Inside the secret realm, a breathtaking scene unfolded before them, capturing everyone except Ash, Aetherion, and Li Jian's attention immediately, as they had never seen such a scene.
They found themselves standing on a vast cliff overlooking an expansive, untouched island. A landscape of pure, wild nature stretched endlessly in all directions, abundant with lush greenery, towering mountains shrouded in mist, and dense forests teeming with life.
A great river sparkled under the sunlight, cutting through the heart of the island, weaving through valleys before flowing into waterfalls that roared majestically into crystal-clear lakes.
Gentle breezes carried the fragrance of blooming flowers and fresh vegetation, blending with the invigorating scent of pure air untouched by civilization.
"What now?" Ash asked as he took out the dragon egg in front of them.
"Let me extract your blood essence again." Aetherion chuckled.
"Ugh… Whatever." Ash rolled his eyes and extended his hand.
"Before that, drink this." Aetherion smashed his hand to the side, opening a small spatial crack, and put his hand inside.
After he pulled out his hand, he opened his palm and revealed a drop of clear water that was the same as the elixir of eternal spring Hao's mom had consumed.
"Isn't that the elixir of eternal spring?" Ash raised an eyebrow and asked again. "You also have that?"
"Just drink this quickly and don't ask too many useless questions." Aetherion opened Ash's mouth forcefully with his left hand and stuffed the drop of the eternal spring with his right palm into his mouth as he slapped his palm on his face.
As he noticed an abundance of life energy pouring into him, Ash was surprised and felt extremely satisfied because it was a pleasant feeling.
However, what Ash had never expected was that Aetherion suddenly poked his chest with a finger a few seconds after that, which caused all of the life energy to gather into his chest.
After a few moments, a single drop of blood essence came out. But this time, Ash didn't feel the exhaustion as much as he did before. At best, he was only a little bit tired.
Aetherion then dropped the blood on the egg and waited as he placed his palm on it.
"How is it?" Ash asked eagerly.
"It should take a while before it hatches, so calm down." Aetherion tapped his shoulder, then sneered. "Besides, what's going to happen with the dragon inside is not like what you think it's going to be anyway."
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Ash frowned, thinking about the possibilities that could happen.
"So I won't be able to ride a majestic dragon in the future? I won't be able to tame it or what?" Ash asked curiously.
Aetherion only shrugged with a smile in response, which pissed Ash off that he felt like Aeth's face was really punchable at the moment.
After enjoying the scenery for a while, they went to a nearby waterfall because Xiao Mei begged Ash to go to a waterfall for a swim.
Naturally, Ash agreed since he also had been thinking of an excuse to go somewhere else with Aetherion and Hao.
Subsequently, they parted ways, and the trio immediately went to a nearby active volcano.
On a giant crater above the active volcano, Aetherion glanced at Ash and said. "Create a crater around 2 meters big."
Ash responded with a wave of his hand, creating a big crater, and raised an eyebrow curiously.
"Open your shirt first." Aetherion chuckled as he smashed his hand to the right and created a spatial crack.
After putting his hand inside for a second, he then pulled it out and brought out a thick red drop of blood around 15 cm big.
The moment Ash saw the blood, he frowned and mumbled softly. "A dragon's blood?"
He could instinctively feel that it was dragon's blood for some reason.
"You're right." Aetherion smiled.
"Where did you get it from? Can I also take things like you did if I were able to do it too?" Ash became a little bit excited at the thought of being able to take many things if he were able to smash space like Aetherion did.
Aetherion only rolled his eyes in response and sneered. "You wish."
He then glanced at Ash. "Give some water, around 1 meter deep, and that's all."
Ash could only grit his teeth and do what Aetherion told him to do, as he was also curious about what training Hao was about to go through since Aetherion mentioned having the will to bear the excruciating pain when doing so.
After he filled the crater with water, Ash just noticed Hao's physical situation from the corner of his eyes.
His heart instantly stopped beating for a second.
Hao was sitting quietly beside the crater, stripped to the waist, his gaze lowered as if he were lost in thought. However, it was his body that made him furrow his brows unconsciously.
His entire body looked like it had been dragged through hell of torture. He actually had seen it before, but it was only more like his hands and some of his legs too. His whole body, which had been covered by its shirt, was the worst.
Purple and black bruises marred nearly every inch of his skin, some fresh and swollen, others older and faded.
Jagged scars crisscrossed his back and arms like some thin whiplashes, others thick and deep, as though carved by blades.
Even his body was riddled with poorly stitched-up wounds, half-healed cuts, and burn marks that hinted at some form of cruel torment. His shoulders were slightly hunched, as if used to carrying the pain far too long.
It wasn't the kind of body you'd expect from an ordinary young man, but rather someone who had endured brutal punishment, over and over again.
"Is it because of Xiao Mei's huge misfortune?" Ash knitted his eyebrows deeply while clenching his fists so tightly that his nails pierced his palms and bled them out.
"Of course, if it wasn't because of her good luck that's higher than her misfortune, both of them would've died horribly." Aetherion chuckled as if it was nothing.
He then continued with a vicious smile, "After knowing this, you still want to carry that huge burden of misfortune?"
Sigh!
"To be honest with you, after looking at his situation now, I hesitated a little bit since I'm just afraid that something might happen to me, and who would take care of my siblings in this cruel world after I'm gone?" Ash sighed and shook his head, but then he looked at Aetherion with a hopeful smile.
"However, now that I think about it. Since you don't seem to be worried, it actually shouldn't be that bad, right?"
Aetherion replied with a smile. "You're right. It's actually going to benefit you at the end of the day. Though, it also depends on your own capabilities because sometimes, it might become your disaster, but if you manage to get through it, you might turn the disaster into a huge opportunity."
"I see." Ash nodded his head, then shrugged as he chuckled. "It's just a challenge that's just going to be extremely hard anyway, what's wrong with that?"
"I like that mindset of yours. Hopefully you won't at least end up as bad as Hao is." Aetherion sneered.
Cough!
"What are you going to do with all of this anyway?" Ash coughed embarrassedly and asked Aetherion instead.
"In simple terms, he's going to absorb the dragon blood and something else to become completely anew." Aetherion smiled and gave Ash a meaningful glance.
"Is it similar to my awakening?" Ash raised an eyebrow.
"Technically, yes." Aetherion chuckled and paused for a second before shaking his head slowly. "However, the difficulty and the pain that he's going to experience are way higher and worse compared to yours, as you're being helped by the system."
"What's his chance?" Ash smiled helplessly.
"At best it's going to be as high as 50% even with me helping him directly." Aetherion replied calmly.
"What's his chance if you don't help him at all?" Ash asked curiously.
Aetherion looked up at the sky, seemingly calculating it in his head. "Less than 0,1%?"
He then continued. "It's mainly because he won't be able to do it correctly and might even destroy himself. That's why I said as long as he had the will and could bear with the excruciating pain, he should be fine."
After talking for a little bit more, Aetherion drove Ash away as he asked way too many questions.
…
15 days later inside the secret realm, which was the same as 3 days in the outside world had passed in a blink of an eye.
Within that time, Ash had gone through a hellish training with Li Jian and Aetherion that he had never expected because he barely even had any sleep, as he had been using all that time to train except for the last day, in which Aetherion told him to have a good rest.
"Let's go." Ash waved his hand, creating a portal leading to the outside world.
'Hopefully, it will go according to plan.' Ash thought to himself, remembering his early plan that he wanted to execute before going inside the secret realm later on.
This time, he was going to make a huge mess with other top factions, at least those who had bad reputations, as he intended to get more benefits by simply killing them.