The Rise of the Unbound Sovereign Sect Chapter 29: Chapter 29

Read chapter 29 of The Rise of the Unbound Sovereign Sect by Magic on NovelPedia.

"To the storm, the lightning is a messenger; to the tree, it is an executioner. One does not need to be a god to command the thunder—one only needs to know how to bridge the gap." It didn't step just forward. No, the space between us simply folded, and the creature was instantly dragged across the hollow toward me. I watched with grim fascination as dozens of translucent filaments whipped through the air. Up close, they didn't look quite like tentacles. They behaved more like aggressive, parasitic root structures—cold, opportunistic, and blindly seeking the paths of least resistance to burrow into a host. I didn't dodge. It was just not possible against the speed of its gravitational field. Instead, I braced my feet into the mud and stepped directly into the pull. As I did, the filaments struck my left side with a force that numbed my mind. Sharp, hooked barbs pierced the heavy fabric of my lab coat, punching straight through the flesh of my left arm and shoulder. The pain was immediate and blinding, feeling like cold iron was being driven into my joints, which was the only thing I could feel. My shoulder popped with a wet clunk as the creature’s immense pull dragged me forward. I didn't fight the drag as veins of pain shot into my shoulder and neck. I let it rip my shoulder out of its socket, using the violent momentum to launch myself flush against its central core. The gravitational gradient this close to the beast was terrifying and only added to the already stacked pile of mind-numbing pain. The air between my chest and its grey flesh was superheated by the sheer friction of the ambient pressure in a way that really shouldn’t be possible. My damn clothes were even starting to smoke! I could smell the sharp tang of ozone, mixed with the distinct, burning scent of charred plant matter and dried blood that was trapped and incinerating within the creature’s invisible orbit. After only seconds, my ribs began to groan, threatening to buckle under the crushing weight. It felt like lying under a ceiling-high metal filing cabinet filled with research notes. With my right hand and my teeth gritted, I brought the glass vial up to the gap between my neck and chest. The creature’s flesh didn't feel soft; it felt more like getting pinned to a highly detailed wall. Up close, under the sheer compression of its own gravity, the rippling muscle felt like hyper-compressed, petrified wood. It was flesh armor with a steel-like density, which sounded pretty amazing for anyone but me. I couldn't just stab it. Jing infused or not, I didn't have the leverage to drive it in confidently. So, I pulled my hand back as far as I could get it, which was surprisingly almost past my shoulder. Once at the max, I aimed the glass tube at the center of the beast's mass and let the creature’s own inward kinetic pull help me as I stopped pulling back. As the bottom of the vial first contacted, I slammed the base of my palm against the corked end of it. I coated my palm with my own Qi and let it seep into the muscle tissue as I used the Stalker's localized gravity to accelerate the strike. The fragile glass hit the petrified flesh and shattered. Shards of silica sliced across my hand with no effect, but the golden-frosted needle—carrying the hyper-condensed weight of the liquid Jing—drove deep into the slate-grey muscle. The golden-frosted wedged into the cork to stabilise, but stopped at my palm as the needle penetrated deep into the rubbery, petrified-wood core of the Void-Stalker. For a terrifying second, the creature’s sensory filaments tightened around my left shoulder, the pressure threatening to collapse my ribs. Then, the core drank. The heavy, gold-flecked liquid Jing of the Jötnar disappeared from the needle and into its central matrix. The Stalker froze, its filaments going rigid against my skin. I didn’t look at its twisting, matte-gray flesh. My eyes were locked on the patches of Ghost-Ferns carpeting the cave floor just inches from my face. Their f