Eternal Emerald Dragon

Lind spent some time with his family both to reconnect and to discuss what he had learned. He had to be careful as he did not want to damage them with secrets above their realm, yet he wanted to outline the truth as best he could.

Oddly, any discussion about his cultivation seemed perfectly fine. It was only in regards to the Harvest and general Eternal Realm cultivation that he felt some kind of danger when he got near it.

Why was his personal setup safe but not the more generic terms? It mystified him.

Regardless, names were just labels at the end of the day, what he had to do did not change. He had to master it and truly find the path forward to more power. It was good to confirm that the Bastard was stuck in the Demi Tier and to advance was complete annihilation of all other life.

So long as others lived, he was trapped.

It was better than a time crunch but it also meant the Bastard could plot to strike at any time to distract him. The better the chance to cripple Lind, the better.

Now that he had met more Eternal Realm cultivators, he understood the Fiend had grasped what the collective group had not. He had known there was one more step and how to reach it.

Brute force as always. It was about making the system work for his needs alone and discarding anything that got in his way. Lind had no doubt the Bastard wanted to ascend but to overcome the constraints, he had to violate all of existence to do it.

No existence, no constraints. It was as simple as that in Lind's estimate.

He had a very different problem. He might have a clue to the right path but that was it. A clue and no other context than the figure now floating in the storm of his mind. He had been wrong about why his brain became pure energy and the source of Intent.

It was missing a key component in his harmony. What had once been solely the source in his dantian had now moved into the mind.

Despite several tests, it just floated there. He had to focus on it to feel like it was responding. It was very different from his dantian in sensation.

He also felt like it was too damned slow to respond. Why did it look human? His soul was fused to his harmony long ago so why had it reverted?

He had distinctly seen it mirror his current state long ago. So what changed?

"She called it the Harmonic Core but it is just my old self now floating in a calmer storm, what do I do with it?" He stopped trying to use it and just studied how it interacted.

It was damned odd to be examining something floating inside his skull. It also did not supply any answers.

No matter how Lind interacted with it further, he only confirmed that it was pure harmonic power. It was not Qi, exactly, but it was like a piece of him still not included with the rest of his Eternal Realm foundation.

It made no sense!

The frustration made him pull back and relax. Over fixating on it was not going to help him. As he relaxed, he pondered the changes in his body once more.

The fusion of the Mysteries into his dantian's current state made sense. The Mystery energy had been converted into the foundation of his Eternal Realm Path. The Defiance Path was complex and still only grasped at the surface level.

Yet, that surface level matched everyone else. Even the knowledge in his head and from the others matched Intent and Path power coming together. So why was their power so shallow after untold trillions of years?

The oldest known Eternal Realm was Violet Cloud. The fact she had nurtured her daughter well enough to ascend after her spoke to the passage of time. Goldthorn was not even close to her age as he was quick to point out.

There could be older ones that died fighting the Bastard or still hid away in their holds, but of the ones available to him, they had vast experience. Violet Cloud especially was a treasure trove of knowledge, yet it did not deepen his reach into his own dantian.

That told him several things. The Harmonic Core was more than just a center of power, it was the key to the lock holding back the rest of his power. Its potency as just a flame puts Path powered flame to shame.

Still, his professions somehow bypassed the restriction by a large fraction. Especially his weaving. When he engraved sigils, he could feel his newly revealed Harmonic Core practically dance to give the process power.

Yet, he could not push it past grade 9. Powerful, yet only matching the current limit of everyone around him. His combination and ability to easily help others was only possible because of the pure harmonic power.

It told him others could at least do what he did if they stopped filtering it with their Path power but unlike him there were zero 6 elemental cultivators among them. Even Elementals did not understand harmonic Qi.

Lind realized he had to pull more on his own experience and combine it with what worked to his new arrangement. It was similar to when he was refining his elemental theory. The assumptions of the cultivation world had been wrong but not completely useless.

Too much stress on gears in a car would ruin it but switching to a different size gear resolves the stress and gives more power to go faster. Both get the car to move but one wrecks the engine while the other keeps it working for much longer and only worry about wear and tear.

