Zilan’s eyes darted open, he jumped to his feet and looked around.

“This is…..”

The air before him violently trembled and seconds later, none other than Hihi appeared in front of him. His appearance had slightly changed, as his scales were now even fierier, with hints of flames occasionally flashing.

“Hihi always knew you were stupid but this, Hihi has never seen a Dragon do something so foolish.”

Despite his childish tone, it was clear to Zilan that Hihi was being serious.

“What do you mean?”

Hihi sighed deeply before looking upwards and spitting out a ball of fire. The tiny flame flew at blistering speed upwards until it suddenly exploded.

With the explosion, came the entire scenery of the Cloud Inheritance Palace changing.

Zilan was now standing atop a hill, looking over a vast wasteland that was littered with nothing but gigantic bones and rotting corpses. However, these corpses weren’t something Zilan had ever seen before, these were the actual remains of Dragons who’d battled and paid the ultimate price.

“It’s about to start, watch carefully.” stated Hihi.

Right on cue, the earth began shaking and chaotic winds blew away the corpses sending them flying miles into the distance. From the sky, lightning fast giants started falling one after the other.

They resembled goblins but had three sets of wings on their backs.

“Kraaaa!” One of the goblin giants screamed at the Heavens as more of his dead brethren were falling out of the sky.

“What’s going on?” asked Zilan.

“Watch!” said Hihi as he motioned him to look towards the ground.

“There’s nothing ther…..when did he get there?”

On the ground sited on a strange pink steed was, a man. He had blue hair, broad shoulders, was dressed in black armor and had a scar running down his right eye all the way down to his chin.

“It appears you creatures don’t know your place.” The man did not shout and yet his words caused not only the earth to shake but also caused the space around him to rip and crack.

Some of the goblin giants that were still alive perished instantly however about a dozen who looked to be the leaders still stood strong.

The largest of them attempted to say something but was cut off when the man on the pink steed said a few words in the ancient language of the Dragons. His left eye transformed into those of a dragon and a bright blue mist started escaping from his body.

“Emperor Dragon’s Order!”

What happened next was that all of the Goblin giants simultaneously fell to their knees and were completely immobile.

“Order : Dissapear!”

A light wind then blew across the desolate valley, and wherever it passed nothing was left. The very earth was vanishing, as a trail of space was left in the winds wake. Naturally the goblin giants were no exception as they too disappeared from existence.

“Trash.” cursed the man as he too disappeared without a trace.

“Who was that?” asked Zilan.

“That is one of Mistress’s children, his name isn’t important, but what is important is the ability he used. It is the same one that you foolishly used against that kitten.”

The Cloud Inheritance Palace suddenly reset and went back to normal.

“Honestly, I didn’t know I was using it. I could tell and feel what was happening but I could not stop myself, I don’t even know how I was able to say those words. I just felt them go through me.”

“Hihi knows that you didn’t do it on purpose. If that was possible then that kitten wouldn’t be alive and neither would you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hihi doesn’t understand it fully either, but because of your strange mixture of blood and experiments with abilities. Hihi thinks, you might have forced your body to draw out one of your abilities when it was not yet ready to even be aware of their existence.”

“So what is wrong with me currently?”

“Nothing irreversible, but you’ve still taken a lot of internal damage.”

“That ability inflicted damage to my body?” wondered Silver.

“No, the Emperor’s orders only degrade the spirit and the mind. What injured your flesh was none other than yourself.”

Hihi stared at Zilan’s strangely before answering,

“Somehow, you broke through one of the mental barriers when cultivating and thanks to that it forcefully stopped you from going any further.”

Zilan widened his eyes when he heard Hihi say that he’d broken through a mental barrier. Those were barriers placed on the soul, affecting how much it could influence a person’s abilities and senses.

To break through meant to rise above mere mortal reasoning and proceed on the path to ascension. This basically meant that his comprehension ability was now enough for him to gain insights into the world as if he was looking from the outside.

It may seem insignificant but the mere fact that it could pull Zilan from a state that gave him the power to kill Kifo was enough to show just how powerful his mind now was.

“That must be the second ability that I couldn’t unlock.” smiled Zilan.

He was amused by the fact that one of his two previously hidden abilities almost killed him and that the other one was what had saved him.

“As Dragons, our blood and legacy give us the strength to compel lesser beasts to obey however, that is the limit for normal dragons.

For us Emperor Dragons, our ability to compel isn’t as simple as mind control. It goes even farther than that, we use our soul’s power to cripple others minds, their bodies, and then we use our ‘will’ as Emperors to do whatever else we wish with space.

However what you did was not only unexpected but also extremely foolish. For someone who has no ‘will’ to forcefully try and subdue the mind and soul of someone who has a higher cultivation, is simply courting death. Even if your mind is more powerful, you are not yet at a level where you can control the mind of another.

Even the simplest of minds are powerful beyond your imagination, remember that.”

“I will.” said Zilan.

“Another thing you also must never forget is that, we are not to cross the line and interfere with the space of lesser realms.

That is why Mistress did not attempt to come for you. As doing so, would destroy this plane.

If even she abides by those rules, then you must to do the same.”

This was the first time Zilan had gotten such a serious lecture from Hihi. It was strange yet also a needed wake up call.

The [Path of Blood] cultivation system did too many things too well as that was how he designed it. He needed great power so he created something that bolstered all aspects of cultivation. The mind, the body and the spirit.

Unfortunately, he did not take into account how mixing bloodlines and techniques of different creatures would not only affect him, but also affect the other abilities he possessed. This was something he needed to think about.

“You can leave.” said Hihi as he sent Zilan’s consciousness out of the Palace.

……………..

His eyes slowly opened, only to be hit by bone piercing pain moments later. His entire body and mind were throbbing and pounding erratically. Everything seemed so loud and vibrant with even the slightest brush of air against his skin sending explosions of pain throughout his nervous system.

“He’s awake.” An elderly voice reached his ears, however Zilan was in too much pain to pay attention to the words. In fact, he wanted nothing more than for them to just go away.

“Good! When he’s calmed down, we’ll send him to Hall leader.” said another much more youthful voice.