The Aether God: Chapter 27 - Abyssal Alterations
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself:
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, looked up in perfect silence at the stars.
Caladrius School South District: Residence Hall 5, Dorm 31
Cerulean jolted upright in bed, his heart pounding against his chest. Beads of cold sweat trickled down his forehead, and his breath came in ragged gasps.
Latia stirred in her bed, her eyes fluttering open as she heard Cerulean’s heavy breaths.
“Cerulean?”
As he looked over, Latia was staring at him with a worried expression.
“I just had a nightmare of some sort… I’m sorry for waking you.”
Latia shook her head.
“Oh it’s really nothing at all! Is everything okay… Or do you want to talk about anything?”
Cerulean laid back down, but remained on his side facing Latia.
“No no no, it’s fine. In the dream there was just a strange light trying to consume me and I was afraid of it for some reason. Just a weird dream… But it’s not something to mull over. Thank you for worrying though, you’re very kind.”
Latia blushed for a moment, but then smiled.
“Mhm!”
After saying their goodnights again, they turned away and shifted to find comfortable sleeping positions.
“That color…”
Within a few minutes, they had already fallen back to sleep.
…………………
The Training District
As Cerulean stepped outside of the Caladrius School’s Walls, he was greeted with a number of familiar sights. The cloudy sky cast a somber hue over the cobbled roads, but they were far less packed than those of the Trade and Market Districts. As he walked, he passed a great number of guild and discipline halls.
Not far from the Caladrius School were a number of large libraries. They surrounded a square on the east end of the Training District, each with its own specialty. Some focused on cultivation, others on trades, and others on history and geography, each catering to various intellectual pursuits.
The library he was most interested in was the Ethereum Archives, one that specialized in History and Geography.
The Ethereum Archives
As Cerulean crossed the threshold, he found himself staring at a great number of towering shelves lined with books and scrolls. Many of their spines were adorned with intricate gold symbols. It was not so modest a library as he was expecting. He smiled.
“It’s good to be home…”
The air inside was hushed, punctuated only by the soft rustle of pages and the occasional murmur of residents engrossed in their studies. Colored sunlight filtered through stained glass windows every so often, but would quickly fade, blocked by shifting clouds.
“How may we humbly help you today?”
A melodious voice hit Cerulean’s ears. He turned to see Auriel Starbind, the librarian, walking towards him. She had sapphire eyes and silvery hair that shimmered down to her waist.
“I’m looking for information on the other realms, or continents if that’s what you call them.”
To his surprise though, she curled her eyebrows.
“I’m sorry… I don’t believe I know what you’re talking about… Are you looking for texts regarding places that lie outside of the Great Valley?”
Cerulean was confused. He thought that, perhaps, only the Legendary Sects knew of the other realms… But he hadn’t yet asked Boreas or Osiris if they knew about them.
“Have you ever heard of the text, Studies of Lethian Elixirs, by Xiao Yue, by chance?”
Cerulean knew that there were four realms on this plane, one of which was the Lethian Realm. Elder Roshi had clearly mentioned it on the day of his soul convergence.
“Oh, of course… But what does that have to do with… Continents and Realms? ”
Cerulean sighed.
“I’ll… Just look at anything that regards geography or civilizations outside of the valley.”
“Of course! Follow me, please.”
……………
Cerulean spent a couple of hours perusing a number of scrolls and texts, as well as poring over maps, charts, and other primary sources. He learned quite a bit about nearby civilizations and ruins. Besides The Great Valley, there were two other inhabited territories within the Three Rivers Province. They were much smaller, but they had strong artists. There were also two other provinces in the realm, but one of them was uninhabited.
“The Crystal Wasteland… There have to be a number of treasures there… I can tell just by reading its name.”
Cerulean read that the Crystal Wasteland was uninhabited by humans due to an airborne poison of some sort, one that was imperceptible but deadly.
“An imperceptible poison… But there are hundreds of species of Ethereal Beasts dwelling there? That makes no sense… Ah…”
Cerulean deduced that rather than a poison, some sort of drainage array covered the province. It was likely an abyssal array. Ethereal Beasts also had immune systems that were similar to those of humans, and such a scenario was extremely unlikely. Some species of beasts were more resilient to poison, but not hundreds. Certain arrays, however, could easily be made to target specific races or species.
Despite learning much about the Acheronian Realm, there was very little other information that caught his eye. None of the texts he read mentioned other realms, nor the other planes.
“This ought to be enough for now. I’ll have to visit Boreas again, I guess. If he doesn’t know, I’ll ask the Starfall Sect at some point… They posted the question, after all.”
Cerulean closed the book he was reading and sighed.
He stood up and turned to leave, but his eyes quickly met those of Auriel Starbind. She was standing directly behind him, and in turn he had almost bumped straight into her.
She was smiling, and soon opened her mouth to speak.
“Do you happen to have a free moment?”
…………………………
The Caladrius School South District
“Everyone… I want to begin our meeting tonight by apologizing to you all. As many of you have probably guessed, Oriana Blackwood died because she broke the heavenly pact that all of you have made. While it sort of was her own fault for doing so, I made a grave mistake by not properly informing you all of the true nature of a heavenly pact… I am in great part to blame for her death.”
Cerulean bowed. Standing before him were a little over one thousand three hundred disciples. The boys had confirmed, through the school’s records, that every last abyssal artist was present. Cerulean was passively casting a more powerful concealment art around the little grove, so if anybody were to walk by or through it, the grove would appear empty and silent. Now though, it truly was silent, as all the disciples were sitting and listening to him. He stood back up to speak.
“Now I need you all to know, and remember this. If you break a heavenly pact, You will die. No, your cultivation will not be crippled, nor will you lose a limb, nor will you get sick for a week. You will die. When you make a heavenly pact you quite literally expose your soul to the heavens, and you thus expose yourself to conditional judgment. This means that If you break a heavenly pact, you will be judged, and you will die. I cannot stress enough to you all that the consequence of breaking a pact is death.”
Cerulean sighed. He really didn’t want any more of his peers to die - not only for his peace of mind, but for their own sake. They were all young and had long lives ahead of themselves. Such a meaningless death ought to be avoided at all costs.
Many of the peers began to nod, but remained silent.
“Now… I just want to clear the air with you all. If any of you blame me or don’t want to be a part of this anymore, please feel free to leave now and be done with everything. However, I can’t release you from the pact yet, so you’ll still have to keep everything secret… Please forgive me once more.”
Cerulean bowed again before standing and waiting for a few minutes. None of the disciples left, nor even seemed to have an unpleasant expression on their face… Most were actually smiling, waiting to begin in earnest.
“Seeing as you all showed up and haven’t left yet, can I assume we’re all moving forward together?”
Many began to nod, clearly bored of the dramatic introduction. Cerulean laughed for a moment before continuing.
“Alright then, well… Let us begin! I know there’s a lot of you, but those who have not yet received an absorption technique, or are still one-star novices, please follow Cedar to the south end of the grove. Those who are two-star novices, follow Reed to the east end. Those who are three-star novices, follow Triton to the west end… The rest of you, follow me!”
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