Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 135 - 134 - Living Qi Stones

Lind was having a lot of company so close to the competition.  He was still figuring out what he would be making when Elder Yi, Shoti, and 3 aether children arrived suddenly.  Qing had come running for some reason but no one was talking about why they were all here in front of him.

Annabelle was sitting practically in his lap as when the aether children had arrived, the young man of water and darkness had almost tried to manhandle her away from Lind.  The interesting light and darkness girl had hit him over the head and Annabelle had refused to leave Lind's side.

He comforted her until she stopped shivering when Qing finally arrived.

"May I ask why all you seniors are visiting me today?"  Lind knew his status was practically an open secret to some demon powers but so far as he knew, there were no aether children after him.  The older man that he thought was at the Gold Tier was a very rare mono-elemental aether child.

He leaned forward and bowed which made everyone shocked for some reason.  Lind had been around Immortals too much so World Realms were losing their specialness to him.  Sky Realms were still powerful but Lind realized he had to remind himself he was far weaker than anyone he knew aside from Annabelle.

"Lind Frey, I owe you an apology and an explanation."  The old man had kind eyes of a bright green.  Lind seemed to like what he saw but he withheld his reaction until he heard all he needed to.  "Here is what brought us to you today…"

The old aether child, Sage as Lind came to learn, had mistaken Lind as some kind of collaborator against the Aether Sect and aether children.  Sage got to the part of accusing Lind when the room changed instantly.

A blazing sun hung in a very clear blue sky while pristine waves hit a bright white beach.  The smell of salt water and the sounds of ocean birds with the thunder of waves was so real that Lind almost lost himself in the illusion.

His emerald flame became stronger and he found Annabelle still by him as he began to calm her down.  She had lost her temper and the current vision must be her default place to create.  He was stunned at how powerful her illusions had become.

Rather than shattering like glass as Lind had experienced a few times at the Lotus Academy, his quarters slowly returned as the illusion faded.  He noted that while he had gone to a rather pleasant place, the others seemed to have been sent to other locations.

Shoti and Qing looked refreshed while Elder Yi stared at Annabelle in awe.  Clearly, the illusion had seemed real to the World Realms despite the source being in the Soul Realm.  Lind had come to learn that aether children's specialties were frighteningly more powerful if they mastered it.

Sage was smirking at Annabelle but his pale face revealed he too had been pulled in against his will.  The young male was shaking in fear while his female companion seemed fairly ok.  She too stared at Annabelle but Lind found it difficult to place the look.

Was it admiration or desire?

"I apologize on her behalf.  She is overprotective of me and I of her."  Annabelle smiled when Lind said that as she snuggled against him.  He sighed as it was clear as day to him how she felt towards him even if she had not said it outloud.

Sage nodded and bowed to her as well.

"You are the most powerful Illusion Master I have ever heard of.  The fact you trust this man so much should have told us all we needed to know."  Lind bowed at his humility but why were they looking at him in the first place.  Was it just because he had Annabelle by his side?

"He has clearly–"  The boy, Kelvin as Lind knew him now, was hit by the young girl next to him.  Fairly hard as Lind winced to see it.

"Shut up, you are wrong and we are to be seen, not heard!"  She tried to whisper it but the acoustics of the room and lack of others talking made her words clear to them all.  Her face became dark gold as she blushed in embarrassment.

"Enough!  I will speak of it now!"  Sage became stern as he turned back to Lind and the heavy aura felt sad to Lind.  Why was it sad?  "As you are aware, Captain Drake and his men were assigned to resolve the folded space issue."

Lind nodded as he had been supplying the new shield artifacts for them to use, but they were cutting it close as the contest was so close to starting now.

"At first, it was a normal operation but things went wrong.  Months passed and the folded space was unresolved.  Moreover, they were losing men."  Lind had not heard that.  He knew it was a bog and the nexus was difficult to reach but that was all.  His confusion was clear so Sage continued.

"I know what you were told but it was half truth.  The reason they can't find the nexus is because they died not long after entering.  There is no natural Qi inside the folded space."  Lind arched his eyebrow at that comment.  It was impossible.  Even if the space did not naturally have Qi, the connection between Cimmeria and the space would allow Qi to flow in slowly.

After all the time that had passed, it should have been a considerable amount inside it.  Lind waited for more information.

"They were stumped as artifacts and weapons did not seem to make a difference.  The few that finally survived all reported the same thing.  Their Qi was being destroyed within their meridians and bodies."  Lind was interested.  Losing Qi was the main reason higher realms could not descend down to the mortal realms.

The Qi differential would pull the higher quality Qi from within their dantians until nothing was left and they could not cultivate to recover at all until they returned to the higher realms.  The danger was that the damage could make the process irreversible.

Thus, higher realm cultivators did not descend as all their work would be undone with no way to save themselves.

