The Spring Dragon surprisingly turned towards Zilan and muttered a few words,
“My child, what realm are you from?”
Zilan felt a warmth go through him when he heard the word, “My child.” He swiftly shifted through his memories before answering.
“The Herald Plane, one of the three hundred lesser realms.”
The cloud pattern on the Spring Dragon’s head suddenly flashed with a blinding light.
“Mm, I did indeed pass by there in my youth however the children I left should not have such a strong bloodline. My partner back then seemed so powerful yet now he would be just like dust before me, not to mention hundreds of thousands of years have long passed, so then why is my blood still so strong and pure as it courses through your veins with no sign of that snake’s blood within you.” Her voice was enveloped in both ridicule and sadness as she spoke.
What Sera was saying was indeed reasonable, Dragons needed thousands of years to mature thus it made sense that she would have children with a lesser creature that appeared powerful.
“I am not human nor am I beast. I am but a child born of the Universe who wished to follow in the ways of the Great Spring Dragons. I used some methods to separate your life Blood from that of the Flow python that is why it courses through my veins!”
Hearing this, the Spring Dragon suddenly began to rapidly shrink in size. Her entire body was intensely glowing making it impossible for Zilan to see clearly.
A few minutes later and the light disappeared, hovering above the ocean before him was a beautiful blue haired girl who looked to be eighteen to twenty years of age yet gave off an aura that exuded ancientness.
“I see, so you’re one of them. Although from what I see, you’re somewhat different from them and since you’ve taken in my blood I doubt they’ll accept you. Are you sure what you’re doing is wise?”
Sera’s white reptilian eyes unblinkingly stared at Zilan as if mocking him but at the same time rather amused.
“You’re speaking of the Enlightened, we are truly similar but are definitely not the same. I have no intention of being a part of them, I have my own path to follow.” replied Zilan.
The Enlightened were a clan in the Upper realms that Zaum detested. Their abilities were similar to his but much weaker and their methods of gaining power were extremely disgusting and cruel. They also apparently believed themselves to be clairvoyant.
“Oh! I wish I could hear more but unfortunately time and space are not easy to combat. Me showing myself to you was because you are but the fifth to activate my blood out of my many children, however you are also the only one who carries so much of my life blood within you.
If you agree to be my son from this day forth, then I will not just pass onto you that puny [Endless Flow] but every technique and skill that I know of. You will be my true heir!”
“Why?” questioned Zilan.
“Ha! No need to be suspicious, I only do what feels right and helping you is something that I have no choice but to do. The fact that my blood is currently flowing through your veins makes me feel extremely bonded to you.
Even if I wanted to harm you before, I cannot now! Whatever you’ve done has turned you into my heir whether you meant to do it or not.”
Zilan’s eyes widened in shock as he thought about Sera’s words.
“By getting rid of the Spiritual Power inside me I became an empty shell and then I drank her life Blood, filling myself with the essence of an ancient Beast, essentially being born again in the form of a Spring Dragon. Who would have thought that the Ancestor would still be alive and in another realm?
She showed me a pre-set vision of her killing the King Dragon in the past and when she felt how strong my bloodline was, she actually sent her consciousness across time and space just to see me. How much power does one need to have to accomplish something like that? It looks like she’s even stronger now than when she killed the King Dragon.”
Zilan felt that what Sera was saying was indeed true after all, he too felt the bond that currently existed between them.
“I already have a mother but I have never met my grandmother. If you accept me as your grandson then I promise to be filial and to kowtow before you.”
Sera laughed heartily as she heard Zilan speak,
“Good! From today on we are bound, accept this gift as a show of my affection.”
The cloud pattern on Sera’s forehead suddenly floated out and stuck itself on Zilan’s right arm. The whole thing happened so quick that he literally had no time to react.
“What…”
“We’ve run out of time! I hope grandson can one day come and find me, but only when you’re strong enough.”
Before Zilan could speak out he found himself back at the inn, sleeping face down on the wet floor. He could feel a powerful energy coursing through his veins, as he stood up Zilan could immediately feel the differences.
His main purpose for drinking the Life Blood was to destroy his cracked core and completely get rid of the remnants of spiritual power in his body while at the same time strengthen and enlarge his meridians. He had succeeded in doing all of those however, that was not all that occurred.
His hair had grown back although not as long as before it still managed to cover his entire scalp. He had grown significantly taller at now six feet, the muscles on his body had slightly bulged as well as become more well defined but most surprising was a collection of deep blue dragon scales that went round his neck.
The cloud pattern had branded itself on his right bicep resembling an intricate tattoo. It looked neither special nor especially unique but Zilan could feel that there were things locked within that he could not yet access.
“These effects exceed what was written in the Book of Path.”
Zilan had made two huge mistakes this time that turned out to go in his favour.
The first was that he expected Sera to be long dead after all, there were no elemental dragons in this world. There were many normal dragons that even commoners knew of but not even Kings or Emperors on this world would have heard of the term “Elemental Dragon” thus he thought they had all perished years ago, never would he have imagined that they just came and went.
This mistake had led to Sera travelling who knows how far and finding him once she sensed his bloodline. If Sera had already passed away, then all Zilan would have seen would be that vision of her killing the King Dragon and all he would have inherited would be the [Endless Flow] technique.
The second mistake he made was that he underestimated Sera’s longing for a true descendant. Spring Dragons were all female and they would be born only when a Wind and Water Dragon mated which was extremely rare. Therefore Spring Dragons were the strange type of Dragon that would breed with other species of the same element in hopes of producing another Spring Dragon or something close.
Sera had managed to produce four children and it could be seen that she cared very deeply for them but upon sensing that Zilan had only her essence with him, she instantly became overjoyed.
Her other children only had about fifty to sixty percent of her blood and their core essence was tainted but Zilan had at least ninety percent of her blood to the point that the aura around him was exclusively that of a Spring Dragon. How could she then not place something that she’d been searching for so long for like Zilan in her heart?
Even if he refused to be her grandson Sera would have still gifted Zilan with the cloud pattern that way in the future there would be a higher chance for the two to meet. If she was able to, Sera would have travelled to his world and quickly snatched Zilan but unfortunately her power was so great that if she even approached the plane it would most likely collapse.
Zilan currently could not understand just how special the gifts given to him by Sera were but in time he would wish to kowtow till his head bled and he could no longer stand, as a show of gratitude.
For now though, he was treading in unchartered waters. He couldn’t rely solely on the Book of Path to have all the answers.
One more step was left, once that was complete Zilan’s path will officially begin.
