Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1626 - 1625 - Unbroken Line

Lind awoke to find he was in a rather pleasant room with incense burning that helped him feel relaxed. The dark wooden ceiling was thatched with leaves and laced with some kind of moss.

The hearth was the only stone construct in the room and a low fire burned happily as he slowly sat up and looked around.

The room was not too large but it was also crossed by beams that could only serve the purpose of a being that could hang from them.

He was in a village of apes and monkeys? How? When?

He let his aura carefully out but pulled back as he felt a presence at the drape that covered the doorway. They had been subtle but were only at the Radiant Tier of the Immortal Realm.

They had been some version of a monkey with pure white fur and piercing orange eyes. The spear in their hand was a practical high grade 7 weapon, but well cared for. The same went for the chainmail armor.

The freedom of movement was clearly taken into account as the leggings and arms were secured to allow any orientation of the owner.

The fact they could not detect his state was odd aside from his aura. He had not strongly pulsed so it was meant to slip by but that was when he noticed something missing.

Ever since Sun pointed it out, he had detected a faint trace of Fiend Qi but none was felt now. What was going on?

He was about to escape when Karu entered his senses. She instantly knew he was awake and came running.

"LIND!" He was shocked as she crushed him in a hug. They were hugging now? Since when?

She went all stiff and then turned deep pink before swirling away.

"You passed out and have been unconscious for close to a month." Shock went through him. A month?! He had used his Mystery and it took him out for a month?! That was totally unacceptable!

"What happened?" He waved his arm to encompass the simple desk, bed, and chair that made up the furniture of the room. There was a shelf but it was currently empty.

She calmed down and motioned for him to sit on the bed as she took the chair.

"I am unsure what you 2 did but you activated something miraculous in him. I remember the recordings of the golden monkey True Lord that wiped the Fiends from the Western Lament islands with monkey tribes on them. I saw him in person a month ago." Lind's head shot up at that.

That was impossible! Sun was a lower Apprentice Tier, but the man Karu described had to be a peak Journeyman Tier.

Sensing his confusion she shrugged.

"His aura shot up and it was as if he was made to be a Journeyman Tier. I felt the condensation of his Mysteries myself and his ascension was used as a precise weapon to slay the Fiends. I have never seen golden lighting like that before. It was not a tribulation but a celebration." Lind sighed as he remembered.

Divine bloodlines were celebrated by Heaven and Earth. Only Progenitors had the 'honor' of overcoming very harsh tribulations on top of what most already faced. He also seemed to be sought out for heavy tribulations in general.

Still, that left a mystery to solve. All he had wanted was to awaken Sun's bloodline completely, so why did his foundation explode like that?

He also then realized he did not know where Gaia was.

Before he could ask, a slim but much more filled out young woman burst through the drapes and slammed into him once more.

"YOUR AWAKE!" Gaia was crushing his ribs! Why was everyone hugging all of a sudden?!

He was about to reassure her when his hand froze. Her once purely pale skin now had a distinct pattern of water, earth, and light pigmentation. He had never heard of such a thing!

"What?" He traced the striations of color on her face but she showed no hesitation.

"She was in enlightenment for 3 days and this happened. She became fuller in shape and her skin turned like that. It has not gotten darker but her skills have improved dramatically." Karu spoke up but she looked at him as if he had answers.

He did not know!

He carefully scanned her condition but was interrupted as an extremely powerful aura locked onto the room.

The air was pierced by a familiar staff before a very different man came through the spatial tear. Sun had changed dramatically.

His previously mixed black and gold fur now neatly tied back and more gold than black. His eyes were also more golden in color than before. His open leather vest and cloth pants had been exchanged for a more ornate imperial set of robes with broad shoulders.

Base white with black and gold patterns emblazoned on them felt profound to his senses but no less than the staff currently in his hands. He was also now easily 2 meters tall!

An impressive and oppressive feeling flowed off of him for a moment before a friendly smile spread on his face.

