Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 481 - 480 - The Mountian

Lind had only seen a handful of cultivators start over but Kiran's process was far more rocky than any before.  It was likely due to the lack of a real technique and experience to help shield her.

Still, she had impressed him.

He also did not expect Heaven to seem to put her through a trial.  He had felt it but only kept a wary eye on it.  The other cultivators had emitted tribulation lighting from their bodies but Kiran did not.

She instead seemed to be refined by it!

Blood and impurities had flowed like rivers out of her body but the weaving cleaned that up as it happened.  Rather than completely go back to the beginning as a mortal, she was taken back and brought up once more.

Only then did the lightning leave her body.  It was barely there as if it had been used up.  Her Body Refining Realm was at its peak and excellent from what he could tell.

Their daily lives actually made that realm better than most mortals that partially entered it.

Still, he was happy and gave her a recovery elixir to let her body heal and sleep.

Mika, as expected, was happy to see his sister safe but scared to face his own process.  Lind assured him that it would hurt but not be nearly as difficult as he imagined.

Indeed, he cried and thrashed but it was over fairly quickly.  There was some blood but unlike his sister, there was no reaction from Heaven.

He did not pass out and was able to drink the elixirs on his own.  He smiled as he felt immediately better.  Lind then walked him through the process for Body Refining Realm techniques as he was only a mortal then.

The sooner they advance, the less food and water they would need.  Lind could handle water easily enough, but food would become a problem as the food in his ring was for much higher realm cultivators.

Mika showed remarkable ability to pass through the Body Refining Realm even without the help of grade 1 elixirs.

Lind noted it but it was quite normal for a cultivator to blow through the first realm easily when starting over.

Kiran was passed out for 4 days before she woke up.  She was happy to see Mika already busy studying about the elements and preparing to become a Soul Realm again.  She was stunned when Lind told her she was already at the same stage.

In fact, she clearly had other changes as Lind could feel her physique had improved massively as well.

He wondered how both them would change as they had been dual elementals but starting over opened the door to having more.

Still, they were months from stepping back into the Soul Realm.  They would be taking their time before progressing.

Until then, Lind then explained how the Nautilus worked.

Rather than an artifact, he had built a ship that used artifacts.  The ability of Qi crystals to gather their own element had been turned into a natural gathering array that was then channeled into artifacts that gave flight, storage, and the other functions.

The fixtures on the hull could extend a net of Qi to capture storms or strong currents to keep the ship going strong.  It was possible for a Soul Realm to work the entire ship as well.

No infusion was needed save that initial pillar of Qi launch that Lind sincerely hoped to make better in the future.  He wanted such ships to be able to be used by weaker cultivators for travel rather than risk ocean travel in the future.

There were still beasts but the ship had the aura of a Sky Realm which most ground level beasts would avoid.

Given this realm had no equivalent of the Floating Isles and he had chosen to fly out over the ocean, there were no avian beasts to worry about.

It was not impossible an aquatic Sky Realm could pop up but the untold epochs of that realm likely made them uninterested in anything above the surface of the ocean.

The speed of the ship was much faster now that he was giving some commands but it was slower than any Sky Realm.  The biggest difference was it could float indefinitely so long as the channels and cores functioned.

It was the key to the Nautilus that was different to any artifact that could fly.  Those required a cultivator to control them but the flying disc he acquired nearly 3 centuries ago gave him ideas.

It proved that all 6 elements could cooperate in a single artifact and he took it farther.  He wondered if he could make a ship that did not need a cultivator to fly aside from inputting commands.

Forging made it possible.

Weaving made it go much farther.

He could combine elements and materials with ease using his Forging skills while weaving could bridge the functions he wanted to incorporate like gathering Qi and distributing it.  The weaving acted like a regulator of the Qi as the Forged artifacts performed their functions.

It made a ship like the Nautilus fly easily with no more than a Soul Realm at the helm.

Lind, with his greater cultivation, could push the speed faster but the current model could only defend itself with the basic elemental attacks.

There was plenty of room to grow and fine tune but that would be when he had time to do so.

"Master, I do not understand this part."  Mika brought over a scroll that was about Lind's elemental theories.  He loved to ask Lind questions but he truly struggled with comprehending all of it.

"Do not try to force yourself to grasp it all.  Let your mind see what resonates with you and start from there.  You are not in the Soul Realm yet so it is all just preparation for what comes after."  Lind was sitting across from Mika in the main control room.  The halls that went to either side led to their quarters and cultivation chamber.

Lind had also made a function that would allow him to not need to fly but be able to examine the exterior of the ship with a few crystal inputs used.  It made a field of steps made of air and light.

Mika asked a few more questions before retreating to his quarters to meditate after his Body Refining Technique practice.

Lind went back to observing the skies but he found nothing.

It was sad to not see any floating islands at all but he kept moving directly away from the continent in case of any pursuit.  He was not sure how far Fiends could go but he would put good money they would alternate if needed but resources had limits.

"Let's see how the exterior is doing."  Lind went to the right hatch and activated the weavings to keep the interior safe as the door swung outward.  The wind roared but the interior pressure held.

Lind floated out and felt a firm surface beneath his feet as he walked up and down the outer hull.  There was no issue or damage he could find but he still touched up a few places.

He was about to go back inside when he felt his dragon soul suddenly rumble.  He looked to the rising sun and his instincts told him something was out there.

He returned to the cabin and changed course.  He felt the tilt inside but it was far more complicated to isolate the interior from outside gravity.

Still, neither of his new wards came asking questions.  They trusted him in far too short a time in his opinion but their world had been turned upside down.

They needed goals and currently re-cultivating back to the World Realm was their goal.

Lind set out meals and drinks but they would need to break through before 6 months passed.  He was burning food by making it compatible for them but it wasted a lot of the mass to do so.

It took a week before he saw a change on the horizon.  The normal cloud layers and blue skies had some storms but not much.  The Nautilus fared just fine as it pierced through the upper reaches like it was a fish in water.

The clouds ahead, finally, became very dense as a massive wall of them rose up beyond his ability to see.

The density of Qi finally became familiar to him as well.  He was nearing a source of Sky Realm quality Qi that could carry someone to the Star Tier!

"What is that?"  His ship's senses could not pierce the veil of clouds but he stood on top of it as he used his Heaven Eyes and was shocked at what he saw.

It was a mountain, a massive mountain that extended into the sky beyond his own range to see!  The base was so massive that he could not even guess the circumference.

One thing he did note, however, was that it was above the lowest cloud layer.  A floating mountain!

It was the first sign of something hopeful but the distance from the continent was far beyond any hope of reaching it save by teleportation but he could not feel any distortions in space.

The Nautilus finally entered the veil of clouds and he returned to the control room.  He slowed them down until the veil pulled back to reveal a dark stone mountain right in front of them.

There were many caves and ledges to show it was once inhabited but there was nothing now.  He sensed no life at all.

He ascended until finally there was something.

Excitement rose until he saw the winged beasts.  Wyverns, massive white wyverns filled the sky but they were only World Realms.

Not a single Sky Realm was in his range and below them for some reason.  A mystery was there but a bigger problem now occurred.  He was an intruder and all the wyverns focused on him at once.

"This is going to be interesting."  Lind smirked as the shadows all dove towards him as he prepared to put the Nautilus through its paces.