Lind felt better than he had ever felt in his life. The weakness, the exhaustion, his dark thoughts even seemed completely dispersed, but his body was also no longer rail thin. Muscle and flesh had returned and his elements were flowing better than they ever had.
His emerald harmony seemed to be dancing as Lind took in his surroundings and noticed he was in some kind of study. There were dark wooden shelves holding scrolls, books, and jade slips but the profound feeling warned him not to use his talents. A happily burning hearth held warmth and seemed to make him feel quite well.
There were brown leather chairs around a small table near the fire as a clock ticked on the mantle. The face of the clock was pure gibberish to Lind, but it was not because it was blurred, but because the symbols were nothing he understood. There seemed to be 13 symbols at least, but he was not sure as the arms were ethereal Qi.
The desk on the other side of the room looked out a window but the window was covered in thick Qi to block the view. Lind could physically see it so he knew it was very thick. It seemed like it was composed mostly of darkness but he dared not look at it with his Eyes.
Where was he?
"Ah, good, you are awake." A very familiar voice spoke, but Lind did not see anyone in the room. He looked around and wanted to know what was going on. He had 3 heart demons, 1 had been carefully dealt with over months by Qing and him at the Academy, but the last 2 were faced in the Mirror of Will. Was there a fourth?
"You won't be seeing me today. I am not a heart demon, the Mirror of Will has a little trick built into it. If a cultivator is possessed at the Soul Realm, it indicates a very high potential. The Mirror of Will was created to truly disperse those heart demons and glimpse the future." Lind was shocked. What about the price paid by Qing and Shoti? Lind moved to a chair and sat down to put his head in his hands.
"What is going on?" He just wanted things to be over but it just kept coming back to people trying to use him.
"Don't jump to conclusions. The founder of the Heavenly Maiden Sect did not leave clear knowledge on how the mirror worked, only an Edict of Heaven, Edict of Immortals, and an Edict of Divine on how the mirror was to be used." Lind did not recognize the terms but as he knew there was a Heaven and Immortal Realm he could guess. So beyond the Immortal Realm was the Divine Realm? Cultivators became gods?
Laughter filled the air and seemed to make the Qi vibrate. The feeling of that aura flickered for a moment but then it all settled down.
"Oh I forgot how little we knew. There is no issue telling you that yes there is the Divine Realm beyond the Immortal Realm. Gods though, not at all. We are as fallible as ever." Lind actually felt comforted by that but then he wondered how this trial was to end. Lind wanted to go back.
"How long will this go on?" Lind saw a flash of light before a jade slip appeared.
"Not long, but it will not end safely without that. I can't tell you how to cultivate or anything that could threaten our lives, but I can tell you to keep fighting. That slip has something you do need to think on though." Lind carefully sunk his senses into the slip and felt a profound amount of knowledge rush into his mind.
Lind observed the information and found it interesting that it was something he had never considered. He looked over his dantian and frowned. The information in the slip told him the balance of his elements was important but the foundation was tied to his emerald flame more than he realized.
The small spiritual version of him had fused with the flame, but Lind realized it was not complete. He had to push his Eyes to their limit to see the process was still in progress as the slip told him. It was the easiest thing to complete it and Lind finally felt complete.
He had struggled to keep his tempering and foundation apart because it was so difficult to temper all 6 elements, but now he felt whole. He felt free. He still had a rough road of tempering ahead, but it was like a bottleneck had been removed from that as well.
"You will figure it out later, but as this little glimpse would be seen on your exit from the mirror, there was no issue showing you now." Lind understood that the Mirror of Will would examine him in detail and his Eyes and Touch would follow such a deep scan.
Lind felt light now and the den was fading away.
"Is there nothing you can tell me at all?" Lind truly wished to know if this was a true future or only a vision of what could be. How could a Heaven Realm artifact in some version of grade 5 be so powerful? Laughter once more filled the room.
"Yes, I can. The Mirror of Will is not a grade 5 artifact, it is peak grade 7. It is a lower end Immortal Realm artifact." Shock flooded Lind as the den faded entirely and he heard no more of what he presumed was his future self!
****
The thick Qi covering the window faded as a wondrous view was revealed. Floating buildings lit up the city beneath as verdant fields glowed with life beyond the walls of the city. A cloaked man seemed to coalesce out of the very air next to the fire.
