Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1671 - 1670 - Refining Heaven Mystery

Before anything, he had to integrate and refine his new Heaven Mystery. Lind finally had his foundation restored and under his control. If he wanted to advance he had to first fully grasp Heaven is the Origin.

He tried the usual process but was instantly denied! He felt like his mind had run into a brick wall!

He sighed as it was clear Journeyman Tier Mysteries were just entirely different beasts.

The worm below was ignoring him and Haro could not aid him so he tried a different approach.

He tried fusing his harmony as he had the other layers but that too failed. He had to complete the layer first it seemed.

All previous successes did not help him so he had to start from scratch! The Divine Realm was damned annoying in its minor realms!

He sighed but then sat in a lotus position as he pondered what he had to do. Previously, internal mediation and clarity were needed but the Journeyman Tier was about the Divine Lands, not Lind himself.

It was about external connection so of course previous methods would fail.

How to refine a Mystery on the external world was now his task. Once he learned how, he could condense the next Mystery safely as well!

He felt it lingering on his peripheral sensations. It was merely there, waiting for him so why was it so damned hard to refine his current one?! Lind found it vexing.

"Ahem, Master, if you wish to refine your Mystery, only experience will lead the way." Haro suddenly spoke up and Lind was glad of it but then the 3 unconscious women were clearly an issue.

[They will be under my protection. Go, you must grow stronger soon.] The Divine Lord suddenly intruded but LInd shook his head. At the very least, Karu needed to awaken as Yue was in a delicate state.

He focused on the nine-tailed fox woman and finally she awoke groggily.

"Wha–?" She had her hair in disarray and drool falling from her mouth. Lind and Haro instantly saw nothing but Arlen decided to commit his soul to oblivion.

"You should clean yourself up before speaking, senior." Lind said a small prayer for the boy while Haro burned a few talismans.

The loud thwack was ignored by both older men.

Fools who speak truths best left unsaid invited their own doom.

Lind brought Karu up to date and she quickly understood Lind had to head out to achieve his next steps. Unlike her, he had condensed a Mystery that staggered the imagination.

She could feel it just looking at him!

Lind left a few instructions for Yue's treatment and a stern warning to never leave the artificial island. Maw Island was an unforgiving place in all directions!

Karu paled when she learned where they were but they were safe from the Fiends at least. They were resilient but Maw Island was a black hole for all.

Lind flew off and told Arlen to obey Karu in all things. The red cheeked young man solemnly nodded but no one mentioned why his cheeks were swollen.

Lind went to see what was out in the world. He started with the other floating remnants but they were much the same as his own. Some were larger but all were the same. People huddling under the umbrella of the Divine Lord unknowingly.

The communities were very insular but essentially people in low spots of their lives. The Broken Palaces was safe but remote. Resources like food and cultivation needs had to be found elsewhere.

His fine robes and powerful aura terrified them but as he did nothing but heal the sick or injured, most began to simply ignore him. It shocked Lind that no one thought to try and suck up to him or even a glint of greed! They were that broken!

He also learned more about the place that Arlen had told him about before. There were floating structures that were controlled but so called sects but the highest realm was at the Radiant Tier!

Divine Realm was a remote dream due to having to overcome tribulations without being eaten! The thrice damned worms actually came right afterward and even Divine Realms could easily escape.

The higher materials of the structures could withstand up to the Radiant Tier with ease but a Sovereign Tier would endanger them all due to limited space.

It meant there was no one known that could be a threat to him aside from the worms but that did not mean that a hidden expert was not somewhere on the island simply biding their time.

The worms did avoid the coasts but not by much so there were some communities there but the population was strictly controlled due again to severely limited space.

The island was a microcosm of the apocalypse combined with the battle of survival of the fittest.

He then flew back out and far higher to begin a hunt for materials as none were available in the other structures near him. He let Karu know but confirmed the other 2 were still unconscious.

Gaia showed signs of waking soon but Yue was troubling. The heart demon may have formed while she was out and that would take someone on Qing's level to help her overcome.

Lind had some expertise but he paled compared to his wife or the experts she had trained when it gets so ingrained.

Fey had been an exception as he knew so much about her he could bridge the gap. Delenn was an example of his failure as he could not truly save her where Qing could have.

He knew nothing about Yue and even Gaia only had a friendship with her during dire straits. They would not abandon her but they might need an expert very soon!

Lind left the mountains and returned to the wasteland. The few forests and other thriving areas were like pockets of life but he now understood they were just breeding grounds for food until the worms chose to eat them.

How many had grown, thrived, and been consumed over the epochs? How much more did the worms need before they went dormant? He had no answers to any of those questions but raw material was something he needed badly.

He carefully scanned as far as his aura would allow but he detected nothing just as Haro had. It told him another ability of those damned worms.

They could hide even from Divine Realms!

He chose caution and swept the forest down to the finest leaf for anything he could use and was shocked to find there were tons of precious resources for the taking! His eyes narrowed at such fortune just laying in the open.

Only a fool would believe that!

Lind made a projection of himself. He made it as real as possible before hiding his own aura to the point he became as a cloud in the sky.

The projection shot down and attempted to harvest a tree when the entire forest collapsed instantly into the waiting maw of a worm!

The suction force was so great that even far up in the sky, Lind was pulled almost halfway down!

Such horrifying power! He had narrowly escaped one before but they had flown away, not directly up. It seemed to be just directly above the maw but once inside it, there was no escape.

Lind saw his projection shatter but the energy he used did not return to him. It was consumed!

All things return to the beginning unless drawn out in his experience.

A shock went through his dantian at the thought. Return? Do things return?

He looked down at the worm and how it consumed all to make it a part of its cultivation, its power. Heaven and Earth were a duality.

Heaven sent out all things and Earth gave birth to it all. The origin was the beginning but it was also the end.

All life that died would return and then begin anew!

His Mystery began to glow brighter. The Life layer was a shining beacon of white but the Heaven Mystery made it look dull in comparison with only 1 condensed!

All cultivators did was take in and condense energy into new forms to make them stronger but it was all started from Heaven. The defiance of the natural order to cultivate too came from Heaven!

Earth would not grant such a path!

A trial to test them? He did not think so. The origin sent all out only for it to return. No matter the path, it was to go back so what were Divine Realm cultivators? Beings that were becoming their own reality in full?

Lind's eyes went wide. He looked up at the sky and a thought that terrified him came to him.

Heaven was the origin but where did its energy come from? Heaven and Earth were a furnace, converters. Heaven made energy, Qi, that composed all things and then Laws, Daos, and even souls all came from it.

Yet, he remembered, the process seemed infinite. That was impossible! Cultivators hoarded life and energy for billions of years. Even if trillions died, the quality far surpassed the quantity!

So what was the purpose of Divine Realm cultivators? What happened when they faded? They returned to the origin with all they had stolen from a greater world beyond!

There was another world! A much more powerful world!

His Mystery became like a sun and he fully felt it refined! Heaven is the Origin but it is not the beginning!