Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1376 - 1375 - Context

Lind broke the connection to see the dryad and Barbatos staring at him in shock. The room, such as it was, had no real roof aside from a canopy of branches.

It was rather comfy for a tiger but humanoids would simply think of it as a lair. There were no carcasses or bones but Lind did detect the aura of bestial intent all around him.

The gigantic green leaves swayed in the gentle wind and he could hear the sound of life all around them.

His aura had been focused on the connection but he was glad he had long ago incorporated formations into all Frey Clan structures. It meant that a direct communication from him allowed him some tricks as he had just demonstrated.

His power was limited to the limit of the formations but given they were designed by Annabelle and other excerpts long ago, that power was close to Radiant Tier in the 2nd layer.

The branch in the Icy Path only had his weavings yet that would actually increase his ability so long as no one tried to alter them.

"H–how did you do that?" The dryad recovered first. Before Lind could answer, Barbatos broke into laughter and slapped his back. Lind was glad he was a dragon as a human Sovereign Tier would have had their bones shattered.

He noticed the dryad was recovering quickly and coming much closer to a human form. He also noticed her telepathic speech improved.

He realized mimicking sound was easier than allocating resources to her mental communication. It was simply the strain of holding on to her Qi!

"Bwa Ha ha ha! That was wonderful! You are truly worthy of the dragon race!" The words surprised Lind. He had been given to understand by the few he had met that the Divine bloodlines did not get along much at all.

Yet, Barbatos seemed thrilled to meet him.

Battle maniacs love him too much! He had forgotten the strange attraction they had to him after fighting Fiends for so long!

"The matter should be resolved but as an act of good faith, is there anything you need?" His words actually brought Barbatos to silence. His large face became serious as wind suddenly solidified into an actual throne!

It was fascinating as it had howled into existence but once formed, it became a relatively solid shape as he sat his large frame onto it.

His golden eyes were no longer frivolous as Lind simply stood.

"How much do you know about the Under Lands?" He glanced at the dryad who bowed as she left the room. Lind pointed at her as she left and relayed all he had been told.

The harsh conditions and how the Sovereign Lands took their dominance as well as using it as a penal colony.

The mighty sigh that followed his recitation seemed filled with exhaustion but Barbatos nodded as he flexed his hands as he looked at the dance of air flow on it. The casual way he commanded the wind was far beyond what Lind could do.

It proved he had a long road ahead to truly master being a Sovereign Tier.

"That is the most basic overview but it is not the entirety of it. Long before the lower layers were cut off, there was a war. A bad war." Lind assumed he was about to hear about the usual petty conflicts to the serious wars that happened between kingdoms.

There were even wars that the Fiends incited. Part of their tactics was to keep their food off balance so they could harvest as they wished.

"The Sovereign War devastated the 4th layer. Even the Fiends had to fend for themselves as idiots bashed heads for reasons no one remembers, but the final act was clear enough." Barbatos looked grim as he tilted his head back to look at the towering trees.

Lind felt some of the plants around him resonate with the tiger. It was a strange feeling.

"Sovereign War?" Was that not just a fight between cultivators, just more powerful. His naivety was clear to Barbatos. The tiger then swiped his right hand.

Claws manifested but Lind simply held up his hand covered in his scales. While he hardly felt anything, the trees around them were cracked open! The soil beneath their feet disintegrated but he had not felt a shockwave like he expected.

What had just happened?!

"You underestimate the fallout from our 2 wills clashing. We are no longer simply a being of flesh and blood but able to impose our wills around us. I was not even serious but you can see what happened." Lind observed the damage and was surprised as the trees and other plants recovered fairly quickly.

The soil beneath them, however, remained unchanged. It was simply damaged at that point but Barbatos conjured earth Qi that quickly repaired that damage as well.

"You can imagine the devastation if just 2 Sovereign Tiers were serious. Now, imagine multiple forces at war." A chill went down his spine but the revelations were not done. "I am unsure who made it, but the war was ended when the formation was imposed on us all. The Under Land had its Qi stripped. The devastation was what you saw out there."

Lind grasped what Barbatos was telling him. Without the Qi and Laws to recover, the devastation was not a result of the lack of Qi but what was left after the battles!

He was unsure if he would not have come up with such a solution.

"Why did they fight such useless battles? If it was for resources, would they not be lost?" A large smile crossed his face before he nodded.

"You know how prideful cultivators are. To be at the final step, many humans and demons are nearing the end of their lives or can see the end. Immortals can endure without a body for a time but the body wears out still. Once it is too weak to contain the power of the crystal and Qi, only the soul will remain." Lind was well aware of the life cycle of Immortals.

Their name notwithstanding, Immortality was the only realm not directly tied to the body. What else would it be but to call it Immortality? Mortals died and that was it, they were gone back into the cycle of samsara.

They may retain their memories or not at the whim of Heaven and Earth or due to a lucky encounter. Either way, once the body dies, they do not stay in the current worlds.

Immortals, by definition, endured. Without a body, however, the soul was far more vulnerable and could only exist so long as the mental will anchored it.

Once the strain became too much or the soul could not absorb Qi for some reason, it would disperse back into samsara as well.

Immortals had a dramatically higher chance of retaining memories in their next life but they would not be the same person. It would be more like they influenced the next life at best.

Still, Lind began to see the problem. The longer an Immortal lived, the less time their soul could endure! While cultivation required an adjustment to how they approached life in the Immortal Realm, it was a change of perspective.

The base ability to adapt and withstand issues remained roughly the same. It meant the more worn out the mind was, the less time a soul could live!

In that sense, beasts were far superior to all other races. Even with intelligence, beasts seemed to have dramatically more powerful minds. It was not just divine races that could endure as a soul for millions of years, but almost all beast races could.

Lind now looked around the chamber once more with new appreciation as the context of the current situation shifted his judgement.

When faced with fools only out for themselves, what else could someone do but deny one side of the conflict resources to bring the self destructive cycle to an end?

The other layers had natural limitations to impede Immortals power. The world, itself, supported mountains, soil, and even forests that could defend themselves from Immortal power to an extent.

It took massive effort to Forge grade 7 materials up to the Radiant Tier. While Lind had some easier times in that regard, he still had to put the effort in.

He summoned some raw materials. The viridian striped gold was a common grade 7 ore used in various items. It had an eye-catching striped look even as a raw material. The Laws of Fire and Earth made the stripes between the golden layers.

He tried to simply heat it up and the metal was reduced to slag before he knew it! He barely tried at all!

He did the same with elixirs and ruined the herbs because it was like his power leapt to his command so fast his mind could not keep up.

Weaving had no such issue but that was likely due to the nature of sigils. They matched the speed of his Qi rather than his mind. His mind came up with the sigil but his soul and Qi formed it in combination with any resources needed to anchor it if needed.

A small laugh came from Barbatos but he seemed to have expected the issues.

"Becoming a Sovereign Tier is a massive step. You will need years to adjust not just those skills but others. The world cannot resist you anymore." The heavy restrictions of Heaven and Earth made far more sense and a war between Sovereign Tiers was just unconscionable.

Lind sighed as the road ahead just became longer but he hoped to speed it up with the vast foundation of knowledge he had built up as a 6 elemental. He and Barbatos then began to talk about compensation for what the Frey Clan had done.

The future was going to be rough in the short term!