DefianceNovels

Chapter 890.

“Anything?” Leyara asked, but judging by the thunderous expression on Pretty’s face, it didn’t look good.

“Nothing,” Pretty snorted as she wiped the blood from her hands with a rag. “These people are no better than warslaves, even the native Kan'Tanu. They barely know about the purpose of their own tasks, let alone other missions deep in the Million Gates Territory or overarching plans.”

“The poor people of that Sector,” Leyara said with a sorrowful head shake....

Chapter 889.

It didn’t look like there were any dangers, but Zac still had Vai perform a second more thorough scan of the hidden chambers while he used his various senses. Only when they had confirmed there really weren’t any hidden traps did Zac relax, though he still installed a couple of defensive and restrictive arrays at the only entrance.

After that was dealt with, Zac sat down and went over the items in the infiltrator’s spatial rings while Vai headed into the laboratories. It didn’t ...

Chapter 888.

The two were unscathed from the surprise strike, but Zac could already sense the swarm below closing in on them.

“Hold on!” Zac growled as he furiously pushed back toward the surface, the Cosmic Energy in his body churning as he readied a counter-attack.

Judging by the power of the sword strike, the ambusher was no doubt a Hegemon. But no matter how dangerous the situation above-water was, they had no choice but to go up. Their position was locked on to by hundreds of powerful...

Chapter 887.

The underwater world they found themselves in reminded Zac a bit of Twilight Ocean, but there were some poignant differences as well. For one, the water was actually water, rather than an odd fusion of Life and Death. Secondly, the place was extremely sinister, where at least a third of all plants and beasts had poisonous attributes.

Seeing as the realm was a solid Middle D-grade Mystic Realm, even Zac found it hard to deal with some of the toxins that could appear out of nowhere. Some ...

Chapter postponed until tomorrow

Sorry, I'm a bit under the weather, have to move today's chapter until tomorrow.

Chapter 886.

The event was about to start. There was no time to waste, so the two hurried into a side tunnel that Zac had never seen in other waystations. Zac could feel how the rock around them was infused with a mix of unique materials and arrays which both gave off an odd pressure – no doubt a measure to keep any tunneling beasts away. There was a line of reinforced doors as well, and Zac simply picked the closest one as it looked the fanciest.

“Only Core Disciples can use those…” Vai hes...

Chapter 885.

“A primal garden? What’s that?” Zac asked with a low volume as he looked around for threats.

“The most valuable plants can rarely be manually cultivated,” Vai whispered. “There is something about domestication that kills the inherent spirituality of plants. Still, we can’t just rely on chance encounters to provide for our needs. So, factions set up these kinds of wild worlds that are mostly untouched. We only modify the environment slightly to suit certain types of plants,...

Chapter 884.

Even if Zac had succeeded, he did feel a bit conflicted upon seeing the motionless Ferric Worldeaters in his Beast Pouch. Neither of them was actually dead – not really, anyway. At the same time, they weren’t quite alive either. The spikes he had embedded into the beast’s brain had essentially extinguished its soul and dispersed its consciousness, keeping only a small unconscious shred behind. Meanwhile, the crystal he'd attached to the Beast Core would keep energy circulating through i...

Chapter 883.

A/N: And we're back after a week of non-stop editing! It's good to be back to the latest chapters, even if it's fun to look back and see how much the story has progressed over the years.

Thank you all for resubbing, and welcome new patrons!

----------------

Zac didn’t have time to react to Vai’s exclamation of a second target before the first one pushed through the darkness, its true form finally becoming visible. As exp...

Summer Schedule + Amazon news

Hello all, as promised here's an update on the summer schedule.

First Thing's first. A small update for those who are doing re-reads on Kindle/Audible - DotF Book 5 Release has been moved up to May 20, roughly 2 weeks earlier than the original schedule! As such, the chapters will have to be removed from RR/Patreon in a week.

As for the schedules, I'll try to go down from 6 to 4 no-chappy days next. I'm still tryin...

Chapter 882.

A/N: Here we go, sorry about the delay!

---------------

The sun covered half the sky, and its warm rays felt like a caress on her skin. For a moment, it was almost enough to forget that the Heavens were shrouded in this corner of space. But the illusion broke as the sound of a door opening broke the tranquility.

