Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1624 - 1623 - Monkey King's Woes

After the monkey had relayed his story, Lind finally knew why he was familiar but he wanted to deny it so badly.

How could he be real?!

"Just to confirm, your name is Sun?" Sun nodded emphatically back at Lind.

"Any who attains True Lord status takes on the sacred name of Sun." Lind could almost hear George in his mind fan girling out at that moment. It had been a long time but a staple of manga and anime had come true once more in front of him.

He had every certainty one of his contemporaries from old Earth was responsible as he refused to accept Heaven and Earth was that aligned with his world!

He let it go as ultimately it did not matter but it affirmed that if he met any other reincarnator, he would have very strong words for them!

"So when the Bastard sent out his ultimatum, you and your people doubled down on defying him?" Sun nodded but then frowned.

"Most of us did. The damned apes said we should not risk our future by defying the Fiends and wanted to use the teleportation array to head to the main islands and try to find you." Lind sighed once more.

Was the current island going to try and make him quote old movies George made him watch?! The apes were against him and those damn movies were drudged up from his memory. He hated those marathons!

Sometimes he wondered if getting free of fate just meant his old friend was put in charge of his life. Just sometimes.

"It was after that you realized they had aligned with the Fiends?" Sun nodded once more and his aura flared.

"Those bastards attacked the children and made many warriors surrender without a fight! I wanted to lay waste to them but they made me swear to run away! I could not turn them down!" Sun's knuckles cracked.

Lind applauded whoever knew Sun so well. His attitude was troubling.

He had a pure heart but he was too inclined to fight! How had such a being become a True Lord?! The loss of a True Lord was not a small thing and Fiends would happily take such beings for their next meal as it would advance them very far.

"So why are you in the forest then? Surely you would not just live out here?" He had seen many beasts scatter on arrival but Sun had not. His status as a True Lord was part of it but there had to be more.

Sun scratched his cheek sheepishly.

"I wanted a good fight!" Lind nearly fell over as Karu slammed her head into her palms. Gaia looked at Sun as if he was a small child at that point.

A battle maniac. He was absolutely a battle maniac!

It had been too long and he had let his guard down!

Karu started to giggle so she knew! She knew his history with battle maniacs!

"You wanted a good fight while your people are suffering?" Gaia asked the oh so innocent question before he could stop her.

"YES! I need to get stronger so I can beat the heads of my enemies together like drums and dance on their graves! I have to be able to be unrivaled in power! I have to…" Lind began to tune it out as the enthusiastic Sun began to expound on how battle solved all things.

The damn Monkey True Lord was outnumbered and thought he could find good battle experience in the forest?! He had to be hundreds of thousands of years old at least based on his vitality!

How did he not have enough experience?!

He might not have been able to oust the current insurgents due to the Fiends but the damn man absolutely simply wanted a good fight to let off some steam!

He also had a Dao Grade spirit weapon! A thought then occurred to Lind.

"Have you ever been able to hold back and be precise in your staff Arts?" Sun froze as Gaia had been raptly listening to his every word. The Monkey True Lord then scratched the back of his sheepishly.

The answer was emphatically no! Total devastation or no fighting at all!

A long sigh left Lind as he had flashes of his past fights with many battle maniacs. Fall out from the conflict truly did not cross their minds most of the time so Sun was commendable as he understood his strengths and weaknesses.

"Get in. We are going to scout your people." He waved his hand and the hatch to board appeared as the plank shot down to let them on. Sun jumped as he had not seen how they arrived clearly.

The ship smoothly lifted up and began to cross the island towards where civilization stood. Towers, sprawling complexes, and walls marked any town or city from nature but the forest was allowed to grow close as it became clear it was a beast majority island.

They needed facilities for professions and housing guests but only enough for that. The island was self-sufficient and any formations or other defenses were shared it seemed.

Sun was not acknowledged by Heaven and Earth of the Divine Lands but he had apparently been the True Lord for about 200 thousand years. He was from the Divine Wisdom Monkey bloodline.

Lind so badly wanted to deny that was the name but Karu had actually heard of it! Further, she confirmed to him that the Fiends did face a defeat to some powerful monkey or ape wielding a gigantic staff.

The staff had been in dire need of nurturing but if Sun broke through to the Journeyman Tier in the future, it was entirely possible the tribulation would have repaired it as he had.

The situation in the constructed areas was bleak. Lind saw chained groups led by larger figures in armor but he also detected a spike in Fiend Qi.

That presented a problem. While killing the Fiends via assassination was not an issue, it would instantly reveal where he was.

The whole point of going to the Western Lament was to buy time.

If the totality of Fiend forces focused there, he would have no place to hide left. Suspecting where he was and actually knowing were 2 entirely different scenarios.

Karu was in the same boat. Anything from her would be like raising a flag to come find them.

Lind sighed again as that left him only 1 realistic option. If Sun had done it before, he just had to be taught to do it again.

The ship returned to the clearing with a much more subdued Sun stepping into the sunlight.

Karu and Gaia looked pale but determined yet Lind simply looked up before sighing outloud that time.

"I am restricted from fighting Fiends yet. I am not strong enough to take on the Bastard and his army if they come in force." He was not lying and Karu cracked her own knuckles as she knew the same applied to her.

They were just too damned weak!

Apprentice Tiers were as Gods to all lower realms but compared to even the weakest Journeyman Tier, they were nothing. Lind had succeeded in killing some because of distinct advantages or ambush tactics.

Taking head on a prepared foe, even a Fiend, would result in his annihilation 9 out of 10 times.

Such luck was going to come back and bite him if he did not get through his current bottleneck! Why was the Samsara layer so hard?

He was about to expound that he could train Sun when the world slowed. He realized he was about to interfere in the fate of another on a deeply fundamental level and it sparked a thought.

Energy stormed the clearing as Lind seemed to become more profound to all around him. He locked onto Sun who could not look away either.

[Samsara unlocks hidden regrets and opportunities.] His voice thundered in their heads as his second Mystery condensed like a flood. His silver layer lit up once more and became far more profound.

The cycle of life, death, and Samsara was not simple. Any living thing has regrets but Samsara allows the chance to overcome them. Equally, new opportunities can be grasped from the lessons of those regrets but only by living a new life! The concept solidified in him and new ideas flowed in his mind.

Lind's Talents changed once more. For some reason, the Samsara Layer had a direct effect on all of them.

He looked at Sun and found strange fissures laced over his soul, dantian, and body. He saw smaller versions on Gaia but they were fading as he looked on. He did not dare look at Karu but he then looked within himself.

It was a battlefield. Regret filled him with so many things but he saw they were not as powerful as Sun's. Some were faded to old scars while others were fresh and healing. He seemed to have a cycle of repair in place that was doing its job over time.

At the heart of his existence, however, was a scar he did not recognize at first. It was then that a great shock came to him.

It was not one of his regrets, but his previous self! The version he met in the final future meeting! His regret was there and understanding flooded him.

Was he insane?! His other self had used the foundation of the Divine Realm to hack his own existence with the greatest regrets of his failures! It drove his existence to change on a fundamental level at the time of his rebirth into the cultivation worlds!

Such a thing could not have been safe or allowed without a severe price. What had they paid or was it shouldered by Karu because it was her Talent? He still lacked that piece but he now understood how his past was changed over and over again.

His new sense realized there was only one way to resolve that regret and he was on that path. Kill the Bastard and wipe any hope of the Fiends enacting his plan ever again!

He felt a slight shift and while a new bottleneck settled in, it was not as bad as the last two. He had a lot to do and it was time to get busy!