The Yuhao Chronicles - Volume 1 Chapter 6
As his conscious became clearer he could see a very small golden sea surrounding him. As he felt a presence he looked up, he saw a massive golden lion floating in the empty pace, with a similar looking one in front of it, though much smaller in comparison. Both lions were large, the larger one, at least thirty-five metres tall and sixty long, whereas the smaller one at a more modest five metres tall by eight long. They both had a pure gold, eye-like gem resting on their foreheads with a majestic mane that glowed like the sun. Aside from their size, the only major difference was the 18, large, golden rings that wrapped around the larger one’s body.
“Wh-Who are you?” Yuhao stammered out, still shocked by this presence In his sea of consciousness where, at the moment, nothing should be in.
“Don’t worry child, I am not here to hurt you. I am sorry to bring you into your mind like this, but I thought it would be a good time to talk. I already know who you are Dai Yuhao, or Huo Yuhao as you refer to yourself, as I have been living within you for the past six years. As for me, I don’t have a name, but I am usually referred to as the Three-Eyed Nemean Lion Emperor, if that helps.” The now, named beast, the Three-Eyed Nemean Lion Emperor said.
“Th-Three-Eyed Nemean Lion Emperor?! Why have I never heard of that race before? I thought there was only the Three-Eyed Golden Lion?” Yuhao sputtered out.
“I wouldn’t be surprised you haven’t heard of me. As for my backstory, I ascended to the god realm several million years prior to the Great Divine War in the Divine Realm, long before humans ever roamed this planet. I was born from the leader of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion Clan and the last Nemean Lion. During my pre-ascension years, I managed to gain an ultimate fire affinity by being fortunate enough have helped out and then, in turn, be blessed with the fire essence of an Ancestral Phoenix. As I ascended, I evolved, merging both my parent’s bloodlines and the gifted fire essence into one, ending in my current race.”
Hearing this shocked Yuhao as he tried to think of why, how, when and a whole other manner of things. He shook himself from his thoughts and replied, “Ok, but what are you doing here? How are you here? Who is that lion behind you?”
Hearing this prompted the lion to turn around facing the massive lion in the background that resembled a clone of himself. “Well, you see, thousands and thousands of years ago in the Divine Realm, the Dragon God went mad due to the severe contrasting god cores that he held, being destruction, life, goodness and evil. During this madness, he ended up killing divine beasts and gods alike until the Asura god managed to split him in two separate beings, the Golden Dragon King and the Silver Dragon King. The leftover gods after the battle decided that spirit beasts were too chaotic and risky to be allowed to remain free in the Divine Realm and therefore, banded together to release the majority of spirit beasts to lower realms and imprison those they deemed too strong to be allowed free. I was one of those imprisoned beasts and for thousands of years, I was stuck here, until one day a small spatial rift formed somehow within the confines of my imprisonment seal. I took the opportunity and escaped down into this realm.”
Yuhao just stood still. Completely frozen in disbelief. He knew very well who the cause of the spatial rift was and couldn’t believe something from the prison had escaped. Imagining the Golden Dragon King escaping sent shivers down his spine. He noticed two of his questions were still left unanswered, “But that doesn’t explain why you are in here, with me, right now.”
“I was getting to it, but basically as soon as I entered into this realm I noticed that all spirit beasts were still unable to ascend and therefore if I stayed on this realm, would forever remain as I was. I, therefore, decided to fuse my body into a child’s bloodline, boosting their potential for ascension extremely and remaining conscious to help guide them along. This way, I can hitchhike my way back.”
“But what does that mean for me? Do you plan to take over my body?” Yuhao asked, worried about the lion but assured that the Goddess Morrigan wouldn’t have allowed this to happen without good reason.
“If I took over your body I wouldn’t get to rest and sit back, now would I?” The lion answered with what could only be a smirk and a chuckle. “I am over one million years old, in actual years, not the spirit beast years that you spirit masters are so fond of using to rank the strengths of beasts. I would just like to relax and let someone else do the work. I will then have the ability to sleep carefree whenever I want, without worry.”
Yuhao hearing this sighed in relief as his worries were adverted. Now that he looked at the massive lion, it reminded him of the Golden Dragon King inside Tang Wulin. “So that means that that massive lion over there is your real body?”
“Very good young one. That is my real body. But don’t worry about the power overwhelming you. As you get stronger in all aspects of cultivation; body, soul and spirit, I will slowly release the seals and allow you to absorb not only my power but my abilities too. I am not too sure how that will come about, probably something I would call ‘Bloodline Rings’. Don’t worry though, while you may receive the constitution and powers of my species, the Three-Eyed Nemean Lion Emperor, you will still look human and be human in most aspects. Matter of fact, your body can quite easily absorb the first seal right now if you wish.”
“Ok that sounds cool! What would the first seal do?” he inquired.
“While it is the weakest seal, it will give you some very important benefits. Firstly, it will improve your body overall, with a specific focus on ensuring your foundation that you have worked so hard on over the last six years remains constant, regardless of how fast you cultivate and grow in strength. That way you don’t have to worry about moving up in ranks too fast. Secondly, as I mentioned earlier, it will improve your physical aspects, strength more so as I was a mental-attributed beast first but strength second. And thirdly, it will allow any spirit beast rings or bones you acquire in the future to evolve and age without limits. This evolution may happen across all of your rings and bones as my blood essence fuses with you. However, do note that the higher the cultivation level or years the rings or bones are, the least likely it is for it to happen. Regarding the normal spirit ring age restrictions that you spirit mastersusually have, my bloodline will inadverdently negate this limit, allowing you to have your spirit rings ages as high as possible.” The lion stated in reply.
Yuhao listened, as he slightly rubbed his temples, “That is a lot to take in, but I think I have it. Well, I think we can get started on the first seal. I was planning on getting a ring tomorrow, so I am lucky we talked tonight. I do want to call you something though. Calling you lion or Three-Eyed Nemean Lion Emperor either too impersonal or long. How about Amra?”
The lion, now named Amra, did a movement that could only be seen as a shoulder shrug, “Yeah that’s fine. The name doesn’t mean anything to me but if it is easier for you, go ahead. Ok, I need you to close your eyes and I will release the seal.”
Yuhao nodded in reply before closing his eyes. In the distance, the closest seal on the golden lion broke off before flying over to Yuhao and entering his body. As the energy entered him, he could feel his heart rate increase and blood begin pumping around his body faster and stronger than he had ever felt before. As it continued pumping he noticed that it began feeling smoother and smoother as time went by until eventually, it felt as if it reached a perfect state. Following this, he felt a slight pain, but nowhere near the level of pain he should have felt as his muscles, bones, nerves, arteries, veins and organs all began dissolving and regrowing at an equal rate, leaving them more durable, more flexible, and stronger in every other way he could imagine. This process continued over the course of the hour before Yuhao fell asleep exhausted.