Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 556 - 555 - Strange Bandits

"I think he is fine on his own, why did you bring him back here?"  A voice pierced the fog of Lind's tired mind.  It might have been a child?  He was not sure but they sounded young.  He went in and out and realized he had exhausted his dantian of Qi entirely.

Further, he had pushed his dragon soul because he could not control it properly anymore.  He felt like he had learned a few things but the battle was too short to be sure.

Still, he now had to try and recover but like everything else, he had no idea how to do that!

"He is not recovering like he should.  It is as if he has never cultivated before."  A deeper female voice that time.  It reminded him of Qing a bit, but then a cool feeling was pressed against his forehead.

"He is hot to the touch!"  The child again, but concerned that time.  He then felt something try to enter his meridians but his soul repelled them.  A sharp intake of breath was followed by silence.

Lind could just barely tell he was stuck between awake and passed out.  His draconic body was recovering just fine but his cultivation was not.

"If you can hear me, close your hand."  Lind twitched his hand but whether it closed or not, he had no idea.

"I see, then you are suffering from Qi over exertion.  You need to take in Qi or you will star to deviate and likely die."  Great advice, why hadn't he thought of that.  Oh wait, he had!

He felt frustrated and willed his hand to close firmly again and again.  He wanted to move but he could only wiggle his toes and move his hands.  He had not been so helpless in a very long time.

"Do you not know how to cultivate?"  He quickly closed his fist twice.  There was a very long pause when an old man's voice finally entered his murky world.

"The moon took in all the stars but they are still there.  The Qi wants to fill in the patterns of the moon and make it larger.  Follow the patterns on the surface and you should recover."  The instant the man mentioned the craters on the moon, Lind's Talent finally kicked in!

Because he has skipped the Star Tier, he had no idea how to cultivate as a Heaven Realm and his Innate Cultivator Talent had been as screwed up as the rest of him!

A storm of Qi flooded his dantian as his eyes snapped open.  The emerald glow surprised the 3 in the cave around him.  He saw the old man was bald with a very long but unkempt beard and ragged wool like clothes.

The child was a young girl, maybe 11 or 10 in similarly ragged clothes and dirt covered face.

The final occupant was a far too thin woman who had wisps of gray but she should not from what Lind could see.  Qi deviation or an injury perhaps?

He felt his body sing with Qi as his meridians happily flowed the 6 elements into his dantian.  The moon flared emerald like his eyes and actually grew a bit as if it had been starved and was now fed.

His many issues began to resolve themselves as he could now command his Qi perfectly and all of it was tied to his foundation.  The battle helped too.  His issue had been his lack of cultivation control and it threw everything out of whack!

"I thank you kind people.  First for retrieving me from the bog and just now for resolving my crisis."  The old man smiled but the other 2 looked at him in worry.  He looked down and noticed his final refuge of dignity was gone!

A blush covered his face as he went to summon a robe but remembered he was out!  He had no more robes!

"Ah, ahem, I don't suppose you have a spare set of pants?"  His blush and shame broke the little girl as she finally smiled while the woman quickly tossed him a pair of shorts.  They were of lower quality than his robes were but beggars cannot be choosers.

"Ha, ha, ha.  You are a good lad!  Still, how did you not know how to keep cultivating your constellations?"  Lind realized his status as a 6 elemental was no longer weird or unique.  In the Heaven Realm, it was normal to have 6 elements at the Star Tier and above!

It was an odd feeling.

"I had an unexpected encounter and entered Moon Tier before I was ready."  It was 100% true.  He had not expected how close he was to breaking through until Ilyria showed him her own.

It was a minor miracle he had not died as he had no time to prepare or study anything.

"Ah, I have heard of a few cases like that.  You are lucky, most don't figure out the problem until it is far too late."  Lind bowed again before looking around the cave.  It was clearly a residence but it only had a crate for a table and a few mats to make the floor bearable.

The tiny hearth was carved right into the stone but no formations were anywhere in the room.  He then noticed the little girl was looking up at him in awe as he towered over them all even in his human form.

