Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1562 - 1561 - Calm

The tribulation had come to a sudden end. The 3 True Lords kept up their defenses but all of them were haggard. It had been close to 5 years they had to hold on. Helsgath collapsed while Van was not much better.

Only Kaltara quickly tore through space and confirmed no corpse or a feeling of death in the basin. The spirit was a small child but looked concerned.

"Little one, what is wrong?" The small figure looked up slowly and pointed up at the nearly dispersed black clouds.

"At the end, he had made it but an Ascension opening did not come. Instead, it was Judgment Lightning." Kaltara was not surprised by that but then the little figure continued. "I think Heaven and Earth chose his destination rather than opening it relative to our connection."

Blood drained from her cherubic face.

An ascension tribulation had several general rules that held true. The main one all knew of was that when a cultivator ascended, they should appear in roughly the area that was connected to the lower place they left.

She knew they were in the eastern Divine Lands normally but the spirit was saying the Heavens had prevented that.

"What about the shield he erected?" She was too tired to even sense it but the spirit pointed down and she was confused.

She glanced down and was shocked to see a gentle flow of emerald light!

"I am much harder to kill. I can shut it down but I will wait to see when the enemy stops coming. Ascensions will not be stopped anyway. I need to consolidate all I have gained. Please leave this place and let the Phoenix True Lord know it will be sealed for at least a thousand years if not more." She was then shifted outside the basin with no ability to stop it!

The basin vanished and the mountain range looked uninterrupted once more. She knew she could order it to be revealed but it was not worth it.

She could only glance up and pray Lind Frey was safe, wherever he had ended up.

⬧⬧⬧⬧

The sound of waves was the first sensation that came back to him. He slowly checked his body and was pleased nothing was damaged, in fact it was far better than normal! His body felt far more powerful but drained.

He checked everything but froze when he got to his dantian. The crystal that had been there for so long with the 6 gigantic Nodes inside it was gone! The Nodes were still there but his dantian had been changed. There were 9 rings filled with a mysterious power.

His meridians were also slightly different. He tested just letting Dao energy flow and it was so easy! He also finally felt how much more potent the Dao could be! He could make it stronger!

Yet, he was confused as that did not resonate with his dantian. What was going on?

The sound of waves grew stronger and drew his attention to the outside world. He felt something like sand on his face but it did not feel right to him. Sand was just broken down shells, silica, and so forth mixed together.

Grainy and malleable sure but his newly enhanced senses felt there was something else. He slowly opened his eyes and was blinded by a blazing sun reflecting off of both the water and the pure white beach he was currently laying on.

How long since he had even seen a beach? The total lack of beasts or people in his range, which was easily hundreds of kilometers, did not reassure him. He was a nascent Divine Realm cultivator so it was entirely possible higher tier beings could hide from him.

He also frowned as while the landmass was large, it was not so large to exceed his limits.

The tide rose over him and doused him but oddly, he did not feel wet. His confusion made him focus on it and he sat upright as he saw something impossible!

Sparkling points of light, too many to count, and the 'water' was actually close to a feeling he had in the Void!

He wanted to try and fly but his body felt incredibly heavy using his elements. He then tried to fly as a dragon and it was still difficult but not impossible. He rose up and turned to see he was really on an island but nothing else was in range.

The sun was directly overhead but whether it had any relation to the one he knew was a foolish assumption to make.

Also, given the drain on his stamina, flying without certainty would drop him into what he would term a galactic ocean. Now that he was above it, he could see some clusters just like looking at his old Earth's night sky!

Bright clusters spiraled around each other but others floated on their own. Some were dim while others blazed. He had no idea why that far away so he returned to the beach and only then realized what it was made of!

"Dead stars?" It was not sand at all, but something incredibly felt similar to the spots he was seeing in the 'water.' He tried to cup a handful out but it did not even budge! He could dive into it and float or go down but he felt an immense drag as well as drain on his stamina even more.

He looked towards the inner island and saw a massive mountain rising up but it looked odd. It was not symmetrical or quite natural to his senses. He could not pin down why, but he trusted his gut.

He had so many questions but for the moment, he needed to consolidate his cultivation and moved inland away from the beach. He began to hear noises of a normal forest and it only confirmed his senses were not quite up to snuff.

He also noticed another oddity. The plants were old, very old, but there seemed to be a uniform cap on their age.

The pale trees with massive fronds did remind him of tropical regions but the strongest plant was only at the Crystal Tier. He tried his aura once more and could confirm nothing on the island was higher than that.

Plants already took millions of years to advance and gain sentience but he felt nothing around him save normal plants.

"Immortal plants are still just plants here. Insane." How could Immortals not be aware? A thought occurred to him. Could all the plants have been carried to the island after it formed and something about the island stole that facet from them?

It made him cautious but he found a simple place and assumed a lotus position as he tried to cultivate.

Normally, tempering his elements, refining his Law/Daos, and increasing his foundation would advance, but absolutely nothing happened aside from his Nodes improving but he felt Celestial Qi was incredibly thin.

Demonic Qi was better but also not good. The imbalance meant he was going to move at a snail's pace in regard to his Nodes.

As for his dantian, he truly did not know what to do. The secrets of the Divine Realm were restricted for a reason. Immortals were not ready to hear them and the Heavens could be brutal in how they punished rule breakers as well as those that tried to pry into those secrets.

He had been lucky enough to push himself or have moments that let him get a glimpse but the actual process was denied to him.

Thankfully, he had a bit of help to call on.

[Haro?] He found it odd his ring spirit had not appeared but it seemed he too had been recovering as his response was very weak.

[M–Master? Sorry, the tribulation was hard on me. Where in the Eastern Divide are?] Lind was stunned at first then laughed as there was no longer a need to hide things from him. It was actually refreshing.

[I am not sure. It is an island in something like a galactic ocean and the beach is made of what I think are dead stars or something similar to whatever is in the ocean.] Haro was silent for a long time.

He was unsure what he was doing but he suddenly felt a power flow of some kind of energy enter his ring! The emerald dragon on the black ring flared before Haro appeared.

"That feels so much better. Let me see–" Haro froze as he slowly looked around before something worry became clear on his face.

"We are not in the eastern continent at all! Where are we?!" Lind did not panic as there were no landmarks but he had some time now to prepare to head out. He just needed a direction with the best odds but Haro began to panic.

"Master, we might be trapped here! No landmass of any size should be so far that I cannot detect where we are. There is only one place we could be!" He then ran towards the beach and Lind followed.

He found the bald headed spirit looking in shock at the beach.

"These are not stars, Master. These are dead Celestial Realms." He then pointed at the ocean. "Your name is not entirely inaccurate but that is the Void Ocean. We are in the Wild Sea but there are no islands there!"

Lind was confused. If there were no islands then how did Haro know where they were?

As if reading his mind, Haro again pointed at the ocean.

"There are massive beings that call this place home. You might see 1 or 2 near the continents or if they need something. I can feel hundreds in range of my senses. The gigantic dark masses with 4 fins and extremely long neck and tail are leviathans. The multi-limbed white massive creatures are krakens." Lind tried to detect them but he found nothing.

Haro smiled at him.

"Master, you need to start unlocking your Mysteries before your aura will be able to accurately detect Divine Realm beings." The last part made Lind's eyes go wide.

"Wait, are you saying we are surrounded by–?" Haro nodded.

"You are not going anywhere as an Apprentice Tier. We are surrounded by Journeyman Tier beasts that could snuff you out with a thought!" Lind took in the idyllic island once more and sighed.

It looked like he was calling it home for a long while to come.