07. The Path Of Eternal War, page 1
part #7 of Heavenly Throne Series
The Heavenly Throne
The Path of Eternal War
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
Prologue
Chapter 1
FIVE YEARS LATER
Chapter 2
ILLION — THE CAPITAL OF TAEL
Chapter 3
ILLION — CAPITAL OF TAEL 2
Chapter 4
THE END AND THE BEGINNING
Chapter 5
THE FALL OF THE CLOUD ABODE
Chapter 6
ICE-COLD ANGER
Chapter 7
ICE-COLD ANGER 2
Interlude
THE VOICE
Chapter 8
THE BLAZING FLAME OF WAR
Chapter 9
THE TRUE LANDS OF THE GIANTS
Chapter 10
THE MEETING
Chapter 11
HEIR TO THE BLOOD OF THE FIRST ANCESTOR
Chapter 12
JUSTICE
Chapter 13
THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM
Chapter 14
BATTLE FOR ALRAN — THE BEGINNING
Chapter 15
BATTLE FOR ALRAN — SHACKS ELDIVIZE
Chapter 16
BATTLE FOR ALRAN — DESPAIR
Chapter 17
BATTLE FOR ALRAN — THE FINALE
Chapter 18
GATHERING OF THE STRONGEST
EPILOGUE
The Heavenly Throne Book 7
The Path of Eternal War
Cultivation is a struggle through which the weak are forged into Masters. If you want to ascend, you need to heed the teachings of the ancient warriors and the wars that raged across the worlds.
The best place for an Exorcist to develop in the world of Nikrim is the Cloud Abode.
Millions of cultivators dream of getting there, devoting their youth to the path of cultivation. Those who have already proved to be worthy and have become Abode students continue to strive for more, trying to overcome their limits, and reach the very peak of their development.
Kai has fulfilled his goal of conquering the Cloud Abode. In a fight against a brilliant cultivator, he put all his knowledge and abilities to the test, fought harder than he had ever fought before, and became the First on the List of Ten Thousand.
Five years have passed since then, and Kai has never stopped developing. There’s still a long road ahead of him. One too long for him to stop.
Once again, he embarks on a journey, paving his path through the world of cultivation, where there are always new heights to reach!
Prologue
A two-handed sword, reinforced by a sand swirl, slammed into a bull-sized ant covered in strong armor. The monster, already wounded in many places by Ranmaru’s attacks, was in no condition to continue to fight. Its natural defenses were shattered and green blood was leaking from the cracks.
Plunging his sword into the ground, Ranmaru, exhausted, rested his weight on it. His whole body ached, and his lungs burned. Even though it was difficult for him to breathe, he didn’t want to show weakness in front of his sister. Still, it felt like he wouldn’t be able to raise the sword again anytime soon.
Fortunately, the exhausting half-hour battle against a crowd of monsters was drawing to an end. And while some of his opponents were still alive, Ranmaru no longer needed to intervene. Sator and Elea took care of the remaining three beasts.
He closed his eyes. A second later, a powerful burst of flames exploded nearby, and a blast of hot air washed over him. Turning his head to the right, he saw the charred bodies of two more ants, baked alive in their own armor. Elea stood nearby, enveloped in the Fire Lightning Cover Technique, which granted her additional strength, speed, and protection. Holding two short sabers in her hands, she also looked tired, but unlike her brother, she could still fight.
The pain of her spirit wound no longer tormented Elea, as it had been two years since she was completely healed thanks to Kai’s treatment. Three months after his last visit, she made a breakthrough. She had already been at the final level for quite a long time, so she had no problems preparing her soul for reaching the peak level of the Exorcist Stage even with a damaged astral body.
After that, she needed another six months to re-learn her half-forgotten skills, which was quite easy in the Cloud Abode. Once she did that, it didn’t take her long to get to the top hundred on the List. By now, Elea had been on the Heavenly Floor for four months, where only the best of the best could get.
She turned to Ranmaru. No longer leaning on his sword, he was trying to show her that he was still able to fight and that he wasn’t tired.
Sighing, Elea shook her head. She knew her brother too well to let him continue this ridiculous performance. She had literally raised him.
“Keep resting...” she said when an ant suddenly flew between the two of them.
Following it with their gaze, they saw Sator moving toward the monster at the speed of light. Strengthened by the elements of Lightning and Wind, he easily reached his opponent, preparing to strike. And although he wasn’t able to study either the Path of the Fist or the Path of Body, he was still a melee fighter who was doing well even without those. He didn’t possess the same stamina or physical strength as Fang Bao, with whom Kai had fought in the tournament finals on the Celestial Plateau, but he compensated for these shortcomings with incredible speed and element versatility.
Covered in lightning sparks and engulfed in a whirlwind of compressed air, his fist fell on the still flying ant. Bright electricity pierced the monster through and through, burning its insides, after which the ant, twisting, fell to the ground. Sator landed next to its mutilated corpse.
