"Why do I have to learn all this? I'm a doctor! Why do I need to learn how to fight?!"
"Medicine can't save the Xianzhou, much less the Vidyadhara. If you still want to end up running for your life like before, unable to fight back when people come after you, I can replace all your lessons with long-distance running."
"Couldn't you say that a little more nicely?"
"I'm only putting it in the most straightforward terms. You're a High Elder, yet you can't even use your own power properly. That's rather disappointing. Besides, once you're strong enough, those people won't keep following you around or trying to control you, because you'll be capable of protecting yourself."
"But the Preceptors said the powers I inherited are all related to healing. They don't improve my combat abilities at all!"
"As a physician, you should know better than anyone which combinations of pressure points can leave someone in unbearable pain, and which ones can even kill. Healing power can also be used to kill, or make someone wish they were dead. Just look at the Xianzhou's mara-struck.
"Every form of power has two sides. And as for lightning-based energy, I certainly don't believe it has no combat potential. You simply never bothered trying to use it that way.
"Still, if you really hate practical combat training, you can study religion with me instead. Come, let us praise the great Heavenly Father together! HE is the exalted Savior, the creator of the Eternal Dreamscape, the apostle of God..."
"Stop, stop, stop! I'd rather keep doing combat training!"
Ao Xiaotian looked mildly dissatisfied as he put away the scripture he had compiled. Honestly, almost all the Vidyadhara aboard the Xianzhou Luofu listened to him now, yet barely anyone was willing to hear him preach about the sanctity of the Heavenly Father, much less join him in worship.
Why could they not understand?
It was the supreme Heavenly Father who had given the Vidyadhara the possibility of reproducing once again. It was that infinitely benevolent existence who had created the last sanctuary of beauty in this world.
Why were the people of his race unwilling to worship such a sacred being, yet still insisted on believing in Permanence, who had abandoned them?
No one knew where Long, the Permanence, had gone, or whether THEY had truly died.
But over the long years, the Vidyadhara had continued to decline, and never once had another miracle of Permanence appeared.
If the Vidyadhara of the past had allied themselves with the Xianzhou Alliance for the sake of having a place to survive, and had even come to worship Lan the Hunt, then why could they not now worship his Heavenly Father for the sake of their future?
Although Ao Xiaotian could now nominally be considered the leader of the Vidyadhara on the Luofu, he had no intention of forcing anyone to believe. Faith obtained through coercion would produce only resentment and hatred, never genuine devotion.
So throughout this period, he had continued patiently preaching the greatness of his Father among the Vidyadhara.
Most of them, however, simply treated it as a child's excessive admiration for a parent and paid little attention to it.
The Vidyadhara also remained skeptical about whether Ao Xiaotian was truly capable of reproduction. Some believed that, just like other creatures transformed into draconic descendants after coming into contact with the power of Permanence, he would still be unable to have children.
Because of that, quite a few elders had been urging him to hurry up and find a wife just to see whether he could father a child.
She did not even have to be Vidyadhara.
As for why Ao Xiaotian could still become the leading voice of the Luofu Vidyadhara under those circumstances, the answer was exactly what he himself had said.
Power was what made a king.
He had relied on the strange power within his body, something others even called the power of Permanence, and fought his way through practically every Vidyadhara on the Luofu.
With that power, which seemed to originate from Permanence, almost no Vidyadhara could stand against him.
Ao Xiaotian did not know whether the power inside him truly belonged to Permanence, nor did he understand why it was so overwhelming. In his eyes, however, all of it was simply a blessing his Father had given to his child.
In truth, every change that had occurred in his body was the result of atavism.
A widespread theory held that Long the Permanence was the oldest Aeon in the universe. Some even claimed that THEY stood at the origin of all Paths.
Whether that theory was true was impossible to verify now, but there was no question that the dragons were ancient.
The exact explanation was complicated, but in simple terms, the interaction between two similar yet fundamentally different powers of Finality and Abundance, both originating from outside this universe, had caused Ao Xiaotian to emerge as an individual extremely close to the primordial dragons of ancient times.
He possessed the same biological ability to reproduce as those ancient dragons, and he could also wield the power of Permanence as naturally as they once had.
As mentioned before, Long had vanished and might even have fallen, but the Path of Permanence still existed. It might have faded into obscurity, and it might have fractured into several different Paths, but its traces had never truly disappeared.
Or perhaps Permanence still existed and had simply achieved immortality in THEIR own way.
That was why the power of Permanence could still be used, and why beings tied to Permanence could still survive.
"I won't bother with distant hypotheticals. Let's talk about something practical. What if you're treating a patient and they suddenly become mara-struck? You can't expect there to conveniently be someone beside you to protect you every single time. In a situation like that, your own combat ability is your only guarantee. Now keep practicing. And don't think looking like a child and putting on that pitiful expression will make me feel sorry for you. When I challenged the entire Vidyadhara population, I didn't even spare the children!"
Once she realized pretending to be pitiful was not going to work, Bailu could only continue miserably practicing the martial techniques and combat skills Ao Xiaotian had taught her.
Watching from a distance, Baiheng turned to Jing Yuan with a complicated expression.
"Watching a little girl who's basically your own reincarnation get forced to study really is a strange experience."
"Ao Xiaotian is a good kid in most respects. His enthusiasm when it comes to religion is just... unexpectedly intense."
Jing Yuan had even considered training Ao Xiaotian as a possible successor if none of the younger generation ever proved capable enough to pass the Reignbow Arbiter's trial with absolute certainty.
Thinking about that, Jing Yuan lifted his teacup and prepared to take a sip.
At that moment, Ao Xiaotian seemed to sense something. His normally calm expression immediately changed, becoming both respectful and openly affectionate.
A moment later, Caelus appeared near the training grounds.
"Father!"
Ao Xiaotian walked over happily. By now, he appeared roughly the same age as Caelus, both looking like young men in their early twenties. Seeing him warmly call Caelus "Father" despite their nearly identical apparent ages made the scene feel strangely surreal.
"Xiaotian, I need your help."
"Father, whatever you need, just tell me. Why be so polite? My life and everything I possess were given to me by you. Even if you wanted to take all of it back, I wouldn't hesitate for a moment!"
"It's nothing that serious. I just need the power of Permanence."
"Then what should I do? Do you want me to perform the Transmutation Arcanum? The elders wouldn't let me learn it, but I found the relevant records anyway and taught myself!"
Jing Yuan spat out his tea.
This kid...
There was no saving him.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)