“Get up Fei and come give your Gram Gram a kiss, you too Hen Ri don’t worry I don’t bite,” the old woman said with a smile.

Fei walks over to the diminutive old woman and gives her a quick peck on the cheek, while Henry just stands there looking super awkward.

If this was Goldy’s mom, Henry was almost certain he would be getting into some xianxia bullshit. This old granny could probably kill everyone in this room without breaking a sweat.

“I could kill everyone in the South without breaking a sweat dear.”

Fuck not this again.

“Mam, if you don’t mind i’d be really grateful if we didn't do that mind talk thing.”

“Oh, don’t worry dear boy, I won't go digging too deep, also call me Gram Gram.”

The old crone lifted her hand and the rubble in the room reknit itself. It was as if time had rewinded itself and the room was made whole again.

“Thank you mother, but you could have done that sooner, no need to show off in front of Hen Ri.”

“Bah, I'm just trying to impress my new grandson. When did you get so grumpy, Yinlong?”

Two chairs appeared in front of the old crone and she gestured for them to sit down.

"Now you both have been very naughty boys, so naughty that I had to step in before something unfortunate happened.”

She points finger at Fei.

“You were supposed to never venture south. Do you know how many alarms went off when you decided to rush down here?”

Henry had to fight down a giggle as this big tough cultivator was getting chewed out by an old lady.

“Oh you think it's funny mister? You are in even deeper shit than he is.”

“Wait, what did I do?” Henry said, sounding affronted by the scolding.

“You somehow got mixed up with my son and this NDA. My son is an idiot and you are an idiot for helping him.”

The crone let out a deep sigh as she massaged her temple.

“Fei, you are to return to the North as soon as possible, I have spoken to the Martial Alliance and they have agreed that there would be no retaliation for your oath breaking.”

Fei was about to protest, but she held up one finger, silencing him immediately. He knew that his grandmother was not the one to take kindly to backtalk.

“Hen Ri as for you, whatever sealed you and my son into this NDA is as powerful and ancient as me. You might have my son's legacy but just like little Fei said it is not his to give. It is mine.”

Henry looked confused at this statement.

“Mam.. Gram Gram if this legacy wasn’t Goldy’s and he isn’t here to explain things or teach, then what am I supposed to do?”

The ancient dragon grandma pulled a cigar out and put it into her mouth. Yinlong manifested flames in his hand and lit it for her.

Was everyone in this family a degenerate smoker.

“Fei pointed this out to you earlier, there is only one thing you can do.”

She took a deep drag, turning the whole cigar to ashes.

“You must get stronger, strong enough so that my son can materialize again. Then we can get to the bottom of this little deal that was struck.”

“Mother, I would like to stop you right there,” Yinglong interjects.

“Hen Ri, here has special circumstances as you are aware. It seems his cultivation has two very distinct ascpects. One is of Shenlong’s legacy and the other something almost divine .”

Henry was getting an infodump of information. Goldy never told him any of this stuff. The guy was the worst master ever.

“Hen Ri dear boy, what Yinglong is trying to say is that your cultivation is fucked.”

“Mother, please language.”

“Bah, I can curse if I want to.”

“Hen Ri, your cultivation is trying to do two things that are polar opposites. At the rate you are going ,you will suffer ki deviation long before my son will be able to come back to this plane.”

“Goldy told me that…”

Henry’s mouth locked up again and he struggled to get anything out.

Stolen novel; please report.

“From what I can tell, your legacy from my son allows you to draw in potential energy from people and things. Your other branching cultivation, wants to put people in your debt and draw energy and skills from them via contracts.”

“That kinda sounds like the same thing to me though, so what's the problem,” Henry asked, scratching his head.

“The problem is Henry, the second branching cultivation method seems to be siphoning that energy to another source not to you. Sure you get some knockoff skills but the actual ki is going somewhere or to something else.”

Henry was still struggling to figure out what that all meant. He had always been an idiot when it came to actual cultivation.

“You think you are improving but all you are doing is slowly killing your cultivation in order to make someone else more powerful. Convoluted I know but dastardly ingenious.”

Fei was quiet this whole time just listening and absorbing everything that Gram Gram had to say about this boy's cultivation. This Hen Ri was truly interesting, who had ever heard of someone with two cultivation bases. Something stirred inside of him though. It felt strange for someone as powerful as he was.

It was indignation.

Something was trying to piggyback off of his family's legacy and that made him simmer with rage. He had always been proud of his heritage, so to see someone try to subvert it like this was unacceptable.

