Chapter 12 - Garden of Dragons

Seeing all the monkey's impatiently beginning to cultivate, Sun Feng brows crunched and had a worried look on his face

"Is it not safe for them to immediately start trying to form a Star seed in order to breakthrough to the Earthen Realm, when the majority of them haven't even reached [Peak Mortal] rank" he asked

"In other people's case, yes that would be true as the process of absorbing the mana and attempting to store it would be destructive. Due to the fact their physical bodies would not be able to tolerate the pure form of the mana being absorbed, which is why the majority of cultivators would have to rely on pills, which contain diluted forms of mana, and use that mana to refine their body."

"But as you can see the my monkey's aren't like other people. From the moment they are born, their bodies have had the ability and strength to tolerate even the mana in higher realms. And then add on to the fact that their Burning sun bloodline provides them with physical prowess capable of withstanding Star force, which is a branch of mana that has an even more destructive nature."

"As a result absorbing the mana within the nature realm is an easy feat for them and proves no danger for them, all of them should be able to form their first Star seed pretty easily" answered Sun Wukong

Sun Feng looked at the group of monkey's all diligently cultivating and felt a sting of excitement, he couldn't help but feel the need to also cultivate and increase his strength even by a little bit. He moved away from the group and sat down in a lotus position near an elixir lake and started attracting the mana within the nature realm towards himself. After staying in this position for more than an 30 minutes, he suddenly stopped cultivating and had an annoyed look on his face

"Why does the mana that I absorb keep disappearing before it even reaches my dantian" Sun Feng stood up irritated by the phenomenon and was about to vent. But before he could Sun Wukong pitched in

"Calm down, its because you still haven't released your origin dragon and the dragon that accepted you."

"Origin..What dragon.." asked Sun Feng

"The Chaos Lightning dragon that helped you disperse the mana wall that protected the Mirror of nature, did you honestly think that you were the one that was able to disperse a condensed mana wall that had existed for thousands of years. Take a look at your dragon mark" sneered Wukong

Sun Feng recalled the scene where he attempted to disperse the wall of mana, and remembered the purple streak of lightning in the sky that was about to hit him before being absorbed by a black hole like phenomena. He completely forgot about the incident as a result of his excitement in discovering the Mirror of Nature and the following events. He took of his shirt and took a look at his dragon mark.

Before the mark had seven dragons heads arranged on the circle, but now it only had six dragon heads. And the biggest noticeable change was that the red dragon now had a purple streak along its head. "The red Dragon is your origin dragon, it was the dragon that was forced awake when I first awakened your bloodline" explained Sun Wukong

"As a result whenever your accepted by another dragon or awaken another dragon, the origin dragon will be the one to absorb it and gain its powers"

"How do I release the dragon" wondered Sun Feng

"If I can recall accurately, you need to surround your mark with mana or circulate your mana around that area, after that I guess its up to you. The Seven Saints Dragon Clan withheld information after that step" answered Sun Wukong

After saying that Sun Wukong left in his spirit form and went to Sun Rushang and the others to provide guidance with their cultivation, leaving Sun Feng to solve the problem on his own. Sun Feng sighed and resumed his lotus position. He decided to trust Sun Wukong's knowledge and hoped for the best. He calmed down, relaxed and focused on the mana within his body, directing all of it towards his mark. As he surround the mark with more mana, he felt his skin around the mark start to burn, however he grimaced and tolerated the intense pain. After a while the pain subsided and he was left with a cool feeling as he kept on circulating the mana towards the mark. His mark started to glow without him noticing and suddenly...

Sun Feng abruptly opened his eyes as he felt something was wrong. He could no longer hear the flowing rivers that surrounded the mountains, and he could no longer feel the light breeze that tickled his skin. When he opened his eyes he was met with a different scenery. Everything was dark, pitch black, he looked behind him and saw nothing but deep night. He turned his head in front of him, where he was met with the only source of glowing light.

Lined up in a horizontal straight line, were seven trees. Each tree was roughly one metre tall in overall length. However the most shocking thing was that surrounding each tree was a grey barrier, every tree had a grey barrier surrounding it except for one. This tree was on one end of the line and its appearance differed from every other tree except another. It had a deep red trunk and in the center of its trunk was a red dragon head that some would have thought was carved if it wasn't for its glowing red eyes. The tree besides it was also differing in appearance from the others. It had a purple trunk and the dragon head figure on its trunk as well was the exact same one on the red tree and it was a red dragon as well. The only difference between the two was that it's eyes were glowing purple. While the red tree had no barrier around it, the purple tree also had the grey barrier however compared to the other trees with barriers, its one kept fluctuating as if it was weakening or trying to shatter.

Sun Feng stepped towards the purple tree and probed its barrier, he felt as if the dragon head on the tree was calling to him and yearning for him to break the barrier. He placed his hand on the barrier and could feel it pulse underneath his hand, at that moment the dragon head's eyes glow even more intensity and illuminated the dark space.

Sun Feng withdrew his hands and clenched it into a fist, he gathered as much mana as he could within his fist and hurled it towards the barrier, the barrier shook under the force but still remained. Sun Feng looked shocked as the force of his punch could easily shatter a Demi Lord rank crystal beast's skull, however the barrier only shook. He withdrew his hands and attempted to strike again

Sun Feng continuously struck the barrier with intense force in each strike, every time he struck the barrier he could feel it weaken and the dragon figure seemed to glow in glee. He threw his hands back and prepared to strike again, only this time when his fist connected with the barrier, the barrier just popped like a bubble as if it had always been easy to break. As soon as it popped, an intense and frightening aura was emitted by the purple tree and its glow was was so intense that it had completely lit up the pitch dark space and blinded Sun Feng causing him to shut his eyes in haste. The aura released by the tree shook Sun Feng to his core and before he could open his eyes again he could feel himself being pulled out of the now purple shining space...

The next moment the intense glow that he could feel even with his eyes shut instantly disappeared with no warning. Sun Feng could hear the familiar sounds of the river flowing around the mountains again and could feel the gentle wind on his face again. He was back within the nature realm but he wasn't the same...