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Chapter 1,303.
🕑 Added 2024-11-13 19:30:53 +0000 UTC‘Remember what you just said. The mission failed the first time around, and we still don’t know when or why. Stay within ten meters of me, especially if things get out of hand. My bloodline is the only thing having a chance at keeping us safe,’ Zac urged as Ivar Serpico led the fifty-man crew toward the point of entry. ‘’
Ventus had already scanned the rest of the Serpico Guild over the past week, and every single member was haunted by the shadow of death—from Guild Master to lowest assistants. The company navigating deeper into the tunnels may as well have been a funeral procession.
Two hours later, they reached an excavation already well underway. An advance party began work days ago, cordoning off the area, installing the necessary arrays, and stripping the outer layers of rock. The following part required the expertise of the veteran crew. Ivar took charge while Kalir stayed incognito.
The mine expansion was just as fraught with danger as Zac expected. Branching streaks of deadly energies permeated the mountain, some holding more than enough energy to take out the whole party. Disturbing them could trigger a chain reaction of multiple deposits erupting at once. The miners had to carefully dig a path to the streak and deal with them one by one.
Each deposit was unique, requiring a customized solution. Whenever possible, they would draw away the dangerous pockets with siphoning arrays, dispersing their payload into the mountain. The process was akin to defusing a field of mines. Thankfully, the two Monarchs weren’t just there for moral support.
Vitrus and Vatra were siblings, the former an Array Master and the latter a warrior focused on defense. While not as attuned to the mountain as Ivar, their strength and heritage more than made up for it. Zac stayed at the backlines, keeping watch of sudden dangers. The flickers of Void were getting stronger the deeper they delved, and the calamity could strike at any moment.
‘Still can’t feel anything?’ Zac asked.
‘Nothing. It’s still the usual—mostly Daos of the Grand Materia and the Inverse Peak. Metal and Stone transformed into God know what,’ the demon confirmed.
The demon never managed to sense the flickers of Void, and it was the same with the Serpico Guild. The slight disturbances they caused were taken as part of the erratic nature of the energy flows.
“Careful!” Zac suddenly said as a vine dragged a surprised miner away from the wall. He’d been in the middle of activating a stabilizing array when a flicker of Void triggered a subtle shift. Ivar appeared out of nowhere to take his place, infusing the wall with his own energy and Dao.
“Lord, this is no place to play around!” the Guild Master said, his veins throbbing from repressed rage as the foremen glared in Zac’s direction.
“Look at the array, compare it to the current energy flows,” Zac calmly said.
“What do you—huh? It’s misaligned,” Ivar said, looking at the array disk with surprise.
“I double-checked it moments ago,” a foreman said, turning to Zac for answers. “Is young master able to read the mountain?”
“Not to the point I can anticipate changes. I have a Fatewarding treasure that anticipates sudden dangers. It indicated that activating the array would have threatened me,” Zac lied to explain his actions.
With Zac’s Danger Sense and two Monarchs forcibly paving a path, progress was smooth. Digging through the miles-wide outer shell could take a week for an elite unit, yet they reached their destination in half a day.
“There’s a major hollow fifty yards ahead. Multiple miles wide and perfectly isolated,” Ivar confirmed after removing his hands from the wall, his eyes gleaming with anticipation.
“A major hollow is a good thing?” Zac asked, unable to penetrate the energy-rich wall with his Soul Sense.
Ivar answered after getting the go-ahead from Kalir. “It can be, my Lord. There are plenty of veins in the mountain, but the really valuable stuff will be found in sealed spaces. But, uh, they can also be the breeding grounds for nasty things.”
“We shouldn’t encounter creepers here,” another miner offered. “I’ve mined the area most of my life. The storm that blocked this section was terrifying. Anything strong enough to survive that—”
“—Would already have broken out and razed Dipper Seven to the ground,” Zac surmised.
“Just so.”
“Don’t lower your guard. Stop when we’re five meters from breaking through,” Ivar grunted as he installed the next set of arrays.
‘Get ready,’ Zac warned as they drew closer, putting on [Ossuary Bulwark] just in case.
