Zhi just stared at the old man in disbelief. He knew nothing about the old man. He didn’t why he showed up, why he was helping him, why was even talking to him, he knew nothing at all. Since he didn’t know anything about the old man, he didn’t dare to believe his words either. Zhi’s eyes turned cold as he said, “No matter how much of a Senior you are to me, I don’t like these kinds of jokes.”

The old man knew that he had Zhi’s interest but he didn’t trust him. He couldn’t blame him, someone who he had never even heard of before just happens to appear in his time of need and then offer him the very thing he needs. To have a series of such coincidences is something that just ludicrous to believe. He understood well that if he wanted Zhi to believe him, he needs to start from the beginning and explain everything to him. The old man just said, “I don’t blame you for not believing me. So to dispel your suspicions and doubts, let me introduce myself and tell everything from the beginning.”

When Zhi heard this, he was honestly surprised. The old man understood the crux of the problem and voluntarily offered to dispel his doubts. This was surprising because Zhi could understand that the old man was someone who was in a Realm he had never even heard of. For such an exalted Senior to actually compromise and try to explain things to Zhi on his own initiative was something very, very rare.

The old man cleared his throat and began, “I was born as nothing more than a Flood Dragon. When I finally gained enough intelligence to separate myself from the mindless beasts, I started my journey as a cultivator. Time passed and I overcame all of the trials thrown in my way. I evolved from the mindless and a weak Flood Dragon to a true Dragon, the Azure Dragon.”

He took a short break before continuing, “During my travels, I encountered a lot of people but only three of them were the kind I can still call my brothers.” There was pride painted on the old man’s face. But then his tone turned sorrowful as he remembered something painful, “After the three of us passed the Third Tribulation and entered the Origin Realm, the Black and White Emperor ran into us. At the time he was in the same stage as us and he had the backing of a huge superpower Sect. Using the help of his Elders, they soul bound us to him, making us unable to harm him at all and we became his slaves.”

The old man shook his head dejectedly but then a bright gleam entered his eyes as he said, “However, we soon discovered that he couldn’t control us completely at all times, so we devised a plan to kill him.” Zhi was very surprised about what the old man was talking about. However, he had no idea what the Emperor had to do with anything. Seeing the confused expression, the old man smiled as he said, “After millions of years of scheming and preparing, we finally managed to break free from the contract. Then a war called the “Calamitous Rebellion” occurred. The young man, who was just a rising star of his Sect had turned into an Emperor of a Territory, so fighting against him wasn’t easy at all.”

The old man’s face turned cold as he said, “After centuries of back and forth fighting, we finally managed to kill the Black and White Emperor. After the fall of the Emperor, the Sect was also obliterated but we couldn’t kill all of them. Some inevitably managed to escape alongside the Crystallized Essence of the Emperor.” The old man looked at Zhi and Zhi understood that now it would reach the part of the story, he was connected with all of this.

The old man said coldly, “The Emperor had extremely deep insights into the Dao of Death and the Dao of Life. The thing you called the Fruit of Yin-Yang or the Guardian Fruit is actually the Crystallized Essence of the Insights of the Emperor.” Zhi was listening intently because he had no idea what the Fruit had been but now he started to understand everything.

The old man continued, “The Emperor had hid a sliver of his consciousness inside the Crystallized Essence all in the hopes of finding someone, someone who fulfils the qualifications to become his new vessel. You were the vessel he had decided upon.” Hearing the old man explain this far, everything fell into place for Zhi. How the Fruit had sentience, how he had ended up like he did, why he always felt that someone was guiding him towards a certain path.

Suddenly, Zhi realized something as he asked, “Was it Senior who helped me?” The old man nodded and said, “Now then, to explain how and why, I need to go back in time a bit more. This way the explanation will cover all of the main points and will probably answer a lot of your questions. If you still have some afterwards, don’t hesitate to ask.” Hearing this, Zhi nodded his head as he listened intently. Seeing this the old man smiled as he began talking again, “After we took down the Emperor, we, me and my three brothers, had to make sure that our little Territory didn’t fall into someone else’s hands. However, we didn’t have, and still don’t have, the military strength to fight off the Powerhouses of other Territories. So, we took the easiest and safest route for us for the moment and erected a Defensive Formation around the whole Territory. For the past few quadrillions of years, we have been continuously supplying Qi to the Formation and also perfecting it, so that it could sustain itself in the future. Since we have to focus on this task with all of our mind, we left the management of our Clans to our Descendants.”

