Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1017 - 1016 - Sect Wars

"I see." War Maiden Katara absorbed what she had just been told. The token confirmed Lind's identity in more ways than one.

The token was imprinted with the Heaven Realm lands marker. It could only be made in such a place so that alone proved the pair in front of her truly were ascenders.

It was almost too fantastical after over a million years of living in the blighted lands made from the Corruption.

Their sect was one of the few that could afford to protect lower powers during the chaos that followed.

The world's order collapsed all too easily for centuries until it slowly returned with the introduction of the Law Binding's effectiveness against the tainted Qi.

She felt her old injury in her backside ache as she recalled the bitter lessons of those years.

Immortals lost a lot of their skills but the fact they could now die with their body was the most frightening.

The once calm acceptance of body death was now back to fearing it once again.

She pulled herself back to the present as the miraculous pair sat in front of her. There had been several missions regarding Princess Delenn over the last million years.

There were always leads and sightings that led to commissions from the Fionan Empire to check them out. Some were traps more often than not in the later centuries so few would take them.

Now, that very woman returned from what most would consider a death sentence even for an Immortal.

A weaver had exceptional powers in regards to creating a special space but to go so far to banish her put the now dead Eternal Flame Sect Master in a special kind of vile.

He had turned that sect into a hellish prison. They were going to lose their status at the next conclave but took no actions to correct themselves. If anything, they abused the system to get away with more crimes that could not be proven, only suspected.

She had sent a few messages to the lower floors to get reports as soon as possible on that issue as she had heard there had been something going on but a decade was too short a time to get an update from so far away.

"Your token is valid in the sense you have rendered a great service to not only the sect but the world. It sounds nearly impossible but your badges are real. Further, the token has the right imprint that can't be faked. It also explains our current circumstances far better than any theory we have come up with." A cold glint went through her eyes.

She finally had a target! The thrice cursed Fiends had done it all and were still watching from those lairs! Her subordinates were going over it with a fine toothed comb as they sat there.

"War Maiden Katara, why have your titles been invoked?" She glanced at the woman asking. Princess Delenn was far different from her previous descriptions. She was considered one of the 10 Fairies before she vanished.

Now, she was broad shouldered and well muscled. It was not like her body that was prepared to fight at any time but the clear signs of mastering her craft. Forging may not be as intensive as refining but nearly a million years of unbroken focus showed on her body.

Katara approved of the clear commitment it showed.

"I was activated nearly 100 thousand years ago. The battle for the Divine Ruin has gotten worse and worse as time passed. We are now on a war footing as one of our cities was nearly destroyed by the other sects." Delenn looked grave at that.

"How has no one claimed it in the last million years? The chaos of the Corruption should have given plenty of opportunities." Lind now spoke and she nodded at his words.

"They tried but its location is problematic. It is not in an easily defensible place nor is it hidden. When the Corruption swept the land, it was very far from any city as well. All of that together made it so the most powerful cultivators found themselves vulnerable in a free-for-all that spread across the central lands." She summed up the events that had consumed millions of lives and was still costing lives as they sat there.

It had slowly spread outward until the supreme powers acted to curtail the battles.

While normally having lower powers fight it out over a Ruin was not a big deal, the prize was tempting to all powers this time! Even the Maidens, once they confirmed it was a Divine Ruin, were trying to get into it at any cost.

Now, a student of that very legacy sat in front of her.

Fate seemed to be handing them a key but getting him to it would be a bloody battle unlike anything in recent history.

The current state of affairs was small battles between various sects while being prepared for attacks from other enemies. No one could fully commit their forces due to their rivals for striking at them while most of the combat forces were engaged with others.

She pulled out a map and sent it over to them to look over. It showed a vast stretch of plains with a circle blocked out at the center of it. The scale showed the sphere was nearly 500 square kilometers!

A Ruin could be bigger on the inside, and usually was, so the outside was relatively smaller on the whole but the current one was massive!

It had been in a remote region with few native resources or Qi rich areas so it was a complete accident to be found by a lower power looking for a new area of fresh herbs.

They had tried to hide it but it was useless as the ambitions of lower realm cultivators trying to find a way into better powers spread the location instantly.

"How did you learn what the Ruin was for?" Katara sighed as that was a sticking point.

"You are a direct legacy student but there are others that have grasped pieces of the Twins Inheritances over the epochs. So there are many methods known to test for either of them. Of the 2, Younger Twin seemed more prolific. Not only did he leave behind a Divine Inheritance, he left spirits like you encountered. The mystery of how he distributed them remains but no one is unhappy about it." He nodded but was just as mystified.

It was not like a Ruin at all. He recalled perfectly how strange the shop was and how the spirit could exert itself from there without Heaven doing much beyond dispersing the spirit!

After learning Delenn had been able to live in a mortal realm proved it could be done with enough resources so perhaps there was some condition a Divine Realm could pull off that an Immortal simply could not.

"So the current state of affairs is a deadly no man's land around the Ruin. Every so often, one of the sects tries to get clever but it always results in horrific losses. Several sects have fallen entirely due to it." War Maiden Katara recalled the bitter battles.

Far too many Sisters had died but they could not surrender the Ruin to others. A Divine Ruin had the potential to change the landscape of power if a sect could actually use it. When it was discovered that it was one of the Twins' Ruins made it only more desperate.

If anyone had even a piece of their legacy, it made them extremely in demand as an expert. The proof of that was sitting in front of her.

Lind Frey was a Triple Maester with elixirs she had never heard of.

He had also shown a level of skill in 2 other professions that left her breathless. She could see why the lower sect branches took him in. The fact former Maidens married him and split over their foolish Sect Master's actions.

She was only looking at the results but the truth was clear in the token he now possessed.

"Our Sect Master Lisca is far to the north but we set up war towers to try and make our way into this mess. Part of our job is to simply keep the battles from wrecking the Law Bindings protecting the major trade routes. Without those, we all suffer." The current world could not allow the loss of many cities anymore.

No one was fooled, however, that the Maidens were just as primed to go after the Ruin as anyone else. It was that coveted.

If the Corruption was not causing issues, the war would have been long resolved between the supreme powers but the current world threw up too many obstacles and logistical issues that prevented any edge from being kept.

Hence the long and drawn out battles had become a sect war.

It was now the longest war ever recorded so far as she knew. The Corruption had led them to a situation no one could resolve because greed would not let them back down at first but now blood had been shed too much for peace to be considered.

"So what is it you expect from me? Getting answers is one thing but you are now giving us information. What do you want?" Katara approved as Lind became like a sage in front of her. His experiences were things of nightmares and heroes all at once.

She smiled and pointed at his elixir badge.

"You are the only direct student alive. The Ruin has a barrier that takes time to breach that you will not have to. In other words, I want you to take a force into the Ruin with you." She spoke as if it was simple weather she was outlining but it would cause a mountain of corpses the moment their competitors found out.

That fact was not lost on him it seemed as his aura increased dramatically before Katara felt a pressure she had never experienced before in her life.

[No.] The word was heavy. She felt all her plans shatter in her mind as if she was not allowed to think on them! She then stared as the pair got up and left with no thought to ask people to stop them.

It was only when they were finally gone that her breath came back and she found her back covered in sweat. What was that?! What just happened?!

She quickly touched the communication jadestone for the tower but no one knew where the pair went! The gate never saw them pass! How did they get out?!

She felt she had severely underestimated the man and a smile crossed her face. She loved a good fight! She would not give up!