Interested but cautious

Yun Jhin found himself into a sticky situation this time, but that's what he wanted, he planned this since the moment he killed the man's daughter.

Yun Jhin wanted to say something but the sword placed near his neck made him unable to, one singular movement from his throat would make the blade go deeper inside and cut an important artery, the middle-aged man was pretty bored himself and he was ready to let go of the sword.

Letting go of it with the help of a little bit of gravity would immediately decapitate Yun Jhin, the middle-aged man was taller than Yun Jhin and the positioning of the sword near his throat made it so letting go of it would detach Yun Jhin head from his body.

Yun Jhin wanted to gulp down a mouthful of saliva but he couldn't even do that or else his adam apple would go in the front and his artery would be sliced by the sword.

The middle-aged man was ready to let the sword go when Yun Jhin waved his hands in a way that didn't move his neck at all, the middle-aged man looked at him and ignored his frantic actions as his hand almost left the handle of the sword, suddenly Yun Jhin let out his mixed-blood aura regarding him as one of the few mixed-blood nobilities.

The dragon of the east general of the 3rd imperial army, Kong Luo, he had many sons and daughters but none of them were as talented as Mijil was, he was extremely angry and disappointed when he heard of her death, that was the sole reason his imperial body would even decide to descend on the middle regions, most of the people of the upper continent considered the humans and other races to be inferior to them, and they would only recognize people from the other 3 sacred races.

Dragons were the most prideful of the 4 races and the ones that were the most strict regarding hierarchy and bloodline, meaning that even if one was talented with a lowly bloodline they could be despised due to their lowly bloodline, but this could happen very rarely as dragon bloodlines would be 90% of the time transferred fully, which meant only the very mixed bloodlines were despised.

Kong Luo retracted his sword as drops of blue blood dripped from Yun Jhin's throat, after a few seconds the wound closed and there was no injury left, Kong Luo appreciated Yun Jhin's regeneration ability with a critical eye as he looked at him, he suddenly clenched Yun Jhin's arm as he inserted a needle into it then he muttered to himself, but his mutter was quite loud so even his guards could hear him:

"Bone age of around... 20 or so years, cultivation base 8th stage of the ki cultivating realm, hmm a very sturdy body, extremely sturdy, I could say it even broke through its normal potential to reach a special state, he surely has a dragon bloodline but what is the other one..."

The imperial general drew some blood again from Yun Jhin as he observed it with energy-filled eyes, his eyes transformed into two ruby-like entities as he looked at the blood, then he tasted it and said:

"This... caterpillar bloodline is unrecognizable, as for the bloodline, is it from Lord Skulpto? No, it's very thick, it's almost perfect, it's at the level of her Majesty Azalea, but her Majesty couldn't find a man worthy enough to impregnate her, very strange."

Kong Luo looked at Yun Jhin with a questioning look on his face, he didn't know from what branch of the family Yun Jhin gained the bloodline he had, his caterpillar bloodline was also unknown, it was a mix of other caterpillars, but they were so muddled and mixed that he couldn't recognize which caterpillar races it belonged to, how could someone have such an unpure and pure bloodline at the same time in one body?

Kong Luo observed Yun Jhin further as he realized that his cultivation base was rather refined, his ki was pure and strong, it was also very malleable under his grasp, it felt like the perfect type of ki that could transform into whatever techniques one desired, Kong Luo eyes widened:

"No element in the ki, that's... 99% of dragons and hybrids have elemental ki!"

This truly put the imperial general on thought, Yun Jhin was a very strange and rare specimen in his eyes, someone that could fill the void of his daughter's death, even though he didn't have a high cultivation base, it was most likely because he lived in these trash conditions and he didn't have enough energy to break through after all his body was extremely strong!

He wasn't sure if he got the needed enlightenment of the level but enlightenment was easily given from an expert to the other, after all, all roads led to Rome, even though not everyone had the same experiences, they could be shared and enlightenment from them could be created. Yun Jhin didn't need enlightenment at all as he was a reincarnated being with fully acquired memories, but he could play the part if he needed to.

Kong Luo grasped Yun Jhin's hand as he took the needle out and his inspecting ki, he was a man with emperor ki which was above king ki, his ki was overwhelming and Yun Jhin couldn't even move away if he wanted to, so he stood petrified there and waited for the man to finish. Normally speaking Yun Jhin's aura should have been tainted from killing Mijil and Kong Luo should have recognized it, but Yun Jhin fully devoured these types of curses and soul imprints to mend his soul faster.

Soul attacks were the thing he least feared, of course, if a Sage Realm expert decided to soul attack him he would be in a precarious position but he wouldn't die from it, at most his soul would get paralyzed or he would blackout. Only God Realm souls could give him trouble.