The old man took a breath as he slowly shook his head. He continued in an annoyed tone and looked as though he was pouting as he continued, “However, since we didn’t have any leeway to look after our Clans, we didn’t know how they had developed. All we could feel through our Bloodline was that they still existed but nothing more.”

The old man just sighed as he said, “It was only a few days ago that I learned of what my idiotic sons have done with the Clan. I had always thought that it was weird that I felt that a lot of my descendants died but since I didn’t have the leeway to investigate, I made a mental note of it.”

The old man just sighed even deeper as he continued, “My Clan is the Ancient Dragon Clan and your Mother was one of the rising stars of her generation, however because of the idiotic dictatorship like regime of the Clan, she was forced to give up her cultivation and seal her physique just so that she could be together with your Father.”

Hearing this Zhi’s mind blanked as he realized that his Mother had been someone who was way out of his Father’s league. He chuckled as he thought about this but soon his face turned sorrowful. The old man saw this and just said, “Do not worry about it, I am gonna do a thorough clean up and make everyone in the Clan answer for their actions.”

Hearing this, Zhi looked at the old man in puzzlement and the old man just sighed, “I didn’t stake my life to overthrow one tyrant for my Clan to become another of the same regime. Those three numb skulls are in for a very thorough beating when I get back to the Clan.” Zhi could only bitterly smile and give hollow laugh as he imagined how the three sons he left in charge are going to end up when the old man gets back.

Zhi asked the old man, “Well, it doesn’t matter to me even if you beat them to death. It is not going to bring my Mother back alive or is it going to fix my situation either. So, mind telling me how you can help my situation?” The old man just frowned for a second but understood that the reason Zhi was listening to him in the first place was because he said that he had a way to heal his body. He had already gotten his hopes up, so if he just crushed them now, he had no idea how it will affect him. The old man realized as well, that he had gotten a bit carried away and had started speaking of completely irrelevant things.

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He coughed in embarrassment and said, “The reason you ended up like you did, was because the Crystallized Essence you had ingested held the sliver of consciousness of the Black and White Emperor. When he tried to take over your body, you Dragon Soul started fighting back against it. Thanks to that, I felt the familiar Soul Ripples of the Emperor through the Bloodline Soul Link. When I rushed to the scene through the Bloodline Soul Link, I killed the Emperor but your body was already in the state it was. Although your Human Form had been tempered very thoroughly, it still couldn’t hold the violent aftermath of the collision, ending you up in that state.” Explaining this far, the old man stopped for a second and looked Zhi with a gaze as if he were asking if he understood it.

Zhi just nodded and seeing this the old man continued, “Your Bloodline is a bit of special case, your Soul can’t currently stand the immense power of your Dragon Form, so your Dragon Form is in a hibernation like state. However, this is also a lucky chance for us.” When the old man said this far, he had a smug face on, however, Zhi was just puzzled. He tilted his head as he asked, “What does that have to do with anything?” The old man just smiled smugly as he said, “Listen closely, Human Form was thoroughly crippled but your Dragon Form is still sleeping inside your consciousness. For you to continue to cultivate, we need to awaken the Dragon Form and all of your problems are solved. You can’t take your Human Form before you pass your Empyrean Tribulation but when you pass it, you Human Form will be built anew and then it won’t matter in which Form you cultivate in, the main benefits will still be gained by your Dragon Form.”

The old man stopped for a second to let it all sink in. After a few minutes passed, the old man continued, “The stronger your True Form is, the stronger your Human Form is. However, it is a bit difficult to awaken the hibernating Bloodline.”

The old man’s eyes furrowed as he said, “The easiest way would be for you to absorb a drop of my blood and use it to awaken the hibernating Bloodline but that option is currently impossible.” When Zhi heard that, he was startled as he asked, “How so?”

The Ancestor just sighed, “I am currently in the middle of Primadorial ChaosMist and I can not leave here at least for the next million years. Although there should be some of my blood left in the Ancient Dragon Clan, it is not certain. Even if there was some left, you’d have no way of obtaining it without blowing your cover. Your Uncle is currently hiding his and your Bloodline Aura to keep them from finding you.”

Zhi’s eyes opened wide as he asked, “Why is he doing something like that?” The old man just let out a hollow laugh as he said, “From what I understood, you Mother enraged the Clan Elders by not being their puppet, who they can marry off to anyone they want to curry favours. If they discover that she has had a son, they would probably punish you since they can’t punish her.” Zhi stared at the old man blankly as he asked, “Are they retarded?” The old man also sighed, “I assume they are.”

