Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 453 - 452 - Dao of Time

"I see, we will have to look into that."  Lind sat behind his desk as Ethry and Romana relayed all that happened.  He knew a bit about the Warders as Lady Gua and other beasts spoke of them but they had little interest in deep details of individuals.

So long as they were left alone, the beasts did not care.

The actions of the elder and his followers were concerning but nonsensical.  Many powers were after him but why would someone go as far as killing one of their own?  It would only draw more attention.

Also the fixation Triton showed would only raise suspicions as well.  It made no sense.

Questioning Romana's report made some sense but the method used of a full panel of Elders was way beyond overboard.

Who was so desperate to find him?  Why?

Senior Baihu likely still wanted him dead but his methods were more open and direct.  Political maneuvers were not his style at all.

Lind glanced to the right and saw Annabelle smiling ear to ear as a kitten snuggled against her chest.  Serena was behind her but looked on peacefully as well.  She spent far more time in his office since that was where her daughter was!

Annabelle was spoiling the child!

"Annabelle."  He hated to interrupt but she sighed and set the cub down.  It meowed in irritation until Serena began to clean her.  Lind noticed the satisfied look on her tiny face!  Spoiled!

"I will look into the traces.  If Senior Divine Guardian is concerned, then we need to know."  She bowed to him and their guest before leaving the office.  He hoped they were all overreacting due to the desire to stay hidden for a little longer, but his instincts told him they were not.

Such a reckless set of actions disturbed him due to their lack of subtlety.  It was as if they did not care if they were discovered!

"Senior Romana, I apologize for the little farce but it seems to have yielded disturbing results we needed to know as well."  Lind bowed to her but the older woman waved it off.  He saw her moves were firm but his Eyes told him she was nearing the end of her life.

His elixirs could repair some of the damage he saw but they would not extend her life, only make it more comfortable.  He then did exactly that.  She drank the elixirs and a relieved expression passed over her face.

Her wrinkles did lighten slightly as well which surprised him.  They should not have affected her vitality.

"If you all could excuse us, I wish to show senior Romana around the sect."  Ethry and Serena nodded while the little kitten simply meowed at him to stop talking.  Lind led the way down the tower and into the core areas.

He saw her look around and pause at a few places he expected.

"You really are teaching beasts alongside cultivators?" Romana seemed doubtful but Lind then summoned all 6 elements.

"I have found that one can never know when inspiration will strike.  I have a harmony I am only recently starting to grasp but the interaction of each element is important as well."  Romana watched as the elements she knew shifted to demonic and then what seemed like a variant of Fiend Qi!

She looked sharply at Lind as he simply shrugged as 2 artifacts floated around him.

"I came across a Ruin that had all 3 sets of Qi.  The Fiend Qi is close to what I found there but it is not the same.  It also negates them in some way I do not understand."  Romana slowly nodded as she had not felt the revulsion she usually did.

"You are very open about it."  Lind shook his head at her words.

"I am open with very few but you needed to see it for my questions.  You have a rare gift I want to explore if you are willing."  Romana was confused at his words.

"I don't really have much to show you.  I am aware of fluctuations in time and like what happened a few months ago in your war, I felt that too."  Romana stopped as she realized Lind was not leading her anymore.

Lind stared at her in shock.  No one, not Ethry, not anyone had felt a thing when time froze.  So far as they were concerned, he suddenly exploded in power and got larger in his dragon form.

"What exactly did you feel?"  His question was serious so she thought back to it.

"The air felt still.  Qi seemed to be barely flowing."  Romana paused as she put a hand over her dantian.  "I felt my dantian react but I did not understand it."

Lind felt excitement rise.  A divine artifact had stopped time but a mere Sky Realm had been aware and able to move inside it!

Space was a fairly well understood Dao if not easily followed for a cultivator.  Enough experience with teleportation and advancement would allow basic manipulation of space for almost all cultivators.

To truly follow the Dao of Space required earth and darkness.  After that, the cultivator had to comprehend or have a lucky chance to open their mind to space.  True masters of space could create complex teleportation arrays or manipulate the very structure of a building.

