile on his face.
"I am going crazy.." muttered the unbelieving old woman with a self deprecating tone.
The old man couldn't help but smile at his sister's behaviour. He then walked toward her while saying "My sister isn't crazy.. She wasn't crazy when she chased me so that I could test her healing powders when we were kids.."
"No.." said the old woman with tears streaming down her cheeks.
"She wasn't crazy when she told me that if I let my wife go, I would have regretted it.."
At this point the old woman couldn't help but rub her eyes due to disbelief, but even then, he kept seeing her brother approaching her.
As the strongest of warriors arrived right in front of his sister, he placed his hands on her shoulders, and said "She wasn't crazy when she told me that we would have found a way to free our people from this bane.. Because we did."
The moment her brother touched her shoulders, she burst out crying.
-----
After the three members of the triumvirate reunited, Daniel stepped forward and recounted everything that happened since they had departed for the mages' stronghold.
".. That's alarming.." Said the head scholar with a shocked expression.
"Don't worry, the kid has a plan." Said the chief hunter with a reassuring tone.
Daniel's face became serious as he looked at the chief scholar intently, and said "I do have a plan.. But is more of a job for your people than mine.." He then paused for a few moments, before continuing by saying "I intend on purifying an army which we can use against the army of the king of monsters.. But, we can't just travel and look for people to purify.. You will have to summon another gathering, spread the word, and lead them to me."
The head scholar looked at Daniel with doubt in her eyes. She then said "How do you plan to do that by yourself? In just six months, even if you purify ten people every day, we'll have an army smaller than four thousands."
"Who said that It's just going to be me?." Responded Daniel while smirking. He then took his ring off of his finger, and handed it over to the strongest of warriors. "Hold this for me for a few hours.. If this ring gets destroyed while I'm inside, your world is doomed."
The last few words pronounced by Daniel left the old man terrified. He held the ring in his hands as if it was the most important object in the world, then, he said "What do you mean with 'whil-" but before he could finish, Daniel had already disappeared.
-----
When Daniel entered the pocket dimension, he found himself in his room within the castle.
The first thing he noticed, was the difference between the partial connection to the spiritual plain within the pocket dimension, and the complete connection to the spiritual plain from outside.
In order to rectify this, he teleported back in the square where the portals which lead out of the pocket dimension were.
The place was empty, as the portals had been closed for months now, and no one had any interest in them.
Despite that, Daniel could feel the hundreds of thousands of people conducting their lives peacefully all around his pocket dimension.
With a wave of his hand, he dissipated the disabled portals, and in their place, he opened a new one.
As this portal opened, and a connection to the wasteland world was established.. The very connection of the spiritual plain contained within the pocket dimension started to change.
With a loud *CRACK*, the limitation of the connection shattered, and the ever present spiritual essence started to fill the inside of the pocket dimension.
This change alerted every single cultivator within the pocket dimension, which looked at their own bodies in shock, as if something crucial within their belief had been changed drastically.
What even Daniel wasn't aware of, was the effect that exposing someone that had only cultivated either the martial or spiritual path to a spiritual world, had on their body.
What martial cultivator felt, was the thick and calm spiritual essence all around them, which after becoming a natural essence that granted a permanent connection to the spiritual plain, could now be absorbed, and possibly, used to refine their spirits.
On the other hand, what the spiritual cultivators felt when the nature of the spiritual essence had changed to a natural state, was that their spirit had become much less unruly, and mostly sticked to their bodies, as if that's where it belonged. Therefore, granting them the ability to cultivate the body if they wished to.
The reason why Daniel wasn't aware of this, was because his powers had already merged, and therefore, he felt his body and spirit as one, no matter if he was in a world devoid of spiritual essence, with a partial connection, or even a spiritual world.
Feeling the formation of the new portal in the square outside of the castle, the strongest spiritual and martial cultivators approached, and there, they found Daniel.
"Daniel!" Exclaimed Edmund, as he was the first of them to arrive.
The very next moment, Roley, and hundreds more spiritual cultivators which had comprehended spatial essence started to appear in the air. Right after, the other martial and spiritual cultivators arrived as well.
Daniel was surrounded by his group now, which looked at him while making a ruckus.
"Quiet!" Shouted Edmund.
The crowd immediately quietened.
He then turned to look at Daniel, and said "What happened in these three months?"
Daniel smiled back at Edmund, and said "It's a long story.. Let's go to a place with.. Lots of chairs first."
-----
For the following hour, Daniel explained everything that happened to him since they had fought the monster within the base of the worshippers of death.
He told them of how he was pulled into a portal that lead him to the wasteland world, of how he was found out by a tribe of extremely powerful warriors, about the corruption that had spread through the entire world, of how inhabitant were affected by a plague that they believed him to be a key to cure, of how they had attempted and succeeded in creating a connection to the spiritual plain, and finally, about the incoming war.
Naturally, he didn't forget to mention how much their world had risked when the monster held in the heart of the base of the worshippers of death was close to leave the tower, and enter their world of origin.
Of course, this was an impressive story, but everything that Edmund and the rest of Daniel's group members were thinking after hearing this story, was about how they could help him.
Daniel quickly explained to them that the world outside was filled with monsters more powerful than what they imagined, and that they would be facing waves of monsters whom they could not hope to defeat at their level.
What Daniel needed, were people at the ninth rank of cultivation at the very least, and finally, all the spiritual cultivators that had knowledge of healing essence.
Daniel's group had fared pretty well while Daniel was absent. Only three months had passed, but thanks to the indisputable power of the members of Daniel's group, none of the other powerful cultivators had dared to challenge them for the control over the pocket dimension.
"Another world? A war?" Asked Emelnie in surprise.
"Exactly.. And not only is it a war that I've started, but it is also inevitable. If we don't aid this world's population, we'll be stuck in this corrupted world forever.. In case of victory, the spiritual emissary promised a way to travel through worlds, and the necessary indications to go back to our own world." Responded Daniel calmly.
"Very well, it seems that we have no choice then. I assume that you already have a plan. Care to tell it to us?" asked Edmund with curiosity.
"I do. The herald of corruption agreed to three of my conditions. We have six months of peace to prepare, everyone we purify from corruption is part of our force, and finally, we only need to kill the king of monsters to end the war." Explained Daniel while playing with the ring he had on his left hand.
After a few moments, he turned to look at Edmund "I need something from the citizens." He said, seemingly talking about an unrelated topic.
"What is it?" asked Edmund in response.
"I need the help of every single blacksmith in the pocket dimension. Have them list every single type of metal they know, and if possible, purchase a single portion of each of those metals. Also, earth, wood, and metal are extremely close to each other. Ask Lerre and Buriath if they can make a list of all the metals they are aware of.."
"It is clear that you want to comprehend metal essence, but why?" Asked Edmund with confusion.
Metallic essence was by far the least valuable essence of which a spiritual cultivator could gain comprehension. The combat uses of metal were the overall same regardless of the kind of metal used, and there was basically no difference between a spike of stone, metal, or ice if you possessed enough strength. The only difference, was in the defensive field.
Instead of responding to Edmund's question, Daniel took the small piece of metal which radiated perfect metal comprehension, which everybody with a spiritual sense immediately recognized as a perfect metal treasure.
Roley, which had almost reached a perfect comprehension of earth and wood thanks to the perfect spheres which Daniel had created, couldn't help but look at Daniel with eyes filled with disbelief, and mutter "That's some luck.."