His body started heating up. Smoke came out of his ears and mouth. The others backed off, surprise and curiosity etched in their faces.

A flood of energy coursed through his entire body, strengthening every cell. His body expanded, becoming 4 times larger then shrank.

This process repeated a few more times, Ved roared, the pain was almost unbearable. However he could feel the changes to his body.

Everytime he shrank, his muscles became denser and tougher. His bones became harder and his blood thicker yet flowed even faster.

His scales fell off leaving him bare and vulnerable. Then new stronger and darker scales grew on his body.

His spikes also grew a bit wider and longer, they came much tougher as well. His organs, including his trait organs became more durable.

His poison and web fluid grew denser. His lungs and other organs also became tougher but when the changes reached his hearts something unexpected happened.

Not only did his hearts completely heal and regenerate lost vital essence, they became wider, blood flowed faster through them increasing Ved's body strength and stamina regeneration.

He could instinctively feel that his vital essence had increased. Even his feathers on his wings became stronger.

Since the body can promote the soul and vice versa, his soul grew stronger as well, not as much as the body but the increase was still significant.

The process lasted for hours, hours of excruciating pain but it was worth it, when it was done, Ved could tell he was almost twice as strong as before.

He decided to check his status.

Name: Ved Zhakrii

Species: Sky Thunder Wyvern (27 years/ 6003 years)( 17,9m/40m) Low Heaven Grade

Rank: 4

Abilities( 4/4): Trait Assimilation, Soul Force, Aspect Intergration, Ignition

Traits(10/11): Poison secretion, Herculean strength ( 600x), Aquatic, Flash (500x), Iron Scale ( 35 000x), Web Secretion, Electric Discharge, Regeneration, Nuclear Reactor, Avatar

Evolution points:( 2.004/80)

Not much has changed except his lifespan. It has grown by 3 whole years. This made sense, after all, both his vital and soul essence, the two factors that determine lifespan had increased.

However the increase in those essence energies was much higher than the corresponding increase in lifespan, Ved had no explanation for this.

After everything was over, the others approached him. " Are you okay?" Asked Nimue in a gentle and caring tone.

Traxy ran around him excitedly, she picked up his scales and inspected them. " Mister that was so cool, how did it feel? Did it hurt?"

Ved nodded then suddenly Ursela laughed. " She called you mister." Everybody looked at her like she was an idiot.

" And why would that be funny?" Nimue asked, her voice sounding annoyed. " Because he's younger than her."

They turned towards him. ," Really really? How old are you?" Traxy asked him. ' 27.' Vex answered without thinking about it.

To him, being 27 meant you were a fully grown adults but the place grew quiet.

" WHAAAAAT"

"WHAAAAAT"

" WHAAAAAT"

" WHAAAAAT"

All four of them exclaimed at the same time. Even Ursela was surprised. She knew he was young, she had inquired from White.

It was hard, having to decipher her incoherent and overly excited thought but through them she learnt that Ved was very young.

But she thought he was about a hundred years old, she couldn't comprehend a 27 year old rank 4, a cultivation speed of that level was unheard of.

It should be mentioned that Traxy who looked like a 15 or 16 year old was actually over 800 years old, the turtle race had very long lifespans even amongst spiritual beasts.

" It must be the waves, it has to be." Nimue whispered. Her husband supported her. " True, I've noticed that lower rank beasts grew significantly faster during a wave, some even ranking up in the process."

Ursela chimed in, " it's a pity the last three waves didn't have essence pure and dense enough to effect beings of our level." They all sighed.

" But to think you are so young. Ursela are you sure you want him to take the trial? Strong as he might be, he's merely an infant, his mental strength might not be up to par."

Asked Nimue, her voice laced with concern and a gentleness he had only heard from mothers. Ursela seemed to think about it for a while.

" You're right, he's too young, maybe he could try again in about a hundred years." " A hundred years sounds reasonable, he won't have to wait for long."

The two of them started talking like he was not even there. He wanted to say something but stopped himself. Novak seemed to notice this and he coughed.

" Ladies, does the boy not get a say in this!" They turned and glared at him. " Hah, what would a useless man like you know about raising children?, how could a child make such a huge decision by themselves? Do you know how dangerous the trial could be?."

Ved had no idea when it got to raising him, he doesn't recall ever consenting to being raised by them. He stopped them before they could say anything even more ridiculous.

' Excuse me but I'm not a child, I can take care of myself and I think I should have a say in what I can and cannot do.'

Nimue looked at him like he was crazy. " Rubbish, you're still too young and it was very irresponsible of your guardian to let you go by yourself."

Ursela chimed in. " Heeey, that so rude, how do you know I'm not his guardian?" Nimue smiled teasingly.

" Multiple reasons, one, you didn't even know his age, you're an idiot who still needs taking care of herself and most importantly, he's still alive."

Ursela grumbled, folded her arms on her chest and looked away, ignoring Nimue who just laughed softly. " See, still childish."

Then she turned her eyes towards Ved. " So, where are your parents or guardians? I need to have some word with them, they need to explain to me how they could let a child roam around alone."

Ursela looked even more offended by that last statement. Ved answered. ' I don't have any legal guardian, I've taking care of myself since I was born.'

Ved said it like it was normal to him and it was but it seemed the others took it differently. The glimmer in their eyes disappeared, replaced by sadness and pity.

" Oh poor child, don't worry, I will take care of you from now on." Nimue brushed his head gently and lovingly.

Ved tried to tell her it was fine, that he can take care of himself but that seemed to make things even worse.

At some point she started crying while hugging him. He didn't know what to do with that so he just let her.

Suddenly her husband spoke. " You seem overly emotional, are you pregnant again?" That man didn't know how to read the room. What followed was a brutal beating.

And just like that, the night passed like the wind and it was time for the trial.

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