Uehara just stood there with a blank expression on his face.

[A finger. Not hand. A finger. He didn’t even respect me enough to dodge.]

Uehara’s clone dispersed itself. Feeling that bit of chakra return to him, Uehara instantly drew in as much nature energy as he possibly could. He entered sage mode out of sheer anger and attacked his father. Dark chakra covered his body as he rained attacks upon his slowly smiling father.

He wasn’t even thinking anymore. He was tired. He’d been plotting and planning how to beat his father for the past eighteen hours and he was stopped at every turn. Right now, he was burning his chakra trying to land a hit on his old man.

Father and son zoomed across the landscape, causing massive booms with each clash. Uehara’s body was gradually getting more and more encroached by dark chakra and his pupils were losing their light.

He was frustrated. From his past life as Shawn, every combat situation went according to a plan. Even his death was part of his plan. If something unexpected happened, he could adjust it to his plan. When reincarnating in this world and surviving on the then nameless Aokigahara, he survived through planning.

Now, all that planning was gone. All he did was fight. He didn’t even plan his next subsequent moves. He just went with the flow. Previously, he would’ve anticipated that his father would block his punch and he would then act according to how his father blocked it. It was like chess where he would plan five or six moves ahead.

But all that is gone. He didn’t anticipate anymore. He just fought according to the situation. If his father blocked a punch, he would kick. If he blocked a kick, he would use the momentum to turn around and land an elbow, and so on. Each and every one of his moves were now invested in attacking. It wasn’t like before where he would hold back because he knew it would be blocked. Now he was fighting like he meant it. Every attack of his was straight and true. And that was proven by the loud crackling booms that resonated everytime Volkarin would block his strikes.

Volkarin was now smiling as he looked at his son’s current visage. Black horns, black wings and pupil-less eyes were what he currently looked like. His entire figure, including his skin and clothes looked black because of the dense black aura surrounding him like a misty cloak. Along with canines, small claws were also on his fingers, furiously slashing away at him when Uehara was not using fists.

Nimbly dodging one of his son’s more furious swipes, he couldn’t help but grow happier.

[He’s finally tapping into his instincts. He’s finally letting go of his inhibitions.]

Volkarin could see the nature energy overflowing like a tsunami within his son’s body. He could see the dark chakra meld together with the nature energy. His son was slowly but surely, unlocking the sage transformation that’s been troubling him the most.

For nearly ten years, Uehara was never able to unlock the sage transformation for the darkness element, even though the dark element was his natural affinity. Volkarin had never once bothered to guide him in the right direction. Although he’s his father, he won’t spoon-feed him the whole time he’s caught in a dilemma.

Either way, watching how his son had suddenly stopped, he decided to give him some leeway and not attack. Right now, Uehara was in a crucial step. His darkness chakra and the nature energy were swirling around in his body in balance like yin and yang. He continuously drew in more and more nature energy but since he was severely short on chakra, the balance was slowly being broken.

Volkarin saw this and smiled.

[He’ll succeed next time.]

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Without enough chakra in his body to progress to the sage transformation stage, he regressed back to his normal sage mode. But he still wouldn’t give up. Uehara had launched himself towards his father and was fighting with all his might.

His moves were wild but unpredictable. His blows were heavy and had the full force of his body behind it. As time went on, Uehara began to grow bones all out of his body. Volkarin frowned at this and immediately knocked him out. This caused Uehara to turn back to base form.

Grabbing him by the scruff of his hair, Volkarin began dragging his son to the newly formed lake. Throwing him in the lake, he waited for his son to either drown or regain consciousness. It didn’t take long before a geyser of water shot up into the sky along with Uehara.

Landing on the ground on one knee, he manipulated all the water in his lungs out of his body.

Cough Cough Cough

Uehara was on all fours and his lungs were sore. It took a minute for him fully recover from breathing in so much water.

Turning to look at his father, his eyes were slightly teary from coughing so much. A part of him wanted to let out a slurry of curses but when he remembered that the man in front of him is a close to forty-million-year-old god, he shoved that desire down his throat.

Standing up, he respectfully lowered his head.

“This son is waiting for father’s education.”

Although there was still some salt in his heart, he was still willing to listen to the advice of the man who is more powerful and has lived longer than him.

Volkarin removed the rest of the water on Uehara’s body with a flick of his hand before speaking.

“I’m very proud that you are willing to let go. But you were getting too clouded by anger and frustration. Remember that what happens in this mindscape will reflect on your body’s instincts. In that last moment when bones started protruding from your body, it would’ve caused almost irreversible damage should it have happened in reality.”

Uehara understood what his father meant. Although he’s mature, his body is still in its infant stage. He was already told not to disrupt the growth process of his body by doing anything too strenuous. Blooming bone spikes all over his body counts as strenuous. Uehara was already pushing it whenever he summoned large bone pikes on his arms.

It was very vital that he didn’t disrupt his body’s growth process as it is very hard to fix the complications that come with the consequences.

Uehara then looked at his father.

“Then…what about the Aura-Flowing State Technique, father?”

“I taught you that technique as a last resort in a fight. As long as you don’t use triple the chakra-flowing speed, your body will be fine.”

“I understand, father.”

“Good. Now onto more important things.”

A grin marred Volkarin’s face.

“How did it feel?”

Uehera furrowed his eyebrows in contemplation, trying to come up with the perfect term.

Looking at his father, he replied with a blank face.

“It felt like urinating after a long day.”

“...”

Volkarin looked at his son like he was a foreign existence. In the end, the corners of his mouth started twitching.

“Pfft…pfft…hahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

The last person Volkarin ever expected to make a joke was his only son. Uehara was so stone-faced that sometimes Volkarin swore he was the Yin version of himself.

(AN: In case you forgot. The Volkarin here is only the yang version and also, only a clone. The main body is still reconstructing itself after the intense battle with Brain, Volkarin’s enemy who is an angel.)

Volkarin continued laughing for a minute or so before recollecting himself.

Wiping a tear from his eye, he looked at his son with amusement.

“Your terminology was very accurate. Plans are not always important. You see son, we’re not limited like humans. You are a dragon and are also a surin. I cannot speak for your dragon ancestry but in you, runs my blood. Everything of mine, is in you. The instincts I have gathered throughout my life, is in that blood. The instincts that my father, my grandfather and my ancestors have, runs through that very same blood in your body. When you forgo all planning and tap into your instincts, you will gain the battle prowess collected from an entire line of warriors. For example…”

A bone figure sprouted out of Volkarin’s palms. It was of a man in his early thirties with long black hair that reached his waist and several bone spikes protruded from his body.

“The way you fought just now, was vaguely similar to my grandfather, Jimai Volka. He was also masterful on how to use bones to fight. His entire body was a weapon.”

Uehara looked at the figure in wonder.

[I see…]

The bone figure in Volkarin’s palm turned into dust and scattered in the wind.

“Now as for your sage transformations, you currently have water, earth and fire. Rather than pushing you to learn the darkness sage transformation, I want you to become proficient with your first three transformations. We’ll start with your flame sage transformation since it is the one you have the highest proficiency in.”