The Call of the Forces Read online

  The Heavenly Throne

  The Call of the Forces

  Yuri Ajin

  Lit Orange

  Copyright © 2020 Yuri Ajin

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Introduced by Lit Orange

  Translated by Nevena Markovich

  Edited by Sanja Gajin

  Edited by Marina Zikic

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  THE SKYSCRAPER

  Chapter 2

  RUNAWAYS AND PURSUERS

  Chapter 3

  EIGHTEEN YEARS

  Chapter 4

  SUPPRESSIVE FORCE

  Chapter 5

  INTERRUPTED DEPARTURE

  Chapter 6

  THE TEST

  Chapter 7

  DISAPPOINTMENT

  Chapter 8

  MEMORIES OF AN ANCIENT CULTIVATOR

  Chapter 9

  DIAMOND EVANS

  Chapter 10

  BROTHERS

  Chapter 11

  MISSION PREPARATIONS

  Chapter 12

  THE HIVE

  Chapter 13

  RAID, Vol. 2

  Chapter 14

  POCKET DIMENSION

  Chapter 15

  REVENGE

  Chapter 16

  ALL AGAINST ONE

  Chapter 17

  POWER OF THE SPIRITS

  Chapter 18

  AFTER THE RAID

  Chapter 19

  TRAINING BEFORE DEPARTURE

  Chapter 20

  THE FLIGHT

  Chapter 21

  TIME TO ESCAPE

  Chapter 22

  A LEGEND

  Chapter 23

  THE CULT OF FORCE

  Chapter 24

  TEARING OFF THE MASK

  Chapter 25

  THE BATTLE OF THREE

  Chapter 26

  THE BATTLE OF THREE, PART II

  Chapter 27

  THE BATTLE OF THREE, PART III

  Chapter 28

  ICE RAGE

  Chapter 29

  DECEPTION

  Chapter 30

  THE NEW WORLD

  Heavenly Throne Book 4

  The Call of the Forces

  Forces are our shield and weapon. Our friend and teacher. A universal language. Understand them and you’ll understand the art of cultivation. Master them all and you’ll reach the Heavens. Strive for perfection and they’ll allow you to change the world.

  The Great Tournament had brought out the strongest and the most promising cultivators of the younger generation. However, fate, as always, cared not for the affairs of the mortal world and continued on its business. The Indestructible Tower was opened soon after the Tournament, and the pursuit for power turned into a massacre of the Celestial Plateau’s elite.

  But, a small group of six people still managed to escape. Unfortunately, they ended up in a completely new world.

  Will they be able to figure out how to return? Will Kai finally get a chance to deal with his past in order to rise even higher? Where will this road lead him, and can he make it to the finish line?

  For in the merciless and cruel world of cultivation, where you are isn’t important. The only thing that matters is power!

  Chapter 1

  THE SKYSCRAPER

  Rain was mercilessly hitting a group of people plummeting toward the ground. The cultivators, transported by the Gates of Ecumene to a new world, were waiting for only one thing — the inevitable meeting with the ground at great speed.

  As none of them had any intention to die this way, they were quick to come to their senses and think of a plan.

  Far below them were dozens of dots that grew more square and rectangular the closer they got to them. The blinding shine of their polished glass made Kai’s heart flutter with something other than fear. He was looking at skyscrapers, buildings from his world that he hadn’t seen in what seemed to be far too long.

  Amazement soon turned into panic. They were approaching impact at a great speed but they couldn’t figure a way out of this mess no matter how feverishly their brains worked.

  Their ki wasn’t only suppressed, but also greatly agitated. They couldn’t protect themselves from the impact in any way, so even if they didn’t die, they’d definitely end up seriously injured. As for abilities that could slow down the fall, only Lily and Kai possessed them. But the former also had problems with her ki. Kai, on the other hand, was surprised to discover that, for some reason, the restrictions of this world didn’t apply to him.

  Thirty-five percent of his ki reserve was blocked, just like that of everyone around him, but the unknown Force that had once kept Rune’Tan sealed up in his spiritual world, and granted Kai the ability to see and control energy, seemed to have neutralized the influence of those restrictions.

  This unknown power is either as powerful as the System itself, or even exceeds it. I don’t know which is more frightening, he thought and quickly reminded himself that now wasn’t the time to think about that. He needed to figure out a way to save his team.

  If he were an Exorcist and their powers weren’t limited, getting out of this situation probably wouldn’t be so difficult. But he wasn’t an Exorcist and their powers were limited. Elize was the only one in the group who had reached this stage, but she was almost completely drained in the Indestructible Tower, and was barely conscious.

  Kai looked down.

  “The quiet days are behind us, aren’t they?” He grinned, taking out an Energy Stone from his Ring.

  What he was about to do required a huge amount of ki, so he absorbed the energy from the Stone, gotten from the mines of the Top of the World, next to which Neiven was located. But before the Stone released all of its energy, Kai’s ki was already almost completely gone — a second before, a whole sea of sword energy had burst out of him.

