"Huh? Didn't we agree to hunt the sword-winged crane next? Why did you hunt another godly beast?" Little Su asked, her voice tinged with confusion.
"This one found me first. It attacked without warning, so I had no choice but to fight back," Draven explained with a shrug.
Little Su didn't press further and withdrew her spirit back into the dragon egg.
Draven turned his attention to the bull demon's massive corpse. His eyes first fell on the creature's hammer. It was pitch black, with ancient, weathered characters carved into its head. He hefted the gigantic weapon with both hands, testing its weight.
"A top-grade weapon," he mused to himself. "But it's useless for any normal human." With a grunt, he tossed it aside. It landed with a heavy thud that shook the ground.
The young lady, who had been grumbling to herself, turned at the loud thud of the hammer hitting the ground. "Ugly old man! Those are ancient runes, it's a divine weapon! You can't just treat it like common scrap," she scolded, marching toward the hammer. "If you don't want it, I'll take it."
She tried to lift it, but the hammer didn't budge. After a moment's struggle, she gestured to the three middle-aged women accompanying her. Together, the four of them managed to shift it slightly, but it was clear they couldn't carry it far.
"It's imbued with ancient runic power. You won't be able to store it in a spatial ring," Draven remarked without looking up. He was already busy examining the bull demon's body with his ghost needles, searching for its acupoints.
"It's a divine weapon! Aren't you even a little tempted?" the young lady retorted, her face falling with disappointment.
Draven paused, thinking for a moment. "Don't disturb me until I'm finished. Once I'm done, I'll forge whatever kind of divine weapon you want from that hammer."
The young lady's eyes brightened. She didn't quite know why, but she believed him. Leaving the hammer where it lay, she stepped back and waited quietly.
The three middle-aged women exchanged surprised glances. They had never seen their young lady so readily obey someone.
Draven, too, was taken aback by her sudden compliance, but he shrugged it off and returned to his work. After about an hour, he had located all 180 of the bull demon's acupoints. With a wave of his hand, he drove the remaining ghost needles into his own acupoints.
Then, using his shadow essence, he began drawing in the air. A complex purple diagram took shape, composed of four concentric circles filled with pictographic characters of animals and objects. When it was complete, the diagram hummed with a powerful aura that made the very air tremble.
"Begin," Draven said, forming a series of hand seals. Purple threads of energy emerged from the needles in his own body, snaked through the magic circle, and connected to the needles in the bull demon.
Just as before, an identical diagram appeared in Draven's inner world. The energy flowing through it separated into two parts: a golden fog, the creature's life essence, and a red fog, its blood essence. Draven guided the golden fog toward the Kalsimha Statue and the red fog toward the dragon egg.
Once he was sure the process was stable, he returned his focus to absorbing the bull demon's life force. In less than an hour, its massive body had shriveled into a dry husk and crumbled into gray ash.
"What's that golden cloud?" the young lady asked curiously, observing the scene in Draven's inner world.
"You know about life force?" Draven responded telepathically.
"Isn't it the soul of a creature?" she asked, sounding unsure.
"In a way, yes. But in medical terms, life force is divided into two essences: blood essence, which belongs to the physical body, and life essence, which belongs to the spirit. That golden cloud is the bull demon's life essence," Draven explained.
"So you're a demon cultivator, then? I've heard they're the only ones who use such unorthodox methods," she pressed.
Draven was silent for a moment. "My core is a chaos core, not a demon core. But if you judge by morality alone, then yes, I am a demon, beyond any hope of redemption."
"I knew it! From the moment I first saw you, I could tell you were an evil demon," the young lady said, almost cheerfully, as if she had uncovered a great secret.
Draven's lip twitched. "Likewise. The moment you opened your eyes, I had a strong feeling you were a crackhead. I just didn't realize your condition was this severe."
The young lady's triumphant expression froze. Just as she was about to retort, Little Su's voice echoed in Draven's inner world. "Papa, I'm coming with new clothes for you. Wait for me there."
"Don't forget to bring restoration pills for my shadow and chaos cores. I'm running low on essence energy," Draven reminded her.
"Okay…" Little Su's acknowledgment came softly before her consciousness faded.
"What level is your actual cultivation, anyway?" the young lady asked, shifting topics. "You even have a rare spirit that can talk."
"Mortal Realm," Draven answered plainly. "I've never left this place since I was born, so I've never had the chance to cultivate beyond that. What about you?"
The young lady chuckled lightly. "I've already reached the initial Grandmaster realm. If my spirit hadn't been suppressed for so long, I might have been even stronger."
Draven didn't know what the Grandmaster Realm entailed, but he could tell it was far beyond the Mortal Realm.
He sighed softly and withdrew from his inner world, opening his eyes in the physical realm.
The young lady, standing behind her guards, also opened her eyes. The two briefly made eye contact, then quickly looked away, as if their earlier telepathic conversation had never happened.
"Papa, Little Su is here!" just then, a cheerful, childish voice called out, followed by the heavy, rhythmic thuds of a colossal beast approaching. The sound grew steadily louder, shaking the ground beneath their feet.