"They finally found a solution, or rather, they were told of one."  Sage then summoned a scroll from his storage pouch on his waist.  He unfurled the scroll and Lind saw a complicated diagram in a language he did not understand.

It was sharp letters that reminded Lind of a few demon dialects he had seen but had no reference to figure out.

"This is a relic found in an ancient Ruin over a million years ago.  It held many secrets of the demon race from beyond this realm.  One of them was how to use aether children as a resource."  Emerald flames exploded as the scroll was engulfed.  Qi flared but before all their eyes the scroll seemed to scream before it was ripped apart by its own power!

The dead silence in the room was awkward and even Lind felt a little guilty.  He should have had more control but the very thought of anyone using Annabelle like that had triggered him.

"Overprotective of her, indeed.  He he."  Elder Yi seemed amused but she was looking at Lind Frey in a new light.  That relic was clearly much more powerful than any of them, yet the boy had been able to disturb its fabric enough to rip it apart.

"I wish it was so easy to destroy.  I obtained that from an information broker that had sold another copy recently, to Captain Drake."  Lind felt his blood freeze at the words, but Sage did not stop.  "Essentially, the folded space is connected somewhere our Qi is not welcome.  It annihilates each other on contact and in a cultivator it rips them apart, but there is an exception."

Lind looked to Annabelle and the other 3.  Why?  Why would they be an exception?

"Aether children are born from Heaven and Earth.  We are innately aware of a gift concerning our elements and can learn frightening quickly.  The Aether Sect was originally founded due to those that abused newborn aether children."  Sage's words were 100% correct.  Lind had seen the slavery in the Saint Kingdom.  Their favorite target was aether children newly manifested.

"How could that possibly help in the current issue?"  Lind did not use honorifics but no one called him out on it.  The issue was too heavy to care.

"The scroll spoke of a similar issue demons once ran into but as an Inheritance.  None of them could survive inside until they discovered that having aether children of each element combination protected them."  Lind felt shock go through his body.  The description combined with an Inheritance sent him back over 3 years ago.

He and Cyntilla had found a strange Ruin.  The Qi was all wrong and it was impossible to cultivate.  Instinctively, his emerald flame had protected him and Cyntilla but without that, what would have happened to them?

"Essentially, the aether children are used as living Qi stones to pull good Qi from so that the folded space does not destroy it on contact.  I can only guess at why but some believe that the Qi in aether children, even when cultivated, is as pure as it can possibly be at a given tier."  Lind had heard this theory as well but he also knew there was a grain of truth.

The reason aether children's innate ability was so strong was not simply due to perfect comprehension but the quality of Qi commanded seemed able to far surpass the limits of the current realm an aether child was at.  He was still studying it more, but he had seen it with his Eyes already.

"Even with this knowledge, their progress was slow and still losing men.  They had almost given up when you gave them a solution."  Lind felt sick.  He knew what was coming but he wanted to close his ears to it.

"Your artifacts are able to make shields at a fraction of the consumption and use the Qi pulled from my brethren to do it."  They were batteries.  Since there was no native Qi to pull from within the folded space, the shields were pulling from the lambs offered up for slaughter instead!

They used him!  They knew about him and what he considered his bottom line.  He remembered the aether children dressed differently and how the guard froze when Lind asked about them.  He had felt a worry then but he could not bring it into focus, yet he still helped them!

Cool hands suddenly held his cheek and Annabelle hugged him tight from the side.  Qing and Shoti were looking down at him as he felt his rage ebb and his mind reasserted itself.  He could not lose himself again.  He had conquered his heart demons but the danger of new ones was always there.

"I apologize for my unruly display just then.  I will help stop this.  I will stop it regardless if you want me to help or not!"  Lind's dark green eyes were ablaze with determination and even Kelvin swallowed as he looked on at Lind.  A human was angered for them.  A human was enraged at what was being done.

Sage heaved a sigh of relief but his solemn face did not fade.

"I deplore what they have done but the folded space will kill far more if not resolved.  There must be something more to drive them this far.  You know humans better than us even after so many centuries, they confuse me.  What would drive them this far?"  Lind found that to be a very good question.

The initial loss of life should have resulted in the hammer approach of a Sky Realm coming down on the issue, but they did not.  They instead seemed desperate to get in the space and stay there for a length of time.  It was too close to the competition to believe the Stardust Emporium would hold back now.

Lind closed his eyes and recalled all his meetings with Drake and his men but nothing stood out.  The office was bare and the station was a simple training ground with some storage….

"There is an underground storage area, we need to get our answers there."  It had been locked.  Why would a storage area be locked unless there was something very precious inside.  Lind needed to get in and he had the perfect reason to do so.

The mysterious elixir master of the Heavenly Maiden Sect will be calling on Captain Drake and his men with some grade 3 elixirs!