Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 686 - 685 - Choice

Nyota was a slim demoness but her lavender skin was as alluring as any demon.  She currently stood behind Lind and felt conflicted.

When her gift awakened, she had seen a massive emerald dragon lording over all of creation but also a terrifying dark creature trying to kill it at every turn.  She could not let that vision go and Lady Seras had insisted she follow Lind to resolve the block.

So long as she served him, her skills continued to work but the moment she tried to look at other events beyond him, the flash of that terrible vision returned.  Why?  Why was her gift stuck on that moment?

As the years passed, she noticed an oddity.  Each warning of events she tried to guide Lind about, he already knew!  The war between the 3 supreme powers had been unleashed as she had seen but no one doubted that would happen as tensions rose.

She did see the risk to certain areas but Lind simply ordered his soldiers already in the area to evacuate or prepare according to the needs of it.  Even the eventual near breach of his borders had been anticipated as he had Lanbao nearby.

It was not just the war, however, but the strain on his resources she had seen as strife and eventual weakening of his Empire had been averted with some kind of prefabricated modular homes Lind had built long ago!

His artisans had been making them at his request and he had negotiated new areas from the aether beasts long before the war even broke out!

His explanation had been that he had plans to expand some of the population in the future but it was too perfect for the refugees!  Lady Seras had told Nyota that Emperor Lind was not a normal cultivator.

She was just now appreciating it.  Many cultivators simply adapted to situations and focused on increasing their own realms and the realms of their family at most, but Emperor Frey looked farther.

Nyota began to see a problem with her ability to see the future.  It was like she only saw things as they would have been if no action was taken by her target.  Why was that?

The negotiations had wrapped up, if they could be really called that, as the Sanctuary Empire came out on top no matter how anyone looked at it.

Lanbao was escorting the leaders back out of the city as the pair looked on from a balcony above.

"You seem troubled."  His voice made her jump as she saw him looking much calmer now that the war was finally settled.

"I am troubled that all my visions were useless not only during the war but in any regards to you, my Emperor."  She spoke truthfully as she had learned he valued being direct like that.  He was a very odd man.

He smiled as he turned to her and his handsome visage did make many hearts race but Nyota knew he intended nothing like that effect.  He simply benefited from his draconic soul in her opinion.

"The problem with looking ahead is that our preconceptions or concerns can blind us to possibilities."  He then tossed a jade slip to her.  She sunk her senses into it and felt shocked to see many plans for various war scenarios!

She saw only 2 powers fighting, civil wars, and even coups happening all at once!  It was scenario after scenario but she could see the entry was over 20 years old!

She looked up at him and he shrugged.

"A good leaders should try to anticipate the worst and best case scenarios but with some experience and history to help, we knew there was a good chance of  refugees of some kind.  Frugal spending of resources was helped as we can plan training to an extent as well."  Nyota felt enlightened a bit.  She began to understand that a seer was affected by their assumptions as well as the facts.

"So I am overlooking reality somehow?" He shrugged at her question and simply moved back into the meeting hall.

"I think Seras has simply been through a far more harsh crucible like others when they were enslaved.  Similar to how battle can hone a cultivators foundation far faster than simple meditation.  A stress like that can invigorate growth but it can also cause deviation as well for pushing too hard."  She nodded as that was common knowledge.

Cultivators sought out conflict and pressure to hone their skills and solidify their foundation to the point they could explode with progress when they broke through.

Nyota knew that but Lady Sera had said she had the best seer gift in nearly a thousand years.

"So why were all of my visions wrong?"  She mumbled the words without expecting an answer but Lind smiled at her.

"Tell me, have you ever wondered if there is Fate?"  Lind's question seemed moot to Nyota.  She could see the future so Fate should exist.  It was allowing her to see the path forward but she did not answer right away.

What was he implying?

If Fate existed, then it was part of the Dao guiding cultivators on the path if they could grasp it.  It would also resist changes yet her visions were changed so easily!

"I am not sure."  He smiled at her answer as he began to conjure several balls of Qi.  As she watched, a simple image played out of a human figure walking down a path that was then met with a split at one point.

"How many choices are there?"  Nyota felt frustrated at such a childish presentation but did not insult the Emperor.

"There are 3, left, right, or back."  She did not see why he was asking but he only smiled as various colors began to come off the figure.  They went those 3 but also up, down, and all directions.  She wanted to claim it was impossible to go down but then saw the very stone shift beneath his feet!

