Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 388 - 387 - Bridgeway

Lind traversed the Elysium Plains for the next year.  As Mara had told him, it was a pretty but very empty place.  The few villages were all he found scraping out a living as they could.  Some were like Mara's, where they were located by nearly empty Ruins.

Others seemed to simply be living as they could without the worry of rules or other powers coming after them.  Lind felt the pain in his heart as the children could only work with their parents to survive but he had no solution.

He had tried to help a village and now knew if he started, he would have to follow through.  He had no backing, only the resources in his ring, and most of all, he had no desire to kill another group of strangers.

Lind made a few trades with them and got a general direction to go to move to the next island.  He could fly if he wanted but there were dangers between the islands.

Avian races lived on the sides and happily snapped up the lone cultivator or 2 if they were stupid enough to fly on their own without protection.  Many powers had flying artifacts that would do so but even then it could lose them if the aether beasts were in the later tiers of the Sky Realm.

The villagers did not know why the birds stayed between the islands but Lind suspected it was something worked out ages ago.  Beasts at the Sky Realm were far more intelligent than in the World Realm and below.  Tal, Kora, and Ethry were special cases due to their origins, but the beasts up here would start to be dangerously clever.

Likely there had been great battles as the races carved out their places in the Floating Isles.

Finally, he saw the other side of the Elysium Plains, but it was not simply a drop off, but a large city.  While a normal city would be bustling and with traffic in and out of its walls, this one was seemingly empty.

The stone wall was seemingly well maintained but there was no line waiting to get in nor any sign of people leaving.  Lind observed it for an entire day, but no one left or entered it.

There were fluctuations of Qi to be observed, but at a very low level.  He estimated it was only at Iron Tier levels at best.  If not for the massive structure shooting into the clouds, Lind would assume he was looking at a dead city.

On the farside of the city was a massive structure, a tube shooting up beyond his ability to see.  It told him the kind of distance it covered between islands.

"The Scorched Gorge is up there."  Lind had to get to the next island to find a teleportation array.  He was basically trapped as he could not even repair his ship to attempt to reach another island.

He was also not certain he could repel higher tiered beasts with his draconic aura as he had on his way to the Floating Isles.  The oceans were the danger there as any birds needed land to live on.

Any oceanic beast that was a Sky Realm had little interest in leaving their waters until they were at the Floating Isles.  It was only then they would move up through the various waterfalls raining down on the surface below.

Lind slowly made his way to the road and did not hide himself.

No guard called out nor did anyone stand at the closed metal gate.  His Eyes revealed it was rather sturdy but again, it was only at the peak of grade 3.  If he used his full strength the gate would be as good as a piece of paper in stopping him.

Why?

Why was everything so low quality?

In the lower world such a city would be considered well made and likely in a middle or high power depending on the cultivation realm of their leaders.  So what was up with the city in front of him?

Lind did not call out as some instinct warned him not to.  It was not from his dragon instinct, but his human one.  There was something wrong with the city beyond being empty.

All the villages agreed on a few things aside from the  direction of the connection to the Scorched Gorge.  The city, called only Bridgeway, was the greatest city left in Elysium Plains.  It was supposed to be the hub that let visitors come down and head out to the plains.

It was also the place to let them go back up.  At any given time, there should be at least enough people to repair and maintain the facilities.

So where were they all?

The Heavenly Maidens had arrived without issue, he had seen them, but that was over a year ago.  They should have left long before he arrived as they had their own artifacts to speed their way.

Still, what was going on?

Lind turned around and left but nothing happened.  There was no feeling of being watched nor was there a threat of attack.  It rubbed him wrong but he did not speed up nor do anything else but walk away.

He walked for days and still nothing happened but he took a chance to slowly cast an illusion around himself.  Rather than vanish directly, he first became difficult to perceive.

It was a trick he found to work better as anyone watching would have their vision slip off him before he truly vanished to all senses.  When he finally did see the slight distortion to signal the full formation in effect, Lind dropped a formation plate.

He then stood exactly in the middle of the road and waited.

Two whole days passed before he saw profound arrays collapse to reveal powerful cultivators.  There were 3 of them and he could not tell what tier they were at without giving himself away.

"Where did he go?"  The tallest swept the road carefully before finding the plate Lind left behind.  All 3 moved forward and the slimmest picked up the plate after carefully examining it.

"A teleportation plate, but it should only have covered a short range.  We should have still been able to find him."  The last one, the one that seemed in charge, tilted their hooded head before an attack lashed out in all directions.

It was only at tier 1 of Sky Realm but it would disperse any protection someone put up.  There was no result so the 3 men relaxed.  They tried to see if the formation plate gave them any leads but there was nothing.

"We don't have any description of who we are looking for and orders to not cause too big of an issue.  How are we supposed to find the one who killed the young master?"  The tall one spoke and Lind narrowed his eyes.

They were looking for someone but did not know who?  Their actions were conservative, which likely had a good reason.  Lind instantly realized it was the Maidens.  The few things he knew of in the Floating Isles was that the Maidens held a similar position of dominance.

Following that, Lind realized one of the people he had killed seemed to have more backing than the others.  A flash of the one screaming if he knew who he was attacking came to him but it was already done.

"We cannot occupy Bridgeway for too much longer.  If those Maidens report our actions, the master will be displeased."  The slim one seemed to be appealing to the leader but they simply stood in silence for a time.

"Take this to our formation masters and see if they can identify where it came from."  Lind narrowed his eyes but Annabelle's work had long since advanced.  If they recognized it, they might be able to know it came from her but its lower grade might simply reveal someone bought it.

She had offered them to the Heavenly Maidens and Moebius sects to sell.  It was not impossible that someone would have them as they were very high end formation plates.

Lind moved with them but the idiots did not know he was in the sky.  He was not flying by his cultivation, but by his draconic skill.  That version of flight was the same as a bird.  It was simply something he could do as easy as breathing and it left no Qi trace behind.

It also was why the attack failed, it was directed at the ground since there were no traces in the sky to warn them.

The 3 men were swift but not so much that Lind could not keep up.

He was concerned about the citizens of the city but when they reached Bridgeway once more, they diverted to the north.  Lind followed and was stunned to see them approach a very familiar feeling.

It was an illusion formation made by Annabelle!

His eyes narrowed as he pierced the nodes and confirmed it was indeed her work.  Lind smirked as the men made a complex signature with their hands to enter while Lind simply used a plate in his possession.

It was one thing she never sold to anyone but gave Lind and her sister wives.

It was a counter if someone tried to use her illusions against them.  The plate allowed the bearer to pierce the illusion and no one knew it existed.

He saw a massive camp and the people were there.  They were unharmed but clearly afraid.  No one in the simple woolen clothes was above Iron Tier.  It was clear that the quality of defenses matched the natives.

Lind still found it odd they were so weak, but pushed it to the side as he followed the 3 men deeper but had to stop as both his draconic and human instincts screamed at him of danger.

The center of the camp was full of Tier 1 and Tier 2 Sky Realms.

He could just barely feel a stronger pressure from the center of the camp and it was actively looking at the camp.  If Lind proceeded, he would be revealed as he could only mimic Annabelle's skill, not recreate it at the same level.

His peak grade 4 illusion was the best he could do and the pressure ahead would shatter it.

Lind instead fell back to the natives and found a place to land and change his appearance to look like them.  He also lowered the output of his Sky Core to hide what he was.  It was hard, but Younger Twin had taught him that as well.

It was time to find out who these people were and what they were doing with the natives.