Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 784: Mystery

Something smashed into the open doorway and caused the formation to flare to life. There was still nothing for him to see. Other than the sensation of terror he felt, only his law power gave him any reaction at all. Only when he extended law power over a large area could he feel the passing of something large.

Whatever was in there was not friendly and after seeing that no disaster befell the doorway, he continued the plan he had already started to put into place. The change of his eyes was not just to be weird, but to take advantage of a capability that he rarely used. In fact, other than the art shows that his family put on he had little other use of it. Even so, the eyes he received from the Sea Locust had been passed down to his children and more of a few of them were able to uncover some of their mysteries.

This was one of the benefits of ensuring that his descendants had a body similar to his own as they could create and refine techniques that made the best use of their unique talents. He had pulled a link to this unusual species from deep in his blood and while he had awakened their eyes, he had no idea how to best put them to use. It was as if a beast spontaneously evolved a set of human hands. Even if its fingers could be used to knit, weave, or create art, would that beast know how to?

At this time, Sage put to use the basic technique that his descendants had created and refined over hundreds of years. It had become so ubiquitous among the Lang Clan that this technique had long lost its name and was merely referred to as taught to use your eyes for the young ones that learned it. There had even been a huge debate over whether or not to put it into the ancestral memories of their descendants, as it was just too simple to learn with just a few tips.

It was hard for Sage to verify the exact capabilities of the Sea Locusts eyes, at least in the nomenclature of Earth. It wasnt as if he knew how to measure the wavelength of light or what specific wavelengths fit each of the commonly known types of electromagnetic waves. So, while he assumed the Sea Locusts eyes could see ultraviolet, infrared, microwave, radio, and x-ray, he couldnt really be sure. What he did know was that these eyes could see a lot of things.

In fact the most basic way to use your eyes in the Clan was merely a method to filter everything they saw. They actually saw too much that it became hard to pick out all the details. The simple technique was just a way to cut down on all the noise. In this way they could see many things. Faint energy radiating through things that he guessed was x-ray. Another that gave hints on temperature which he put somewhere near the infrared level. They all grew accustomed to being able to see in very unusual ways. The Lang Clan was always working on finding uses for these strange ways to see, but they still had much to discover.

At this time, he ran through the different forms of vision until he finally caught sight of something. He stopped and focused upon the technique to tweak what he was seeing until he finally got a glimpse of it. He made out the vague shape of a torso and two large arms, but the lower body was somewhat funnel shaped and there wasnt really a head either. The fact that it moved around in a semi-upright manner with two limbs held like arms was already surprising enough. Even so, he still had no idea what it was until after he stared at it for a few minutes.

It took that long for him to comb through all of his knowledge on the Inner World and he finally found what he was looking for in a book of obscure creatures. It wasnt a Demonic Beast, Plant, or Insect, nor was it any of the lower ranked Spirit varieties either. The difficulty for him to identify stemmed from the fact that it was something rarely seen in this world: an Elemental.

It was a being created entirely out of elementally natured Qi. It was not animal, or vegetable, but closer to mineral. At least an Earth Elemental would be. From what he saw, and the facility he just passed through, this must be a Wind Elemental. A fantastical existence that was a somewhat popular thing on earth, but was relatively unheard of here. In fact, the more powerful ones were not just creatures of elemental Qi, but pure law. With careful analysis, he found that this one wasnt entirely made of law, but it could incite the laws. Sage was pushed out of the cage a few times before he gathered this information, but the more he learned about this foe, the less power that invisible terror had over him.

This is pretty weird after all. Who knew that elementals dont just have the laws of their element, but can even learn fear related ones?

The attaining of laws was always a weird thing, so he didnt give it much thought. This elemental must have had some sort of opportunity of its own and developed its own unique understanding. From what he read, the minds of elementals were purely alien to humans. It wasnt a matter of lacking intelligence or lacking wisdom like beasts, but something else altogether. Their thought processes were just entirely different. Their priorities and ways of looking at the world were completely strange. There was also the problem of a method of communication.

Just as before, Sage stopped a moment to ponder making another Hearts Tongue, but he chose the brute force method yet again and did something he had rarely tried. Using the Timeless Eyes technique along with the Sea Locusts strange eyes. It was a little more of a strain and he had to focus a little more to steady himself, but then he caught the invisible creature in the combination of Foresight and Hindsight. Peering at the future and past of this being at the same time to glimpse the ever changing symbol that was its crux.

The Lang Clan ancestors had passed him a book on the basics of sealing techniques, which he used to repair the shaky foundation he had in the art. He had gone from a mere dabbler into a true member of the profession. While he couldnt be considered high rank among the Seal Masters of the past, he could still meet their lower standard. Along with the basics, he also gained a number of the basic techniques of the Seal Masters and it was at this time that he put them to use.

He lifted a hand into the air and sent Spirit Power to the tip of his finger. This Spirit Power formed a small tube-like structure in the air, which he filled with Qi. He used his finger to draw a shape in the air, filling it with Qi all the way. He formed an extremely complex set of shapes and lines to create a single interconnected symbol. Then, he used the Spirit Power that wrapped around the Qi as a container to shape and mold the symbol, twisting and moving it into different shapes.

Constantly shifting and changing, sometimes the symbols seemed wrong and others they were so right they resonated with the elemental. It was akin to seeing a piece of post-modern impressionist art and seeing something there in the splash of random shapes and color. Only, this piece of art continued to change constantly, never once being the same. Yet, somehow, these strange unalike symbols started to more and more often carry the same impression. Completely different symbols and shapes that all conveyed the same feeling and thought to those who looked upon them.

The constantly changing symbol flew forward and struck the fifty foot tall elemental upon its torso, causing a visible light to flare up.