“Finally, we’re done,” he said cheerfully, as he didn’t see any more enemies around. He wasn’t feeling weak and tired, as he was much more resilient than Ranmaru and Elea, thanks to a special Lightning Path technique that stimulated his body.
Sator wasn’t a genius like Elea, nor did he possess unique abilities like Ranmaru, but over the past five years, he had grown significantly stronger. Like Elea, he had also reached the peak level of the Exorcist Stage, but he didn’t manage to climb to the Heavenly Floor. The Heavenly Guardian’s test, which he had already failed three times, proved to be too difficult for him. However, he wasn’t going to give up. He trained every day, and he was now the twelfth on the List of Ten Thousand.
As for Ranmaru, he worked hard to keep up with his sister. He had broken through to the middle stage and reached seventh place.
“It feels like we’ve been around these ugly creatures forever,” he said, looking around the dozens of dead ants scattered around the underground corridor through which they had come.
“It’s only been three months,” Elea replied. “We should reach the center of the anthill any moment now, so I suggest we pick up the pace. The cloaking artifact will run out of energy soon. There are only two charges left.”
“Don’t worry about that. We need to get some rest before we continue,” Sator said. “There should be no ants anywhere near us, so we have a day or so to get there. Although, using the invisibility field wouldn’t hurt.”
Elea wasn’t happy about wasting the charges they couldn’t restore, but she agreed. Ranmaru didn’t argue either. Although they were extremely close to the center of a giant labyrinth created by the Titan colony of ants, they knew it’d be foolish to recklessly rush in. An artifact showed them that there was some powerful source of energy ahead — probably a rare treasure around which the anthill was formed — but they knew better than to underestimate the potential danger.
“Who would’ve thought that we’d find something like this in the middle of nowhere? The Ishar Desert is really full of mysteries...” Sator settled down on a stone and shared his thoughts, having finished setting up the artifact. “I wonder how long has this treasure been around.”
“Probably no more than a few hundred years,” Ranmaru replied after thinking about it for a few seconds. “Otherwise, someone would’ve found it a long time ago. I guess we got lucky...”
“Lucky that we had enough artifacts. I don’t think that we’d be able to find this anthill again in such an anomaly-filled region like Ishar had we returned to the Abode for supplies,” Elea added, peering into the depths of the tunnel with her aura. “And it’d be a pity if we missed such a great place to hone our combat skills.”
Sator and Ranmaru nodded. Over the past three months, since they descended into the anthill, all of them had reached a state close to combat meditation — a special enlightenment that one could reach only in a battle — at least once. That was enough for each of them to greatly improve their fighting style. It was almost impossible to achieve such a result in a safe environment.
“By the way, shouldn’t we send a signal that we’re alive and that everything
“There’s still time. We’re too close to the center and we could attract unwanted attention if we use the communication artifact now,” Sator explained. “We’d better send the message when we get to the treasure. That way, we’ll draw more ants toward the center, partially clearing our way to the surface.”
***
The fight with the ant queen, which they found once they had reached the center, turned out to be surprisingly long and... boring. Ranmaru, Elea, and Sator had activated an isolating artifact and killed the guards, so the ants couldn’t escape or inform their comrades about the intruders.
As for the queen, she was an initial-level Tyrant. Such an enemy could pose a serious threat even for cultivators as talented and strong as the three Abode students, if there wasn’t for one “but” — the ant queen turned out to be a huge, clumsy, and a rather stupid creature. It grew only through the absorption of energy of the mysterious treasure. Her only strengths were powerful but far too predictable acid attacks, heavy armor, and deafening squeals.
They dealt with the first and second relatively easily. None of them had any problem predicting the direction of queen’s attacks and dodging them.
However, there was nothing they could do about her squealing, so they had to endure it for almost fifteen minutes as she called her minions for help. It left them with a severe headache and bleeding ears. Fortunately, Sator took care of isolating the queen’s lair from the rest of the anthill beforehand so that thousands of other ants wouldn’t come to its aid.
The battle dragged on for fifteen minutes because of the queen’s ridiculously strong armor, but despite that, they finished her off without having to use their full strength.
Powerful energy emanated directly from her belly. Revealing her saber and covering it with fire, Elea went to the ant’s stomach to pull out the treasure. Nothing indicated any trouble, but Ranmaru suddenly felt a chill. The queen’s aura had disappeared, so they were certain she was dead, but he felt someone’s will. Wild rage and lust for murder were aimed directly at his sister.
“Elea!!!” he shouted.
The girl twitched and stopped in her tracks. She didn’t feel the danger.
Meanwhile, one of the queen’s front legs began moving. The monster didn’t use them in the fight, since they were rather short, but now Elea was standing too close. She noticed the approaching threat when the leg was already halfway to her.
