Shen Ling, who was to the side, had never seen Yaomu Shou this serious and knew something was terribly wrong. “What is it?”

Yaomu Shou took a while to collect her wits before looking at Long Di. “You’re a criminal.”

****

“Meow! Meow! Meow! Meow! Meow! Meow!”

“Congratulations Young Master Long Tian Yan.”

“Meow! Meow! Meow!”

“Yes, you truly did a good job.”

“Meow! Meow! Meow! Meow!”

“Okay, okay, you can calm down.”

“Meow! Meow! Meow!”

“Alright, just calm down now.”

“Meow! Meow! Meow!”

“Calm do-”

“Meow! Meow!”

“Speak! Talk using words, you uncultured cur!”

“Who are you calling an uncultured cur, you old lizard!? Your mother is a cur, your father is a cur, your whole family is a cur!”

“Oh, yeah!? Well, your mother is a-”

Long Zhe was just about to finish that statement when a feeling of intense danger gripped him. He then stared daggers at the young dragon before him. If looks could kill, Pebbles would have been killed thousands of times over.

This little hellspawn truly wanted to kill him! If Long Tian Yan ever told that mother of his that he called her what he was about to call her, then he could only dread the outcome!

Of course, he could lie and say that it was untrue. However, dragons, being the proud beings they were, disdained to lie. So his fate would be sealed if he made such a low levelled mistake.

Suddenly, a heatwave passed over the arguing duo, shaking them from their celebration turned argument.

When Long Zhe surveyed the terrain, a tinge of pride appeared in his draconic eyes.

“Sigh.”

He let out a breath that was accompanied by a puff of smoke.

A land that was once rocky was replaced by a sea of lava that was slowly running across the surface for miles around. Large boulders had long since melted down to add to the new ‘sea.’

Not even the spot where Long Tian Yan and Long Zhe stood was spared this fate.

The lava had come up to their bellies as it ran lazily wherever it willed.

“Once more,” commanded Long Zhe.

Hearing this, Pebbles the Wondercat narrowed his eyes and steam rose from his body.

Fwap! Fwap!

He spread his massive wings and took to the sky, which kicked up a tumultuous wave of lava. However, this couldn’t move Long Zhe. He only kept his eyes on his young protégé as the latter rose ever higher.

Ktch! Ktch! Ktch!

Long Tian Yan bared his teeth as red sparks of flames flickered all over his body.

“Ignite!”

Whoosh!

His entire body burst into flames! He appeared like a true, flaming dragon.

The form was a perfect copy of his body. Every scale, every fang, and even his unique mannerisms were perfectly reflected in the larger flame form that covered him.

“Infernal Wreathe!” He roared this move’s name and shot towards Long Zhe!

Long Zhe smirked and awaited Long Tian Yan’s attack. As he braced himself, a giant flaming entity crashed into him!

Boom!

A massive explosion that caused tsunamis of lava to run across the land erupted!

In the centre was a dome of fire that swirled in place. As the tsunamis rippled and the dome stagnated, the entire scene was reminiscent of a blossoming flower, appearing very beautiful.

However, this beauty was not without its thorns and it would surely draw blood from those who would carelessly approach it.

Before long, the explosion subsided, and Long Zhe and Long Tian Yan came into view.

Spreading from where they were was fast-moving lava running in a swirling motion. The slow-moving lava eventually encroached on the area they were but not before they took to flight to return from whence they came.

Fwap! Fwap! Fwap!

Their colossal wings flapped until their giant bodies left the ground. A furious wind whipped up that kept the encroaching lava at bay.

They rose higher and higher until they were above the clouds. Long Tian Yan was still excited and remained as such, even when Long Zhe flew right beside him.

“You have truly mastered Infernal Wreathe young master Long Tian Yan. Good job!”

It was obvious by now that Long Zhe and Pebbles had a love-hate relationship where the genre for it had not yet been invented… or ever will. One minute they were getting along well, and then the next it would devolve into the kind of dysfunctional, jacked-up relationship that one could only achieve through drugs, marital abuse and chasing your dreams.

“It’s all thanks to you, Long Zhe. Thank you!” Long Tian Yan had to acknowledge Long Zhe in this as well. The old lizard was an incredible teacher and even though he was racist toward cats, Pebbles was benevolent enough to look past that.

“Your prodigious talents and bloodline contributed hugely to this as well,” Long Zhe said with a smile.

Pebbles’s bloodline was so pure that it went beyond all logic. His father, the Dragon King, believed that Pebbles would be able to achieve atavism. This would then allow Pebbles to successfully assail the Heavens.

