Hearing the voice, Yuan didn't fully register the words, only a faint muttering reached his ears. His eyes remained crystal clear, but his awareness wasn't rooted in the present. He was still lost in memory, reliving fragments of a past he had once barely survived.
As those memories stirred within him, something in Yuan's spirit began to shift. His soul, subtly and inexplicably, was changing. Yet his eyes finally returned to normal as the voice of the white scaled, flying serpent rang out clearly.
"How did I find the past, you ask?" Yuan replied in a calm and measured tone, pausing for a breath. "Think nothing of it. It's just the past."
"Interesting," the serpent hissed, its slit pupiled eyes narrowing as it studied him. It seemed to weigh his answer before slowly nodding, accepting that Yuan held no deep attachment to what once was, that he was a man of the present.
"My treasured memories hold no meaning to you, then? What a pity," the serpent said, its tone both wistful and distant. But then, it shifted the topic.
"Regardless, this meeting between us... it must be fate. Though you are not of my clans bloodline, I believe it is right to entrust you with my final inheritance. Alas, I can offer no knowledge, only my most treasured spiritual creation."
Inheritance? spiritual creation? Yuan thought, his wariness rising. The moment the serpent mentioned such a gift, suspicion bloomed in his heart. He began to tread more carefully.
Still, despite his caution, his curiosity stirred. If this "Spiritual Creation" truly existed in the real world and not just in this dreamscape, then it would be worth investigating. He didn't understand how a memory could be shared so vividly, so deeply, without physical contact, but one thing was clear, whoever could create such a dream must have possessed great power.
"What is this inheritance you speak of? And who are you really?" Yuan asked.
He knew he was already trapped inside this dream. There was no escape, at least not yet. So he had no choice but to play along, to follow the serpent's script... and search for a way out.
"Ah… I'd nearly forgotten." The serpent let out a low, rumbling chuckle, not unkind."Of course you feel nothing. You are no descend of my clans Tianlong bloodline. The Tianlong bloodline does not stir in your veins."
The white scaled serpent lifted its head proudly, its slit pupiled eyes glowing faintly.
"I am an ancestral dragon of the Tianlong race," it declared. "Once, I was called the Free Winged Dragon. I soared above Twelve Heaven and mortal world, unbound and unmatched."
Its tone shifted, the pride giving way to solemnity.
"But I died… the day calamity descended upon the Twelve Heaven and mortal world. I perished during the battle between the Twelve Daos. The fighting was too sudden, no warning, no escape. Countless lives were snuffed out in an instant… mine among them."
Yuan's eyes widened. He died? Then how? But before Yuan could ask, the dragon continued, its voice now heavy with memory.
"I survived the first wave. Barely," it said. "But many powerful cultivators fell. Most of my clan's descendants were wiped out. Not many of the strong lived through it. I too somehow survived."
The dragon closed its eyes, a sigh rumbling from deep within.
"But I was grievously wounded, already at death's door. I might have lived another twenty thousand years, perhaps a little more, but what would have been the point? I would still die."
A pause. The dragon's voice dropped lower, tinged with sadness.
"So I made a choice. If I couldn't survive, then at least my clan would. I rushed toward the clan treasury, hoping to extract the cultivation techniques… but before I could take even a single scroll."
It opened its eyes, glowing with pain and clarity.
"the second wave struck."
The dragon fell silent for a breath, lost in the memory. When it spoke again, its voice was softer, more distant.
"The world turned black. My body failed me. Only my spirituality remained, faint and flickering. So I burned my body, my spirit, and even my soul, to empower my spirituality, fulfilling my one and only final wish."
Its tone took on a trace of hope, even if fragile.
"But by the time my spirituality reached the world, everything had changed. All that was left of my clans descendants were a few mortals, too weak to even touch the threshold of spiritual essence to cultivate. They were just too lucky to have survived at all."
A faint smile curled along the Dragon's snout, nostalgic and sorrowful.
"There was one… a bright, clever boy. I gave him the last spiritual creation I still carried on my person. My final gift."
"But," it continued, "though I tried to reshape his bloodline, to fully awaken the Tianlong bloodline in him… the result was pitiful. The bloodline that remained was so impure that even reaching a mediocre level of cultivation became impossible."
The dragon exhaled slowly, its scales briefly flickering with dim light.
"Still," it said, "I considered it a small success. That bloodline lives on, even in its diluted form. And perhaps… one day… a genius will be born. One who will awaken the true Tianlong blood again."
It looked at Yuan with a strange glimmer in its eyes, neither warmth nor threat, just... something watching.
