"Get up, Fei, and come give your Gram Gram a kiss, you too, Hen Ri, don't worry, I don't bite," the old woman said with a smile.

  Fei walks over to the diminutive old woman and gives her a quick peck on the cheek while Henry stands there looking awkward.

  If this was Goldy's mom, Henry was almost confident he would be getting into some xianxia bullshit. This old granny could kill everyone in this room without breaking a sweat.

  "I could kill everyone in the South without breaking a sweat, dear."

  Fuck not this again.

  "Mam, if you don't mind, I'd be grateful if we didn't do that mind talk thing."

  "Don't worry, dear boy, I won't dig too deep. Also, call me Gram Gram."

  The old crone lifted her hand, and the rubble in the room reknit itself. It was as if time had rewound, and the room was made whole again.

  "Thank you mother, but you could have done that sooner, no need to show off in front of Hen Ri."

  "Bah, I'm just trying to impress my new grandson. When did you get so grumpy, Yinlong?"

  Two chairs appeared before the old crone, and she gestured for them to sit.

  "Now you both have been very naughty boys, so naughty that I had to step in before something unfortunate happened."

  She points her finger at Fei.

  "You were supposed never to venture south. Do you know how many alarms went off when you decided to rush down here?"

  Henry had to fight down a giggle as this big, tough cultivator was getting chewed out by an old lady.

  "Oh, you think it's funny, mister? You are in even deeper shit than he is."

  "Wait, what did I do?" Henry said, sounding affronted by the scolding.

  "You somehow got mixed up with my son and this NDA. My son is an idiot, and you are an idiot for helping him."

  The crone let out a deep sigh as she massaged her temple.

  "Fei, you are to return to the North as soon as possible. I have spoken to the Martial Alliance, and they have agreed that there would be no retaliation for your oath-breaking."

  Fei was about to protest, but she lifted one finger, silencing him immediately. He knew that his grandmother was not the one to take kindly to backtalk.

  "Hen Ri, as for you, whatever sealed you and my son into this NDA is as powerful and ancient as me. You might have my son's legacy, but just like little Fei said, it is not his to give. It is mine."

  Henry looked confused at this statement.

  "Mam.. Gram Gram, if this legacy wasn't Goldy's and he isn't here to explain things or teach, what am I supposed to do?"

  The ancient dragon grandma pulled a cigar out and put it into her mouth. Yinlong manifested flames in his hand and lit it for her.

  Was everyone in this family a degenerate smoker?

  "Fei pointed this out to you earlier; you can do only one thing."

  She took a deep drag, turning the whole cigar to ashes.

  "You must get stronger, strong enough so my son can materialize again. Then we can get to the bottom of this little deal that was struck."

  "Mother, I would like to stop you right there," Yinglong interjects.

  "Hen Ri here has special circumstances, as you are aware. It seems his cultivation has two very distinct aspects. One is of Shenlong's legacy, and the other something almost divine ."

  Henry was getting an infodump of information. Goldy never told him any of this stuff. The guy was the worst master ever.

  "Hen Ri, dear boy, what Yinglong is trying to say is that your cultivation is fucked."

  "Mother, please, language."

  "Bah, I can curse if I want to."

  "Hen Ri, your cultivation is trying to do two polar opposites things. At the rate you are going, you will suffer ki deviation long before my son can return to this plane."

  "Goldy told me that…"

  Henry's mouth locked up again, and he struggled to get anything out.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  "From what I can tell, your legacy from my son allows you to draw in potential energy from people and things. Your other branching cultivation wants to put people in your debt and draw energy and skills from them via contracts."

  "That kinda sounds like the same thing to me, though, so what's the problem," Henry asked, scratching his head.

  "The problem is, Henry, the second branching cultivation method seems to be siphoning that energy to another source, not to you. Sure, you get some knockoff skills, but the actual ki is going somewhere or to something else."

  Henry was still struggling to figure out what that all meant. He had always been an idiot when it came to actual cultivation.

  "You think you are improving, but you are slowly killing your cultivation to make someone else more powerful. Convoluted I know but dastardly ingenious."

  Fei was quiet this whole time, just listening and absorbing everything Gram Gram had to say about this boy's cultivation. This Hen Ri was fascinating. Who had ever heard of someone with two cultivation bases? Something stirred inside of him, though. It felt strange for someone as powerful as he was.

  It was indignation.

  Something was trying to piggyback off his family's legacy,y and that made him simmer with rage. He had always been proud of his heritage, so to see someone try to subvert it like this was unacceptable.