He stared at the chair where his old self had sat not a few moments ago and wondered at this risky moment.
"There is so much I want to warn you about, Lind Frey. So much pain and suffering, so much war to come. If I did that, though, I know you would break and run. I know you would be reckless since you met me. There is only the path we have walked that can lead to salvation. I pray to the little spirits to watch over you and that the future you came to comes to pass." A much older Lind looked out over his city and seemed to frown looking into the distance.
"Time to finish this war, you old monster. No more." The cloaked figure vanished as many massive ships came to life all over the city. The glow of Qi would have blinded younger Lind and the view of the flying vessels would have left him in awe.
The older Lind Frey went off to face an enemy as the younger returned to the past.
****
Lind was falling, yet he felt no fear. The Qi around him was exquisitely controlled to guide him back to the surface as he had somehow found himself far into the sky. The column of emerald light blazed as he saw the 3 continents laid out barely within his sight.
He could see the far edges of the oceans around them were storms that sent chills up his spine just to look at. It was the void. He really could see the void as he plummeted safely down. If not for the feeling of safety, he would miss all of it, but he took it all in.
The Demon's Teeth stood out in Rith as like a giant set of fingers or swords cutting off the Demon Empire from the world. The vast Dread Desert was easy to see as well with several areas marked by cities or sects. Sarth was the most familiar with the neat and orderly Heavenly Maiden Sect lands compared to the open wilds of the Darkmoor Kingdom to the south and west.
Lind got his first look of the Saint Kingdom directly south of the sect. It looked more settled compared to the Darkmoor Kingdom, but Lind felt like there was a coldness to it just looking it over. The Divine Sword Sect was actually designed like a sword with the Sect as the meeting between blade and hilt.
The massive main road had branches off of it, but the design from north to south made a sword so clearly he could only grin at it. Solon was strange but it was clearly not his fault alone. Lind felt it would be interesting to visit that land someday.
Flashes of colored lightning drew his eye and Lind knew that marked the Rakathi Wastes to the far east. The entire continent of Indelia seemed like it was a hodgepodge of civilization and open wilds interspersed. Lind did see the floating masses moving slowly across it and wanted badly to see them but he would do it later.
He was finally closing in and could make out individual buildings once more as the isolation room got closer and Lind slowly floated down. Lind saw all the Maidens were on the ground and wondered why, but a glance at the formations answered his question.
Every line of the arrays were fried. They had been overloaded beyond any capacity they could hold. He winced as it was likely his fault, sort of. Lind knew his future self was powerful, beyond Immortal Realm if he was told the truth, so Sky Realm formations stood no chance against even an instant of that power.
Lind saw Qing and Shoti collapsed but unharmed next to where the Mirror of Will was glowing. He finally felt what was coming. A deep feeling rushed into him and Lind followed it. He saw his dantain, meridians, and all of him put under a microscope if he was to describe the feeling.
Whatever the mirror saw, it was satisfied as Lind finally appeared and the rusted metal framed mirror reappeared in his hands. He nearly collapsed as he felt exhausted but he realized his elements were at mid-tier 8 and his foundation was at peak tier 7! He had broken through that much!
Lind carefully leaned over the sleeping women and suddenly felt a strong impulse to hold them close. He knew where it came from and glanced at the sky.
"I get it, I will stop being dense." A soft rumble was his only answer but the impulse left him. Lind did not know what to do, though. He was basically scum. How could he tell 2 women that he wanted them in his life? "First, let's get them all up again."
Lind slowly walked to the door and saw senior Tyr and the rest were ok. He arched his eyebrow at this as there was no way they would all be ok unless his future self protected them. That reality, if nothing else, settled the final worry about what he had seen.
"Seniors! We need healers and help!" Lind forced the door open and found the nearest World Realm guards to get the gears moving. He saw them scramble to get bodies moved to more comfortable places as he followed Qing and Shoti.
He had a lot to digest and he wanted to settle his dantian as well. He had been through the wringer but then he froze. His body was really healed! His flesh was healthy and filled out once more! It had not been a vision alone of the future, he had really been restored!
Lind was giddy as he followed the 2 women closest to him in this world and wondered how things would unfold going forward.