Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 104 - 103 - Karmic Choice

"How are you resisting me you ant?!" The old man's face was now twisted and rage flowed off of his spirit. The woman now looked coldly at Lind as well but the pressure was still crushing him. The emerald flame of his harmony only allowed him to hang on.

Lind had no time to contemplate or comprehend. He had to fight with everything he had. He would never see Cyntilla, QIng, Shoti, or anyone he loved ever again if he died here. He would not let some aged monster wear his body like a new coat either!

"You may understand the 6 elements you cultivated, but 6 elementals are different. We have more than you can possibly comprehend." It was a half truth but Lind had no doubt about it being accurate. Only a 6 elemental that worked with their harmony could possibly fully control a dantian with 6 primary elements.

Lind knew, however, that his paltry level compared to the Immortal was nothing. If the man was alive, Lind would not even be able to blink before his life was snuffed out. His Qi even now was rapidly depleting and he had no time to drop a formation plate and empower it.

He was going to die.

That fact burned in his heart and he desperately ran his mind into overdrive as he pushed his Sky Touch to its maximum. A soul is part of the spirit Qi, thus he could touch it! Lind felt like he was pushing back a landslide and it was only a futile resistance.

A sneer crossed the old man's face as he began to advance on Lind. Lind stumbled as he could no longer focus on his physical body.

"Hold him and do not let him escape!" A pair of inhuman arms ensnared Lind but a thought passed through his mind. They were afraid he would escape. Why? Why were they afraid of that?

Lind felt the pressure increase but he went over everything they had revealed and then he remembered. This was a backup plan. This was not what these monsters intended. They intended for another Immortal to fall into this trap originally.

Lind realized that planning to use the Ruin as a backup was a desperate play, not a well thought out chance. There must have been more to the setup that had to be sacrificed to keep the core functions in place.

If that was the case, he needed to push that somehow. He needed a miracle.

A sudden memory crashed into his mind. A stone dral beast core woven into a glowing vial. A peak Heaven grade 2 elixir! He had those! It was a desperate play but it was all he could do. He was dead either way.

Lind partitioned a part of his mind to his storage ring and carefully had his air and fire Qi prepare. He would likely only have one shot. Lind forced out a large portion of his remaining Qi into a fierce attack that only made dark laughter greet him.

"Pathetic but I will admit you are not wrong to resist, only foolish. I will enjoy being in your body and perhaps I will see if one of your companions will satisfy my love as well." Lind let his rage burn but did not lose control. The storm of Qi was nearly visible to all, but it was nothing compared to the ever closing in feeling of being pushed from his body.

Lind pushed his Sky Touch to its limit and finally summoned what he needed. Four vials appeared by his ring and quickly zoomed to his mouth as the stoppers burned. Stunned surprise crossed the old man's face but before anything else could happen, Lind swallowed all 4 vials at once!

"STOP YOU FOOL! YOU WILL KILL YOURSELF!" The pressure lessened considerably but did not disappear as a flow of Qi tried to enter his body. Lind, however, had been keeping Qi out of his body his entire life. There was no way in unless he allowed it! The surprised look on the Immortal Artificer was the last thing Lind saw as pain surged in his meridians and dantain.

All 6 elements flowed into his body like tornadoes being sucked out of the air. Instead of tempering, however, Lind channeled it all into his harmony. He knew that only the totality of his existence was tied to the emerald flame and he had to give it everything right now!

Blood flowed like rivers from his eyes, ears, nose, mouth and so on. His bones creaked and his muscles tore as the torrential flow of Qi ripped through his body. Ironically, the modification to his meridians made them much stronger and Lind noticed oddly they seemed to only become stronger as the Qi flowed in them.

The hands holding Lind suddenly let go but he had no time to consider why. Lind let his harmony burn to the skies and emerald light bathed the Immortal Artificer.

"I AM NOT YOUR TOOL OR TOY YOU DEVIL! GO TO HELL!" The blue sky was rent open as power far beyond expectation exploded out of Lind. The emerald flame was not like a true fire, it was a fundamental force of existence that not even Lind understood, but the threat to his life was clear and thus it destroyed all he considered an enemy.

"NO! NO! STOP THIS! You will ruin everything!!! I don't want to die, not yet!" The Immortal Artificer screamed as whatever contained his soul clearly was damaged and he began to disperse. The woman next to him was screaming as well but her tombstone was her vessel and had been long shattered.

Lind did not stop. He kept channeling until his emerald flame was consuming his own body as well. Tears could not exist but Lind felt them in his soul. He was going to die but these monsters were going with him!

"I am sorry, my beloved family and friends. I am so sorry." His last words were lost in the Qi storm but the tranquil meadow was broken as violent energies came from outside. Black lightning struck everywhere and shattered the Immortal formations as if they were twigs.

