Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 871 - 870 - Fiend Sigils

It only took a short while to notice that 1 panel on the lower side was accessible to them as the other panels seemed to serve some function. No one dared go near the black flows heading into the other 3 lower panels but the top 4 all gushed the vitality they had arrived inside.

Veran slowly followed LInd's instructions to exit only on the side of the exposed lower panel. None knew why it was not in use but Lind could feel his soul react oddly as he looked at the octahedron overall.

As the Wings of Freedom slowly descended, the scale of the thing dwarfed any structure even legends spoke of to them. Lind had even been inside a true Divine Inheritance that took a section of the Divine Lands but nothing compared to the thing in front of them.

As they left the beam of vitality, a feeling of deep nausea flared over the crew but a wave from the Hacore dispelled it!

Lind had not anticipated such a reaction but harmonies generally fought back against Fiend Qi so it was likely a reflexive reaction more than a function.

The viewscreen cleared up a bit but it was not able to give a clear image. He moved over to the external monitor directly ahead and saw a breakdown of a complex and interwoven metallic sheen to everything.

His eyes narrowed as he saw black sigils partially flowing across the surface. His disquiet in his soul flared and he knew what he was looking at.

"Fiend sigils. No wonder." Any doubt of the origin of the structure was dismissed and proved without a doubt that Fiend resources existed in the Celestial Fields. How much more powerful would the Fiends be if they had access to such resources again?

The Starbreaker Empire was just a remnant and had been far more powerful than any Fiend group he had encountered to date. The sheer material use they had was stunning due to the limited nature of the outer lands.

Here was a true example of what Fiends could do before the Cataclysm. Still, it begged a question as to how they hid it.

He could not believe such a structure was common and other powers opposed the Fiends so how did they hide it?

"True Lord, there appears to be a place to enter." The young man next to him was looking at other readouts and he took over. The man was right.

"Veran, down 2 degrees and stop after 2 minutes." Veran manipulated the controls to his command and they stopped in front of a place where the sigils pointed to a circular cover. It was as black as everything else but he understood what he was seeing.

"True Lord, is that–?" He nodded at the young man's question.

"Nothing is eternal. The object either is breaking down or something was rushed. I am inclined to say the latter given a possible attack triggered it early." There had been no sign of a 4th sphere but it did not mean there was not supposed to be.

Without that missing sphere, however, the surface was perfectly sealed. That was odd as it begged the question how people got in and out as there was no sign of any ruins in the open ground below.

The opening was not big enough to let the ship in but it was not a problem.

"Gard, activate the bridge." His orders were relayed to the power section and the flow of Qi changed on the port side as a glowing cylinder extended from the main hatch on that section. The edge got near the surface and a reaction occurred.

The Fiend sigils flared and attacked the bridge. The crew blanched but Lind only sighed as he expected it.

He then went to his command chair and touched the left lowest panel. It had only one function but it drained him badly to use it.

Emerald light flared and flew along the entire ship suddenly. Before anyone could look at him, the golden glow was replaced with emerald!

The once powerful Fiend sigils shattered like glass before his power!

The bridge then slammed into the opening and golden sigils encircled it until a weaving formed to protect it.

Lind released his hold and wiped the sweat from his brow. Shard Tier! It had been Shard Tier power!

[True Lord, the bridge has stabilized. Should we send a scout?] Gard's voice reached his mind but he sent the negative response. Only 1 person could safely enter that structure.

[Attention: I am going to breach the facility. I am the only 1 of us that can withstand Fiend Qi if used as an attack. Once I have determined it is safe at the exit, I will return.]

His message caused an uproar but few could argue after seeing his power. He downed 2 elixirs to recover as he did not want to rely on cultivation sessions to do so at the moment.

It took him only a few minutes to get down to the port hatch the bridge was connected to. Unsurprisingly, Wen was waiting for him. She was still teary eyed but much calmer.

"True Lord, you cannot–" His aura flared and made her flinch.

"If you cannot stop me, who can?" The argument was impossible to deny. A True Lord cannot be stopped by their own race if they had any desire to run roughshod over objections.

He swept past her and touched the inner airlock door. The hiss was followed but the door rolled aside and he arched his eyebrow at what he found.

Saplings were barely started and it told him the seals on the external hull were either damaged or imperfect as it was a much lesser effect compared to the one he used before.

He sealed the inner door before cycling open the outer one. Unlike before, he was not smashed with a wave of vital energies but he noticed the saplings wilting instantly. He examined them and saw their vitality was being slowly leeched.

He took a look inside himself but saw no such effect.

"Problematic." He looked out at the glowing corridor and touched the sides of it as his Eyes examined it. As expected, it too was not steady. It was weakening.

He summoned 3 artifacts from his ring and set them at equidistant positions on the part of the hull still exposed.

The moment he set them, they grew from cubes into little dishes before faint emerald Qi emerged from them.

It would take some time, but the converters would stabilize using his harmonic Qi. He had made them as experiments to recreate harmonic Qi without a cultivator but they had limits and were damned slow to build power.

It would do in the current instance as the ship was powered by harmonic crystals so it should be better.

He flew up the corridor and noticed that the closer he got to the panel, the worse the conditions of it became. He flared his own Qi to stabilize it until the balance shifted. His weaving was doing a good job of anchoring the exit but also his soul was woven into it.

His natural resistance to Fiend Qi spread to the exit entirely so it was actually perfectly stable at that end.

He saw the black surface and frowned. An entrance was not the right word but a kind of crystal or jade maybe. It felt wrong but that was not the only issue.

He saw signs a door had been there at one time but since fused shut.

It was similar to how he designed the hulls of the Nautilus Class and the Wings of Freedom. Infuse Qi the right way and the door could trigger but retract it and the hull would seal seamlessly.

The surface in front of him was far above his skill.

The issue was it felt closer to peak grade 7 which should not exist on the current level of the Celestial Fields.

The being that could do that was more likely than not a Radiant Tier or Sovereign Tier.

He did not know enough about the rules if there was free trade between layers of the Celestial Fields. It was not impossible as the Floating Isles had traded with the Heaven Realm openly.

Still, it made it even more confusing how this structure was not discovered much earlier. Surely such expert help was not cheap nor easy to get quietly.

His fingers glowed with emerald light as he ran his hand over it.

The reaction was instant as sigils flared like beasts and tried to kill him. He understood that something was detecting him now that could not before. His harmony's abilities were terrifying to Fiends.

This thing, however, had no feeling in it. It was not alive.

[Master, be careful. Your harmony is powerful but if this is a true peak grade 7 artifact, it can kill you instantly if you let your guard down.]

Haro kept Lind humble as he dealt with the attack. Golden sigils replaced them and sealed the dangers away. It was layered and powerful but against his harmony it was powerless.

He knew for certain his crew would have been incinerated by even a scratch from the power he felt.

Finally, after nearly exhausting all his Qi and soul power once more, a hiss was heard and a doorway pulled inward to reveal a dark corridor beyond.

He carefully examined it and frowned deeply at what he sensed.

Dust was everywhere but that was not all. Skeletons were in his range but their positions were odd. It was not a battle but like they just gave up.

Some were leaning against the walls while others were in fetal positions. They were also not Fiends. They were human!

He sealed a few more traps before Haro confirmed the entrance was safe. The mystery of the inside showed there was more to the structure than just its horrific purpose.

[Wen, assemble a team to meet me at the port hatch in an hour.] Lind set up 3 more converters to assist the bridge and then set up a few more weavings inside the corridor before heading back.

It was time to plan how they would approach the danger of their next task.