Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1517 - 1516 - Wandering Demon

The incident in the Phantasm Forest was not discovered quickly, but the destruction of the Iridani Sect did make many powers move. They now had an excuse to investigate all connections to the Iridani Sect and its allies.

Some quickly came forward with open doors while others resisted. Most were found innocent but the worst nightmare happened again.

Mass deaths. Dantians shattered and hearts blown out. No chance of survival for the soul.

Any doubts that the Frey Clan or Lind Frey had done something wrong were dismissed at that moment. There was no way to stop it!

The public were terrified now. Contamination meant death!

Open trade severely dipped save for those powers already cleared. Supreme powers were not immune to the issues either! The Heavenly Maiden Sect had actually taken steps to review their members to an uncomfortable degree.

The Divine Sword Sect was brutal internally and externally. They made it a crusade!

Three of their allies were revealed as heavily contaminated. The deaths were not as severe as it seemed difficult to infiltrate their powers or perhaps they were too worried about being found out.

Either way, the other powers were shocked to find out how badly they were infiltrated. Some made perfect sense as it brought them close to the respective powers' secrets but others mystified them.

A small trading union was so heavily infected it was wiped out but had little inroads to any power!

The thing that terrified the various powers was the complete lack of finding Fiend enclaves. Even though a sect had been taken over, none of them had the same thing!

Many powers deeply tried to find out too!

Since no more were found, only 2 conclusions could be reached.

The first was good news. The Fiend presence was not as restored as they all feared. The second, however, was that any of them were hiding deeply and only recently acquired a sect.

There was no way to confirm the latter but it was all they had left. The contamination was too widespread to be solely possible by the Iridani Sect location.

That left a bad taste in their mouths.

In that environment, all travelers were now being screened for any trace of Fiend Qi, even though it would not work on the contamination.

The city of Carta was one of the few to have survived for over a billion years. It was not backed by any great power, but it was ideally located.

It was near a place where 2 Immortals had carved up the land with a duel. They had left behind strange energies that other Immortals could use to refine their Laws into Daos.

Thus, it was a heavily trafficked area.

A demon with a binding over his eyes was met by the guards. His armor was low quality and clearly showed he was a close range fighter. The well greased leather and chainmail was silent but they sneered at him.

Still, he had the Heaven Stones to get in and let him pass.

Lind had heard about the storm he had inadvertently unleashed on his journey. He had faced bandits and other nuisances on the way. Nothing too bad but he had noticed they were much lower in frequency than expected.

It seemed an unintended effect from his return of the spirits had revealed the Fiends location to the 4th layer. The hunting afterward caused the usual troublemakers to suffer as no stone was left unturned.

While he was saddened at the loss of life, he also shared the worry of the powers. Why were no Fiends found?

He did not agree with the assessment that few Fiends were left. He found it far more likely they had cut off any powers they were associated with to come back later.

He knew too many ways their Qi could simply erase the evidence but resume work once they returned.

Still, he pushed it aside as he entered Carta. It was packed! The land around the city was dangerous to enter unprepared but many Immortals of all tiers came to try their hand at advancing.

Lind had come for similar reasons but a familiar face made him freeze in place.

An aether child woman with black, gold, and azure coloring was in talks with a vendor. Astra was in front of him with a demoness following behind her. The demoness was only a Sliver Tier, but Astra had become a peak Crystal Tier since they parted.

Such a drastic increase was stunning but he smiled before turning down another street. He would not engage but it seemed fate really wanted to mess with him.

A young woman with several men trailing behind her confronted Astra.

"You, give me that." The pale finger pointed at a peak grade 7 water crystal. It was a decent resource but Lind frowned as he suspected it was just a pretense.

"Senior, I have just paid for it. I can use it for my cultivation–" Astra was being calm but the demoness with bright amethyst eyes seemed ready to use the glaive on her back.

The human woman sneered as one of the men behind her flared their Radiant Tier aura. He was clearly a guardian but he was using his aura alone to suppress Astra.

Lind sighed, yet his current disguise restricted him. He was only a Shard Tier demon but unlike Liam, he had a few more options.

He had a storage pouch at his waist that he used as a pretext to summon a token. It was given to him by the Divine Sword Sect a long time ago, yet he had never used it.

"I have never known the scions of the Goresh Kingdom to bully others." His voice drew attention but the token made the young woman blanche. A demon with a short sword carrying the token of the Divine Sword Sect was someone not to push too far.

His binding, however, made the young men sneer at him. Lind ignored them as he stepped between the 2 women and the group.

"I am not bullying. I simply need that crystal more than them." The woman was trying to brush things off. Lind smirked and then glanced at the men behind her. His aura was easily felt so they knew he was no threat but he knew something else.

At least half were pill foundations. They had relied on external help to advance far too much. Despite being stronger than him, he could strike them down with ease.

Still, he did not reveal he knew that as the confrontation stretched out.

"A fairly bought resource is not something to be taken without compensation. Surely, you would at least make sure the young woman would not lose out?" Lind had made sure his voice carried and the group did not like the attention.

Still, the human girl smiled far too wide.

"I am a Sovereign Tier, I would benefit far more from that crystal than she would." There was an argument for that but Lind merely smiled.

"Usefulness is not the issue here. Simply a matter of price." His calm demeanor made the crowd focus on the group and they finally seemed to understand he was not looking to face them directly but indirectly.

The frown on the human woman was clear and her cohort were now angry at him but could not react as they would only confirm they were bullying a junior.

Lind had changed the alignment of the confrontation and the woman knew it.

She waved her hand and they simply left. He made sure they were gone before he turned to the pair behind him.

Astra was looking grateful but the young demoness glared at him.

"You interfered! We did not need you!" Lind smirked and bowed before turning to leave. He felt no need to defend his choice but Astra moved to block him. She was much faster than his disguise.

"Junior, why did you act like that?" She was not being overbearing but he could not easily ignore her.

He cupped his hands and actually pointed at the demoness.

"I felt her devotion to the glaive and such fervent devotion is clear to me. She proves you are a worthy master." For a demon, that was sound reasoning.

Astra seemed to want to question him more but her companion became irate.

"We have no time to waste on foolish heroes." The demoness seemed to disdain him and he knew why.

He turned towards her with a smile.

"I am no hero, I simply acknowledge your honor." The demoness blinked for a moment before flushing in embarrassment.

Lind then tried once more to move on but Astra did not seem satisfied. She stared at him as if trying to peel back his disguise but Lind did not react further.

Eventually, she nodded and let him leave. Lind disappeared into the crowd and looked for some information on the surrounding area.

He was not there to improve his Dao but to help refine his soul. Supposedly, there was a core area created by the 2 Immortals that did not deal with Dao but the soul! Lind could only hope it was true.