Void Evolution System

The Azure Dragon's egg was a treasure. It didn't matter who that child's parents were or what form it came out in. Because it had the Azure Dragon's blessing, it was destined for success.

Damien was quite curious about the being that gained this kind of affection from a being who was known to hold no regard for others. He watched intently as the cracks on the massive egg's surface widened. Pieces chipped off, giving way to an oddly…

'...humanoid figure?'

Damien raised an eyebrow. At first, he couldn't be sure, but he eventually had to accept it. The being inside that egg had white skin, two arms and two legs like a human, and features that looked…

'...oddly similar to me?!'

Damien scratched his head in confusion.

'This has to be some kind of trick, right?'

He couldn't believe it. Even as the egg was torn apart, completely revealing its figure, he couldn't fathom it at all.

The child was certainly a boy. He had Damien's amethyst-purple eyes and facial features, but he didn't quite look like he was Damien's child. Spare for the more telling features like the ocean-blue horns on his head or the draconic slits in his eyes, there were some distinct differences in his features that truly made it seem like a combination of Damien's genes and someone else's.

'But my genes weren't involved in his birth at all.'

No, this was someone else's child. However, he had clearly taken influence from Damien's mana after being in the spatial storage for so many years.

The child sat on the floor surrounded by the remains of his egg, looking around curiously at the world he'd been born into.

When his eyes landed on Damien…

"Papa…?"

His first words came before he did any incessant babbling.

"Me?" Damien replied, almost forgetting to treat the child as a child.

"Papa!"

The child exclaimed as if it had been confirmed. He crawled over to Damien and grabbed onto his leg, and, with a level of strength that should've been impossible for a child, he crawled up Damien's leg and torso until he was properly sat on his shoulder.

Damien frowned, but didn't say anything about it.

He wasn't really concerned about being this child's father.

'I mean, it's literally what I agreed to when I took him from the Azure Dragon. My main concern is…'

"...aren't you supposed to be a dragon?"

"Papa!"

"Fair enough."

Nodding matter-of-factly, Damien looked into the child's existence.

'It's chaotic, and for some reason, he hatched in human form, but he's certainly a dragon. There's no doubt about it.'

Inside of that child, there was a vast ocean beyond anything a newborn should've been able to contain. His growth potential was immense, and his genetic advantages were beyond anything most other dragons could ever experience.

He was a direct descendant of a Holy Dragon.

"Anyway, before we get you into all of that nonsense, let's get you some clothes."

The child didn't have a name yet. Damien didn't think he could name this child without feeling guilty, so he held off on it.

Before any of that, he went to the store and found a few outfits for him, considering that he was born without clothes, and that made going out in public quite difficult.

The excursion was really just so Damien could get a feel of what others were wearing. The clothes themselves were made out of his energy.

'This child has an extremely strong Azure Dragon aura. If anyone manages to sense it, things might get a lot more complicated. After all, I still don't know why the Azure Dragon was forced into Grand Heavens Boundary.'

Damien's energy could be expertly concealed as clothing, and it could mask the aura so that others would assume both he and the child were from the same clan.

That made entering the central region a lot easier, since that was something that needed to be done regardless of the child's presence.

He was an oddly agreeable toddler. He liked to crawl over Damien's body like he was a cat tree, but other than that, he never cried or raised a fuss.

The only problem was his love for food. Damien found out within hours that the child was able to eat more than a practitioner who gained power from being fat.

A dragon's appetite really lived up to expectations.

'If it was anyone else, this would've been a problem. Me, on the other hand…'

Damien was a hoarder. He wasn't just a hoarder, but one with access to an infinite space where time didn't flow. Anything and everything could be preserved.

There were monster corpses in his spatial storage that dated back all the way to his days on the Cloud Plane. With the cooking skills he'd developed over the years, it wasn't hard at all to satisfy that demonic appetite.

As such, Damien and the child set out on a journey to Arulion's central region to establish themselves.

That journey was…

'...interesting.'

This was Damien's first time raising a toddler. He's adopted children in the past, but he'd never actually had to do the parenting.

This time was different. This child didn't have anywhere else to go, and Damien didn't have the Sanctuary to contact people who were more suited for childcare than him.

They were stuck together, and Damien was honestly enjoying it more than he expected.

Life was full of challenges, but sometimes, it would become stale. The usual stimuli would lose their effect, and people became more like zombies going through routines without many thoughts at all.

Having children was a challenge that one could give oneself willingly. It would add a flavor to life that couldn't be experienced elsewhere, a mixture of unconditional love and indescribable emotion.

Damien had thought about it a few times before, but his life was just too busy for him to want to bring children into the world. His wives were the same. None of them were ready to settle down and take a break from their training to become mothers.

When life became more peaceful, they could have children of their own.

But this child, the Azure Dragon's kin, was showing Damien what that experience would be like.

He was a strange child who didn't show the same naivety as other newborns, but he made Damien understand what it felt like to be a real father, to be responsible for a child's life.

Still, he never forgot what the child in his care represented.

And he never forgot the Azure Dragon's wish.

As Damien made his way into the central region to move forward his plans of recruiting the Dragon Clan, he caught wind of a certain rumor.

An event was going to take place soon. It was supposed to be something that rarely ever happened, an event beyond all others in dragon culture.

Whispers were spreading through the royalty, becoming so loud that even a newcomer like Damien was able to hear them with ease.

'The Dragon Emperor.'

A being above the Holy Dragons, the true strongest person in the entire Dragon Clan…

That being was looking for someone to take his place.

Soon, it would start; an all-out competition between anyone with some talent.

The heir wars.

It was not only a grand occasion for the dragons…

'...this is my chance.'

This was the entry point Damien had been looking for, and now that he'd found it…

'I should probably raise this little kid into a future Dragon Emperor, eh?'