Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1702 - 1701 - Chicken or the Egg

Lind had seen visions of the future and knew things were not fixed where the future was concerned but a new thought took root.

If time could be turned back so often, would the same be true of the past? How did he know if the history of the world he knew was the original? His other versions had been meddling in the past but what if it was not just his cultivation life they meddled in?!

Further, the Bastard had to originally reach the next major realm to trigger Karu's unique Talent and send everything spiraling back in time but both she and he had assumed that was the extent of it.

Yet, Heaven and Earth were fair. The complete destruction was a known event to 2 beings at least that first time, how would it be fair to Karu to simply be forced to relive it over and over?

Had that been what he figured out? Had the other Lind's realized that the massive disruption and partially locked out Bastard created an imbalance that had to be addressed?

Lind had encountered so many human reincarnation traces or literal beings over his lifetime from just his world that he had to assume part of that was true, yet he also remembered that Samsara could be interfered with by Divine Realm cultivators too.

Part of his rebirth came from his karma and those 2 women guiding him. They tied their own karma to him as a price but they still helped.

Had it truly been random or had Heaven and Earth increased the number of souls being directly reborn?

His harmony was a near perfect counter balance to the Fiends all on its own. It was not enough but his other versions had shifted things over each cycle.

Now, he existed as he was and he stood on a broken Earth.

Asking his prisoner was useless as she would not remember. Just like everything else, she started over but on Earth instead of in the Divine Lands. She was locked out but still part of causality.

Some version of her still existed in the Divine Lands but was consumed now instead of escaping to Earth. Two Divine Realms could not exist in the same world. He had already learned that.

Yet, he had no way to know what happened to Earth after his other versions had left. Had those too been reduced to a barely living world and made a trial for the Divine Lord candidates or only the current one?

Had he always become a dragon? Had he always qualified to be a True Lord? So many variables suddenly came into play. Karu had never met all his wives despite the many repeats but she also refrained from mentioning much about those time personal to him.

He dared not ask as it likely might affect something unexpectedly.

Now, he regretted not asking more. The Fiend was rambling about all she had accomplished and about how the forces were now serving her directly but he had figured all that out.

He was tempted to kill her but an instinct warned him not to. Whether it was possible fallout from affecting the fragile world or the Fiend Qi he detected deep underwater, she had more answers to give him before figured out what to do.

His current dilemma was a very old one even he knew about before George ever used it as an example for his many shows. The chicken or the egg, which came first?

Did the Bastard create him, or the conditions for him to be reborn, or were they already being reborn and he simply changed history? Did other versions of Lind alter history and make things worse or did worse conditions lead to a different him?

Normally, there was no literal way to know, but a long time ago George had put forth an idea that Lind actually understood. Half the mechanical details of his anime or sci-fi mech suits made no sense, but the more abstract theories were more relatable.

George had put forth the concept that trying to figure out the egg or chicken missed the point. The group of cells that came together to survive needed a new form to live. At some point, that form followed the cellular desire to reproduce but the offspring could not safely form or survive.

It was likely that eggs first came to be as a need to survive to birth made it necessary. Whether mammals are an improvement or not does not matter, but to George, it was the process to reach the egg that mattered. Once the egg was formed, the life cycle stabilized.

So the question was wrong. It was not the chicken or egg that came first, it was what step in the process required the egg to survive to become a chicken that started it all.

Lind understood what he meant. Life was not as simple as a singular beginning. The variety of it likely came from many lifeforms adapting to the environment or circumstances as predator and prey relationships were established.

He had recalled feeling like people overlooked the process too often and just accepted the either/or concept of a beginning and end when it was likely a much messier process to get there.

Lind was trying to do that now and so he backed off mentally and simply thought about it. His other versions realized what he had. Karu's reset was not just the start of her life. It was a reaction to the Bastard so likely it went back much farther.

Time was not fixed between the universe and cultivation worlds. Modern humans only a few decades apart on Earth were reborn hundreds if not thousands of years apart in the cultivation worlds.

Why? Why wasn't time fixed?

Lind slowly realized what was happening! The reset included all living cultivators but any new cultivators would cause changes!

Some might be tiny but the process would accumulate. So, what would his previous versions try to attempt? They would try to direct the changes to be of help to him or maybe some better version of him!

How? If the process was important and the Fiend in front of him had never heard of him but recognized his specific history, he was on his Earth but maybe not the only Earth!

She could have lived through millions of them and be none the wiser because her realm had fallen!

Could she have lost more of her foundation too? He had no idea but as he looked at the array, a new thought occurred to him.

If it had always been there, it meant there was a connection! If he had reached a realm comparable to the original Bastard, then the same ability to circumvent the rules of Heaven and Earth would be available to him as well!

The Fiend had gone silent but Lind now stared at her and a thought occurred to him.

"What arrived 20 years ago?" She flinched. It was as if she had expected the question.

"Some kind of storm from space. It ravaged the planet and left it changed. I have never felt anything like it. Emerald lightning and I thought I heard the roar of dragons but there was nothing in it." Lind recognized it. A Storm Art!

A counter move of some kind to affect his life. Lind knew it had to arrive after he asked to see the future of the woman he had saved.

The strange phenomena and the frozen time began to make sense. If the world had been carved up, no if the cosmos had been carved up, it changed everything.

The Bastard had happily told him how many tears had opened up and Lind finally began to understand why. His last death had been the most desperate gamble.

He had locked away the Bastard and shifted his fate massively. They had to be tied together!

Now, Earth was dying but he felt that was wrong. He had been too narrow.

"Earth is not dying. The entire universe is dying." He spoke aloud and the Fiend was about to question him when a screen appeared in front of Lind.

{Progress: 92%}

Lind understood. By all the spirits, he understood. His harmony was different, his life had changed drastically, and the 6 elementals had been fundamentally changed as well as an entire new race of dragons in the same vein!

Karu had never met a single Harmonic Dragon ever!

"Matter and energy cannot be destroyed, only converted. The Bastard let you all go to consume the last bit of existence he needed and I used the rest to change my fate. Rather, I shattered fate." There was no prompt but there was no way the 2 prong attack could leave the universe in a good place.

Still, he had figured it out, so why was the progress stalled until he recalled his original suspicion.

Everyone was lying. They were not lying. The fog was from him and the Bastard was partially connected. He could not make thralls but his intent was everywhere.

Lind had weakened the prison binding at the current level.

The Bastard was aware a Fiend was there! He was trying to consume the piece he had been denied for so long but could not do it until Lind made it possible!

It was his fault! Regardless that he had not taken action, it was all his fault! He had to fix it but he had no where near the power to do anything like that!

He had to reach the next major realm! He had to kill the Bastard!

He also had to stop the other True Lords. The trial was not about the mystery but about him. None of them could pass it because they were missing everything and were now tools of the Bastard's intent.

He had killed the Kun but he now suspected all of them might have to be killed to end the trial. He hoped not as it would be ugly.

He looked at the Fiend and realized he had been wrong. There was one more thing he could do.