Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1604 - 1603 - Signs and Portents

Both of them digested what they had learned. Lind, for the most part, finally got answers about his strange future encounters.

Karu seemed surprised at how few but he was not. If the ability she had closed off the future, then likely it could not be replicated over and over.

It meant different versions previous to his current life had been the last few that had not met anyone before.

He really was the last one.

Karu's Talent could not only not send him back, it had stopped being able to support the previous timelines in her own memory! A Divine Memory was reality and the fact she could recall those times was something he would certainly try to use.

The fact her life was used up each time was horrifying but in the face of being consumed by the Bastard forever, it was a no contest trade off.

Still, the fact his other selves had followed the same Dao but he did not, spoke volumes about the issue they faced. One of them, or more likely a few of them, figured out the issue was that the Bastard broke free of some restrictions that he then imposed on threats like Lind.

They could never grow strong enough to truly beat him because Heaven and Earth were being forced against them!

His insane tribulations were not just about what he had comprehended and all the rest then but active attempts to kill or cripple him!

For the Fiends, his early death was a completely acceptable result and tribulations were a matter of chance as much as preparation.

"The damned chains of fate. He must be using them to–" Lind froze as he reached a conclusion that made his blood boil! He had assumed fate was guiding him to be some kind of living weapon but if his current understanding was correct, then the reality was the Bastard was breaking his foundation any way he could!

Karu seemed to be still absorbing the dramatic differences he had lived through. Some things were the same by apparently, he had lost his mother and the Frey Clan in all previous timelines.

Nothing she knew for certain explained it but Lind suspected it all came back to his harmony and the extreme rage he felt when people were used. He had pursued everything to have the power to fight back.

He smirked as his earlier guess about his harmony was both right and wrong. It was a Dao from the start but the entire point of his alternate future selves was to change that very fact. He needed a Dao that was new.

Karu confirmed she had never heard of the Dao of Defiance and that his current skill set and draconic form were nothing like before. He had wings before!

He had always been a dragon, it seemed. Ethry, Cyntilla, Kora, Qing, and Shoti had all been in his life to varying degrees but nearly all died before even reaching the Sky Realm!

The last few iterations had Cyntilla and Ethry live with Kora being stuck at the Immortal Realm.

Annabelle was entirely new. Karu never heard of her before but Lind suspected she had to exist as she manifested not far from Cimmeria. Lysanna and all the rest of his family had to be there too in some form but maybe he did not have the connections like his current self did.

The game of what if made his head hurt so he pushed aside as a final worry had to be addressed.

"Karu, how much time do we have left?" Divine Realm cultivators lived for billions of years but he knew the odds were very much against him. The Bastard had a lead that would be hard to overcome given his struggles at just the Apprentice Tier.

She scrunched up her face before sighing.

"Time is fluid here. Even when things were very similar, there could be a difference of millions of years. I know he is in the Master Tier already but no matter what he is only at the first Mystery of that tier." That confused Lind. If the Bastard retained his memories or could pierce the future, how could he be obstructed save by the time of consolidation and adaptation?

She saw his thoughts clearly.

"This is something I cannot explain as it is withheld from me too. The Apprentice and Journeyman Tiers are relatively known to me and him. Yours is already vastly different so I cannot help you as I have before. I feel like your Life and Death layers are actually terrifying as they act like Journeyman Tier power." He snorted at that.

The fact that after each extreme use he was rendered unconscious and near deviation showed he had little control over that power. He was walking a tightrope outside of anything related to his harmony.

"The Master Tier changes. Every time we reached it, it was not the same. The Great One said it himself, the Master Tier is the least stable of all the minor Divine Realms. A pebble on a lake causes ripples that will eventually smooth out but a slight deviation at any point will divert the Master Tier like a landslide." Lind found that reassuring.

"Are there things that will warn us if time is running out?" That question made her turn grim as she nodded.

"In every timeline, the eastern continent is consumed when he reaches the peak of the 2nd layer of the Master Tier. You reached me far faster than before so we may have 20 to 25 thousand years at most." Lind balked at that.

Even he, despite his ludicrous breakthrough speed, knew he had thousands of years of refinement and study ahead of him. That timeline would mean he had to reach Master Tier in such a short time!

Could he do that when he could not even get the Apprentice Tier done in less than a thousand years?!

"How?" While he knew the Bastard had designed the Realm Refiner, such a tactic would simply not work in the Divine Lands. The other Master Tiers would not stand by and let it happen.

While Fiend Qi was horrific to deal with for others, the rule of numbers still applied.

Karu frowned as she knew he would not like what he was about to say.

"Do you know what happened in the Western Lament?" He shook his head. She nodded before becoming even more grim than before. "The Western Continent was once the center of many factions and rich in resources. It is said that one day the Heavens wept and vile Qi twisted the land everywhere but none knew the source. Then, suddenly, a vortex appeared over the Western Continent and ripped it apart."

Lind became pale.

"No Master Tier could resist it and worse, their very souls were ripped out of them. All the souls were. None survived save a few on boats off the coast or on flying artifacts and even they had to put everything into getting away. It would be millions of years before anyone knew that the Fiends were born that day." Lind nearly fell off his chair.

"How–how long ago?" Karu looked at him as if she had answered that question many times before.

"Epochs ago. So long ago that everyone has forgotten. The Celestials were wiped from living memory and even race memories. The punishment of his sin was far grander than you knew. The Fiends back then did not really know what they were but they were hungry and acted on instinct. We learn all this eventually through hidden Celestial records that survived and accounts of those same fleeing survivors I spoke of." Lind understood then.

She was telling him of future knowledge but it was a time saving measure too. It allowed him to simply move forward.

"So, when that Bastard was born as a Fiend, it killed an entire continent and now that he is advancing, he needs all those lives to step forward?" It came together. The Bastard was not just consuming to live anymore.

He needed that energy to defy Heaven and Earth!

She nodded at him.

"He cannot advance to the final layer without it. And the other 2 will be consumed after to fuel his final step." Lind narrowed his eyes as he felt she was hinting at something but he could not ask more.

Still, the horror of it left him hollow. Then it came to him. The places he had seen on his visits had always been the same.

"So we survive?" It was a test but one she answered with a nod. He then knew. There was another realm!

A realm beyond the Divine Realm!

"Lind, there is something that changes things. In the other timelines, you did fuse Celestial Qi with your harmony but it was only after you became a Divine Realm. You could never do it before. Also, the Celestials never returned. I do not know if that is good or bad yet." Lind was shocked.

If Fiend Qi was being slowly turned back into Celestial Qi, then could the Bastard be thwarted? Lind doubted it.

It would actually make things worse. The cost of advancement may have increased instead so it would be worse.

The timing, however, could be impeded. To condense Mysteries would require high quality Fiend Qi and more.

Regardless, it did not change what he was told. He had a timeline and a race on his hands with trillions of lives on the line. The pressure was harsh but he would keep going. He had to.

He had a promise to keep to kill the Bastard.