The ripples of the Mystic Realm incident had yet to fully settle, but the Academy’s courses had already returned to normal.
On Thursday morning, as Xuan Xi walked into the classroom, she noticed a new notice posted on the Academy’s bulletin board.
Most of the Class A students were gathered around it, talking in low voices, their expressions lighter than they had been a few days prior.
“Today is field training,” Elsa said, squeezing out from the crowd with a notice clutched in her hand.
Her dark green eyes held a glimmer of anticipation.
“We’re heading to the wasteland north of the Academy. The teacher is going to teach us Dragon Transformation Control.”
Xuan Xi took the notice and glanced at it. ‘Dragon Transformation Control.’
It was already on the Class A schedule, not an extra class added last minute.
It just happened to fall right after the Mystic Realm incident, giving the lesson an odd, subtle undertone.
“Dragon Transformation?” Reggie walked over, frowning slightly.
“Isn’t that something we’ve been able to do since we were kids?”
Elsa rolled her eyes. “That instinctive kind of Dragon Transformation is a completely different thing from actual combat Dragon Transformation.
Your childhood transformations were just for flying and scaring the neighbor’s kids.
Combat Dragon Transformation is about maintaining human form’s flexibility and tactical judgment while in dragon form, not just turning into a dragon and calling it a day.”
Reggie looked at her. “You say that like you know all about it.”
“Cecilia mentioned it last week. I remembered it,” Elsa said, lifting her chin with a proud air.
Xuan Xi said nothing.
She folded the notice and put it in her pocket, her gaze falling on the back of her right hand.
She had transformed during the entrance assessment and again on the training ground.
Each time, it was accompanied by a heat from the Destiny Mark below her right eye.
It felt like something inside her was being awakened, yet something else was holding it back.
She couldn’t quite describe the feeling. It was as if there was a door inside her body.
She could push it open a crack, slip a finger through, even see the light shining from within, but she could never force it all the way open.
“Xuan Xi?” SigrdrÃfa’s voice came from behind her.
Xuan Xi snapped back to reality.
Silvery-white hair glistened in the morning light, and amethyst-crystal eyes were looking at her.
“You spaced out,” SigrdrÃfa said.
“Yeah. Just thinking about some things.”
SigrdrÃfa didn’t press further. She moved to stand beside Xuan Xi, closer than usual.
The training ground was located in a vast, open wasteland north of the Academy.
They got there quickly via the Teleportation Array from the Academy.
The wasteland had no trees, only low shrubs and grayish-brown rocks.
A wind blew in from the northern ice fields, carrying a chill.
The Class A students assembled in the center of the training ground, lining up by squad.
The Xuan Xi Squad stood on the far left—Xuan Xi, SigrdrÃfa, Elsa, Reggie, and Veralis Frostmark, who had just returned today.
Cecilia Windwalker stood at the front of the formation, her short black hair rustling slightly in the wind.
Today, she wore a dark gray combat suit with a wide belt around her waist, from which hung several unidentifiable tools.
She looked less like a teacher and more like a commander about to head onto a battlefield.
“Dragon Transformation,” Cecilia said without preamble.
Her sharp gaze swept across all the students present.
“Most of you have been able to do it since birth, but what you know is just instinctive subconscious Dragon Transformation. Instinctive transformation only lets you use thirty to fifty percent of your combat potential as a dragon. What I’m teaching you today is Combat Dragon Transformation.”
She raised her right hand, palm up. In an instant, her body began to change.
Silvery-white scales emerged beneath her skin, covering her arms, shoulders, and neck. Yet her form remained human.
Scales covered her limbs, claws extended from her fingertips, but her face stayed the same, and her body remained unchanged.
“First principle of Dragon Transformation: bigger isn’t always better.”
Cecilia flexed her scale-covered fingers; the joints emitted tiny, clicking sounds.
“The advantages of dragon form are raw power, high defense, and strong elemental output. The disadvantages are obvious: a large body, a big target, and high energy consumption. What we want from partial combat transformation is to keep the advantages. So, you don’t need to transform your whole body, only the parts you need.”
Elsa’s eyes lit up as if she had discovered a new continent. Reggie nodded and started rolling his shoulders. Veralis’s expression remained unchanged. Her gaze was fixed on Cecilia’s scale-covered arm, observing closely as if deep in thought.
Cecilia retracted her transformation; the scales faded from her arm, leaving her skin untouched.
“Practice in groups. First, try partial transformation. An arm, a hand, or any part that feels natural to you. Don’t try to force a full-body transformation. That’s advanced-level content. Your control isn’t there yet.”
Xuan Xi took a deep breath.
‘Partial transformation. I’ve never tried that before.’
Every transformation before had been full-body, and none of them were under her active control—they were instinctive reactions triggered by moments of crisis.
She didn’t know the difference between active and passive Dragon Transformation.
She didn’t know if this time would be like before—the Destiny Mark burning hot, the transformation failing.
