Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 665 - 664 - Rip Van Winkle

The first thing that came back to him was dust.  He felt dust had collected far too much but when he slowly opened his eyes, he saw the room was fairly clean.

The ornate doors were closed but he frowned at their lack of care.  The wood was cracked and patched in several places.  Why had the formations inscribed into them failed?

Lind tried to sit up but found his body was very stiff.  A small layer of dust made him realize it had been a week or a little more since the room had been cleaned.  The once pristine rug was frayed and not repaired at all.

The drapes were flat out gone from his bed which was not good at all!

Lind slowly moved forward and opened the door not onto the large hallway to the throne room but a tiled laminate floor with fluorescent lighting above!

Shock flooded his body as he walked out and looked around what should have been impossible.

[Paging Dr. Connors, Dr. Connors please answer your page.]

A mechanical speaker lit up with the voice of a woman as Lind saw nurses in blues and white clothes, some with skull caps and masks hanging on their necks.

The sound of monitors and respirators were within his reach but Lind looked behind him slowly to see his ornate rooms were still there.  The discontinuity helped anchor his mind.

What was going on?

"Oh, you are finally returning?"  A bright voice nearly made him jump as a very short blonde nurse smiled up at him with a silver clipboard in her hand.  He noticed the tablet on top of it was not technological but an artifact!

He tried to speak but it was like he had forgotten how!

"Don't worry, you are simply not quite free of the last of that nasty karmic weight you have been processing.  Honestly, you should have died but since you took on others' karma, Heaven left you that much room."  Lind's eyes narrowed but just as he was about to grab a pen and pad, he noticed something shocking.

His pale hands were older and now wearing a patient gown!  He also felt like he was taller but far less weight on his head!  He realized what he looked like.  A name was about to come back to him when the nurse spoke up again.

"Don't fall back into it!  You are almost there!  Go back in there and get ready for your discharge!"  He was now back to the body he had for over a thousand years.  His long black hair with emerald streaks was in his vision again, only much longer!

He was about to move when he stopped and waved his hand around the clear 21st century hospital.  The nurse smiled brightly and simply shrugged her shoulders up at him.  He sighed and went back into his room before darkness closed in.

The full weight of his body returned but his mind was quickly imprinting the experience he just had.  That nurse had been something else and he wanted to study the memory later but all his attempts failed.

He only vaguely recalled it now but one part stayed solid.  The feeling of being in that hospital was too real.  He suspected his old body had been carted off to such a place but he had been gone from it already.

Lind slowly opened his eyes and found the fine drapes hanging as they should and the room was pristine.  He also saw the shining ornate door as he had expected.  He wondered why the one in his vision had been dilapidated but he lost that image too as he fully woke up.

He saw his hair had a healthy sheen to it and was much longer than he remembered.  Why had it not been cut?  He also saw his Qi was happily circulating in his meridians into the now larger Sun inside his dantian.

He was still in the low Sun Tier but he was concerned that it had grown so much.  The amount of time would not be small to pull that off.

He summoned no one but used a few Arts to hide his presence even from Lanbao if she was looking for him.  He carefully got up and opened the door.

The Core Hall sounds came to his sharp ears but they seemed busier than he recalled.  He also saw no sign of his Emerald Souls.  That was decidedly odd but they could also be strong enough to hide from his immediate senses.

Still, they should have reacted to the door opening.  No formation or weaving was set off either so what was going on?  Lind carefully closed the door and came to the throne room.

It was currently hosting a number of ministers holding a meeting he thankfully did not have to attend but he gathered they were discussing some kind of resource allotment for the Haven Lands.

What were the Haven Lands?

Lind also heard about something called the Priority Project but no details aside from flow of goods being on target was mentioned before more mundane things unfolded.

He moved to the Core Room but only saw the Law Core and Law Arrays humming away happily.  Again, no guards.  What was going on?!

He felt the Law Binding react to him at last but it was more like a happily surging spike before it settled down.  That Law of his was damned odd but Lind felt a smile tug at his lips.

He searched for his friends but the Core Hall was too damn big and they could be out on business for all he knew.

The stray thought of making a run for it before anyone noticed he was awake crossed his mind but he simply moved deeper into the halls until he came to the rooms of someone he knew would be there.

Sheena never left the Core Hall if he was there.  It was a fact.  He expected to see messengers or other guards on standby but again, no one was there.  There was, however, a formation glowing to his Eyes.

It was a simple seal, yet Lind felt trepidation as he looked at it.  Why would Sheena's quarters be sealed?

He tried to gauge his age but without a reference, he was unsure.  He did not know how long it took to grow his hair as he usually had it trimmed before it got anywhere near such a length.

He carefully made a weaving that gently peeled up the seal.  It left it intact but allowed him to open the door.

He found her massive blade set up in the corner with dust on it thickly.  He saw her spartan style as the massive bed had simple sheets on it but what was on it left him trembling.  The near skeleton of a massive person was covered by formations to preserve and protect her remains.

Lind gently walked over and saw a thick leather diary on the small wooden table next to her.  It had one word on it.

[Lind]

He picked it up and began to read.  Tears formed as he saw the date on the last page.  He had been asleep for almost 700 years!

What had happened in that time?!  Was his family safe?!  He flipped back but examined the formations carefully.  They were only a decade or so old.  He had missed her by only a few decades!

"I am so sorry, Sheena.  I overslept."  His voice was rough as he recalled the fervent warrior woman.  He wanted her to meet his family and then stand back to watch the show between her and his other 'fans.'

Most of the diary was about her everyday life after he saved the Two Rivers.  He smiled at the memories of their battles and their lives.  He never realized she was notating down things in a diary.

He suspected there were jade slips too but those were more concise.  When it got to the point he was out cold, he felt the change.  It was like she lost the will to do anything.  She helped with training and went through the motions but her devotion to him was left hollow without him around.

Still, she got out of that funk after a few years.  He finally learned what happened to the Core Hall.

Linghu still lived there but the Two Rivers had become the seat of power once more.  Gravis, and Lind smirked at that part, was made Reagent until Lind awoke since it was evident how much Lind valued him.

Lanbao and Linghu helped him but Gravis began to make rulings.  He at first was very cautious but as time passed, he and Sheena butted heads.  Lind frowned but then saw she walked away from it all.

Gravis was not Lind and she could not be away from him for so long.  The Emerald Souls left guards at the teleportation area but no one knew where Lind was anymore.

His entire hallway was given formations to make all but a few miss it.  A perception illusion!  He knew who had made that!  Annabelle had clearly protected him even from far away!

He felt his breath catch as Sheena had heard the Fiends had launched an assault on the Moebius Sect but the Heavenly Maiden Sect had stepped in with a few others to actually use the attack to wipe out a large amount of Fiends.

Lind saw Cyntilla's tactics mixed with Shoti too.  Those 2 were terrifying.

The last few entries spoke of Sheena's accelerating aging and she was not alone.  Many of the original bandits were the same.  Powerful figures that had survived the War of Liberation were dying all at once.

Why hadn't the Restitution Rain helped them?  Lind then frowned at his own greed.  Heaven would shift a lot with karma but they all chose to break through in such a dangerous state.  The price was theirs to pay and did not correct it.

Sheena tried to hold on, but lost hope.  Her hand writing became difficult but she wrote a letter to him.  Like always, she was very direct.

[I wanted to guard you forever.  I will make sure the spirits return me to help you!]

Lind closed the diary before he felt his ring vibrate.

[Master, you are being spied on by someone I do not recognize.]

Lind nodded and waved his hands before he seemed to vanish from the room.  He was not ready to see anyone just yet.