Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 847 - 846 - To Be Immortal

How many trials had it been? How many millions of years had he lost in the Inheritance? Was he going to die there?

It took far too long for him to understand what was going on. It was not an Inheritance of a legacy or maybe an Divine Realm's intent to have a successor carry on. It was a glaring weakness he had ignored.

What did it mean to be Immortal?

As a mortal, it was the dream to escape the looming death around every corner. No more sickness, no more aging, and no more worries about finding time for what one wanted.

It was not so easy but it was the simple dream of many mortals who started on the cultivation path. They did not see the sea of blood and struggle it would take to get there but time would allow them to accept it or stop.

Many cultivators had masters, sects, or clans to guide them on their path and prepare them for each step. Lind has masters too.

Younger Twin opened the door to elixirs fully and that was an immense aid on his journey. Delenn had taught him not only to Forge but far more about each element and its relationships when trying to achieve results for his creations. In a very real sense, the Divine Black Shelled Tortoise backed him into the corner to achieve true weaving.

The professions were important to him, but his foundation and his cultivation path were his own to carve. He blazed a trail by piecing together various ancestors, lucky chances, and frankly a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.

He then refined it for others to follow but in a real sense, the 6 elemental cultivation path was nascent. None had existed for him to learn from and thus he had made mistakes without knowing.

Neglecting the soul did not seem a true issue his kind but it still was important to ensure an active approach was taken to strengthen it as the path of Immortality continued.

If that was all he needed, it would have been a poor Inheritance and more of the Divine Soul teaching someone they favored more than anything, but then the rest of it hammered home how complacent and foolish he was.

Each trial was an aspect of life, a lesson on living, and generally an inevitable laying bare of the things he never really thought about.

He had been alive for a little over 3000 years. All things considered, he was a prodigy to have come so far so fast.

Yet, he had never thought about what living so long as an Immortal meant. Up through the Heaven Realm, only 5 to 6 thousand years could be eked out by most.

While a long time, it was a bit of time that could be understood. Planning out what to do and trying to achieve it all was feasible and an extension of all that came before.

An Immortal, at the very least, had a million years. It seemed like a great thing but no one really considered it.

What would you do with a million years?

The Fiend War was actually a blessing as it gave purpose to the many powers just trying to survive. Even the Shard Tiers would focus on that issue to all else so the path was clear, but what if the war was over?

What if there were many competing powers in all directions not at war, just rivals? What would one do with such time? How would one change if not ready to really shoulder the path?

A master would normally teach such a lesson, but LInd had no one. He had to figure it out on his own.

The Inheritance was teaching him how woefully unprepared he was to live forever.

A mortal perspective would only fail him in the end. A mortal view did not truly consider consequences for thousands of years later.

He had become an emperor in the Law Binding and saw the fallout in a microcosm of the shortsighted mortal view.

The relatively peaceful rules he tried to have the whole area live by could not last even a few centuries of his absence. That was true of all powers founded by mortals.

No matter how vile or how benevolent, the founder had no control how things unraveled once they were gone.

It was a matter of the passage of time, but cultivators changed that. He had been to cities that had lasted for billions of years because the long view was one aspect the powers took.

They did not like chaos but further, they wanted to reap benefits with the least investment. For guilds, sects, and so forth, that process could be set up and work due to the power above and longevity of those in power.

He, however, had changed drastically compared to how he started, but now he had a very long life ahead of him. Living with a mortal perspective would not only eventually hurt him, but there was a good chance he would be only going through the motions.

He would be married to his wives, but would the love endure for all eternity if he did not actively invest in it for millions of years? How would they change as their family grew and the drama that would unfold as generations later could be against his Dao?

There was so much he had taken for granted but now the Inheritance was showing him what a fool he was.

He was put in trials that proved love could blind him, that anger could change how he would treat others. Sometimes he held to his ideals as the lust trial actually was passed the easiest out of all he had faced.

At the current moment, his bonds to his family were deep and true so temptation did not sway him even in another being's body.

The trials ensued and he began to reforge his soul. He could not advance his cultivation but refining his soul was something he could do.

Slowly, things began to change as he spent more time in the gray space until finally he faced the Trial of Death.

Immortals, despite their title, could die. Time could still run out as all that they achieved was to slow down the aging of the body to an extreme degree.

The revelation of the Trial of Death had an unexpected result. The Dao of Time became clearer to Lind. He suddenly felt an oddity in the gray space around him.

"No time has passed at all?" Time flowed yet it did not. How was that possible? He could detect it but not understand how it was done.

[You surprise me, junior. You discerned the purpose of my Inheritance without too much prodding. Others failed spectacularly and their souls broke down from living so many lives. Yours is much stronger and you have refined it well.] Lind frowned at the praise.

"I am not a fool senior. You have taught me a lot but Immortal dragons could have helped me reach similar conclusions without such a strange method. There is more to this Inheritance than honing the soul. The foundation is being laid for something important." The Lord of Souls actually reappeared in the gray space.

His flickering skin fit in well but a look was on his face that disturbed Lind. He had wondered what it would be like to truly face an Immortal with a refined soul.

He now had his answer. He was looking at something that had lived so long that his tiny life was nothing. He felt small and useless.

If it was before, he would have been cowed by that look, but his soul flickered and solidified to the point he was not standing face to face with the Lord of Souls.

A black band suddenly appeared on his right hand but he did not notice.

What he did notice was the Lord of Souls shifted to a stunned look before stumbling backwards. What happened?

He advanced at the dragon but the man seemed to be afraid of him. Lind was close to grasping something important. Something vital.

Senior dragon soul had walked with him for a time and taught him so much but at the end she seemed so happy.

He found Lord Skinwalker's Inheritance and the ring chose to come to him. The powerful dragon soul then sought him out and put him through hell about his progenitor tribulations. He also seemed to hint that Lind would face harsher tribulations as well and he had.

He had faced tribulations that would make most cultivators weep. At times he also seemed able to invoke karma and Heaven in ways even other divine beasts could not. Why? What was different about him?

He was a progenitor. He was a 6 elemental. Both of these seemed to make Heaven and Earth very happy. He had felt the joy even at the most terrifying tribulation, but behind that was a weight.

Something heavy was being built on top of him.

He suddenly recalled the things the Lord of Souls told him. How some things were recognized by Heaven and Earth and could not be spoken of lightly.

A dam broke in his head as the gray space suddenly shattered. His form disappeared and left the Lord of Souls alone.

[What terrifying monster did you pick, sister? We have been without our leader for so long, but a human that attained a dragon soul is the one to come at the end? I can't protect the Temple of Souls for much longer. Death is coming for us all.] He looked tired but returned to his study.

It was the same warm place as before but now a painting hung over the fireplace. It was handmade and of very high quality.

It held 3 people. There were 2 men and a woman. They all looked similar to each other in a way but their colors varied wildly.

The Lord of Souls smiled gently as he caressed the painting of the woman.

"I will join you soon, sister. All too soon." He felt all the ages he had lived closing in on him.

Lind had no idea how right he was. Nothing was forever, not even Divine Realm cultivators.