Jing He pursed his lips, not sure what to imagine. “With me being a god, any child I have with Qiu Ling would be a half-blood. It is difficult to say how they will turn out, isn’t it?”

Jinde nodded. “That is one of the reasons I believe the two of you shouldn’t be in a hurry. Not even mentioning that you are young and should enjoy your marital life alone for a while, there is indeed no way to tell what you should expect. It’ll pay for both of you to have a clear sense of the other’s people first before even thinking of children. That way, even though there will still be surprises, you’ll be prepared a lot better.”

“I will definitely heed your advice, father-in-law.” This time, Jing He wasn’t just paying lip service either. He wouldn’t be able to raise a child well if he couldn’t even fit in with the dragons himself. He had much to learn in these years before he would be qualified to bring a child to this world with Qiu Ling.

Jinde didn’t think too much. “Looking at both Qiu Ling and Jin Ling, half-bloods tend to fall on one side of the bloodline rather clearly. There are only some surprises to be wary of like their magical abilities which don’t have to correspond to either side completely. The stages they should reach could also be a problem.” His brows furrowed slightly at this point. He himself had raised a child that wasn’t full-blooded and he had been close enough while Qiu Ling grew up for the first years to notice a few things.

“I believe in your case, there might be some issues because Qiu Ling himself has mixed blood. There is really no saying what your children will inherit. So just be ready for anything.” He tried to lighten his expression, not wanting to frighten Jing He. “Anyway, there is still time so don’t fret it.

“Now, I was telling you about the children of the dragon race before. Even though I’ve never raised a full-blooded dragon myself, I’ve watched it being done a lot of times. From what I remember, it takes about two hundred and fifty years before they even start being able to take on their dragon form and that is at the very earliest. The ones who can do it can be considered very far for their age.”

Jing He nodded slowly but felt a bit confused. “Why is this?” He would have thought the dragon form was something inherent. If you had asked him before, he wouldn’t even have been able to tell which form the dragons were born in.

“Well … Just like with their general magical abilities, it takes time to fully grasp the concept. The dragon children are born with the toughness our people have and even their scales are already in place when they are born. But changing is something that affects the whole body. Before you can do it, you need an understanding of it. That means being familiar with your other form, with the one you want to change into, and also with the magical abilities that rely on it.

“The smaller they are, the more difficult it is because the body tends to change more and their understanding of everything is much lower. By the time they master their magical abilities, they understand the inner workings of their bodies so even though they are still growing, they can begin to understand the process of changing as well. The further they grow, the easier it then becomes to change.

“In the past, dragons were considered adults the day they could freely change their form precisely because of this. Usually, that is around the age of five hundred years. Nowadays, people aren’t as strict anymore. Even if you are lagging behind a little, they’ll still consider you an adult on that day.”

“I remember that dragons come of age much sooner than gods.” This also meant that his own children with Qiu Ling might grow up faster than what his family was used to. “Discovering their abilities … it should be a gradual process then?” He still wasn’t sure how exactly to imagine it.

Jinde nodded. “Mn. On the way to discovering how to change, they first discover their spiritual veins and learn to use them effectively. Then, when their magic is mostly developed, they start off becoming more familiar with their outward physical attributes.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Qiu Ling’s scales or his claws in his other form?” This was a pretty good indication of how things worked for children but seeing how timid Jing He was, he couldn’t judge whether Qiu Ling had ever bothered showing him.

Jing He pursed his lips. He couldn’t actually remember seeing his scales but … “I did see him change his nails to claws once.” At that time, Qiu Ling had carved a small ornament for him and had also shown him others he made in the past. He had been quite impressed so he remembered it well.

Jinde nodded again. “Yes, then you are more familiar with this than you think. This is one of the things dragon children learn and, in fact, it’s the one most manage to learn early on, often much earlier than everything else. Being able to show your scales whenever you want to comes later because that is more difficult to do.” He stretched out his hand and the skin on the back changed slowly, starting to show the outline of scales beneath the skin and a faint golden shimmer. After another moment, the skin on top seemed to dissolve or maybe the scales were breaking through, showing clearly now.

Jing He watched carefully but as a trueborn god, he had no frame of reference for this. Changing one’s body in this way … it should indeed be pretty difficult?