Thanks to many experiences, the various Daos of Space were at many levels and of myriad varieties.  Lind knew that to make an Inheritance required grasping the Dao of Space to a terrifying level.

Time, on the other hand, was very rare and difficult to grasp.  There were records of perhaps a few Inheritances over the epochs that related to it but no one could grasp even a sliver of them.

They never became Ruins either.  They simply could only be found by those that have touched the Dao of Time.  Lind had seen a realm of cultivators that affected time, however.

Divine Realm.

Lind did not want to wait when he advanced if someone existed to start him looking down the path but Romana's revelation surprised him.  He was given to understand she could do nothing with her sense of time.

Yet, she described defying a Divine artifact as if it was nothing!

Lind closed his eyes and felt the memory of that day.  It was burned in for many reasons but little things came back to him he could not focus on at the time.  They were murky and difficult to grasp because they were beyond him at the moment, but with her words he simply let his memory go.

Darkness and light Qi began to dance around him in a peculiar way and Romana felt her eyes light up.  Her own dantian was reacting and she closed her eyes to try and grasp what was happening.

Lind frowned.

She was forcing it.  She was stronger than him, but the method of trying to grasp the Dao was wrong.

"Don't close your fist.  Cup your hands and let it be.  See where the elements take us."  Romana jumped at his words.  Nearly 2000 years of training were not easy to let go but Lind guided her with his Touch.

He grasped her Qi and stopped it from moving.  The feeling was fading but then it strengthened.  It was as if her Qi and dantian had been waiting for a chance to be free!

"Time is not a thing.  It is both separate and a part of everything.  It is the song while all we can hear are the notes."  Lind suddenly spoke and Romana shot open her eyes to see him in a trance!

Enlightenment!

How?!

"Time is a song?"  Her mind seemed to be on the verge of something.  Lind was following something but her path was different.

He had clearly been exposed to something profound that had been working on him in the background of his mind for a long time.  Her actual ability or words opened the doorway!

"Time is relative.  It can be faster, slower, or even move in directions we cannot fully comprehend.  Time is like a storm that can be navigated if you know the terrain."  Her mind suddenly felt clear.

The 2 dantians were feeding into each other and the world was changing.

Outside the small garden they were in, the skies were rumbling but no clouds were present.  The cultivators were mystified but Ethry felt her core shiver.  Star Tiers across the island were all looking in stunned awe towards the Mengcong.

What was that feeling?

Why did it feel like the spirits of Heaven and Earth were so close?

Lind came out of his enlightenment fairly quickly but before he could begin to digest what was happening he felt shock as he looked at Romana!

Her Qi was running wild!  It was not dangerous but seemingly how it wanted to be!  The feeling of aura around her was still tier 7 but something was shifting.

"An infinite combination of infinite outcomes can be selected.  The limit of Time is only the limit we allow."  Lind felt like his head was about to explode when golden and black energy began to encircle Romana.

She only had a few centuries left and was a full 2 tiers from even trying to reach the Heaven Realm, but Lind was shocked at what he was feeling.  It was as if Romana became more real than anything he had ever seen.

He had only seen someone like that once before but that was 2 major realms away!

Her eyes snapped open and were flaring gold and darkness.  She looked at him but instead of disdain or coldness, a large smile crossed her face.

"You are so young still.  You always keep pushing your luck but that is how you should be.  This part of me will be tired after.  Care for her and help her.  Our journey begins again!"  Lind felt all the hairs rise on the back of his neck and even his soul shivered unlike anything before.

The old woman before him was bathed in energies as she became younger before his very eyes!  More than that, she was once described as a silver haired beauty in her youth but vibrant pink hair replaced the white as she shrunk to a very young teenager!

She was still a tier 7 Sky Realm!  What was going on?!  What had happened?

Her eyes fluttered open as her robes were now far too large before she looked up at him in confusion before she smiled.

"Master Lind!  That was very helpfu–"  She passed out before she could finish but the way she spoke was the same as Romana!  She was Romana!  How?!