After we parted with Longwei and his undisciplined daughter, we headed to exit the tunnels. We then reached a huge gate, handcrafted, made from certain mana-rich metals (I can sense the residual mana in the materials still, and is still pure and strong) for durability. It is decorated with colored, slightly abstract designs of Chinese dragons and a few European ones flying above ocean waves in the sky, with the moon and starry night time art on my right side of the gate, while the other side is a depiction of the sun and cloudy sky. Dad opened it casually by just waving his hand…emitting his mana into the…I think that crystal hole there is a lock…and then the gate glowed for a few moments before clacking…I think the door is unlocked…and then he forced the gate open with his manipulation of mana alone. He is a show off….and when we entered the room, what we see…is dead end, in a circular with yellow-colored, smoothed, polished and beautifully decorated walls and floor…except I see…light…from waaaayyy above us...

“The exit is up there, in case you have not noticed. *Smirk*. This is the private exit tunnel meant only for those of the highest standings. And before you ask, I do indeed have some political influence despite your…first impression of me *Evil Smile*.” – Heiyang

‘…...Are you serious…I thought you were more of a…rogue, free-spirited type…not the…powerful official type….’

“I can still hear your thoughts with my skill you know? When did you think I turned it off…or are you so interested in Meixi that you forgot about our…private father-and-son conversation…*VERY Evil Smile*.” – Heiyang

‘….ARE YOU…GET OUT OF MY MIND, DAD!!!!!’

“Ohhhhh…but it is so much fun being in your head, dear son…*EXTREMELY EVIL SMILE…with a dash of sarcasm*.” - Heiyang

“Oh dear, even so, I must ask you to respect our son’s privacy. Even you don’t want others to invade your privacy…would you, dear?” – Baoai

…I sense a…dark chill coming from mom…and it even startled dad to silence…

‘Oh? *Growing Evil Smile*…is he afraid of-‘

I no longer feel dad inside my head anymore……it seems I now know why mom could marry someone like him…which will be delicious to hear in the future, mua ha ha ha ha ha…seriously, I am seriously being drawn to the dark side……is it because of I have dad’s blood in me….?

Conflicted in my thoughts, dad glared at me for a while, then smirked ominously before resuming his dialogue about the private, high class tunnels.

“Um, erk…yes, of course. Back to the topic, the exit is up high because of there are multiple magical traps hidden in the walls and we have no need of stairs. Humans and other flightless life cannot come down here without tools, and magic spells, and other means. The moment the sensor runes engraved on the walls feels any disturbance of mana unauthorized by the clan elder, feel any life signatures not our own, and feels any, and I mean ANY, mana here once the access here is disallowed by the clan elder, the spell orbs circularly place on the walls will activate, unleashing a deadly array of light and fire spells firing beams of highly concentrated, dangerous energy, forming a circular net made of light with no openings in the tunnel above. Any living being that touches the laser net will be vaporized on contact. And to make matters worse, the spell runes engraved on the ground will activate, unleashing powerful gravity magic, powerful enough to render deities helpless, that will pull the invaders to the ground, making them fall into the laser nets set above, and if that is not enough to kill the intruder(s), the ground will be flooded with a particular water that drains life force and mana, along with nullifying any items to the Celestial scale and mana based skills, infested with Adamantine tooth sharks and other dangerous creatures immune to the water’s effects we captured and tamed to kill. There are also creature we have that are very effective against Qi users as well. The water does not work on certain life biologically though, dragons and Imoogis included, if their water affinity is high enough to a certain degree, though we are also prepared for that.” – Heiyang

‘……Damn…am I gonna be safe from those…traps since my mana is not registered…?’

“Do not worry…the traps are not active at this time, as I turned it off when I opened the gate, and yes, I also have the privilege to have access as well. Wouldn’t want you to die before meeting the clan elder, ha ha ha.” – Heiyang

“Let us go already then, we are already late as we are.” – Baoai

Mom picked me up and held me in her hands as she and my father flew towards the exit above. Before we exited, I was thinking…just what happened to the Dragons for them to be so careful and prepared for war, to have spells and resources of this caliber…? They are dead set on security and hell bent on destroying any that dares to pose as a threat to them…

As we flew out of the tunnels, I covered my eyes with my hands since I see a blinding light from being in the caves so long…and when the brightness dimmed I see…a garden…below us…it seems we came out of the mountains…and grasslands with trees bearing edible fruit and flowers decorating the landscape as far as the eye can see under the sun with the blue, cloudy sky above……at first glance. Something is wrong with this picture…since I am feeling…mana in the sun and sky, which I am sure is not normal….so using Clairvoyance I looked even more closely at the sky as we move…..and found out that the sky and sun is artificial simulations, made to resemble the sun and sky with the sun being a very large crystal orb glowing orange and rays similar to that of the sun and the sky and cloud being virtual depictions using some kind of mana crystals, which is very realistic without closer observation. Whoa…an indoor garden with an artificial sky…? How badly does this clan of mine want to show off, seriously…?

“Oh…so you noticed, my son. Yes…the room was prepared and made by our clan using magic, even made the ‘sky and sun’ as you see. I see you are impressed…and have some sort of bad impression of our clan…I would tell you though, this room was made not to lord over others, but to practice their skills with various earth-type magics…and that to test our skills in craftsmanship as well.” – Heiyang

‘Hmmm…I see…so the clansmen made this themselves, not hiring others to do so….’

