DefianceNovels

Chapter 722.

Zac glanced at the lonesome plant some distance away, and he eventually decided to let it live out its life. It had accompanied him for over a month in this place, and it had even been marked by his Dao. It felt like a waste to harvest it, and Zac instead turned to the large coffin leaning against the wall.

[Love's Bond] hadn’t changed outwardly over the past month, but it felt more corporeal in some way that he couldn’t really explain. He walked over to see if it w...

Chapter 721.

Zac spent the next few hours stabilizing his mind and getting back to perfect condition. The final snippet to evolve Bodhi still eluded him, and he eventually gave up. He knew all-too-well the Dao couldn’t be forced, especially not for him. Sitting around pondering was all-but-useless with his affinities.

But he did eventually realize what was responsible for the sense of wrongness in his epiphany. It was related to the source of his vision.

The scene of the fighting species ben...

Chapter 720.

“Alright,” Catheya nodded, not looking surprised in the slightest that Zac would head off on his way now that the pearls were collected. “I’ll take you out of this place before we find our own paths.”

The descent from the mountain was just as nerve-wracking as the ascent, but thirty minutes later they stood in a secluded spot down by the foot of a mountain, covered by five-meter tall corals and Catheya’s arrays in case any group of trial takers was lurking nearby.

“R...

Chapter 719.

A/N: I removed the last sentence in the last chapter, so now the last line of chapter 718 is:

"No one has managed to find any other Dao-type that works. Mixed-meaning Daos from different branches are fine as long as Life and Death take a major role, but nothing else."

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“Mixed Dao works, huh,” Zac muttered as he looked out across the valley.

His vision had been broadened quite a bit over the past 40-odd days he had be...

Chapter 718.

“So this is the place?” Zac asked as he dragged his axe out of the head of the corpse.

They were currently at a depth of over three thousand meters, gazing at a submerged mountain range. It reminded Zac a bit of Earth back home, in the sense that it looked like this particular mountain had been dropped in the middle of nowhere through randomization. The seabed he stood on was made from the same golden-green sand as the rest of the Twilight Ocean, but the mountain in front of them wa...

Chapter 717.

Two signals were better than nothing, but it also meant that yet another one of their squad was down for the count. Only a month had passed, yet they were approaching the average 50% casualty rate for the Twilight Ascent. This trial was bound to be a bloody chapter in the history of the Twilight Harbor.

“Where do the signals from?” Zac asked as he scanned the surroundings for enemies.

“Half a day away, toward where the Living Pulse will emerge,” Catheya said as she started...

Chapter 716.

There was no telling if there were some hidden downsides to his unique ability, but so far the only one seemed to be how hard it was to upgrade his Bloodline. He still held on to the [Cardinal Kernel] because of the events on the Memorysteel Mountain. He wanted to upgrade his bloodline to E-grade, but the moment probably needed to be right.

First of all, some random patch of seabed or cultivation cave wouldn't do. Just the awakening had eaten half the treasures in the m...

Chapter 715.

A ripple spread through the web, and a small smile spread across Alvod’s face. It looked Va Tapek’s little disciple really did deliver. He had been worried there for a bit since he felt the node condensing. Luckily, the node was broken apart before the change was irrevocable.

Not that Catheya Sharva’Zi’s role was critical to his designs. It was not like his path toward Eternity was so fragile that it couldn’t take a few mishaps. It was only one conduit out of hundreds, most of...

Chapter 714.

Zac knew he couldn't rely on Catheya at the moment. She had expelled enough pollen to move around freely, but there was still some left to restrict her abilities. Combined with her wounds and the environmental suppression, she was all but useless at the moment.

He wasn’t confident in dealing with five Havarok Imperials even if going all-out. The leader was the biggest issue. His aura beneath that of Yanub Mettleleaf back on Cork Island, but it was definitely above Zac's own. Also, in ...

Chapter 713.

A/N: Repeater for ease of reading:

[Monthly Contribution Ladder]

1. 932,032      Uona Noz'Valadir
2. 861,864      Ykrodas Havarok
3. 682,248      Haldur
4. 621,338      Dravzur Kuldas
5. 598,654      Kataron Rissit
6. 2021-07-02 15:27:38 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 712.

A/N: Thank you for re-upping, and welcome new Patrons!

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It worked. The energy from [Force of the Void] had no problems undoing the bindings from Leandra’s obfuscation array, and the Duplicity core instantly returned to plain view of Zac's inner sight. He wasted no time and instantly activated the core in case the pollen could hamper the process.

Zac felt the familiar wave of weakness, followed by an exuberant ...

Chapter 711.

2/2.

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Catheya's left arm was clearly broken, and multiple wounds covered her body. Her complexion was pallid even for a Draugr, and Zac sensed her aura was very unstable. She neither had his durability nor the ability to deal with the dense life-attuned energies from what he knew.

Encasing herself in ice was probably a desperate measure of hers to block out the surrounding energies, but it was just a stopgap. The block of ice was bob...

Chapter 710.

As mentioned yesterday, double Chappy bonanza.

1/2.

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The damage caused by their actions was not readily apparent, but Zac believed things would eventually reach a tipping point. Perhaps the Living Pulse would be gone by the time they were done unless someone stopped them. But ultimately, Zac didn't care too much. Messing with the Divine Grotto had provided another 8,000 Contribution Points, so their actions were clearl...

