Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 840 - 839 - Trial of Wisdom

Lind suddenly felt the world come back to him but it felt off. His body was too heavy and his height was all wrong. Further, he seemed to be in some kind of study with maps haphazardly strewn across tables and hanging off the walls.

He did not recognize any of the names or locations save 1.

Temple of Souls. He knew instinctively that it had to be the name of where he had arrived but it was surrounded by several villages and a city to the far west where he knew nothing existed.

He went to rub his chin when he froze. A wrinkled but still powerful hand was in his vision. He tried to conjure water and light to make a mirror but it was like the Qi slipped through his control!

He looked over his body and shock flooded him.

He was only at the Sky Realm! He only had a core of darkness and fire! His body was much larger than his own and had many scars finely healed from what he could see.

"What is going on?" A much deeper voice was produced and he had only a few guesses. It was possibly an illusion but an illusion in a Divine Inheritance was no joke. It could affect reality the same as any real object!

Lord Skinwalker had preserved an entire section of the Divine Lands that really existed but somehow could resurrect the long dead. It was the tiny loophole that a Divine Realm memory was not simply information but the actual past preserved inside each cultivator.

It still took ridiculous efforts to recreate it, but it could be done. The dead, however, could not exceed the original and only other Divine Realm cultivators could recall that they were dead.

In other words while they did exist, outside of that memory, they were just ghosts. It made his head hurt to think about but it could be something similar but then why was he in someone else's body?

He looked over the maps and finally found another familiar name but in a much more central place.

The Starbreaker Empire. He then quickly noted all the branches and found the one he had fought but it was so tiny! It was nothing compared to what he had seen.

"When is this?" He asked out loud but no one answered. It was obviously the past but how far into the past was it?

Before he could look over the many books lying around, he felt a presence closing in, a dragon aura to be precise. It was also a Shard Tier!

It was only at that moment that he realized his soul was at full strength. He could still discern realms a Sky Realm could never hope to perceive.

A golden wooden door swung inward to reveal a battered and tired looking man. His age was difficult to tell but the eyes showed millions of years from what he could tell. Lanbao had lived for over 3 million but looked much better than this man.

"Ah, Stark, I see you try to find a way out of this predicament we are still in." The man had a missing arm! His cloak was made of dark leather and well worn but it was easily peak mid grade 7.

Given he was a Shard Tier, it was a good match. His robes underneath were actually of a floral design but the black base made the lighter colors look much brighter. It was also a refined item.

Lind did not know how to answer this powerful being but then knowledge flowed through his mind. He realized they were at war.

It was one of the many wars waged in the long history of cultivators against the Fiends. They were also losing badly. Unlike what he learned later, it seemed the Fiends were on the cusp of claiming half the Celestial Fields!

"It is not without hope but it is always a pause before more battles." Words suddenly left the body he was in but he did not lose control! He moved to look over the maps with his newfound knowledge and frowned.

"You always say that, but then you are alive when so many more powerful humans died to save our roosts. You saved the children for which even the crotchety old fool said your family line will be forever valued." Lind saw a flash of a pompous windbag of a dragon that wanted all humans expelled since the start of the war.

He understood why but the sentiment was an empty one. Stark was an old man and the few family members he had to start with were killed by Fiends long ago. He saw no need to start a family just to have them turned into Fiend fodder.

Stark was not a happy man at all but he had a mind that the dragon in front of him appreciated. The only reason the many nests were not raided were due to sneaky plans Stark enacted to make them traps instead.

A lot of Fiends died and not a single egg was lost.

The mothers or guardians were saved as well.

Now, the war was coming to a climax but Lord Drax had run out of ideas and men to fight. The dragons, white tigers, and many others were simply too tired to continue.

Oddly, Lind knew how things would now unfold but that option was denied to him. He knew the path to save them all but the trial seemed to test him. Was it chosen intentionally based on his history or was there another reason?

He reviewed what he knew and frowned deeply. Stark had a cold heart.

The original history had been a victory but it had nearly wiped out their side to do it. The key was the Fiend Immortals. It took so much resources to raise them and they treated their armies as extensions of themselves.

