When Zhi heard the question, he thought that the Azure Dragon was joking. However, when he saw the serious look and aura he had, he did not know what to say. He had an awkward face on as he asked, “What do you mean by that?” The Azure Dragon didn’t even change his expression as he said, “What I meant was, who are you truly?”

He took a breath before continuing, “From the first moment we met, I felt as though we were of kin but at the same time, we are not. Now I understood what I felt back then.” He gave Zhi a sizing up glance as he slowly continued, “Your bloodline purity passes even mine, a Dragon that has existed from countless years ago. However, you were supposed to be born as very distant descendant of mine, this is what I do not get.”

Hearing this, Zhi’s world shattered. The more the Azure Dragon explained, the more Zhi lost his bearing. He had had this feeling for a very long time, that he was not someone of the Dragon Lineage but at the same time, his blood did not lie. The purity of a Bloodline was not something that could be changed so easily, you needed to have the Essence of someone whose bloodline purity passed yours by far.

In this Realm, the Essence Blood with the highest purity would be his, the Azure Dragons but now, the Azure Dragon had said that Zhi’s purity passed his. Zhi looked at the Azure Dragon seriously as he asked, “I only know what is told to me, nothing more.” The Azure Dragons eyes narrowed as he asked, “Only know what is told?”

Zhi nodded his head as he raised his hand and looked at the palm, “I was thrown to an isolated hell hole from when I could remember, I vaguely remember the scenes before that but nothing much or substantial. Also, in that place I was there for ten years without anyone to call my family. Although I had someone to call my friend, she did not know much more about me either.”

Zhi’s eyes turned empty as he said in a cold voice, “After I got out from there with the Phoenix Clan’s help, did I learn of my connections to the Long Clan and so on. All of it was told to me, I can not affirm the truth nor can I deny it. That is also why I founded Dragon Cross and took in everyone who wants.”

The Azure Dragons eyes flashed as he asked, “So you have no idea about all of this either but Dragon Cross is your home?” Zhi just weakly nodded as he let out a breath, “Since I did not know about my Lineage, the best I could do to fill this hole, was to found Dragon Cross.” He then bitterly laughed as he said, “In the beginning, I founded Dragon Cross with the sole purpose of getting revenge on the Long Clan but then one thing after another happened in succession and here we are. Half of the Long Clan follows me and the rest is being annihilated.”

The Azure Dragon could only nod his head. He didn’t feel like Zhi was lying to him, so this made him think, “Was there someone else, who hid him here?” As he thought that, his eyes showed a tinge of fear. After Zhi had made it known that he was the Ancestor Successor, the Azure Dragon wanted to thoroughly inspect his body as he felt something odd going on.

However, when he did, he was scared witless by an oppressive being sleeping inside his body. He could tell that the oppressive being was currently sleeping but the residual Aura was something that made his mind reel. It was also then, that he had confirmed his suspicions about Zhi not being his descendant but rather someone else. Just as the Azure Dragon was going to leave, Zhi said, “I may have an idea, why my bloodline purity is much higher than yours.” Hearing this, the Azure Dragon came back to his senses and nodded towards Zhi to continue.

Zhi narrated everything that Regios had told him about him being the successor that he had meticulously raised and the reason for his ten year coma. After hearing all of this, the Azure Dragon felt his blood freeze. He had existed for countless years and had met a lot of people from the other Realms. He knew the methods of succession far better than Zhi and understood now, just exactly who was the one pulling the string behind Zhi.

This thing had far surpassed the scope he had thought of and he felt that if what Zhi had said was right, then the Dragon Race was nothing more but a Protector to him. The Azure Dragon’s eyes flashed as he asked seriously, “Did the Grand Ancestor say anything else to you?” Zhi tilted his head and said, “Nothing more, only this.” The Azure Dragon slowly nodded his head and said in all seriousness, “Do not tell anyone else, what you told me. This will from now on be a top secret between the two of us.” Before Zhi could say anything he emphasized, “Tell no one else. Not even your father.”

Hearing the serious tone and the almost oppressive atmosphere, Zhi could only gulp and nod. From the Azure Dragons disposition, he could feel that something was up but the Azure Dragon did not plan on telling him about it. After having this little chat, the Azure Dragon left in a hurry and Zhi was even more puzzled about all of this.

First had been Wrath, then the Azure Dragon. One thing happened one after another and Zhi had no idea what was going on already. All he could do was shrug his shoulders and keep doing his own thing without bothering too much with all of that.

