Nalser led Old Dragon to a little table and a few chairs near the edge of the Island. This was the place where he usually ate. Sweeper also brought tea to serve as refreshment. The whole way, from the bridge to the table, they were quiet but Nalser kept up his guard and he kept observing the man. He couldn’t see his cultivation base but that was a given.

He knew the man next to him had a cultivation base that exceeded his by a few miles. Nalser was clearly on the edge, his contact with other people was practically non existent. As Nalser was fidgeting on his seat, not knowing how to start the conversation, the old man let out a laugh, “You don’t need to be so on edge. I mean no harm to you, I am just here to speak to you a bit.” The old man sat up right and a serious glint passed his eyes as he asked, “How much do you remember about yourself?”

This question startled both Nalser and Sweeper, who was nearby sweeping the pathway. Nalser cautiously asked, “What do you mean by that, I remember my whole life.” The old man shook his head lightly and said, “I do not mean the fake memories but the real ones, sealed deep inside. Your recent cultivating frenzy is connected to the memories, isn’t it?”

Nalser was startled, he could not understand who this old man was and how he knew that much about him. Nalser also put on a serious face as he sat upright, “You seem to know more about me than I do. May I ask, what relationship does Senior have with this junior?” Old Dragon was a little startled, Nalser started using extremely courteous speech. The old man collected himself a bit and said, “I used to be a sworn brother with the man you called your Grandpa. We have met several times when you were still little. This is my guess but your cultivating frenzy is because you unlocked some memories from your past and due to that you lost your reason, no?” Nalser was dumbfounded, this old man really was connected to his past and his guess was also on point, leaving Nalser no room to refute it.

Not knowing what to say, Nalser just bit his lip as he lowered his head. The old man, seeing this, let out a sigh, “Now then, sees like my guess was on point. So lets make a trade and swear an oath on it.” Nalser looked at the man in puzzlement, “What trade?” The old man took a deep breath and said, “You ease up on your cultivation and don’t hurry to a grave like you have been lately and I will tell you about your past. What happened and so on.” Nalser was stupefied and thought for a second before nodding his head. He didn’t understand the oath part but he can ease up on his extreme training if he knew who he was.

Seeing Nalser nod so easily, the old man let out a sigh again, “We both swear an oath to the Heavens, If either of us breaks the oath, the person will suffer punishment. The Heavens are fair to the point of it making me puke. They do not care about circumstances at all. So think about it carefully, never agree to an oath this easily.” The old man had a scolding tone but he understood that Nalser wasn’t to blame about this.

Nalser’s Grandpa didn’t teach him anything about cultivation and he currently didn’t have a Master to talk about these things. He had gotten the Ancient Kings Legacy but the King had died countless Eons ago, he may have left him a lot of books on cultivation and such but he couldn’t personally instruct him on many things. This was such a case. Nalser thought about it carefully this time. It was obvious that the old man wasn’t planning on lying to him because he himself was willing to swear an oath as well. Even though Nalser had great determination and will, he faltered a bit even he himself couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t cultivate like mad after knowing his origins. He thought and finally after remembering what his Grandpa used to say, he agreed to take the oath.

After they had both sworn the oaths, The old man asked, “May I ask, what made you steel your resolve like that? You seemed to be in a lot of thought and suddenly smiled as if remembering something.” Nalser just smiled, “I remembered what Grandpa said, “Even 20 years isn’t late for a gentleman’s revenge.” It may take me a long time but as long as I can get the revenge, it doesn’t matter.” Old Dragon had a complicated face on, what Nalser said wasn’t wrong by any means but it meant that he had steeled to get revenge no matter what.

Old Dragon let out a sigh and started, “Now then, lets begin with who you are. You are the last Direct Bloodline prince of an Empire. Only a few months after you were born, a Branch Bloodline revolted against the Direct Bloodline and massacred it. The only one left alive was you.” He took a breath for a second and let it sink in to Nalser before continuing, “You were left alive because you were born with a Heavenly Flame Body, the purest and strongest bodily constitution of your entire bloodline. The main instigator of the rebellion kept you alive to extract the bodily constitution to strengthen his own bloodline. However, your Grandpa couldn’t allow that to happen and he fought to his bitter end to keep you safe. When he knew that he would lose the fight, he sent your courtyard into a separate dimension he had created. He also created various different memories to take the place of the ones he had sealed. What I honestly do not understand is how you got here and acquired the Legacy of the Ancient King.”

As he looked towards Nalser, he stopped for a while. It was very evident that Nalser was currently digesting everything. Nalser looked at Old Dragon and asked in calm, cool manner, “What is the Empires name?” Seeing Nalser like that, Old Dragon felt a chill run down his spine for some reason. “This guy, what is up with those eyes? Is he truly a person who grew up in an isolated courtyard his whole life. Those eyes don’t remind a greenhouse flower at all.” As he thought to himself, he started regretting his decision of telling him everything.

He put on a cold face as he said, “I will tell you the Empires name when you pass the Tribulation. Before that, you going against it is the same as an ant trying to move Mount Tai. You would only be seeking your own death.” Nalser stood up in fury and yelled at the old man, “You swore an oath to tell me everything, aren’t you afraid of the Heavens punishment?!” The old man calmly answered, “I promised to tell you everything but I didn’t specify when. This was one of the safeties I left just in case. Had you not said anything about revenge, I would have told you the name of the Empire. However, since you want to take revenge, I will not tell you before you have enough strength to understand the depth of Earth and height of Heavens.”