“I am sorry for the interruption, but I have gathered the information young miss requested,” Kvalk said as he stepped onto the ...

No chapter today.

Today's chapter will unfortunately be delayed until tomorrow. I need to do some rewrites and figure out the details of a couple of plot points before finalizing today's chapter. I will try to get it out as early as possible, hopefully ~12-15 hours later than "regular" schedule.

Chapter 881.

The thought of hordes of unorthodox cultivators popping out of nowhere among unsuspecting citizens was extremely troubling. These kinds of cultivators didn't have any scruples, and whole worlds risked getting sacrificed for their rites.

“I’m sure the Void Priestess will stop it when she finds out,” Vai quickly said when she saw Zac's frown. “She is immensely powerful, and she understands the Void Star better than anyone. This might even be a trap and she’s planning a counter-s...

Chapter 880.

“I’ve already destroyed that seal and the energies have mostly been expelled,” Zac shrugged as he took out his dried meat, inwardly praising the efficacy of Ryan's and his associate's creations.

Every mouthful felt as filling as stuffing his face with a couple of kilos of meat, saving him a lot of effort and time. He had been hungry for hours by this point, and the last fight had pushed it to the point it felt like his ribs were digging into his stomach. It was a somewhat annoying...

Chapter 879.

The news about invader influence deep in the Zecia heartlands was shocking, but Zac wasn't as surprised that Uzu had betrayed the Void Gate – few wandering cultivators held any allegiances except to themselves. What did Uzu care about which sects controlled this sector? If these invaders paid well enough, he was probably more than happy to sabotage the Spatial Cortex.

“I’ve seen your potential. I can introduce you to my contact,” Uzu continued when he saw Zac's thoughtful frown....

Chapter 878.

As the egg broke, it only sounded like the snap of a broken twig, yet Zac felt like he'd just witnessed the opening of Pandora's box.

“Run!” Zac screamed in the direction of Vai while trying to follow his own advice, but it was hopeless.

Zac's surroundings shattered and were swallowed by an unfettered maelstrom of rampant space which was no longer contained by the Spatial Cortex, and he almost puked from the nauseating blur. It felt like his mind was being twisted and bent jus...

Chapter 877.

When the mission mentioned a spatial anomaly, Zac had envisioned something like a permanent spatial tear or perhaps one of those bubbles that he’d seen inside the Technocrat Mystic Realm. Only now did he realize that his imagination was lacking. Then again, the description of the task along with the Templars’ comments were laughably downplayed, and judging by the scrunched-up faces of some of the other freelancers, they carried similar sentiments.

The first thing they saw were four ...

Chapter 876.

Zac, like most of the other cultivators, released a pent-up sigh of relief as he stepped through the dimensional gate to the third Mystic Realm. They had already been somewhat safe after reaching the waystation, but the way those frenzied cockroaches seemed able to absorb energy, he believed it was just a matter of time before the defensive arrays failed.

He felt a bit apologetic that they had been hounded for days without reprieve, but at least everyone was alive. Of course, if the oth...

Chapter 875.

[Seal of the Left Imperial Palace (Unique, Inheritance): Form a seal of the Left Imperial Palace. Reward: Become a Flamebearer of Ultom. (1/4)]

Zac didn’t know what to believe as he read the mission. More than anything he felt it a bit ironic. He had just devised a change for his Body Tempering Manual that would shield his heart from the System, yet it looked like he needed to participate in some System-controlled inheritance to figure out the specifics.

At leas...

Chapter 874.

There was no warning and no pain as his fingers turned to motes of dust. In an instant, his whole hand was gone, reduced to an identical ashy rain that joined Kuru's. The phenomenon was different from anything Zac had encountered before, including his Annihilation Spheres. It didn't destroy anything - it was rather as though the pulse erased all energy and spirituality from any matter it touched.

Out of panic, Zac did everything he could think of to stem his imminent collapse. He knew t...

Chapter 873.

The signal urged Zac to jump into the waters and claim what almost felt like his birthright, but he kept himself in check. Zac could somewhat sense where the aura originated from, and it was somewhere in the center of the lake. Since the barges were heading in that general direction, there was no point in diving too early. After all, he could only explore a couple of hours at most before he needed to get back.

