novelraw Chapter 1223 - 1222 - Past Wisdom
Chapter 1223 - 1222 - Past Wisdom
Lind had no idea if time still flowed but the blaze never faltered with no sign of fuel being consumed either. It was just the 3 versions of himself and the harmonic flame.
"You are going to apologize, you know that, right?" His human self spoke up in the crimson robes. His dark green eyes were firm but Lind nodded.
"It is alright to be annoyed by everything but you let the pain of loss cloud your mind again. It happened when Christine died, remember?" The flash of his original mother came again and he slowly nodded. It was not his proudest moment.
He had only been a teenager but before he was fairly good in school. After his classmate died, his grades plummeted as nothing mattered. They were not close but he had been a friend.
It happened to everyone eventually but it was his first similar age person dying. It was also a pure accident.
No one to blame but bad luck was not easy for him to accept and he lashed out. He tried to cut off the world but he thought he had moved long past such mistakes.
A snort made Lind look up to see his original self sneering at him.
"You are still yourself. You also know humans are repetitive bastards. We have explicit examples of what not to do yet we do it anyway in every generation. What would make your new life different from the old that you could just avoid mistakes?" Lind felt weird being chastised by himself yet he knew it was deeper than that.
"What is this place?" Both versions looked at him as if he was slow.
"You have let yourself get too distracted. You are consumed by your goals when they should only be motivation, not an all consuming need. You are where you have always been." Such a cryptic answer made Lind nearly punch the human version.
"You left me behind when you were reborn." He snapped his head to his original self. Why was it suddenly saying that?
"You left me behind when you became a dragon." His human self spoke but it only confused him more. Why were they saying it like he had abandoned them?
""Because you did."" They answered in unison.
[Just as you tried to abandon me.] A voice came from the emerald flames that made Lind jump. His harmony spoke? [You are more lost than we feared.]
A dragon appeared in the flames! Its sinuous body was much simpler than his current form.
It was a sinuous body but he realized what it was. The True Lord!
It slowly emerged but stayed inside the flames. What did that mean?
"Did you ever wonder what happened to the others? The people from Earth that keep getting reborn due to that bastard's actions?" His original self spoke but he had to admit he had wondered why there was so much evidence everywhere of Earth tech being replicated but only one still being alive in a false Inheritance.
What happened to the rest of them?
[The same as you. They questioned why and came to answers they did not like. Some you know the fate of but others can only be guessed. The existence of so much history has been lost yet having lived so long, you should understand.] Lind slowly nodded at the dragon's words.
People on Earth were sometimes obsessed with not dying. Cultivation granted that wish but the reality was so harsh. Friends and family still existed and the relationships were hard to maintain but the sheer loss was enormous.
When faced with a true enemy trying to kill him and all he loves, Lind thought he had accepted it. Instead, he let it break him. Yet, that motivation had kept him going for so long before that.
"Is this some kind of trial or is this the spirits trying to teach me something?" He was suspicious but a sneer on his original self was mirrored almost perfectly on the other 2.
"I think I was smarter when I was younger. You are an Immortal. You made this place but then abandoned it when the journey became hard. Figure it out already." A slow realization came to him.
"My Dao Heart." The moment he spoke, the emerald flames increased as the darkness receded partially. LIfe bloomed near the fire with grass, bushes, and other plant life.
The vast majority remained dark.
The 3 versions looked around and nodded as if they expected it.
[We have been trying to get your attention while holding onto life. You did not make it easy.] The dragon looked more lively as Lind slowly understood. An Immortal was not as simple as a mortal.
Mental powers were obvious but the consequences could not be underestimated. When touching on the Laws of Heaven and Earth and eventually all he had took on with reviving Celestial Qi, it was clear he had delved into something few Immortals grasped.
He had succeeded not just in forming his Dao Heart but laying a firm foundation he then tried to abandon. Without starting over completely, he had essentially tried to kill himself.
It was possible to start over but even he could not conceive the price to pay for him to do so.
Thus, his health began to deteriorate and his cultivation came to a standstill. He was trying to force his cultivation down a path had no access to. He was never about strength for strength's sake or vengeance.
