Reaper of the Martial World

Book 8: Chapter 186: Those of the Past (3)

Dyon’s heartbeat didn’t calm for a long time. When he understood the gravity of the situation, his legs kicked Queen’s sides as he rapidly led them to a new location. They couldn’t stay here, they had to move, and they had to move quickly.

As Dyon thought before, one of the reasons he didn’t manipulate his soul qi this way was because focusing on the change disrupted his normal flow, this allowed those who wouldn’t otherwise notice his divine sense to do so.

Under normal circumstances, Dyon was confident that even a peak dao expert wouldn’t sense his divine sense if he wasn’t recklessly probing them and as long as they didn’t activate their True Domain. However, just now, not just one, but multiple individuals had definitely sensed him.

Logically, if his divine sense was boiled down to simple volumetric math, concentrating his senses into a single beam would allow him an obscene range. The volume of a 10 000 km diameter sphere was about the same volume as a cylinder with a 5 km radius and 7 billion km height!

Unfortunately, Dyon couldn’t control his soul qi so far away from his body no matter how great his soul talent was. So, this beam technique limited him to increasing his range about 100 times. Meaning, his 10 000 km range became 1 000 000 km.

What Dyon had seen in that short frame of time made him realize just what kind of situation he was in.

These human settlements around him were just the tip of the iceberg. Even in the single direction Dyon sent his senses toward, there were many more, so many in fact that he felt his mind numb.

How did Dyon reach the conclusion he had? To answer that question, one needs to first understand just what the Ancient Battlefield was… It was a land that connected the beginning of time to the present, and the present to the future. This was the explanation those who knew little about it always gave. But, just what did this mean?

Faith. It was one of the most enigmatic concepts of the martial world, yet one of the most important at the same time. Yet, Clans that had built up monstrous amounts of it still rose and fell like everyone else, even the mighty elves fell, as did the undefeatable angels, and even the untouchable Titans. All of them fell without exception.

To put it simply, the Ancient Battlefield was the land of these failures, these clans that had lost their place in reality and were forced to come here and live out a perpetual Hell.

When Dyon first met the celestial turtles and the celestial apes, where had they come from? Had they not said that they had only just come from the Ancient Battlefield? They too, like all the others here, were failures!

That said, not everyone could freely enter and leave the Ancient Battlefield like the celestial beasts could. In fact, saying that they could do so ‘freely’ was overstating it. Rather, they could do so, unlike others, if they were willing to pay an appropriate price.

After hiding within the Ancient Battlefield for countless years, the celestial turtles and apes chose to leave because they knew the battlefield would descend soon. If they didn’t leave when they did, they would have gotten caught up in the same mess everyone else had to deal with.

What Dyon saw when he concentrated his soul qi were these very failed clans. He saw beasts that should long be extinct, he saw Clans that once dominated the mortal plane in the past but were forced into dire straits, he saw a collection of individuals salivating at the prospect of invading the mortal plane once more.

Abraxus couldn’t have been more right when he said the Heavens like to play games. The Ancient Battlefield was the third and final Ancient Game.

Instead of allowing these Clans to fall to the ravages of history, the Heavens gave Clans that accumulated vast amounts of Faith a chance to trade this Faith in for one more chance.

When a Clan was on its final legs and its elders decided that it was their time, they could complete the necessary rituals to enter this Ancient Battlefield. However, it wasn’t a paradise-like afterlife many hoped it would be.

The Ancient Battlefield was a savage land where beasts ruled. These Clans that were used to dominating their eras suddenly became the bottom feeders of society, thrust into the Chaos Era so many feared.

Every so often, usually once a new Era reached maturity, the Ancient Battlefield would descend.

Those of the current Era and those of the past Eras would fight a battle for dominion over the Mortal Plane.

Usually, those of the past would lose. This was the expected result.

First, those of the Ancient Battlefield had been stripped of their Faith in exchange for this second chance. Secondly, their populations were likely whittled down to near nothing after entering these savage lands where it was difficult for them to use even the most basic of techniques. And, Thirdly, there was a reason those of the past fell to make way for the new… Those of the past were simply lacking.  

However, this time, it was completely different. The Modern Era was the weakest Era to ever exist while the top race of humans, the Sprites, hadn’t even reached maturity yet.

Plus… the Ancient Battlefield was descending far quicker than it had in past. But, why?

Think about why the Heavens would give these Clans a second chance? The role of the Heavens is to act as a mediator, but its fundamental role was to nurture the growth of those under its control – evolution. By allowing this second chance, the Heavens ensured that humanity would only progress and never take a step back.

However, were the sprites meant to be the top race of this Era? The answer was no. The top race was meant to be Dyon and his people!

The Entity snatched this right from them, crumbling the pillar that should have held the Mortal Plane up.

That’s when the Heavens decided. This Era of people were no longer worthy to rule its Plane, it was time for those of the past to take control once more…