Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1657 - 1656 - Babe in the Woods

Lind had been alive for close to 100 thousand years give or take a few tens of thousands lost due to time dilation personally. He also was likely far older because of the many Ruins and Inheritances now that he thought of it but time became unimportant so long as he had enough for his goals.

As such, however, he had come to think that he had vast experience in his personal fields of expertise and was rated highly by many powers based on his results up until the Divine Realm.

Even there, though, his Art of Defiance had proven impressive even to Master Tiers, but the current trial humbled him.

He had barely scratched the surface of existence as he examined patient after patient.

Beasts came in all sizes and shapes so that experience did help but the essential composition remained the same as humans or demons. Elementals were esoteric in that sense as they were composed of condensed elemental energy more than flesh and blood.

The more legendary beasts he had encountered still fell into that bucket as well.

So when he encountered silicon based lifeforms, beings composed of energy he could not even put a name to, and even gold based life, he was left flustered. Some of them had life cycles in parallel to Elementals but that only barely gave him a starting point.

Thankfully, the trial was not expecting him to learn from scratch. His guide who defied his senses supplied him with an artifact that was a bit clunky compared to the tablets he had encountered in his mortal world.

It was as if someone had explained the idea of instant data access but had not conceived of the interplay of input to output really well. He had to use a direct imprint of his aura and see if he could extract the knowledge he needed.

Still, it gave him the basics.

He was able to stabilize the worst cases fairly easily with that alone but it only bought him time. They were not cured or healed respectively.

WIth that time, he began to deep dive not only the theoretical materials but also the resources at hand. Just as the patients were drastically different, so too were his resources. He had been a naive fool.

Just because human civilization was common, did not mean it was the only one. The Void Ocean was endless so far as anyone could tell. The farther from the Divine Lands, the less Qi could reach the lower worlds but life still existed.

It seemed the more depleted a realm was, the more varied life became. Humans were soft creatures but their adaptability allowed them to survive were most races would be at a dead end.

Conversely, these beings could have conquered old earth with ease. They were resistant to radiation, bullets and even explosions would not bother them much unless they got inside.

Even minimal Qi where only life bloomed was more than enough to give them that kind of power.

That made their conditions even more horrifying as if they could cultivate, their power would be insanely higher but their numbers were limited.

It seemed that battles between Divine Realm cultivators sometimes allowed lower realms to have fortune or disaster depending on the circumstances.

He did not know about it but once these races had the chance, their cultivation era exploded onto the scene for them.

Once they reached the Divine Lands they were one man armies but the Divine Realm was essentially true for all. Their bodies' advantages remained but everything else was negated.

It was all piled on to make him feel incompetent.

The realms varied but there were some Divine Realm beings laid out in front of him and their injuries were laced with energies he could not even pick apart!

He was truly seeing what was possible now!

The lower realms were the foundational issues but he could resolve them quickly once he had the knowledge, he just had to keep buying time and so he did.

A Divine Realm did not need to adhere to physics in that regard as time became a variable he could manipulate at his whim for the lower realms.

Years could pass now and their conditions would not deteriorate any longer but he could only do that once he knew more about the various races.

Stopping time did not affect them the same way it did humans or demons!

He had to do it in very specific ways for each race.

For the silicon based lifeforms, he found that their base element shifted how life worked in stone and other heavy earth based material but on the cellular level there were similarities to carbon based life.

Lind built on that and was able to heal and regenerate with special elixirs from the materials provided. He had never extracted from herbs made of stone before but the process did not chance once he understood them.

His guide was taking notes but she only nodded as he began to cure the lower realm beings. It was the only way to learn but he was sweating as he was still working out what he needed the elixirs to do.

Any crafter needed their intent to be formed in the context of their client. The races from his lower realm generally shared similar systems as the demonic Qi had been used to spawn the demon race long ago.

Humans might be the original source but given what he had just experienced, it might be that the demon race came from somewhere else and had spread like humans had.

Lind expanded his experience and became more confident until he got to the Immortals. Up to that point, all races generally fell into his ability to heal or analyze with relative ease.

Immortals, however, incorporate Laws into their dantians and unlike the Laws he was familiar with, they grasped Laws he had never even heard of!

It raised the bar but emerald light flared as his aura spread over them. The diseased ones were the most shocking as disease was damned rare with Immortals.

Their cultivation negated most disease immediately but he then narrowed his eyes as he saw it was not random but a directed attack.

He had never seen such a thing! Poison or even Qi deviation was many times brought before him but an Immortal disease was unheard of!

He saw why swiftly. Heaven and Earth were fair but the Laws comprehended in each race were nearly identical whereas humans were too varied. The farther in cultivation the less similar they became.

Their power came at a cost that their path was limited the farther they went. They were never meant to have the chance to cultivate but once they did, a path was possible.

Lind began to deduce what he was sensing and some similarities to his own Laws he felt enlightened. The Law of Life was common to many cultivators but life had a particular image for humans, demons, and so forth but the beings before him had a very distinct version of it.

Once he figured that out, he realized their Laws were variations never considered by those races he knew. It enlightened him that there was far more to the Laws he once knew! His Daos could also expand!

The emerald hue deepened as his Dao of Defiance took on new facets in that moment. He was so immersed he did not see the shock on his guide's face.

A smile slowly spread across her face but then she went pale as something happened she did not expect.

"So, that is why I can't sense you. You have the Law of the Void." The void between worlds was a terrifying place but now the Void Ocean existed and beasts like the krakens and leviathans called it home.

If they could live there, could life not exist in the void itself?

He now understood why that strange race seemed to not exist in his senses but he could see and hear them.

The fundamental existence was based on something he had no context of but now that he knew Laws existed the same held true for Daos.

His aura shifted and he finally sensed her. What he sensed made his eyebrows rise in surprise. She had no organs as he understood them to be, save a heart and lungs. The rest of her body was composed of an absence of matter.

It defied logic but yet she was there in front of him.

His horizon broadened but he felt small. He had been a babe in the woods the entire time.

The point of the trial was not just the technique but showing how much he had to learn!

Elixirs were flexible but they relied not only on their creator but on the grasp of the patient. Lind had not been exposed to everything but he had researched mostly to advance his 6 elemental cultivation.

He needed a lot of knowledge for that and thus his ability in elixirs, Forging, and weaving as very broad and profound.

Yet, he had only barely touched the depths. His focus had been too shallow.

He had fallen into the pit of those that had dismissed 6 elementals for so long. He dismissed his preconceptions and began again as he treated the Immortals. It was a far slower process but he learned a great deal.

The final hurdle now lay before him.

The Divine Realm patients and no amount of perception would help him there. The true test of the trial now began.