Eternal Emerald Dragon

Lind slowly grasped the truth about the Eternal Realm. The basics were essentially correct.

A Divine Realm Master Tier essentially had to take in a massive amount of energy and sever all connection to his Divine World. Only by taking that step could the transformation begin.

The massive energy, with nowhere to go any longer, would fuse the 9 Mysteries via the harmony into a new Path Power. It would literally become the quality of power defined by the fusion of harmony and Mystery.

However, the mind was part of the harmony. The Intent was essential to all cultivation skills or Arts. The Intent, however, had to come from the source alone. The Eternal Realm was no longer able to simply accept the biological limits of the brain.

The flesh was transformed by the energy and the essential pieces that make the cultivator who they are are distilled by the harmonic Qi as it is pulled into the dantian.

That became the first sticking point he had resolved on his own. The Eternal Realm cultivator had to free his Harmonic Core from the Path Power in his dantian. The tricky problem was due to the similar feeling.

How could someone find themselves? It took a great deal of introspection and understanding how harmonies worked. The former was a matter of personal growth and how they had risen as a cultivator while the latter was his specialty.

Once the Harmonic Core was restored to the mind, the real work of the Demi Tier could begin. Consolidating the core knowledge and wisdom at the level of the Eternal Realm was how one improved their foundation.

Once that was completed was where Lind got stuck until recently. Essence was generated by the settled mind as the Harmonic Core settled in the center. It was very different from what he extracted from resources.

In that instance, he was drawing out a specific purity from herbs, beast cores, etc. What he was creating via his mind was the distillation of his grasp of each mental construct. His elixir mastery was now easily accomplished but had nothing to do with the resources until he acted.

His Arts were also becoming far more diversified compared to the previous difficulty to make them for a 6 Elemental.

Path, Intent, and Essence were far easier to create such variety but it came with a catch.

His Harmonic Core drained him far faster than any single energy alone. Path and Intent could be forced as most had done and with the Harmonic Core in the mind, they would be easier. The pair of energies would go for far longer but their potency would pale in comparison to using the core.

Lind then learned that the mind had to be developed even further to facilitate the final step. The Harmonic Core took on the color of his harmony but it was not the same thing. It was more than Defiance, it was him perfectly distilled.

He had to circulate all 3 energies through the Harmonic Core to cleanse the overwhelming harmonic Qi. It allowed him to access powerful mental abilities unlike anything before and to perceive the truth of the Eternal Realm.

It was also mind numbingly slow. While his original enlightenment led to some progress, everything afterward felt like he barely did anything. Also, each cleansing brought a new storm of assault on his mind.

The harmonic Qi acted like a muzzle on the energies around him. It slowed his progress but it protected him. As he cleansed it, that protection thinned and he had to tack up the slack. In other words, he could not just be passive any longer about his existence.

It also strengthened his mental defenses in other regards. The very weakness he knew existed in other Eternal Realm cultivators was slowly being fixed in him. He realized the final step must be tied to the mental component of his current existence.

He imagined that without cleansing the Qi and mastering the new mental powers on top of everything else, he would simply be killed outright.

If he tried to ascend with just his Harmonic Core in place, he would be destroyed by the process itself even if he knew how.

The spirits were relatively quiet but he noticed some things that told him they were injured. It seemed the Bastard's ascension and/or rebirth affected them too. The interior of the beast was once lush with life.

Their intense distrust of outsiders also spoke to being burned in the past. He had no way to overcome that aside from his actions.

He could not even come close to repairing or healing whatever was wrong, yet it seemed the beast itself was able to do so. Once, they showed him how it looked currently and he saw a massive creature with fins that flapped on either side.

One side was heavily scarred which proved it had been injured.

Aside from cultivating, he studied. They had an archive of all the ancient knowledge plus the Eternal Realm cultivators that came after. He was fascinated by much of it.

The original world was truly gone. As part of the price of breaking the hopeless loss of space and rising population, it had collapsed in on itself. The vast majority of the Eternal Realm energies were then channeled into the beast as planned.

