Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 826: Ghost Hunt

The importance of this anomaly was not lost upon Sage and he redoubled his efforts to search out the source. Since this area was not on the sea bed or the surface, he was trying to find something in a completely open and empty area of the sea. After scouring the place with his Spiritual Sense he couldnt feel anything out of place. It was only when he reached out with his Law power that he felt something unusual. Even so he couldnt quite place it so it took him a bit more effort to discover a method.

When he finally saw it, it stuck out to him like a raging wound. Sage called upon the eyes of the Sea Locust and put to use its amazing visual prowess. These eyes were so very strange and unusual. They could see into spectrums that Sage had no words for. Trying to describe what he saw was similar to trying to describe colors to a blind person. You could name something as being red, and describe the deepness of shade and intensity by comparing them to other colors, but without ever seeing a color how could you describe the richness of visual fidelity? What he saw was akin to what he would call a gaping injury. In one of the spectrums of vision that Sage had no name for, he saw a tear. It was less like a rip in space, like Jiyao made, and much more like an open wound in something that couldnt be seen with the naked eye.

Since something felt unusual when he reached out to resonate with Law power, he combined this unusual vision with his Laws and realized he could see the rippling interaction between the Laws and the wound in front of him. For a moment he had dared to dream that he could see the Laws, but he was just not that lucky.

If a race of being could see the Laws they would immediately rise to the top, right?

Even so, the fact that he could see something interacting with Laws was a step in the right direction. It was like now, he could see a leaf being blown by the wind, when in the past he didnt even know what a leaf looked like. The Laws were still invisible, but he now saw something that could interact with them. Whatever this anomaly was, it suddenly became extremely important. If he could figure out a way to harvest or reproduce whatever this was, it could eventually lead to creating tools to measure Law power. There was also the question of what else it could do on top of that. It could easily be some sort of treasure related to Laws and there's no telling how important that would be.

Carefully examining this wound and its interaction with his Law power, Sage quickly made a useful observation. When this tear was supplied with more Law power, it grew larger. Once he confirmed this suspicion he pumped in a large amount of Law power.

Normally, Law power was not needed in great quantities. A cultivator would carefully transform their Qi into just the right intensity and vibration to resonate with the power of the Laws in the world around them. The innate laws in the world just had to be incited to assist their other endeavors. The power of Laws came from outside and they only needed to impel it into action. As such, it was extremely unusual to need to convert so much Qi into law energy like he was doing now. That would mean that any casual use of the Laws would not cause much of a reaction, but focusing them carefully ended up with Sage finding himself swimming in front of a tear that led to somewhere else.

With enough power the tear grew into a full sized doorway, one which led into another space filled with water. It was only after he saw fish swimming around inside that he took the risk to attempt an entry. He first sent in a few fish to see if they could pass through without any injuries and there didnt seem to be any danger in moving through this strange doorway. He still had no idea what this other place was, since it didnt look like a rip into another spatial dimension, but then what was it? What did the Laws have to do with it? He had no answers to his questions, but that didnt stop him from going inside to check it out. The idea that he had stumbled upon a previously undiscovered Hidden Domain spoke to his desire to explore and he couldnt hold back.

Inside this other place, he saw many of the fish hed run into recently, only they seemed much larger or elaborate than others. He saw a school of Flowing Moon Mackerel, their soft white scales seeming to flow like silk. They were usually the size of a mans forearm, but these ones were easily triple that size. At the lead of a school there was one with a fiery red color and double the size of the others. The other sea life seemed to follow this same theme and he saw many mutants and oversized individuals.

Would the other fish also head towards this place when they felt threatened, or are the Armorana more intelligent? Were they running towards this place to look for their boss?

Sage swam around for a while and this place seemed extremely similar to the Lagoon hed just left. The major difference came when he swam up towards the surface and realized there wasnt one. There was a sort of light coming from above, but the above in this case was some sort of barrier that he couldnt cross. He had no idea how large of an area this place covered other than that it was a few thousand feet in height between the seabed and the solid surface. In the interest of keeping the exit safely in view, Sage didnt stray too far and found nothing like the surface barrier to the sides. There was no limit within thousands of feet in any direction but up and down.

He was also very careful to hide his aura and keep from drawing attention. Everything in here seemed larger and more powerful than normal so he focused on searching for the Ghost Armorana that had drawn him here in the first place. The Armorana was a very popular choice of undersea mount in Deep Shore and for some reason Sage felt like capturing the very best one there was. He had never really felt the desire to show off in the past, usually choosing the opposite in order to keep from gathering any negative attention. As for what hed heard of the Ghost Armorana it didnt have a unique appearance among its species, but was known instead for its unique abilities.

It was probably this hidden capability without seeming different outwardly that caught Sages attention. He was going to spend quite a bit of time in the Depths and getting a good mount would make things a lot easier. Especially since Sage was not just a Cultivator, he was also a Beast Tamer, and the Ghost Armorana should make for an excellent Link target. Surprisingly, Sage soon ran into a few Armorana. One of them was double the normal size, while another had a brilliant green coloring. Neither of them were what he was looking for, but that didnt stop him from capturing them both. They were considerably harder to battle than their normal counterparts, but despite their greater power, they ended up being easier to catch. These lords among their species seemed more arrogant than the others and didnt attempt to flee from him when they were struggling. They actually fought harder, not realizing that their physical capabilities had no chance against Sages.