Zao runs out of his room and quickly arrives to his mother’s room. Zao gathers himself and then knocks on the door.

The sound of someone running to the door comes from the otherside and soon, Wei Ning comes bursting out from the other side.

“My little Baby Zao! It’s been soooooo long.” Wei Ning wails as she picks up her son in a hug and holds him close. Zao Ning’s face was blank and then he rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Mother. It has been a week. It’s not like I have to decide to go out on a journey yet. Those ones, I probably won’t come back for years.”

“HUH?! YET! I won’t let you leave for more than a week let alone years! What are you trying to do, kill you mother from worry?!” Wei Ning is heartbroken and already full of worry when thinking of her baby going on a dangerous adventure by himself.

“At some point I will need to go on my own. Don’t worry, I will be extremely strong before I go so you never have to worry mother.” Zao says as he hugs his mother back. Wei sniffles a little and Zao pats his mother’s head.

Wei Ning thinks for a second and then shakes her head back and forth, not being able to accept the loss of her precious Baby Zao.

“We will discuss it later. Let us go eat together for now, I am nearly starving.” Zao says as he chuckles at the end. Wei Ning smiles as she sees her son is trying to get the heavy things off of his mother’s mind.

“Alright, where do you wanna go Baby Zao?”

“Hmmmmm, let us go out for once.”

“With what money?” Wei Ning chuckles as neither of them have went and worked for money since they moved into the Heaven’s Pavilion Sect. Zao winks at his mom as he has a secret stash thanks to his unwilling father.

“Don’t worry, in fact. Let us go to the nicest place we can find!” Zao yells and grabs his mother’s hand, leading her out of the mansion.

“Alright!” Wei Ning says with a cheerful smile on her face.

*In a random section of the town of Xi’an*

I hate to admit it… But I have absolutely no idea where we are at right now.

The reincarnated dragon who ruled several kingdoms throughout the Realms scratches the platinum hair on his head as he has gotten lost.

Wei Ning gawks at her surroundings as the two have stumbled their way into the Noble District. Castles, Manors, massive gardens, a zoo, and much more surround the two but Zao Ning is stumped as it seems they can’t find somewhere to eat. Soon, Zao sees someone wearing a Heaven’s Pavilion robe, who is barely at the 4th Mortal Realm, walking around. Zao Ning’s eyes close in on his prey.

Soon, the disciple of the Heaven’s Pavilion can feel a cold shock go through his spine and the boy begins to sweat.

‘What is this feeling of dread and danger?’ the boy thinks to himself while wiping the sweat off his forehead. Before the boy can even look around him for the cause of this sense of danger, an arm wraps itself around his neck like two friends would when walking together.

“Hello fellow disciple. May I ask for some directions?” Zao Ning says in the friendliest voice he can. It sounds forced and the disciple can feel his whole body screaming to run.

“Uhhhhh.... Zao Ning?!” the disciple screeches when turning around to see the crimson robbed Zao Ning.

Stories have spread like wildfire about the mysterious Zao Ning. Going from being Grand Elder Chi’s first disciple, to insulting an elder, to even his estate exploding. Recently, a small rumor that Zao Ning had went to Elder Mo’s estate and absolutely defeated the Elder in battle, but all of these rumors are called ‘false claims’ by Elder Mo.

Zao doesn’t know this but he can tell that the crimson robe he wears tells people exactly who he is.

“I don’t have much time, so I’ll cut to the chase. Where is the nicest restaurant you can think of in this town.” Zao says with a forced smile. Zao doesn’t care about weaklings and has to force himself to not be cold to this disciple if Zao wishes to eat out with his mother at the nicest place.

“Uhhhhhhh… I think you want to go to-to-to The Crystal Palace! It is a great restaurant!”

…

…

“Ok… Where can I find it?” Zao asks, and it is not even a second before the disciple responds.

“Ah, yes! It is actually really close! Just continue down this street and it is to your right, can’t miss it!”

“Good… See ya around then.” Zao says and lets go of the other disciple. With the disciple being only 13 years old, his heart hadn’t matured and could barely hang on mentally from the pressure Zao exerted.

Zao leaves the boy and heads back towards his mother. Turning around though, Zao can see his mother heading towards the zoo, entranced by the animals there.

“HEY! NO! NOT THAT WAY!” Zao yells as he runs over to his mother. The young disciple watching let out a sigh and finally stopped sweating. Seeing the prodigy boy who is said to have taken down an elder act like this, the disciples start to think.

‘Maybe he is normal, like us…’ The boy thinks to himself, walking towards his original destination.

Little did the boy know, he was talking about a reincarnated dragon with a soul older than the Realm they sit in.

Finally catching up to Wei Ning, Zao grabs his mother’s hand and she seems to snap back to reality.

“Baby Zao, you’re back!” She yells with excitement when looking at her son. Zao raises an eyebrow in suspicion, usually his mother wouldn’t stray off like that.

Maybe she is just stressed out.

“I found the restaurant we are going to. It is close.” Zao says while pulling his mother along. Wei Ning just smiles at the responsibility her son shows and lets herself be pulled by Zao.

Soon, the mother and son duo see a bright crystal palace that seems to be the center of attention.

The mother of the duo’s eyes open wide and turn bright, matching the intensity of the crystal palace. Zao gives the place a satisfied nod and smiles slightly.

Worthy of the woman who birthed such a powerful being as me. Zao thinks to himself haughtily.

At least he has begun to brag about more than himself.

Zao and Wei Ning begin to make their way towards the crystal palace but soon, Zao’s eyebrows knit together.

There was an extremely long line into The Crystal Palace. The line was around 200 people long and by the looks of the people, they had been here for a long time.

Wei Ning doesn’t mind the line though and goes to the back and begins to hum happily. Zao looks disgusted as she does this.

“What are you doing?” Zao asks.

“I am waiting in line silly! Come here before we lose our spot.”

Zao shakes his head back and forth at his mother’s comment. Zao was extremely hungry and a hungry dragon was an angry dragon.

Looking at the line, Zao can see the highest Realm person was at the peak 4th Mortal Realm and Zao knows he could easily kill everyone in this line right.

Unfortunately though, human laws would not allow that. Zao grabs his mother’s hand and decides to see if he can do anything special to be able to skip this line.

Getting to the front, Zao is met with a door keeper that seems to just recently reached the 6th Mortal Realm. Zao scoffs at this and walks up to the door keeper. The door keeper sees this and is a little annoyed at first until he truly inspects Zao Ning.

Feeling like a massive predator is staring at him hungrily, the door keeper becomes uncomfortable and shifts back and forth.

“What do you want?” the door keeper asks while being on guard of the boy.

“I want some of your finest food, is there anyway I can bypass this line?” Zao says. The door keeper is surprised at how sophisticated the boy is and guess that the boy is a noble. The platinum hair also gives it away.

“Sure you can, just show your Crystal Pass and I’ll let you through.” the door keeper says like this is commonly known.

Zao scratches his head as it seems he is in a dilemma. The boy has no idea what this Crystal Pass is or even how to get one, he also doesn’t plan on waiting in line.

Sighing defeatedly, Zao turns around and looks at his mother sadly.

“Well, I guess we have to lea-.”

“ZAO NING, IS THAT YOU?!”

The shrill voice of an annoying and familiar girl hits Zao’s ears. Behind Zao Ning’s mother, Zao can see Yu Yan with a noble looking youth.

Oh no… Fuck me.