Chapter 371 - Uncovering A Higher Roof
The Outcast. That was the title given to Daniel the very moment he had been rejected by Iewah's faction.
Usually the title of a chosen of Iewah was based on their unique gifts, but since Daniel's power was still mostly unknown, he had been assigned one based on the most noteworthy event he had been part of. That event was, of course, the first time someone had ever been cast out by Iewah.
A title was not a joke within the universal government. There would never be two identical titles, and each one would stick to its bearer forever. Each title was originally used for the important cultivators within the government and factions to keep track of these powerful people, but soon after, they would become warnings mostly used to instill fear in the hearts of those who heard them.
The reactions of the powerful merchants of Cato after hearing this name, were very similar. They all knew who the newest titled individuals were, especially those who were vindictive, and known for enjoying conflict like any of Iewah's chosen ones.
The group of middle aged and old cultivators turned to look at the man who had threatened the newly arrived, and yet increasingly popular company. In their minds, they were hoping that this impulsive individual would avoid to implicate their entire planet with one of Iewah's children. Unfortunately, along with the hope came the doubt.
"The Outcast? One of those nutjobs? Ha! Look if I care." Responded the middle aged man with feigned anger. He of course did not care for Daniel's group, and the only reason why he was pretending to, was because he wanted to either stop the increasing performances of his competitors, or be the cause of it.
Naturally, not everyone within the universal government feared the children of Iewah, after all, these people were amongst the richest people in the known universe, and even if the government refused to intervene, which is something they would most definitely do in order to avoid a large-scaled war, if they truly wanted, any of them would be able to employ millions of high immortal mercenaries within a day's notice.
The only reason why they feared Daniel, was because his power was an unknown. A sword, a mental attack, an army of beasts, elemental essences, or even attacks to one's consciousness, could all be prevented. What could not be prevented, however, were the odd powers possessed by a portion of Iewah's children. The rumors about warriors traveling through the shadow realm, making people fall blindly in love, being able to buy one's soul, or even forcing people into submission with a word, had reached their ears, and while these people were monitored by the universal government, they would always manage to do massive amounts of damage before being stopped.
Unfortunately for Daniel's group, therumor that told the tale about him destroying half of Hell's demon lords, had reached the ears if this group of old cultivators along with the rumor that claimed that he had come unscathed from a violent encounter with one of the government's judges.
What was unfortunate about this, was the fact that these rumors relied a certain piece of information. Specifically, Daniel's position.
"Have you ever met one of them? He doesn't have the permission to teleport from galaxy to galaxy, and he won't bother to spend thousands of years to make the travel for a few losers." Responded the man while showing a suspicious grin.
Naturally, he could not be any more wrong. Not only was Daniel much closer than he thought, but he would also start a war to protect any of the people which this man intended on hurting. But alas, he and the rest of these old merchants were unaware of this, and the only support that Daniel's group possessed was that of one amongst many rich merchants who wouldn't be able to protect them even if he wanted.
"You know what will happen to you if you put one of those people against the universal government, don't you? I hope you'll remember how many planets were swallowed whole by the dragon king just because one of the newly appointed generals offended the Tamer, before you'll do something stupid." Said an old woman with snow-white curly hair, and a silver robe with gold embroidery.
A few more after her tried to make this middle aged man come to his senses, but none of their attempts had worked.
At the end of the day, these rich merchants were also high immortal cultivators, and as such, they lived by a philosophy of life that welcomed and rewarded risk. The fact that Daniel was thousands of years away, also helped them downplaying the danger that came along with the rewards.
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Back in Daniel's moving planet, in an isolated plain, he sat with his legs crossed. He was currently watching the wolf cub, now three times bigger than before, chase a sphere of dark essence carried in the air by a focused wisp of wind.
Sitting a few kilometers away, and yet still visible to his eyes, were three individuals. Their bodies were placed above small piles of essence crystals, from which they absorbed extremely large quantities of power in an attempt to refine their immortal essence past the limitations of immortality.
These three cultivators were none other than Edmund, Sewah, and the former Demon Lord turned into human, as well as Daniel's prisoner, Lady Night.
The three of them had decided to make use of the time needed to arrive to Cato, to reach high immortality, and get used to their newly obtained powers. Now, three full hours had passed since the beginning of this process, and from what Daniel could sense, at least two of them were close to completing their ascension.
The first one to finish, was Lady Night.
As a prisoner, Lady Night hadn't been too happy about being taken away by a human like Daniel. However, as time passed, she quickly began to admire his loyalty towards his group, a loyalty that she shared towards her faction of shapeshifters, that now lived as humans in a different hell than the one she knew.
In Hell, it wasn't odd for a weaker faction of demons to be dominated by a stronger one, and consequently be recruited into their ranks. That was something that happened extremely often, and was the reason why, when Daniel had said so, Lady Night had agreed to tag along without fighting back. In her mind she wasn't a prisoner, but a weaker individual that had to follow the stronger one.
