One of the other old men present just snorted, “Why should I go out of my way to protect him if he is not related to me at all?” Although the old man’s words were arrogant, they carried a point. No matter who it was, they would not just comply with this kind of a mission out of the blue. To reach where they had reached, they had stepped over mountains of corpses and some of them had been their loved ones or from their families.

The old man in grey looked at him and said, “If you do not wish to protect him, that is fine as well, I will not force you to do so.” Hearing this, about half of the people present were relieved. Every single one of the relieved people were the ones that had been born hundreds of generations after the First one. They had killed their way to the top and to now have to serve someone, this was beneath them. The other half of the people present was not even fazed by the statement.

They understood the importance of this mission their Grand Ancestor had left for them and they were planning on seeing it through. The Azure Dragon belonged to this group of people. Just as the people, who wanted nothing to do with Zhi, started to turn to leave, the old man in grey said coldly, “However, if you act against the Little Prince, I promise I will exterminate your Bloodline myself. Do not forget that.”

This warning sent a chill down their spines and everyone who wanted to steal Zhi’s Ancestor Qualifications had no other option than to rethink this. The old man in grey had not survived this long due to fluke, his strength was actually something that was on par with their Grand Ancestor and even if all of the people present pooled all their strength together, the chances to kill the old man were actually very small.

The ones that wanted to leave all nodded their heads before respectfully cupping hands at the old man and leaving. After all of them had left, the old man in grey swept his glance over all the people left and asked in a slightly depressed tone, “Are you all certain about your choice, let me remind you, you can’t change it later on.” The people left was only one third of the original group. They all looked at each other and finally the Azure Dragon gave a wry smile as he said, “Well, I have no other choice any ways. He is currently under my protection...”

The old man in grey just smiled to the Azure Dragon gently and nodded his head. Everyone else that was left also gave some vague answers because they understood the importance of Zhi to the Grand Ancestor.

They understood very well that none of them would not even exist here if Regios had not been entrusted with Zhi and had to flee here. Although, this seems a bit far fetched, all of these old foggies had been alive for countless years and had seen many Races rise and fall. Their mindset and experiences were very different from those that had been born a hundred or thousand generations after them. The old man in grey just thanked all the people left for following their Grand Ancestors will and told them to go and prepare for now, since Zhi was still stuck in the Azure Dragon’s Realm, there wasn’t much they could help with at the moment.

Hearing this, everyone seriously nodded their heads and after chatting with each other a bit, they turned to leave towards their own Realms to make the preparations to help him if need be. Just as the Azure Dragon was about to leave, the old man in grey stopped him and said, “Lil’Azure, stay here for a second, I need to speak with you.”

Hearing this, the Azure Dragon stopped and nodded to the old man. When everyone else had left and the two of them were the only ones left on the little island, the old man asked, “Did you pass him the True Dragon Art?” The Azure Dragon nodded his head and said with a wry smile, “When Senior first told me to give him the Art, I thought that he was just someone who caught Seniors eye. I never expected him to have this kind of a background.”

As he silently shook his head, the old man in grey just let out a hearty laugh and then his gaze turned nostalgic as he said, “Actually, my reaction to all this had been like the ones that left. But when all of my brothers and sisters fell one after the other in order to protect him, I started hating him.”

His voice turned sorrowful as he sighed, “However, when the last of my generation, my little sister Ice Dragon Bella fell, she entrusted to me the location of Zhi’s crib and the True Dragon Art.” As he said so, he just gestured the Azure Dragon to sit down. The Azure Dragon understood that this was going to be kind of a long story he also sat down after the old man.

The old man looked nostalgic as he continued, “I actually went to the crib with the intent to kill the Little Prince but when I finally saw him, I understood something.” The Azure Dragons eyes flashed as he listened intently.

The old man in grey just sighed, “I realized that the Little Prince did not have anything to do with all of my brothers and sisters dying. In that crib, he was frozen in time and his real life was robbed from him.” The old man just sighed even deeper as he continued in a sorrowful tone, “He did not know anything about the world, nothing about his family or himself and yet, he was thrown into a turmoil like this. No Mother, no Father, no family. He had been frozen in time for thousands of Cycles and everyone who was actually from his generation was already dead or had countless descendants but he was still stuck inside that little cage of his, waiting.”