"And as for my spiritual creation?"
The dragon smiled faintly, almost mischievously.
"It is the very space your true body resides in. Its name is, Split Space Attraction Spiritual Creation."
"Split Space Attraction Spiritual Creation," Yuan muttered, testing the name of the mysterious creation under his breath. It sounded incredibly useful, though the name alone revealed little about its true function.
Yet more than the spiritual creation, what surprised Yuan most was the true origin of the Loose Long Family.
Who would've thought... That such a weak and obscure family had such deep roots?
The more he listened to the Free Winged Dragon, the more cautious he became. The dragon still hadn't explained how it could speak to him now, after claiming it had long since died.
So, Yuan decided to act and pose the question as innocently as a curious child might.
He stepped forward and offered a respectful salute, his black eyes reflecting awe and reverence.
"Elder Free Winged Dragon," he said, "the tale you've shared gives me a strange warmth in my heart. But… if Elder has passed on, how are you able to speak with me now?"
"Hehe..." The dragon let out a soft, amused chuckle, its gaze meeting Yuan's.
"That's not such a difficult question. What you see before you isn't truly me. I don't live. I don't think. I don't grow. I only exist because of the fragments I left behind."
He raised his head, his voice echoing softly in the dreamscape.
"I am not a living being. I am a manifested intent, a sliver of my final will and deepest emotions. I carry only the memories of my final moments and the feelings I had then. Nothing more."
"Manifested intent… last will…" Yuan repeated the words inwardly, his thoughts racing.
He immediately recalled what he had once seen in the false world created by Truth, how he had awakened something called aura. And above aura… there was something greater, intent.
Yuan's understanding of aura was shallow, barely at an noteable level. But as the dragon spoke, something inside him clicked. His mind stirred with recognition.
So this is intent... Not just power, but a lasting will. Something that could persists without life.
A flicker of realization dawned within him, faint, but meaningful. It wasn't enough to change his cultivation, but it nudged his understanding forward.
Still placed in the strange dreamlike space, Yuan's eyes slowly opened, and he looked toward the Free Winged Dragon, only to see the mighty Tianlong Dragon was beginning to fade.
Its once brilliant white scales had grown translucent. The celestial white scales dimmed like a lantern losing oil.
Naturally, the dragon had noticed this as well. It had remained silent while Yuan had his brief moment of insight. But the moment it ended, the dragon stirred again.
"Oh? You're already back?" it said with a knowing grin. "Well, lucky you. A brief moment of enlightenment can be the most valued moment in a lifetime for an cultivator, so value it."
The Free Winged Dragon then paused letting Yuan regain his full awareness before continuing his talk about his inherance.
"To claim the Split Space Attraction... you must first take one of the flawed techniques that litter this world. Reshape it. Refine it. Make it flawless, worthy of reaching the Body Ascension Stage. Then, a wait for an dragon born with the Tianlong bloodline and let him cultivate it… and wait for him reaching the Body Ascension stage. Only then, with a drop of his essence, can you refine what I left behind."
As soon as those words left his mouth, the Free Winged Dragon closed his eyes.
And the world shattered.
Like a mirror cracking into pieces, the dreamscape collapsed into shards of light. Yuan gasped, caught off guard by how suddenly it ended.
He jolted back into the real world, unharmed, no injuries, no mental backlash, not even exhaustion. He was fine.
But the moment his mind settled and he drew in a slow breath, the realization hit him.
And he chuckled in disbelief. "So that is the catch. Of course there is one."
"Body Ascension Tianlong blood essence? I might as well wait for a god to descend and hand it to me. How long that would take?! Even if, by some miracle, someone like that came to exist, how would I ever convince him to give me his bloodline essence? I'm too weak. And raising one myself? That would take centuries, millenniums even! What, am I supposed to just wait around for a Tianlong dragon to be born out of nowhere? Ridiculous! A complete scam!"
His expression twisted in frustration.
"That old dragon must think I'm some naive child. Did he really think I'd bow my head just because he sounded old and spoke in riddles? As if!"
Yuan scoffed aloud, folding his arms in disdain.
"Even if I did everything and managed to refine the spiritual creation… how would it belong to me in the end? Wouldn't it just respond to the bloodline of the Tianlong dragon? Ha! I saw through the entire scheme. That dead lizard was trying to Scheme against me!"
Shaking his head, he forced the memory aside.
He had more important things to focus on.
Putting the so called spiritual creation out of his mind, Yuan refocused his breath and posture, turning his attention back to his cultivation.
forgetting the shameless, scheming old Lizard.