Eternal Emerald Dragon

Lind was carried across vast areas before he noticed nature reasserted itself. Thunder Child was unlike other Eternal Realm cultivators he had met. Most of them felt fairly normal until they spoke.

He then felt their unique power flowing in their words and had to parse what was unintentional with what was directed at him. Bloodsight was the most open end of the spectrum. What you saw was what you got.

Star was a contrast. Despite seeming even minded, Lind actually got very little from him. If asked what path he followed or what his abilities leaned to, he would have to say he was unsure.

A title was not enough to tell him anything. Being a living embodiment of elemental Qi could mean star meant anything from what stars were made of or that he aspired to be a star literally.

Thunder Child, however, was the raw power of lightning given flesh. There was no other sense from her at all, even as a woman!

He also had zero knowledge of such a being from his inherited history. Either the Fusion path never met one or there was some reason he held back their existence.

The visceral nature seemed to accentuate her power. He also began to feel others. There were 2 others, also aether children.

One was crimson and black but felt like the flow of magma beneath the surface of the world. It was the lifeblood of stone and pressure. Lind felt like nothing could resist her. Her eyes, like Thunder Child, did not match her skin but were bright orange.

The other one, another female aether child, was azure and green. The feeling of storm given flesh came from her but unlike Thunder Child he felt no lightning at all from her. It was the wind and the rain alone.

All 3 felt far more powerful than any other Eternal Realm but now that he had more comparisons, he frowned.

Something was off with them.

"It is rude to pry into a woman's secrets. I would think with so many wives, you would have been taught that lesson." Thunder Child admonished him yet he had not done anything but feel the world.

"Touchy as always, Little Thunder." The magma aether child smirked but Lind blinked at the endearing term. Little?

A sigh from the person carrying was followed by his unceremonious drop to the soil. He had recovered enough to at least sit up but he still felt wobbly.

The living storm came to him and seemed to look through him. What she saw made her smile yet it was a sad smile. Why was she sad?

"You nearly messed up. You think you found the answer but you are wrong. You have just found another dead end." Her words made him narrow his eyes. What did that mean?

The 3 women began to weave which shocked him. One of them weaving, sure, but all 3? He then went saucer eyed as he realized he was wrong. There were no sigils, just pure power of the soul.

His eyes glimmered as understanding clicked into place. He had been wrong. His other self had not held back without good reason. It had been exactly what he was seeing!

His mind whirled but then sharp pain snapped him out of it. He was still too low in his dantian until it regenerated on its own.

That seemed very inconvenient! He was unable to draw in power to recover!

The 3 completed the ward and he studied it avidly until a slow frown began to spread across his face.

"Not too bad, didn't even have to say a word." The magma aether child smirked but Thunder Child rolled her eyes. It was at that moment that Lind recognized something in their bond.

"You ascended together?" Now their eyes went wide. The storm aether child then clapped her hands.

"The ward and our little quirks?" He nodded.

"Family is more than blood and you are family. That bond between aether children explains that you condensed together too." His revelations shocked them. It was rare, but aether children manifested enough that 'twins' or 'triplets' were possible.

Being of different elemental combinations made it much more rare yet not impossible. He could think of a thousand places in his own mortal realm that could produce such a variety of aether children.

"That was a little more impressive. Very few humans could see us as sisters, let alone that we were born at almost the same time. This is my sister Tempest Child and on this annoying one is the self proclaimed elders Worldblood Child." The former was expected but the latter title surprised him.

She had no earth in her manifestation, only fire and darkness. Yet, as if expecting his question, she raised her hand. The ground shook and a small volcano formed right there! It was perfectly contained as he watched the whole miniature event blow its top then returned below ground.

He recognized what she did too! Pure Path power! While it was similar, he also found it was wrong. It was like it was dead.

His face must have been clearly revealing his thoughts. He was too exhausted to keep a poker face!

Tempest Child knelt down and nodded at him.

"Path power does not need intent, that is true. Intrinsic power like ours, yours and mine, can operate without intent. The Path your Mysteries nurtured on your ascension is closer to us than humans or beasts." Understanding came to him.

He still disagreed, however, with where they were leading him. She had called it 'another dead end.' Why?

