Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 853 - 852 - External Power vs Internal Power

Lind's fiasco made the High Priestess laugh so hard her back cracked! He had not seen Wen since that day but oddly another side effect had resulted from it too.

He was no longer bothered by superfluous attempts to ensnare him into some clan.

It made him damned nervous but he cleaned up the mess and then took the lesson from it to make a separate area to nurture his herb garden. Frankly, he made it external and protected by mid grade 7 weavings.

He also reinforced the building and all the internal shelving. It took him a few weeks but it was as if it never happened.

Hope had watched him clean up with deep interest and even helped him but she did not advance. He was unsure what she was doing lately as she often left for most of the day before returning.

They had a simple apartment at the top of the structure but it had been as destroyed as the rest so he had to recreate that as well.

Lind was lucky the Nautilus was designed to survive the worst storms ever to exist up to and including limited exposure to tribulation lighting. It would be destroyed in time, but if it was caught off guard, the ship would last long enough to escape.

He had personally tested it multiple times to be sure of that!

Since that had been successful, he was getting increasingly frustrated by his failure to adapt the sky ship to the Celestial Fields.

He did not understand why the Immortal Qi was so unwilling to let his ship exist.

It was like the Qi and Laws combined to thwart his unique design.

"At least you are not blowing things up, True Lord." A surprising voice came from the doorway and Lind found Victus standing there.

His bald head was tilted up to look at the partially dismantled Nautilus.

"I moved past that issue as I understood the flaw was trying to force Qi and Laws at the same time. Still, I seem to have overloads occur in the rest of the ship after filtering out either." He saw the old man did not understand a thing he said but he still spoke as he put down a massive crystal node.

It was burnt out in spots but it was basically a combination capacitor and distributor for the ship.

He at first thought it was the capacitor part that was failing but it seemed the distributor was the issue or possibly the combination itself.

"You can fly find on your own, why make a ship to fly for you?" Lind was surprised he knew what it was for but then thought of Hope and smirked.

"If Hope pesters too much, just make her some sweets. It can pacify her curiosity for a time and pester the cooks for more." Victus nodded at the sage advice as if it was critical intel on a powerful enemy.

"To answer your question, I am going to the heart of the threat but to make it there I have to exceed my ability to fly in both height and endurance. I cannot simply stop midair to recover." He explained how during his battle with Wen, he had felt a similar place to the temple far above but hit a ceiling he could not cross.

Clearly, one could go higher, but some restriction stopped him.

"You think Heaven and Earth will simply let you up because it is not under your own power?" Victus had a point but Lind smiled wide.

"I have already confirmed that my sky ships can allow those normally held to the ground to fly under their own control. The ship is not a cultivator. It is merely a set of mechanisms that take in Qi and turn it into motive power or other functions." Lind continued to work as he spoke.

His delicate disassembly of the damaged node allowed him to see several possible issues causing the failure but the source of it all eluded him.

The channels had the same problem. It was like he was missing something.

Victus actually became interested as Lind described how he had used sky ships in his journeys. Once he was done, he turned to find the old man looking at the exposed hull in interest.

"How do you fly as a dragon?" The question through Lind off guard. His mode of flight could be Qi powered or his natural dragon gift but he realized he had never truly parsed what he was doing.

He knew the Law of Flight was involved but it had to be more than that as he could fly when he was a World Realm.

Lind's mind seemed to float away from the room and Victus smiled to see that.

"You are definitely worthy of being a True Lord, boy." He bowed and found a seat to wait it out. He was unsure if it helped or not, but he was curious to see how far Lind could delve into what many took for granted.

Lind was flying in his mind. He grasped the Laws of Flight, Gravity, Wind, and so forth. It was the innate desire of humans to fly like birds no matter the world.

Thus, when they began to leave mortality behind, they began to grasp what was once impossible. The Sky Realm was actually named for the ability to touch the sky so to speak but why?

Why was that the first realm able to fly in mortal worlds?

He had been able to fly as a World Realm due to being a dragon, so what held back humanity?

Lind let go of the Laws. He let go of his Qi, but his mental flight continued unabated. He felt it then.

Cultivators controlled the world around them to fly! World Realms did not possess enough comprehension to leave the surface as they could only manipulate at that level, not master it.

Sky Realms, on the other hand, impart a deeper understanding of the basic natural principles and cultivators' strong desire to rise above the rest.

They used the power of Qi pulled to their whim and wish to fly. It was why flying was so Qi intensive but improved as they got stronger.

Still, it was also why they needed artifacts to go any distance. Using Qi was like any muscle of the body, it became mentally and physically exhausting to keep flying. Artifacts, however, could last so long as Qi was supplied.

Yet, limits still applied to them. Artifacts needed various arrays and materials to withstand both flight and weight of its cargo. It relied on the same principle of pulling from a cultivator or other source to work and when it was depleted, the artifact fell.

His sky ships changed that dynamic. Rather than a single artifact, he used many to allow for a self-sustaining cycle. Theoretically, a cultivator could fly a ship up, and then leave it there.

It would keep flying so long as the systems held out forever, but also so long as Qi flowed around it.

Dragon flight, on the other hand, was something else. He felt it was totally self contained in his soul. It was like weaving but instead of depleting his soul power, it depleted simple endurance.

It was how much his body could pull on the soul inside to fly. Dragons were born naturally able to fly like rocs or hawks. They could fly as mortals let alone the World Realm.

It was their gift internal to their existence!

Lind's eyes snapped open in shock. He saw Victus looking up at him as Lind had floated up instinctively but instead of landing, he felt the reality of flight in the Celestial Fields.

His body was not weightless, but he felt the flow of his power from within and noticed not a single iota of Qi or Laws came into him. He then braced himself as he tried to use cultivator flying at the same time.

The result was quick and painful.

His arm cracked and his chest felt like someone had stabbed it before he collapsed to the stone floor.

Victus never moved but did look concerned until he saw the smile on Lind's face.

"The lower worlds rely on manipulation and control of the external world. We integrate the greater power of the world to advance our cultivation but Immortals do not do that. We focus on our understanding of the Laws to improve our centers of power!" Lind finally understood!

He now knew why Sky Realms could not fly in the Celestial Fields. The realm operated by a different concept entirely! It was not about external control anymore, but internal power alone!

Heaven Realms had limited flying ability because they began to touch on the Laws at the Sun Tier.

The sky ship concept was based on his understanding of the mortal and Heaven Realms but the Celestial Fields were a whole other beast. It was not about power alone but how to interact with it!

A comparison suddenly came to Lind from his old world.

Airplanes were designed based on the laws and natural effects of the planet's surface. They worked because an atmosphere and liquid formulas worked to cause lift with certain shapes.

It was the same with submarines and other vehicles. All of them worked on the principles due to controlling the environment they moved through. Yet, all those vehicles were useless in space.

An airplane needed atmosphere to work, submarines water to dive, and friction for tires to move cars. Space was a vacuum that took all those complex machines and reduced it to 2 options.

Push and pull.

Push off on an object or be pulled in by its gravity. To defy the powerful forces and live, new ways of working had to be made.

Shuttles and rockets were overkill on Earth but in space they were perfect! Lind had to scrap sky ships all together.

What he needed was a starship!