Above The Sky
Chapter 49 - 49 47 Awareness

49: Chapter 47 Awareness 49: Chapter 47 Awareness Whoom!

Just as he caught sight of the crimson scene filling the streets, Ian was shocked to feel an intense, unheralded pain suddenly emerge deep within his brain, or rather, an organ that seemed independent of his body yet still undeniably his own.

This extreme agony was as if someone had placed a sea urchin soaked in seawater and poison inside his brain and was vigorously shaking it, causing Ian to struggle to breathe and promptly collapse to the ground without making a sound.

“Huff!

Huff…”

The pain arrived swiftly and departed just as quickly.

When Ian regained control of his body, he immediately began to breathe deeply, his entire being like someone who had been dragged out of the water, with large beads of cold sweat falling from his forehead and temples, dampening his collar.

Ian wasn’t the kind of ultimate tough guy who endures screaming in agony when alone; the only reason he didn’t cry out in pain was that he was too exhausted to muster any extra energy, and besides, his brother was right beside him.

Trembling and leaning against the wall, he slowly stood up, his heart still racing from having disentangled himself from Foresight View.

Ian looked out the window and said, “It seems…

my Spirit Energy can’t actively observe targets that are too large or involve too many people…”

Just moments before, while observing the street, Ian felt his vitality draining like floodgates being opened, nearly causing him to faint with exhaustion.

This was when the downside of Foresight View became apparent.

It could indeed predict the future on a small scale, determine the value of items, and even guide Ian to better decisions to some extent…

But everything in excess is opposed to nature.

He could only observe the fates and future trends of a few individuals at most.

With a larger number of people, he could exhaust himself to death.

However, this was merely a matter of excessive physical exertion, not that he ‘couldn’t’ do it.

If Ian’s physical strength were sufficient, he guessed that his future could possibly break this limitation and observe the future trends of ‘a group of people,’ ‘a street,’ ‘a city,’ or even ‘an entire port’!

“What exactly happened just now?”

Standing up slowly, Ian looked puzzled: “The port shrouded in blood…”

“What exactly is Harrison Port facing?!”

Even though there was no other evidence, the omens from his Spirit Energy made it clear that everyone in Harrison Port, or at least the vast majority, was in a ‘certain fatal crisis’!

The streets were engulfed in a crimson mist, even turning into a raging tsunami that echoed between heaven and earth…

Ian immediately heightened his vigilance to the max, but he did not know when the crisis would arrive.

“Is it a storm?

A tsunami?

Or perhaps thunderstorms, earthquakes?”

“Beside Harrison Port, there are the Bison Mountain Range.

It could also be a landslide or mudslide caused by heavy rain.”

Running to the backyard, Ian looked up at the sky over Harrison Port and the surrounding terrain, murmuring to himself, “Only a few things could cause so many to die at once…

Of course, there’s another possibility.”

“That is a large-scale invasion by the Natives.”

“Even worse, the possibility that several of these events might occur simultaneously.”

The current calm appearance was deceptive, and Ian knew that recently the Natives had indeed been carrying out Pure Sacrifices—a grand ritual known even to the Imperial People, which requires the lives of dozens of living beings and many rare materials.

The Redwood Natives, with their several dozen large and small tribes, would lay down their disputes and each offer their best tribute to the ‘Great Shaman,’ the nominal leader of all Redwood Tribes, during a Pure Sacrifice.

Ian himself had nearly been offered up as a sacrifice.

Typically, a Pure Sacrifice is conducted every dozen years or so, and the Magic Potion produced in each sacrifice can create several Sublimators of the First Energy Level—it is the most common and simplest method for the tribes to create Sublimators.

Of course, these manufactured Sublimators have major flaws.

Moreover, when sensing imminent great danger, the Redwood Natives would also carry out Pure Sacrifices to gain the protection of the spirits and temporarily enhance the strength of the tribe.