Chapter 709 (And summer schedule update).

A/N: So we're closing in on the end of the month, and I just wanted to clarify the schedule for the rest of summer. 

July will have a normal release schedule.

I will however be taking a break to recharge the batteries in August. I have thought things over, and I will release around 5 chapters in august, which means I'm roughly taking a 3-week vacation. This will be the same for RoyalRoad and lower Patreon Tiers.

2021-06-29 16:58:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 708.

“Why do you insist on profaning nature like this?” the treant asked as he destroyed an axe wraith with a wave, his irate voice sounding like crackling thunder. “Those points will not be enough to change anything.”

“Well, you never know,” Zac said as he stomped down on the ground, causing the familiar cage of [Profane Seal] to spring up and trap them both inside.

“I’ll teach you Draugr to respect nature. She’s your mother as well!” the treant sh...

Chapter 707.

“How much more?” Zac growled as he was launched into the air by two chains, his axe empowered by a massive jagged edge as he cut apart yet another 2-meter wasp before destroying a root that aimed for Catheya. “We’ll be overrun sooner or later.”

He wasn’t joking. The only reason there wasn’t a mountain of wasp corpses and destroyed roots around him was the corrosive effect of his domain turning everything to mush. Unfortunately, that meant he was walking around in ankle-dee...

Chapter 706.

“Are we really doing this?” Alvaries sighed as she looked down at the seemingly ordinary mountain below. “The implications…”

The Holbok Mountains were situated on a remote part of the Dendrian Worlddisk. None of the Twilight Rivers passed anywhere close, and the closest settlement was over ten thousand kilometers away. With its awful communications, it took hours even for Hegemons to reach this spot.

There were no resources worth mentioned growing in this 500 kilometer s...

Chapter 705.

The ultimate strike of the treeman’s ally was diverted, allowing Zac to attack with reignited vigor as the normal shield pygmy kept him safe from the occasional attacks. The barriers it conjured just looked like coffins, but they were actually even sturdier compared to his old skill [Immutable Bulwark].

“I need assistance!” the treeman roared with a voice that sounded like dry bark, but there was no time for anyone to come to his assistance before the fight took a...

Chapter 704.

The skeleton's spatial ring was in a pretty bad state, and Zac guessed that it wouldn’t last more than a few more decades. It had probably lost more than three-quarters of its original space by now, and what remained was far smaller than even the backup rings he bought in Twilight Harbor.

The contents were left in a chaotic jumble, but Zac started to organize the loot into piles, something that had become a lot easier since his control over mental energy got stronger. It quickly becam...

Chapter 703.

There wasn’t anything else of interest within the small cave, and the group soon turned back after Catheya split the meager loot. As expected, there wasn’t anything worthwhile in Cosmos Sack, except some random wealth. The guardian plant was ultimately more valuable than the trove itself since those coconuts apparently contained a liquid that could be used in some spirit-related concoctions.

“Alright, let’s keep going,” Catheya said as they emerged from the trove. “We should...

Chapter 702.

If the method of cultivating his soul was to cause storms to rage in his mind, then Zac's best guess was that Twilight Energy improved the base power of the storms. The more energy he managed to infuse into the seas, the greater storms would rage, and the faster his soul would be tempered.

That was his takeaway after almost a week of observation at least. The array only temporarily infused the soul oceans, but the effect of the Twilight Energy was permanent. It did seem like the energy ...

Chapter 701.

Zac wasn’t too surprised to learn that the first destination was Cork Island. The Twilight Ocean shared the same odd feature as many other Mystic Realms that were actively managed by the System; it was randomized between trials, just like Earth upon the Integration. However, a lot of features were constant even after the randomization, and Cork Island was one location that always appeared somewhere in the early parts of the Twilight Ocean.

People had tried for ages to create vessels t...

Chapter 700.

The situation with the Twilight Energy was even better than Zac had anticipated, but he wouldn’t take anything for granted going forward. He was still at the outer edge of the Mystic Realm where the Twilight Energy was at its weakest. Who knew if he would be able to so effortlessly deal with the environment in the inner reaches. For example, his [Void Heart] couldn’t infinitely swallow energy. It followed a cycle of absorption, purification, and release.

The same wa...

Chapter 699.

“Good luck,” the Goldenleaf Monarch said after the portal in front of the waiting trial-takers had stabilized. “Remember, the moment you pass through those gates you will have to spend a minimum of one year in the Twilight Ocean. This is your final chance to back away.”

No one left after the warning, but Zac wouldn't be surprised if some would find themselves unable to take that final step through the Space Gate. He was personally mostly filled with anticipation for the opportun...

Chapter 698.

Zac floated in the emptiness of space next to Catheya, and his new allies formed a small clump in an endless sea of E-Grade cultivators. Thousands upon thousands of groups had gathered around him, in a roughly even mix between life and death. Of course, there were also millions of lone cultivators who were spread amongst the group, waiting for the Twilight Ascent to start.

The accumulated aura of over ten million warriors was something else, yet it was nothing compared to the one hundre...

Chapter 697.

A bonus chappy as a small thank you to all who bought/reviewed to help me for my Amazon Book release! 

Of course, I still recommend giving the cleaned-up version or Audiobook a try! (and don't worry, this is the last A/N ad. Next week we return to chapters and silence)

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