Xuan was still unconscious while Zhao Zen Wu kept his distance from his body. The aura coming from Xuan's body was the same as Zhao Zen Wu had felt earlier, which he thought was from the dragon ancestor.
But he never once thought that it was Xuan and not the Cloud Severing Sovereign, especially after witnessing the old man's power many times.
Since Xuan's body was releasing a strange aura, Zhao Zen Wu only thought of it as the process of the old man taking over Xuan's body.
However, on the other side, inside Xuan's consciousness, Xuan saw the old man's memories as if he were living them himself.
From the time he was born until today, when he was being devoured by the strange dragon statue, Xuan saw everything.
He got to know why Zhao Zen Wu had led him to the old man and why the old man was so desperate to take over his body.
Xuan gulped when he first learned the next piece of information. He found out that the Cloud Severing Sovereign was not from these lands; he had traveled from a foreign land to take his revenge on demonic practitioners who had killed his whole clan.
He chased them from another continent to this one and found remnants of those demonic practitioners in this city, where he came closer to death after ending every single one of them.
"His cultivation was beyond what Ru Feng told me about, but he was already injured when he confronted the demonic practitioners who killed his family," Xuan muttered, but there was no remorse for the old man.
The Cloud Severing Sovereign's revenge was already complete since he had killed those who were responsible for his clan's death, but even after that, his will to survive made him the same as those whom he once hated.
Xuan had no remorse for him, since he was after Xuan's life.
Due to those memories, Xuan learned more about the cultivation world. He learned how treacherous the world is and how one wrong step can be the end for you.
"If he hadn't left his people to pursue that woman, then his clan wouldn't have had to lose their lives," Xuan thought of the reason where the entire chain of events started.
Is he feeling sorry for him? No.
Does he think any better of the Cloud Severing Sovereign after learning about his life? Literally, no.
With the old man's memories, he also became accustomed to the knowledge of the law of the jungle. If he hadn't had those strange beast statues inside his body, then the one dying today would be Xuan and not the Cloud Severing Sovereign.
When he thought about the statues, his gaze first landed on the dragon statue, with a little half of its body turning into life-like scales.
"Those scales!" He remembered the same golden aura from the first time he learned the Dragon Blood-Assimilation Divine Art from Long Wei.
The golden scales were the same as the ones he had when he turned into the dragon in that memory, which he had unsealed upon learning the Dragon Blood-Assimilation Divine Art.
Then his eyes landed on the Phoenix, White Tiger, Pixiu, and the other numerous beasts. There were many he didn't recognize, but he still felt a resonance with them.
His gaze landed on them; the statues shook as if recognizing his presence.
Xuan could see that something within those statues was connected to him, but he could not unravel it at that moment.
Thus, he could only return his focus to the dragon statue, which was slowly shedding its skin. He tried to touch the stone statue, but his hands rippled back.
It gave him the feeling that he wasn't worthy of it, letting him know that he was too weak to wield that power.
But this only hardened his resolve. Today he was alive all thanks to the unknown power inside his consciousness; if not for it, this day would be his end forever.
"I need to quickly ascend to the higher realm; only then can I save those close to me and won't let the same thing repeat once again in my life." His soul began vaporizing as Zhao Zen Wu saw Xuan's body moving for the first time since the Cloud Severing Ancestor had begun taking over an hour ago.
Zhao Zen Wu felt nervous, but he was still sure that if the Cloud Severing Ancestor's old body had crumbled and Xuan's body was intact, then the old man had succeeded in taking over.
However, an unknown fear gripped his heart. He didn't know if this was fear or if he was just anxious, but it only surged when Xuan rose back to his feet.
Unknown to him, when Xuan rose up and met Zhao Zen's eyes, his eyes blazed with fury as the perpetrator stood in front of him.
"M…master!" Zhao Zen Wu called, still not giving a thought to whether it could be Xuan.
Just then, he felt Xuan's hands gripping his neck. "Master! That old man has long perished, Zhao Zen Wu." Xuan's thunderous roar shook Zhao Zen Wu to his core.
Xuan's entire cultivation, which was at the peak of Qi Awakening, now began surging upward as his grip tightened around Zhao Zen Wu's neck.
"You!" Zhao Zen Wu's eyes widened.
"Impossible…" he muttered between his struggles to break free from Xuan's strength. His own cultivation was way ahead of Xuan's, but the draconic aura coming from Xuan's body was so intense that it suppressed him.
Though he didn't notice in his panic that the aura had already started to diminish, Xuan could feel it. 'I can't kill him, but I have to tame him. I still need his help to rescue Ru Feng,' Xuan thought as he spoke.
…
Inside the manor, Long Wei sensed Xuan's draconic aura going wild. "Husband!" She muttered as her dragon blood resonated with Xuan's aura, sending chills through her.
Seeing her in such a condition, Bai Hua asked, as she clearly couldn't feel anything, since only those from the dragon lineage could feel that something primordial had begun to awaken. "Long Wei! What happened, did you feel something?"
Long Wei nodded, "I can feel my husband's aura going wild, it's even wilder than before…." She then looked at Zhao Zen He.
"You must know where the city lord has taken our husband?"
Zen He shook her head, "I have no idea. Father does things which only he knows and keeps the family out of it. But rest assured, he won't harm your husband." She said with a smile, clearly having a good image of her father in her eyes.