***

In a vast void, filled with a peculiar mist, the Azure Dragon opened his eyes and sighed. He contacted his brothers that he was going to leave for a few years because of something extremely important. In the beginning all of them protested but when the Azure Dragon said, that it involved his whole race, not just his lineage, then the three calmed down and let him go for now.

After talking it over with his brothers, the Azure Dragon looked towards the void and suddenly turned into a beam of light that shot off into the distant mist. This was not the direction of the Realm but rather the opposite direction.

***

After Zhi had had his chat with the Azure Dragon, his head was in turmoil. Everything that the Azure Dragon had said was revolving around in his head. No matter what, he could not keep himself from making assumptions. He had felt that Regios was keeping something very crucial from him and now the situation with the Azure Dragon had deepened that suspicion by a lot. Also, he had had vague feelings before that the Dragon Bloodline was not his.

When he was in the Ancient Battlefield, he could not use his Dragon Form and could only use his Dragon Lineage to aid his cultivation. However, now that he had acquired his Dragon Form, he felt a bit misplaced. It was as though the Dragon Form was not him or his at all. After thinking about it for a while, he could not reach any where with his train of thought. He had a lot of different scenarios and explanations in his head but since he didn’t have enough information to say if any of them was right or not, he could not do anything about it.

Since he decided he could not do anything about it, he shoved it to the back of his head, waiting for the time to get some clear cut answers to that. As for now, Zhi started tempering his body. In a way, he was a very big perfectionist, he got caught up on doing everything perfectly. He did not see the point of doing thing half assed. If he decided to do something, he followed through it and tried to do his best in doing it perfectly, so that he himself would be satisfied. What he did not know, was that this same perfectionist mindset was something that put enormous pressure on the rest of Dragon Cross. When Zhi arrived in front of the Tempering Array, he picked a room and went in.

Currently, since the room wasn’t used, it was as cold as ice. Zhi sat down in the middle of the inscribed Formation on the ground and poured his Qi into Formation to activate it. As he did so, the room started heating up and soon small flames appeared floating in the air. As the flames appeared, Zhi could feel the impurities inside him being burned away. Zhi just thought for a second and then started increasing the intensity of the Formation. As the room turned hotter and hotter, Zhi’s body started progressing in a fast pace.

Soon, he felt as though he couldn’t withstand the heat with only his body and started channelling the Qi according to the Art for cultivating his body. Small dragons made of Qi started roaming around his meridians and every place they passed was reconstructed. The heads wrecked the meridians, while the tails released a healing effect that healed and strengthened the broken meridians. To have ones meridians constantly broken and reformed was in no way painless but Zhi only grit his teeth.

He didn’t even as much as make a grunt, not to mention screaming out in pain. The fires from the outside helped him temper the places that had been broken. This strengthening Art was actually very dangerous for the user but it yielded very good benefits. What he was currently doing was that he was reforming and strengthening his meridians so that they would be capable of withstanding the oppressive and destructive Qi of a Dragon.

This was no easy task as the pain was actually terrifying. However, after several circulations of Qi, the results were already obvious. His meridians were stronger, wider and more elastic, already being capable of withstanding the destructive Qi of a Dragon for a short period of time. If he managed to fully temper his meridians to withstand the Dragonic Qi, he would be able to use the Qi even for cultivation. Since the Dragonic Qi was oppressive and destructive, it was very beneficial for cultivation and fights.

The Dragonic Qi was very tyrannical so in a fight, he could suppress others Qi with even more ease. Also, in cultivation, the higher the purity of Qi, the more beneficial it was for the body. In his case, as a Body Refiner, this was very, very important. The purer his Qi was, the less impurities and missed spots there will be when he tempers his body. Zhi kept slowly continuing the circle of destruction and reformation in silence.

***

Amidst the mist, was a little island floating. The Island had a little pond, a tree and a thatched cottage, that was all. It looked like a secluded cultivation spot of a powerful expert but currently, the little island was filled with different old people in luxurious clothing. The only thing every single one of them had in common was that they all excluded a domineering, tyrannical aura. In front of the thatched cottage was sitting a man in grey, ordinary robes and the old man seemed as ancient as time itself. The old man opened his eyes and when he did so, everyone, who was chatting with one another, quieted down.

The old man swept his glance over everyone present and said in an archaic tone, “I believe everyone present has already heard of the situation from Azure?” Silence reigned over the little island and the old man continued, “Now then, I will tell you all a story of the purpose of our Dragon Race.” Hearing this, everyone’s serious expression tightened. Everyone present were the powerhouses of the Dragon Race and the old man himself was actually from the First Generation of Dragons. He was someone who was birthed by the Regios by infusing his Soul Fragment into the Primadorial Mist.