Hearing it like it, Nalser was still furious but he picked up the clues from the old man’s words. The enemy wasn’t someone weak and before the Tribulation, he wouldn’t stand a chance at all. Bottling the fury up, he asked with grit teeth, “What is this Heavenly Flame Body?” Seeing Nalser like that, the old man inwardly shook his head as he started explaining, “It is a special bodily constitution. It basically means that you were born with an extreme affinity with fire. In the future, you will have an easier time understand fire based arts and also no normal flames could hurt you at all. When you reach the Empyrean level you will be completely impervious to 90% of flames. Actually, in addition to the Heavenly Flame Body that you were born with, you also have an acquired body.” The last part confused Nalser, where had he acquired another body? The old man lightly chuckled and said, “The acquired body is something you got from the Baptism, it is called the Nether Flame Body. Only the Ancient King has had this bodily constitution through history.”

As he stated this matter of factly, he added in a helpless tone, “However, this situation isn’t as good as you would think. You have two extremely dominating bodily constitutions in your body. In the future, there are 3 ways how this can end:

1. You will die as an aftermath between the bodily constitutions.

2. One of the constitutions will prevail over the other and

3. Which also has the lowest possible chance, the bodily constitutions will merge creating a completely new one.

Currently, the first option has the highest chance of happening.”Nalser was shocked, wasn’t this the same as him giving him a death verdict?

Just as Nalser was about to say something, Old Dragon continued, “The fight for supremacy is going to happen the moment you step into Foundation Establishment. Your only option to survive is to take it easily, eliminate all the hidden injuries inside you and also to temper your body to the absolute peak of Qi Gathering. Since your body is a bit more than a ‘little special’ your limit in body tempering is many times higher than most people. I suggest that when you reach the 13 Stage of Qi Gathering, you should learn these techniques: Hidden Meridians, Hidden Palaces. Bones like Jade, Tendons like Bowstrings, Skin like Rock and Muscles of Steel.”

After he listed the techniques, the old man took a deep breath. He was observing Nalser closely, he knew very well that he gave a death verdict to Nalser but it had to be said. If he had rushed towards Foundation Establishment like he was, he would’ve died with a 100% certainty. Now, provided that he followed his suggestion, his survival chance would rise to 50%. This would also provide the best foundation for the future.

Most people had the misconception that Foundation Establishment was the most important stage in preparation for the future. The most important stage was Qi Gathering. How much you tempered your body or how thoroughly you did it in the Qi Gathering stages had the biggest and most direct impact on the future progress. To temper the body at the later stages of cultivation was many, many times more difficult than in the beginning. At most cases, it was already impossible. If the body in Qi Gathering is a block of unpolished jade, then in the later stages it would be like a polished jade statue. It would be nigh impossible to redo it then.

Nalser wasn’t a fool, he understood why he suggested the body tempering techniques like that. They would temper and improve his body overall, increasing his survival chance. Nalser just let out a sigh and said, “Okay, I need a bit of time to digest all of that but I would like to know, who is this Ancient King you speak of?” Old Dragon looked at Nalser with his jaw almost dropping to the ground. This question had caught him off guard and he felt like he had suffered an uppercut. He looked at Nalser suspiciously and asked, “You have never heard of the Ancient King? You do not know whose Legacy you obtained?”

Nalser looked at the old man with an innocent expression and said, “All I know that he called his arts: Phantom Demon Arts and that his name was Shaon. That is all.” The old man looked around with a suspicious face and as his eyes passed Sweeper, he thought for a second and then said to Nalser, “Shaon was the Ancient King who had the nickname of Phantom Demon. Through history he has been the only being to unify all the Realms under the same rule. The Legacy you obtained is his, you are basically the successor of the Ancient King.” Now it was Nalser’s turn to have his jaw drop to the ground as he asked cautiously, “The only person to have unified the Realms?”

Old Dragon nodded and said, “Yes, he had been the only one to successfully unify the Realms under one rule. If it hadn’t been for the Ancient Wa-” His sentence was cut short as he realized that he had already said too much. He hurriedly said, “You don’t need to know that far currently. It would only serve as a burden to you. When the time is right I will tell you everything regarding it. However for now, all you need to know is that, behind you stand all the remaining Ancient Experts. Though, we will help you out only once before the Tribulation, that is all.”

As Nalser digested all what he was told, he understood bits of it and said, “Before the Tribulation help me once, huh…. Basically, you want me to rely on myself and not the help of outside forces?” Old Dragon just nodded his head and said, “Although it is not bad to have a strong backing, to rely on it too much would be only detrimental to your own progress.” Nalser also nodded his head.

He understood the reasoning, if you had a strong backing to take care of everything for you, you would subconsciously start relying on it too much and your own progress would start stagnating. Seeing Nalser understand everything and accept it all so calmly confused Old Dragon a lot as he thought to himself, “This guy is very weird, his mood changes too quick. One minute he was furious and the next he calmly and collectedly listened to me. I honestly do not understand how his head works.” He had no idea that Nalser was an extremely decisive person.

If he couldn’t do anything about it, he would leave it for later and carry on. He never had the habit of randomly mulling over things that he had no power over. In any case, he would have more than enough time to think over those things later when Old Dragon left. Old Dragon also understood that he had given Nalser a huge information dump right now and he needed a while to think over all things and work them out step by step. He talked a bit about Nalser easing up his training and cultivating the body tempering techniques as well. Without a further ado, he left the Island and left Nalser to work things out for himself.

As Nalser sent him away, he suddenly remembered, “Shit, I forgot to ask him how the Hell he got here.” Cursing a bit, he turned around to go and sit at the edge of the Island again to digest all the information he had received and to work out a plan of action.