"Papa, why are there so many changes here? And whose magic cores are these?" Little Su's confused voice echoed in Draven's mind.
Draven gave her a brief rundown of what had happened.
After hearing the whole story, Little Su was speechless. She remained silent for a long moment before saying, "Forget about the girl. The important thing is that a teleportation portal to the outside world has been established. If we can find its nodes in this world, we might be able to get out without breaking the seal."
Draven shook his head. "It's most likely a random teleportation portal with this world as the destination. That means anyone entering it could appear anywhere here. We won't be able to pinpoint its location."
"Anyway, we'll talk more later. I need to ask these people some questions first," Draven said to Little Su before pulling his consciousness back to the outside world.
The three middle-aged women were kneeling before him, and the young lady lay unconscious on the ground.
Draven's mouth twitched. Looking at the woman who had introduced herself as Grace, he said, "Give her something to restore her energy. She's just exhausted; my yang energy was much stronger than her yin energy."
Grace stood up and bowed to Draven before taking a pill from her storage ring and carefully feeding it to the young lady.
Ignoring Grace as she used her essence energy to help the girl absorb the pill, Draven walked over to the other two women. "Stand up. There's no need to kneel," he said calmly.
The two women scrambled to their feet and bowed respectfully.
"Explain something to me," Draven began, a look of confusion on his face. "Why was that idiot so desperate to use my yang energy to condense her bloodline spirit? Or is she genuinely unwell in the head?" He still couldn't grasp her single-minded determination.
The warrior woman hesitated before speaking. "When our young lady was born, the heavenly diviner Wyrdfrod foretold her future. He said she would become a godly empress, ruling over all of Celestia, a sovereign even the gods would bow to, with a lifespan that would make them envious."
Draven looked at her strangely. "That sounds like a good thing. So why was she courting death over it?"
The warrior woman sighed. "That wasn't all. He also said our young lady would give birth to the next emperor and empress of the Nyxborn Empire and the Everheart Empire. Under her children's rule, the two nations would conquer and unify all of Celestia, making the Nyxborns and Everhearts the ultimate rulers of humanity."
Draven frowned. "Again, what's the problem? Isn't it good that her descendants will become emperors?"
The warrior woman nodded. "It is a great honor. But the issue is that only someone with the direct bloodline of the Nyxborns or Everhearts can inherit their thrones. Our young lady is a descendant of the Phynic Nation. For the prophecy to be fulfilled, she would have to... marry descendants from both royal families who carry their direct bloodlines."
"To make matters more complicated," she continued, "our young lady has magic cores twice the size of a normal person's, which makes her yin force twice as strong. This seemed to confirm the diviner's prediction, as it would take the yang energy of two powerful men to complete the formation of her bloodline spirit."
At this point, the woman glanced at Draven with a strange look. "We simply never expected to find someone, like yourself, senior, whose yang energy alone surpassed even our young lady's immense yin force."
Draven waved his hand impatiently. "Flattery noted. Now, finish the story."
The warrior woman continued, her voice heavy with emotion. "Her grandfather arranged for her to be engaged to two descendants from the royal families, but to our young lady, this was a profound humiliation. She was disgusted by the idea of being shared between two men like a plaything or a breeding tool for their royal heirs."
"That's why she suppressed her bloodline spirit, refusing to let it manifest. She knew the moment it was born, her grandfather would force her to accept the yang energy of those two young men. For years, she endured the agony of her soul being slowly consumed by her suppressed spirit, all to protect her dignity as a woman."
After a moment of silence, Draven nodded in understanding. "So when I sent my spiritual energy into her body to wake her, she must have sensed the sheer strength of my yang energy. That explains her desperation. She saw a chance to fulfill the spirit's needs with a single source, freeing herself from the original arrangement."
But one thing still puzzled him. According to the warrior woman, the young lady's cores were twice the normal size, but all of his cores were ten times larger than hers. Wouldn't that make his cores twenty times larger than a normal person's?
Boom!
A powerful aura suddenly erupted from the young lady, who had now awakened thanks to the pill. Above her head, orange and cyan flames swirled together into a fiery sphere. The temperature around it fluctuated wildly, one side was as cold as glacial ice, the other as scorching as a desert.
Suddenly, the ball of energy split in two, and a small bird emerged from it. Its body was an illusionary mix of yin and yang energy, one half burning orange-red, the other a cool cyan.
It looked like a small chick. Draven even wondered how it managed to hover in the air with such tiny wings.
"Coo... coo," the little bird chirped excitedly when it saw Draven looking at it.
Abandoning the young lady, it fluttered its small wings and flew straight to Draven's shoulder, nuzzling its head affectionately against his neck. It even curiously pecked at the black hoop earring in his ear.
Draven smiled. Although the little creature's body was made of flame, its presence on his shoulder wasn't uncomfortable. On the contrary, it felt quite pleasant.
But unlike Draven, the young lady's face darkened at the sight. She staggered to her feet and marched over to Draven. With an angry scowl, she snatched the little bird from his shoulder.
"Our deal is complete! Don't think you can win my blood spirit's favor to get close to me. I am far out of your league!"
Draven's mouth twitched in annoyance. He snapped his fingers, and his sword materialized in his hand, its point coming to rest gently against the young lady's neck. "This isn't my first time killing a human, so don't test my patience. If you become an eyesore, I won't hesitate to remove your head from your shoulders."
Locked in place by Draven's killing intent, the young lady shuddered. With a cold huff, she retreated on unsteady legs back to the safety of the warrior women.
"Coo... coo," the little phoenix chirped sadly, its gaze still fixed longingly on the black hoop earring in Draven's ear. It seemed the little fellow wasn't ready to stop playing with it.