Up to date, he was the last of the First Generation Dragons left and besides Regios, he was the oldest and most powerful Dragon, so his words carried enormous weight amongst the Dragon Race. The old man slowly stood up and before he started talking, he started looking towards the distant Primadorial Mist with a tender expression. He opened his mouth and said, “Currently, the only one who our Dragon Races purpose, except for the Grand Ancestor, is me. Now, you all will also learn of the sole purpose our Dragon Race came into existence.”

As he said so, he swept everyone with a gaze again before he continued, “The single and most important purpose of our Race is to protect the child our Grand Ancestor was entrusted with. Far, far away from these Planes of Existence is a grand Empire that dominates over a Thousand Planes. Our Grand Ancestor was the right hand man of the Emperor that managed to unify their Thousand Planes.”

He took a breath before continuing, “However, a great rebellion happened and our Grand Ancestor was forced to run and hide by the Emperor, who was his sworn brother. He was entrusted with his only child and the man, who had gone through countless bloody massacres threw down his status, his pride just to secure the path of retreat for him.” Hearing this, everyone’s eyes opened wide.

No one knew what to say or ask, so currently, everyone was quiet because they knew that the old man was going to come to the crux of the story soon. The old man sighed as he said, “After the Grand Ancestor froze the Little Prince’s time he put him in a crib of Refined Ink Jade as he travelled through the Primadorial Mist for countless Cycles. Finally, he arrived here and just as he thought he could finally unseal his time, another disaster struck. The Human Grand Ancestor, Adam, showed up.”

Everyone were puzzled about this but the old man’s eyes grew cold as he said, “Adam, was one of the people, who had been of the same status as our Grand Ancestor but he had turned against our Grand Ancestor and Emperor. He followed our Grand Ancestor here with the sole purpose of killing the Little Prince that our Grand Ancestor was entrusted with. In a last desperate attempt to keep the Little Prince safe, Grand Ancestor hid the Little Prince in a special danger region and created our Dragon Race to guard him.”

The old man just sighed again before he continued, “However, before our Grand Ancestor could finish his preparations, he was imprisoned by Adam. Now over ten thousand Cycles have passed since our Grand Ancestor had been imprisoned by Adam. 17 years ago, I received the order to take the Little Prince from the Danger Zone and infuse half of the Grand Ancestors Blood Essence into him to suppress his true Bloodline and place him into one of the countless Realms.”

He just lightly shook his head and said, “After doing so, a lot of things happened to him and when certain circumstances were triggered, his true Bloodline woke up from the suppression. It was quickly suppressed by the Grand Ancestor again, so that Adam would not find him but currently, the situation is bad. The Grand Ancestors Blood Essence can not keep the Bloodline suppressed for long. If Adam found him now, everything the Grand Ancestor has done till now will be wasted.”

Suddenly, the Azure Dragons eyes flickered as he asked, “Was that the reason Senior had me put up the Eight Layered Elemental Essence Barrier Formation because Senior had decided long ago that the Little Prince would be placed in my Realm?” The old man in grey nodded his head to Azure Dragon, confirming all of his suspicions.

One of the surrounding people asked, “If our sole purpose is to protect him, why were we not told of this until now?” The man in grey just let out a breath as he said, “The Grand Ancestor was captured before he could finish his preparations so the only people that know of our Races purpose were the Grand Ancestor and First Born Generation. Since the Grand Ancestor has run out of options, he decided to pass the Ancestor Qualifications to him in hopes of suppressing the Bloodline until he was strong enough to kill Adam.”

The old man looked towards the Primadorial Mist again as he said, “No matter what, our Dragon Race is bound to the Little Prince by fate. When he grows strong enough to kill Adam, I will take on the task of telling him about his Origins. Until then, no one shall say anything to him and everyone must protect him.” His words were very domineering and his orders were absolute. No one present dared to defy his orders because if they did, they would not survive it.

An old man in red robes asked, “How does Senior know that he will be able to take on Adam in the future?” Everyone had the same question. Adam was the Grand Ancestor of the Human Race and no matter how big of an army you gathered, you could not threaten him. He was just that strong.

The old man in grey looked towards the group and said with a smile, “The Grand Ancestor told me that his true Bloodline is something so strong that it makes our Dragon Bloodline as weak as a little snakes in comparison. Also, his Father was someone with heaven defying talent and strength. He even managed to dominate all of the Thousand Planes and secure his reign. His Mother was someone even more mysterious and she played a huge role in his Father establishing the Fang Empire.”

He took a deep breath and said with a little laugh, “To think that the child of these two would be a bottom feeder is like a Phoenix becoming a duck. At least, this is what the Grand Ancestor said.”