The miners were already wearing hazmat suits as Vatra removed the last barrier. Their preparations weren’t enough to block the tsunami of energy flooding the tunnel. It was so dense that it may as well have been liquid, and it showed no signs of abating. It was lucky the entrance had been sealed for ‘security reasons,’ with gates installed every fifty meters. Otherwise, the flood of energy would have caused a storm among the miners in the area.
“Keep going!” the Monarch urged while suppressing the onslaught with a defensive domain.
The company rushed inside with burning eyes. The dense yet stable energies were a clear sign of having hit the jackpot. Zac anxiously followed as a shocked exclamation came from ahead. Then, it was Zac’s turn to join the chorus.
“What the hell?” Zac gasped, his shock genuine.
Instead of a Void Treasure marked by the Earthly Peak, they’d stumbled onto a miles-wide cave holding a cultivator’s manor.
A central building hovered between two hand-carved hills the shape of mountains—one floating above and an upside-down mountain below. The former was hewn from the same white stone as the Dipper Mountains, and it radiated a blinding aura of the Earthly Peak. It may as well have taken the whole mountain range’s Dao and compressed it to fit the scale model.
The inverted hill was pitch black, its shape perfectly matching the one above like a shadow. It was absolutely bereft of aura, at least one that could be sensed through conventional means. It felt like mortal stone without any innate spirituality even to Zac. The two slowly rotated in opposite directions, meaning they’d only occasionally line up.
As if by fate, they aligned just as Zac entered, prompting his vision to double. Countless glowing runes lit up across the cave’s surface, all of them holding a sliver of Void ensconced in Dao. Together, the runes held far more Void Energy than Zac, and he had to hold himself back from gorging on the banquet beneath his feet.
The inverted hill was no different. It had come alive, suddenly filled with Void Energy and Void of Dao perfectly opposite its sibling’s. If the hills touched at that moment, both would instantly cease to exist. All that was nothing compared to the monstrous eruption of Void coming from within the central manor.
Zac couldn’t breathe as he was inundated by the aura he’d felt all the way on the surface. His bloodline trembled, no longer daring to display any hunger. Zac felt like an ant looking up at an elephant—one that shouldn’t exist under the Heavens. Thankfully, the mountains kept rotating, breaking the alignment.
The Void became rootless, and Zac almost felt like the Void Energy fled toward the manor to escape Heaven’s wrath. Most of it was extinguished in mutual destruction with the ambient energies, causing a noticeable drop in density. Zac exhaled after confirming everything was back to normal. The Void was routed, and the chamber was already filling up with new energy.
The others had only noticed the sudden drop in energy. They were busy taking in the incredible arrangement. Beyond the central abode and its replica mountains, there were four humongous satellites surrounding the cardinal directions. They looked like abstract sculptures, each one unique.
They thrummed with forbidding powers, easily surpassing Zac or the two Monarchs. They were at least Late C-grade arrays and fully functional by the looks of it. Zac also saw something familiar in them. Their odd forms represented the Four Laws, at least a decent replication of them. Getting past the arrays to reach the manor wouldn’t be easy.
Zac turned to the seven lesser manors directly carved out of the surrounding walls. The closest one was only two hundred meters away. It was also the only damaged one. A large crack had breached its wall, scarring the cave’s otherwise smooth surface. The imperfection reached all the way to their current location. It was the breach they’d exploited to enter safely.
It was clear the ancient abode hadn’t dropped out of a spatial rift. The whole cave had been reshaped to create a formation perfectly harmonized with the Dipper Mountains. The arrangement was similar to Ubo’s, the Life-attuned C-grade Elemental Zac met in the Orom World.
Ubo had hollowed out a mountain to create a cultivation cave. While the abandoned manor before them was smaller, it was built according to grander concepts. The mountain was the Heavens, the cave was the Earth, and the manor in the center connected the two through the authority of its owner.
Zac couldn’t believe the clues had led him to the abode of a genuine Void Cultivator. He knew the chasm between Void and Dao wasn’t as absolute as one could assume. The [Fuxi Mountain Gate] was proof of that, and Wal’Zo mentioned that eight Void Cultivators had reached the peak and left their mark on the Void Mountain.
