Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1042 - 1041 - Beast Kin

The streak of light crossed the sky and thunder rumbled in its wake. Shockwaves began to impact the ground as it descended until it slammed into a jungle. The ancient trees did not even slow it down as it gouged out a trench 10 kilometers long!

The depth was only a kilometer deep once it finally stopped. A column of smoke, dust, and debris rose along the path of impact. All the beasts had scattered at the sheer power of the blast while the plants strong enough to be aware had wept at the loss of life.

At the end of the trail of impact was a bloody and very broken Lind Frey.

He coughed up blood as his draconic recovery and harmony worked in tandem to put him back together. He could not even down an elixir but he knew if he had not been a dragon, he would have been glorified meat paste!

[Master, are you all right?] Haro suddenly spoke up and Lind felt the urge to throttle him for such a stupid question.

[Oh just fine after being launched unceremoniously as a cannonball!] His sarcasm was thick enough to be a weapon at that moment. He took a mental breath to center himself. [Why was I launched like that?]

Haro then relayed exactly what it entailed for a Ruin to move so drastically. Lind was unsure if he could have had a better idea if there was a time crunch but he truly suspected the wife of his Master was behind the method of his removal!

He took a sharp breath as his body finally cracked back into a semblance of shape to finally take a few elixirs to speed his recovery. He had no idea where he was or exactly how much time had passed while he was inside the Ruin.

Time became a variable, usually faster on the inside, but the reverse was just as possible.

He slowly walked out of the crater he had created and was left in awe at the destruction he had created with his 'landing.' He could feel faint auras trying to reach him but the tainted Qi was back in full force wherever he was.

They could not reach him even so close by!

He carefully stretched out his own aura while hiding it from any cultivators he came across but found no humans at all.

He frowned as he saw clear signs of humanity but no humans. He refined his search and found the reason.

"Failed Awakenings? So many?" He saw whole villages of people like Bori and Lan. Yet unlike them the beast characteristics were smooth and uniform. What was he seeing?

[Master, those are not Failed Awakenings. I think they are beast kin. Their ancestors served a great beast who shared their bloodline to give them characteristics. It is very rare to have so many but they would be elite. They can never become beasts but they will receive a boon to their foundations due to it.] Lind felt the need to badly find a library in the 2nd layer.

"Let me guess, not something beasts talk about either?" He felt the affirmation from Haro.

Lind could guess why. Beasts were a proud race so needing humans to serve them to the extent of sharing blood was not something they would brag about. Still, entire villages did seem excessive.

"Does it usually pass on for generations?" Haro went quiet as sometimes he had to confirm if Lind could withstand knowledge.

[Difficult to tell. It would depend on the beast's original bloodline purity, intentions, and further if the beast did not seal the blood in those that received it. That last step is what usually prevents propagation. Given what you are seeing, it is not impossible that the beast that made their ancestors needed a lot of help for the future.] The Corruption was devastating to beasts in the wild.

Lind could well imagine the desperation to preserve their bloodline by any means necessary, even including the result he was seeing now.

He sighed as he grasped some of the fused dirt around him and climbed out onto the jungle surface proper.

He doubted anyone would come by soon as he had not felt a single Immortal in his senses. There were a few Heaven Realms but they were all plants.

They were also not happy with him.

He could only frown as he had no way to restore what was destroyed by his out of control arrival. He was just glad no village was in the way of it. In fact, he noticed he had hit the most barren area of the jungle as well.

It could not be a coincidence. Such accuracy was not possible even for him. Divine Wills were terrifying if they could truly cause such devastation with such accuracy.

He examined his completely blood soaked and shredded robes with a tired sigh. He was down to only a few left! At the current rate, he would have to Forge some new clothes to ensure they did not suffer from the Corruption. It would be a nightmare as he had to purify each material and keep it pure while Forging as well!

The mighty Emperor and founder of the Moebius Sect and new Frey Clan was little more than a pauper in the 2nd layer! Even as a Crystal Tier, he was not the strongest. If not for his harmonic cleansing, he would be weaker than so many beings in the 2nd layer.

The humbling thought brought some clarity to him. He had become arrogant. Arrogance led to mistakes and he could save no one if he was dead.

Pride was a fine thing to have, but it should be tempered that he was not the ultimate power in all of existence. His enemies alone were enough to confirm that.

He cleared his random thoughts and put on new robes before testing his body. It was still sore but quickly back to 100%. He then marched off to see if he could find out where he was.

While he was flying like a bullet in the sky, his aura had been useless while he focused solely on keeping himself alive.

Time was a bit rough to guess but he had only been flying for about the time it took food to cool, if that. He surely could not be too far away, right?

The jungle tried to obstruct him but he simply changed directions as he mapped out the area with his aura. He was about to dive into a particular thicket when he froze.

A child was trapped! He could just barely sense them but they had been running when they fell as he hit the ground! A piece of a tree trunk had slammed on top of them but only trapped them beneath it.

It was not until he had begun truly cataloging the area that he picked them out. Even now, he could barely sense them! They were dying!

His harmony blazed as he tore through the forest back to the start of his impact area.

He saw more destruction and blasted trunks everywhere. He then saw the small creek where a massive green chunk of a tree had slammed over part of it. He narrowed his eyes as he knew why he had trouble sensing the child.

They were just dying, they were being killed! The vines were still alive on the trunk and were sapping the life force from the small body.

"Like Hell I will allow that." It was not the child's fault but his. If it wanted to attack him, he might have actually tried to help restore the tree if he could but going after a poor innocent victim was his bottom line.

Lightning danced around him before slamming into the vibrantly green vines on the trunk. He could hear a scream in his mind but trees were not good conductors normally. They would just burn and shatter, yet his lighting was not attacking the physical vine, but its Qi!

"Let the child go, or you will be destroyed utterly. I will not give you a second chance." Lightning danced along his limbs in bluish white color. The pressure was at his full strength of Crystal Tier.

The vines shivered but ignored him! The child was almost gone.

"Shatter!" Lighting blazed and the world went dim. For a brief moment, all the plants self aware enough to feel it, knew only death awaited them in that blast.

Light returned to the still silent world but the vines were dead! He quickly hopped over the trickling creek and used only a single dragon arm to shove the trunk away.

A small child with rounded dark yellow ears with black spots and a small tail was huddled in a hollow. Remnant vines had pierced their body in several places.

He quickly got out a grade 3 elixir since they were in the Sand Tier. The pale color of their face quickly returned and he breathed a sigh of relief as their vitality returned.

His situation suddenly became clear to him. Since arriving in the Celestial Fields, he seemed to have a knack for finding children in desperate need of help. He looked up at the Heavens in chagrin.

"Are you trying to tell me something?" He did not expect an answer and none was given. "Hmmm, children are the true innocent in the cultivation world but the most exploited. I suppose it could just be statistics given the bad state of affairs."

No one had time for more than their own survival. Anything that dragged them down would be abandoned.

He sighed as he carefully collected the child and noticed the rather fine shirt and pants they wore. He closed his eyes and noticed villagers with similar clothes. At least the child this time had somewhere to call home.

He changed his direction to the northeast and began to wonder how he would be greeted this time.