In other words, kill the Immortals and a lot of the armies die too. It was different from the thralls he was familiar with. The current technique had such a blatant weakness.

He realized the war here was likely why that technique was discontinued.

"You seem troubled Stark, still stuck?" Lind shook his head and pondered what he could do. A swift inventory left him frustrated as his usual tactics had no chance of working until he froze.

His soul. It was inside the man Stark. Surely he could weave still?

"I have had a few ideas but I need to confirm with an expert. Where is Cythian?" Drax looked surprised but a thoughtful look came over him.

"There are a few 6th Circle masters still alive. It is possible they could do things to help but what are you thinking?" Lind knew another way to attack the Fiends but it was a risky maneuver alone.

He needed help.

"The power of souls, Lord Drax. I am thinking about the power of souls." He bowed to the dragon after getting the information, but the instant he left the room he found himself in a half ruined castle.

It was not the same warm place he had just been but an entirely different place. It had a different feeling, one with which he was intimate.

He saw many wounded men and women but the formations of healing were replaced by the golden sigils and traces of weavings. He narrowed his eyes as they were far less complex than a 6th Circle master should be capable of.

He carefully picked out a path until a man with one eye and mangled leg came into view. He had half his hair missing as the eye injury was fresh but resources were running out. It was good enough to seal the wounds as if they lived, flesh could be restored.

The slim man had simple dark gray robes with flickering sigils floating across the surface. He was only a Sliver Tier Immortal but Lind could feel the power of weaving in him and a few others around him.

"Ah, Pet Stark, you are here to grace me with the orders of that arrogant bastard once more?" The man was without hope and venting his frustration. Their last battle had claimed his beloved.

The addition to Stark's name was a reference to how Lord Drax kept Stark safe from battle as few grasped his strategic potential.

"I bring no orders, but a chance at revenge, Lord Cythian." A jade slip Lind had carefully made was passed to the man. His fingers did not seem to work right but his remaining eye bulged at what he saw.

"By the spirits! Is this true?!" The aura of an Immortal and a weaving washed over Lind but he was easily able to nod.

"From what I found, the weakness of the Immortal Fiends is true but attacking them would be a useless victory at best. We would defeat them, but none of us would live to enjoy it." Lind pointed at the slip. "I then found that as an alternative. I thought it would catch your eye."

"Oh very good ant. Poke my pride but I can see it. Vengeance will indeed be mine! For that I forgive your insolence. Tell Lord Drax I owe him!" Before Lind could give any advice, 3 more Immortals appeared and all 4 flew off.

He frowned and wondered if he correctly grasped the trial but then the world shifted.

He felt all hope drain as he saw a sea of dark gray skin and white hair with impossibly beautiful beings sneering at the tiny pond of cultivators resisting them. All of life was going to be subsumed to be their food when golden sigils blazed like the sun!

Lances of light flew like arrows but no defense could stop them. The issue was they were not made of elemental Qi but spiritual Qi. Normally, that was a very risky thing to use but with weaving, all Qi becomes malleable.

Before the Fiends could understand, the light touched the army and the sea of ash grey became as bright as ten suns! It traced the connection between each body to the source!

Lind had adapted the plan slightly. He could sever thralls but it hardly hurt the original Fiend. He could also try to kill the original Fiend but if it planned ahead, only a part if it would be lost and claim one of its thralls.

It was an annoying ability so he had created a weaving that traced the soul path to every body or at least cut off the connection by finding them all. With the current weakness, weavers were far more potent than even the Fiends realized.

They protected their bodies and had armies, but never realized how open to attack they were by the very technique that brought them power. It would not work with the thrall technique, but the current one was pathetically wide open.

He watched as the whole wave of Fiends broke apart screaming as they died by billions!

He had broken the connection to the Immortals and without the army, the playing field was more than level.

He watched as the war unfolded with only injuries and some crippling on his side but the Fiends died.

[Interesting and far quicker than expected. The others will not be so easy.]

It was all the warning he got before the world faded to black.