The thing is, Pebbles’s feline tendencies were a curse to his family and kin. It was as if he lived to enrage them.

It wasn’t long until they reached the cave where Pebbles lived out his days.

“I must say, though, Young Master, the time of your incredible progress just happened to coincide with the end of your mother’s last visit. I wonder why?” asked Long Zhe with a hint of mischievousness.

“Y-You old lizard leave my mother out of this!” Pebbles was flustered upon hearing this because it was true.

When he heard that his mother loved him, his mood immediately took a turn for the better and allowed him to cultivate and train much more efficiently than before. Of course, he would not admit this, but this shameless old lizard didn’t mind digging at his scab.

Long Zhe’s expression turned dark in an instant. “Don’t think that you can do whatever you want just because you advanced to the Seventh rank! Call me an old lizard once again. See what happens!”

“I’ll do it in another way!” Pebbles challenged him. “How about a decrepit flying bag of iguana skin!?”

“You…!” Long Zhe nearly coughed up a mouthful of blood in anger! Long Tian Yan’s mouth was too venomous!

“That’s it! That is it! That. Is. IT!” Long Zhe was truly angered now and even said the same thing thrice!

His aura quickly spiked as he was raring to unleash an unholy level of ass-whooping upon this young master of his!

Would he pay for this later? Maybe. Did he care now? The hell he did!

He just had to enjoy kicking Pebbles’s draconic ass to the point where it outweighed the hatred he held for whatever punishment that would be meted out, most likely by an enraged mother, later on.

Vrrrm!

However. before he could enact his careless action, a tremor rocked the cave furiously, and the spiritual energy all around began rushing like a flood out of the cave.

“Hm?” Long Zhe immediately noticed the phenomenon and his draconic eyes opened in shock.

“It can’t be…” he made a beeline for the mouth of the cave and looked to a point in the sky far away.

There he could see the spiritual energy from all across the land rushing toward a specific point. At that location, the spiritual energy was twisting and collapsing into each other in an endless loop.

It appeared both profound and chaotic. This caused whatever it was that was taking place within it to remain a mystery.

However, Long Zhe was an immensely powerful dragon! If he wanted to know what was going on inside, then what law dared to stop him!?

“Hmph!”

Long Zhe’s eyes narrowed and his thin pupils constricted even more so. This was the equivalent of a cultivator’s heavenly gaze.

As he did this, he peered through the chaos to see what was causing such a huge disturbance, and it wiped away the doubt in his mind.

It was a large portal, one that was lined with many runes. There were several spots that lacked these runes, but as the spiritual energy churned and exploded within itself, more and more runes were lining the portal.

“The Spiritual Bingqi Realm,” whispered Long Zhe.

“What’s that?” asked Pebbles as he neared the mouth of the cave as well. He couldn’t see the portal that Long Zhe saw, but he could see the surging spiritual energy.

“… Nothing that concerns us Dragons,” he said after a while.

“Can I go?” Pebbles asked all the same.

“Didn’t you hear what I said?” Long Zhe snorted, causing a puff of smoke to escape his nostrils.

Pebbles nodded to indicate he did. “I did, but I have pitifully little experience in the outside world. So going to this, whatever you called it, would be good for me, I think.”

Long Zhe snorted once more. “Forget about it,” he said, shaking his head.

Pebbles was unresigned and immediately asked, “Why?”

Long Zhe withdrew his gaze from the phenomenon and re-entered the depths of the cave with Pebbles at his heel, “The Spiritual Bingqi realm is a realm for the lesser races.”

“Such as?” Pebbles asked.

Long Zhe paused and thought for a second, “Which race isn’t the Dragon race?”

“Every other race,” Pebbles answered immediately.

“Yeah… them,” Long Zhe stated matter-of-factly.

Pebbles paused at this. He had to admit that the Dragons were truly a prideful race. Long Zhe was basically saying that every other race apart from them is a lesser race.

“I don’t care about that,” Pebbles advised.

Long Zhe stopped walking and turned around to look at Pebbles, “You wish to meet that human you mentioned many years ago.”

He wasn’t asking Pebbles; he was telling him what he knew the latter intended.

Pebbles looked away with nary a word, yet this told Long Zhe all he wanted to know.

“Tell you what,” Long Zhe said with a bit of a headache. “I’ll allow it if you can rise to the peak of the seventh rank AND achieve Spiritual Body Attainment.”

“How much time do we have?” Pebbles asked, wanting to take on the challenge.

“Around one month,” Long Zhe raised a claw. “That’s how long it will take for that realm to open.”

“I’ll do it!” Pebbles accepted. “Wait for me Long Di!”