Chapter 108: A Slight Disappointment
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"How is that possible? How did they sense Hope’s body lying in the Void? How, how, did they manage to be one step ahead of us in this aspect?" The Archmage blurted out indignantly. "Don’t get me wrong, I am not looking down on the barbarians’ capabilities to decipher the laws of the universe but they shouldn’t… They shouldn’t be better at it than we mages are!"
Then as if he wasn’t satisfied with his exclamation, he added snippily, in a odd Earthling-like fashion, "This is just not scientific!"
"Alas, after my conviction in studying all records of magi knowledge, I am still defeated," the Scholar voiced out her own disappointment at the side.
"Unlike you nerds, what I’m more interested in knowing is why they are called the tribal gods? How did people start calling the barbarians, who had inherited the Ancestors' powers, ‘Divine Warriors’?" Even the Lich spoke up. "These names seemed unimportant, but now they seem to hide meanings within them. After all, to transfer your power across time and space to another being is traditionally something only gods could do. So calling these mortal-looking warriors ‘Divine’, as if they have received spiritual aids; and to call these people ‘gods’ for doing what they do, are too frighteningly accurate…"
The comments seemed to have stir up another member of the Void, who hardly spoke up during magi-dominated topics.
"You mages are always so full of yourselves! Thinking that only you lot could understand the world, and absolutely no one else could— a bunch of stuck-up elitists!" The Knight suddenly snapped. "Alas, the time has come for you ignoramus to be thoroughly embarrassed for your arrogance. You think knowing the laws of nature denotes absolute knowledge? Then, tell me... How do you explain chaos with your little theories of order, hmm?"
Whoa. Looks like someone has been harboring hate towards mages, huh? But then, he isn’t wrong… It didn’t matter if it was magic, or combat chi, or summoning spells— those things had always relied on the laws of order. They worked because they were established upon known laws of nature. But if people tried using it to try to make their own laws—
You can pretty much guess the consequences just by watching how all these people ended up in the Void, Baiyi concluded.
Laws had always been under the jurisdiction of the gods. They were not supposed to be comprehensible to mere mortals. But now there's a group of people who had been there, and that shocked the Voidwalkers.
While the debate was still ongoing in the Void, Baiyi did not stop his conversation with the Ancestors. They were silent for a few minutes after listening to his request, then they replied, "You require our help? But what can we help you with? You overestimated us. We are just simple-minded barbarians living in the mountains, after all."
Why does this sound so passive-aggressive? Baiyi bit his lips, not knowing how to respond.
The Caveman was not too perturbed, though. "Aww, they weren’t trying to tease you, man. They are just saying that there are things in life only a fool would understand," he said reassuringly.
Baiyi shook his head back in the corporeal world. He really wanted to learn the technique of Transdimensional Power Transference. It could be the key factors in rescuing all of the Voidwalkers. If he learnt the technique, his body in the Void could act as the "ancestor" while his Soul Armature body could act as the "Divine Warrior". He could then obtain his true power…
The problem was that he could not get any word out of the Ancestors’ mouth. But maybe it wasn’t them being intentionally cryptic or difficult— it was more likely that they discovered the immortal technique accidentally through trial-and-error. Now, the ancestors are using a power that they somehow wield, but were unable to understand nor articulate.
Baiyi mustered more of his courage and hesitantly said, "There is still something you can help me with. May I be temporarily imbued with your powers for a while? … A very short while will do. You can immediately retract them after releasing a little."
The Ancestors went silent again.
Baiyi waited, and waited.
"Our sacred duty… Has always been to oversee that all of our people return to us after passing. You are aiding us to save one of our own. So in gratitude, we shall lend you a bit of our strength," they finally spoke again. "But... There is a cost."
"What is the cost?" He quickly replied.
"Share it." Came a simple reply. There are some things that one can’t understand merely by being told—
Baiyi suddenly felt a surge of sensation erupting throughout his body. In response, he quickly willed himself to feel it—
But it was gone just as quickly as it came.
He only managed to feel a very vague sense of the powers, and it was underwhelming that he found it hard to form even the most basic of hypothesis. He felt like the tip of his tongue had just touched a drop of ambrosia. He couldn’t even say what it tasted like, much less regurgitate, analyze and ponder on it.
He knew he couldn’t ask for more, despite his desire to do so. Breaching the laws of nature was a taboo territory, and the Ancestors had already done as much they could.