The last thing Lind saw was a blinding flash of light and the world came to an end.

****

Nadia was pacing on the platform. She had spent most of the year here hoping Taren Cord would return but the year was nearly up and there was no sign of him. Her silver hair was now cut short as the length had made the stifling heat too much to bear for even her World Realm physique.

"I reckon the poor guy died. I know he had 6 elements but he was only in the Soul Realm." One of the other guards whispered but Nadia whipped her head towards him. She was about to yell when all of them froze.

Those that were at the Gold Tier instantly felt sweat break out on their brows as memories of this feeling came roaring back while others only felt fear they could not explain. Dark clouds began to gather but compared to tribulation clouds, these were sinister.

"RUN! Everyone to the escape boats now!" Nadia made a swift decision. No one argued as boats were assembled and set up quickly. They were part of the structure and not meant for long term use, only quick escapes. Now, everyone moved faster than ever before as the feeling of doom continued to rise.

Ruins usually did have dramatic collapses if they still had enough energy. Considering this one altered the flow of time, it was likely this one still retained the majority of its energy even after thousands of years.

As Nadia looked back, she burned into her heart the loss of such a promising cultivator. The secret realm had a place she desperately wanted to explore but only one with all 6 elements in the Soul Realm could do it. Now, it looked like that possibility had slipped through her fingers.

Black lightning smashed into the platform. The once proud and formidable structure was splintered into oblivion on the first strike. All the cultivators present felt terror in their hearts. This was not a tribulation or destruction. This was karmic retribution!

"By the spirits! Keep moving! We cannot be near this place any longer!" Nadia made the Gold Tiers push themselves hard and they hardly needed the encouragement. Karmic retribution was a terrifying attack from the Heavens. It could render a cultivator erased from existence if one was too close to it, let alone the target.

The small array of boats used all techniques of water and air to get the small boats moving faster and faster away from the end of the world as they knew it. The waters at the heart of the clouds had been wiped away by the black lightning as an immense pressure exploded outward.

The aura of the Ruin nearly crushed all life in a 5 kilometer radius but the karmic cloud obliterated it as if it was nothing. The most powerful pressure any of them had ever felt was nothing to this destructive black lightning.

"May the spirits watch over you, Taren Cord. I know you must have found something horrible in that place." The strange actions of the Ruin combined with what she now saw revealed that this Ruin was a dark place. It had happened before in history.

A Ruin had actually been using the dead to empower a horribly creature from the Heaven Realm but before it could be unleashed, the Inheritance had been broken. The beast survived but the second an exploring team released it, karmic retribution had come crashing down on it.

A near disaster for the mortal realm had been quashed because whatever defenses or arrays hid the beast from the Heavens had been broken long ago when it became a Ruin.

Now, Nadia watched as a once reliable resource of high realm beasts was smashed into that same oblivion.

"Sub-leader, look!" One of the women on her boat made Nadia look and saw an incongruity in the dark clouds. A silver cloud faintly glowed right at the center. She had no idea what it meant but a golden beam suddenly pierced down into the black lightning.

Where the powerful Qi of the Ruin and the structure they had built were wiped from existence, the black lighting parted from the golden light as if burned. It couldn't be!

"Karmic Restitution! He is alive!" Nadia felt tears fall. She had lamented she got the boy killed but the spirits were really listening, he was alive!

The golden light retracted and a shape was within it. Hope blossomed as the silver cloud moved outside of the terrifying black clouds that now unleashed a massive strike. Elemental lighting burst out but was quickly dispersed. Whatever was left in that Ruin was now stone dead.

The silver cloud hovered near Nadia's boat as it slowly lowered a male body completely naked to the deck. His skin was burnt in many places but he was breathing. What made Nadia stunned was his hair was now dirty blonde and only a ring and golden badge survived where everything else was destroyed.

The ring had to be a storage ring, nothing else could explain its survival, but the golden badge should be such a fantastical artifact. Nadia picked it up and her eyes went wide. Grade 3 advanced elixir master! Not many powers would know the symbol for the profession, but the Marina Adventurers Guild was part of the Sapphire Auction House information network.

"Lind Frey. You were Lind Frey." Nadia quickly summoned a cloak from her bracelet and covered the boy. Some of the guards' eyes flickered with greed at the ring but the gold badge stopped dark thoughts cold. Only a brain dead idiot would attack a grade 3 production master.

"Get us to HQ, now!" The guards shook their heads and focused on getting the boat away. Nadia glanced up to see a tiny gold thread fall from the silver cloud before it disappeared. The thread landed on her and she felt amazing. She had made the right choice!

"Mirella is going to kill me." Nadia lamented that they would be hiding the boy as there were many requests for his location from people she knew were not respectable. If the Heavens had judged him worthy, she was not going to argue with them!