She closed her eyes and tried to channel the power within her.
Her Water Spiritual Energy flowed quietly through her body, calm as a lake.
She tried to guide the energy toward her right hand, directing it from her Dantian along the meridians in her arm to her fingertips, while simultaneously willing the scales to emerge from beneath her skin.
“Xuan Xi… your face…” Elsa’s voice came from beside her.
Xuan Xi opened her eyes.
She looked down at her hand. Ink-blue scales had appeared on her right arm, not many, only up to her elbow, but they were there.
‘Did I succeed?’ No, something was wrong.
The spot below her right eye was burning. The Destiny Mark was glowing.
A dark-golden light spread from the corner of her eye down to her cheekbone, like a lit fuse.
The glow grew brighter and brighter.
The burning sensation spread from the corner of her eye across the entire right side of her face.
It was that force she felt every time she tried to transform.
The door inside her was shaking.
The light from the crack grew brighter, but she still couldn’t push it open.
Then her scales began to recede. Starting from her fingertips, the ink-blue scales retreated like a receding tide. Over her knuckles, across the back of her hand, past her wrist—they pulled back and back. She tried to hold onto them, using her will, her spiritual energy, every ounce of strength she could muster to grasp the fading scales. The retreat slowed for a moment. Just a moment. Then it stopped for an instant before continuing.
Xuan Xi clenched her jaw and pushed more Spiritual Qi toward her arm. The scales did not reappear.
Her Spiritual Qi had collided with an invisible wall.
It wasn’t that she had run out of Spiritual Qi, it was that the energy she channeled was blocked, blocked by that unseen, dark-golden door.
She tried to push harder, harder. Then the world swayed.
She heard Elsa’s voice as if from a distant horizon.
“Xuan Xi—what’s—” The rest of the words turned into a blurry buzz, like hearing through a thick layer of water.
The Destiny Mark below her right eye blazed blindingly.
The dark-gold light penetrated her eyelids, and she saw her own blood vessels.
Her temples began to throb, as if something inside was struggling to get out, but was too afraid to emerge.
Then everything went dark.
When Xuan Xi woke up, the first thing she saw was a white ceiling.
It wasn’t the ceiling of her dormitory. The dormitory ceiling was gray and had a crack she stared at every night. This ceiling was pure white, flawless, and smooth as a mirror. There was also a faint smell of disinfectant in the air, light and slightly bitter.
‘This is the Infirmary.’ She was lying on a bed in the Infirmary, covered with a thin blanket. An IV needle was taped to the back of her right hand. Sunlight squeezed through the gaps in the blinds, drawing lines of light on the floor.
“Awake?” A unfamiliar voice came from beside her.
Xuan Xi turned her head. A middle-aged female Dragon Race in a white coat stood by the bed. She had short, dark brown hair and wore a pair of thin-rimmed glasses. A chart was in her hand, and she was writing something down.
“I’m the school doctor here. You can call me Doctor Yilian.” She placed the chart on the bedside table, pulled up a chair, and sat down. “You passed out during the training class. There was a problem with your Dragon Transformation Control practice.”
“What about my teammates?”
“They’ve all gone back to class. Except for one with silvery-white hair. She said she wanted to come in, but only one person is allowed in the Infirmary at a time. She’s still at the door. She’s been standing there… for about an hour now.” Doctor Yilian adjusted her glasses. “Hasn’t left since the moment you were brought in.”
Xuan Xi followed her gaze to the door. There was a small window on the Infirmary door, and through it, she could see a patch of silvery-white in the hallway. SigrdrÃfa was leaning against the wall by the door. Only a corner of her dark-gray uniform and a hand hanging by her side were visible. That hand was clenched into a fist, the knuckles pale.
Xuan Xi’s heart skipped a beat. “Can I see—”
“Let me finish first.” Doctor Yilian raised a finger. “There’s nothing seriously wrong with your body. You fainted due to Spiritual Qi overconsumption, not physical damage. You’ll recover after resting for half a day. But your transformation process wasn’t normal. Your scales appeared, but simultaneously, a force was suppressing them. That force came from inside your body, not from an external factor. In other words, it’s not that you can’t transform. It’s that something won’t let you transform. As for the cause, even your teacher Cecilia couldn’t figure it out. She asked me to tell you this: ‘Don’t try to force a transformation for now. Wait until we figure things out.'”
Xuan Xi was silent for a moment. “I understand. Thank you, Doctor Yilian.”
Doctor Yilian stood up and pushed the chair back into place. “That one with the silvery-white hair outside… You can let her in. But don’t talk for too long. You need to rest.”
She opened the door and walked out. A soft rustling came from the hallway, followed by footsteps—very light, very fast.
The door was pushed open. When SigrdrÃfa walked in, her pace was quicker than usual. She stopped by Xuan Xi’s bed. Her amethyst-crystal eyes met amber-gold ones. Her lips were pressed into a thin line.