The mysterious manor definitely didn’t belong to one of those supreme existences but rather one of the forgotten many who fell long before reaching the Terminus. All Void Cultivators couldn’t possibly have followed the same route as Zac, who’d unintentionally stepped onto the path after awakening his Void Emperor bloodline.
From what Zac understood of the arrangement before him, this ancient cultivator must have grasped a corner of the Void through the Inverse Peak. It was an approach completely different from the [Fuxi Mountain Gate], and a very clever one at that. When looking at the Cosmos as a layered cake with the Void Mountain as a base, the Lower Planes and the Inverse Peak would be the next layer.
Zac had to keep his face impassive as he looked at the manor with even greater hunger. While dusty, it was clearly built during the Limitless Empire’s reign. It was almost fully intact, and not enough time had passed for repositories and treasures to lose their spirituality. There was a chance the manor held a Void Cultivator’s complete heritage.
It was clearly a flawed path, seeing how the Void could only momentarily rise to the surface. Instead of true integration, the Void was an external power like the remnants. Even so, the method could very well provide insights more valuable than any First People’s inheritance. This was the approach of a modern cultivator grasping the Void while living under the Heavens.
“It’s intact…” Ivar whispered with a trembling voice, his eyes a mix of desire and fear.
Zac could almost see the two opposing impulses duking it out in the Guild Master’s head. The Serpico Guild could toil away until the day they died without coming close to the wealth of some Monarchs, and the ruins before them could very well hold such a fortune. Only, you needed to be alive to enjoy such riches.
A series of vibrations made Zac turn around. The last miners had been dragged into the cave, and the exit was sealed with a much sturdier barrier. Meanwhile, Zac’s communication crystals lost contact with the outside. They were trapped, and Kalir no longer kept up the charade of a butler. His face morphed back to normal while the Monarchs took up protective positions around him.
“Thank you, gentlemen. We’ll take the lead from here on out.”
Zac didn’t mind the development. The Whitecrest Consortia stopped at erecting a barrier, and Zac could easily pass right through with [Void Mountain]. Of course, he maintained a displeased expression while apprehension replaced the greed among the Serpico Guild.
“I’ve brought you inside as agreed upon,” Ivar said with an ugly smile, prompting his men to look over with confusion. “I understand the need for privacy. How about I take the boys out of here so the young Masters can work undisturbed?”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible. My employers cannot have any rumors leaking before we’ve performed our investigation and made suitable arrangements. This is both for your and our safety. The wrong kind of attention can trigger a tragedy. Work hard, everyone. The sooner we get what we came for, the sooner we’ll get out of here.”
The fifty elites of the Serpico guild could only swallow their anger and go along despite their role being evident to everyone involved. The manor was bound to have defenses installed, and the Monarchs saw no reason to test the waters themselves. Any mutiny was destined to fail. The miners were Early or Middle Hegemons, with the three foremen being Late Hegemons. A single Monarch was enough to thoroughly suppress the group.
The Guild Master turned toward Zac with pleading eyes. This was why Ivar had caused a scene before—force Kalir into the open. Zac would either join the expedition or add enough uncertainty that Kalir would cancel the mission. If Ivar had to go, he hoped having a powerful outsider to act as a witness would improve their chances of survival. Unfortunately, he was barking up the wrong tree.
‘There’s no need to pity these men. The Serpico Guild is one of the most crooked outfits in the area. They’re more bandit than miners. Their crimes are more than enough to be sent to the frontlines as cannon fodder.’
Kalir’s message was unnecessary. Zac wouldn’t risk his and Ogras’s lives for long-dead people, especially not the Serpico Guild. The merchant’s description wasn’t an exaggeration. No faction in Dipper Seven was clean, and the Serpico Guild was dirtier than most. ‘Sacrifices are an unfortunate necessity of any great undertaking.’
To Ivar, Zac only spared a halfhearted promise. “I’ll continue to monitor our surroundings.”
“As expected of the noble Wendimars,” Kalir praised. Ivar just sneered, no longer bothering to keep up pretenses.
“Let’s go,” the Monarch barked. “Keep order and no funny business. Countless arrays are embedded in the walls, and we’re surrounded by unstable energies. We’ll kill anyone acting on their own.”
