Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 257 - 256 - The World is a Weapon

The air blew up a small dust whirl but Lind did not move.  He checked on the Qi in the air and the sands but could not find his opponent.  He did not feel any tremor to reveal his location but Lind was in the open.

"These rules are idiotic.  I only need my daggers to win!"  The anger was clear but Lind noted Sivlt did not reveal himself.  He clearly was just venting while preparing to attack.

Lind decided to be a bit more proactive.

Wind began to howl as sand flew into the air all around him.  Sparks of lightning were caused by his action but they were not summoned by him.  The immediate area became a dust storm of incredible proportions.

Lind tensed and waited but no cry came out nor was he attacked.  He knew the man was waiting for him to run out of Qi, but all that was happening was the Qi in the world obeying his command.

World Realms may all learn to control the Qi within and without of their elements, but they forgot that they did not need to fuel the outer control with any Qi from within.  Many of the Arts and cultivation techniques assumed the dantian had to be used to control Qi in the world, but that was not correct.

Entering the World Realm transformed more than the dantian and the cores.  It transformed the whole body and mind as well.  The cells were more vital thus aging slowed even more with less food and water needed.  The mind expanded and the mind was what guided the exterior Qi as it once could only guide the Qi from within to make Arts in the Soul Realm.

Lind had the most trouble testing the limits of that control but he had spent a large part of his time in the 2 Relics and the world figuring that out.  It made him highly efficient but he still needed his dantian to reproduce any Arts that were conjuring that only incorporated outer Qi.

To make a dust storm in a desert, however, was easy as hell.

"If you think this little bit of force can hurt me, you are more pathetic in battle than I thought."  Lind smirked at last.  A bolt of lightning slammed into the ground behind him and finally a curse flew in the air.

"You should not speak, when attacking, just attack."  Lind dodged to the side as a slice of air slipped by his side.  Lind frowned as that was an Art, or at least like an Art.  He did not recognize it but it seemed far too rough to be a true Art.

Why was he using such a simplistic attack?

Lind kept up the storm but he was already tired from the first round.  He had recovered a bit on the wall at the end but even the small pause only allowed a bit of relaxation.

"Wise words, fool!"  He felt the sand shift beneath his feet.  It was a strange sensation but Lind felt no threat as he slipped into the ground.  If he was still mortal, he would have had concerns of breathing or being crushed, but his current body had no such concerns at all.

Lind recalled the rules before acting but he smiled as he flexed his body alone as sand was sent flying into the wind.

"Ah, my eyes!"  A lighting bolt fell once more and a scream followed.  "How are you not banned for conjuring lightning?!"

Lind finally sneered on his face at the foolish question.

"I am not conjuring lightning, I am simply manipulating the area to make it land on you.  The storm made it!"  His words made Sivlt reel in shock but he then realized that while the lightning did hurt, it was not nearly strong enough to be an Art.

"Ha! Then this fight is mine!"  Lind frowned but did not let his guard down.

A glint reflecting a spark was the only warning Lind had.  He tried to dodge but was hit in the left shoulder with enough force to knock him into the storm.  The sand began to make his skin sting but that was all. It was nowhere near strong enough to make him bleed, but the metal shard did.

Blood trickled down his arm, yet the wound healed quickly.  Lind appreciated his body's ability to recover without an elixir for such a minor wound.

"Ha, you will fall here!"  Lind was inside the storm and realized Sivlt could not find him.  He had no reason to return to the eye of the storm so he slowly backed out into the worst of it.  Time passed but the announcement never came.

"Where are you?!"  Sivlt could not withstand the storm for too long but a pathetic scholar should not be able to hold on for even a few breaths.  He had not lied about his respect for Lind Frey's discoveries and insights.  It had helped so many grow stronger.

The fact he leveraged it to survive the 1st round was not a problem either.  A cultivator uses all the tools at their disposal to win and advance.  All of that was perfectly fine to Sivlt.  Being in first place did not matter.  Only being in the top 50 did.

It should have been an easy win, so why was the fight still going?!

Lind's skin was red from all the sand flying at high speeds but he was not too uncomfortable.  He finally found his target but simple manipulation was not enough.  Both of them were far more resilient than expected.

How did the realm spirit phrase it?  Arts and conjuring that manipulate the environment were allowed.  It did not state 'established' Arts, just listed the 2 options.  Lind smiled as he sat down and began to cultivate.

The missing 2 elements were a bit of a problem but he used an elixir to recover those.  His body and dantian finally restored to their full power without drawing attention.  Sivlt clearly was not able to pierce the storm at all so it made it safe.

"This is impossible!  He should be dead by his own stubbornness, so I am the victor!"  Sivlt was clearly agitated and trying to get the realm spirit to say it.  There was no response.