“The last time the Natives conducted a Pure Sacrifice was eight years ago, during that super typhoon that swept across the entire Southern Frontier of the Empire…”

Ian gazed at the dark clouds churning in the sky, but the heavy rain and the rumbling thunder could not frighten him, they merely provoked his thoughts: “My father in this life also perished in that storm.

A disaster that not even Sublimators could survive…”

“If the Natives have restarted their sacrifices, it suggests a great likelihood that another typhoon of equal or even greater intensity is coming.”

“Besides, Teacher Hiliad quietly came to Harrison Port, and it seems to be related to the ‘anomaly’ this time.”

Clues were converging, Ian turned his head and looked towards the direction of the coastline.

The surging waves crashed against the rocks, the beach, and the stony base of the port, issuing a dull roar upon collision, reminiscent of thunder on the ground.

“In the sea, then,” he murmured softly to himself, gazing into the deep shadows within the sea.

At this moment, Ian, to be honest, couldn’t help wanting to activate his Foresight View to watch the sea; he had a strong premonition that if he did so, he would definitely see some omens and clues.

But equally strong, and perhaps even more intense than that premonition, was another warning him.

—Try it, and meet your death!

Barely surviving a glance at a street, and now daring to look at the sea?

This wasn’t bravery; it was madness!

“Having a premonition is better than having none; at least it proves that there is something in the sea beyond the scope of what I can currently foresee.”

Closing his eyes, suppressing the desire to observe, Ian shook his head slightly, “I need to tell the teacher about my discovery when he returns.”

“It’s a matter of life and death for the entire town…

This is not something that can be concealed.”

Returning to the house, Ian took a deep breath, calming his emotions.

Then, he once again came before his brother Alan and continued the training he had begun earlier.

He continued to condense the Primordial Seed.

—No matter the future, no matter the omen… Condensing the Primordial Seed, increasing one’s own strength, would at the very least change one’s own and brother’s future.

“The previous foresight has proven that my direction of modification is correct, and indeed, I can rely on the mist on Alan’s body to predict the correctness of my decisions.”

“With this, I just need to correct some minor details once more, and I can begin to accumulate Origin Quality, and when it’s sufficient, I will be able to form the Primordial Seed in one fell swoop.”

Although Ian didn’t know why, just thinking in his head seemed to reflect changes in the future reality…

Perhaps this was also the special aspect of Foresight View.

For things without answers, there is no need to overthink.

With a tranquil mind, Ian closed his eyes.

Amidst the storm and thunder, when lightning slashed across the sky outside the window, he began to train again.

Meanwhile.

At the Elder’s Hall of White Folks near Central Avenue in the east of the city.

This square old house, built from white slats and covered in creeping vines, was located next to the city’s Furnace Core, with a tributary of the Ivoke River passing through the city just in front, and behind the house was a small yard where some commonly used herbs were planted for the physicians in the Elder’s Hall to treat White Folks for free.

This place is where the White Folks’ high-level meetings are usually held, and Elder Prude himself often works and rests here; but unless there’s an issue, no one would come here to trouble the elder, so it’s considered quite tranquil.

But today, there was a figure tiptoeing through the rain, hurrying along to the hall.

“Elder, Elder!”

The forager Brin, who had appeared at Ian’s doorstep earlier, skulking as if up to something, was now looking panicked as he urgently said to the elder’s guards, “I have critical information to report to the elder…”

The two guards, one on each side, had already grabbed Brin’s shoulders, ready to throw him out, but then from upstairs, they heard a somewhat weary and elderly voice, “Let him come up.”

The guards complied, releasing Brin, and the relieved forager then straightened his attire and walked nervously upstairs.

“How is it, have you found anything?”

Inside the second-floor study, Elder Prude set down the official documents and reports in his hand, and looked indifferently at Brin bowing respectfully in front of him, and said, “From the look on your face, it’s as I guessed.”

“Ian has discovered you, hasn’t he?”