A Dragon's Curiosity

Nisha was stuck in the cycle of regeneration and wounds appearing on her flesh, mainly due to the forceful invasion of the [Dragon Force].

When her rank advanced past the first great divide, her physique started to draw in more of the power attached to herself thanks to the greater capacity to store it.

At the same time, the invisible influence exerted by it started to excavate the dragon’s potential, perfecting the vessel it wanted to inhabitat.

Hence, a circle of repeating actions formed, where the girl’s capacity for taking in more [Dragon Force] got enlarged through a combination of her body still not being set after advancing a rank and the physical form approaching perfection, and afterwards more force filled the free space, kickstarting a new round of refinement to fill the freed capacity.

Normally it would have been a great fortune to develop the potential of her body and strengthen it at the same time, yet the burden on Nisha’s body grew with each round, leading to a breakdown of her flesh in areas that did not keep up with the process.

The only saving grace came from the fact that the fourth stage of cultivation of aura involved the blood.

With each infusion of [Dragon Force], the blood circulating in her veins boiled and expelled impurities and drew in the excess force exceeding the burden on her body.

As such, the blood spread over the injured places and rapidly repaired the damage, increasing the damage with the empowerment of the force that harmed it in the first place.

Observing the changes almost like an outsider, the elf came to the conclusion that her plight would only result in three outcomes.

In the best case, her body would keep exploring its potential until the entire force attached to her body was drawn inside, housing the [Dragon Force] in its entirety and reaping the benefits from remolding her physique.

Alternatively, her small frame would be unable to store any more power and refuse to take in more, stopping the circle when her blood was filled to the brim and unable to take even the tiniest strand.

While the exact benefits from this were hard to gauge, at least the dragon would have still made a breakthrough and improved her physique to some degree.

And in the worst case, her regeneration would fail to meet the mounting burden and her physical body broke down, torn asunder and leaking all the power that soaked it so far.

Nisha herself would not have minded either of the first two outcomes, but sadly reality was not as beautiful as her imagination.

All of the outcomes required her to hold out to the end to see results, yet two major roadblocks appeared before the dragon had a chance to wait for the resolution of her current plight.

First, the constant regeneration and breakdown of her body did not only toughen the physique afterwards, but it also made the girl feel as if her skin was too small to contain all of her flesh and blood.

No matter how powerful the regeneration coming from her blood being refined improved, it seemed as if her body could not keep up with the changes.

After all, it did not matter if the fuel was exceptionally good, if the furnace broke down, it was all wasted effort.

While time passed and the circle of repair and breaking down repeated, she felt increasingly unable to fit in her skin and make it through the plight.

Furthermore, the blood pumping through her veins lessened with each revolution, repairing the damage sustained to her body and expelling impurities when the [Dragon Force] refined it at the same time.

Nisha’s heart began pumping harder and harder, trying to propel the clumping blood to the rifts appearing on her flesh and bones, trying to sustain her declining life force.

Currently, it was already pounding so fast that her ribs rattled, trying to prevent it from jumping out of her chest.

Whenever Nisha exhaled a strenuous breath, a mixture of darkness and fire energy tumbled in the air and annihilated each other, turning into nothingness.

It was quite fortunate that the waste expelled in the process of refining the dragon’s physique were approximately equal in proportion and neutralized each other, or the entire estate might have been turned into ruins in case the rampant energy ran wild.

Considering the increasing amount of negative outcomes, Nisha was prepared to break off the entire process, even if she risked that the remainder of the [Dragon Force] would dissipate as a result.

Unbeknownst to the elf, the changes to her blood did not stop at the purification and reduction of her blood.

With every frenetic beat, tiny traces of golden blood remained inside her heart, dying the entire organ with a pale golden colour.

Even the power rushing into her body paled in comparison to the effect the golden blood had on her heart, otherwise it would have burst long ago from beating like a drum.

While Nisha looked for the best method to interrupt the cycle of regeneration and destruction, despite the considerable risk to herself, the golden traces crossed a threshold and managed to turn the total area occupied by the dragon’s heart into their territory, transforming every muscle strand and tissue into pale golden zone.

All of a sudden, the high frequency beats stopped after a final effort to pump blood throughout the elf’s body.

Time came to a halt as everything just stopped without warning.

Neither did Nisha’s physique suffer anymore under a giant amount of pressure, nor did wounds continue to spring up and regenerate back.

Even her thoughts slowed down, unable to register the pause in her plight.

The sensation of her skin being too tight to contain her flesh and blood had just been approaching the limit when the transformation of her heart triggered and changed everything.

If it was not covered by the body of a dragon, dark and heavy golden radiance would have bathed the entire capital in its glow, startling everyone regardless of their level of cultivation.

Being hidden by the sturdy physique of a dragon with a pretty pure bloodline, only a pulse of life energy rippled out from the golden sheen and passed the area where the phenomena of the dragon apparition appeared earlier.

Countless people, monsters and beasts who were stuck at a bottleneck from the first to fifth rank suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of relief and ease as the problems that prevented them from advancing turned into smoke and no longer bothered them.

As for Nisha, the golden glow contained within her chest deepened at the same pace as it sunk deep within her heart, not dissimilar from a peach ripening.