"Cultivators have various skills at their disposal and further, can fly in many ways.  There is also the possibility that such a crossroads is the end of their life."  Nyota saw the figure keel over as if struck when more figures appeared.

"The point is that you are limiting your vision to what you can understand, not what is possible.  Further, while there may be Fate, cultivators defy it simply by progressing their realms.  We were born mortal and yet I have lived for over 2000 years."  Lind looked at her as Nyota slowly felt like a storm was forming in her mind.

Her gift seemed so small to her suddenly despite how clear her visions had been.

She was about to speak when the room vanished.  She then saw the normal vision of the sinuous emerald dragon being suppressed by the dark being she could not make out, yet now there were others!

She saw visions where the dragon was unmolested on its path through life but it seemed so lonely.  There were others that the dragon roared in defiance as it struck at the heart of the dark being but died doing so.

Some were so distinct and detailed she could see blood flying drop by drop in the air while others were too vague to even be sure it was still a dragon at all.

Her head began to throb when a voice whispered in her mind.

[We all choose the path with what we know, but seers try to look ahead to the choices yet to be made.  The trick is to understand what is more likely compared to what is least likely.  The future is not a path to be unveiled in its entirety but to see the options it can be.]

The visions shattered as she found herself in the arms of Emperor Frey!  He was holding an empty vial as she felt a demonic elixir flowing in her meridians.

"Are you all right?"  The voice was his!  She wanted to ask what he knew about her ability when a faint voice returned!

[I am but another possibility and you touched on my path.  Do not tell him as he has yet to choose.]

The feeling of connection vanished and she felt like her head was in a fog for a moment until the elixir did its work.

"I–I am getting better.  It seems I have much to consider about my gift and the future."  She really did but she wanted to talk to Lady Seras very soon too.  What was that voice?!

"Go and recover, I doubt the troubles we are facing will end until the Gate of Heaven opens."  She bowed and made her way to her quarters.  Despite being a close advisor to the Emperor, she found her quarters were rather humble.

Of course, compared to the Emperor's, hers were quite lavish!  The man refused to take more than he wanted in anything!  She knew for a fact his Core Hall rooms were not much better despite being of better materials.

Lord Linghu and Lady Lanbao had far more impressive quarters but rarely used them too!

She laid out a mat that was part cloth and part crystal.  It was a key tool to help cultivate her skills as she increased her foundation of her realm.

She was about to simply digest what she experienced when a thought pierced her mind.

Could she see the day the Gate of Heaven opened?

As if waiting for the question, a wave of nausea assailed her and the room vanished.  Unlike before where it was a vision of possibilities, it was a clear moment from the future.  She saw blood flow like rivers as Fiends laid waste to whole kingdoms!

A Shard Tier Immortal Fiend was laughing as he held the broken corpses of a demoness with empty virulent eyes and a sinuous prismatic dragon corpse!  Nyota did not need any books to tell her who those 2 were!

At the feet of that devilish creature was all the family of Lind Frey laid out in horribly garish bodies.  Some were stabbed, some were ripped apart, and a few were gibbering wrecks based on their frozen faces of incomprehension before they died.

She tried to see an alternative but only 1 came up.  A choice, just as he had told her.  A choice to wait or a choice to risk it all, but she did not know which produced that future!

Her room came back as the stench of bile filled her nose and her room was now in darkness from the bright sunlight of before.  She quickly summoned a communication jade for Lady Seras but found it shattered!

Her body froze.  The only reason a bound stone would break was if the person suffered a direct tribulation or they were killed!  She tried to use her bracelet for the Emperor when her body convulsed.

[Ant he may be, but you will not warn him.  He will pay for defying me, as will you.  All demons are my playthings.  Now and forever.]

Nyota was dying!  She could feel it!  Her soul was being ripped apart!  It was almost about to fall into oblivion when emerald flames wrapped her in welcome warmth!

[YOU DARE!]

She then saw something incomprehensible.  She saw a dark God faced with an Emerald Dragon but it was far more powerful!

[You already crossed the line!  I can now interfere!  You are not beyond Heaven and Earth yet!]

She saw a battle that should have destroyed her mind and soul but it was already moving far away as she collapsed into simple exhaustion.  In the midst of her struggle, she failed to notice she had reached the Moon Tier when she had been far from it and her door was blasted open by a frantic Lanbao and Lind Frey.

Her room was a mess but they found nothing else and had no explanation for what had happened.

All the demonic seers save Nyota were dead!