Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1326 - 1325 - Path of Tool Spirit

Lind studied the slips for an unknown amount of time. While the information was critical for increasing the respective Laws for the Inheritance of Creation or its legacies, the information he was seeking for was hinted at across them.

Refiners or Forgers wanting to make spirit tools could stumble across the secret or simply make items with the potential to have a spirit in the future. It was a rather common goal and many succeeded but inducing a spirit into a tool with that potential was a bit of a mystery.

Usually, like with Abby, the conditions had already been met and just needed a push. The beginning process, however, was a complete black box to even supreme experts.

In other words, various theories existed, but no one had a surefire path to pull it off in the Immortal Realm and below.

Lind had his own personal theories but they had not been enough so he had sought knowledge from a higher source. Haro had hinted that Divine Realm cultivators knew how to induce spirits far better than Immortals.

He knew why that was but he did not believe it was limited to that realm.

The slips carried hints due to the fact the Divine Realms took such facts for granted. He sneered at that realization. It meant they did not respect it as well.

Divine Realm cultivators, for all their power, were still subject to character weaknesses like everyone else.

They still operated under the flawed understanding of the elements like the others. The vastly increased success rate of cultivators reaching the Immortal Realm was proof of his results but it left gaping holes of knowledge he had to create.

No one could guide him to the next major Realm but grasping each piece of it and understanding it could start his path.

The Divine Creator seemed to grasp the issue and gave him the trail to awaken a spirit in an artifact made for the Inheritance of Creation.

He left the archive at last but noticed his guide was long gone. He also noticed a set of stairs that had definitely not been there before. He rolled his eyes as it was obvious he was being 'invited' to leave.

"As agreed, the missing pieces." He set out a jade slip encrypted to Evie alone. It vanished as he felt a shift in space.

He left the hall entirely to the street and welcomed the sunlight. The bustling crowds sounded loud in his ears but he narrowed his eyes as he felt a change in his soul.

It was like the words he had just comprehended had changed his perspective. Everything had changed slightly and he took in the world as it was.

His eyes shimmered with emerald Qi. He cloaked himself from the world and actually observed carefully around him.

He was not just looking at the men and women trying to get to shops, dates, or whatever purpose they sought. He was seeing something new, or perhaps it would be better to say something that was always there.

He had been to the spirit world and he had met souls. He had felt his own soul and a few others intimately. He had understood flesh and blood was not all there was to the world long ago with Elementals alone.

Yet, he had not been able to invigorate a spirit in his right arm.

He had not understood what it would take to do it as all his normal methods failed miserably.

He could make spirit tools with ease or even those that had the potential but he could not awaken them either. Making a spirit tool was about resonance with the Qi and the Heavens.

In other words, it was the easiest path as it was actually Heaven and Earth invigorating the new spirit. Even awakening Abby was just Lind giving a kind of wakeup call.

He did not make her.

"That was my mistake. I keep trying to make something that should be born." The world had streams of light that were not Qi, spirit, or soul. They were potential. They were something far beyond what he could safely grasp but he could See them!

He realized there was not one answer but that all of them had nothing to do with intent, skill, or even luck. It, in fact, had nothing to do with him at all.

He chuckled as he observed the thronging masses before he felt a pull from far away. He looked to the horizon and frowned.

What was that?

He casually tore through space but felt resistance. His destination was not in the same layer as him or was separated in some way.

He shifted his end point slightly. The Silver Dream Pavilion vanished and the wide open sky welcomed him. There were no peaks or islands hidden nearby but he still felt the pull.

Another Inheritance?

No, it was something else. He knew of many places that were dangerous in the Endless Peaks but only one was in the middle of nowhere like he was now.

"The Lost Realm." It was a legend that supposedly had legendary rewards but was also a death trap. Before the Great One tore the Celestial Fields asunder, it had been heavily guarded and regulated because of its unusual nature.

The key part being that it could appear anywhere there was open sky. Why was he feeling a call to it now?

He tried to pinpoint the source yet nothing helped. It felt like it was all around him but also nowhere.

"What is this feeling?" He tried to understand it but then Abby pulled his attention.

[Master, take me away from here. I feel bad.] He found that surprising. Technically, there was very little that could hurt her unless something drastic like what happened in the Silver Crow Sect incident happened.

So, why was she afraid now?

Still, he did not ignore her request. He went to tear open space once more but found extreme resistance to his action. He sneered.

"Trying to stop me is not possible in this layer." His skin flared emerald as his elements obeyed his command. The resistance shattered with ease.

He was about to leave when the sky ripped apart with gaping maw into the void!

It seemed someone had taken offense to his actions.

He pulled on more of his power to the very limit and his meridians burned with it. His scales appeared but the pull into the void only increased.

It was much stronger than him. Stronger than anything that should be in the 3rd layer of the Celestial Fields.

"You don't belong here." Lind flared with all the power he had to break free as he became his dragon form. He roared as he attempted to fly away.

Yet, the power only increased to hold him back once more. Whoever was trying to hold onto him was really stubborn!

[Master, it is a being on par with you. I feel another of my kind.] Haro suddenly revealed a shocking revelation. Another True Lord?! What was going on?

His horns lit up as he commanded his Authority to act.

[DISPERSE!] Instantly he shot across the sky like a bat out of Hell. He had no control as he had been resisting the pull against him. Oddly, he felt no decrease in his vitality.

[A battle between True Lords favors the defender, Master. I am uncertain if this one is a conscious attack or unconscious but given the lack of verbal response, but it is a True Lord without doubt.] Lind found little comfort in that context but he looked back to feel shock.

The tears in the sky were eyes! It was a pair of eyes looking at him from the void!

"Why is it doing that?!" He asked out of reflex but Haro gave an answer.

[Best guess, the True Lord set up defenses to react to another of their kind. It was not uncommon for territorial fights to happen while one was in seclusion. Given the legends about the Lost Realm, I find it likely it was a last ditch attempt to improve.] That confused Lind.

Any being that could become a True Lord should not be shirking or afraid to progress. Also, the legends were much older than any Radiant Tier could live.

Lind did not have exact figures but his maximum lifespan as a corporeal being would top out somewhere around 100 million years. After that he would just be a soul until it wore thin and dispersed.

Being reborn would not be an option without some kind of external aide and even then, his potential would be mostly used up.

He did not know of any race that could live longer than a Divine Dragon. Certainly not on the scale of the legend of the Lost Realm.

[If they mastered the Laws of TIme, it is possible to manipulate the flow of it Master. The strange openings could be necessary to adjust the realm to keep it stable.]

Haro's words were of little comfort as the void eyes vanished only to appear in front of him!

Lind narrowed his own eyes. What was this thing doing and why was Abby scared of it?

A thought passed through his mind.

"Haro, can an Elemental become a True Lord?" Beasts were not sole lords of the world. Aether children were a manifestation of a Law given form and life. Beasts were more instinctual but formed under the right conditions in the world.

Humans and demons carved out their own path. The beasts merely pushed past their limits and their hierarchy drove the emergence of True Lords via Heaven and Earth.

Celestials were more like a direct exploration. Elementals were the anomaly.

The way they cultivated was like being constantly reborn. What would happen if they became a True Lord?

[That–I am unsure. If that happened, I am uncertain how long they could live. Theoretically they could become a true Immortal in the sense their life would never end. I do not know of one, Master.]

Lind raced with his thoughts as the pull resumed. He had one chance if Haro was right.

[AWAKEN!] His command echoed across the skies and the pull increased exponentially! He was sucked in and the eyes snapped shut.