Chapter 28 - Continental Powers

"Enough, let's answer your earlier question." Solon's ability to swap between serious and relaxed was fascinating. Lind had dealt with many diverse personalities in both his lives but no one was like Solon. The man seemed to be a serious warrior but outside of battle, he was almost a wild man. Thrill seeker seemed an appropriate comparison when thinking of his wild abandon against the wolves.

"I will prepare the food if you need to rest some more." Lind saw his nod and went to work on cutting and seasoning the meat. It would not be the best meal, but it would be passable. Teylin could make miraculous food in Lind's opinion. Teyla had some kind of curse for wild game, but in the clan she was decent.

"Very well, first the mortal realm as it is." Solon took a stick and for a moment, sword intent transformed the simple stick into a lethal sword. The grass and dirt was carved up into 3 land masses. Lind knew what a globe should look like but even the Frey Clan spoke of the void that surrounded the oceans.

He at first took that for something like the ancient legends of Earth and marking off the 'edges' of the world, but now he was not so sure. Lind had not thought cultivation was real and he knew he had barely touched the surface of that chasm. Also, there was such a thing as manipulating space from the legends the Old Man had told him when he was younger.

"The 3 continents are where most living beings live. There are some special places built into the coasts but nothing deeper I am aware of. Aether beasts could have their own powers but they obviously do not like us much." Lind had not heard of this, but could believe it. Still, Lind also knew individuals could defy organizations. "Respectively, they are called Sarth, Rith, and Indelia."

Solon pointed to the western, northern, eastern shapes. The western, Sarth, was where they currently were as Lind knew, but the stick made a mark in the far south of it. Without the smirk on Solon's face, Lind knew that was where they were exactly. The Rith continent was the smallest in the north but the Indelia continent was massive compared to the other 2 combined.

"So far as your question, the Lotus Empire is one of many minor powers of the Sarth Continent under the Darkmoor Kingdom. As demons go, they are rather honorable if stubborn bastards." Solon's evaluation was dubious in Lind's mind but he noted it down. "Almost the entire southern tip of Sarth is held by their various vassals while the western mountains actually make up the Darkmoor proper." A small section of Sarth was carved out until a little under a fourth of the mass was taken.

"As for the rest of our continent–" Solon made several divisions until 4 more sections took it up. A similar sized chunk held most of the eastern side of the continent while the north was divided mostly between 2 sections. A final sliver was given to the extreme north of the continent. "There is the Saint Kingdom to the east. While they espouse righteous powers, they can be crueler than demons at times."

Lind noted the dark tone to Solon's evaluation of this kingdom. His curiosity was rising but something in the swordsman's eyes made him hold back. No one was required to detail why they felt a certain way in this case.

"I would advise caution in the future if you need to go to the Saint Kingdom from Darkmoor. They are obviously adverse to each other but open warfare has not occurred in several thousands of years thanks in part to the others on this continent." Solon moved his stick north and stopped at the chunk adjacent to Darkmoor.

"This is my Divine Sword Sect. Our lineage is older than many of the powers in this mortal realm but in terms of power we are only on par with the Darkmoor and Saint Kingdoms." Lind's eyes bulged at this revelation. Before he could ask a question, Solon dropped a bigger bomb on him. "Of course, the Heavenly Maiden Sect is more powerful than either kingdom and proved it over 40,000 years ago when war broke out with the vile Blood Empire on Rith."

Lind was getting a little lost with information overload but he grasped that Shoti's sect was more impressive in power compared to anything else on Sarth. This begged a question though, why had Solon and Shoti just happened to be at a relatively remote tournament of a minor power?

As if Solon was blessed with telepathy, he pointed to the sliver in the far north of Sarth.

"The final power is a bit of a slippery existence that we try to keep an eye on. I suspect Shoti was on a similar mission as me. This is the so-called Shadow Sect's area. A no man's land." Lind could no longer contain his questions.

"What do you mean, Solon?" The swordsman grabbed a piece of meat from the youth and began to cultivate the energy absorbed from it. Lind waited as Solon returned to peak condition before his very eyes. It was so fast! Lind had to be careful and take his time even doing such a simple activity.

"No one alive from the other powers, including the Blood Empire, have ever seen the home of the Sect but their members are more than happy to engage in their activities." Solon's tone left no mystery now. Hatred laced his every word. "Whenever we hear about their activities, even if only a rumor, members are sent out to confirm and stop them if we can. Damned assassins."

Lind understood now. It was a sect devoted to the professional killing of targets. If such a sect could survive the enmity of the various powers of the realm understandable vengeance, its power would be considerable. Lind was curious why Shoti and Solon had been dispatched with their elders but it was not his business.

"This sums up the powers of Sarth, and you are likely to encounter members of these and others at the Lotus Academy. Despite how low level this Empire is to others, its Academy has access to some favorable resources unique to it." Lind had heard of this. Some treasures could not be moved and good fortune put the Lotus Empire on top of one of these.

There were Ruins in a massive forest and plains run by the Lotus Academy. Many cultivators applied to get in because the Empire administered the zone with formations heavily protecting the area the Ruins occupied. Lind had learned that Ruins were the remains of former Inheritances that had separated from their original structures. No one knew for sure where they came from, but some theories placed them as active trials that had not been conquered yet.

