Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 792 - 791 - Cataclysm of Dao

Lind was confused about the young girl in front of him.  As aether beasts progressed or had more powerful parents, their race memory access improved.

Ethry always described it as an expansion of her knowledge and allowing her to quickly learn Arts that were aligned with her body and Qi flow.

Kora and Tal both were unique in that they said their race memories felt distant but more complete when they looked into them.  He suspected their manifestation via a Divine Inheritance was the cause so he always took their insight with such a consideration.

Other aether beasts that were willing to talk about it gave him an idea that the more divine purity in the bloodline, the greater the benefit.  Yet all beasts usually enjoyed massive jumps in ability, cultivation realms, and so forth.

So he had always viewed race memory similar to how aether beasts could more easily advance in lower realms by simple consumption. Yet the girl in front of him had a very poor foundation.

Her moon was barely rotating and absorbing Qi.  Her meridians were strained and cracked due to misuse of Qi as well.  The only time he had seen that kind of damage was when someone performed Arts without truly comprehending them.

Trying to move Qi with half baked understanding would let it either not work or run wild.  In the case of aether beasts, it seemed moving Qi was a given but she was not controlling it well.

He spent the better part of a month guiding her and repairing her foundation the best he could.  Thanks to the many lessons with Tal, he easily resolved her questions and she lit up as her guard dropped.

He also played with the newborn stone drals which made him smile as she digested her new knowledge.  The older ones also were in sad shape but better than her.  He was confused about it but then slowly began to grasp the problem.

Despite the lower quality of the general realm, it was still the Celestial Fields.  The beasts born here were meant to naturally absorb Laws even in the lower realms but there were none!

The missing part of the world was actually hindering cultivation!  Now that he knew what to look for he found a critical difference around him.

The beasts had almost no Laws in any form, but the plants did!  It was why they towered into the sky but he noticed they were far fewer than they should be!

Even with his help, the potential of all the beasts was far lower than it should be compared to the Heaven Realm land counterparts.

It showed him how bad the situation actually was for the living as well as the world itself.

"They lost it all."  He saw marked improvement but it took them 2 to 3 times the effort to pull off what Tal and other stone dral had done with ease in his life before.

Even the few he knew that struggled to reach the Heaven Realm had not struggled so much as the entire herd currently around him.

As things finally settled he decided to try and learn what he could.

"Ella."  The girl perked up at the name he gave her.  Just being called eldest was too depressing to him yet she had only accepted something close to it.  "Spar with me."

He decided to test her and she happily complied.  Her hair, once partially crystal, was now true hair so it had to be tied back to stay out of the way.

Her features were also much finer and her lithe form was more flexible like a human body should be.  They went through intermediate hand to hand combat as it was where she shined.

She could not keep up with his full speed but the point was to guide her.  He smiled to see a healthy flow of Qi in her body enhancing her speed and strength.

Her fists glowed as she used an Art of her bloodline but she did not know the name.  Tal used her full body in combat.  It was literally called Meteor Art and it was devastating as each attack could shatter the very air at her full strength even in the Heaven Realm.

"Very good.  You have done well."  Ella lit up like a sun with a smile at that moment and danced around.  Despite being a Moon Tier, she was very much like a child.  It made him realize how much a tragedy had been visited on the Celestial Fields.

"So, is there another lesson?"  Ella had become much more comfortable around him but Lind shook his head.

"I have taken you as far as I can, but the rest is up to you.  You can go farther if you work hard."  He was telling the truth.  Repairing her foundation had been an extensive piece of work but if he did anymore, she would lose her ability to progress on her own.

A sad look passed over her oval face.  He smiled and patted her head to ease the end of their lessons.

"There are things I wish to ask, is that all right?"  She nodded and sat down on the stone beneath them.  The herd milled around eating or relaxing.  Since he arrived, no beasts came to bother them.

A simple flare of his aura had terrified most of the forest.

The herd enjoyed the safety of his protection but Ella knew he would not be staying forever.

"I will do what I can."  She settled and he served some tea.  He could not put out his best tea as it suffered from Qi being lost due to the differential of density.

