Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1613 - 1612 - Onslaught

In the darkest keeps to sunny palaces, anywhere there was power and resources to be had, the Fiends had their thralls reaching into them. Yet, the unrivaled siphoning of lives over billions of years had made them complacent.

The reports of a dangerous dragon were taken seriously as they had come from the Great One, but that was all. They simply took his orders as gospel and that was the end of it before returning to their pursuits.

The loss of a single Celestial Field realm was nothing to most of them. Ants were not worth their time.

Outside of the Eastern Continent, the majority of Fiends did share the urgency of that area.

It was only when 3 demons wrecked havoc after being newly ascended and a weapon made by that same dragon seemed to kill them at a distance through their thralls!

Even Lind was unaware of the power of his artifacts in total. The fact was, his improvement of his harmony affected his creations made of them. As to why, he would have to learn or discover the method.

The fact was, 6 elementals had zero numbers in the Divine Realm before him and now a wave of them were coming.

Thus any unique effects were not just under studied, no data existed!

His order to his still Immortal family and friends had an unexpected consequence to his best plans.

He had hoped to catch a few more Fiends and maybe keep them distracted enough for even the Great One to be forced to look away.

What he had not expected was what happened when Shoti and Qing ascended.

They did not need the vault he had left behind at all. All his wives had weapons and armor galore from him already.

The pair ascended separately but only a few months apart. They had both felt the desire to break through and did so with the Harmonic Dragons guarding them.

Shoti's was a battle with weaponry and Daos of Deceit, Battle, and similar kinds. Qing faced a much more gentle tribulation but far more mentally straining.

She actually faced the Dao of Heart Demons. It was a very rare and dangerous Dao but she passed it with ease. She had faced far more terrifying things in her life. She also faced the Dao of Healing and Terror due to her battleground being in the mind as much as the body.

It was said by many they would rather fight lightning incarnations that face the aura of what she did.

Regardless, both appeared in different areas of the Eastern Continent and before they could even deploy a weapon, their robes reacted.

The auto defense weavings instantly lashed out before anyone knew what was going on. The thralls or normal beings were all ensnared instantly in pure Dao!

Of all things, weavings were tied to the soul of the creator and Lind had become not only a true Divine Realm being but his Authority as an ascended True Lord was acknowledged by Heaven and Earth in the Divine Lands.

Thus, when things made by him at the pseudo-Dao grade arrived, his Authority touched those weavings instantly compared to other things.

It was his soul rather than his harmony that empowered them.

So, when the sigils engraved on each robe reacted to tremors in the air to the effect of attacks or traps, emerald light flared like the sun on both women.

Any thrall or Fiend struck by them never knew how they died, literally. His harmonic Qi latched on and fed off of their vile Fiend Qi until it was all converted back to natural Qi.

It then flowed along the connections to the Fiend behind them if it was a thrall until the same chaos caused by Kexin and Tessa repeated only in a dramatically stronger fashion.

Their harmonies worked on different principles and were nowhere near as efficient. His creations for his family were far more potent!

As for the others that attacked, they were nowhere near as effective save in the surprise value. Combined with the screams of the thralls and their destruction, it gave a massive window for both Qing and Shoti to make their escape.

They barely had to lift a finger.

It was the beginning of an onslaught of new ascenders in the Eastern Continent unleashing potent attacks no one could understand. They were nascent Divine Realm cultivators!

They should not have the power to even cause a breeze to affect others at the same tier let alone wipe out Journeyman Tiers like they were so much wheat and they were a scythe!

The effect was felt across the entirety of the Divine Lands. It did not take long for stories of 6 elementals being effective against Fiends to be put together with what was happening.

The Great One also revealed he saw Lind Frey as a threat. The wave of newly ascended demonstrating artifacts far above what should have been possible brought far more credence to his claims.

While some only affirmed they wanted to capture him to survive, previously neutral powers distant from the Eastern Continent saw an opportunity. If an Immortal could make such potent artifacts previously, what could he be capable of if properly trained?

The effects were felt even more at the Glass Palace but Lind was in no place to enjoy them as it did not ease his task.

If anything, the leading heads of Glass Palace made the wise choice of hunkering down and increasing guard activity.

Thankfully, they had been living normally as a traveling pair so they did suffer the severe crackdown at the gates as others did going forward.

Coming in or leaving were treated very strictly.

Lind and Karu heard many rumors but only a few made sense to them. The fact that some major backers had left the city was not surprising but apparently some slave traders had chosen to also cease all operations all of a sudden.

Lind had a dark suspicion they were more like fodder for Fiends than actual sales. If they kept up operations like before, their profits would not make sense anymore.

Still, there was one silver lining even with all the lockdowns.

He was able to study the pylons in peace.

There were no longer any Fiend traces and no artifacts existed to track him. Karu confirmed that making them without him was next to impossible but they would exist in the future.

A sample of his Divine Harmonic Qi was needed regardless of what the Bastard wanted.

So, he spent his days at open cafes, markets, and various areas for normal actions of a pair gathering resources for a long journey. His demonic features discouraged casual passerby and the tension in the city slowly faded within a few months.

Karu, for her part, acted the cranky old lady way too well. Apparently they had donned similar disguises in the past. She was able to quickly resume her acting despite never doing it in her current life.

Lind finally got some of the restricted materials under legitimate reasons as well. There were some weapons and artifacts that needed them and he took them to a refiner for his 'master' to get upgraded artifacts.

The fact he did not give them all was no doubt noted but not unusual. No sane person entrusted precious materials to all or nothing commission.

The Glass Palace was rife with stories of left over precious materials being taken as compensation for labor or for extra effort needed.

The tiny samples were enough for what he needed. He now had a complete material base to assemble and study aside from examining how they worked.

It took him a damned long time even with Karu explaining what she could recall. She had no ability to refine or Forge and thus did not understand the complexity of something like the pylon in a way to help speed up his efforts.

Basic artifacts were one thing, most cultivators could grasp them, but something like the pylons that enslaved based on the bloodline of a race was too technical for a layman to grasp.

It would be like having a quantum physics expert talk to a child. Some of it would make sense but most of it was too advanced to grasp the context or applications let alone the math.

So once he had the materials, he knew their composite capacity for inscriptions and could guess at Forging. His sessions testing it to get a more accurate impression was slow.

Making something from scratch or with his own design was one thing, but picking apart another's work slammed him up against the wall of other creator's Daos.

It made the daunting concept of Mystery Grade just that much higher in his mind.

They had been in the Glass Palace a little over a year when the Fiends began to return. Lind was well past the need to actively scan so it did not make a difference but changes came again.

The once shuttered slaver pens reopened with gusto.

Some did not understand their frantic purchase and selling cycle but Lind did. The Fiends that survived or were stretched thin, needed more thralls or food for their dantian.

They were focused on growing and now were likely on the hunt for him even more.

He felt some satisfaction but freeing the demon fox tribes seemed remote with just humans as his enemies.

There was no sign of oppression to foment rebellion in the city or countryside. No one cared enough.

They were on their own each time according to Karu but the more dramatic adventures were not an option any more. If he took a direct route, the Fiends would lockdown and consume the entire city to get to him.

The Bastard was likely keeping a sharp eye on the place now too. The instant he acted, it would all come tumbling down, but Lind was not out of options yet.

If the direct approach would not work, what about cracking the foundation of the Glass Palace itself?