The words of Thunder Child came back to him and he looked up at her in confusion. The instant he did, he noticed she looked different. She looked expectant. She had not said a word about what she had seen, only brought him over.

Why was she being so quiet?

Ignoring the quiet inquiry from him, she spoke.

"Path and Intent work, yet, as you have seen, it has a limit. Eventually you can pull out more power, improve your professions perhaps, but ultimately you have to the end of your cultivation journey." That made sense easily as that was the truth for all the Eternal Realms around him.

"Unlike them, we aether children are born to our path. If we can nurture it we do not need intent when we ascend. There are 2 other aether children like us and Path power is all they need. We can still use Intent to hone if we want, but we can ignore it. Still, we are just a dead end too as we can feel it. There is no way forward." Worldblood Child was more serious.

He began to ask questions as he had with the others. The more they talked the more he felt like it was one note off. It was like they had found something else from what he had. It finally led him to ask the question he had asked the Master Tiers long ago.

"How much did you grasp about your harmony?" The 3 women smiled at him as if he was slow yet Thunder Child had a spark in her eyes. Almost literally she seemed to be setting up her sisters for something.

She held out her palm and a bright sparking flame appeared. Raw lightning as a harmony?! He was intrigued but the instant he saw it, he frowned deeply. He understood what Thunder Child had meant.

Now that he had some time, he had recovered and he raised his own palm.

Emerald flames smoothly appeared but he focused on the feeling in his dantian he had before. He separated intent out entirely and ignored what they called Path power. He just wanted the harmony alone.

It was at the heart of everything a 6 elemental was. It was not just the obstacle, it was everything to their advancement. Once the harmony was understood, it improved progress almost explosively.

The trio was right, if he had focused on what he perceived as Path power, he would have been chasing a dead end and the Bastard may have fallen or could be even more horrifying and easily dismiss any attack from him.

From the beginning, his harmony had been anathema to Fiends. Other 6 elementals also were effective but not as much as his. What power had his other selves truly been striving for? Was it as simple as changing the harmony?

No. It had to be more. It had to be grasping the way forward in the Eternal Realm. An equal was needed. A cultivator that stood on a level playing field at last against the Bastard.

To do that needed to avoid the trap of Path and Intent being enough. Pure Path power had likely been grasped yet now he realized his other selves must have known that was close but not quite what he needed.

As the emerald flame began to shine brighter he looked at the dancing lightning once more and he finally saw it.

The issue with Master Tiers gaining harmonies was that they truly could not grasp how they worked. They treated them as a necessary step to advance but nothing more than a new facet to improve their cultivation.

In other words, they would not shift their focus to the harmony as the core of their cultivation but a quirk of the Master Tier. No wonder Eternal Realm cultivators were so rare!

It also answered an ancient question. Why would anyone care about flawed 6 elementals enough to pour their lives into researching it? So many Ruins, Relics, and Inheritances had touched on it in some way.

Why? Master Tiers might have been the answer but as he looked at the 3 aether children, a new answer popped into his head.

"Pure Path power can reach Master Tiers, can't it?" His emerald flames mesmerized them as the other 2 seemed to realize something. Thunder Child nodded at him in excitement.

"It is more like a dream or nudge, but we can briefly touch Divine Realm lands. As I said, you have finally brought the answer we have sought. What is wrong with our Paths?" Lind smiled sadly at her and held up his palm.

The dancing emerald flame felt like coming home. It was powerful and it made everything else look dim or incomplete.

"There is nothing wrong with your Paths or the other Eternal Realm cultivators. I think, perhaps, you could even advance if you could realize one thing." The flames changed and began to incorporate all he had condensed as a Divine Realm.

It changed and became familiar while he held up his other palm and the pure emerald reappeared. Now, with the comparison, the trio became even more excited.

"Harmonies. It has always been about harmonies from the very beginning. You all have it backwards. Intent and Path power are fueled by the origin of it all. Harmonies." His words were quiet yet a distant rumble responded.

It was joy. Heaven and Earth had heard him and rejoiced. All the sacrifices and fallen civilizations had not been in vain! Lind was far more confident about harmonies compared to the imperfect systems of the Eternal Realm cultivators.

His vision then blurred as he passed out. There was still one huge problem. Pure harmonic power drained him even faster than before!

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