Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 492 - 491 - Dragon Blood

The year had brought whirlwind changes to the mountain.  The 25 people had made drastic progress in becoming their own person.  Compared to when they first awoke, there were now distinct personalities forming very quickly.

They were still nascent in many ways but some factions had formed.  Strangely, it was not along racial lines nor gender, but over Lind himself.

Some believed he was to be obeyed in all ways without question while others wanted to do nothing but question him.  They did not challenge him but they wanted to derive his wisdom by picking it apart.

There was still another faction that simply wanted to be near him and serve.  There might be some shifting around but those were generally all 3 areas of definition.  Lind did his best to mediate but it only had verbal arguments thus far.

Lind had raised Tal but he felt like she was much more reasonable than any of the 25 people he was currently dealing with.

The good news was that they all began to realize their cultivation was far inferior compared to Kiran, Mika, or himself.

They wanted to know why and he began to explain the Dao to them.  The basic knowledge already seemed to help them but he estimated it would take 5 years alone before he thought they would be able to be considered at least a teenager mentally.

In that same time, Lind had fully consolidated his tier 7 level.  Compared to tier 6, he could now pull off massive Storm Arts and advance them as best he could from what Wyndam originally constructed.

Wyndam really was a genius when it came to Arts.  Lind could mimic real storms pretty well but an Art was a directed control of the flow of Qi to achieve results.  Lind was closer to a conjurer in that respect.

The entire Storm Art was unique to 6 elementals and only a slight adaptation was needed to accommodate the harmony for each person.  Very few cultivators in the same tier could stand up to the Storm Arts.

Lind also improved his skills a bit with elixirs and Forging but weaving had become a bit complicated.  He was in peak grade 5 but the bottleneck to Heaven grade was stuck on grade 3.

He felt like the circle was really annoying at times but he could feel the danger to his soul was lessened by that restriction each time he improved.  The more quality and delicate control he put into it, the more danger to his soul if he went too far.

He understood why the wicked weavers used other souls as it solved the limiting factor of just using his own.  Still, he felt instinctively that it would ruin his foundation in weaving if he ever used it.

The final thing he noticed was the change to his dragon soul.  Before, he simply grew in size and characteristics but his current level had a different effect.

Lind could not look at the wyverns and feel the traces of the dragon bloodline in them.  It was strange as before he knew from studying various beasts could trace back to the divine bloodlines but wyverns and drakes were odd.

Drakes were essentially very weak dragon blood but still close enough to retain most of the characteristics of the scales, claws, and breath were all inferior but still in the same vein as dragons.

Wyverns were missing the scales and had poison stingers in some cases or like the ones on the mountain, they only had wings and 2 hind legs.

There was something odd about the 3 at the peak of the Sky Realm.  It was more than the elemental combination being stronger, they also felt like something was suppressed in their bodies compared to the others.

Based on his research and what Lady Dierdra taught him all those centuries ago, it should not be that strong in any wyvern or drake.  He began to suspect where all the wyverns on the mountain came from but it was not a topic they would tell him about.

Fortunately, there was another resource to ask.

"They were born from the shiny eggs!"  The little mountain spirit was happily sitting in Lind's lap as she drew pictures on some scrolls.  She insisted on that arrangement as it made her very happy.

"Shiny eggs?"  Wyverns, drakes, and dragons all gave birth via egg laying.  Dragon eggs took flames, Qi, and the right elements to be born, but wyverns and drakes had it much easier.

To the best of his knowledge, they should not shine.

"Yep!  Delor left them in his lair and told me to watch over all of them when they hatched."  She smiled wide and looked prideful.  Lind now knew why they called her Mother.  She had raised them all!

Lind was confused on one point, however.

"You said they were shiny, how were they shiny?"  The spirit suddenly smiled wide as a piece of egg shell appeared in her hands.  It was crimson and brown like Burn's skin.  Further, it was covered in scales!

That was not a wyvern eggshell!

He had seen or studied about various beast eggs so wyverns were well documented.  Like drakes, their eggs were large and smooth but colored like the parents' Qi.  They would be possibly more profound depending on the cultivation of the parent, but the style never varied.

Only 1 race had scales on their eggs.

Dragons!

"Where did these 3 eggs come from?"  Lind distinctly recalled the 3 dragons were brothers.  Dragons could not switch sex to the best of his knowledge but wyverns could.  It was one of the ways they differed from drakes and dragons.

Still, 3 male dragons could not produce 3 eggs.

The spirit seemed to think for a while before she suddenly giggled.

"It was right before we left!  Delor was being lectured by his mommy!  She was a biiiiiiiig dragon lady.  She liked to play with me!"  Lind smiled at that thought but then a thought occurred to him.

"She gave him the eggs?"  the spirit nodded but Lind felt his mind look beyond.  Dragon eggs were different from other races in 2 respects.  The scales made a very touch shell that only the baby dragon could break easily.  Even Heaven Realm cultivators would have difficulty cracking such a shell.

The other was the need for lifefire.  Other races might use fire to warm an egg, but dragons actually imbue their eggs with a kind of fire that ignited the actual genesis of the baby.  Lind had used his harmony to trigger a lifefire for Ethry via an artifact when he was still in his old world.

"Delor breathed on them before he left for the last time, didn't he?"  Lind asked it quietly and the spirit became sad but nodded.  He began to piece some things together and realized he was wrong.

The mountain was not invoking the protection of Heaven from the Fiends but the 3 wyverns!  They were not wyverns at all!

They were under a restriction due to being in a mortal realm but their bloodline was pure dragon!

Immortals lived a very long time, but eventually they would die.  Dragons lived longer naturally and that extended to each cultivation realm.  Without knowing if they were Radiant Tier or less, the dragons could easily live close to several billion years.

Still, the dragon eggs could be kept sealed and safe for the day that replacements were needed.  It also explained something else about the 3.

They had been at the peak of the Sky Realm for nearly 2000 years but were still quite young for their race.  Yet, they could not advance for some reason.  The density of Qi on the mountain was more than enough to allow them to become Star Tiers but they could not do it.

They had tried but it kept failing.  They suffered no deviation, yet could not move forward.  It made for a mystery until that moment.

"I think I understand, but what would happen?"  Lind found another problem not anticipated by Delor.  The rules of Heaven had shifted in the rest of the world.  If Lind could invigorate their draconic blood to break through, the 3 wyverns would go through a tremendous transformation.

Normally, the new generation should be replacing the old, yet now there was a hurdle in the way.  The Fiends ruled the realm.  What would happen if they became dragons in such a world?

Would the rule of the realm revert back or would the 3 be forced to ascend to the Heaven Realm that likely was in the middle of the Fiend controlled areas?

The spirit seemed to treasure the shell very much but Lind seemed to recall a conversation he had long ago towards the end of his time in the Divine Inheritance.

[A Progenitor is not like other bloodlines.  You will forge your path but you are still a dragon, boy.  Do not bow to Heaven even if it seems like the thing to do.  You are blazing a new Dao for a whole bloodline to follow.  Now, roar for me.]

The dragon soul he met had been brutal in his training but his words were very insightful.  Lind had been cultivating his dragon soul as best he could but at that moment he wondered what would happen if he guided the 3 wyverns in their next step?

He was a lower tier than them but his dragon soul was superior.  He was a Divine Progenitor Bloodline.  Ethry once told him that when he was angry, even she was filled with a shiver of fear.

She was a Divine Dragon but even she felt intimidated by him!  Lind contemplated the step but still thought it would be unwise to push them to it.  He picked up the spirit and went to find the 3 wyverns.

It was time to see what they knew about themselves and what they wanted to become.