Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1587 - 1586 - Glass Palace

Lind savored the tea served in the meeting hall. The young man also had cakes that were tempting but he was not there for a social call. The 3 elders seemed to gather his desire for moving on and waved the servers out.

Once the doors were sealed in the dark violet walled hall, the 3 elders sitting on the raised dias of dark wood bowed to him and the oldest one began.

"I am Elder Silverthorn. My bloodline can bend light and as you can see, I am of natural Qi. My fellow elders are Elder Severclaw and Elder Sunstreak." The woman and man respectively bowed to him.

"How much do you know about our history?" Lind shook his head at the question.

"I am an ascender and my Celestial Fields had survived a Cataclysm so much has been lost regarding the past. While some records survived they were patchwork at best in most places save the 4th layer. Even there, however, much was lost due to the focus on human and demonic powers." His words did not seem to surprise them.

Beast races only gained full sentience near the end of the Sky Realm or start of the Heaven Realm for the most part. Before that, they were mostly focused on survival and living as all animals did, with nature.

Silverthorn nodded and began to speak.

He confirmed that the legend about one of their ancestors saving a kraken was true but it was also later a leviathan that was saved. In both cases, a young Sovereign Tier had slipped away or was taken from their guardians.

Intelligence came to the fore at that tier for those races but they remained very childlike despite their vast power.

Given the fact that Lind could not even put much of a scratch in the materials around him, a Sovereign Tier being treated as a child was hardly surprising.

Still, it could take millions of years for that childhood so it was obvious going to the mainland was to impress upon their young the dangers and benefits of what the mainland could hold.

Yet, it also gave an opportunity for the unscrupulous to go after them. Even the best laid plans could be thwarted with a clever scheme or unfortunate luck.

He knew that far better than most.

Silverthorn then explained how, due to their interference, the humans involved had tried to attack them, only to find 2 Master Tier beasts demolishing their forces with ease.

As a rule, and practicality, Master Tier cultivators did not interfere in the affairs of others even of their own powers. The reason being that just like in the 4th layer, the Divine Lands could not withstand their power if they came into conflict.

However, if someone was idiotic enough to anger one with no such counterpart, their fate was on their own heads.

How fools chose to die was no one else's concern!

Lind realized the force that tried to take those children had never thought the beasts of the Void Ocean would defend the ones on land. It seemed the reputation of the kraken and leviathans worked against them slightly but it left a few questions no one present could answer.

Given his own level of detail in his limited range, how could anyone sneak away from a Master Tier or steal from them unless they were on the same level? It made him wonder about the abilities of artifacts, formations, and other items as it seemed the world was not as firm that power solved all things.

He refocused as Silverthorn affirmed that after that, it was made clear that the demon fox tribes were not be touched. As that area was the spot both powerful races made their trades, they would be back at regular intervals and would investigate any changes in their status.

For a long time, that led to prosperity and other fox races joined with theirs. Others caused minor troubles but they did not rely on the infrequent visits of their benefactors.

A hundred million years ago, however, one of the tribes crossed a high power under the Unbending Fate Faction. The familiar name made Lind sigh at that point.

Further, however, was an ongoing issue everyone had with the cultists. They seemed to have set up an illegal trade route for Heaven and Immortal Realm cultivators to be smuggled for their masters' use in their vile consumption.

It could not be a coincidence at that point yet Silverthorn was not done.

"The true villain took advantage of both our blunder and the inroads the cultists had made. A rather subtle power known as the Glass Palace. They are a mercantile power on the surface with access to the coasts, teleportation arrays to the rest of the southern continent, and a large slave network few know about the depths of." His words became tinged with anger.

Severclaw shot up as her fangs grew with the spread of her fur.

"Those bastards sold bloodline enslavement pylons! They used the trade of our own blood to betray us!" Sentient beasts knew the value of their own parts. As they could regrow much of them, they enacted their own trade for things they needed.

Blood was a precious ingredient in pills and elixirs so it was an easy thing to offer but it seemed some of their more valuable members had been trading without considering the danger. Despite the protection of the kraken and leviathans, the Glass Palace saw a chance to profit without risk.

They sold the pylons to the faction and the cultists both!

The result was a mass attack that their various tribesmen could not resist! The Divine Realm cultivators were the only ones to have a modicum of resistance but the cost was steep as their enemies were hardly without them.

The Divine Lands' long history meant that even if only 1 in a million could become a Divine Realm, over time that would start to add up over a billion years of existence!

The population was scaled in trillions as well so that put time even more in favor of that fact so despite the Divine Realm being the pinnacle, it was not that special in the Apprentice and Journeyman Tiers.

Only the Master Tier was rare enough and terrifying enough to stave off whole factions.

Yet, the foxes had grown complacent and their last Master Tier had died long before their protections even began! Thus, their enemies made swift work of them and could only watch in horror as thousands of them were hauled away forever.

The few Divine Realms not caught or killed took who they could away and fled in flying artifacts for the Wild Sea.

They were pursued the whole way until the krakens emerged and destroyed all the enemies following.

The krakens and leviathans took them in and learned of the truth but for all their power, they could not free the foxes. The slave pylons were only a product and could be replicated ad-infinitum unless they wished to go to war with the entirety of the southern continent.

Destroying the current powers would not stop another from trying again and again. There was nothing anyone could do.

Lind listened to it all and a sudden idea came to him.

"The cultists and the faction found the breeding krakens because they came looking for you?" Silverthorn nodded and the other 2 elders looked guilty.

Until their escape, no sane person came to the Wild Sea anymore. Now that the secret had been discovered, the krakens were in as much danger if not more than they were.

It seemed Lind had taken on 2 missions. One was to rescue the long enslaved demon fox tribes and the other was to teach the mainland a lesson they would not forget.

The issue of the Glass Palace was thorny. It reminded him of Cimmeria. While both were trade cities, it was a question of the City Lords being in on the pylon creation or simply raking in profits and not asking questions.

The former scenario meant razing the place to the ground but the latter left a lot of headaches. It meant things would not be so cut and dried as enough clever bookkeeping could hide illegal goods no matter how diligent an accountant might be.

Blind ignorance was not an excuse but participation would leave far less troubles in his mind.

He also wanted to look at those pylons. The fact a new bloodline could overwrite the situation was interesting but only a temporary solution.

It was simple to target a single bloodline and start the whole process over again.

"What is the plan then, exactly? I assume you have long awaited to enact one?" In all the history, he had yet to hear about the specifics of his mission.

The 3 elders actually looked uncomfortable as a dark premonition came over Lind.

Surely not. Surely they would not expect that?!

"Ahem, you see, junior, we thought you could work that out with young Karu and our benefactors." Sunstreak scratched the side of his cheek awkwardly as Lind stared at them.

They had 100 million years to plan. They had nothing but time to plan. They had a full grasp of the uphill battle any plan would face and they had done NOTHING!

Healing focus in the first years was excusable but that time had long since passed!

He heard the crack of jade before the lukewarm tea splashed over his hand. The desire to knock heads was rising rapidly within him!