The old man looked the Azure Dragon deep in his eyes as he said, “It was then that all my reluctance and hate from him disappeared. I understood that his fate was far worse and my little rebellion was nothing more than a joke. The little boy had been barely three months old when he was torn away from his family.”

The Azure Dragon understood what the old man was feeling. This feeling of loneliness was something that everyone of them had felt but now they have a big family each and every one of them but that little boy was actually still alone. After the Azure Dragon thought back to Zhi’s life, he felt even more sorrowful as he asked with a sigh, “Do the Heavens hate that Little Prince for throwing one thing after another at him like this?”

The old man in grey also bitterly laughed to the statement. It wasn’t hard to see that the Azure Dragon was referring to the time Zhi spent inside the Ancient Battlefield. The old man in grey just told the Azure Dragon, “No matter what has happened to him until now, we can not allow any harm to fall on him from now on. Of course, we won’t be serving everything on a silver platter to him, we will still be ready to save him when the situation truly goes south.”

Hearing this, the Azure Dragon just gave an awkward laugh as he said, “Well, regarding that, there is probably no one in my Realm that will dare to pick a fight with him any more.” The old man in grey looked at him in confusion and asked, “What happened?” The Azure Dragon narrated the ending of the war to him. Everything from him going to the battlefield himself to the 3 Great Clans warning the Sheng Clan not to make a move.

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Although regular people did not know about that, there was no way that the Azure Dragon did not know about it considering that he had even told his own sons to go and warn the Sheng Clan. However, they had actually ignored him and this had caused the Azure Dragon to grow quite pissed at them. However, the Clans of his brothers did not ignore them and all immediately went to warn the Sheng Clan.

Unexpectedly, even Sloth and Wrath had made an appearance and helped them out in this regard. After the Azure Dragon told the old man in grey that Zhi also got over a hundred slave Clans and Sects, the old man was genuinely surprised. Although he kept tabs on Zhi, he did not keep him under 24 hour surveillance.

The old man just nodded and just told the Azure Dragon to hurry back and finish the Barrier Formation. After respectfully cupping his hands the Azure Dragon left and sped back towards the Formation.

***

Inside a cultivating room, specifically tailored for tempering the body, was a young man that was trying out a few punches. This young man was Zhi and currently, there was a huge smile on his face. After tempering his body continuously for a week, he had finally reached the small success stage for the Body Tempering Art.

He could feel that his body was currently three times stronger than before and his movements were a lot swifter and his Qi flow was much better. What was the biggest factor of happiness for him was that there were threads of Dragonic Qi flowing inside his meridians. Usually, you needed to be in the Dragon From to use the Dragonic Qi but thanks to the Art, he could now use it in Human Form as well.

Dragonic Qi was many times stronger than normal Qi and in a fight, it would give many edges over the others. His muscles were also more flexible but at the same time more firm, raising his arm strength by quite a few levels as well. On his skin, there was a barely noticeable black sheen.

It was so weak that unless you carefully observed it, you wouldn’t even notice it.

This sheen was from the cluster of extremely small black scales that had manifested on his body. Usually, they would be unnoticeable but when Zhi channelled his Qi into these scales, his protective strength would be the same as his true form.

However, he would not be able to maintain it for long, However, if used at the right time, it would be a very valuable trump card.

Zhi decided that it was time to take a short break from tempering his body. He would need to take a bit of time to grow used to the upgrade of strength that he had obtained and also, too much good is bad. If he didn’t rest and kept tempering his body like he was until now, he was bound to get some hidden injuries that would be very dangerous for his future path as a cultivator. After Zhi had grown a bit more accustomed to his strength he decided to first go for a check up in the Healing Hall before he headed to a Killing Array.

