"The power to devour blood and gain their bloodline? That doesn't sound like a normal ability someone should have," Ning said.
"Yes. We believe he was born with a heavenly constitution, one that allowed him to do all of that. After all, no ordinary beast should be able to reach the peak of Nascent Soul realm in mere 2 centuries," the Drake said.
"Still, it's been over 10 thousand years. Are you sure he's still alive?" Ning asked.
"We are alive, aren't we? We're sure he's alive too. We can feel him pushing on our powers to undo the seal. Each day, he grows stronger and stronger. Even when we sealed him the furthest away we could from the origin, and even siphoned away most of the Qi, his power still grows."
"It worries me that soon, we won't be able to stop him at all," the drake said.
"You… siphoned the Qi away?" Ning asked in confusion.
"Yes, we sealed him in the middle of this forest and also made a formation to take away the surrounding Qi to… somewhere," the drake said. "You must've felt the lack of Qi in the forest above right?"
"Umm… there is no forest outside.,. It's all a desert now," Ning said.
"Desert? No, it's a forest young man. You seem to have been mistaken," the drake said.
"No, it's a desert. It has been as such for the last thousands of years. It's a desert that spans thousands of kilometers and is surrounded by a massive jungle," Ning said.
"You aren't lying, are you?" the drake asked.
"No, that's the truth," Ning said.
The Drake went quiet for a few moments. Then, another beast spoke from the side.
"Did we… destroy our own home?"
"Is our home truly gone?"
"Where do we return to now? Where do our children return to?"
"No wonder the planet stopped favoring us. We are someone that would eventually destroy our own home."
The beasts started lamenting the fact that there was no longer a forest above where they were. The forest used to be their home, the majority of the Central Continent used to be their home.
"Is it because you guys took away the Qi that this desert came to be? Is that why a desert has such high mountain peaks? Because it wasn't originally a desert?" Ning asked.
The beasts stayed quiet for some time longer. Finally, the drake spoke again.
"It seems in our pursuit to quickly take care of Jha'Akim, we forgot to understand what adverse effects we might have been leaving behind in this world."
"Oh ancestors, forgive us. Your descendants have destroyed that which you loved," the drake cried out.
"Forgive us," every other beast cried out as well.
Ning stood there as the beasts started lamenting and asking for forgiveness. He had never been in such a situation, but he wondered how it must've felt for the beasts.
He was a little saddened by such thoughts but quickly stopped him from getting any more emotional.
"So, where is the Qi going? I hope you've put it to good use," Ning asked.
"Yes, we've done the best we could with what little time we had. We knew we couldn't leave our children outside, so we brought them with us. So, we had to make a small place for our children to live in," the drake said
"Human, do you have malice in your heart?" a beast spoke from the back. The beast was a Heart-Scouring Cyclops. It looked like a single ball of an eye floating with two massive wings on its back, and a single tail floating down behind it.
"I don't harm those that don't harm me. Not anymore," Ning said.
The beasts remained quiet for the Cyclops to speak.
"He's good to go," the Cyclops said.
"Great! Human, go beyond those doors. You can meet our children. The Qi there is quite high compared to other places too. However, in return we hope that you can do something for us," the drake said.
"What do you want?" Ning asked.
"I will tell you when you return," the Drake said.
Ning got a little suspicious and didn't move. "Can you not tell me what you want? I can't make promises on things I do not know about," Ning said.
"Don't worry, it's not something you should worry about. Just go and come back; we can talk about it later," the drake said.
Ning got even more suspicious now. "I'm not leaving until you've told me what it is I am going to do. It feels like you are going to guilt-trip me into accepting whatever you are going to make me do by letting me go in there," Ning said.
"I… alright fine," the drake gave up. "I… We, wanted you to bring our children back to us. Every once in a while, a child of ours gets curious about the outside world, and despite our caution, they leave to the outside world."
"Since the leaving aspect of the seal is nonexistent above, they easily get out of this tomb. I do not know what dangers there are above. The world is overrun by humans now as that is the will of this planet."
"We are worried that our children might have come across dangers that they were not ready to face at all. Or even those that wanted to return couldn't find a way to do so because of the way the seal was created."
"So, we all wanted to ask you to help those lost children reunite with us. That is all we wanted you to promise," the Drake said.
The other beasts didn't make a single sound either, but Ning could tell they were very expectant.
"Very well. I don't know if many could've remained alive because of how small their lifespan would be. But, I will try to get as many of them as possible. I promise you that," Ning said.
"Thank you, human. That is all we wanted. If you wish to, you can go visit our children outside of those doors now," the drake said.
"Okay. I will see you guys later then," Ning said and walked towards the door to see what lied beyond.
