Eternal Emerald Dragon

Lind saw the looming figure covered in shadows of old. Two white orbs flared from on high and looked down at him like an ant. A visceral reaction made him recoil internally but his body was not listening to him!

He tried to fly or orient himself but it was like his body was alien to him! He instinctively tried to call on his powers but the once reliable energies remained still. A dark laugh filled the strange space as the wall of light flared.

[Not so easy, is it? Did you think you could just become an Eternal Realm and win? You have no idea how your body or powers work! You are just prey!] The dark fists slammed and golden light flared but Lind let his eyes take in what he could.

He was floating near a giant sphere of many similar spheres in his sight. Why was he near the barrier? Was the sphere next to him the Divine Lands he had just left? Questions flared but the more pertinent was why was he not on the other side of the barrier?

His mind was racing but he no longer had Mysteries to pull on. The processes he had become comfortable in for millions of years were useless to him. His Eyes and Touch, however, finally responded.

He quickly used them to scan his body. His meridians were still there but they had changed drastically! They were no longer the multifaceted striations he used to contain the origin elements he used. They were now uniform and larger than normal.

The dark tubes were completely empty but were clearly ready to let something flow through them. He was about to move on when he realized something. Normally, the meridians were stronger the closer to the dantian they became, but now they were insanely strong in a uniform manner.

Even the finest meridian around his organs was as strong as the main ones around his heart.

Why? Why were they so strong?

His body was stronger. It was more qualitative than quantitative. It was like he could extract more power than before safely rather than a massive leap. Did that mean he had been forced to hold back as a Divine Realm all that time?

It was possible. He had pushed his physical traits to insane heights.

So his body was relatively normal but he would only wail about in the empty space without the aid of his powers.

His mind was not normal. It was no longer flesh and blood. Instead, he found a kind of storm and profound feeling that he barely grasped. Why was his brain like that?!

Why wouldn't it be improved like the rest of his body?

He could only move on as his thinking was not impaired. He did monitor the flow of energy from his mind but that seemed unimpeded. Something else was wrong.

He finally tried to look at his dantian. It had been so clear when he severed it, but now it was nearly invisible to him. Why? What was wrong?

Lind wanted to focus but the golden barrier started to show signs of strain. The Bastard could break through it?!

He did not know what made it but it was not Heaven and Earth. He was beyond that now. Its source could not be found but if it could stand up to the power he felt, it was far beyond him.

"Work damn it!" He just wanted to fly. Rather than rely on his power, he thought of being a dragon. The instant he thought it, his body changed between one breath and the next.

Rather than transition, he was instantly in his massive sinuous form. He could finally move as he wished! He shot upward and away from the cracked barrier. He was about to leave from the area of the dark sphere when something caught his eye.

It was a collection of various dragon bodies with emerald scales. They were his yet were alien to him.

He wished he could explore more but the damage to them made it clear they had once been the cage of the bastard. They could do nothing for him.

[HA HA HA! YOU WILL JOIN ALL THE OTHER FAILURES SOON EN–!] Both of them froze as the bodies lit up. A massive phantom appeared and consumed the bodies in the process.

[IMPOSSIBLE! THERE WAS NOTHING LEFT! I MADE SURE!] For the first time since Lind had directly faced him, the Original Bastard showed fear. An emerald light flared but it was alien to him.

A similar color but totally different from the one he was used to.

{We are but embers, yet we endure. We are but echoes, but we remember. You must find your own way. An Eternal Realm can no longer pull from without, only from within. Master your dantian.}

The massive figure then opened its gigantic maw. The dragon used its emerald breath to reinforce the barrier and send Lind flying. He tumbled far away as heard the Original Bastard scream.

[You will become fuel for me! I will make you watch as I consume all existence to reach the very peak! No one will ever threaten me again!] Lind suddenly smiled

His mind worked perfectly and he sent one message.

[So, you can die. Good.] Silence suddenly fell as the golden and emerald barrier was restored. The phantom disappeared as Lind sailed through darkness.

He saw spheres seemingly going on forever but he highly doubted it. The nature of Heaven and Earth was fair. If it applied death was possible to all, then the end of a world was also possible.

The words of his old self, in his final act, also got him thinking. The reason nothing was working was because the first act of any cultivator was to pull in energy from the world for what he wanted to do.

The dantian would condense and convert it through the cycle of the meridians but it was instinctual. It was done without thought. Conversely, great Arts, skills, or specific techniques came from the dantian and followed certain paths in the meridians.

Elixir mastery flowed mostly from the dantian to his mind and arms to reach his hands. It seemed he had to start from scratch. An Eternal Realm was no longer reliant on the world, but only on themselves.

He had nothing else to do and he could not stop himself, so he focused on his dantian. The strangeness made it difficult but his Talents still worked. It meant he could use his powers if he could just understand the new process.

Time was no longer something he could measure but he doubted whatever the dregs of his old self pulled off would hold out forever. The fact it made the Original Bastard afraid enough to reveal he was vulnerable was a plus.

It begged a question though. The name Eternal Realm would suggest he had won yet the Fiend had said he needed even more life to reach the peak. There must be a tier!

The lower tier or tiers were still vulnerable while the peak was not!

There was still a chance!

Lind grasped onto that hope to focus his mind fully on his task. He tried to simply make energy flow from his dantian throughout his body yet nothing happened. He frowned then recalled how he had transformed.

A single thought had made it work. He was too weak to resist the force sending him away but the process was important. He just accepted he could transform as he always could. He did not think about the how, just the result.

Lind then simply thought stop.

His motion instantly ceased! He was just barely able to feel the wave of emerald energy that flowed outward. It was drastically more powerful than Divine Qi! He also felt like his mind reacted with it.

He was the source! It was no longer about commanding but synchronizing mind and power into one! That was why his brain was changed!

A simple organ could not contend with the raw power of the dantian like that! It also told him a piece of why it was called the Eternal Realm. So long as he could master his dantian, he would never run out of power!

It would come down to quality vs quality. That gave him pause as the Bastard was many things, but he always pursued the best power to keep him alive.

Still, he had a clue and tested it.

He thought of making an elixir and froze. He quickly glanced at his right claws and saw a shocking change. The once black ring was gone and in its place was an emerald one! It had no mark on it anymore!

[Haro?] He called out tentatively but there was no response. He had promised to take the ring spirit with him and seemed to have succeeded, but had it destroyed the spirit?

He then realized it might be similar to his current situation. Rather than simply calling out, he thought of summoning the spirit outside the ring.

The expected dark skinned bald man did not appear. Instead, a youth appeared in simple tan robes with a full head of black hair! His skin was as dark as Haro's so it had to be him.

[Master! Congratulations on ascending to the Eternal Realm!] Lind had so many questions but the pair felt a change. The sea of spheres changed and a light sparked ahead.

Lind had stopped moving so it had to be some kind of drift or other force he had not noticed moving them along.

He glanced at the source and his scales went pale. A massive vortex was pulling in the spheres near it! It was a very slow process but he was more than familiar with it!

It was like the golden world of the spirits! The scale of it was massive! If he could feel it from so far away and it looked so large it meant it must span billions of kilometers!

[Return!] Haro vanished into the ring and Lind took off. He felt no pull in, thankfully but he understood if he ever got near it, he would be reduced to nothing!

He had far more questions than answers but at least he had a beginning. Now, he had to master it and face the Bastard on a level playing field. He needed to find a place to get those answers rather than stumbling in the dark.

To find them, he needed a better mastery of everything. He sighed and began to retrain himself from square one.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!