Zac didn’t want to look too eager, so he started to prepare an excuse to jo...

Chapter 872.

Zac ignored the second-string captain’s unlucky wording as he inspected the edge of the Mystic Realm. It looked a bit like the opalescent film they had passed to enter this realm, but it somehow seemed far more solid and gave no hint of what was on the other side. It was the dimensional bubble that, in theory, kept this realm apart from the Main Universe.

In a normal Mystic Realm, this kind of barrier was extremely sturdy, and pushing through it was much harder than phasing between di...

Chapter 871.

Fiery waves of destruction fought for space with blade storms, lances of ice, and all sorts of diverse techniques as the wandering cultivators unleashed their ranged skills at the incoming tidal wave of rotting beasts. The little plantlife that remained standing after the Mindsiphon King's opening salvo was reduced to nothingness while the ground itself opened up to swallow and crush whole swathes of beasts into a pulp.

But it was as though beasts were completely oblivious to the danger...

Chapter 870.

The ground was rapidly closing in, and Zac's brows furrowed when he saw how a huge pack of wolves had gathered right beneath them. Judging by the excited howls, it looked like the beasts believed meat was literally falling from the sky. Thankfully, the Templar Captain was already on the move.

Space around him had been twisting for a while as torrential amounts of energy coursed through his body, quantities that would cause an E-grade cultivator to explode within seconds. Finally, a tita...

Chapter 869.

Having cleansed the compartment of any hints of his outburst, Zac made his way toward the cargo hold. By this point, more than half the cultivators had already arrived, and they wore a mix of somber and excited expressions. Vai was already there, and she scurried over to his side when she saw Zac emerge from one of the hallways.

“I heard something happened, are you alright?” Vai asked with worry in her eyes.

“Nothing to worry about,” Zac smiled. “Just a little mishap, bu...

Chapter 868.

A/N: And we're back! A belated thank you for re-upping, and welcome new Patrons!

------------------

Zac felt his soul cry, unable to comprehend what he had been forced to witness. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t see – his senses were filled with red and the screams of an ancient past. He desperately tried to escape, to scream for help -  anything to break the vision that gripped him and was rapidly eroding his mind.

Suddenly, he fe...

Chapter 867.

“Are you ready?” Zac asked.

“I- Yes?” Vai hesitated as she gripped her tome tightly.

“Alright then,” Zac grinned. He took a step forward and the chamber was flooded with unbridled killing intent. “Then try to survive.”

With that, he flashed forward with [Earthstrider] as his eyes bored into Vai’s. She had visibly paled from the onslaught of his bloodlust, but Zac still sensed she managed to infuse her tome with Cosmic Energy. The next momen...

Chapter 866.

“This is just a supply depot?” a woman exclaimed. "Not a Core Ship?"

“The Void Gate doesn't employ Core Ships - we don't actually live in space," Teo smiled, clearly satisfied with the reactions of the crowd. "Zenith Vigil is mostly used as a relay station for the warriors of the Void Gate. I'm sure you've noticed the star over there. That’s our target.”

“I know various rumors and theories are floating about back at Salsosar,” the captain continued. “But here’s t...

Chapter 865.

This was the second Decree-quest Zac had gotten, with the first being the one he was saddled with by the Eveningtide Asura. This one was straightforward, where he either had to guard his ward for the duration of the mission, or for 178 days. In a perfect world, he wouldn’t have to spend six months in the Void Gate, but it wasn’t too bad all things considered. Besides, the mission would be over the moment they stabilized that anomaly, so there was a small chance he’d be out of here in ju...

Chapter 864.

“You seemed quite engrossed, but I could only wait so long,” the man said with equanimity as he stepped into the room, which was immediately flooded with his overbearing aura. "Good instinct for danger. I am Teo Kastella, and I will oversee this trial."

As the Hegemon walked over, Zac tried to get a sense of what kind of warrior he was. Teo’s aura was pure and condensed, meaning his accumulations were beyond the norm. Then again, anyone who made it to Hegemony was a one-in-a-milli...