We then reached a gate of some sort…implanted on the grass on a certain hill. Dad then raised his hand to inject his mana into the ‘lock’, and then opened it. Going through the gate, I see a…large hall in red, brown, and white color with patterns and with glowing stones placed here and there serving as light sources. The hall looks like the ones from a royal palace I see in mangas, with decorative furniture, carpets, and flowered vases to boot.

Flying for a while through the halls, I see…some dragons and Imoogis as well as…humans with their lower torsos like that of snakes…cleaning…some lizardmen…and humans walking around and some standing guard, but I can tell they are not human due to their auras. Their auras reminds me of the Imoogis I see in the tunnels…..And finally encountering a reference to compare my size to the average human...I am in estimate slightly bigger than the average height of human adults compared to my own without using my long snake-body's length.

Are those lamias…nagas…? Since when are they with us in the story dad was telling me? Guess I will find out later…and so we can transform huh? Interesting…I wonder if this is the loophole regarding obtaining a class mom was referring about…

After a while, we arrived at the fanciest, most important and secured door I have ever seen with two rows of powerful pure dragons standing left and right…bowing…upon dad’s presence…damn, he really is a dragon of high standing…The gates are decorated, engraved with the same art as the door I have seen in that tunnel…only there was a big serpent dragon with what looks like a holy aura taking the space of the door’s both sides and the other dragons in the art bowed to that dragon in reverence…..

Two dragons opened the door by pushing it open with their short arms and entered the room to completely open the door given their short arms. The doors now opened, I see…a human child. I cannot determine the child's gender unfortunately, even with my inhuman senses. The fact that I cannot sense anything from the child is usually a sign of anyone possessing immense strength, so I am a bit wary of the child. The child has short, combed sky blue bob-cutted hair and golden eyes, wearing a gold robe with white cloud patterns made for Chinese nobility, sitting on a throne of the highest-grade mana rich metal I have ever sensed, with dragon heads serving as handles and a crystal orb above the chair top…And the child is accompanied by several other robed humans, some male and few female, and other small children… with some humans adorned in warrior’s attire and armed with swords and/or spears. They must be their guards…

Baffled at the unusual sight, my mind is trying its best to comprehend what I am seeing…only to find I am wasting my time when the child answered my questions.

“Ah…Heiyang…Baoai……you’re late. Where have you two been?!! Do you know how long I have to wait here on this chair for you two to arrive?!!!!! Especially you, Heiyang! How hard is it to bring a child to me, from the nest tunnels?! And you have to admit…is there any sense to keep me from meeting the reincarnated one, you annoying devil?!” – Genderless Child

‘…….Huh…is he/she speaking with his/her mouth? From how his/her mouth moves…it is definitely not in synch with his/her words and…He/She is definitely not speaking English…’

“Oh Great Ancestor…my beloved seemed to be having too much fun with our newborn child. And also, it is just that……he is SO ADORABLE to tease…!” – Baoai

‘Et tu…..mother? *droop head in disappointment*’

“She is correct, dear ‘Elder’. You will be surprised of what happened at his time of hatching, mua ha ha.” – Heiyang

“Tch…I will deal with you later…Now where is he…oh…oh my…he is……he is…….” – Great Ancestor

Feeling a sense of omen from what the child is about to say…and what the child is about to do……I tried to silently message him/her with my eyes, relaying my intentions.

‘Don’t say it…Don’t say it…Don’t you DARE say it………*BULGING EYES TO SILENTLY CONVEY MY MESSAGE*’

“……ADORABLE!!!!!!!” – Great Ancestor

The ‘Great Ancestor’ then jumped from his/her throne and instantly appeared in front of me without warning. Damn…this one is quick! ….and hugged me around my neck with all his/her might……

‘UGhgghghughhghh *Suffering from the pain of having my body crushed*!!’

Despite the child's size no greater than a toddler, the child still managed to hug me with its deceptive massive strength. What is worse is, He/She won’t let go despite hearing my painful cries, and I am about to die if he/she continues like this…..I can see my health rapidly dropping, despite it being more than one million, to prove my point, which is a first for me to see my health bar…UGH!!!....HE/SHE’S SQUEEZING ME EVEN HARDER!!!!!!......I look to dad for help….AND SEE DAD SMILING AT MY SUFFERING, USING ALL HIS EFFORT HOLDING BACK HIS LAUGHTER!!!!!!!...probably as payback for me thinking of using his fear of mom against him…He is truly evil…..

“Oh my…Great Ancestor, maybe you should introduce the clan first…before you hug him to death.” – Baoai

‘YES…..MY FREEDOM IS WITHIN REACH!!!!’

“Ohhhh….Alright……maybe a few more minutes! *Smiling in joy, which in my eyes, is the depiction of my worst nightmares*” – Great Ancestor

“NO!!!”

I rejected his/her answer with my telepathy…which surprised him/her!

“……So you can talk….I see………And NO, I will hug you some more!!!” – Great Ancestor

‘NOOO-UGHhghGHGHg!!!!’

And here my suffering has begun……

Let me know what you think of this chapter!!!