Chapter 2 - Cracks

The wind blew, sending a shiver down the sleeping 10-year-old's spine. A frown formed on his face. As he saw this, Evan circulated a bit of Qi into Daniel, effectively warming him up and easing his expression. He then proceeded to lift the child up softly, ensuring that Daniel continues his adventures in his dream.

After laying him down on his bed, he tried to leave the room, but small arms shot up, hugging his head. Helpless, the father stayed unmoving for a while, hugging his son. A while later, the muffled sound of the door closing could be heard, signifying the end of the young man's stay in the room.

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Evan opened the door to his study. He took out a Qi Core and lit it up, illuminating the myriad of books sitting quietly in his personal library. Many of these books had been penned by him, others acquired elsewhere. The smell and touch of books reassured him, reminding him of his time spent on the other Earth.

A lifetime had literally passed since then, as he had gone through a whole infancy, childhood, and young adulthood, blurring his prior memories. Although they had later resurfaced as he progressed in cultivation, he felt partly detached from them, as they did not fully represent who he currently was.

Sensing himself drifting into memories, Evan shook his head, creating a gust of wind doing so. A contraption activated, the books disappearing. Acknowledging his stupidity, Evan pressed himself to put these jewels of knowledge back on the shelves from the safe they went into. Living in a world where men could flatten mountains meant that delicate physical objects such as books had a very short life expectancy. Such objects could only be preserved with sufficient preparation.

Finishing this chore relatively quickly, he joined a corner of the room where laid once again a strange contraption. Glowing on the ground, Qi Cores powered several devices in which sat big round objects. The eggs came up to Evan's knee, denoting the abnormal size of its tenants. While having yet to be born, the infant beasts inside projected a strong bloodline aura, not letting down the dragons' reputation. Evan had taken care to constantly send gentle Qi into the many eggs, reinforcing the lives inside, helping them until birth.

None making it out alive was not something he was willing to see, as he had been entrusted with them by their wise progenitors before they succumbed to a curse that had drained their lifespan over years. Having been taught by the dragon couple, he had vowed to keep its progeny safe, leading to the present.

Due to all the precautions taken, all of the eggs had reached vitality levels that ensured the continued development of life inside. Some had even started to absorb the Qi on their own, hinting to their approaching arrival on Earth.

After checking that nothing had gone wrong, the father sat down on his desk, delving into plans to find new paths of cultivation. His original one had been closed off due to his broken energy locus. Although he could continue to comprehend laws, effectively strengthening his combat ability, the limitations of his current body were impossible to surpass without a vast reserve of energy to temper the body with, in the form of a Revolving Core and a Core Sea.

He had yet to find a way to find a remedy to his situation but had created many different cultivation techniques during the years of research and development. His former engineering background drove his predisposition to such endeavors and Evan believed that good luck shines on those who work hard.

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What he did not realize while he focused on his work, was that, silently, cracks had begun to form on one of the eggs.