Apparently his uncle and grandma felt the same judging by the serious looks on their collective faces. Say what you will about the capricious nature of his kind, dragons did not like having their shit fucked with. To change his fathers legacy like this, was something that the family would not allow to stand.

If people knew that their family had someone as weak as Hen Ri housing his fathers legacy, it would spell disaster for them all.

“Gram gram if I may, what if we seal the second branch. At least until father comes back. I understand the drawback but if we don’t the boy will certainly die.”

Henry was getting really nervous now. These three were talking about him like he wasn’t even there, and now this Northern bastard was talking about sealing his cultivation.

“Relax child, we acknowledge your presence, but this issue is something beyond your scope,” Gram Gram said.

“Besides it’s not as bad as it sounds, I know that you have been able to get new techniques imprinted into you. While it is a much faster method than the traditional one, I can offer you something even better. My personal tutelage.”

Yinlong and Fei both stared at the matriarch with shocked expressions on their faces. She had not taken a disciple in millennia, and now she was offering assistance to this pup. Why the sudden change, what did she have planned.

Henry knew when he was in front of a gift horse, he would not let it run away.

Dropping to the floor Henry slammed his head to the floor.

“Please Gram Gram, teach me how to not get my ass kicked around by young masters. Oh, also can you please take this second cultivation thing out of me so I don’t die.”

Lady Tia looked at her son and her grandson and smiled, the boy wanted to fight better before choosing to safeguard his own life. That was very dragon-like behavior. She approved.

“Get up Hen Ri, this is your first lesson, dragons do not bow willy nilly.”

Henry popped up at once.

“Fei don’t you have somewhere to be?”

“Gram Gram thank you for the intervention. I was brash. I apologize again,” Fei said as he made to leave.

“Oh one last thing Hen Ri, a fair warning, most of the south think that you are not just my supposed disciple but my actual scion. They will come for you boy, best be prepared.”

After dropping that bombshell Fei walked through a newly materialized door and blinked out of the room.

Henry stared at where The Northern Sky Breaker just was, shaking his head. That guy was literally banned from half the continent and now people all thought Henry was his son. He was pretty sure shit was going to pop off once people saw him again.

“Yinlong, assist me in this next part, Henry this will not be pleasant.”

“It's ok Gram Gram, one thing that I am actually good at is taking a beating,” he said cavalierly.

“If you say so.”

Gram Gram and Yinlong stood on both sides of Henry slowly drawing ki symbols into the air. He could feel the symbols take shape and draw the ambient ki into them.

That was when the tearing started. He tried to put on a strong front, but soon Henry was screaming. The tearing continued; it was like his body was being ripped in half.

“You are doing good boy, keep at it, we are almost done,” Gram Gram said, no longer sounding like the doting grandmother from before.

“I will make the seal Yinlong, make sure his heart does not stop please.”

Henry felt like the old lady was moving a part of his cultivation into a little cavernous hole where his heart should be. The pain was lessening but the sense of wrongness was still there. Henry felt lesser, like he was missing muscle mass. He felt the foreign ki, retreating after a second and knew it was over.

“He’s got quite the sturdy constitution.”

“Yes mother, he is surprisingly resilient,” Yinlong said, dusting himself off and heading over to the bar.

“How are you feeling, child?”

“Like you ripped me in half and shoved that half into a hole where my heart used to be.”

“That is a very apt description, take a look at the hole you claim you have.”

There on his chest Henry saw that there was a golden tattoo of symbols and shapes, constantly spinning and moving.

“That’s pretty cool,” Henry said.

Gram Gram popped up onto her feet spryly, and clapped her hands.

“Well let's get going then, you have a lot of work to do child.”

“I wish you a safe journey mother, and I will look into the issue that you spoke with me about,” Yinlong said, giving his mother a tender hug.

“Thank you Yinlong, I could always count on you. I will get a hold of your siblings and see if they can also assist. We must find out how this even happened.”

Henry couldn’t help but think that they were talking about him.

“We are.”

“We are.”

“I’m sorry, please just stop mind speaking to me, it's really creeping me out.”

“Hen Ri we will be going to the Dragonlands, to my palace to be accurate. I will train you until I think you won't be immediately murdered, when you return here. Be warned though my training has been known to be quite strenuous, you very well might….

“I know, die, I’m pretty sure I was supposed to die multiple times now.”

Gram Gram just chuckles.

“Let us go then, off to the Dragonlands.”