While a human would feel resentment for Daniel in a similar situation, to Lady Night, when compared to the other demon lords, and if forced to follow another individual, Daniel had turned out to be the best choice. So, after seeing his methods, she had ended up becoming one of Daniel's group members in a relatively short amount of time, as well as obtained all of the increase in power and luck that came with it.
When Daniel appeared in front of her, to his surprise, she was back in her Demonic form. Her power was still at the early high demonic stage, but instead of emanating high immortal essence, her body emanated thick demonic power.
The question which was the cause of great confusion for Daniel, was quickly answered by Lady Night's thoughts right before her body changed back into her human form, and she opened her eyes, noticing that he was standing right in front of her.
"So much for turning you into a human." Said Daniel as a faint smile formed on his lips.
Lady Night did not humor Daniel, and instead looked at her own hand as it changed into a furry version of itself which resembled that of a special kind of demons known as "Beastkin".
To both of them, it was clear that the power that the woman had obtained, was similar to that of her previous demonic gift, but from her surprised expression, there was no doubt that its effects were incomparably more vast. "It is so similar, and yet so different." She muttered to herself with shock.
Daniel could see various parts of her body turn into whatever being she thought of, and in those parts, he could feel a kind of power which belonged to the kind in which she had turned into.
What was different about her ability to change shape, was the fact that she couldn't change her appearance at will like before, but could actually turn herself into a being similar to the one she wanted to change into, and she demonstrated that by turning into a humanoid dragon, a desperation feeding demon, and many more beings which Daniel could not recognize. Each vaguely resembling her human appearance.
She was able to imitate the essence, body, and even the spirit of the entities she wished to become, and consequently use the unique powers that these types of beings could wield.
Her gift had never been seen before, as it latched upon her former demonic shape shifting abilities, and turned it into a power that would allow her to change the structure of her body, and turn her into a different being indefinitely, allowing her, if she wanted, to become familiar with the methods of cultivation of every race she became familiar with.
Naturally, this power had limitation. The powers she was able to imitate were only those who were part of the body. That was why when in her draconic form, she felt that imitating Xargy's purifying flames would be possible, though mastering it would require her the same amount of time it had taken for him.
What she couldn't copy, was what required one's consciousness. For example, while she would be able to become a spatial elemental, she wouldn't be able to obtain Edmund's comprehension of space, Aeron's abilities as a mental warrior, or Daniel's system.
The potential of having an uncountable number of bodies was infinite, but just as Daniel was about to congratulate her for obtaining such a unique and powerful gift, he turned his head in Edmund's direction, and disappeared from where he was standing.
When he reappeared, he found himself looking at a standing Edmund. His expression was deadpan, and he seemed to have lost any form of rational thought. What had caused for Daniel to arrive in panic, was the fact that the very instant Edmund had succeeded in his ascension, he had been unable to feel the presence of his mind.
Right after Daniel, Aeron arrived as well.
"What is going on? Can you read his mind?" Asked Daniel to Aeron with worry.
Aeron tried to gaze into Edmund's mind, but what appeared in front of him, was a blur of trillions of changing images. While seemingly harmless, this blur put an enormous strain to Aeron's extremely powerful mind, and caused him to immediately retract his consciousness before falling on his knees, and vomiting the contents of his stomach.
Before being forced to leave Edmund's mind, Aeron had been able to feel his consciousness seep into what felt like a multitude of different places. These places were part of everywhere, and yet nowhere, and if he had to guess what the nature of these places was, he would guess that they were alternate dimensions.
Edmund's gift, of those obtained by the rest of Daniel's friends, was the one with the largest drawback. His entire cultivation had been focused on the study of space, but as an essence, space was limited by what was comprehensible to a three dimensional being, not unlike time.
Where the flip side of advancing time was rewinding time, the flip side of space, was the space to which he did not belong to. An example of this, was the void. The same laws of space were contained in every dimension, but what was missing, and did not belong to a person's limits of comprehension, was the existence of an infinite number of dimensions.
That was what was drawing Edmund's mind away from his body. The ability to see, experience, and explore infinite dimensions at the same time.
Nothing of this was known to Aeron, who was only sure of the fact that, if this went on, Edmund's consciousness could possible drift away forever. So, in an attempt to save his life, he took a deep breath, and formed a mental barrier around his own mind. He then placed his right hand on Edmun's head, and took control over his mental power, using it to connect his body with his drifting consciousness. After pulling his consciousness back to the universe in which Edmund's physical body belonged to, he sealed it, preventing the multitude of different dimensions from claiming it.
The moment he finished, Edmund's expression turned into one of pure horror. "So small.. We are.. noth.." he muttered before falling on the ground, unconscious.