Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1213 - 1212 - Bad Choices

Lind was haggard. He was not alone.

The tower had been able to resist wave after wave of wraiths but while it had stopped, he could still feel them out there.

As battle progressed, he refined his senses enough that he could actively control the artifacts to strike them before they hit the barrier. He also began to understand the concept of parent and child was not quite right.

They were offspring but it was asexual. They literally grew in strength and then replicated a new one from a sole parent.

The wavelengths of each creature revealed that to him. He had learned a lot about spiritual existence and it had improved his soul foundation far more than simple comprehension.

Still, he was locked at low Radiant Tier.

He looked out at the people in the hall outside his forge. He had been left as an unquestioned expert since they all awoke to his changes to the tower. Now, he looked out at the worn out and completely defeated demons barely awake in his vision.

The battle was wearing on them in ways no cultivator had truly prepared for. Their souls were wearing out. His weapons offered protection but it had limits it seemed.

The wraiths were able to accumulate damage it seemed too.

Half the weapons he created were now useless. They were effective but without true Celestial materials, they eventually burned through all the resources they had. The end was not in sight and now something was going on outside the barrier.

There was nothing else they could do. Death was not acceptable and even Lind just wanted to escape but the nature of the Whisper Peaks prevented tearing through space easily.

The strong currents of wind were full of Qi that disrupted even a Radiant Tier. They could not escape successfully even if they combined their efforts.

"Lord Emerald Immortal!" A young demon saluted fist to heart to him. The young man was crimson eyed but full of awe looking at him. Lind sighed as it was a direct result of his efforts to fight monsters they could not withstand on their own.

"What is the report?" A few artifacts had been deployed to see if there was an escape route but the slim youth looked grim.

"The intense flow of elements locks us into half the distance anyone can travel. Even the commander would not clear the flow of wind around us going straight up." Lind sighed as he understood they were truly trapped.

He had nowhere near enough materials to even make a small gateway!

Teleportation arrays needed a lot of support to work as the distance between stable locations was immense. The vast expanse of empty sky had no connecting arrays so very powerful ones were needed at high grade 7 at least.

Even then, the Whisper Peaks was too far for even that! Only a gateway could work but he had no reception point so it was all moot.

"Distribute these." A batch of elixirs appeared in his hands. The materials included many herbs and crystals he could use to make them. He could not satisfy everyone but those fighting could recover.

The demon looked even more shocked and bowed even lower. He was revealing more of his abilities but it could not be helped. He needed them at peak condition.

He also needed to survive.

There was another issue he could not grasp. His health was deteriorating. The cough had progressed to exhaustion and generally not feeling healthy at all.

The more he created or repaired, the worse he felt. His body was fine. His mind was fine. Even his crystal was fine! Nothing was wrong but he was getting sick as an Immortal!

He did not understand it but the little fox girl's golden eyes kept appearing in his mind. He felt a trap closing in but he had no time.

As of 2 weeks ago, he felt something change. His harmony, once recovered thanks to his Celestial Qi, was now suppressed once more.

Something was out there that was far more powerful than the peak Radiant Tiers they had faced thus far.

He retreated to his forge and tried to cultivate. It was an abysmal failure like the last few times. He was flailing but he was not an idiot.

He was being punished. He was being reduced to an invalid due to his rejection of Heaven and Earth. He was sure of it!

He had to push it aside as the situation did not let him dwell too long on it.

"There has to be–" He was about to do some introspection on their options when he was slammed into the floor.

[Weak. So very weak and hollow. Your strange, little dragon. You could leave our food and live but you stay. You are not going to live at this rate.] A voice that made his very soul shiver echoed in his mind.

Lind tried to resist or even locate the source but it was superior to him!

It was not as simple as a Radiant Tier aura! It was an impossible aura he had met only twice in his life!

Divine Realm! It was a Divine Realm aura!

[You are fortunate in so many ways but you are wasting your gifts. The one who captured me and left me in the void is still alive. I can feel it. He has changed in some way and the little dark things feel like a violation Heaven and Earth would wipe from existence normally.] Shock filled Lind.

The Divine Realm did not know about the soulless? It did not know about Fiends?

[Hmm, Fiends. Strange new concept. The True Cultivators are gone, no you wield their Qi. Unwise. That will destroy you if you make a mistake. You exist on an knife edge, little dragon.]

Just like before, his mind was an open book to the Divine Realm. He could hide nothing.

His body was wracked with a vicious cough at that moment and the pressure increased on him. The creak of his bones was clear! His draconic body was like a twig!

[So, you truly are lost. Pity. I had hoped you would be more entertaining. Before I am sent away, I will regain my strength. You have a choice.] Lind already suspected the choices and he was not disappointed. [Leave this place and my little echoes will let you go. Stay and die with the food here.]

The pressure left and Lind took a deep breath. His body began to repair itself but his Qi was sluggish. While there was nothing he could have done if he was still there, Lind missed Haro the most at that moment.

A Divine Realm was like a steam roller to them. Nothing in his arsenal could even slow it down but Heaven and Earth would absolutely act to remove such a being once it flexed its proverbial muscles.

Questions flared in his mind though. It stated it was stuck in a void but how did a Divine Realm just emerge in the 3rd layer of the Celestial Fields? How was it even captured in the first place?!

He pushed it aside as he truly had to make tough choices and all of them were bad. Abandoning the tower was tempting for his current mindset but it was a line even he would not cross.

His strength was paramount but he could not simply leave people to die. That was not strength, just cowardice. Besides, he trusted the words of a predator about as much as any sane person should.

He might get to leave but it prompted a new question. Why? Why did a Divine Wraith want to let him leave?

"The one who captured him? The Great One?" It seemed likely given his suspicions but it seemed to contradict the timeline. Wouldn't the Great One have already been a Fiend by the time they were a Divine Realm?

Theoretically, Divine Realm cultivators lived for billions of years, so why become a Fiend at that point?

"Unless it became a Divine Realm later? Can something cultivate in a void with no resources?" He was pacing as he recovered but an unexpected voice answered him.

"Wraiths can." Her voice was small but she was pale and barely stopped herself from shaking. Of course, the fox girl would feel a terrifying aura like that!

"How do you know?" He asked but then she smiled weakly up at him.

"My race memory nearly spilled over when it reached out. It is a Divine Shadow Wraith and they can consume Qi even in the void. They are the only race that can survive there indefinitely." She shivered and realized it must have been a potent enlightenment forced on her.

He sighed before summoning a teapot and brewed some for her. She calmed as the steaming tea filled her.

"Does your race memory have a way to stop it and survive?" She froze at his question and slowly nodded but she was crying.

"Some can live but others will die. Poison Qi can harm them if laced into the spirit of a person." Lind narrowed his eyes. All the formations and defenses the demons had with poison as part of it had not even slowed them down but fusing a soul with poison would work?

He recalled how devastating he was to the soulless and something finally clicked.

The wraiths should see him like the greatest delicacy! His harmony was fused with his soul which would make it a rich source of food! They were nightmarish creatures but they were naturally born with the right conditions.

He felt like he was about to grasp something important when his throat filled with a sweet taste of blood before he coughed up a massive amount. The disruption broke his enlightenment.

He cursed his luck that his healing body picked that moment but he noticed the fearful look in the little girl's face. He pushed it aside as he had a clue. Fused Qi could harm them but his harmony was not the right kind. Poison worked but he truly doubted a Divine Realm would be bothered by Immortals no matter how many it ate.

Still, it gave him an idea and he patted her head. It was a crazy idea but really, he had no choices left.