The Qi left over to balance the scales was then consumed into matter and the universe Lind had originally lived in. They were intrinsically connected to the Sea of Realms.

The Harvest, as he called it, was triggered when the population of Eternal Realm cultivators reached the level of the original world's threshold built into the beast he was now inside.

Essentially, Demi Tier Eternal Realm cultivators cannot live forever in balance. Eventually, they will cause a cascade of uncontrollable forces that will rend the Sea of Realms apart and kill everything everywhere.

The first few cycles had been very hazardous because many souls were reborn intact and thus were geniuses of unmatched potential. No one, not even the legendary figures still in race memories across the beast races, could match up to them.

As the cycles began to stabilize, the barren universe was able to acquire more of its original potential as well. The balance was going well but he was forbidden from knowing what happened to Full Tier Eternal Realm cultivators.

The one fact they affirmed was they could choose to live or die. Total freedom included that option.

Lind had nodded at that obvious inclusion.

Living forever sounds nice but even after a few million years, he was very tired. True, he had been in a mostly constant state of living on a knife edge so maybe his mindset would change later.

The other knowledge was more practical, like how he was far from the first 6 elemental to reach the Eternal Realm. They were, however, damned rare. In the many cycles recorded in the spirits' archive, he could count on both hands how many had made it.

He did set a new record, himself. First, Karu's use of her Talent meant he had lived technically far longer than most cultivators of any realm. The reset included his future alternatives feeding into the past so they were all considered the same being.

His soul, while no longer bound by that past, was still originally from there. He learned a LOT more about those alternates and saw they lived very short and brutal lives as Eternal Realm cultivators.

He had already outlived even the strongest versions!

The main difference was he was not on the same Path any longer. He was blazing a new train and one that split the spirits in the Heaven and Earth.

Defiance was a very dangerous Path. It would not bow to any power or system. The reason he could not be punished was 2 fold. First, he had actually repaired the damage made by the Bastard.

It was a living example of how power was used. The Bastard selfishly broke everything and killed anyone for the sake of his unending life. Lind broke everything to save it.

The other part was his Path. It would no longer be subject to external judgement. He was outside of Heaven and Earth entirely! He knew he had broken free but the extent was terrifyingly heavy.

Lind focused on his Harmonic Core and after another 5 million years a shockwave shot outward from him. His hair floated up in the wind generated from his body and his human body began to expand.

Scales swiftly appeared as his massive sinuous dragon body replaced his human form. He roared and words he had been forced to keep inside for so long finally left him.

[I AM THE ETERNAL EMERALD DRAGON!] A final restriction had been shattered. That title belonged to his old selves. It had a certain connection and karma attached to it. As he broke from the Fusion Path, he could only think about it.

Now, he was complete. The title shook the entire beast and then spread outward. Many holds and traveling Eternal Realm cultivators felt it, yet the hold with an ascension pool was the greatest change.

Every single cultivator from the Divine Lands felt energy flow into them! Chains or bottlenecks fell away and they suddenly leap frogged realms like it was as easy as breathing!

Lind could see it and his maw pulled back to reveal his razor sharp teeth.

[I defy. I defy the shadow over us all and I defy the End. People are not things.] He was now looking directly at the small female spirit before him. She looked up at him and a sad smile spread across her face.

{None have found a better solution. One day, many cycles from now, there may be a chance but not now.} He lowered his giant emerald eye to look at her and his aura flared.

[With respect, I have heard those words before.] It was a simple sentence but she shivered in front of him. It was true. Lind Frey had been told over and over at so many stages of his life there were no better solutions and now an incarnation that broke all the rules stood before her.

Something shifted inside her. The golden dragon on the council back then had held a hope even as she died. A hope that someone would come that would find a better way. As she looked up at the massive emerald dragon towering over her, a very faint winged golden dragon seemed to spark above him.

Tears formed in her eyes but she quickly suppressed them. The violation had to die first. All else would be for naught without that!

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