The group walked toward the outer building, with Vitrus performing scans every step of the way. The crack was essentially a safe passage all the way to the entrance. The lack of visible dangers gradually relaxed the crew, proving to be a huge mistake. One careless step was enough to trigger a hidden array. The miner was bisected by a flash before anyone could react.
A stone blade had silently risen out of the ground before crumbling to dust. Zac sensed a shadow of Void hidden within a cocoon of Earthy Dao. The Void had given the attack the same unpredictability as when Zac infused the Voids of Life and Death into his technique at the cost of stability. The bloody display only made Zac more eager to explore the manor. This cultivator had clearly made some inroads in fusing Void with skills, which was still out of Zac’s grasp.
One more miner died investigating the entrance before Vitrus gave the go-ahead. Vatra stayed behind to guard the crew while his brother led Kalir and Zac further inside. Zac’s Soul Sense was blocked by the high-grade materials, yet he felt his vision expand as he stepped into the dimly lit corridors. It was Ogras who’d linked up with the local shadows and transmitted what he saw in real time.
The building wasn’t designed for habitation, nor were there any treasuries or libraries. Like the structures on the Centurion Lighthouse, it was a large-scale array disk with service corridors. As far as Zac could tell, it was partially responsible for the tremendous amount of energy filling the abode. Only the central chamber was out of Ogras’s reach, and Vitrus made short work of the damaged gate.
“No wonder the manor hasn’t drained the whole mine dry,” Zac muttered upon seeing a morphing gate trapped in the central chamber.
It looked a lot like the breach he’d found at the depths of the tainted lake inside the Void Star, shifting in dimensions exceeding his senses. There was no corruption of the Lost Plane, instead an intense and alien aura somewhat matching the Dipper Mountain.
“Its Dao is incomplete. Is it a gate to a Lower Plane?”
“Almost. It’s the relay to one. The Hidden Earth Abode should be drawing directly from Dipper Mountain’s energy source. “
“It’s a modified [Seven Leap Array]—a shoddily constructed one, at that. What a waste of valuable materials,” Vitrus said, looking personally insulted as he inspected the complex array keeping the relay stable.
“We should be thankful. The manor would have stayed hidden far longer if it was properly constructed,” Kalir smiled. “Can you install the shunt?”
“Certainly, Young Master.”
Zac silently observed the Monarch place Array Flags around the twisting gate, seamlessly integrating a new array with the old system. After confirming his actions wouldn’t blow them to kingdom come, Zac turned to Kalir. “This is the point where you tell me the whole story. What’s the Hidden Earth Abode, and what are you really after? Is what you said about the Margrave even true?”
“I wouldn’t dare lie about the Scales of Earth,” Kalir said. “Upon learning about the Margrave’s request, our investigators scoured the Left Imperial Expanse for suitable offerings. It’s even become a competition to decide succession within the clan. It was my aunt who found scattered mentions of an unusual wandering cultivator. Following the clues eventually led me here.”
“Must have been some warrior for the Whitecrest to put in such effort,” Zac commented.
“His Daoist name was Hidden Earth, a Peak Void Herald active around three million years ago. We believe he failed in confirming his Dao,” Kalir explained.
Zac wasn’t surprised. Becoming a Divine Monarch was already a monstrously difficult feat without throwing the Void into the mix. A cultivator’s manor was a reflection of one’s path, and this one was fraught with danger.
“Will the Margrave even be interested in a Pre-Celestial Heritage? The courts wouldn’t lack such things.”
“Specifically, we’re after a certain ability of his. Daoist Hidden Earth was unremarkable for most of his life. He was the elder of an upcoming clan, presumed dead after its annihilation. When he reappeared, he’d advanced from a Middle to Peak Herald in just twenty thousand years. Not only that, but he displayed shocking prowess for his stage.
“Hidden Earth appeared outside the ancestral manor of his clan’s killers. He dispersed their Clan Protection Array with a wave of his hand and slaughtered their whole clan, including their Celestial Herald ancestor. After that, there are only a few scattered mentions of him appearing in public. He used his new ability to break into restricted areas and steal rare materials for his cultivation. I found the Hidden Earth Manor by following a trace on one of those treasures.”
