Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1586 - 1585 - Karu

The passing of a Divine Realm cultivator was horrifically powerful. For those that thought the Divine Realm cultivators could endure forever to those personally connected to them, their deaths were not easily accepted.

Lind felt small. For all the power and wisdom he had acquired in his long life, it was dwarfed by the moment the elder demon fox chose to fade. He was unable to do a damn thing to stop it.

He also wondered if he even had the right to do so but that would take further consideration in the future.

For the moment, he bowed low in respect to the passing of the senior cultivator and the other 3 Divine Realm elders did the same. The petite girl, however, was just weeping uncontrollably.

She was just barely in the Apprentice Tier, not even a trace of Mystery energy in her that he could tell, but her aura no less than his own.

He slowly straightened up and looked at the wounds on the Divine Realm elders. He could sense the injuries but he frowned as unlike with the spear he repaired, there was little he could do for them.

He simply did not have the skill nor was there enough Divine Qi around them for his Art to help speed up their healing.

He also felt something in their wounds did not belong. Just as he had to expel foreign energy on the island, they too were slowly purging the foreign energy in them.

"My condolences on your loss. I wish I could have changed her mind." He had no power to stop her aside from his words but they had not been enough.

One of the men smiled at him and exposed the start of wrinkles on his face. His vitality was a bit chaotic but his soft orange fur was strong enough to assure he was far from death.

"Grand Elder Nu endured so much loss, it is a miracle she lasted this long. Only the Progenitor gave her reasons to smile in the last few thousands of years she came to be." Lind could see their bond had been close.

The one female elder looked disdainfully at the girl and her dark fur had traces of ash gray in it. Her eyes were fierce as she looked to be restraining the desire to yell.

Lind suddenly lit up and a beam of emerald light enveloped the girl. The 3 elders were shocked but then saw her eyes droop before she passed out. He gently caught her before putting her in a princess carry.

"Grief is not a weakness. It shows that a strong bond has shattered and the loss takes time to adjust to. She will rest for a time but awaken with a clearer mind and heart." Lind did not elaborate but gently laid the girl on the bed.

The elders had mixed reactions but he did not care.

"Little Karu has been burdened for a long time. Ever since her bloodline awakened, she has been taught harshly but the Grand Elder always showed her compassion. She felt it was important." The final elder male spoke up. Unlike the other 2, he was much older in appearance.

His fur was a mix of silver and white. It was clear by the fact he had 5 tails compared to the other 2 who had no more than 3 that his position was higher.

"Are you the new Grand Elder?" His question made the woman bristle but the other man was nodding while the silver furred elder shook his head.

What was he supposed to do with that?

"Sigh, while I am the eldest, I am not able to ascend to that honorable position. The ritual cannot be performed here. Only elders can be appointed at the moment and no more." A formal process, eh?

Lind had known some beasts became mired in such things but not always without a good reason. The selection of a dragon True Lord candidate was a convoluted process but the ability to abuse that position was too great.

The dragons' pride would not let them accept a power mad True Lord.

It occurred to him he had yet to meet the descendents of the very first Ruin he had found from that chain of Inheritances. They should be in the Divine Lands!

He pushed it aside as he pondered what to do.

"Could I get a more detailed rundown of what is expected of me. It can't be as simple as taking her to the artifacts or places of enslavement?" The 3 elders came to themselves as the matter of their hiding was far more important than their pecking order.

Lind glanced once more at the sleeping girl and followed them out of the chamber.

⬧⬧⬧⬧

When had the Dreaming started? She could not remember for certain but she remembered the first time the memory did not fade. It was the day she became a Soul Beast.

Unlike other beasts that naturally progressed from the mortal realm to the next, she had faced a kind of blessing from Heaven and Earth.

Her bloodline was extinct until she became a cultivator. Thus, a progenitor had been born for the resurrection of an old race.

It was rare, but it did happen, especially in well established Divine bloodlines.

Karu gained sentience long before it was normal to. She could not speak but she could understand easily. It was like she knew things even the race memory did not!

Her speed in cultivation had been terrifying too. She had awakened blue flame, shadow, dark light, and acid elements.

Yet, her fur was pure white! It had not been as a mortal beast but it never deviated after she awakened.

The older beasts tested her and quickly knew what she was. Joy and happiness prevailed as she was the key to their race's freedom.

She then faced harsh conditions but it made her cultivation explode. What took close to 15 or 20 thousand years minimum, she breezed through in less than 5 thousand. She became a Divine Realm!

After that, however, she stagnated. No matter how hard she tried, she could not advance. She was over a million years old but had yet to condense a single Mystery!

And through all of it, the Dreams. Grandmother, as she had been calling the Grand Elder, taught her that her bloodline was special. It was a lost line of nine-tails that were highly sought out until they were exterminated long ago.

The reason being their special power.

Divine Dreaming. The future was often parsed by seers, fortune tellers, or whatever name the professionals took in the other races but the nine-tail Divine Dreaming Bloodline was legendary.

They taught the first seers how to even pierce the veil of the future!

Karu realized what had happened to her when she became a DIvine Realm. Her ability did not just work on the future but on the past. Her past to be specific.

She did not create herself but her locked sentience was connected to her in the present all the way back to her first memory. Things became hazy if examined too closely but all she could do was awaken earlier, no more than that.

The past could not be changed.

Yet, her future was murky. She was the hope of her tribes yet could not condense a single Mystery despite such smooth advancement before.

Grandmother warned her it was the price of their rush to raise her up. She had not lived enough yet.

And the Dreams changed when she became a Divine Realm. They became far more solid yet one had been with her for so long she could recite it without even thinking about it.

The world died but not. It was consumed into an endless night without end. All was lost. She knew an eternity of torment awaited all living things and nothing could be done to avoid it.

That is what all the seers, Diviners, and others saw in the future but not her. She saw that vision but she also saw it was but 1 path. There was another path.

Her Dream kept showing her a beaten and tattered man with reptilian emerald eyes and burnt emerald hair. His bloody body stood before an imposing dark figure with white eyes sneering down at him but the bloodied man did not concede.

[One more time, Karu. Send me back one more time.] His voice then spoke in her mind and a far more mature figure appeared next to him but she was rail thin and nearly gone.

[I will die after this. There will be no more chances. We both die but the future can be saved if you succeed.] The man then smiled at her.

[This one is different. You can't tell him, not ever. The path I have walked has been broken but he needs one more push. It is the only hope left.] The man then seemed to be pained as Karu's older self did something forbidden.

She sacrificed her soul to rip a piece of his away and send it back along the past.

[Foolish creatures. I am all that is left of the future. Your–] As happened each time, the vile voice spoke but her vision was already fading. The last thing she saw was a laughing madman transform into a gigantic injured emerald dragon and die fighting the inevitable.

So many times she had seen the Dream with so little deviation but then she met him the day her Grandmother died. She had known the day was coming and that her Grandmother would die with deep regrets.

It could not be avoided. She would die alone.

Today she would meet the man and the future would unfold as she had seen it, but instead he brushed past them. He ignored them all and she died relieved!

The future had changed! The Dream had finally shattered! She could not see the future anymore!

Her tears had not only been of grief, but joy! Hope bloomed as she slept for the first time in all her life!