Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1045 - 1044 - Abuse of Power

Lind was left alone as he made no demands. The woman and Jur did not leave his side as it seemed to be understood he protected the girl.

Based on some talks he was able to listen to, the child had been sent out shortly before he came crashing into the jungle all alone! Child was also not the right term. A baby!

Jur was physically 11 or 12 in appearance but had only been alive for 2 years!

Her progress in cultivation was solely due to the fact the bloodline was so powerful and nothing else! Her human-like features were actually due to human blood being strong enough after a million years of mixing with humans.

It made no sense to him.

People with beast bloodlines existed in his original mortal realm but Haro explained that after a certain purity and quality, bestail features could be born. It would not be common, but occurred enough to be known.

Normally, the ancestral beasts would help the descendant purify their beast bloodline if they were deemed worthy. They have the ability to transform into a human their entire life and greater intelligence so there were benefits to that process.

Essentially, the more powerful the level of the world he reached, the more varied life would become. The stronger bloodlines would start to shine and he would see partial beasts but the current village was essentially a crime.

A beast had been captured in the Heaven Realm long ago and bled intentionally to steal the benefits it could give to humans.

Now, another human had come along with more power and was stealing it once more!

Haro informed him that was severely rare as usually fellow beast clans would exterminate any humans or demons that did that. Rocs and phoenixes would become instant allies if they discovered a village like the one he had.

The Corruption had given an opportunity to them but Lind felt ill now. If he destroyed the Fiend facility and it cleared up the Corruption, the massacres that would be unleashed would be on a level not seen since the Corruption first spread across the world.

Without tainted Qi, he knew beast populations would find out about a village like the one he was in and, like the Starhide Wolves, would bring revenge or claim old territories lost in the last million years.

The night passed uneventfully but the trio with stunted wings stayed nearby. The old man now truly feared him but the other 2 simply obeyed him. He disliked those that could calmly kill or save with no regard for a thought in their head.

As the sun began to crest the horizon, the sounds of the nightly hunting went silent. It was too quick to be natural.

He widened his senses through the shadowy world of the jungle below to find a Shard Tier woman in black and jade green robes dragging a ragged person behind her. His eyes narrowed as he noticed they were missing their hands!

The ears that should have been on the top of their skull were also modified to still be functional but clipped away.

Based on Jur, she should have had a tail but there was no longer one there. Her foundation was shaky at best but just barely in the Sliver Tier. A forced advancement was somehow done to his experienced eyes.

He was unsure of the color of the areas where fur was supposed to be but the same straw yellow hair made it clear who the woman was.

"Haro, would the Sky Panther have made it hard for her descendents to propagate?" No verbal words came but a sense of him being right. A powerful Immortal beast would have the power to control their bloodline if it was not willingly given.

The story the old man gave him was so full of holes it made sense. Likely they had to have a drug or pill that could allow them to force a transformation on their captive to produce a child. Anger rose in him but the perpetrators were long dead.

The success in getting the beast kin status did not help during the Corruption. They were dying as much as anyone else beyond the Law Bindings.

Their gamble had not paid off at all!

Still, he was torn which was worse when compared to the monster approaching now.

"Where is my new tool?! You were ordered to send me that little thing once she was old enough to walk. Why was she not at the pick up point?!" A rather grating voice was projected audibly. He narrowed his senses and saw an artifact that was a disc right in front of her mouth.

"An alternative to telepathy? Not bad." The Forger in him itched to examine that artifact but he pushed aside as he saw both Jur and the woman flinch. The woman fiercely held on to Jur while the girl began to whimper.

"I told you before. I mean you no harm. Do not leave this place." He stood up and dusted off his crimson robes before he flew out into the air. He then stayed there. The woman at first sneered at him but blood began to slowly drain from her face as he did not move.

[I give you one chance. Let the Priestess go and your death will be painless. Do not test me, I am not in the mood.] The more he learned about the situation, the angrier he was getting.

His emerald eyes were cold but the woman tried to hide farther in the shadows of the early morning light. Her hair was streaked with gray but her black hair was bright as day to him.

"How can someone be flying?" Her quiet question was clear to his ears and told him her answer. He vanished to all senses and she tried to run but then found her arm missing!

Blood flew in the air as she was slammed into the trunk of the nearest tree by an emerald scaled arm.

The arm attached to the leash of the nearly broken and malnourished Priestess Chu was on the ground. She tried to speak but froze as a powerful aura slammed outward from Lind.

"I believe I said I gave you one chance. While demons are a bloodthirsty lot, they are not about that!" He pointed at the Priestess' body. Ruthless as they could be, demons were direct creatures.

They would kill and maim enemies while possibly performing horrific rituals, but so long as Fiends were not influencing them, they were not like humans. Only humans were needlessly cruel like that.

Fiends were not even needed as Lind was more than aware.

"You can't do this! I am part of the Jade Dream–" He increased the pressure on her throat but death was not soon coming.

"I am well aware and do not care. You should be able to tell that I am a Crystal Tier Immortal. Combine that with the fact I can fly should tell you what kind of power I have in the world right now. Your damned war has claimed enough and I ended it. So now you will tell me exactly what you have been doing with the bloodline of the Sky Panthers and you will do it now." The dark tone in his voice left no mercy but what followed made all in range to hear tremble in their souls.

Many made the mistake of thinking Lind was a scholarly production master who only fought to protect his loved ones but they would be sorely mistaken.

Lind had the naivete forcibly stripped from him over his long life. Morals were important but mercy was only for those worthy of receiving it.

In the short time he had been in the 2nd layer, Lind had slowly accumulated frustration and anger at the state of the world. The vile powers had thrived because the powerful allowed it. The resources for Law Bindings were not cheap nor easy to maintain.

The fact so many powers were protected by them had actually made him hope the desperate situation had made a powerful alliance come together like the Fiends had in the Heaven Realm Lands.

The difference being that the lack of freedom made them take it more seriously, but instead the same sins and crimes were just going as normal. Bandits were rampant and things like the Shandor Syndicat could take an entire kingdom with no reprisal.

The wilds were left to rot but he easily spread and erected new defenses for Amberscale City. So he knew humans and demons left the beasts to die that could have been allies.

Finally, the bloodline array showed how truly messed up the layer was.

Nothing he did would help until he wiped the sources of that array into dust!

Yet, the array did not excuse what he found in this village! It did not excuse what this woman was doing. All the piled up frustrations were vented at that moment in the myriad ways Cyntilla and Shoti taught him. He did not turn away from the darkness in his wives. It was part of them and he strove to understand it.

Back then, he could never imagine he would be using such knowledge to reduce a human being to a blubbering wreck. Blood stained the trunk, roots, and his robes.

{You always wear crimson to hide the blood on you, beloved, but you do not need to let it be a weight. You are not an evil man. You are more terrifying. You are a moral man.}

Lysanna's words came back to him as he finally let the woman die. He had not even gotten her name as he did not care to know it. The villagers were all gathered around in terror. The pair he told to wait had not come for which he was grateful.

"Always the same crimes. Nothing ever changes." After a lot of screaming, she had told him what he wanted. Essentially, she had been trying to extract and purify the Sky Panther bloodline for the same reason as the villagers but to make a pill out of it to do it. An alchemist back in her camp was working with her.

The missing limbs were not just about control but consumed to refine the blood! They were after Jur because her purity was higher!

He turned back and burned the corpse to ash without hurting the tree. The arm was also disintegrated with a glance. No one said a word as he gently picked up Priestess Chu and he vanished.

His eyes told them their fate.

[You will pay for all you have done.]