The wolf began coughing out blood between its whimpers. The blood was dark red at first, but soon turned completely black as Emrys kept coughing out more of it.
"Howwwl!" It howled miserably as it tried to beg Ken to stop this pain, but Ken turned a blind eye to his misery.
"Don't worry, it will pass soon. Be strong now so you can get to the top with me, otherwise, you will be left behind."
The wolf gritted his teeth and did his best to endure the pain. He was already left behind and lost his parents once, he did not want to lose his new parent again because he was too weak.
"Good boy," Ken said with a smile as he stroked his white fur.
"The day is still long, you will get used to the pain eventually," Ken told the pup.
Emrys took a whole hour to digest the pill, and he had let out a small puddle of black blood. After so long, when the pain finally subsided, Ken handed him another Bloodline Purification pill.
Emrys looked at the pill hesitantly, unwilling to go through the same pain again.
"You have to take three of them if you want to grow up strong and remain by my side. Unless you want to be at the mercy of others your whole life, listen to me and eat this."
The pup's eyes almost had tears in them, but he took the pill, following Ken's instructions. He went through another two hours of excruciating pain until he finally finished digesting the third pill.
"The normal pills you eat work slowly which allows your body to gradually improve, but we are out of time. The dragon is about to be born, and it will be at the peak of the third rank right away; I can't let you be behind it."
Ken explained to the wolf that was now lying on its stomach while breathing heavily, his fur dirty with sweat, and his little face filled with black blood stains from his coughs.
"Now that your bloodline is superior, you should be able to advance too. Now I will feed you with pills that can forcibly help you break through to the next rank."
Normally, it'd be better to let the wolf grow naturally, instead of risking him with a trauma from the pain. But Ken was out of time, and he had no choice. Even if it damaged the pup's talent in the long run, he was confident he could heal it.
The torture continued for a whole day. Emrys was subjected to a long nightmare in which he took pill after pill, only motivated by Ken's threats to leave him behind if he fails to live up to his master's expectations.
"You've been brave today, I will treat you later with many tasty pills."
Ken praised the wolf and calmed it down with the touch of his hand softly. The young wolf was finally at the peak of the third rank after digesting dozens of pills while having Ken channel his Alchemical Qi to help him maximize the gains from each pill.
"Take this, it will make the pain go away."
Emrys, his eyes half closed as trails of red tears could be seen beneath them, took the pill into his mouth with his long tongue. The pill made his body feel lighter, and the pain slowly subsided. The wolf felt his eyes close, and he fell asleep.
"You will be surprised when you wake up," Ken smiled at it and looked at the egg sitting on a pillow on the floor in front of him. It was completely cracked, and it'd break every moment.
He did not have to wait for long; after one hour, a *crack* sound could be heard, and a long line was formed on the egg's shell. The egg broke, its top fell down, and a small golden snake-like creature revealed itself in the bottom.
"Hmm, so you are the mythological Chinese dragon," Ken remarked curiously as he observed the small snake eat the pieces of its shell hungrily, gaining nutrients.
He could sense that the baby dragon was born directly at the peak of the third rank, and it'd probably break through as soon as it grows out of its initial infancy stage of development.
"You are quite large for a baby," Ken talked to the dragon. It was coiled around itself inside the egg as it munched on the broken shells, and Ken estimated it as a meter long if straight, and its girth was around 35 centimeters.
"Can you fly without wings?" Ken asked without expecting an answer. He was intrigued to know how these dragons flew; the guide to raising the dragon mentioned they could fly when they break through the fourth rank despite having no wings.
The book called it "Blessing of the Heavens" and it claimed that the dragons' bodies were naturally tuned to Qi, allowing them to instinctively use it to fly freely in the air as if they were snakes slithering on the ground.
"Why do you need these little limbs though?" Ken touched the dragon's limbs with his finger. They were short and seemed a bit clumsy, although the claws were sharp and strong.
The dragon looked at Ke, fascinated. The human was the first living being he saw, and he thought it was his parent.
"For Emrys's sake, I hope you're a male," Ken muttered to himself as he picked the dragon with his palms and placed the little thing on a large table. It'd remind anyone of either a piece of meat about to be chopped or a patient before surgery. Either way, it was bad news for the baby dragon.
"Someone wise once said that the best of all things is something entirely outside your grasp – not to be born, not to be, to be nothing. The second-best thing for you is to die soon. I cannot grant you the first best thing, but if he is right, I will do for you the second-best favor in the world."
Ken spoke with a gentle voice as he stroked the dragon's golden scales. They were warm and smooth to the touch.
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