Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1222 - 1221 - Defiance of the Heart

Lind had been angry but seeing his mother nearly lose her hand cooled his mind. She had to cultivate after that and he realized she was still consolidating her foundation! She had only been a Radiant Tier for no more than 3 years at most.

She also had zero weaving ability. She was an alchemist down to her core.

He had many questions that he slowly organized as he paced around the now cramped cavern. It was never meant to be more than a safe haven from the storm for just him.

The flames made by the weavings were fine but the space was a bit tight for 2 people. He checked the sigils but nothing was changed. Everything was working normally, plus he had entered without an issue so what was wrong?

He let his Eyes follow the sigils and traces only he could see. Even other Maesters would only be able to perceive with their aura a weaving they had created but his Eyes let him see it directly.

It was how he was able to make such complex and powerful weavings.

The interwoven sigils confirmed the functions he wanted and were all working perfectly. Why was he being locked in?

He raised his hand and the instant it touched the weaving, he felt a solid wall once more. He carefully inspected the flow of Qi as earth, air, and water created a powerful barrier with light, fire and darkness ready to repulse him if he forced the issue.

It was all normal and he could not find why it was reacting to him.

"Lind, you need to–" A visceral wave of anger rose in him but he quickly brought it under control. He did not want to talk to her. He did not want to try and reason with her.

She was the very first chain Heaven and Earth put on him but he also could not confront her. She had raised him and never asked him to do the things he had done later. She had simply been a good mother.

Unlike anyone he met later, where unlikely encounters and circumstances played a role, she was a good mother that chose to raise her son. He had a question he had never asked and with what he suspected now, assumed Heaven and Earth had influenced her.

A sudden whack to the back of his skull snapped him out of his thoughts.

"I do not know when you became so rude but whatever you were thinking was uncalled for." A flash of memory came to him as a much younger Lind had let his teenage hormones let his sarcasm loose in his mind.

She had always known when he was being mentally rude.

A ghost of a smile crossed his face before pain lanced from his chest. He fell to his knees as blood flowed from his nose.

The feeling of weakness passed and he looked up to see his mother looking at him in confusion.

"How do you not understand what is wrong with you?" She made it sound like it should be so clear! He had exhausted all avenues of ailments to no avail!

She knelt down and pointed right at his chest. A heart demon? It had been his first concern but no remedy worked to alleviate the symptoms. Further, he had no black outs nor issues that any demon had told him.

"Your Dao–" He slapped her hand away. His mind recoiled. The barrier and cramped space did not let him escape. She grasped his chin firmly in her hand and her dark eyes did not let him look away.

"Stop being a child! You know what is wrong but think it is something else? Your own weavings are telling you the answer and that you are at the edge of the cliff. One more step and you will die, Lind!" His eyes narrowed as the anger he suppressed finally exploded.

"That is a cage! Heaven and Earth are using me as it always has! It used you and all my family! How many died for me?! How many took the hit so I could keep living?! Really, Mira Frey, do you know who I actually am?!" The use of her name shocked her.

It was like poison was leaving his soul. He had focused on his strength but he also faced the woman who should have questioned it all at the beginning!

She looked at him in rage as well. At that moment, no one could deny the familial resemblance.

"You have your old memories. I knew of that long ago. You are still my son." Lind was not surprised as he had revealed who he was to his family and never forbidden telling his mother or other trusted members.

A reincarnated cultivator was not unheard of. It was sometimes done intentionally but the success rate of that was abysmal. Far more often was Heaven and Earth causing it for unknown reasons.

Theories about karma or other factors could not be proven as no consistent pattern has ever been known due to the likelihood not all reincarnators were known publicly.

"I am not talking about that! I am talking about keeping me at all! Why?! Why in the world would you ever keep the spawn of that being?!" His emerald eyes burned but he was sent flying into the barrier by a slap he had not even been able to perceive.

Had his senses become so dull a human could strike him at will?

The cold dark eyes pierced him to his core. She was angry, hurt, but most of all, disappointed.

A flash of his original mom overlaid on Mira and he felt pain twice over. He was acting like a child but he just wanted to be free. Free of the sacrifices and the future he could not choose.

"You think Heaven and Earth forced me? That I was tricked to keep my precious son? Even before I went into that room, I knew what was going to happen to the very end! I intentionally went there and you are trying to say that man was just part of a larger plan to let you be born?!" Her words cut him but he nodded anyway.

It was exactly what he had determined given his history. There were too many coincidences and fortunate outcomes. There were simply too many.

A kick to his gut caught him off guard. What was wrong with his senses?! It was like he had no sense of self preservation at all.

"You are a child! All that you have experienced and you reduce your loved ones and choices to a scheme of Heaven and Earth?! So what? You are cutting off the world to get stronger to make it pay?!" The fact she so quickly determined his goals spoke volumes of how well she knew him even with all the time apart.

Tears formed but he slowly stood up.

"I am supposed to be dead. I know I had close calls that can justifiably be put down to luck or even karma but that last time, incomplete souls I freed were sacrificed so I could live. I was then allowed to face a tribulation when I was nowhere near trying. Where did all that come from if not Heaven and Earth?" His defeated voice seemed to deflate her anger.

He spoke about the Sifter and what he faced there. When he got to the choice the Great One gave him, she put a hand to her lips in horror. She knew of Hei and Zao's state but not that Lind was why they were in danger at all!

He felt like had revealed enough and sat down. The tension was not gone but a lot of the passion had gone out of her eyes.

"So, you decided to change and defy your Dao Heart? Did you think there would be no consequences?" Her question was finally asked and he nearly ripped his physical heart out but it would do no good.

She knelt in front of him with a deadly seriousness.

"You are an Immortal. Your path was forged by you, and you alone. Did Heaven and Earth make you form your Dao Heart or did you?" He winced at her question. Even a child tempering their body knew the truth of that question.

As a cultivator advanced, they would have to learn what they were good at and what worked for them. The key step to becoming an Immortal, however, was grasping Laws and for that a cultivator would have long had to decide what kind of Dao to follow.

It would be basic concepts like being a warrior, priest, and so forth. It was deeply personal but the theory was that once decided, an Immortal would not be able to easily change. It was why it was so critical to them.

If an Immortal acted in defiance of their Dao Heart, it was believed to be fatal. Lind was facing that very fact but he hated it! He hated the fact he had no freedom as Heaven and Earth punished him for defying them!

"So, you did know but continued anyway." Her voice snapped him out of his ruminations. He saw her hand moved and prepared for another slap but instead she placed it on top of his head.

She looked at him in disappointment still but it felt different.

"Why didn't you come to me? Why didn't you reach out? Do you think he will take us away too?" He flinched at the last question as she smiled sadly at him. "They lived good lives. They enjoyed the last few hundred years with bodies we were able to build for them."

Pain lanced his chest and the tears began to flow. She pulled him into an embrace and time became fluid. The world began to fall away and darkness closed in but it was not empty.

At the heart of it was an emerald flame. It was a bonfire in the heart of darkness. He slowly approached and noticed there were 2 figures sitting around it.

He got close enough to recognize the 2 men calmly sitting and taking in the warmth of the blaze.

One was a dirty blonde man with pale skin and crimson robes emblazoned with a red crane on black background in flight. The other was a pink faced young man in his late 20s in a loose button up white shirt and dark slacks. His dark hair and pale blue eyes glanced over at Lind.

He looked down and saw the emerald scales on his skin but he was in human form still.

"You are late." The original him spoke as the human Lind also looked over. It was weird but he sat down and wondered what was going to come next.