Chapter 27: The Inheritance He Never Wanted

The figure sitting on the throne did not look anything like the corpse Yun Rou spent thousands of years protecting.

He looked alive. Very much alive but irritationingly at ease, one leg hanging over the knee joint of his thigh, one elbow supporting his head, a faint smile playing across his lips as if waking up inside the soul of some dead fellow was an everyday occurrence.

Yun Rou couldn’t move.

Her eyes were pinned onto him.

The ancient battlefield flashed before her eyes. The dragons. The blood. Fire in the skies. An enormous body, falling from the heavens.

She had never seen him alive. Had never spoken to him. What she knew about the Dragon God came from the ruins he had survived and the legends that spoke of his life.

There was no mistaking the presence in front of her, though. It shared the immense dragon pressure that she had felt on the Dragon Bone thousands of years ago.

"You are Long Xuan."

The man on the throne smiled. "So had your heard of me."

"I know the name of the Dragon God whose remain I protected, but that does not mean I know you."

Long Xuan’s smile grew. "Very well said."

There was nothing wrong in his tone, nothing mocking. If anything, he found her caution to be quite amusing.

Yun Rou forced herself to look at him properly. She had spent thousands of years analyzing the Dragon Bone. Studying the aura it possessed, studying the feeling of the pressure she felt coming from it, the remnants of something immense that had threatened to shake the entirety of a realm once upon the times.

It felt nothing like that.

Long Xuan watched her eyes darken. "You’re wondering how I’m still here."

"How did you survive?"

Long Xuan leaned back. "Survive?" He looked at himself. "That’s an optimistic word."

Yun Rou said nothing.

Long Xuan shrugged lightly. "I knew my death was drawing near. You see, having lived this long has its perks. Once you’ve passed a point in your existence, you become quite aware of the state of your own soul and body. You stop expecting death to come and just prepare your best to keep that from the happening."

Yun Rou studied his face. "You knew."

"Yes, I did."

"You knew you were going to die, and still let the war go on?"

Long Xuan’s smile vanished for a second. "I didn’t ’allow’ anything." His tone was even, but his words had enough of edge for Yun Rou not to respond right away.

Ao Kuiba was silent for a long moment until this finally stepped forward. "So you knew your death was coming, preserved your soul inside the Dragon Bone and left you inheritance behind?"

Long Xuan turned to Ao Kuiba. "That’s one way of putting it."

"Was is for me?"

The Dragon God turned to Ao Kuiba and for the first time. It wasn’t mocking but the very idea appeared to be genuinely amusing to the man.

"For you?" Long Xuan shook his head. "You really do have a rather impressive opinion of yourself."

"I asked a reasonable question."

"Yes, it was." Long Xuan rested his chin and fingers on of his hand on the edge of one of his knees. "And the answer is no."

Ao Kuiba’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Long Xuan moved on. "I did not prepare the Dragon Bone for some future successor, and I most certainly didn’t know your name when I died."

Yun Rou watched him carefully and turned to Ao Kuiba. "Then why did the Dragon Bone accept him?"

"Because he’s a pure dragon." Long Xuan pointed at Ao Kuiba. "Being pure in this realm is more than common, but being a pure Imperial is something this realm rarely sees."

He looked Ao Kuiba over, as if appraising for the first time since being resurrected. "Dragon Bone possesses power that would tear apart anyone but the strongest of cultivators. Even the majority of dragons would not be able to withstand such power. But his bloodline can carry it, his body can endure all it demands and his soul is strong enough to not shatter under its pressure." Long Xuan smiled. "That makes him the best candidate, if you’re asking."

Ao Kuiba crossed his arms. "Candidate for what?"

"My inheritance."

The answer came off without ceremony.

Ao Kuiba’s face darkened. "No."

Yun Rou looked at him.

Long Xuan raised his brow. "You didn’t even ask to know the contents."

"I don’t need to." Ao Kuiba regarded the Dragon God carefully. "I’ve spent more than eight thousand years cultivating my path, so whatever you achieved you achieved yourself, and whatever Dao you walked is yours own. I do not want to abandon my path, simply because another left behind a powerful inheritance."

Long Xuan listened to him quietly.

Ao Kuiba carried on. "I don’t want your burden, your enemies, your unfinished ambitions, and above all I do not want another will planted inside my cultivation."

The amusement on Long Xuan’s face visibly faded. "You’re afraid of being controlled."

"No, I am not." Ao Kuiba’s answer was immediate. "I simply do not like what I am being given when I hadn’t agreed to it."

That earned a chuckle from Long Xuan. "Now, this is a distinction I can respect."

Ao Kuiba said nothing.

Long Xuan’s smile returned. "Unfortunately for you, respecting your opinion does not mean I will pay heed to it."

The tone was suddenly different.

Ao Kuiba’s golden pupils darkened. "What are you doing?"

"Something I should not."

A powerful force suddenly erupted from the depths of Ao Kuiba’s soul. His body stiffened as the remaining energy left inside the Dragon Bone surged up his meridians and started gathering at the top of his head, instead of pushing himself out of the soul space.

Ao Kuiba immediately pushed the force back down. The power of his spirit clashed with the force attempting to occupy his body and for a moment, the space itself seemed to tremble.

Long Xuan remained sitting on the throne. "Do not resist."

Ao Kuiba’s face twisted in anger. "Could you have actually listened to me?"

"And I could have said it politely."

"I said no."

"I heard you."

The force increased. A burning sensation appeared in the middle of Ao Kuiba’s eyebrows as golden light leaked out from inside of his skull. A strange symbol was forming beneath his skin slowly, depicting a dragon encircling an ancient seal, the body of said creature crossing itself around the seal in a manner Ao Kuiba has never seen before.

The mark burrowed deep into his soul. Then, it planted itself on top of his forehead.

Ao Kuiba’s aura flared. For several breathing moments, everything trembled under the pressure he exerted on the soul space. Then, everything went still.

Ao Kuiba raised his hand and pressed it against the mark, a very displeased expression on his face. "What exactly did you put inside of me?"

Long Xuan leaned back in satisfaction. "My inheritance."

"I rejected it."

"Yes."

"Then remove it."

"No."

Yun Rou looked up at them. She was beginning to understand that the Dragon God was far more unreasonable than the legends had made him out to be.

Long Xuan watched her expression. "What is it?"

Yun Rou shook her head. "I think I understand why someone might want to kill you."

Long Xuan laughed. "That’s never been a problem."

Ao Kuiba seemed unimpressed with the whole affair. He looked at the mark with his spiritual senses and for a long moment, couldn’t see anything abnormal around it. No foreign will trying to control him, no commands or restrictions placed on his person.

In fact, there was enormous amount of sealed structures hidden within the mark. Techniques, comprehension, fragments of Laws, Dao insights, Ancient cultivation knowledge, Dragon techniques, Soul Arts, Samsara and Artifacts - knowledge that Ao Kuiba couldn’t hope to understand at his current level.

Most of it was hidden.

Long Xuan chuckled. "I can force the inheritance into your possession, but not force you to comprehend it."

Ao Kuiba stared at him. "Then I won’t use it."

Long Xuan smiled. "It’s your choice."

That made Ao Kuiba stop and think.

Long Xuan continued. "You wanted your own path, keep it. I have no intention of making you any other version of yourself. If one day you find something in the inheritance worth using, take it. If not, leave it to gather dust inside your soul."