Huang Siniang said with sudden realization, "No wonder then. Someone who rose through unconventional means wouldn't have access to much inside knowledge. Every Sacred Spirit possesses its own bloodline talent — an innate ability, quite different from you humans. Just as the Phoenix Clan's bloodline talent is the Dao of Space, the Dragon Clan's bloodline talent is the Dao of Time. If not for that, how could the two clans have risen to become the leaders among all Sacred Spirits?"
Yang Kai's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. "The Dragon Clan's bloodline talent is the Dao of Time?"
Huang Siniang looked even more puzzled. "You didn't even know that? Then have you cultivated the Dao of Time?"
"I have," Yang Kai nodded.
"Then doesn't that settle it? If you didn't carry the Dragon Clan's origin and possess the Dragon bloodline, how could you possibly cultivate the Dao of Time?"
Yang Kai was rendered speechless, yet instinctively felt something was off.
His cultivation of the Dao of Time had little to do with the Dragon bloodline or the Dragon Clan's origin. His Dao of Time bore far more traces of the Grand Emperor Suiyue. Back then, through a fortuitous encounter, he had comprehended the divine ability "Years Like a Shuttle," which served as his entry into the Dao of Time. Through long ages of study and practice, along with further opportunities, he had reached his current level of attainment in the Dao of Time. What did that have to do with the Dragon Clan?
But thinking deeper — if the Dragon Clan's bloodline talent was the Dao of Time, who could say that he hadn't achieved his current accomplishments precisely because of that very bloodline talent?
Had it been the Dragon bloodline that granted him his mastery of the Dao of Time, or was it his own innate talent? Even Yang Kai couldn't be sure anymore.
He suddenly shook his head. "No, that can't be right. Before I came to the Fortress of No Return, I'd met quite a few members of the Dragon Clan, but none of them had any proficiency in the Dao of Time. Let alone mastery — not even entry-level. How do you explain that?"
"You've encountered dragons elsewhere?" Huang Siniang looked somewhat surprised.
Yang Kai nodded solemnly. He was referring, of course, to the Dragon Clan from Zhu Qing's lineage. Back on Dragon Island, though the dragons had never been numerous, there had still been some — and not a single one had shown any trace of cultivating the Dao of Time.
Now those dragons had followed the Yuantuo deep into the Shattered Heaven, to the Sacred Spirits' ancestral land for cultivation. After all this time, they should all have grown considerably.
He wondered whether any of them had reached the level of an Ancient Dragon.
Feng Liulang, who had remained silent until now, interjected, "It's not unusual for dragons to wander outside. I've heard the ancestors speak of dragons who committed offenses and were banished from the ancestral land — and more than one at that."
Huang Siniang seemed to recall the same matter and gave a slight nod.
She then turned to Yang Kai. "In that case, the ones you encountered were likely all Wyrmlings."
Yang Kai asked earnestly, "What is a Wyrm?"
He now knew what an Ancient Dragon was — when they assumed their true form, their bodies stretched a thousand zhang long, comparable to a high-rank Open Heaven cultivator. But what about a Wyrm?
Huang Siniang smiled. "Anything below an Ancient Dragon is a Wyrm."
Yang Kai understood. That lined up roughly with what he'd figured, though the Dragon Clan's classification system was remarkably crude — everything based solely on the size of one's true form and the strength of one's power. If a dragon was unable to break through to the Ancient Dragon stage, wouldn't it remain a mere Wyrm until the day it died?
But that probably wouldn't happen. Dragons were extraordinary beings with innate gifts. Even without cultivating at all, merely sleeping, their dragon power would continue to grow with the passage of time. Given sufficient age, their strength would naturally rise.
That was something the human race simply couldn't compare with.
Yang Kai asked further, "And above Ancient Dragons?"
Huang Siniang replied, "Above Ancient Dragons are Progenitors."
Wyrms, Ancient Dragons, Progenitors — these were the Dragon Clan's hierarchy of ranks.
Yang Kai vaguely surmised that the three ancient dragons he had just seen were Progenitors. If Wyrms corresponded to below the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm, and Ancient Dragons to the Seventh-Order, then Progenitors should correspond to at least the Eighth-Order.
By that reckoning, the Dragon Clan was in rather dire straits talent-wise — a vast clan with a mere three Progenitors…
If things continued like this, wouldn't the clan eventually face extinction?
"From what you said earlier, Siniang, it sounds like Wyrms haven't grasped the Dao of Time?"
Huang Siniang nodded. "It's not just the Dragon Clan. Almost all Sacred Spirits are the same. Their vast lifespans are divided into a growth period, a prime period, and an old age period. For the Dragon Clan, the growth period corresponds to the Wyrm stage. During this stage, a dragon need only refine its dragon vein power to grow stronger and larger. Only when a Wyrm matures into an Ancient Dragon does the bloodline talent gradually awaken, allowing the dragon to master the Dao of Time. In our Phoenix Clan, it would be the Dao of Space."
"So that's how it is…" Yang Kai's confusion cleared. That explained why Zhu Qing and the others couldn't use the Dao of Time. Their group of dragons, while powerful in the Star Boundary, were still classified as Wyrms in the Dragon Clan's hierarchy — they hadn't yet reached the Ancient Dragon stage, so their bloodline talents remained dormant. Only once they grew into Ancient Dragons would the bloodline talent of the Dao of Time gradually awaken for them to master.
Yang Kai suddenly thought of his adopted son, the little white dragon Yang Xiao.
His heart stirred, and he asked another question. "Are there exceptions?"