Without knowing it, the barrier of seniority disappeared between them and they spoke as equals. This was mainly thanks to the old man not putting on any airs as he spoke to Zhi but spoke to him as though he was a friend or an equal. Zhi just sighed to the old man’s words but he felt pity for him. From what the old man said, he had gone through a bloody war get rid of the Tyrant of the Realm. Now his own Clan, that he had grown with meticulous care, had gone down the same path. Those who had power had become drunk on it and those that didn’t did everything they could to obtain it, not even hesitating to point a blade at a brother to do so. He felt as though there was going to be a big change when the old man finally gets back to the Clan and starts cleaning out the house.

However, Zhi shook his head and asked, “What is the second method?” The old man said, “It is to awaken the Bloodline with the help of rare Herbs and a Formation. I can lay down the Formation myself when I borrow your Dragon Soul but I have no way to gather the resources needed to do so. In conclusion, this is the harder method but in the current situation, it is the most optimal one.” Zhi knew that Formations didn’t use Body Qi to set down but Soul Qi. The Body Qi was used physically, either to do battle or cultivate the body. The Soul Qi was used in Formations and to cultivate and temper the Soul. Before the First Tribulation, people couldn’t cultivate the Soul, so they mainly used Body Qi to temper the body. However, the Empyrean Stages used Soul Qi to nourish and cultivate the Soul. Zhi had learned that he old man was the Ancestor of the Ancient Dragon Clan, for him to say that the resources needed were rare and hard to find meant that there was a very slim chance that Zhi could find them.

After listening this far, Zhi knew that the old man wasn’t lying to him but there was one thing eating away at Zhi. Finally, he asked, “Why are you doing all of this? I am just a random junior, not even a close kinsmen, why does someone of your status bother with something trivial as this?” Zhi’s tone was respectful now and he looked at the old man seriously. When the old man heard this and saw Zhi’s serious eyes, he just sighed as he said, “No matter what, you are still one of my descendants. For you to have to endure such hardships because of my negligence of governing is all my fault. As a Leader, I have to take responsibility for my actions. I didn’t get this far with cultivation by running away from my responsibilities but by taking full responsibility for my mistakes and amending them.”

The old man’s tone was serious as well. Zhi also learned that the only way to get far with cultivation was to have a certain principle. To the old man, this principle was to take responsibility for his actions and not try to snake out of them. In Zhi’s heart, the old man’s standing grew quite a bit. Zhi just smiled at the old man and said, “Well, I am going to gamble on you this time. I have obtained a lot rare things in my adventures in the Ancient Battlefield, there may be some things that can be used.” The old man raised a brow when he heard the Ancient Battlefield.

He sized up Zhi as he asked, “You have been to the Ancient Battlefield?” Zhi just smiled bitterly as he said, “When I was 5 years old, I was thrown there to get killed, however, I survived. I also gathered a lot of different Arts, Artefacts, Pills and Herbs.” The old man thought for a second before he said, “Okay, show me the storage you have. There might be some things needed for the Awakening there.”

As the two had reached the agreement, the old man was about to make the two exit the space when Zhi said, “Wait!” The old man stopped but looked at Zhi in confusion as he asked, “What’s the matter?” Zhi said, “When we get outside, can you take the black medallion from my right side pants pocket and crush it? It will alert my Father that something unexpected had happened to me and he will come and he will have some pills to help me recover.” The old man was surprised for a second but then nodded.

It wasn’t weird for people in secluded meditation to have such tokens. If something happened, there would be now way to alert others about it. The old man nodded and then the two left the space the old man had brought them. When they got outside, the old man immediately fished out the command medallion that Zhi had talked about and crushed it. After doing so, it didn’t even take half a minute for Fanghong to arrive. When he arrived, his face fell and he immediately revolved his Qi to help Zhi heal and he fed him a mouthful of High Quality Pills. Seeing these pills, the old man in Dragon Form looked on with wide eyes.

These pills were all very high grade and high quality, to unhesitantly feed them all to Zhi, even he wouldn’t probably able to do so. After about 5 minutes had passed, the Long Clan Ancestor also arrived and he immediately summoned the best healers they had on Dragon Cross.

Seeing the Sovereign and Paragon level people, who specialized in healing Arts, made the old man truly feel as though he had been away for far too long.