Even with profound cultivation, achieving immortality, after so many years of solitude, even one’s thoughts, temperament, and actions become different from ordinary people—eccentric and strange to the extreme.

“Since that’s the case, I wonder what technique, senior, you wish to pass on to me?”

“In the primordial era, there existed the divine being of the dragon, born with immortality, able to summon wind and rain, command thunder, and breathe true flames. Its divine power was boundless—moving mountains, filling seas, shattering the heavens and rending the earth.”

Pausing for a moment, the man said in a deep voice, “I have forced myself to survive for many years, clinging to my last breath, all for the sake of finding someone to whom I could pass down this art—the Taixu Pure Qi Dragon Transformation Manual!”

If a human is insatiably greedy, death is certain.

If a dragon is insatiably greedy, it devours all the heavens.

……

Chapter 002: I Was Once of the Heavens, Now Lost Among the Masses

“Taixu Pure Qi Dragon Transformation Manual…”

Brian Zane looked at the tub filled with medicinal herbs, at the pale cloud serpent swimming within, still feeling somewhat unsettled. The events of that day remain hazy and dreamlike even now.

Back then, when he fell into the mountains, he thought he was doomed.

When he encountered the withered corpse, he sensed something strange about it, and indeed, it turned out to be perilous.

When he heard that senior intended to pass on his cultivation, he was actually unconvinced in his heart.

After all, he himself came from an immortal mountain, and his mentor Samuel White was a renowned and accomplished immortal. The sect’s techniques were also top-tier immortal arts. Yet, due to his own physical issues, his Dao seal collapsed and pierced his dantian, making further cultivation impossible. Even the brilliant Samuel White was powerless to help.

What’s more, he had broken both legs and become crippled.

Though he still held some hope, he didn’t really believe that a withered corpse trapped beneath the mountain could put him back on the path of cultivation.

But he never expected that, after testing him, the other party would pass down a technique so utterly beyond his imagination.

This technique was not for cultivating his human body.

This technique was to forge, outside his body, a true dragon’s form.

Once the true dragon’s body was perfected, he would then let his own soul take possession of it, thus transforming into a true dragon—immortal, soaring freely through the skies.

“I have obtained the supreme art—one breath transforms into three pure energies.”

“The Shangqing and Yuqing energies are infused into the two ancient corpses, Qianyang and Yinming, to be controlled by thought as personal guardians.”

“Only the Taiqing energy, by secret method, is transformed outside the body, condensed into a single thread, like a living being—this is the young dragon.”

“If, in my lifetime, I can transform this thread of pure energy into a primordial true dragon, then after my human body withers, my three souls and seven spirits, my consciousness and mind, will be drawn by the energy and merge into the dragon’s body.”

“From then on, my true self will no longer be this broken human body, but that divine dragon form.”

“But, in my lifetime, can I truly refine this cloud serpent into a true dragon?”

In front of outsiders, the unfathomable Mr. Thirteen now had only confusion in his eyes.

When he first began cultivating this art, it was just a wisp of energy, condensed by the technique into a single thread, as fine as a hair, no longer than three inches.

After six years, absorbing the essence of sun and moon, gathering all kinds of medicinal herbs and rare treasures, nurturing it day and night, he had only managed to make this thread of pure energy as thick as a finger and about a foot long.

According to the Taixu Pure Qi Dragon Transformation Manual, this thread of pure energy must be cultivated to a certain level before it “opens its eyes,” and can then be controlled like a living creature.

“I have spent six years, exhausting all my efforts, building such a vast enterprise to amass wealth, gather rare treasures, recruit countless subordinates, and use my influence in the mortal world to search for anything that could nourish the divine dragon…”

“After six years, only this early summer did it barely open its eyes.”

“But opening its eyes and transforming into a serpent is only the first step.”

Brian Zane took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

His progress was only at the first step, but the cloud serpent still needed to continue growing.

After opening its eyes comes opening its mouth.

Then, it will grow scales, then horns, then claws, thus becoming a flood dragon.

After that, the flood dragon will further transform—deer antlers, dragon whiskers, fish fins, and other details will all form, and only then will it begin to take on the true dragon’s body.

Finally, it will condense a dragon pearl, and after being tempered by heaven and earth, it will truly become a dragon.

Only upon reaching this step, successfully transforming into a dragon, can this art be considered complete.

But now, after six years, even opening its eyes has only just been achieved.

The distance to becoming a dragon is still far, far away.

“Only if this thread of pure energy successfully transforms into a dragon can it draw my three souls and seven spirits into it, allowing me to become a true dragon.”

“But before the transformation, if my human body dies and my soul has nowhere to go, this young dragon will also dissipate into nothingness, and all will be lost.”

Brian Zane closed his eyes slightly and said in a low voice, “They say a human life can last a hundred years, but even seventy is rare, and sixty is a full cycle. In the mortal world, how many can truly live to a hundred?”

“Even if I have true qi within, able to invigorate my muscles and bones, circulate blood and energy, thus prolonging my life past a hundred, I am still injured and crippled, and may not live long. Now, at twenty-six… how many more six-year periods do I have?”

“Six years of cultivation, and the cloud serpent’s progress is only so much.”

“Even with sixty more years, what then?”

“Let alone sixty years—even if my body could last another hundred, for this little serpent to ‘become a dragon’ still seems a hopeless wish.”