This was why Calming Lake was such a grand treasure. Albeit for a small time for most individuals, it provided a systematic method of increasing your mental energy. With persistent entries, one could raise their level without stumbling around blindly.

In the beginning, Dyon absorbed the streams of consciousnesses around him by normal method. He would overwhelm them with his thoughts, devouring their schools of thought.

But, Dyon felt that this was getting him nowhere. Sure, he was moving forward and sure, his capacity for focus was greatly increasing, but there was something missing His mental state wasn't improving at all. He was the same Dyon inflexible and arrogant.

Though Dyon knew that a person changing wasn't so simple, seeing it playing out before him was almost depressing.

He didn't want to change. He didn't want to become a new person. He wanted to be himself, the same Dyon he had always been, wasn't that enough?

Didn't he treat his subordinates fairly? Didn't he love his wives equally? Wasn't he putting his life on the line for the sake of the entire Plane and not just himself?

Where were his imperfections? Where were his flaws? Who were these Dragons to tell him that he needed to change? Who were they to encroach upon his beliefs with their own?

An inborn arrogance that could light a night sky pulsated around Dyon.

Since his birth, what he hated the most was being tested. No matter how good the intentions of the individual doing the testing was, a deeply irrational part of Dyon seethed with rage whenever such a thing happened.

It almost felt like the individual doing the testing was looking down on him, as though they had the right to pass judgement about whether or not he was good enough.

How dare they.

He, Dyon Sacharro, wasn't a man that could be measured by just anyone. He couldn't be broken down into systematic measurements and stuffed in a box of walled potential others perceived as his limits.

He was Dyon Sacharro. He didn't have such limits, there didn't exist a box that could contain him, nor did there exist an individual who could measure him. He didn't lose. Not ever.

[But is that true, do you really never lose?]

[You seem to have the pride and arrogance of a man who stands above the Mortal Plane. No, of a man who stands even above the Immortal Plane, but what have you done to earn such arrogance?]

[You entered Focus Academy and the first thing you did was enter a battle you had no chance of winning, why? Because you had a little fame in you Mortal World? Because your mind worked a little bit better than others? Did you think that because you worked 'hard' it was enough to justify your high bridged nose?]

[Unfortunately for you, the martial world doesn't reward hard work. There are individuals who could work just as hard as you yet never accomplish a thing.]

[Whether you want to believe it or not, the reality will always be the reality. The Heavens are inflexible. The duty of a cultivator is to work within its framework, to calmly accept the tides as they come. It might be commendable to hold your head high despite these tides, but that will never stop the tides from coming. Fighting against them is foolish, you must fight within them. Who do you think you are.]

The same things were being said, over and over again. Dyon wasn't fooled by their different wordings. These third tier dragons were saying the same things the second tier dragons said, and those second tier dragons said the same thing those first tier dragons said.

An indescribable rage built up within Dyon's chest.

These moronic bastards.

A dark pressure descended upon Calming Lake as a manifestation that seemed to hold up the skies appeared.

'[DEVOUR].'

Ever since his birth, Dyon had had an air of arrogance. It was one his mother never bothered with, loving him regardless, but it was something his father had tried to wring out of him more times than he cared to remember.

Of course, Dyon's father wasn't an abusive man. He was strict and stoic, but Dyon wasn't an immature child who couldn't see his father's love for him. In fact, he was quite fascinated by the way his father's mind worked because he greatly admired him.

However, Dyon's father, General Sacharro, was a military man. Dyon's level of arrogance was intolerable on the battlefield. A man who couldn't lower his head when it was necessary was a detriment to the men around him, especially when this arrogance was related to insubordination.

Still, even seeing this flaw early on, General Sacharro failed to change his son.

Normally, parents wouldn't be able to see the failings of their children until it was too late. But, General Sacharro saw this side of his son early on, but was unable to change anything.

What was the difference between then and now? The difference was that Dyon respected his father. But these nameless Dragons? The same ones who dared to test him, the same ones that tried to mold his thoughts into their own? Their actions completely infuriated him.

It could only be described as an irrational anger. Maybe even Dyon didn't understand where it stemmed from.

Was it what he suffered at the hands of Aritzia that caused this? Was it the pressure on his shoulders? Was it the fact his dao heart was still empty? Maybe it was the fact he still hadn't resolved his feelings surrounding his chaos flames

Whatever it was, a single man could only endure so much.

Dyon's idea of moving on was laughable if you truly thought about it. He lost his dao heart under the assault of his comprehension of chaos, yet he just seemed to move on and forget about it.

For a moment, his heart was sustained by the hopes and dreams of individuals he himself said he looked down upon.