Lind stood up and then began to channel all his Qi.  He did not quite have an Art for a 6 elemental, but there was something he could do that would affect even his current body.

The pressure in the storm changed and Sivlt felt it.  Lind Frey was alive!  How was he alive in that storm?!

The pressure dropped sharply and something shocking began to occur.

Ice!  There was ice forming in a desert?!

Suddenly, Sivlt felt danger like never before as he looked up when a shadow formed over his head.  How was that not an Art attack?!

A giant ice ball was falling but it was not alone.  There were several and then Sivlt understood.  Hail.  It was giant hail!

He smirked at the naivety of Lind Frey.  None of the weather here could truly harm him, so this would be no threat either.  He prepared to defend when his feet did not respond.

He snapped his head down and looked in shock as his feet were encased in some kind of stone he was not familiar with.  His Qi could not manipulate it for some reason!  Where was the disqualification?!  Where was the obvious attack from an Art that conjured something like this rather than manipulating the landscape.

"This is cheating!!!!"  Sivlt roared and put all his strength into his legs but they did not move from the strange gray stone.  Suddenly, everything paused.  The storm no longer howled and the giant hail balls froze directly above his head.

"Analyzing."  The booming voice gave Sivlt confidence.  He was going to win by default.  It was clear Lind Frey found some loophole.  It was the only explanation but now it was caught.

` "You hear that?  Your cheating is exposed!"  Sivlt screamed as a silhouette was finally revealed off to his right.  Instead of panic, laughter came from it.

"The fact you don't recognize something, does not make it a conjured attack.  I have not broken the rules.  The world is my weapon as much as myself."  Lind could see Sivlt's face turn purple in rage but then both looked up as a clear feeling of pressure returned.

"No issue found, battle resumes."  Sivlt's blood drained from his face as the ice slammed into him.  As Lind expected, it did not kill him but the snap of bones was clear as the concrete holding his feet still did not allow him to dodge or absorb the force like he normally would.

Lind winced as he let the storm settle and the desert returned with melting ice orbs everywhere.  He had not meant for the hail to be that bad but once he created the storm up above, it kind of got out of his control.

Still, he achieved his goal.

The conditions had been a bit restrictive, but Lind had all he needed to make some primitive concrete.  He had never made it himself but since cultivating, he had studied many Arts that made something similar and he was able to fill in the gaps.

Concrete was not used anywhere in the cultivation world. They simply manipulated materials with refiners making them strong by inscriptions and arrays being added as needed.  Thus, the knowledge of mixing sand, stone, and other materials together never occurred to them.

The shattered legs bled profusely but Lind acted quickly to staunch the flow and even fed an elixir to make sure he did not die.  He did not heal him as a victor had not been declared.

"I will kill you!"  The raspy voice coming from the angular face was laced with impotent rage but Lind only shook his head.

"I can heal you right now, if I wanted to, but my only other option is to kill you to win."  Fear crossed Sivlt's dark eyes but resignation entered them as well.

"I concede!"  The light enveloped them and they reappeared in the step area.  Lind immediately began administering Sivlt's wounds.  One elixir after another was given as the broken legs were set before people's eyes.

Relief flooded Sivlt's eyes before Lind had to jump back as light enveloped Sivlt to whisk him away.

"The realm spirit listened."  Lind noted that fact and realized the spirit was maybe not as restricted as people thought.

"Why did you save him?!"  He looked up and saw the furious face of Bastion from before.  He calmly stood up and noticed some flakes falling from his skin.  It would seem the sand had stripped a layer off him more than he thought.

"I gave my word and if I do not have to kill, I do not."  Rage flared in the dark green haired man's face but his sister suddenly appeared next to him.  Lind, however, did not dismiss his rage.  "I heard your accusation but I cannot operate on rumor, only on fact.  If he truly murdered without cause, I will not protect him nor help him in the future."

The grim face made some back off but those that had survived the battle in the Crimson vs Violet Hold now grasped the mastermind behind their ravaging.

Bastion backed off and his sister escorted him away.  That rage cannot be faked, Lind knew that, but he spoke the truth.  Unless driven to it, he would not kill needlessly.  He, however, would not condone evil.

The Kingdom of Altair's fate stood as testament to that.  He knew his actions had killed many but he lost no sleep over it.

Lind sat down and began to recover once more.  Forcing a hail storm had consumed far more Qi than it would normally due to being in the desert.  By comparison, making concrete was easy.

The round continued as many battles were very close and neither side would concede.  Once it was over, there would only be 250 left.  Many wondered how the 3rd round would go but for now, many recovered from their back to back battles.