Yumao's growth.

The darkness that covered the entire island cracked open in front of Liang Chen's eyes, rays of light piercing through the cracks and finally illuminating the island again. The cracks spread further and further across the darkness, the entire dome eventually shattering like an egg and sending shards of solidified darkness dancing through the air.

But the solidified darkness didn't get to dance around for long, the cracked cocoon resting a short distance behind Liang Chen unleashing a fierce suction force that drew in all the shards. The cocoon greedily swallowed up all the darkness, the cracks on its surface growing with each dark shard that was absorbed. Liang Chen hopped down from the throne, patting off his robe as he turned and headed for the cocoon with a low mutter.

"Nearly a month... You actually keep people waiting longer than I do."

The cocoon wasn't far away, and with Liang Chen's speed reaching it was only a matter of a blink. The suction force unleashed by the cocoon tore at his robe and body but was unable to make him budge, his hands clasped behind his back as he waited for the cocoon to fully open. And open it did, in a grandiose and magnificent manner that Liang Chen could only describe using the word exaggerated.

The cocoon finished swallowing up all the darkness and then exploded, a nearly half a kilometre wide and several kilometres tall pillar of black light shooting into the sky. The pillar unleashed a droning and screeching sound that shook the entire island, resulting in all the bone-like earth and structures to fall apart into ashen sand.

Liang Chen's gaze was locked on the pillar of black light, his sight piercing into it and locking on to something that seemed to be swimming around within it. The thing within the pillar ascended to the top of it, two pitch-black feathery wings bursting out from it as an ear-piercing and slightly hiss-like roar overshadowed the droning screech of the pillar. Liang Chen scratched his ear with his little finger, looking at the two feathery wings with an exasperated expression.

"Alright, now you're just overdoing it."

His words seemed to reach the being at the top of the pillar, the deafening roar immediately silencing. The two feathery wings flapped once, the pillar of black light shattering and dissipating as the being at the top shot down to the ground. And as the being, Yumao, reached the ground and revealed itself, Liang Chen got his first look at Yumao's changes.

Appearance-wise he hadn't changed much, a serpentine body covered in black scales, black feathers running down his back and hiding razor-sharp spikes, two feathery wings extending from his side, grey eyes that flashed with a sharp light, and a forward-pointed jagged horn sticking out from each side of his head. But there were two noticeable changes to him, he now had grey lines that resembled veins running down his body, and he had grown from being only seven metres to a staggering 90 or so metres, growing to more than ten times his previous size.

Of course, the change to his size was actually a sign of not just his strength but also his bloodline. The aura radiating from his body had shot to the Primordial Immortal realm, stabilizing at a stage where it would be just about equal to Liang Chen's. As for Yumao's bloodline, just the fact that Liang Chen's bloodline resonated with it was enough to show that it had become at least partly Void Born so there was no need to mention the level of his bloodline anymore.

And so, the bloodline that could be considered the antithesis of all creation had been passed on to another being, the Scourge King securing the evolution of his companion. And Yumao was well aware that the success of his evolution was due to Liang Chen, so he respectfully lowered his head the moment he landed on the ground and shrank to a more reasonable size.

"Thank you, Mas...Gh!"

Yumao and Liang Chen had been able to communicate before, but that was mostly through Yumao sending some words directly to Liang Chen's mind to make his intentions understood. It was only now, after his completed evolution that he could properly speak the words, his voice somewhat low and slightly hoarse. But the first thing Liang Chen had done when Yumao finally spoke up was to hit him over the head, grabbing onto one of his horns and pulling him closer.

"Oh no you don't. Try to call me that one more time and I'll smack you, got it?"

Kneeling and the like was already awkward enough for Liang Chen, and he could just barely stomach it when it was Yi Xue and the others that did it. But if Yumao, a partner who he had raised from an egg and personally named, were to bow like that and refer to him as master, it would be enough to drive Liang Chen insane. Yumao's eyes flashed with a bit of awkwardness after Liang Chen pulled him closer, but he knew when to relent.

"Alright then. Thank you, Father."

Liang Chen's body stiffened slightly at Yumao's words, his empty hand raising as he stretched out his finger as if he was trying to make a point. His mouth hung open for a short moment as he tried to come up with a counterpoint, but eventually, he was forced to settle on the simplest argument.

"Oh come on, that's just going to make things incredibly awkward. If I'm the father, shouldn't I be the one letting you ride on my shoulders rather than the other way around?"

Liang Chen rode around on Yumao's head a fair bit, wouldn't it end up incredibly awkward if Yumao went around calling him father while Liang Chen did so? Of course, whether or not Yumao would actually care too much about Liang Chen's awkwardness was a different story entirely. And in this particular case, he had already relented enough.

"It can't be helped, you're the one who named me Liang Yumao and popped me out of the egg so you'll just have to live with that title, Father."

It was a bit hard to discern since Yumao was a snake, but Liang Chen could swear that his mouth had curved up somewhat cheekily. He let go of Yumao's horn, spitting out a long and drawn-out sigh.

"You were cuter when you couldn't speak properly, at least you weren't this cheeky then. I blame Ling'er, there's no way someone like me could raise you to be cheeky, you've been tainted by her."

Liang Chen knew his own personality well enough, calling him gruff wouldn't be an exaggeration. As such, for him to raise someone to be cheeky was something he considered impossible, meaning that Yumao had stuck too close to Yan Ling and drawn upon her personality rather than Liang Chen's. As Liang Chen spoke of Yan Ling, Yumao seemed to remember something, shrinking down to his usual small size and nestling on Liang Chen's head while pointing at the new ring that had been added to Liang Chen's finger.

"Speaking of...Mother? Why does that ring smell like her?"

Yumao tilted his head slightly, somewhat uncertain what he should call Yan Ling. She wasn't really connected to his birth, but she was the future wife of his father, did that mean that she should be called Mother? Or should he call her step-mother? It was a question he couldn't find an answer to, Liang Chen helping him escape the thought-process by raising his hand and showing off the ring.

"It smells like her because she gave it to me. She was here for a bit while you were still stuck inside your little cocoon. But she's left now, as have the others we picked up along the way. They've all gone to accomplish their own goals, so now it's just you and me again. Well, looking at our track record we'll probably end up picking up more people along the way, we seem to have a knack for finding people like that."

A small smile crept up on Liang Chen's face as he tapped Yumao on the head, getting his intention across. Yumao flapped his wings and flew down from Liang Chen's head, not even having gotten to settle in properly before he was forced away.

He grew to his full size, Liang Chen neglecting to comment on how it was unnecessary for him to grow that large just to fly around. Liang Chen sat down on top of Yumao's head, leaning against one of the jagged horns as Yumao flapped his wings and shot into the sky, the voices of the two drifting through the air as they shot into the distance.

"...We? Now I'm not entirely sure, but I'm pretty sure that you're the one who picked up all those people, snatching them up and stuffing them into your bag. I don't think I had any hand in those kidnappings."

"Yup, you're going to give me a headache. Seems like I gotta spank Ling'er for tainting you when we next meet."