Share it. The Ancestors words were not lost on him. Baiyi understood it as a quiet, yet wistful request— the Ancestors, despite their divine trappings, were still similar to the Voidwalkers. They were also stuck in another plane, in an inescapable dimension.
Baiyi realized that the other side was just as desperate as him and the rest of the Voidwalkers.
"This is all that we can do. We sincerely hope that you honor your words. If you have anything else you need, you may talk to the Huskar."
With that, the voices left his head. Baiyi retracted his hand from the totem pole, his mind racing.
"What happened?" The Archmage asked.
They gave me some Divine Warrior power— about half of it. I feel strong right now , Baiyi replied.
"I am not talking about that! I don’t really care if you can now win arm-wrestling matches," The Archmage poked Baiyi with his consciousness, like a teacher knocking on his student’s head. "I was talking about the process. What did you learn?"
N-none whatsoever. Baiyi looked sideways. I…I don’t know how they did it.
"Gods! Why do I have such a dull student?" The Archmage replied in frustration. He turned his back on him and left, once again debating with the other Walkers.
I didn’t want to disappoint you! I feel just as frustrated as you are, you know. Baiyi sighed to himself.
His peripheral vision caught the twinkle in Huskar’s eyes. It shone so brightly that it started making Baiyi anxious.
"The Ancestors! Gave! You! Power! Too?! Now, you are truly my brother!" Huskar cried out in delight as he came forward and started swinging his hand over to give his new buddy a good, hearty, hard slap—
"Stop!" Baiyi cried and stopped the movement on Huskar’s arm. He managed to stop that momentum only because he had just received new powers from the Ancestors. If he had let the Huskar did what he wanted to do— they would all be playing jigsaw puzzle with his body…
"Hmm. Less wimpy than before, but why is your body still so small?" Huskar started another round of his questioning. Then, giving up, he added, "Well. If the Ancestors had accepted you, I shall accept you as well. Come! Let’s grab something to eat."
He swung his hand for another buddy slap. Baiyi sidestepped in time and the "attack" missed.
"Oops. I forgot, haha!" The man with the ungoldly strength guffawed, scratching his head in embarrassment.
Back in the Void it was pure chaos. Excluding the Walkers who were sleeping, playing games or incapable of speech, everyone else was involved in some form of discussions. There were multiple groups, each on their own topics.
Baiyi listened in a little and roughly guessed what they were talking about— most of the mages were still on the revelation the Ancestors had shown him.
Meanwhile, the Walkers who reveled in physical combat, led by the Knight and the Hitman, were discussing on possible ways the magic-less Ancestors had used to discover the technique. Since the Alpine Barbarians had no shamans or sorcerers, the Walkers were adamant that their ways might be able to replicate the technique.
Both sides were really just discussing about air, Baiyi concluded. It didn’t matter if they were talking about the underlying theories, or the technicalities of the technique, there was no way talking could bring anyone closer to the truth. Baiyi himself had a tiny taste of the technique and even he had no idea how that worked.
Hey. At the very least, the discussions were more meaningful than comparing Mia and Tisdale on the scale of cuteness, or speculating about what would befall Undine if they didn’t save her.
On the other side, there were the Lich and the Shadow’s alternative-facts podcast. Those band of people were less friendly in their conjectures as they came up with conspiracies after conspiracies to explain away the Ancestors’ motives.
"I have reasons to believe that they are just trying to use our power to free themselves from their own gilded cage. Quite fortunate of them to have met our resident goody-two-shoes Sir Hope! I’m afraid they have already gotten into that sheeple’s mind…" The Lich said.
"My thoughts exactly!" The Shadow chimed in. "They had breached the laws, stepping foot into taboo territory— of course they are severely punished. They just managed to evade a part of that imprisonment, just like how Sir Hope managed to break into the corporeal world…"
Look at that crowd. It’s either being used-abused, or it’s about ulterior motives. Sure have a pretty strong persecution complex, don’t they? Besides, they are just making wild guesses too, without any actual evidence. Why so quick to believe your own paranoia? Baiyi thought to himself.
To him, the fact of the matter was that the Ancestors had shown their sincerity in helping him. Baiyi might not have obtained the technicalities of the power transferring technique, but he still obtained enormous strength from them. What’s on the Ancestors’ minds didn’t matter as Baiyi had gotten benefits from them.
What was more important though, was the fact that he could save Undine with actual powers of a Divine Warrior.