"Finally awake, lazy dragon?" Lind narrowed his emerald eyes but not only at the words. It was Sun's voice, body, and soul but the mind was not the same. As if sensing his wariness the staff shrunk so much it became a tube hung at his waist and he flipped up on the beams to hang upside down.

The silliness did not allay Lind's worries at all but both Karu and Gaia giggled at his antics.

"Go send word for the feast!" The guard slammed a fist to their chest before loping off so fast on all fours it was hard to track their individual movements. Such a fast movement Art!

"Who are you?" Sun laughed as he swung back and forth.

"I am Sun! The foolish Monkey True Lord but I am my full self now. I think you know something about that?" The sudden ancient glance brought the puzzle home.

"Reincarnation?" Sun nodded.

"Long ago, I was able to achieve the True Lord state and refine my bloodline to the Divine. A new race was born from me but the wisdom I gained was not passed on. They are too impulsive!" Lind was sorely tempted at that point to use strong language but refrained.

How was that any different from Sun before?!

A smirk played on Sun's face before he became serious.

"I placed my tomb in the then Western Continent Depthless Jungle. A place of distorted space and wild abandon. A beast paradise that could not be tamed." Lind was intrigued but assumed it was gone. "I hoped the future would find a successor but imagine my surprise when I found my own tomb and awoke my memories?!"

Sun guffawed as if it was the greatest joke but Lind grasped something. Sun had used the words 'achieve the True Lord state' rather than being selected to be a True Lord. Were there no Divine Bloodlines for the monkey and ape races? He doubted that.

"I understood then that I was destined to be reborn over and over, but even by my second life, my people had become destructively warlike. Some had gone extinct because of it! So I united them again and made my staff!" Lind looked at the staff in a new light.

He had used his original beast core! Physically it was unchanged but it was the closest to the source of his origin.

"You made a key for the next incarnation to regain the past and resume your life?" Such an absurd setup seemed to align with the free spirit of the monkey race. Sun nodded and then flipped up to stand on the beam he was hanging from.

"My staff was so worn down and you restored it! My unbroken line will continue forever!" Sun then did a kind of happy dance with flips, tail curled around the beam to go around it and then landed on the floor with a flourish as if waiting for a bow!

"So instead of growing stronger, you were returning to where you were before?" Sun nodded emphatically.

He was the same person, literally. Unlike Lind who had shifted races entirely with his world, Sun had been in the cycle of Samsara over and over again. No wonder he had felt inspiration with his second Mystery looking at Sun!

"So, what happened after I passed out? You won, obviously, but how bad was it?" The previously giddy atmosphere vanished as Sun slammed down to sit on the floor as his fist punched the boards.

"Those bastard traitor apes had consumed my family! They did it the day they took over! I killed them all. I destroyed every area the Fiends were at. The corrupted Celestials are pale imitations of themselves." His words brought Lind up short.

Aside from his Celestial Field lower realm, no one else seemed to know about Celestials. His focus made a grim smile spread on Sun's face.

"How old do you think I am? Epochs have passed since I began. Unlike all those old fogies that faded away, I retain my memories just fine! I remember the Celestials and what came before the Great Pudgy One broke Heaven and Earth." Lind moved like the wind.

"How?! How was that allowed?!" Sun looked at him sadly before shaking his head.

"Even I know only what came after, not what led up to it. The only being left alive that knows you have to kill. I can't. I have tried before and nearly lost my soul in the process. My mate back then took my place, just as that gorgeous azure dragon did for you." A sight Lind had never seen before flashed across Sun's face.

Lind understood him perfectly at that moment. The 2 men shared a pain few ever had and never should. Lind solemnly nodded.

"Lanbao." Sun smiled and pulled Lind into a hug.

"Sheru." No further explanation was needed between them.

The shared pain and anger was clear that even Karu and Gaia began to weep.

"Enough! The past cannot be changed but the future is still ours to grasp. To the feast!" Space was torn open and Lind was dragged off to a lively room with heavily laden tables and various monkey and ape tribes cheering his arrival.

For a few days, he lost himself in celebration. It was a reminder of what he was fighting for.