Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 564 - 563 - Terrifying Invader

Orwellia Empire had a massive area set aside for the Soulmancers.  The pleasant gardens and open air courtyards were the best in the empire yet the main hall was filled with angry faces.

The terrifying part was that 15 Sun Tiers were raging as they saw the broken life tablet of one of their brothers.

At the head of the room, behind a platform holding the life tablets still intact was a massive man looking solemn.

"Brother Ken has fallen but there was no last image we could make out.  His last job was at the checkpoint next to the eastern Hinterland border."  The muscles bulged on his frame in anger but they really did not know what happened.

The life tablets should have recorded the last few moments, yet there was only a flare of emerald and nothing else.

"Why was he going out to the middle of nowhere?"  A silky female voice spoke up but made more than a few shiver.  Even among Soulmancers, a few were too monstrous even by their standards!

"A simple punishment request.  A foolish caravan had taken something from the earth drakes.  Since it would be bad to anger those beasts, he wanted to take the soul himself."  A few nodded as such law breakers often knew things about resources or other treasures they kept hidden from others.

"Has there been any other issues in that area?"  A slim man spoke up but many sneered at him.  Of course something happened, how else could one of them die?!

Still, the massive man did not disparage the question as a jade slip was made to project a massive map.

It was the entirety of the Law Binding but it was not a static image.  Even as the room looked on, they could see a few flares of red, gold, and other colors.  Greed flashed in some of their eyes as that revealed resources but nothing stood out until a massive spike roughly at the location of the checkpoint.

"This was recorded during the attack.  What is odd is that it is definitely only a Moon Tier aura but the power of the attack far exceeded an Immortal at the Sliver Tier for a brief moment."  Shock flooded the room.

Due to limited resources and it being useless to ascend anymore, most did not strive to become Immortals and contented themselves with Sun Tier.

The peak of the Heaven Realm was better than being unable to use any skill as an Immortal.

"Some kind of Relic or undiscovered Ruin?"  Another voice brought up a possibility but then they saw the image flicker as time seemed to reverse itself.

Roughly a little over a month ago, there was a massive spike similar to the attack, but more terrifying!  It made the attack seem like a joke!

It was in the Hinterlands near where the Spider Demon lived.  It was an area all soldiers avoided and even Soulmancers did not risk anything going there.

It was, however, not far from the known area of the exiles.  One of them had such power?!

A little farther back, similar spikes of power flared but they seemed random.  What shocked all of them was to see such a spike at the top of the Law Binding!

How did a cultivator get up there?  The ability to fly was restricted by the binding to start and even if they could fly, it was asking to die at that height.  Beasts of incredible power would be up there and the density of Qi would give them away at all times.

Yet, no sign of beast movement showed at all.

"Once we looked for it, we could track these oddities yet we cannot track the cultivator in question.  They have no brand.  Further, the missing soldiers from the checkpoint cannot be pinpointed anymore either."  The man's words caused a ripple in the crowd.

Only one kind of being could interfere with the brand.  A Soulmancer!  Still, even they had such brands on themselves but with a few modifications.  They could be easily tracked as well so how did such a powerful cultivator not have a brand?

"An invader?!"  The silky voice spoke up but in excitement.  Many scoffed initially but the large man up front nodded in confirmation.

"There is no record of this Qi signature in any roster.  This person does not exist and resists the branding naturally.  The only possibility is an ascender or some other visitor from outside the Law Binding."  The 14 member audience exploded.

Such a thing was impossible!

How could any Heaven Realm overcome the power of an Immortal?!  Suzen's binding was as strong as ever, even they could not hope to scratch it!

"Marsh, surely there has to be a mistake!  Anyone born inside the binding is branded with their first breath.  We attune ourselves to the binding for that very purpose!  So how could any being defy us?"  A man with a sickly pallor snapped at the revelations.  He was staring with cold black eyes at the large man.

Marsh sighed before revealing the last piece of information they had.

"Dragon fire destroyed the stone of the checkpoint."  Lightning granite was a highly useful construction material as most Arts and conjurings would hardly dent it.  Craftsmen had to use special artifacts to cut the stones and even then, it took serious time to do it.

Maintenance was also simple due to that as weather hardly affected it.

In order for a dragon to be able to affect it, it put the purity of the bloodline very high and Heaven would celebrate its ascension.

"A dragon?"  If the silky voice was excited before, it was ecstatic then.  Several moved away from a gorgeous woman.  Compared to the pale and twisted forms of the others, she stood out but not a single man there was attracted to her.

Her flushed face would charm souls out of men, which was exactly what she could do!  She enjoyed ripping the souls from people who thought a reward was coming instead.  She also liked to go out in public and see if anyone would succumb to her charms.

Once they did, their soul was forfeit.

She also had one last known hobby that quite frankly terrified the other Soulmancers.  She kept her beauty by bathing in the vital blood essence of beasts.  She literally drained the vital life force to keep herself beautiful!

While the other Soulmancers were bathed in twisted thoughts and dark desires, any that had seen her ritual were left scarred and unable to see her as human anymore.

Even demons would run screaming from her.

"An aether beast would not have the brand but why attack the checkpoint?"  The slim man spoke up once more but that question was actually good as all turned back to Marsh.  The large man looked grim at that point.

"We don't know.  No one alive or dead was left behind to give us answers."  Shock flooded the room.  The Law Binding prevented souls from escaping.  So long as they were not consumed in a soul circle, they should linger to be picked up later.

Yet, there were none left behind after that attack?!

How was that possible unless they were dealing with an Immortal?

Helena actually came out of her fog of imagination at that moment.

"I have reached out to the branches and offices but no one matching the soldiers' descriptions has shown up anywhere."  Marsh continued with the bad news as while that narrowed it down to the Hinterlands, finding a small group of people in that untamed land was near impossible.

The reason the exiles were still persistent was due to very powerful beasts that roamed the wilds.  Their small numbers kept them from being a threat but made trying to find them difficult as there were no set paths.

If they crossed one of the Sun or Moon Tier beasts, life and death would be hard to call.  Even if all 15 of them in the current room were to head out, the environment could dictate their life or death even against a single Moon Tier beast.

Unlike cultivators, the beasts increased their power at horrifying rates so they could fight a full tier above them in many cases.

They also knew there were some variants of divine beast bloodlines.

"Wait, you mean this invader not only has power equal to or above us, but freely enters the Hinterlands as if they were their backyard?"  The question made a lot of them feel uncomfortable as taming the Hinterlands had been impossible in the history of the 6 empires.

If they could cooperate, the combined power would be enough but none of the 6 could do that.  The current rivalry was the best system for the Soulmancers.

Their power was unassailable so long the empires stayed that way.  It worked against them in instances like the exiles as the response was varied.  Now, they had an invader that had the power of a dragon.

"So, what will we be doing?"  Helena asked the question on all their minds as they turned in unison to Marsh.

He looked grim and then simply placed a bounty notice for them to look at.  It was for the missing soldiers and any information leading to the person who took them away.  It was not unusual but the final line was a bit shocking.

[Do not kill the people listed in this posting or your family will be used as sacrifices.]

It showed how serious the main branch took the issue and all of them nodded as they took a copy of the notice to distribute to their areas.  The Sun Tiers moved out and began to plan.

Marsh was left all alone as he looked at the one piece of information he had not revealed to them.  It had been deemed too dangerous by his superiors.

[6 primary elements detected with unknown Qi mixed in.  Combat ability:  unknown.]

Just what kind of monster had come to their empires and from where?  Marsh shivered as he recalled how easily the fort had been ripped open that even tribulation lightning could not scratch.  He looked up and wondered what the future would hold for them all.