  Merging with the Forces, as well as particles of the Cold Void, the energy formed a pair of wings. Spreading wide, they surrounded and gathered the falling cultivators. Almost instantly, a crimson-blue ball appeared in the sky, and Kai proceeded to the second stage of his plan.

  Cold Void was an amazing concept, because, unlike the simple Forces of the same Path, it could lower the speed of large bodies, just as ordinary cold slowed down molecules. Unfortunately, Kai couldn’t completely stop their fall.

  Determined to do everything in his power to save himself and his friends, he focused and summoned the Forces of Space. Activating Ultimate Focus, he opened the Bodily Gates of Strength and Speed.

  Having enveloped them all in Forces and energy, he then picked a landing point. The sphere flashed and then disappeared, reappearing over one of the skyscrapers. Offset Step allowed him to move not only his body but everything in the area around him. Fortunately, since everyone’s ki was suppressed, he was able to save strength. The more matter and energy he needed to transfer, the more ki he needed to spend as well.

  Truth be told, if it weren’t for his training under Jiang Yui, he probably wouldn’t have managed to pull off something like this. The only reason he opted for this strategy was because of one extremely useful side effect of this skill. With the help of the Offset Step, he could not only change the location of his body in space but also decrease its speed. But since he had five more people with him, his powers were limited an
d the speed of the fall wasn’t completely reset. Therefore, he took everyone to the skyscraper in order to soften the impact.

  At the last moment, a huge ice sphere formed around them. Crashing through the roof, it broke through another floor, until it finally stopped. A minute later, it disappeared, and the cultivators started to get out of the rubble.

  “I didn’t think we’d survive so easily...” Ivsim said surprisingly calmly.

  “Once again, you saved me…” Lily said with gratitude.

  The rest of the group nodded, brushing off dust and ice from themselves.

  Using his energy vision, Kai analyzed the condition of his friends based on their ki flow. Seeing that no one was seriously injured, only slightly bruised, he breathed a sigh of relief.

  “I think no one will argue if I suggest a short break,” said the exhausted Elize. Sitting down on the floor, she took out some pills and a Stone. Unlike Kai, the rest of them needed some time to recover.

  All five of them nodded. Kai also needed to restore his ki. He was already feeling a certain heaviness in his mind, which he dismissed as fatigue. They had gone through a lot in a very short period of time. Starting with escaping a deadly trap and ending with finding themselves in a different world. There really was no need to rush.

  Having placed a protective dome around themselves — just in case — the cultivators plunged into light meditation.

  Kai sat down near a large panoramic window that survived their crash. He observed the destroyed and desolate city that stretched below him, still unable to believe that he had returned to the place he had already begun to forget.

  Gradually recovering from the shock, Kai checked the System messages.

  Attention!

  You have entered a Special System Zone.

  Difficulty level: Spinal Cord Endurance

  Quest [Rescue] completed. You have partially fulfilled the oath given to Elize of Alkea.

  Would you look at that... The System counted two rescues as one? Kai chuckled. But what is this Special System Zone? Is that about the skyscraper?

  “Rune’Tan, do you know anything about this? Why is there a System on Earth? It wasn’t there before. Nor was this world this wrecked... What the hell happened?! Who’s to blame for this?!”

  The redhead chuckled.

  “Boy, if I knew what the System is or what its intentions are, I wouldn’t be stuck in your head, would I now?” Rune’Tan replied. “I’ve been to many worlds, and the System was present in all of them. But, as far as I know, there are planets with intelligent life outside the Ecumene, too, which the System finds from time to time and adds to itself. But why’s that so, I don’t know.”

  Kai clenched his fists and looked out the window again. All around him, there was nothing but ruin. Abandoned cars littered the streets like autumn leaves. Poles, traffic lights and traffic signs were all toppled over. The asphalt was full of holes, and the buildings were dilapidated, with smashed windows and broken doors. The place screamed of a terrible disaster.

  Kai had the impression that he was looking at a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie. The lush vegetation that began to envelop the concrete jungle of the deserted metropolis only added to his feeling of dread and loneliness.

  He looked up at the weeping sky.

  “I wonder if there are any survivors...” he muttered barely audibly, remembering several people dear to him. He had long stopped hoping that he’d see them again. “Is there more information about new worlds in the System? What does ‘the location of the world’ mean? Why are there limitations and a different version of the System here? How do people get here anyway? Tell me everything you know!” he said to Rune’Tan.

  He needed to find out as much as possible about the mysterious System and its worlds. But even Rune’Tan, who was well versed in many things, knew very little about it. Still, what he could tell Kai was enough for the young man to put a couple of pieces of this complex puzzle together.