No red-rimmed eyes. No trembling. None of the emotional display Xuan Xi had anticipated. She just stood there, looking at Xuan Xi, as if confirming something.
Xuan Xi looked back at her. The room was quiet for a moment.
“Did you skip breakfast today?” Xuan Xi asked.
“…I ate.”
“Then why are your hands so cold?”
SigrdrÃfa didn’t answer. She found a chair by the bed and sat down. Silvery-white hair slipped from her shoulder, brushing the edge of the bed. She reached out and took the hand Xuan Xi had resting on the blanket. Her fingers threaded through Xuan Xi’s, interlacing them, palm against palm. Her fingers were cool and long, trembling slightly between Xuan Xi’s.
“You waited for an hour?” Xuan Xi asked.
“Yeah.”
“Just standing at the door?”
“Yeah.”
“Weren’t you tired, standing that long?”
“No.”
Xuan Xi curled the corner of her mouth and tightened her grip on her hand. “You idiot.”
SigrdrÃfa looked up, her amethyst-crystal eyes meeting Xuan Xi’s, as if to say, ‘You’re the idiot.’ But she just looked at her for a few seconds, then lowered her head and buried her face against the edge of the bed. Her silvery-white hair spilled across the back of Xuan Xi’s hand like a thin layer of snow. Xuan Xi felt her forehead press against her hand, cool, her body trembling slightly.
“Don’t force a transformation again, okay?” SigrdrÃfa’s voice came from between her arms, muffled, carrying a softness Xuan Xi had never heard before.
“Okay.”
“Not ‘okay.’ I mean it. Don’t transform.”
“I really won’t transform,” Xuan Xi replied, exasperated.
SigrdrÃfa didn’t say another word. She stayed in that position, her forehead pressed against Xuan Xi’s hand, her silvery-white hair scattered across the white sheets. Xuan Xi watched her. She watched the scattered strands of silver hair. She watched the hand interlocked with hers, the knuckles white from the force of the grip.
She suddenly felt that it didn’t matter so much whether or not she could transform successfully.
It didn’t matter if she could open that door.
Because someone was waiting for her on this side of the door.
Sunlight squeezed through the gaps in the blinds, drawing lines of light on the floor.
That light slowly moved, from the door to the bed, from the bed to the corner of the wall.
In the evening, Xuan Xi returned to her Dormitory.
She lay on her bed. The spot below her right eye was no longer hot.
The dark-golden Destiny Mark lay quietly beneath her skin, as if nothing had happened.
Her Communication Stone vibrated. She picked it up.
It was a friend request.
The avatar was an ice-blue snowflake. No signature. No note. The requester’s name: Viralis Frostmark.
Xuan Xi stared at the friend request for a few seconds. She accepted it.
A message came immediately.
“Your Destiny Mark lights up when you transform, doesn’t it.”
Xuan Xi replied: “Do you know why?”
“It’s not an ordinary mark. It’s a shackle. The Destiny Mark on your face is not only a marker of your bloodline but also part of a seal. It has two functions for you. It proves who you are, and at the same time, it suppresses the power within you, preventing ordinary people from seeing your true identity.”
Xuan Xi’s fingers hovered over the screen. “A seal? Who put it there?”
“I don’t know. But one thing is certain: this seal was not meant to harm you. It was meant to protect you. It’s just hiding your bloodline, preventing the Western Dragon detection systems from identifying you, making everyone think you’re just a ‘Bloodline-Less’ ordinary Dragon Race. When you force a transformation, the seal stops you from exposing your identity. It doesn’t want others to see what your dragon form looks like. Because if you fully transformed, your dragon form would reveal that you are an Eastern Dragon.”
Xuan Xi stared at those words for a long time.
“Can the seal be undone?”
“Yes. But not now. Undoing the seal requires conditions—maybe your strength needs to reach a certain level, maybe there’s an external trigger, or maybe there’s a specific person who can undo it. I don’t know the specifics. But I do know that forced unsealing is not the way. What you did today was a forced unsealing. To protect you, the seal directly cut off your Spiritual Qi output. You didn’t faint because you were weak. You fainted because the seal was too strong.”
Xuan Xi put the Communication Stone by her pillow and turned over to face the screen.
“Sig.”
“Yeah.”
“My Destiny Mark… it’s a seal. It won’t let me transform because it’s protecting me.”
There was a moment of silence from the other side of the screen. “Who told you that?”
“Viralis.”
“She added you as a friend?”
“…Yeah.”
“When?”
“Just now.”
No more sound came from the other side of the screen.
But Xuan Xi heard a tiny noise.
It sounded like something being gently placed on a table. She had put her pen down.
“Sig.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you jealous?”
“…No.”
“Then why did you put your pen down?”
The silence from behind the screen stretched on for so long that Xuan Xi thought she wasn’t going to answer.
“Get some rest,” SigrdrÃfa said.
“You have class tomorrow.”
Xuan Xi curled the corner of her mouth in the darkness, not calling her out on it.
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