Elea instantly strengthened her protective technique, which she didn’t deactivate after the fight, however, she didn’t have time to dodge.
The queen’s spike-like leg almost reached her when she was pushed aside by Ranmaru. He immediately pulled out his two-handed sword but the monster’s blow was much stronger than he had expected, forcing him to drop his weapon and hurling him to the side. A moment later, the sharp spike at the end of the leg pierced his left shoulder and moved down toward his chest, miraculously missing his heart.
Falling to the ground, Ranmaru coughed up blood. Sator and Elea immediately jumped up to him, preparing healing items on their way.
“You...” Elea began, sitting next to her brother and using the Phoenix Healing Flame Technique. “You idiot...”
Ranmaru smiled faintly in response.
“You could’ve died!” she added angrily, although it wasn’t clear who she was angry with more, herself or him.
“My defense is better than yours,” Ranmaru replied quietly.
“And look what happened to your arm!”
Ranmaru’s left arm looked really bad, dangling from a bit of meat.
“It’s nothing... I’ll recover. I know a very good healer.” He smiled again and looked at his sister. “I didn’t want to see you get wounded again, or worse...” he began but failed to finish.
“I’m sorry...” Elea replied quietly, looking down. “I was careless.”
“Nonsense! No one could’ve known that would happen. This thing must’ve somehow given an order to its body before dying. Even I didn’t feel it right away.”
“This is the first time I see something like this, even though I’m already in my fifties,” Sator tried to cheer Elea up. “Perhaps this posthumous attack has something to do with the treasure inside it.”
Still angry, Elea abruptly got up, without deactivating the healing technique. She swung her swords and a bright flash of three elements — Sword, Fire, and Lightning — tore the queen’s body into several parts.
Sator grimaced. The money they’d get after this mission largely depended on the state of the carcass.
After making sure that it could no longer attack, Sator approached the remains and picked up the treasure, which they had previously located with an artifact.
He stared at the loot, frowning.
“What is this?”
Elea and Ranmaru also looked at a small green cube covered with cracks with interest. Its energy radiation began to decrease sharply, and the glow quickly went out. The system description also didn’t help them unravel the nature of the strange artifact.
[Khora-Nard]
Rank: Royal
Quality: Peak
Description: no description available.
“This is the first time I see an artifact that has no description. Usually, it’s provided either by its creator, or by the System. But no description whatsoever... So weird...” Sator shook his head, confused.
“Never heard of that either,” Elea chimed in.
“Perhaps we’ll be able to figure out what kind of cube it is back at the Abode,” Ranmaru suggested. “We should go back.”
“The isolating artifact will stay active for another three hours,” Elea said, not letting him get up. “So lie down and let me heal you!”
Ranmaru didn’t argue and concentrated on the absorption of the healing elixir. Three hours passed quickly. Each of them transferred the parts of the queen’s body and a small pile of relatively rare resources into their Rings, and prepared to leave.
Using the communication artifact, Sator sent a message to their elder brother at the Abode, notifying him that everything went fine, after which the trio hurried to leave the anthill. They headed for the same tunnel that they had come in through.
Fortunately, this time they knew this section of the underground labyrinth quite well, so they didn’t have to wander around it like on their way in. The trip to the surface took only nine days.
As soon as they saw the clear blue sky and the scorching desert sun, Ranmaru froze.
“Danger?” Elea asked, preparing for a fight.
“No, nothing like that,” Ranmaru replied, calming her and Sator. “I just received a message from the Abode. It says that in six days I need to show up at the meeting of the Ten.”
“Did elder brother arrange it?” Sator was surprised.
“No. Guardian Airus summons us.”
Chapter 1
FIVE YEARS LATER
The portal was far from the anthill so it took them six days to return to the Abode. Ranmaru was almost late because of how long of a trek it was.
Arriving at the meeting room just a couple of minutes before the beginning, he took his seat while looking at the cultivators who had arrived before him.
Ten was a dwarf named Toji. Five years ago, Kai had cured him from a deadly poison, and in gratitude, he forged the Twin Blades of Nightmare using the bones of the demon.
A large dorgan from the Buffalo Pack called Dradus now occupied Nine’s position. Eight was Laya — a charming sylph with fiery red hair. They were both end-level Exorcists.
Ranmaru was Seven. Besides him and the three mentioned students, there was another cultivator in the hall — Shacks. During these five years, he managed to break through to the mid-level of the Exorcist Stage, and become fourth on the List, proving that he really was a powerful cultivator despite his playful attitude. He couldn’t climb higher because hotshots of a completely different caliber occupied the first three places. Though, Shacks didn’t strive to show off his skills, preferring to be playful and coy as usual.
As soon as Ranmaru sat down, Shacks, who was looking at a scroll with some rather inappropriate imagery, moved his legs onto the chair across and looked up to nod at him. At that moment, they heard the transfer artifact activate.
