Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1510 - 1509 - Just Barely

Lind recognized the feeling in his head. It was the same as many times before. It was as if a great many heavy objects had been dropped on him.

He slowly came to in a room he did not recognize but its quality certainly alarmed him. It was a Divine Grade material room!

Unlike many times before, he actually felt more comfortable but it was still slightly off for his senses.

"Haro?" He called out to the most experienced companion with him but there was only silence. He glanced at his right hand and felt relieved to see the black ring still there. He then froze, however, when noticed his arm was fully flesh and blood!

He quickly looked at his left arm and it too was flesh and blood!

"ABBY?! EMBER?!" His voice was shockingly loud. He only then noticed a new change. He was a high Sovereign Tier! It was very unstable and clearly had just finished but he had broken through!

He quickly assumed a lotus position as he was no good to anyone if he did not stabilize himself.

He expected to struggle as much as the last time but he was shocked as his half-step nodes and his crystal seemed to absorb Qi like a sponge! His Daos and Laws smoothly integrated like it was the simplest thing in the world to do!

When he had become a mid Sovereign Tier, it had taken months to stabilize but it could not have been more than a day and he was done! He felt new power flowing in his body but frowned.

His foundation had advanced, but his soul had not. It was not in sync again. He would need to remedy that.

It would become his new priority after finding the 2 missing women and their artifacts!

He stood up and checked his ring more deeply. He saw Haro had exhausted his Qi reserves! The storage space was stable but he was in the midst of recovering also! What had happened?

He was simply trying to allow the spheres to restore themselves using the regulator until the Dao energy safely dissipated but something drastically different had occurred!

"Is anyone there?" He tried a more general request and that finally elicited a response.

The elven woman appeared! Only she was now far more solid than when compared to before! He also felt slightly suppressed in her presence but her smiling ear to ear as she bowed deeply to him kind of distracted him from that.

She was much prettier when smiling and any doubt she had been designed by someone from Earth now fled his mind. She was too perfect and similar to what George showed him over and over again any chance he could get.

Lind once asked the man if he could choose between mobile suits or elves, which would it be? George took a week to decide on that!

"Great True Lord! I thank you from the bottom of my heart! My creator is gone now but his will has been restored!" He expected only part of her words. The trick he had done was to unlock the intent infused into the jade stone.

Once free of constraints, it could redirect the Ruin to be more restrictive but safer for all involved. That had been his only goal.

What was around him was so far outside his hopes that he badly needed an explanation but he held up his arms first.

"Are they ok?" His concern seemed to make her smile warmer and she nodded.

"The changes in the Ruin washed over you. The reason you broke through was your solid foundation and being just a step shy. The power should have carried you to the peak but instead it only seemed to barely get you to the next minor tier. Such a profound foundation would be highly sought after in the Divine Lands." Lind knew that the last point was moot.

When he ascended, he would be back at the bottom of the barrel. Despite how many Immortals viewed them, he knew the quality of Divine Realm cultivators varied badly. An Apprentice Tier was the first part of the journey and from the pieces he had gotten, they were treated almost like ants!

He could not imagine how Immortals and below were treated!

He did know it was impossible for anything below the Sky Realm to survive in most areas. Mortals were impossible too.

Aside from those tidbits, however, he knew little else socially.

The structure was colored pure ivory with simple rugs of golden thread on the floor. He noticed nothing was Forged or refined. It was more like they were conjured constructs!

How in the spirits was that possible?! Conjured effects required the cultivator to maintain them! What was maintaining everything around him?!

The core of a Ruin could not do it, or at least not for any length of time without becoming unstable. The kind of power around him far exceeded that!

After many corridors the pair finally entered a familiar room. It was the auditorium of spheres but Lind froze in shock.

All the spheres were restored! Yet, his eyes narrowed as where the shattered ones had been felt slightly less than the others.

It was only when he recognized a few that he knew what he was looking at!

"The–the other Ruins were absorbed?!" The elf spirit nodded but then a pair of familiar women appeared in front of him.

Ember was much as she had been. Her colors were still all of the flames but the object in her hands drew his eye.

It was a set of circles around a flame he recognized well. The Eternal Flame.

Her path was expected but she looked far more solid than any time before she had appeared. She broke into a gentle smile before quickly running over to check him over.

The woman next to her had to be Abby, but her changes were drastic. Her skin was paler with ash gray hair and darker eyes. Her smile, though, mader her as pretty as ever but the childish aura was gone.

She had come into her own.

At her hip was a rapier with a strange guard. It looked less like something to protect a hand and more like a beast's maw ready to swallow the foe the blade was used to strike.

"You completed your changes?" He was currently being hugged by the pair as they nodded. They backed up and vanished to confirm the objects were their new bodies!

"When the power washed over you, it was dangerous for us all so senior Haro helped guide us. We diverted all we could while still letting you benefit from it." Lind now knew how he survived.

He still had questions on what happened but the being with those answers was gone. Yet, Ember backed up and looked at Abby.

They became serious and held their hands towards each other. A shimmering figure slowly appeared until the old man's face consolidated.

Lind nearly jumped when his eyes opened but the kind smile made him relax a bit. He kept his guard up.

[Not much time, whipper snapper. You surprised me but in the future, you should really understand what you are doing. Do not give someone a blade if you are unsure how they will use it.] Lind nearly choked as he had once given similar advice long ago to an enemy.

[Now, you allowed me a final chance to save my hollow Inheritance. I thank you for that and helped you and these 2 complete your current steps. Quite intriguing what you did for them too, but no time. I used the power at yours and my disposal to integrate the Ruins back into a kind of Inheritance.] Lind almost fell down.

He did what?! How?!

In what world could a Ruin become an Inheritance again?! A cackling laugh brought him back and he saw the head was getting fainter.

[You have much to learn. Still, you are dangerous to yourself and the Celestial Fields. I can give you 2 pieces of advice. Refining a soul is a personal journey, not external. Go fight some idiots and you will learn nothing but fight with all your Dao on the line and it should help you immensely.] Lind felt a vein throb just thinking about it but the next part made the face go grim.

[You will not face an ascendence tribulation. You are not the first to go too far into Dao as an Immortal. There are only 3 paths for you: Tribulation of War, Tribulation of the Spirits, and Tribulation of Judgement. None are good and the people that survived them can be counted on 1 hand.]

Lind swallowed at that and noticed he was not hurt by the revelation. He was ready to know!

[Sigh, integration was hard but revived my simple wish. I am like you it seems. We do not like being told something is impossible! I did for Immortals what you did for 6 elementals! I wish I was still alive to meet you. We would have had a long night of drinking and experimenting! You can leave here quietly for the next week but after that you will be trapped here until it is ready to open. Go, and good luck boy!]

The old man faded entirely and Lind cupped his hands to bow low in respect.

The elven spirit was crying but Abby and Ember were now looking at him seriously.

"We cannot go with you, Lind." It was only then he realized they did not call him master nor did he feel the connection anymore! A sad smile spread on his face.

"You are free now. I would like to stay friends–" He did not even finish before the pair hugged him again.

"Although you are not our creator, can we call you Father?" Abby was choked up but he nodded happily.

The trio talked for a time but he had to leave while they had to stabilize themselves. They would leave in time, likely to face their own ascension.

Spirit tools that transcended the Immortal Realm also could ascend but very few records remained. He wished he could see that day but it could be thousands of years or more before they emerged.

He gave them a few gifts and they gave him messages for Haro when he awoke. Lind then donned his disguise once more and vanished into the fog.