Now that all the necessary materials had been prepared, all that remained was for Zilan himself to get ready.

He sat cross-legged on the floor, eyes shut as he focused on the energy inside him.

All these years since he had become a cripple, not a single day had passed that Zilan did not try and expel the spiritual power that had gathered around him.

All humans regardless of whether they were cultivators or not would draw in spiritual power, when they breathe in, when they eat and even when they sleep. Spiritual power is everywhere, the only difference between normal humans and cultivators was that they could not only draw it in but also absorb it in extreme amounts.

As for the normal people, the spiritual power would just stay around them like sunlight or gentle breeze and if they’re extremely lucky by the time they’ve reached their ending years they would have managed to absorb a miniscule amount of it, giving them a clearer mind along with an air of wisdom.

In Zilan’s case this spiritual power that he unintentionally drew in was nothing but a hindrance for his plans. That’s why since long ago, he had been using methods written in the Book of Path to divert the accumulated spiritual power towards his hair. That way when the time came, he would just cut it all off and be done with the spiritual power.

When he was able to cultivate again, he could then concoct a potion to grow it back again or he could save himself the time and just head to the auction house or the Merchants Egg and easily purchase one.

If Zilan didn’t get rid of the spiritual power inside and around him, then he would be only asking for death if he continued with his plans to use the Flow python’s core and its ancestors blood.

The Immortals in the Heaven’s would probably become alerted to his actions and horrible Divine Punishment would soon follow. Needless to say, Zilan did not want to be the fool who flashed a light in the dark letting all his enemies know where he was especially, when he was nothing but an ant before them. Besides his cultivation method did not rely on spiritual power, using it would only bring him problems.

................

An entire day quickly passed and Zilan still did not move.

Two days went by and no signs of awakening could be seen from him.

Only on the third day did Zilan open his eyes and stand up. His long, mesmerising jet black hair had not only grown longer but even more lush.

”It’s finally time to be rid of you!”

He slowly walked towards his void sack and pulled out a pair of scissors. With no hesitation Zilan began to cut off his hair, crisp “snip,snip” noises could be heard as large clumps of hair fell to the floor.

A few minutes later and most of his hair had been removed. He quickly pulled out some unknown powder and then thoroughly rubbed it on his head. Moments later, and all that remained on his scalp was skin.

Zilan then hastily grabbed the container filled with the remainder of the Spring Dragon’s life blood and chugged it all down, in one go.

*Ting*

The container slipped through Zilan’s fingers and dropped to the floor.

He could feel a heat unlike anything he had ever felt before rise up from his stomach. The hot burning sensation like an enraged dragon madly charged towards Zilan’s broken meridians and cracked core.

Pretty soon, his skin started to turn red and a faint mist could be seen gathering around him. Zilan suddenly dropped to the floor and rolled himself up like a frightened millipede.

He tightened his fists so hard that his nails dug into his skin causing blood to trickle down from his palm. He gritted his teeth while banging his head on the floor repeatedly.

“What the fuck is this PAIN!? I knew it but......”

Zilan’s thoughts began to grow cloudy and even remaining conscious proved to be a challenge when suddenly a mixture of black liquid and blood burst out of his mouth with so much intense pressure that the liquid splattered onto every part of the room.

Zilan coughed unceasingly as he struggled to breathe, he desperately grabbed his throat and wheezed, even standing up only to topple to the floor again.

This situation lasted for an hour until a series of bone chilling cracking noises sounded out. Zilan finally couldn’t take it anymore, his eyes then rolled to the back of his head and he fainted.

.............

Zilan’s eyes abruptly opened. He hurriedly jumped up and searched his body only to be shocked by the fact that he was stark naked.

He slowly raised his head and looked around only to see that he was floating above the ocean. The sight was beautiful and heart cleansing, the salty smell invaded his nostrils forcing him to feel alive.

A large smile bloomed on his face as he closed his eyes to listen to the sounds of....

He quickly opened his eyes and looked around again,

“Why can’t I hear anything? The waves are silent, the birds are flying away as if they’re terrified. Why?”

Zilan couldn’t figure it out, where was he and why couldn’t he hear anything? One minute he was in Morning Dew City and the next he was here.

”Eh?”

His feet shook and so did the rest of the earth. He turned his eyes to the ocean beneath but nothing but calm waters greeted him.

He then looked up at the sky and what he saw sent chills down his spine.

Above him were two large Dragons that completely blotted out the sun, the bigger of the two at about the size of the entire Morning Dew City was covered in dark red and gold scales, giving of a dominating aura. The significantly smaller one was covered with light blue scales but had a peculiar cloud pattern at the top of its head.

When Zilan’s eyes landed on the blue Dragon, he felt his heart jump and a longing like that which a child would have for its mother enveloped him.

“S..e.r..a...”

His lips unknowingly moved, speaking the name of the blue Dragon.

“That’s the Spring Dragon, it has to be!”

Zilan didn’t know how he was getting this knowledge, only that it felt unusually natural.

A thought suddenly sprung into his mind.

“Could this be Inheritance!? But how?”

He had once read about how powerful Ancient Beasts in the past would often get knowledge on how to use their abilities and what they were before their birth.

Zaum went into special detail when it came to the birth of the Phoenix. Its parent would have to die before the child could be born, therefore it needed to pass on knowledge in the form of images or visions in order to enlighten the newborn on how to survive.

“I am not its child. How is this even possible?” wondered Zilan.

The red King of Dragons opened its large mouth, revealing rows upon rows of giant teeth each one ten times the size of Zilan. It then let out an awe inspiring roar that caused the ocean water to flow in reverse and the clouds to essentially disappear. Luckily Zilan couldn’t hear a thing and apart from being a bit wobbly, he was seemingly unaffected by what was going on.

The Spring Dragon didn’t make a sound, only flapping her wings harder in order to remain stabilised. The King Dragon bellowed once again before charging at an unbelievable speed at the Spring Dragon.

The Spring Dragon’s deep milky white eyes flashed with contempt as it glared at the enraged monster flying towards it.

She then opened her mouth and a strange thing happened. Zilan could hear it speak, clearly it was a foreign language but he understood it completely.

“[Endless Flow]” repeated Zilan.

The red Dragon was almost in attacking range when suddenly a small collection of white liquid shot out from the cloud pattern on the Spring Dragon’s head.

As if sensing danger, the enormous red Beast tried to stop and turn however its size turned out to be its biggest enemy. Immediately after the white liquid touched the red Dragon, blood started to drip from all its orifices even leaking from underneath its own scales.

In a matter of seconds, the gigantic red Dragon imploded sending chunks of meat and bodily fluids plummeting to the ocean.

“So this is the gap between an Elemental Dragon and a King of normal Dragons.” thought Zilan.