He wanted to know how 6 elementals worked. He wanted to stop people from being treated as tools. He wanted to support his family and friends with all his skills. He also just wanted to know the truth about what allowed him to be reborn in the first place!
Each thought caused rumbling as a lush forest appeared around him. Stark darkness was still beyond but he felt better than he had in centuries.
"Why are you outside the harmony?" He looked at the 2 humans but they looked at him like he was still an idiot.
"We just discussed this. Understand what you have done." Lind heard his original self and slowly thought it over. He then slowly smiled sadly as he looked up.
"I denied you." They nodded but then stood up slowly. With the dragon, the trio looked up and angrily unleashed Arts.
Fine threads were severed that Lind had not even felt.
"We do agree on one thing. People should be free to choose. Fate wants to tie us down but we refuse." A feeling of peace washed over him. The 2 humans then shimmered before the emerald flames took them back in.
[Better. One more thing remains but you cannot solve it here.] Lind looked deep into the dragon's emerald eyes and nodded. The darkness completely receded as the world came back to him.
Lind found himself back in the cavern with the storm raging. His mother held his head in her lap as she cultivated. He felt remorse for his harsh words but he also felt something else.
The bottleneck was gone, yet he had to do something.
"I was making my life difficult." The Great One knew. He suspected the Great One had gambled on Lind being disaffected and he had won that bet. How many had that bastard led to their own destruction?
He walked up to his barrier and smirked at his idiocy. The weavings were tied to his soul which had formed his Dao Heart. If there was disharmony, he would not be recognized at all!
He also grasped something fundamental as he looked back at his mother. His weaving treated her the same as him.
She was always able to breach any defense he put up! He would have to address that later but for now, he had something to do. His past had reminded him what he wanted to be.
Emerald eyes blazed as he shot into the storm. His body grew and a sinuous dragon with 3 horns and a long mane emerged from the Icy Path. His Eyes and Touch were pushed to the limit but he was just getting ready.
His claws glowed as he began to move at a rapid pace. He had been trying to find the source for so long the hard way when there had been an easier way.
His harmony refined Fiend Qi back to natural Qi. He had known that for a long time but never truly grasped why that was. Only after seeing Celestial Qi and how his harmony could work with it did he finally understand.
Fiend Qi was an abuse! It defied nature! More than anything, it was used to violate all life when originally it was to understand life!
Thus, the Fiends had given him all he needed if he was not stubborn about continuing his journey. Emerald traces connected sigils fused with Laws until a massive weaving exploded outward.
No grand attack or protection appeared but fine emerald threads. He felt exhausted but in the best way as his Eyes followed them.
Magnetism was a good example of his plan. Rather than trying to physically trace them back, use the soulless laced with Fiend Qi to reveal the truth.
The number of threads increased until some began to glow. He quickly touched them and saw battlefields. The horde was engaged in various places but he ignored them as the demons were persevering.
He kept going until at long last he had a map of the existing horde to the point he found an oddity. An empty expanse of no threads.
It was beyond his aura normally but the weaving sent a tendril of a thread right at it. The instant it touched the outer edge, it had a reaction.
The air shimmered as a massive weaving of Fiend Qi was revealed! Until the thread touched it, it was just empty air but a black mountainous region flashed before the thread overloaded.
It was far to the north but the brief glimpse shocked him. There were various dark mountains but at the center was an artificial chasm he recognized.
The inverted mountain! It came from there! He finally found the final area but just as he was about to celebrate a wave of danger washed over him.
The Heavens rumbled in anger but a slash of energy as dark as midnight came right at him. The power was far above him but he glared at it as emerald flames built up and he roared as the 2 attacks met.
The sky shattered into the void but Lind did not stop. The Icy Path storm was pulled into the void yet he was fine. The attack was eventually spent as Heaven itself crushed it.
"So, there is a Sovereign Tier there." He knew the origin was not threatened by Heaven at all. The cracks into the void healed at a rapid pace. He looked grim as the danger was real. If he was in front of that being, he would not know how he died. The leap between Radiant and Sovereign Tier was that massive.
He now had a firm goal but first, he had to admit his faults. He would almost want to get to fighting. He sighed as he dove back into the storm. It was best to get started as soon as possible.