“But you’re not interested in the treasures,” Zac said with conviction. “You’re after the array-breaking technique.”
“Exactly. Hidden Earth must have encountered a great stroke of luck. My aunt believes he discovered a previously unknown Lower Plane, one with extremely useful characteristics. Its potential should be far beyond what a random Void Herald could exhibit. This information would be extremely valuable to the Margrave.”
The Whitecrest Clan were only here for the repository, and they were even kind enough to pave a path to the central manor. Zac had to hold back a laugh. Things were looking up. They couldn’t even sense the Void Treasure! He’d snatch it while they dealt with the repository, then demand a copy for the Wendimar Clan. Ogras ruined the beautiful picture with a sarcastic remark.
‘Oh, I know that look. Disasters always follow.’
Comments
Sugoi
I'd guess on Celestial being what we know as Divine Monarchs
Sugoi
Oh?
Austin Richins
Ogras *Danger + Prizes = :D* Absolutely anyone else *Fuuuuck thys noiz im dun*
Amithyst Stonewall
I slso 100% want Zac and Oggy to be linked together permanently.
Austin Richins
Man, can someone chain Ogras and Zac together so they can't get separated? Only the best things happen when those two are riding tandem.
Lex Luther S
They entered one of the satellite arrays surrounding the manor if I'm not mistaken.
Lex Luther S
Well that just shows how BROKEN the void added to ones abilities and skills is. A celestial is what autarchs are called and if hidden earth was a divine monarch, then it makes sense he could take out an autarch with such a broken addition as the void.
Lex Luther S
Ohhh bro, this arc is already PEAK compared to the PV arc and way beyond the Twighlight ocean arc. Honestly the Twighlight ocean arc can't even begin to compare to the Ultom trial arcs greatness.
Jeff McCulley
Well…I wasn’t buying bit either.
Tartlet
Well, whatever.
EsoEasy
Interesting thought. I am hoping that we meet someone ancient on the inside…or at least get some kind of prerecorded message.
Silent Consent
I love these books. “I know that look” is going up there right next to “My bones!” 😂
Jeff McCulley
Looked back to find the quote: C “The next month will continue without breaks as Zac draw closer to the pillars AND THE SECRETS BURIED IN the Left Imperial Expanse.” Boy, TFD just wasn’t kidding, was he?! I’m starting to think that most every distinct region has something emblematic to its theme buried beneath it as the source. Like a patchwork quilt. I’m here for the ride. I’m thinking this is better than the Perennial Vastness or Twilight Ocean!
Johnny_B
He might stop it by eating the bomb before it goes boom.
SandreX
Maybe Karz was trying to advance his void comprehension through other void cultivators?
MacMahon Wenzl
I'm with Zac stopping it, throughing fate into "chaos" again.
MacMahon Wenzl
No, but if you speak it out loud, it becomes fate. Like that story arch from Doctor Who.
MacMahon Wenzl
I hope Ogras gets the chance to sense a bit of the void at some point, just so he can watch Zac do his crazy thing.
MacMahon Wenzl
I feel like we are about to see a connection to Karz. The actions and path of the old cultivator makes me think of something Karz would do and the same way he would do it.
MacMahon Wenzl
I look at it as if it is running a seperate and parrale river of time. Like the entire domain is its own memory lantern full of smaller memory lanters. You could look at it as if it's a instanced zone or dungeon in a video game.
Craig
Whitecrest does call him a “void herald” so it is possible they are familiar with the void’s capabilities, and there really is a secret technique. But maybe they are just wrong, and there is no technique. Either way, the situation is going to blow up when Zac snatches the treasure
Mateo Lopez
I’m sure Ogras will take “inspiration” from Zac’s Ultom shenanigans! XD
Owen Stevens
I mean, it would be pretty stupid if changing the collective memory of the universe didn't also change the other memory lanterns. Since those are literal representations of memories. But what do I know 🤷
Matthew Hay
I thought the whole reason the dao could be reformed through the Era cycle started by the Eternal was because they could rely on the Void Mountain to remain strong, supporting all reality while the dao is retracted.
