“Around one month,” Long Zhe raised a claw.

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

****

Nearly one month later…

“Once more,” Long Zhe’s strict voice could be heard from within the cave.

“Can I get another demonstration?” Pebbles asked.

“Tch! Fine, observe it carefully this time around,” Long Zhe wasn’t in a good mood since he placed greater importance on the techniques from the Divine Dragon’s Divine Tablet.

However, Spiritual Body Attainment wasn’t something that could be ignored, either.

Whoosh!

Long Zhe’s body gradually turned illusory. At the same time, the silhouette of a humanoid could be seen at the base of his huge dragon.

As Long Zhe’s body became more and more illusory, the silhouette at the base gained more detail.

Before long, the dragon was gone and replacing it was a middle-aged man. His eyes striking and his bearing severe.

His hair was fire red, and two horns peeked out from them before curving back. They exuded a deadly glint that instilled fear in any opponent. In addition, powerful muscles decked his body, countless veins slithered across them like restless dragons.

There was no doubt that a world-shattering destructive strength lay hidden within them. His torso was bare whilst a loincloth of flames served as his only covering.

The void shuddered under his pressure, and Pebbles found it hard to bear, taking a step back to steady himself.

“It’s been a while since I’ve done this, so my strength gets away from me at times,” Long Zhe said, sounding a bit funny. Obviously, speaking the continent’s language in his current body required a bit of practice on his part.

“Why does it look like humans so much?” Pebbles asked, a bit confused. He knew that Dragons were a proud race and there was no way that they were followers of any kind.

“Do you know of the Sacred Celestics race?” Long Zhe chose to answer a question by asking one of his own.

Pebbles reeled through his newly learnt knowledge but came up short. “No, none of you deigned another race worthy of me to know about… well, except for the chickens.”

Long Zhe’s expression darkened upon hearing about Pebbles’s last words. “Those damned chickens!”

It took a while for him to calm down, but once he did, he brought the conversation back to the main topic.

“The Sacred Celestics are a race that is favoured by the Heavens and are gifted in the art of cultivation-”

“They sound pretty awesome,” commented Pebbles.

Long Zhe scoffed at this, “A bunch of pansies who pander to the Heavens and live under its rule! We seek to turn the Heavens on its head!”

Dum!

A powerful aura escaped from him that nearly blew Pebbles away! Cracks appeared on the walls of the cave and spread out from the point of impact. Powerful tremors shook the mountain the cave stood atop and it was only after Long Zhe saw the scope of the damage he caused that he quickly reigned in his power.

Seeing that his power was too hard to control in this form, he assumed his true dragon form.

Whoosh!

An even more powerful destructive aura swept out en route to destroy the entire mountain the cave was on before it was skilfully restrained.

Pebbles then saw Long Zhe as he had always known him. He stared at Pebbles the same way he always did, with irritation, arrogance, pride (in Pebbles), and an urge to kick his ass. You’d never think that someone could look at another person like this, but Long Zhe pulled it off perfectly.

“Now where was I?” he asked.

“A bunch of pansies,” reminded Pebbles.

“Right,” Long Zhe remembered. “A bunch of pansies is all they are! They get a few benefits from the Heavens and they choose to bend over and-”

“Can we get to the important part, please?” Pebbles asked, not liking where Long Zhe’s rant was going.

“Oh, ah right,” even Long Zhe had to realise that he was going way off track there. “Well, they’re the Heaven’s favoured and as such are the most spiritual beings out of the known races. They are the most in line with the heavenly daos. Barring the five main races and another few, many creatures in the past have met upon a dead-end regarding how far their natural form has been able to bring them on the path of cultivation. To overcome this natural limitation, they discovered that they could go further on this path by aligning themselves closer to the heavenly daos. So-”

“So to do that,” Pebbled interjected after gaining a bit more understanding. “They chose to undergo a spiritual transformation that affected both body and spirit. Using the Sacred Celestics as a base since they were practically treating the Heavens as their sugar daddy, they achieved a form that allowed them to continue cultivating Spiritual Body Attainment.”

