As Zhi looked at the eyes, he felt his blood trembling. He thought to himself, “This is….” He understood that when someone’s blood trembled, it was usually, when they met someone with the same Bloodline as them but many times more pure and domineering. The second choice was when you met with someone who was of a stronger Bloodline than you.

This was usually the case when for example someone with a Serpents Bloodline met with a Dragon. Zhi looked at the pair of eyes and asked, “Were you the one that brought me here?” The Dragon’s eyes flashed as he said, “Yes, it was me. I have been sleeping inside you for the last 15 years, I only woke when you entered the enraged state.” Hearing this, some pieces of the puzzle Zhi had made sense. Although Zhi wasn’t very courteous when speaking with Regios, he wasn’t blatantly arrogant either.

Regios looked at Zhi and said, “I know you have a lot of questions, so ask away as I owe you at least this much after all this.” Zhi tilted his head as he asked, “What do you mean by “after this”?” Regios thought for a second and then said, “I infused the power of my Soul Fragment in to you and as a result, your cultivation rocketed. Currently, the Second Tribulation is done and soon the Third Tribulation will descend.”

Hearing this, Zhi’s face fell as he hurriedly said, “Is there are way for you to stop?” The pair of eyes seemed to tilt to the side as he asked, “Yes but why? Isn’t power what you seek after?” Zhi shook his head as he said, “Every cultivator seeks power but if you advance too rapidly in strength like this, it will make you cultivation unstable. It may also create a lot of hidden complications to future cultivation.”

Hearing this, Regios was silent for a moment as he said, “Understood. Currently, you have reached the Peak Paragon Stage but to take the cultivation back is impossible. You Immortal Cultivators are all so weird. Some want power no matter what the consequences, then there are people like you...” Zhi looked at Regios with suspicion as he asked, “Okay, now then. Who exactly are you?” Regios immediately answered, “I am the First Dragon that was birthed by the Primadorial Mist countless Cycles before the First Plane came to existence. By the time the First Plane was formed, I was already stronger than it. However, even as strong as I am, I am not omnipotent.”

Hearing this, Zhi’s eyes widened. He had no idea what the First Plane and things like that meant or stood for but he understood that they were something extremely strong. Regios continued, “Twelve thousand Cycles ago, I was imprisoned by the greedy Humans who wanted to harvest my body for materials. As one of them said, my body is a treasure trove for making Artefacts and Pills.

Since I can not escape the bindings, I can only allow them to do as they please.” Hearing this, Zhi just sighed deeply. He murmured, “It is the Humans again….”No matter what had happened, Zhi seemed to find that the root of the problem was mostly Humans. He truly started pondering on where they took the courage and arrogance. Zhi just sighed as he asked, “How did you get caught by them? Weren’t you extremely strong?” Regios just gave a bitter laugh and said, “The 13 Leaders of the Human alliance got a very profound imprisoning Formation from their Ancestor. They used that to seal my strength so that I was nothing more than a lamb in front of them.”

Zhi asked curiously, “The Ancestor of Humans?” Regios’s eyes just moved up and down as if nodding. Regios then said, “The First Human born from the Primadorial Mist, Adam. He is the ancestor of the Human Race, just as I am the Ancestor to the Dragon Race. Every race in the 13 Planes of Existences has an Ancestor like this.” He took a momentary pause before continuing, “Through the countless Cycles, Ancestors of the Race have fallen and been replaced by another countless times. However, there are currently 2 Ancestors that have not fallen until now. One of them is Adam, the Ancestor of Humans. As for the second….”

As Regios’s words trailed off, Zhi didn’t need him to say who the second Ancestor was. It was him. Zhi looked at him in suspicion as he asked, “And how do I fit in all of this? No matter how you look at it, I may be a powerhouse here but as far as I know, it is only one Realm of the countless, so there are countless others far stronger than me out there.” What Zhi said wasn’t him being humble or anything, it was just the cold hard truth.

No one knew how many Realms were out there so just because he was strong here, did not mean that other Realms didn’t have abnormal monsters like him. Some of them may even surpass him by a far in terms of strength and background. This made Zhi ponder on what Regios wanted from him. Deep down, he knew the answer but this was something that he did not want to happen. He hoped that Regios would not want what Zhi thought he wanted of him. Regios just chuckled as he said, “Little boy, you know the answer to that question already, why ask it?”