"I am called Lind Frey, may I know my saviors' names?"  His politeness actually seemed to make the woman worry but the little girl puffed her chest out proudly at him.

"I am the Great Benny!  Bow at the future ruler of the world!"  Lind smiled and bowed rather lower than normal which seemed to catch the girl off guard as most adults cursed her out or shooed her away.

"I am just Old Wan.  I am their neighbor and once a decent cultivator."  Lind swept the old man's body and frowned at what he saw.  A dim moon in a cracked dantain but not from damage, just time.

The old man seemed to know what he had done but did not mind.

"You reach 8000 years old boy and see how your dantian does!"  Lind bowed low again.  He turned to the last person who now seemed truly concerned.

"Is there something wrong?"  The other 2 looked at her but while the little girl seemed confused the old man turned grim.

"Don't be afraid of him girl.  He is a good one, I can smell it."  The woman glanced at Old Wan and then seemed to find resolve in herself.

"I am Gail.  Benny and Wan are my friends in the group."  Lind nodded but did not see the reason she suddenly seemed to become afraid of him.

"Is there a problem?"  Lind looked around but all of them remained silent.  He wondered what was going on when a voice called from outside the cave house.

"Is that man dead yet, Gail!  I want first claim to that ring!"  Lind looked at his hand and saw his ring was there as it should be.  Unless he died, that ring was impossible to remove.  He looked around but Benny hid near the hearth while Old Wan looked worried.

Gail just looked resigned.

"He is still alive.  Come back later!"  She did not go to the entrance but Lind saw only a dark curtain frayed and patched over it.  If it was pushed aside, anyone would have a clear view of him.

What was going on?

"The boss warned you about bringing back strangers, don't care if they killed that damned spider or not!"  The man shouted once more but then moved off as all 3 breathed out again.

"Would someone please explain what is going on?"  Old Wan waved for him to sit and Lind did.  His upper body was exposed but he did not care.  The shorts barely held on as his legs were slightly larger than the original owner.

"Gail found you after your battle with Old Bitty as we call her.  You put on quite a show, but she did not want to leave you out there.  I would like to say it was kindness, but the truth is, we wanted your ring."  Lind was surprised at the frank admission but he felt no malice from any of them.

Desperation, yes, but not malice.

"Then why help me?"  Old Wan looked at Gail who became pained as she glanced at Benny.

"Gail has a soft spot still and dying like that is not something anyone should have to go through."  It made Lind realize something as he glanced at the other 2.  His Eyes showed Benny was malnourished in Qi and in fact.

She was in the 8 tier of the Soul Realm but her dantian and meridians were barely working.  It was a miracle she was not hurting more just to move!  Gail was worse.  Her meridians were broken in several places and her Iron Tier dantian was cracked in several places.

It barely functioned but any more stress and she would be crippled.

"Thank you again, then.  Now, where am I?"  Lind saw Old Wan look stuck but it was Benny that quietly spoke up.

"We are the Two Rivers Bandit gang!  We are fighting for freedom!"  Lind had expected the bandit part but the last part did not simply seem to be her delusion or excuse.  He looked at the other 2 and they nodded.

"Freedom from who?"  His question threw them all off.  They looked at him as if he was off his rocker to ask.

"Who else, the Soulmancers, the ones who rule us all."  Gail spoke that time but Lind felt his blood run cold.  Weavers could be powerful but there were harsh limits.  The only way to circumvent those limits was by one path, and one path only.

Using other living souls as fuel!  With that method, weaving could be done at a pace and power unlike anything before but at a steep price.  Karmic retribution would build at a massive pace and tribulations would become near suicide to attempt.

Still, assuming one survived, their weaving would become terrifying.  Compared to his ability, other weavers would be able to stomp on him with quantity over quality.

At that thought, Lind checked his dantian and his original 3 circles were still safely at the core of his dantian, but a new ring had faintly appeared at about the halfway mark of his moon surface to his dantian edge.

He had another circle to break through, it seemed.  First though, he had to figure out what to do about being in a bandit gang!