Almost as if in some sort of frenzy, hundreds of spirits rushed from the Heavenreach tree towards the same direction.

A massive dragon, long enough to put the height of most buildings to shame lazily turned his head, glancing at the colourful sight. On his horns, an ant perched, its carapace a vibrant green, almost as if it were made entirely out of emerald. Before the sheer scale of the dragon, it looked almost like an ordinary ant, but was big enough to serve as a mount for several people.

"Say, any clue why they're in such a rush?" Tian Di said, his long whiskers blowing in the wind.

"Ask them yourself." the ant snapped.

The dragon let out a dry laugh.

Outside of the sect, he had been used to being treated with the utmost respect by the elders of the Myriad Beast sect. At least... until they conspired with other sects to imprison and sell him off at an auction. He gnashed his teeth. Even now, it made him seethe with anger...

If only he could travel back to his old world... with his cultivation having advanced leaps and bounds, there was no way the disgraced sect would be able to withstand his fury.

"You there," he said, poking at a passing green spirit.

"What?" it said, annoyed.

"Why are so many of you heading off in a rush?"

"Hell if I know! The new sect master summoned all of us."

New sect master? Tian Di was surprised for a moment, then decided he didn't care all that much.

"I guess I'll ask her then." he mused.

"Hah. You should know to leave her alone." the ant snarked.

Tian Di waved his hands nonchalantly as he uncoiled himself from the massive branch and soared upwards. Through the clouds he pierced, weaving through the countless branches. At last, he arrived near the crown of the tree, where a large platform of wood had been built.

There, another dragon was coiled comfortably, her eyes shut in meditation.

Seeing her, his mind briefly drifted...

58 days ago...

"That insufferable wrinkled prune..."

The dragon exhaled as he remembered the old man that confronted him yesterday, before laughing heartily. Tian Di was so enraged, he wanted to challenge the stinking human to a fight until he sensed its tremendous aura. Terrifying! He really needed to get used to seeing enemies stronger than him once more...

With a wink, the old man said he would be getting a new companion tomorrow, before flying into the distance. Grrr...

"What old prune?" a voice entered his mind.

"Eh?"

Tian Di recoiled, seeing the soulsense came from a little green ant.

Wait, that ant... its aura... it wasn't stronger than him?

In the next moment, he reached out a claw and slapped it reflexively. Raising his hand, all that remained of the poor ant was a splatter of green.

He stared, stunned at the sight, before laughing uproariously to himself, his voice echoing throughout the branches. Finally, he was once again strong!

Wait...

What if that ant had friends just as strong as those humans? Did that mean he would have to escape?

He got carried away, so pressured by suddenly being weaker than seemingly everything in this new world that he lashed out without thinking!

As he "slithered" all over the giant branch in a panic, suddenly, a flash of light shone from above, followed by a shadow cast above him.

Tian Di looked up, only to see another dragon floating above him.

He froze at the sight.

It was the first time he had ever seen another dragon, let alone one so beautiful.

The moment he broke out of his daze, he understood what that prune wanted. So that was it... these humans, their greed never changes...

Heh. Not that he was going to complain.

"Oh, my beautiful w-"

Before he could speak a second word, a tail slammed into his skull, turning his vision black for the next few seconds. He reached his claws to his face, only for pools of blood to drip into them. He- he was bleeding?

"Listen here." the dragon above said, voice seething with anger. "If you even come within a hundred-metre radius of me, I will snap your neck! I will be taking residence on the crown of the tree, so stay away if you value your life!"

With a harrumph, she soared above and into the clouds.

"Honestly, I can't believe you like someone that violent." the ant said.

"Well, I slapped you back then as well, didn't I?" Tian Di laughed. "And yet we still get along."

"It was only a disposable drone anyway."

After what happened previously, mainly out of fear, the dragon reluctantly apologised to the ant colony, mostly out of fear. The ants laughed it off. Apparently, the whole colony of ants were mindless, save for the queen, who puppeted all of them. What type of freakish multitasking was that? Tian Di couldn't even begin to imagine how anyone could manage so many bodies at once.

Opening her eye before narrowing them once again, the other dragon glared at him.

"Are you a masochist?"

"Eh?" Tian Di was taken aback for a moment. "No, of course not! Ahem... I was just curious about those spirits gathering! As an elder, you should have some idea of what's going on, right?"

From his time spent with the green ants, he learnt she was apparently an elder of the sect? Maybe that was why the old man was laughing so hard back then... The ant queen refused to tell him her name though, saying she might get mad.

...Until Tian Di asked a passing spirit and immediately found out her name, Li Xuan.

Truthfully though, he didn't really care all that much about the hurried spirits. It was merely an excuse to talk to her.

"Oh?" Li Xuan went deep into thought.

As the Spirit elder, she had naturally been informed of the investigation. Li Jie was really going out, even planning to make heavenly contracts to send a few elders over, despite their cultivation being too high for a lower Belt...

Dragons innately had extraordinary soulsense and spirit sense, thousands of times beyond that of a human. The elders briefly considered sending her out as well, but unfortunately, descending into a mortal world at her cultivation would require a heavenly contract.

The human elders faced the same problem as well, but the price they needed to pay was hundreds of times lower.

Now, that extremely annoying dragon, however? There would be no problems sending him over given his cultivation. Plus, she would stop getting bothered by him until the investigation was over! That numbskull would always disturb her cultivation at least once a week... It was the perfect plan!

Li Xuan felt very pleased with herself.