Kong Luo's soul willpower entered Yun Jhin's soul space and looked around, however, it didn't find anything wrong as Yun Jhin only let him read surface memories he created, some of them were true, some were fake.

Kong Luo eyes started shining as he looked at Yun Jhin's body and he said:

"You have refined the heart of a natural spirit? I see then, I see why your body is so abnormally strong, you lucky bastard, I wish I could dissect you and take that heart back to use it, *sigh* but it seems you fully devoured the energy, whatever."

Kong Luo patted our dragon caterpillar on the shoulder making him almost tremble and fall to his knees due to the sudden weight that the man put on his pat, but Yun Jhin held on due to his refined body, Kong Luo made a 'tsk' sound as he said:

"Yes, indeed quite the refined body, young man, from what I saw from your soul space want to join me in going to the upper continents don't you?"

Yun Jhin nodded his head as he took an expectant look on his face:

"I have heard that the great general Kong Luo has appeared in the middle regions and I wanted to try my luck after I absorbed the natural spirit's heart I thought that my talent would even shine among the upper continents."

Kong Luo nodded his head slowly as he said:

"Your bodily and ki talent is top-notch, that's true and you would be a top disciple even in the imperial family, regarding talent that it, but your cultivation base is, how could I put it nicely? Very trashy."

Kong Luo shook his head as he continued:

"However I know it's not your fault, your body is lacking quite a lot of energy needed for breakthroughs, even though your foundation is stable, it's pretty dry, it seems you haven't consumed any special herbs in your cultivation and you only got to here with hard work."

The man wasn't wrong, after all, he ate very few pills, but the number of bodies he ate could be in the hundreds of thousands, bodies, unlike herbs, didn't leave behind any impurities, it was just like eating, the only impurities that remained could be removed by tempering the body.

You could argue that Yun Jhin's method of cultivation was superior, but most people found it unethical, that didn't mean people like Yun Jhin didn't exist, there were quite a lot of people similar to him, but they were either in hiding because they were too rampant or dead, not everyone had the experience of countless lives backing them in their plans to eternal life or world domination.

Kong Luo looked at his guards and whispered something to them before getting his gaze back to Yun Jhin:

"I can handle for you to enter the upper regions, but there is something I need to do before that since my daughter Mijil could only enter the upper continents after she won the bloodline tournament, It would be an abuse of my rank to let you enter just because you are talented, your talent is only a little above my late daughter's."

He frowned as he recalled his daughter and then he continued:

"I would have to host another tournament and you would have to win it before you are granted entry legally in the upper continents, you would also get a chance to join the imperial army or the imperial family, however, I would suggest joining the army as it has no politics and it's simpler to live in the army compared to the imperial palace."

Kong Luo was a straight forward man so after he said that he started to walk away, it was already quite some time since he looked for his daughter's killer and there were no leads as both the Zither sect, sect master and patriarch were seemingly gone from the face of the earth.

They just disappeared, he made countless attempts at getting leads at the sect grounds but he couldn't find anything, he was also angering the upper ranked sects of the middle continents by extending his investigation, some of the sects already took the region that the Zither sect stood in to be theirs, and they were ready to move in and reconstruct.

Even though the Zither sect was small it had quite the sizeable amount of natural resources around their region. The upper sects, sect masters were as strong as Kong Luo so he didn't want to offend them, even though he was a general in the imperial army, just like all organizations there was a lot of infighting.

The infighting was even stronger due to the pride of the draconic race, unless someone overwhelmingly stronger would become their ruler and stop them from acting like this, they would pretty much continue to be like this.

Yun Jhin followed quickly behind Kong Luo and asked:

"Might I know when the tournament will start?"

Kong Luo whispered something to his entourage again and said:

"One month from now, just follow me around and you won't miss out, with my help you might even break through to the King Realm before the tournament starts, it's a very low chance of happening but I have a friend who owes me some favours and I heard he just unearthed a good treasure that could help you."

Yun Jhin nodded at his explanation and continued to follow behind, even though Kong Luo acted like he found a treasure that he wanted to nurture he was extremely puzzled inside, where did this hybrid come from?

He would make sure to keep an eye on Yun Jhin and do some further investigations when he got back to the upper continents.

Yun Jhin continued to ask Kong Luo about the imperial army, how will the tournament be, the rules, etc.

He acted just like a young man who hasn't seen the world, Kong Luo almost fallen for his act thinking he might have just overreacted but he was a willy old fox and his instincts told him that Yun Jhin wasn't was what he showed. However, he wouldn't act on his instincts without any proof.

