During their return to the girl's residence, Vey'rax could tell that she was still shaken by what had just happened.
Her usually cheerful expression was gone, replaced by a worried one.
She sighed deeply as she stepped into her chambers, Vey'rax following despite his unwillingness.
To his surprise, however, the girl was quick to take action over her fate. She lowered herself to the ground, taking slow, deep breaths to calm her racing heart.
"We need to get to mid stage within a week…" she murmured, "otherwise Father will…" She paused, remembering his words.
He would kill her beast if she failed to reach the mid stage. There was no doubt about it in the girl's mind. Her father, the Wind Emperor, was not one to utter meaningless threats.
She pushed the negative thoughts away, closing her eyes as she focused inward.
Vey'rax recognised instantly what the girl was doing.
She was trying to cultivate spiritual essence to reach the mid stage, but even to Vey'rax, whose cultivation methods differed from humans, it was clear that what she was doing had no chance of success.
At this rate, he was as good as dead, he noted, staring at the girl with complete lack of confidence.
Reaching mid stage in rank 1 was relatively easy.
At this point, one's core was still dormant; mid stage meant that the person learned to draw in spiritual essence from their surroundings and refine it so their core could absorb it.
In truth, someone her age should have learned to do so long ago. It was something taught to children, not young adults.
'Is there a reason why the girl did not cultivate earlier?' Vey'rax wondered, but he did not dwell on it.
It was not like it mattered right now.
He was not about to leave his fate in the hands of a human girl.
Using the moment while she was distracted, he silently walked away toward the window.
Mid stage, he almost chuckled at the thought but stopped himself quickly, not wanting to alert the girl to his movement.
For dragons, manipulating spiritual essence was instinctual.
In truth, most dragons reached rank 5 before they even learned to speak, their bodies instinctively refining and absorbing essence at a magnificent rate.
Vey'rax took one last glance at the struggling girl before leaving her chambers.
He flew off, beyond the imperial residence, in search of something quite particular.
Dragongrass.
It looked nothing special.
It resembled regular grass, with the only exception being small hints of crimson scattered through it.
When eaten, brewed, or dried in regular ways, it had no effects. Only when mixed with a drop of dragon blood and boiled for half a day was when its unique characteristics were brought to life.
It unlocked hidden pathways around a dragon's core, allowing essence to move and refine more freely.
Using dragongrass was common practice, which was why dragons usually settled in places full of it.
But here, in a land Vey'rax had never seen before, would he manage to find any in time?
He frowned slightly as he flew around the nearby forest.
Nothing but dirt and ordinary grass, he cursed inwardly until he caught sight of something.
As he got closer, he saw its blue color standing out among the greenery.
'Stormroot? Here of all places?' He looked around, confused at the sight.
It was a very rare and extremely poisonous plant that mostly grew in harsh and cold environments.
This place was not exactly a tropical paradise, but its atmosphere was certainly too warm for the plant to grow here.
The tiniest piece could kill most humans in an instant. Some were said to die from even taking a whiff of its smell; its poison was said to seep from the flower as a defense mechanism.
But there was another use for the plant.
There had been an old myth, one not tested in centuries, of a coreless dragon who used the plant to cultivate a new core.
Supposedly, the plant did not kill by simple poison. Its effects drew in too much spiritual essence at once, causing the person's core to break, but none of this had ever been proven.
Vey'rax had heard the myths and legends about the plant, but he saw far more use for it as a poison. Using it now would certainly be madness… but then again, his whole situation was already mad enough.
His draconic mouth curved into something that almost resembled a smile as he slowly approached the plant.
It was his first time seeing it in person, and he could already tell the plant was drawing spiritual essence into itself. The air around it seemed to bend slightly, creating a faint bubble.
Let's hope the myths were accurate, Vey'rax thought as he snapped his jaws open and swallowed the top of the flower whole.
At first, nothing happened. Then a burst of essence erupted from within him, followed by excruciating pain.
His small figure swayed, and before he could react, his vision darkened as his body collapsed to the ground.