Long Zhe nodded, pleased with his protégé’s knowledge.

Pebbles might have been your run-of-the-mill, Juvie-escaping, street smart, hustler/conman, alleycat, but his time with Long Di in the Anima Palace and his years as a dragon granted him knowledge that was both practical and theoretical that could be put to use.

“I have to admit,” Long Zhe commented. “The form does allow for easier cultivation on the spiritual spectrum and can allow us unique use of our divine abilities, but we Dragons do not need it since our original forms can bring us to the peak without question!”

Pebbles couldn’t help but sigh upon hearing this. Even now, Long Zhe had to toot the horns of the Dragons every moment he could.

“But then why do I or rather we, need to learn it?” Pebbles finally asked. He couldn’t see any advantage for the Dragons to learn it since they weren’t restricted by natural limitation.

“There are a few uses,” Long Zhe confessed. “The Dragon King himself assumed such a form to achieve spiritual enlightenment and inspiration when he created the techniques of the Dragon Tablet.”

“M-My father!?” Pebbles was shocked to find that the most powerful and prideful of the dragons would assume this form that they seemed to look down upon.

“Make no mistake,” Long Zhe went on. “While we look down on all other races, including the Sacred Celestics, we Do admit that they get nearly unlimited benefits from the Heavens. However, Spiritual Body Attainment doesn’t originate from them, it simply allows other beings to reap some of those same benefits. Spirituality is what the Sacred Celestics just HAPPENS to be. Humans are close to the Sacred Celestics in appearance, which is why they share some of those benefits as well. The form I took is close to a human for THAT reason alone and no other. We are not following humans, we simply moved towards spirituality. Even your father took on such a form to steal some of those benefits for himself to create the Divine Dragon Tablet!”

Pebbles knew they didn’t want to admit that the Spiritual Body Attainment was a good thing for them. Still, he wouldn’t be the one to tell them this, “Okay then, so what are the others uses?”

“Doors,” Long Zhe said seriously.

“Doors?” repeated Pebbles, just to make sure he heard right.

“Doors,” confirmed Long Zhe.

‘…’ Three dots appeared in Pebbles’s head and it was then that he realised that his brain broke down. Not wanting to suffer any further loss in brain cells, he asked, “Any other uses?”

“It can allow for the reduction in our aura way beyond the point our draconic body would allow. That’s the use you’d need it for,” Long Zhe calmly explained.

“THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU START WITH THAT!? THE HELL DID DOORS COME FROM!?”

“Potato Potawto.”

“That doesn’t apply here!”

“Tomato Tomawto?”

“That’s even worse somehow!”

“As I was saying-”

“Stop ignoring me!”

“Many realms have a cultivation limit and this one is no different,” Long Zhe ignored Pebbles and had an honest to goodness smile on his face the whole time he did it.

He went on, “Dragons are born at rank 6 and your kind and my kind specifically are born at the peak of the 6th rank. However, our pride is both mental and physical. Our bodies see no reason to be less than what it is and as such, we are unable to suppress our aura below the 6th rank. Spiritual Body Attainment allows us to circumvent this trait. You’ll need to learn this if you want to even enter that Realm.”

Pebbles fully understood why this was necessary and readied himself for another try. He had been at this for a month now and since he got a full breakdown of its origin; he felt he could do what needs to be done.

Pebbles assumed a stance that he found comfortable before he commenced the technique.

Whoosh!

His large body grew illusory and a small silhouette appeared at the base.

Long Zhe’s eyes widened while a smile appeared on his face. “Yeees.”

Fwhish!

The winds kicked up and Pebbles’s body grew more ethereal while the silhouette grew more and more concrete.

“Yes.” Long Zhe grew more ecstatic.

Whoosh!

“Yees!”

Vwhoosh!

“Yeees!”

Whish!

The form at the base fully materialised and when Long Zhe saw it, his eyes widened even more so, but in shock.

“W-What… did you d-”

“Meow.”

“Long Tian Yaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!!!”