Matthew Hay
Going by the various forms of Lord as the equivalent of Hegemons, I think a Celestial Herald should just be a Divine Monarch. If it were an Autarch, then this guy punched up significantly when we keep getting told it becomes harder and harder to punch up. Though I guess that could be a clue to the power-up of using void + dao... We know God-King is either a Throne/Seal holder, or a Peak Supremacy. My guess is we'll learn what Autarchs are for sure when we get more Margrave action.
Bernhard
And the evolved, puer and so on are Lords = Hegemons
Jeff McCulley
“We believe he failed in confirming his Dao,” Kalir explained. Or maybe he’s been stuck on the other side of the Gate, because it’s shitty and he was too strong after confirming his Dao to get back through?
Jeff McCulley
Void Herald is a Monarch. Peak void Herald is a Peak Monarch. ? Celestial Herald would be an Autarch, then? Or a Divine Monarch?
DKR
I'm so confused on the title as it this point. What is the difference between a Void Herald, a Peak Void Herald, and a Celestial Herald? And I thought they used other titles like Evolved, Pure and other stuff for pre-system naming. Is there a chart available somewhere?
DrSubterfuge
I don't think they will be quite so sanguine if the basis for what they are looking for isn't a lower plane. Information would be sufficient to take advantage of that. If it's tied up with the void treasure? Not so much.
Jeff McCulley
Zac wasn’t there the first time around. Just to switch things up, this time he might actually STOP it from blowing up.
Jeff McCulley
Au contraire. We do *not* know that actions in memory lanterns affect memories in other memory lanterns. We know that Zac’s actions in one memory *realm* transferred to *one* memory lantern—and that because one character in that memory lantern had/has a fundamental connection with the Earth. Zac and Esmerelda were just guessing.
Lex Luther S
Yeah but that's my theory. Given the heights one needs to reach, I'm likely wrong and it is different genuine... void kings(?) from different eras but it's not totally impossible that those 8 void kings came about throughout the long billions of years of the current era. Besides, it's not the first time one of my theories was way off so I'm not going to die on this hill that they were from this era.
Gaige Bradley
Was thinking the same exact thing lmao can't wait
Jeff McCulley
You literally said “this confirms those 8 lived in the current era”.
Jeff McCulley
The Whitecrest want the Repository—so, the knowledge. The recorded data. Zac wants the natural treasure.
Jeff McCulley
Rereading, I’m confused. Are they in one of the outer manors? That’s where the crack led to. It was the only damage. The central manor was hovering. The four Law arrays were supposed to make it hard to get to the central manor. If this is the central manor, the transition seems…awkward.
M💬
TFD has not missed a beat since the start of ultom although I am a bit behind on chapters all I can say is this is the gift that keeps on giving. But as a fan , what I need is the releases date of Ogras’s movie and rereading the books doesn’t help Lmaoooooooo
EsoEasy
Halloween was a couple weeks ago but…our guy Zac is definitely about to go trick-or-treating. Wearing his best young master Wendimar costume with Ogras dressed up as his cape of shadows. And… Hidden Earth left the house lights on!
Lex Luther S
We don't know that, though. Zac thinks the void mountain is a permanent static, but for all we know, every era wipes the slate clean and erases the marks left on the slopes. Unless we get confirmation, then the 8 marks on the slopes are like Schrödinger's box. Those marks are either from previous eras or from the current era. After all, the current era is billions of years old, so a void cultivator reaching that level is certainly possible. And to say karz and Laondio are the only ones to reach such heights doesn't feel right. Those 2 are most certainly the strongest of the current era, but being strong is most certainly not the only condition one needs to be able to leave such a mark. There's gotta be the void in their path some way or another to probably leave a true permanent mark. And even then what does leaving a mark on the slopes even entail? Is it just the fact they reached such heights or is there another reason to do so? We have far to little information about the void and void mountain too come tor permanent conclusions.
Jeff McCulley
Let me see if I’ve got this straight. The Whitecrest Consortia thinks that they are looking for some special technique this guy picked up. But everything they described was things Zac himself does with the Void. So…this Void Cultivator was just using the Void, rather than some special “conventional” technique.. Which these folks have no clue about in the first place. Am I wrong? I feel like someone’s gonna be disappointed.
