Chapter 72
She was so sincere that he didn’t want to speak, every conversation with Ethel stripped a dignified Upper-Tier Demon Emperor of whatever imposing air he’d walked in with.
Bruce and Jared came running for the plaza, drawn by the noise.
Jared had heard the declaration that Orathis was never to target Ethel again, he hadn’t imagined Soren would show a Middle-Tier Spirit Ancestor zero mercy and boot it over the treeline for his sister’s sake.
It hit Jared harder than it hit Ethel, thinking about how well she was being looked after, he came back to himself with his mind made up about following Soren, and that shift was exactly what lit Following to the Death.
Reading the panel, a faint smile touched the corner of Soren’s mouth.
Two birds with one stone.
No, three, he’d nearly forgotten Ethel, though she had reached Following to the Death a long time ago.
That made five at the highest tier, Ethel, Victoria, Bruce, Arnold, Jared. five people he could trust absolutely.
Jared shared his progress from the past few days, he put on a mysterious air and traded a glance with Bruce.
"Demon Emperor, Ethel, thanks to Bruce helping me cultivate, I’ve broken through from Upper-Tier Spirit King to Lower-Tier Spirit Venerable!"
Bruce nodded beside him, satisfied. "His speed is very fast."
"Even I didn’t expect him to step into the ranks of Spirit Venerables this quickly."
"Rather than crediting my help, it’s more accurate to say he had the aptitude and the determination."
"Congratulations, Brother!" Ethel clapped her small hands, her happiness was visible from across the plaza.
Her tone and face always carried absolute sincerity, anyone she praised walked away certain she’d meant every word, Jared looked immensely pleased with himself.
Orathis clawed its way out of the crater and patted dirt off its rear.
Thousands of meters away or not, for something at its level the conversation might as well have been shouted into its ear, it leaned against the crater’s lip, one claw dug into the earth and scratched at a boulder, the other propped up its chin.
It curled its enormous lips and muttered, half to itself.
"Why do I remember that the last time I saw that little girl, she was only at the King Realm?"
Jared was baffled, Orathis had seen Ethel a few days ag, why would it ask that?
Unless Ethel wasn’t at the King Realm anymore.
The corner of Jared’s mouth twitched, Bruce’s did the same, both turned to look at her, and neither knew where to start.
They had sensed something vaguely, Ethel had been suppressing her Spirit energy the whole time, so they couldn’t be sure.
Orathis, chin still propped on its claw, wore a faint dragon smile and laid it out flat.
"That little girl hasn’t been seen for a few days, and she’s already broken through to Upper-Tier Spirit Venerable!"
"Tsk, a rare top-grade gem among the Spirit race."
Bruce and Jared froze like stone statues.
It took them three or four seconds to react, their eyeballs nearly came out of their sockets, they turned toward Ethel in perfect unison, voices overlapping.
"Upper-Tier Spirit Venerable!"
Ethel lowered her head and pursed her lips, her brother had worked so hard for Lower-Tier Spirit Venerable, and right as he was happily reporting it, before he could enjoy the moment, he had to hear that she’d gone from Spirit King to Upper-Tier Spirit Venerable in a handful of days.
How much of a blow was that to him?
"Ethel, is... is this true?" Every emotion Jared owned was tangled up in his face, joy, surprise, bewilderment.
She was in an awkward spot, and incapable of lying.
"Ethel..."
"With the Demon Emperor’s help, I fused with the soul power of an Upper-Tier Spirit Emperor."
"The soul power drove my realm upward, so I did break through to Upper-Tier Spirit Venerable."
"There’s more, Ethel also came away with that Spirit Emperor’s memories and experience in pharmacology and alchemy."
"I can refine some Venerable-grade pills and spiritual fluids now."
Jared nearly fainted on the spot, he almost pitched headfirst into Bruce’s chest, to think Ethel had run into a fortune like that.
Hearing it from her settled the matter, shock and gratitude were all he had left.
He dropped to one knee before Soren, lowered his brow, and clasped his fists.
"Thank you, Demon Emperor, for helping Ethel break through."
"We brother and sister have received far too much care from the Demon Emperor."
An Upper-Tier Spirit Venerable, a realm you looked up at and never reached.
Bruce sighed, he was still a Middle-Tier Demon Venerable, and heaven knew what year or month would see him at Upper-Tier.
Decades, centuries., his half-human, half-beast blood had inherited neither the destiny of the human race nor the bloodline of the beast race, and he’d hit a wall, breaking through had become a luxury he couldn’t afford.
Soon everyone around his Master would be Upper-Tier Venerables and Emperors, the thought put a nameless panic in him.
If he could no longer lay his life down for Soren, what was the point of living?
The light went out of Bruce’s eyes.
Soren took all of it in, he didn’t drag it out, and there was nothing to hide.
"I recently picked up a decent ability."
"I can raise the intensity and grade of your bloodline, I can also decide the direction it evolves in."
"Do you want to try?"
Everyone on the plaza went still, Orathis included, deciding an evolutionary direction? That was the power of a god.
"Please, I must try!" Bruce was close to tears.
Soren flipped the Heavenly Book straight into Form Diagram mode.
The petite maiden of the Beast Dao resonated with him and released a surge of energy, Soren drew it out along the intricate runes beneath her feet.
The Beast Form Diagram’s ability was simple, two brands, and only two.
The Bloodline Degradation Brand.
The Bloodline Evolution Brand.
Either one could reach straight into a Beast race member’s bloodline grade and evolutionary direction.
The one Soren wanted was obvious.
With the diagram’s energy behind him, he used demonic energy to condense a profound totem mark in his palm, it gave off a faint dual luster of red and black, obscure to look at, every runic line in it held a catalytic force.