  His uncle and grandma felt the same, judging by the serious looks on their collective faces. Say what you will about the erratic nature of his kind; dragons did not like having their shit fucked with. To change his father's legacy like this was something that the family would not allow to stand.

  If people knew that their family had someone as weak as Hen Ri housing his father's legacy, it would spell disaster for them all.

  "Gram gram, if I may, what if we seal the second branch? At least until father comes back. I understand the drawback, but if we don't, the boy will certainly die."

  Henry was getting nervous now. These three were talking about him like he wasn't even there, and now this Northern bastard was talking about sealing his cultivation.

  "Relax, child, we acknowledge your presence, but this issue is beyond your scope," Gram Gram said.

  "Besides it's not as bad as it sounds, I know you have been able to get new techniques imprinted into you. While it is a much faster method than the traditional one, I can offer you something even better. My personal tutelage.”

  Yinlong and Fei both stared at the matriarch with shocked expressions on their faces. She had not taken a disciple in millennia, and now she was offering assistance to this pup. Why the sudden change, what did she have planned.

  Henry knew when he was in front of a gift horse, he would not let it run away.

  Dropping to the floor, Henry slammed his head to the floor.

  "Please, Gram Gram, teach me how not to get my ass kicked around by young masters. Oh, also, can you please take this second cultivation thing out of me so I don't die."

  Lady Tia looked at her son and her grandson and smiled; the boy wanted to fight better before choosing to safeguard his own life. That was very dragon-like behavior. She approved.

  "Get up Hen Ri, this is your first lesson, dragons do not bow willy nilly."

  Henry popped up at once.

  "Fei, don't you have somewhere to be?"

  "Gram Gra,m thank you for the intervention. I was brash. I apologize again," Fei said as he made to leave.

  "Oh, one last thing, Hen Ri, a fair warning: most of the South think you are not just my supposed disciple but my actual scion. They will come for you, boy; best be prepared."

  After dropping that bombshell, Fei walked through a newly materialized door and blinked out of the room.

  Henry stared at where The Northern Sky Breaker was, shaking his head. That guy was banned from half the continent, and now, people all think Henry is his son. He was pretty sure shit was going to pop off once people saw him again.

  "Yinlong, assist me in this next part; Henry, this will not be pleasant."

  "It's okay, Gram Gram. One thing that I am good at is taking a beating," he said cavalierly.

  "If you say so."

  Gram Gram and Yinlong stood on both sides of Henry, slowly drawing ki symbols into the air. He could feel the symbols take shape and draw the ambient ki into them.

  That was when the tearing started. He tried to put on a solid front, but soon Henry was screaming. The tearing continued; it was like his body was being ripped in half.

  "You are doing good boy, keep at it, we are almost done," Gram Gram said, no longer sounding like the doting grandmother from before.

  "I will make the seal, Yinlong. Please make sure his heart does not stop."

  Henry felt like the old lady was moving a part of his cultivation into a little hollow hole where his heart should be. The pain was lessening, but the sense of wrongness was still there. Henry felt less like he was missing muscle mass. He felt the foreign ki retreating after a second and knew it was over.

  "He's got quite the sturdy constitution."

  "Yes, Mother, he is surprisingly resilient," Yinlong said, dusting himself off and heading to the bar.

  "How are you feeling, child?"

  "Like you ripped me in half and shoved that half into a hole where my heart used to be."

  "That is a very apt description; look at the hole you claim you have."

  On his chest, Henry saw a golden tattoo of symbols and shapes, constantly spinning and moving.

  "That's pretty cool," Henry said.

  Gram Gram popped up onto her feet spryly and clapped her hands.

  "Well let's get going then, you have a lot of work to do child."

  "I wish you a safe journey, Mother, and I will look into the issue that you spoke with me about," Yinlong said, giving his mother a tender hug.

  "Thank you, Yinlong. I could always count on you. I will contact your siblings and see if they can assist. We must find out how this even happened."

  Henry couldn't help but think that they were talking about him.

  "We are."

  "We are."

  "I'm sorry; please just stop mind speaking to me; it's creeping me out."

  "Hen Ri, we will be going to the Dragonlands, to my palace, to be accurate. I will train you until I think you won't be immediately murdered when you return here. Be warned, though my training has been known to be quite strenuous, you very well might….

  "I know, die; I'm pretty sure I was supposed to die multiple times now."

  Gram Gram chuckles.

  "Let us go then, off to the Dragonlands."

  Help a Bro Out!