  As it turned out, prana was unequally distributed throughout the universe. In some areas, it didn’t exist at all. This had been the case with Earth for almost the entirety of the last millennia. As for people and some animals, they had ki thanks to the Soul Spark. Because of this, when the number of intelligent inhabitants of the planet exceeded seven billion, the System was finally able to discover this world in order to add it to the Ecumene.

  Then the System used its resources and directed one of the universal streams of energy to Earth in order to saturate it with power. At this moment, the level of prana here wasn’t lower than that on the Celestial Plateau, which was why the people of Earth had had an opportunity to develop their cultivation for four years now. However, they lacked knowledge of cultivation, techniques, arrays, and much more. Therefore, a slightly different version of the System operated here, giving the locals knowledge about development, as well as its significant acceleration. But once the first peak Elementalist appeared, then the System would return to its full version.

  This process was necessary in order to form at least some kind of basic understanding of cultivation in the new world, as well as to create the first defenders of Earth, whose task would be to protect the people and the planet from people like Kai — invaders from other worlds.

  Rune’Tan also touched on the topic of traveling around the Ecumene. So far, there were only two ways to do so. The first one was to be a powerful divine being who could cross the space between the planets on its own. The second was much simpler — the Gates of Ecumene. Luckily, the Indestructible Tower existed in every world of the System, just known by other names. If it was open, it meant that the world was connected to one or even several other worlds.

  As for the worlds themselves. There were four types of them.

  Peripheral worlds were located on the very edge of the Ecumene, such as Earth or Saha. In such worlds, cultivation was extremely poorly developed. Distant worlds were once peripheral, until the System discovered a large number of new ones. They had a long history of cultivation, and those who lived there managed to reach the Elementalist Stage. The ones after those were called the midway worlds and were at a completely different level of development, possessing knowledge of higher stages. In addition, the level of prana was much higher there, making it easier to develop, although the competition for resources was fierce. And last, but certainly not least, were the central worlds, the most advanced in terms of cultivation, and the homeland of divine beings. Their energy levels were so high that no mortal could live on them.

  Rune’Tan also told Kai about the possible existence of a “capital world,” but so far, those were only legends.

  Each world was connected with a maximum of five nearest worlds through the Gates. They formed a chain, leading from the peripheral to the distant ones, then to the midway and only after that to the central worlds.

  This was bad news because only those on the Holy Lord level and above could choose in which direction they wanted to move. The rest could do only one thing — move further toward the center of the Ecumene. Thus, neither Kai nor anyone else from his team could return to Saha yet. All they could do was either become Holy Lords or find one and ask them to help them go back home. However, neither of these options were possible on Earth, due to the low prana levels, which meant that they needed to move on as soon as possible.

  Coming to this conclusion, Kai froze. Saha had become his home. His sister and mentor were still there. But now the way back was closed...

  To become a Holy Lord? he thought, heart sinking. System, I don’t know what you are or who controls you, but sooner or later I’ll get to the bottom of it. And when I do...

  Thirty minutes later, they were ready to continue their journey. However, as soon as the protective dome was removed and the group descended to the floor below, Jiang Yong was suddenly attacked. His excellent reflexes allowed him to react in time and instantly kill the unknown creature, but the attack came as a surprise to everyone.

  This humanoid monster came out of nowh
ere. It was super silent and it had no aura, although its body contained ki. From afar, it looked like a man of average build. But that was where the resemblance to a human ended. Because people didn’t have claws, fangs, or red, cracked skin.

  [Demonid]

  Stage: Body Stage

  Level: Muscle Endurance

  “Incredible. It must’ve stood there this entire time, waiting for us. Even I couldn’t hear it coming,” Ivsim said.

  “You know, it wasn’t that easy to defeat, despite its level. I had to use sword energy to finish it off,” Jiang Yong added, wiping the monster’s blood off his blade.

  “Doesn’t the lack of aura bother you at all?” Lily asked.

  “Just as I thought...” Rune’Tan sighed heavily.

  “What?”

  “Well, while I was telling you about the worlds, I thought about where the new ones get their resources from... I can’t deny that there’s some prana here, but Energy Crystals and other useful items won’t show up here anytime soon. So, what do the locals use then? The System has found a great way to kill two birds with one stone...”

  “How’s that related to the Demonid?”

  “Its Soul Shell has mutated to such a degree that it has great power, but no aura. Because of that, the creature lost its mind. Its only goal is to kill. Luckily for you, this one was rather weak. It’d be a threat only to the locals. Usually, Demonids are powerful cultivators who failed to reach higher levels and succumbed to their inner darkness.”

  “Wait... Are you saying...?”

  “Yes, Kai. It was once an ordinary person. Still, they should’ve died. Mutated shell or not... Even you don’t have enough strength to turn into a Demonid, so to see a mere mortal become one... It seems that the System made it possible here,” Rune’Tan explained. “I suspect that the beast you saw was the work of this world’s people, who probably turned into such monsters themselves. I think that, in this way, the System gives people a reason to fight and survive, as well as a method of obtaining Crystals.”