Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1037 - 1036 - Outer Core

Lind was slow to wake up. His mind felt like cold mush if he was being honest. He had a vague notion that he had been under some kind of strain while he was unconscious.

"Divine Inheritances are mean." He spoke aloud as cold metal greeted his hands. He slowly brought his vision into focus until he found himself in a corridor that would have made more sense in a dungeon than a Ruin.

The dark metal was beyond him entirely which meant he was somewhere important. Was the new trial a maze? He then saw something unexpected.

One of the hatches near him was clearly labeled.

{Outer Core Shield 1}

"Outer Core of what? Is the Ruin the very heart of the Inheritance?! Is that why so much survived?" That made no sense to him but he could only guess. He could also be facing a trial about some point in history yet it did not match what he had faced thus far.

He sighed and infused Qi into the hatch. The door glowed to his eyes until a hiss was heard and it swung open. The instant it did so, he felt a massive wave of pressure wash over him but he was able to still move easily.

A human would have been crushed.

He stepped inside and was left in awe of what he could perceive.

Formations were layered heavily around him. It was not a shield to keep people out but something in!

A storm of power that left him feeling like a tiny speck an ant would tower over. How could such power ever be contained let alone exist?!

He saw the power flow inside the barrier he knew even at full power he could not put a scratch into it! He backed out and closed the hatch. The corridor was peaceful but he pondered as he carefully tried to examine the area.

His aura was restricted but not by a seal. It was restricted by the pressure all around him!

"A facility of some kind. If this is a way to check on the shield, then there should be a way to get deeper." He began to suspect he had reached his goal, or at least the right direction.

He went down the corridor and found stairs going up and down that would not have been out of place in a factory on Earth. The quality was very high and there was not a single sign of dust anywhere.

His eyes narrowed as he occasionally felt a surge of power press on him but he could not determine where the source came from. He walked for possibly days until he was forced to start using the stairs as he only saw more doors to inspect the shield.

The stairs took at least 3 incense sticks worth of time. The corridor became invisible to him about half way up or down but still he only came across more inspection hatches.

There were no numbers nor any other indication of how to tell his progress.

He stopped worrying about the time it took and tried to figure out any pattern to the doors. They did not seem fixed or regular but he always came across at least 1 a day if he did not use a stairwell. That seemed awfully far apart for inspections!

He pulled out a jade slip and began imprinting the map he had so far. It took a month before he slowly began to notice that the doors did not line up above each other in parallel at all.

"Formation eyes are the doors!" He was in awe of it. Rather than make flags or other kinds of anchors a massive formation would need, they used the door locations themselves!

It was an efficient and unexpected use but prompted many questions. It was obvious his opening them did not hurt the formation but that eye would be missing until he closed it again. Did the other doors compensate while that happened?

He did not know as he did not even grasp the basics of the formation! He could see its main effect but something that massive would not need so many eyes to simply contain the power!

He began to study the formation as he mapped it out. Such a construct may have no entrance to the deeper parts but the labels clued him in that there should be an inner core if there was an outer one.

Whether he could reach such a thing remained to be seen but after almost a year he finally began to glimpse the pattern.

"The main belt is 5 floors below and it extends 40 floors in both directions. There is more above and below but no stairs to go any higher or lower." There had been no roof or bottom that he could perceive but the highest and lowest floor only took him a week to circle after using some light crystals to mark his passage.

That put it at a little over 160 kilometers at the pace he had been walking at the narrow floors.

He had yet to make a full circuit of the middle floor but he gave up after getting a rough idea of what he was dealing with.

He currently had several jade slips arranged around him.

[Master, I think this a variation of the Trapped Bilevel Formation. It is often used for construction dealing with powerful water or other liquid flows of material. I admit this one is far more profound than the formation I know of.] Haro finally spoke up.

The Divine Ruin was doing wonders for his recovery after dealing with the tainted Qi. It could not harm his ring at all but it slowed down his Qi absorption the same as Lind.

Both of them had enjoyed the pure Qi of the Ruin gladly.

"Does that mean you know what I am looking for?" He felt Haro extend his senses at the jade slips before pulling back.

[I am not certain but this arrangement was designed with inspection in mind. I think we are looking at a regulator of the power for the entire Inheritance. It could not be completely sealed as a balance has to be maintained carefully. You will want to look about 20 floors above the central line for an open path.] Lind was impressed. Haro normally did not contribute to his knowledge above his realm so much but current circumstances were special.

Also, Haro admitted the particular formation was actually far beyond what he knew. He was simply drawing parallels from his experience.

It took him the better part of a day to get to the desired floor. He then set out in a direction as he would reach what he wanted eventually.

After a month of walking on that floor he found a different entrance. Rather than the hatches he was used to, a massive square was open with power flowing outward calmly.

Compared to his usual experience, it was like a gentle rain on his skin as he saw a new corridor heading inward. He took a breath and moved along it until he froze once more.

The wild storm of power he had experienced was funneled into the corridor around him but all that strength was used to flow outward gently. How was that possible?!

He could not fathom any of it at all even with all he had seen thus far in his life.

He observed the interior of the shield at long last and just looked at it. Power unbridled but he had no idea where it came from still. Even in the calm corridor he sat in, he could not even put a dent into the streams of energy as they stormed around him.

It was like being surrounded by a raw storm at all times yet left in the calm at the center. No winds touched him but the gentle pressure as always. His curiosity got the better of him and he tried to touch the perimeter of the dark metal railing around him.

He was sent flying by a charged bolt instantly. He crashed into the other side with his backside and it just spiraled from there. Pain lanced his entire body as blood flew from his back and orifices.

Haro suddenly appeared and caught him in his arms.

"That was very foolish, Master. You can't touch that without nearly dying." Lind was healing but stared at Haro with a glare.

"A warning would have been nice." Haro cracked a smile and he could see the thought in his eyes.

Lind would have tried anyway.

"What is that anyway?" Haro became grim and shook his head.

"You are not ready. I have seen your limits on higher knowledge. This would possibly kill you." Lind took the warning seriously. Still, he was curious.

He took an elixir of Restoration to recover and then began to walk down the corridor. The storm on either side raged but he was fine.

It was time to face the inner core!