It was now the same problem. Path and Intent came naturally to almost everyone because of how they lived. They had made the flawed assumption that was the way to continue without questioning if there were other ways.

Even the aether children simply felt they were lacking the final step to truly master their Path and ascend. All of them were wrong.

Path and Intent were forced to work but could not dive into the depths of their power. It would hit a limit and that was as far as they could go forever.

Something else had to unlock that next step and he had found it but could not fathom how to turn the key yet.

He circled back to the rest of his body. His meridians and organs were transformed but still flesh and blood. The meridians could withstand far more power than he could currently extract. Even when he was crafting, they were hardly stressed at all.

That proved he was right about what kind of power was at his disposal. The only time he stressed them was when he was engaged in combat with the Bastard. They called it his Primal Path but that name was made by them. What if it was forcibly extracting pure Harmonic Core power?

Lind suddenly recalled what the figure had said before moving to his skull.

{I defy.}

Excitement was quickly snuffed out as that only proved there was more power and as he mastered his Path and Intent use, it would buffer the damage he would take forcing it to work. So what would happen if he used it now?

He assumed a lotus position and closed his eyes. He tried to recall the feeling of seeing the holds being cracked open and the Fiend absorbing their lives. The rage rose but that was not what he was after.

He refused to let it happen. He refused to just accept the inevitable.

The figure in his skull suddenly opened its eyes and emerald light flared in his skull. Pain spiked instantly and he was forced to stop. Blood was flowing freely from his orifices but he quickly healed compared to before.

It worked! He got a reaction!

Still, the danger was far greater! He had not felt pain like that before. Moving the Harmonic Core had made it far more dangerous!

"So how do I make it work without hurting me?" He would prefer not to die killing the Bastard. Mostly because he wanted to ensure the Bastard was actually dead. It was not impossible he would set up contingencies somehow.

It was better to assume your enemy was prepared for defeat than to go in thinking only 1 fight would settle it all. If he had never learned of the original Bastard, he may have given up and lived out his days blissfully as a Master Tier.

While it was clear a higher realm did not exist, if he could make a lower realm incarnation once more, he could return. Lind was not taking that chance.

Lind stepped back as he let his body recover. Forcing it was possible but not a good idea. His dantian was like raw power waiting to be tapped into. Intent gave it shape and guided it or called on the parts needed.

So if that was how it was, what purpose would the Harmonic Core play? It clearly did not need either or rather it may have pulled on a level he could not yet reach actively.

He reviewed all aspects but only one stood out. His brain was gone. It was remade into a storm and his Harmonic Core had moved there when he finally found it.

Why? Why did it move there? He had not made it move, it had done it as if that was its natural place. Yet, it did not seem to interact with the storm beyond calming it a bit.

Lind pondered that and he wondered if that was simpler than he thought. Rather than focusing on the figure and his dantian, he focused on the storm. He saw it as random or maybe his thoughts racing yet as he watched, he had a crazy thought cross it.

Was his Harmonic Core his actual mind?

He then thought about what would be left behind. Intent came from that storm but that could not be all. Why would his mind be moved or altered at all? What could have–?!

Lind froze. He had reviewed it already. He had fused his soul to his harmony long ago! It had then looked like a dragon when he was reborn with a dragon soul. Yet, had he ever stopped thinking of himself as anyone else? He had forced his draconic instincts to be under his control, not fully give in and release his humanity.

It was not different because of his ascension, it was different because it was how he saw himself even after millions of years!

"I separated them. Everyone thinks of certain things as part of themselves as their identity and the rest as tools or aspects they use occasionally." Lind felt enlightened and the figure opened its eyes.

It then moved and the storm began to change. It took on shapes and aspects he recognized! A cauldron, furnace, and even sigils floated firmly but the rest was foggy! He got it!

The Harmonic Core was him but only his identity, it was what made him Lind Frey alone! He had to incorporate the rest of his mind back under him at his new level!

A smile crossed the figure's face and then his perspective shifted. He was in the storm!

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