When he arrived inside the Healing Hall, all eyes were glued to him. Seeing the adoring and fanatical gazes made Zhi’s body hair rise up. He was not used to these kinds of things so he quickly found a familiar face and headed to a private check up room. When he entered the room, an old lady with a grandma like atmosphere entered as well. That person was Hedi and she had now broken through to the Primadorial God Realm. Hedi just smiled to Zhi and asked, “What do I owe the honour of this visit?”

Zhi just sighed, “I recently went through a rigorous round of body tempering, I just came to have myself checked up so that I do not have any hidden injuries.” These hidden injuries were no joke, there had been countless people that had broken their own path in cultivation due to not taking care of their hidden injuries.

Also, most people, who do not have much knowledge in Healing Arts, might not notice the injuries as well. Zhi was that kind of a person, his knowledge in the Healing Arts was very miniscule so he felt it would be a safer choice to have himself checked by a person who had profound knowledge in Healing Arts. After Hedi heard that, she was quite surprised because in her eyes, there was actually nothing that Zhi could not do.

Now she learned that Zhi’s knowledge in Healing Arts was not so good. She just gently smiled and said, “Extend your hand and let me feel your pulse.” Hearing the order from the Doctor, Zhi extended his right hand and Hedi place two fingers on his vein near his wrist. A gentle stream of Qi entered Zhi’s body and inspected every nook and cranny of his body. After the gentle wisp of Qi did a few rounds around Zhi’s body, it returned to Hedi. Hedi opened her eyes and looked at Zhi a bit oddly as she said, “Honestly saying, your body is more firm than a statue. There are a few injuries but none of them are anything serious that will be permanent. After a day or two of rest, you will probably be completely healed.” Hearing this, Zhi nodded his head and thanked Hedi.

Before he was about to leave, he asked Hedi, “How are they treating you here?” Hearing this question startled Hedi but she answered with a calm smile, “They treat me good. Since I am quite good at Healing Arts, I am actually respected a lot by the people here.” Zhi nodded to Hedi’s answer and asked, “Would you be interested in becoming the Hall Master of the Healing Hall?”

This question stupefied Hedi. It took her a bit to collect herself before she answered, “But we do not have Hall Master’s, right?” Zhi sat back down and gestured Hedi to sit down as well. Zhi looked at her and said, “This Hall Master position is something I thought of to relieve the pressure and burdens on Feng and Zhishi. Currently, they take care of all the Halls and the rest of the Island but I thought that we could relieve the obligations a bit by making someone a Hall Master that is in charge of a specific Hall.”

He then just shook his head as he continued, “Those two have done a lot for Dragon Cross and now that there are two Island Lords instead of four, their work load practically doubled. Sooner or later, they will break down from overwork.” Hearing this Hedi just smiled and said, “Of course I am willing to help out Dragon Cross as much as I can. What would be my obligations?”

Zhi thought about it for a second and said, “Basically, you would be in charge of the Healing Hall. You would take an inventory of medicines that you have and what you need and so on. Also distribute the staff and adjust the ranks or keep the records of the patients and so on. Basically, you are completely in charge of the Hall and you will need to just report all of these things once a month or something like that, to the Island Lords.”

Hedi just smiled and said that she would accept the position only if Zhi promised her that she would not be held responsible for all the people that may not like the idea. Zhi just said, “If they do not like it, they can leave. The fact is, that we need some sort of a system and since we are still a relatively new Sect, we actually don’t have a set system yet that works. It is given that we will experiment with a lot of different systems like these before finally working out our own system.”

Hedi just nodded to Zhi but before she could say something, Zhi sighed, “We can’t just throw all of the responsibilities on Feng’s and Zhishi’s shoulders either. They would not even have time to go to the toilet if they had to take care of every single thing on the Island.”

Hedi just chuckled to Zhi’s explanation as she though to herself, “Seems like our Island Master isn’t as aloof and detached from everything as everyone thinks. He thinks about his subordinates and isn’t afraid of making changes to ease their lives a bit.” After having this little chat, Zhi decided to go and ask around the other Halls as well.

If he could find the suitable people to become the Hall Masters, he could bring them all together and work out a system like thing for them that would help ease the burdens of Feng and Zhishi. With this newfound idea, he scrapped the idea of cultivating for the moment and set his steps towards Artefact Hall.