Kong Luo started to tell Yun Jhin bits and pieces that he thought were important such as that the Emperor and the Empress of the dragons were in different factions, the Empress controlled the palace while the Emperor controlled the army, however, the Empress also owned a small part of the army but it was insignificant compared to the Emperor's control.

The duo of old dragons was against each other for unknown reasons, but Kong Luo had insider information that said that the Empress was mad at the Emperor due to his erectile dysfunction, she badly wanted a child so she went around the upper continents and procreated everything that moved, and a had a decent amount of talent.

However, unluckily for her, she never found a man strong enough to handle her and give her enough 'juice' that she could become pregnant. Kong Luo knew that this was just gossip as the Emperor had multiple children but they were all mixed-bloods.

The Empress was just mad due to the low fertility between True dragons, no matter how much the Emperor fought with her, she couldn't bear a child!

Thus she decided to try with someone else and this enraged the Emperor, a lot, however, just like he wanted to punish the ones that 'defiled' his wife, he realized that they were all dead... her wife done them in herself, he wasn't sure if they died in bliss or were scared as they died by becoming withered mummies.

Kong Luo shook his head as he said those words, it was common knowledge in the upper continents and it even leaked in the middle continents, even the Emperor couldn't punish someone if they talked about it, he just agreed to disagree and entered into a deadly squabble with his wife instead.

The squabble turned to the afferent organizations that they controlled thus making the infighting in the Dynasty so big that some sects were eyeing them like prey, but the Dynasty was so strong and it also had quite a few decent allies, so they weren't attacked yet.

But Kong Luo didn't know how much this peace would last, at most 500 years at the least 150 or 100.

Mijil was his successor as she could be groomed into an Emperor realm expert in 100 years the quickest and she might even reach the peak of the Emperor Realm in 500 years, even though he looked middle-aged he was quite old and he wanted to use his remaining life span to break through to the peak of the emperor realm then try his hand at the sage realm. However, he needed someone to take over his Army general position.

Since Mijil was now dead, he put his sights on Yun Jhin! Even though he had suspicious origins he was plenty talented and someone with draconic blood, so he couldn't be a spy from an opposing planet, it was imperial blood in his veins so he couldn't be from some sects that betrayed the Dynasty either.

While Kong Luo was contemplating about Yun Jhin's bloodline and origins, the man in question was cultivating while following him, at the pace they were travelling they would reach the borders of the upper continents in approximatively 5 days, at the border there was an arena where tournaments for mixed-bloods would be held.

The one who won such tournaments would be granted entry and based on their performance they might even be able to join the army or the palace. Yun Jhin was going to win to further his plans and nothing would go in his way, he knew that Kong Luo suspected him but he would act so well that he would even fool himself into thinking that he was who he acted to be!

Yun Jhin didn't calculate the pitstop that they had to do to talk with the friendly acquaintance of the general, the man was a sect master of the upper ranked Blood Damnation sect and when the general asked him about his treasure the man started beating around the bush and invited him to leave.

If the general made a scene where he would lose quite a lot of face as he came uninvited, so he gritted his teeth and left, he looked at Yun Jhin and apologized:

"I'm sorry young friend Yun Jhin, but it seems this old fellow is rather wishy-washy when it comes to his treasure, I can give you something to increase your cultivation base but it won't be as effective as that old man's treasure."

It wasn't that Kong Luo was stingy, but the treasure of the Blood Damnation sect master could be used continuously like the dragon stone that Yun Jhin had before, however, his treasure could be only used once and it didn't have the same effectiveness as the treasure in question.

But Yun Jhin's talent won him over so he decided to gamble and use the treasure on him, they stopped at a nearby forest and excavated into the earth to create a makeshift cultivation grotto, there Kong Luo made his entourage guard the grotto as he took out a peculiar looking treasure from his spatial bag...

Yun Jhin eyed the treasure and his eyes started glowing, with the treasure's help even though he couldn't get to the King Realm he would still be able to reach the peak of the 9th stage and stabilize himself in it.

With the rules of the tournament, he would be able to gain enough energy to break through the king realm as well...

Yun Jhin looked at the treasure and sat cross-legged on the ground as he waited for Kong Luo to use it on him, Kong Luo gritted his teeth but then he shook his head, he knew that the treasure had no use for him and it wouldn't have helped Mijil much either, there was no other talented youth that the general could think off so he bet all of his money on Yun Jhin!

Kong Luo narrowed his eyes as he put the treasure on Yun Jhin's forehead and he started to insert his ki into it as he muttered very slowly to the point that not even Yun Jhin could hear him correctly even though he was peeking and listening to him with his soul willpower:

"Hopefully, you won't die like my damn daughter, my wish to breakthrough the Sage Realm will go with you, Yun Jhin, don't disappoint me!"