Hearing this, Zhi’s head dropped as he sighed deeply saying, “So that truly is the case…. Can’t you pick someone else, I mean, I just want to live an unfettered life, why do all of you guys keep shoving responsibilities on my shoulders?” Towards the end, he was pouting like a little child. Seeing this Regios, just laughed as he said, “Because, you are someone who I have nurtured for this reason for countless cycles of Life and Death. I knew from the beginning that I would have no chance of escaping the Imprisoning Formation but that doesn’t mean I could give up on my Race as whole. If the Ancestor falls and there isn’t a successor to take over immediately, the Race will decline.”

Regios just closed his eyes as he continued in a pained tone, “If another Ancestor isn’t born in Ten Cycles, usually, the Race will either die out or fall from their Grace. The offspring will be weaker by a level with each generation and in the end, they would degrade to mindless beasts with no intelligence.” Zhi looked at Regios with a pitying gaze as he understood something. Regios could have ended his life a long time ago and not given a chance for the Humans to use him as a harvesting ground but he endured it only for one reason: To raise a person who could become the Ancestor before that, so that the Dragon Race did not die out.

He had endured countless amounts of torture and humiliation just so that he could ensure that his Race survived. This made Zhi truly look at Regios in an admiring light, he knew exactly how deep a Dragons Pride was and to be used as a simple harvesting ground…. This was something no Dragons Pride would let happen and they would rather implode than give anyone the chance to use him as a harvesting ground. However, Regios was able to swallow his pride and endure for long enough to pass on his mantle. Zhi looked at Regios and said, “You said that you have nurtured me for countless Cycles of Life and Death? How could you control whether I was born with a Dragon Bloodline or not?”

Regios’s eyes held a hint of amusement as he said, “What do you think a Bloodline is?” After hearing this question, Zhi could not answer. Even though Bloodlines were passed from parent to child, for some reason Zhi felt as though that was not the only method to pass on the Bloodline. Suddenly, Zhi understood something as he looked at Regios with a shocked expression saying, “There is another way to pass on a Bloodline than by blood.”

Regios’s eyes just moved up and down as he said amusedly, “If there wasn’t, there would not be pure blood Races, only the Ancestors would be pure bloods while the rest of the populace would be only mixed bloods.” Zhi looked at Regios and just as he wanted to ask what the second method was, Regios said, “The second method is by cutting off a fragment of your Soul and imbuing it into something else. For instance, you cut off a part of your Soul and imbue it with a mountain.

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After the Soul completely fuses with the mountain and the Soul gains sentience, a Mountain Dragon is born. Like this, all Ancestors created their Races.” Zhi nodded to this as he processed it and understood what Regios meant. Suddenly, he opened his eyes as he asked with a bitter smile, “Was my Soul created with the same method or was it born in the natural way?” Regios closed his eyes again as he said, “Your Soul was born by me cutting off a fragment of mine and then imbuing it to the Primadorial Mist. Like that, your Soul gained the Primadorial Dragon of Chaos Bloodline and after you died the first time, the Bloodline went into deep hibernation, waiting for it to be awakened again. Actually, the Bloodline was supposed to be hibernating for the next hundred Cycles at least but it was awakened prematurely.”

Hearing this, Zhi gave it a lot of thought. He had no way out of this thing, no matter what he did. He also understood how important an Ancestor was for a Race. He thought about all of this and felt pain in his heart about having something destined to him again. However, this time, he could not say “Fuck it!” and keep doing his own thing. Regios had been able ot lay down his pride for the sake of the Race, if he couldn’t even make a concession like this, he didn’t deserve the Dragon Bloodline. When Zhi thought back to what Regios just said, something clicked to him. He looked at Regios with a face that did not know whether to laugh or cry and asked, “My guess is probably right this time as well but I am going to ask any way. Did the Bloodline that was deeply hibernating wake up because of the Awakening Ritual I went through?”

Regios understood the meaning behind his question and just stayed silent. After a few minutes had passed in silence, Zhi had gotten his answer. It truly had been like that, so this current situation was something that had been caused to him by the Black and White Emperor. If you went even more back in time, there was only one culprit to all of this. Zhi looked up helplessly as he asked, “If I had grown up normally, without the bitch fucking everything up, I should have become the Ancestor a hundred Life and Death Cycles later. Does this mean that everything had been set in stone from the moment that the betrayal happened?”

Regios finally answered him as he said, “Yes. From the future that I saw, you would take over for me a lot later. This means that someone or something has changed the flow of future. Even I do not know what the future holds any more.” Zhi just sat down as he said helplessly, “So, behind a puppet master, is another one.” He looked at Regios with an honest look as he asked, “Do schemes and plots ever end? Can’t they just be like normal beings and not involve everyone else in their little schemes of power?”