There was proof of this from the treasures reclaimed over the millennia from such Ruins. Lind favored the thought that whatever forces constructed the Inheritance could no longer sustain it but he was confused as to how these Ruins 'fell' when described in the records he read over. Even so, Lind was truly curious about them. Nothing like that remotely existed in the Southern District.

A frown flashed over his face as he recalled the Kingdom of Altara had a Ruin that was rather unique. It was somehow used by nobles but Lind had not delved too deeply into it. It had simply been the closest Ruin the Frey Clan had any reliable knowledge about.

"What about the other continents you mentioned? Like the Blood Empire, what do you know about them?" Lind was deeply curious as he looked at the roughly drawn map and saw Solon consider his words before answering.

"You do not need as detailed a breakdown from me. If you really want to know, research it during your time at the Lotus Academy. However, I can give you some warnings from my sect." Solon cut the northern shape representing Rith with a third on the east separated by a line from the rest. He then carved out a large section of the eastern continent of Indelia.

"Rith has one great power all should be cautious of. The Blood Empire is a harsh demon empire that has often threatened the northern borders of both Sarth and Indelia. It is one of the few powers that can unite Darkmoor and Saint Kingdoms to work together." Lind knew nothing of those threats but he vaguely grasped it thanks to his Earth memories. He compared it to the world wars where rivals actually came together to combat the aggressive attacks from the then German lead powers. "It is forced to cross a natural barrier called the Demons Teeth. A desert leads up to massive mountains with no support villages"

It made for a good buffer and kept the possibility of accidental sparks of battle if opposing powers faced each other. Lind wondered why the cultivators at the World Realm did not level a path out, but then he realized if they tried, the various powers they had aggravated would stop it immediately. There must be some kind of lookouts looking for that very activity.

"There are some port hubs on the eastern coast to get into Rith from our side, but the Blood Empire ports are severely monitored, so be wary if a boat as black as midnight is ever in a harbor you are in. They will happily try to snatch up humans for their various dark rituals." Solon then pointed at the last continent and its vast area blocked off.

"Indelia has a strange arrangement. It is not full of kingdoms or empires like the other 2 continents, but mercantile powers instead. Stardust Emporium, which has branches in every power it can profit from, runs much of this continent. It is not a monarch though, due to being more interested in being a collector and seller of products." Solon had a look of chagrin on his face as if he had suffered a bit due to his younger days due to the Emporium. "The thing to be wary of, however, is a cursed land called the Rakathi Wastes."

Lind was now very curious. He had never heard of this place nor of any cursed place so far. Unlike Earth, when they spoke of curses or blessings, this world was being literal. Lind had heard of a few supposed blessed areas for elemental tempering but none for 6 elementals like him. Lind wondered what would make a land cursed.

"There were once thriving kingdoms and empires almost a million years ago. Now, there is a blasted wasteland that almost never sees sunlight, only the light of tribulation lightning of all elements. No one knows what happened as none survived to anyone's knowledge. It is a land of outlaws and rogues now." Solon's eyes actually sparkled and Lind had to restrain the desire to roll his eyes. For being almost 5 years older than him, the swordsman had not lost the wonder of childhood. "Soul Realms are not able to survive very far into that wasteland. Their dantians can suffer horribly due to the chaos happening there."

Lind felt a shiver in his spine as he understood what Solon was saying. If that was truly tribulation lightning, it would be a massive amount of power in the Qi and would resonate with the elements in anyone's dantian. Soul Realms were newly formed elemental cores by nature, thus it would be like a baby being asked to stand in front of an elephant comparatively speaking. The baby would suffer horribly without any chance to resist.

"Why would anyone go there?" Lind knew why rogues might go anywhere but how could anyone survive for any length of time in such a place?

"There are supposedly untouched Ruins out in the wastes and there are up to tier 1 Sky Realm aether beasts. The chance to harvest such powerful materials would be tempting to anyone." Lind nearly wanted to know what had been found himself after hearing that. The only World Realms he had met were up to the Iron Tier. The most powerful World Realm in the Empire was the emperor himself at the Gold Tier according to what Lind had learned.

If an emperor or empress was able to break through to Diamond Tier, they would prepare a replacement to inherit for their chance to breakthrough into Sky Realm. Lind then felt confused.

"Where do the Sky Realm cultivators live? One of these powers you mentioned?" Lind knew the Lotus Empire could not support a Sky Realm at all, it could barely raise World Realms to the Stone Tier in any numbers, thus he assumed the Sky Realms were in the higher end of these powers.

Solon began to laugh at Lind's question but he quickly took his stick and carved out a dotted area well away from the 3 continents.

"The strongest Sky Realm you will ever have the chance to meet in the continents is a tier 1. If you want to progress beyond that my young friend, you will have to go to the Floating Isles." Solon was now clearly pining after the Isles himself. Lind had never heard of most of this knowledge but before he could worry about these Floating Isles, he would have to overcome the hard wall in front of all 6 elementals since the recording of history began from what Lind could see.

"I will have to consider a lot of this for the future, but thank you Solon." Lind felt like he had just sat for a lecture from Granny or the Old Man. Still, it was very informative and Lind had learned the Lotus Academy would have more he could grasp.

Solon nodded and the swords once more ascended into the sunny sky as they began to move on towards the capitol passed the many districts throughout the lands of the Lotus Empire.