"I do not have much time to spare today. What I do have, however, is plenty of strength to train with you until you cannot even stand up."

He shifted his white horsehair whisk to his other hand, his dark eyes looking at the young master sitting on the rock. "Tell me the truth. Were you really abandoned by your female so quickly? I have yet to even meet her, and you are already up here wailing like a lost cub."

Silence fell over the hilltop once more. Long Zhan did not answer. He just stared at his own boots, his jaw locked tight as he held the leather map tightly in his hand.

Mikal watched him closely, noticing the deep, stubborn quiet. Slowly, his flat expression changed into one of genuine surprise. "Wait... did you really get abandoned by her?" Mikal shouted, his voice actually rising a bit in pitch.

"No!" Long Zhan snapped immediately, his head whipping up as his violet eyes flashed with sudden anger. "I was not the one that was abandoned! Don’t say such nonsense about my Wanwan! She’s not like that!"

Mikal crossed his arms, completely unbothered by the dragon’s fierce look. "Then what do you mean? If she did not throw you out, why are you sitting here looking like the world is ending?"

Long Zhan lowered his head again, his voice dropping into a rough, painful whisper that was barely louder than the breeze. "I am the one that will do the abandoning."

The moment those words left his mouth, Mikal’s face went completely cold. The playful, teasing light vanished from his eyes instantly. He shot his sharp gaze directly onto Long Zhan’s face, his body going rigid under his fine robes.

"What do you mean by that?" Mikal asked, his voice dangerously low. "Don’t you dare think of running away from your responsibilities. Is that how I raised you? Did I drag you out of the dirt and teach you how to be a man just for you to turn into a coward who leaves his female behind?"

"No! It is not like that at all!" Long Zhan yelled back, his chest heaving as the weight of the secret grew too heavy to carry alone. "It is just... something happened. Something completely out of my control."

"And what could possibly happen to make you want to leave your little female?" Mikal questioned, his tone still hard and demanding. "I had thought she chased you away because of your terrible temper. That would at least make sense."

"No! Wanwan is not like that at all!" Long Zhan defended her fiercely, his hands clenching into tight fists on his lap. "She is the kindest, most wonderful female in the world. She would never throw me away."

"Then are you like that?" Mikal asked bluntly. "Are you the kind of male who gets tired of his family and runs away into the mountains?"

"Obviously not!" Long Zhan shouted, his voice cracking slightly with the deep frustration building up inside him. "You know me better than that! I want nothing more than to stay by her side every single second of the day! But I don’t have any other choice right now! I am completely trapped!"

"A choice?" Mikal asked, his voice softening just a fraction. He stepped closer, his sharp intellect sensing something deep and dangerous underlying amidst the boy’s anger. He had never seen Long Zhan this desperate or this deeply hurt before. "What exactly is going on, boy? Stop shouting and tell me the truth."

"Yeah... I don’t have any choice," Long Zhan said, his shoulders dropping as all the fight suddenly left his body. He looked completely defeated. "If I had a real choice in this matter, who would ever want to leave Wanwan behind? I would stay right there in the house forever. But if I don’t do this right now... I may not even be allowed to be with her when the real time comes. I need to leave her side so I can go train. I need to become strong enough to be worthy of standing next to her."

Mikal did not interrupt him this time. He stood perfectly still on the grass, letting Long Zhan pour out all his grievances and fears. It was a sight that almost never happened; Long Zhan was usually too proud to ever show his weakness to anyone.

The fact that he was breaking down like this just showed exactly how deeply bothered and terrified he truly was about the future.

"My Wanwan’s true identity... it is too high," Long Zhan whispered, his eyes looking blankly at the leather map. "It is something so grand that not even the grand patriarch of our dragon clan could ever hope to reach it. We are like ants looking up at the sun."

Mikal’s ever passive, emotionless expression finally showed a massive crack. His eyebrows twitched in deep shock, but he still said absolutely nothing.

He could easily imagine how completely shocked and overwhelmed Long Zhan must have been when he first found out this news. For a proud dragon beastman to admit he was nothing compared to his female was a massive blow to his pride.

"Her guardian... that strange black cat... she told me the absolute truth," Long Zhan continued, his voice shaking with a mix of anger and shame. "She said that with my current level of strength, I am not even powerful enough to get a basic position as a humble servant. A servant whose only job is to handle bringing in the daily food stocks to my Wanwan’s family estate in the upper worlds! She looked me right in the eye and said that if I don’t raise my strength to a completely different level, it is better if I just stay far away from her so I don’t cause her trouble."

Mikal listened to the heavy words, his mind processing the sheer scale of what the boy was facing. "And are you really going to listen to a cat?" Mikal finally broke the silence, his voice steady. "Are you really going to just stay away and give up?"

"Of course not!" Long Zhan barked, his violet eyes flaring with a sudden, stubborn fire. "I am a dragon! I would rather die than give up on my female! I am leaving to go train. With the special pill that the guardian gave to me, it will be more than enough for me to find my way to the peak."

Mikal’s eyes narrowed instantly, his sharp focus locking onto the young master’s pockets. "What pill did she give you?"

"A Bloodline Awakening Pill," Long Zhan said casually, shaking his head as if he still couldn’t believe it himself. "I don’t even know how she got her hands on this pill..."

"A WHAT?!!" Mikal shouted at the top of his lungs, completely interrupting him, his mind was only able to register in the word bloodline awakening pill, the other words long Zhan said simply flew past his ears. His face went entirely pale, his usual calm and scholarly attitude vanishing into thin air.

"A Bloodline Awakening Pill," Long Zhan repeated, startled by the older man’s massive reaction. He reached into his leather purse and carefully brought out the glowing porcelain bottle, holding it out in the open air.

Before he could even blink, Mikal’s hand blurred with terrifying speed. He quickly snatched the bottle right out of Long Zhan’s fingers. He held it close to his face, his hands trembling as he kept on looking at the smooth white porcelain.

He turned it around and around under the bright sunlight, shaking it very gently against his ear, looking completely tempted to open the stopper right then and there.

Long Zhan’s mouth was wide open in complete shock as he watched his old caretaker.

The sheer amount of raw emotion and greed Mikal was showing right now was more than what Long Zhan had ever seen in all the years he had known the man.

Mikal was always like a stone wall, but right now, his eyes were wide and burning with a frantic light.

Mikal was completely lost in his own world, his fingers moving carefully as he slowly pulled the stopper out of the bottle just a tiny fraction.

The very moment the seal was cracked, a wave of pure, golden spiritual energy oozed out of the tiny opening. It didn’t just smell good, it felt alive.

The air around the hilltop instantly became thick and heavy, sweet like ancient flowers and sharp like a lightning storm.

The grass near Mikal’s feet suddenly started to grow rapidly, turning a deep, vibrant green as it drank in the stray energy.

The spiritual pressure was so immense that it made the blood inside their veins roar with a sudden, wild heat. It felt like holding a piece of the primordial sun in the palm of your hand.

Terrified of wasting even a single drop of such a divine thing, Mikal quickly slammed the stopper back into the bottle, sealing the energy away.