Shivam
Where did you get those 8 void cultivators lived in the current era. Ultom has been surviving since the first era itself and Void mountain has also been there since the first era. There have been many eras since then. But the marks on void mountain are void cultivators who reached the absolute peak of cultivation and other than Karz and Laondio we don't know anyone that is capable of that in the current era. We don't even know if Karz or Laondio made a mark on the void mountain itself or decided not to. The marks on the void mountain are most likely from the previous eras
Jeff McCulley
Y’know, I’m not sure that everyone has realized that, aside from the era of the original Wendimar memory and after that, Karz was still around and chilling somewhere. So yeah, Zac could conceivably run into the original.
Jeff McCulley
And now we’re all—and Ogras—going to be shocked when Friday’s chapter is a cakewalk for Zac, right? Right? Er……right?
Owen Stevens
I'm convinced he's gonna meet the patriarch of the Wendimar clan in a memory and get a stern talking to from "pops" about upholding family honor for the next generation. Then he's gonna steal the family heirloom.
Henry Wartemberg
Is he wrong?
MacMahon Wenzl
Haha, "The Wendimar Calamity".
Owen Stevens
it's true that the lanterns affect memories in other lanterns. Maybe Zac will create a reputation for stealing treasures. "The greedy scion of the Wendimar house known for his impossible escapes".
Joshua Little
Thanks for the chapter.
DrSubterfuge
So either Hidden Earth had two lucky breaks or what he actually found was how to integrate the void into his cultivation. Considering the latter would mean Whitecrest wants what Zac wants, I'm going to go with that. Hopefully between the assassin hidden in his shadow and his ability to sense the void, Zac can lure the Monarchs into some C level traps.
MacMahon Wenzl
I know they aren't changing the actual future, but the immediate fallout from the events would be different. We also know there are minor changes due to Zacs Wendimars memory lantern.
Owen Stevens
they aren't changing the past. Only the memory of the past. Keeping the people alive won't create an untenable future, since the future, or present as it is now, won't be different. Only they will be remembered as having lived. That changes karma.
The Lost Pages
Hahaha Ogras... yup. Time to watch things go boom. Or get devoured. Perhaps both?
Rid
Time for Chaos Loot Goblin Zac to make a reappearance 😂
Hakeem Gordon
Just in time to brighten my day. Thank you!
Azulmar
Time to dig up the floorboards.
Andrew
Thank you!
Lex Luther S
Now this is very interesting. I thought those that left their mark on the void mountain were void cultivators from other eras as well but this confirms that those 8 lived in the current era. Even more interesting is learning that others can properly cultivate the void. Just how difficult would that be without something unique to stand on like zacs bloodline? I can scarcely imagine but I hold no doubt that those 8 were absolute monsters. The biggest boon is the knowledge he'll gain from this. This divine void herald or "monarch" might have little connection with zacs void daos of life and death but it'll still be great references and research materials and as we know, the greater one progresses, the more their daos encompass meaning he should still benefit 100%. It's just pure profit when factoring in that void treasure and whatever else he can take from that manor. Even funnier is ogras putting zac in his place reminding him he's the literal son of chaos and trouble is ALWAYS gonna follow someone walking the path of chaos. Friday can't get here soon enough man.
PapaJohn
Ogras and his big mouth.
MacMahon Wenzl
I've been thinking: "what could be the worse outcome", and if you put the pieces together, the worse outcome is that everyone lives. If everyone is supposed to die, that's the expected fated outcome. Yes everyone dying is bad in a sense, but it's also the needed outcome to create the current future. Now, what would be really bad is if the opposite happened, created an untenable and possibly way more destructive future. Zac normally takes what ever is going to happen, flips it on its head, and causes a much more chaotic future. In this case, the more chaotic and less stable future would be everyone missing their death flags and instead surviving, throwing convention out the window. We expect everyone to blow up but what if Zac just absorbs the energy and prevents "the worse case scenario" of everyone's death.
Jason Hatter
Now we know how the mountain blows up
Dominic Fox
Dksk