When the halted time started again, the organ resembled a work of art carved from golden crystal and a protective sphere of light shielded it from prying gazes.

The complete change did not only affect how the heart looked, even the condensed blood flowing through it suddenly carried a golden sheen after it passed through the sphere of light.

Curiously enough, the constrained sensation did not fade from the girl’s skin, it became even more stifling wherever the recharged blood passed.

And like a shark that smelled blood, the [Dragon Force] rushed into the dragon’s physique even more fiercely than before and attached itself to the golden tinged blood.

Perhaps the only blessing was that the burden on Nisha’s physical body eased with the support of her new heart, the terrifying wounds on her body no longer appeared, swinging into the other extreme.

Her flesh and bones got nourished by the golden sheen and turned tougher and stronger respectively, which bolstered the constrained feeling in turn.

With the threat of exploding from being stuffed too full or losing her [Dragon Force] no longer threatening her life, Nisha had enough space to open her eyes.

The expression in her eyes was somewhat strange, as the struggle between building up her body and having it destroyed had not gone away, it simply turned into a different form.

She had yet to attain the ability to inspect the inner workings of her body, whether through her consciousness or [Spirit Sight], but the transformation of her heart was big enough to let the girl feel most of the changes directly with her body instead.

Whereas her mana and aura pool previously was evenly distributed throughout her physique and spirit, more than half of her entire energy now ended up being housed in the sphere where her heart sat, giving the dragon access to an even greater amount than before.

Furthermore, every time the golden traces travelled throughout her body, a small amount of blood essence remained inside a newly opened space within Nisha’s heart.

Normally, this would have been a positive development and the dragon would have rejoiced over a new mystery to explore, but the feeling of physically being constrained scaled exactly with the buildup of blood essence.

It was no longer a pure sensation either, as veins and muscles bulged out of her slender frame, fighting against an unseen restriction placed on the elf’s body.

Perhaps the [Dragon Force] could have worn away the boundary over time when her cultivation progressed, but more and more of the invisible power entered her body and fought against the restriction in the progress - blood essence was countless times more suited to host the force and soaked it up as if there was no limit.

Nisha groaned in pain and realized that the boundary placed on her prevented the dragon from moving her mind and body at the moment.

Nevertheless, the elf was not one to go down without a struggle, so she poured all of her strength into the space holding the blood essence inside her heart.

Since the changes there triggered the boundary in the first place, the girl only needed to help her own side to win in order to overcome the constraints.

Nisha imagined that countless tiny chains held her spirit and flesh down, with countless hooks pierced inside her very being.

The more blood essence accumulated inside her heart space, the tighter the chains wound around her, trying to prevent her from advancing her cultivation.

And the greater the resistance was, the greater the dragon’s unruly disposition grew.

So what if her skin was stretched close to bursting and failed to contain her strengthened physique.

Break down for me then!

With every trace of gold settling in her flesh and bones, it nourished the dragon’s physique and strengthened her, so perhaps it would be fine even if she got gravely injured as a result of stubbornly persisting.

It would not be the first time Nisha got injured seriously either way.

Whether it was her days roaming the Wilderness with her siblings or exploring her new elven form back then, she had had her fair share of injuries, light or serious.

She was confident that her regeneration would save her life in an emergency.

Nisha detested the restriction on her body.

Trouble in cultivation was nothing new, she had heard enough accounts how difficult it was to break through a minor boundary or how long it took them to make it through the first great divide.

The elf herself did not require quite as much effort, yet she aimed for a natural breakthrough and had to make the extra effort to control her condition and prevent accidents that would leave behind repercussions.

But everyone had different paths for their own cultivation and it was a natural process.

On the contrary, the boundary placed on her body did not come from a natural source and it deliberately sought to limit her achievements and strength.

It was not quite as prominent in the past, as her improvement was gradual and the adjustment happened in equally small steps.

This time, the clash between her blood and the [Dragon Force] propelled the dragon’s physique a huge distance forward, hence the restriction got triggered and put up an equal amount of resistance.

Now that it came to her attention, the dragon could not tolerate anything impending her freedom, especially without her knowledge.

With a roar coming from the depths of her soul, the elf strained all of her muscles against the hooks and chains binding her flesh down, eager to tear them to shreds.

If it took down a hundred enemy soldiers, the dragon was ready to sacrifice eighty of her own!

Mustering that final bit of effort, the shackles buried in her body and mind started to get pulled out, ripping tiny bits of the girl off.

Nevertheless, the countless injuries were a small price to pay for liberation.

Relief flooded Nisha as the suffocating pressure on her skin went away, no longer holding her down.

She wished to scream her joy into the world, but the repercussions of forcefully breaking the boundary placed on her body kicked in.

Without the nourishment from the golden hued blood, most likely her flesh would have split apart and her bones broken to pieces.

Thankfully, dragons had strong bodies in the first place and the advance to the fourth level built that foundation up even more.

After a successful rank up, based on previous experiences, Nisha would usually experience a change in appearance and grow up accordingly.

This time, however, the disappearance of the restriction released all the potential that was repressed so far and balanced the aftereffects of the advance in cultivation.

With a faint smile from being victorious, the elf fell into a deep sleep, tired from the effort.

Meanwhile, the golden sheen finished nurturing the blood and rushed back into the heart space, congealing into three different orbs.