"Do you know what happened almost a million years ago?"  He was doubting but Ella's face darkened and shivered.

"The sky died.  I can see it in the ancestor's memories but after that, nothing."  He frowned as he looked up to see a normal blue sky with a sun but no clouds.

"It died?"  Ella frowned as she too seemed confused.  The sky was still clearly there and the world was alive, so what died?

He tried to grasp it but could not.  There was simply not enough data.

"Is there anything else you can remember?"  She closed her eyes and meditated.  Ethry had warned him that race memory was not like true memory.  It was the gift of the bloodline and only granted what was allowed.

It could be vast enough to take time to go through, but it was not an unending source of knowledge.

"There was a place people never returned from and one of the memories is broken from there."  Lind screwed up his face in confusion as that made no sense.  How could a memory be broken?

Ella tried to get better words but nothing else made sense.

"The other memories can be incomplete or foggy, but this one was like it was ripped apart right before it died."  Now Lind was truly confused.  Race memories generally came from previous generations down the ages.

How could one that died pass on their memories?

"May I try something?"  She nodded as she trusted him now.  He carefully set out several protective artifacts and flared his aura much wider than before.  What he was about to do was very delicate and could not be interrupted.

Once he saw the shimmering of the air from the 3 bronze spikes, he began to engrave sigils into the air.  The weaving was very fragile.  It was like the traces barely connected them and even rippled on the air currents.

Once it was done, a strange feeling filled the air as Ella seemed to get sleepy.  He waited for a bit and confirmed she was ready.

"Ella, think about the Cataclysm.  Simply think about it.  Do not try to force it.  Just relax."  The weaving was essentially a cultivation equivalent of a hypnotic suggestion but it had a much greater effect.

It would retrieve memories or comprehensions that could be imparted far more easily, but the issue was the weaving could only barely touch on the mind.  If it was too strong, it could cause damage, but too little and nothing happened.

The 3 bronze spikes created a barrier that isolated the world mentally and spiritually from them.  He could also create it with weaving but even that could cause an interference that was too risky so the artifacts made it safer.

Ella smiled as it caused a kind of euphoric effect but the expected display of her memory did not come.  Instead, Lind was brought to his knees by an aura he had not felt in some time.

A Shard Tier!

[Who are you?  How dare you trick my descendents!]  Lind felt blood rise up in his throat, leak from his ears, and flow from his nose.  He had not felt the full force of an Immortal so unprepared before.

"S-senior, I am from the Heaven Realm lands.  I am trying to learn about the Cataclysm and Ella agreed.  There is no danger to her unless you shatter the weaving.  I can disperse it slowly."  Lind barely got his words out before the aura disappeared.

He saw blood on the stone as the other stone dral were kneeling in their direction.  He looked up to see a flickering projection of a man.  It was like pieces were missing and he finally understood what she had been trying to describe.

It was like the man was partially ripped away but the race memory was trying to get through.

[You are a dragon?  Apologies.  I do not have much left of me in the race memories.  I left an imprint by mistake and your weaving gave me volition once again.  The knowledge you seek is useless, however.]  The projection was getting weaker and he was shocked to see the weaving was breaking down!  That was dangerous!

He quickly used his emerald harmonic Qi to boost the power.

[You would be better going back to your realm.  You cannot fight what killed me.  It destroyed everything and left me only this tiny trace.  I am joining back to the Dao–]  Fear finally crossed the projection's features as it looked around before resignation came to it.  [I see, even the Dao is dying.  We are all dead and have no chance to reincarnate even.  You should go back and cherish what time you have left.]

Before Lind could say a word, the projection fell apart and he carefully disengaged the weaving before collapsing himself.  The Shard Tier memory had contained more than just knowledge but the last impression of the one who put it there.

The final words made Lind feel cold.

The Dao dying matched what he saw happening in the world around him.  No Laws and crumbling world matched such a description.  Things were far worse than he imagined but he could only pass out as Ella was hovering over him in worry but he simply let his mind shutdown so his body could recover on its own.

He had a lot to think about when he woke up.