Regios just closed his eyes and sighed, “If there is something I have learned in my long lifetime, it is that wherever there is power, there are plots and schemes. True harmony and peace is something that can never be achieved, no matter what race or what Plane.” These were the heartfelt thoughts he had. Where ever, there was power, there were struggles for it, this cycle was something that could not be escaped.

Zhi looked at Regios and asked, “Now what? It is obvious that I can not escape these shackles of Destiny no matter what I do.” Zhi wasn’t a completely headstrong block head who refused to accept everything that didn’t align with his views. Also, he knew that Destiny and Fate were things that were unpredictable, they could be influenced and changed to a certain degree but they could not be escaped from. If your Destiny was to die for the Clan, you did, no matter how long you pushed it forward or what you did to escape it, in the end you will still die to protect the Clan.

Regios closed his eyes and his black crystalline body appeared behind the eyes. This was the first time, Zhi had seen Regios’s body and he could only bitterly smile to how much it resembled his. He truly was like a clone of Regios. Regios looked at Zhi a profound gaze as he said, “What is done is done. There is no way to change the past. Now, all we can do is initiate the Succession.” Zhi had already given up on escaping this and asked him, “What does the Succession encompass?”

Regios shifted his body as he said to Zhi, “Currently, all of you previous Lives Experiences are condensed into 99 figures. All you need to do is accept the 99 figures memories and you will earn the right to succeed me.”

Zhi listened closely and asked with a serious face, “Will they try to take me over or will they influence my personality?” Regios answered again, “They will not try to take you over but as for the influencing…. Since they were you from previous lives, they will influence you to a certain degree but I have no way of saying to what degree.” Zhi nodded his head, this was what he had expected. Since they had been him, it would be very hard to not get influenced by their experiences. He looked at Regios and said, “Let’s begin then.”

Regios nodded his head and Zhi fell into a trance as 99 figures of various builds appeared around him. One of the figures stepped forward and put his forehead against Zhi’s. As it did so, bright light spread out from their foreheads as the firgure turned more and more illusory. As the figure completely disappeared, the next one took his place. Like this, Zhi sat there in a trance and the figures kept disappearing one after another.

As Regios looked at it, his eyes flashed with tender and gentle light. He looked towards the distance, far behind Zhi. There, a blurry figure stood and kept looking at Zhi. There was no way to make out any distinctive features of it. Regios looked at the figure and murmured in a low voice, “Although it had taken me countless years, I have completed my promise to you Master. The son, who you hid so deeply has finally blossomed into a figure of power, who can inherit your many experiences. In time, he will be able to take the Throne of the Fang Empire back from those vile traitors.”

He looked at Zhi with a reminiscing gaze as he continued murmuring to himself, “For countless years, I have followed your order to lay low and raise him. Finally, I had found the perfect opportunity. However, it is too soon to tell him the truth even if he managed to dominate the 99 Planes and sit on the Throne of the Emperor, he would still not have enough strength to contest against the Fang Empire.”

The light in Regios’s eyes turned murderous as he thought back to the time when he his Master had trusted him his only son and ordered him to flee. Although Regios was very reluctant to leave his Master to die, he could do nothing. All he could do was take the new born child and stop his time by freezing him in his Essence Crystal. After countless years had passed, he finally found the opportunity to undo the hibernation and let Zhi awaken from it. He had been extremely careful as he first flew through the Primadorial Mist for over a Thousand Cycles, to get far away enough.

Then he had found the First Plane and decided to found the Dragon Race to act as Zhi’s protectors and shields if something happened to him. However, what he hadn’t expected was that just as he entrusted Zhi’s Hibernation Crystal to a clone of himself, the true him was imprisoned by Adam.

Adam was one of the most powerful retainers of the current Fang Emperor and his former comrade-in-arms. The only reason Adam had enslaved him and not killed him was because his mission had been to kill Zhi but Regios had never disclosed where he had hidden Zhi.

Although it had happened a bit too soon, what had happened, had happened. Zhi had awakened his true Bloodline and to hide him from Adam, he had transferred half of his Essence Blood to Zhi to seal his true Bloodline. When he became strong enough, he would naturally be able to undo the Seal on the Bloodline and awaken it from hibernation but he was currently too weak.

He would not be able to escape or survive against Adam if he found Zhi. Regios looked at Zhi resolutely as he made a silent vow, “No matter what happens, you have to survive. Once Adam is taken care of, it would take too long for the traitors to reach this place. In the time it take for them to arrive, you can escape or become strong enough to survive on your own. Until that time, I will do my utmost to protect you.”