Dyon’s eyes seemed to freeze over. Despite everything he had been through, he didn’t feel the slightest bit of despair facing this new obstacle.
Facing Dyon’s fierce expression, the Belmont ancestor couldn’t help but feel displeased. He was a celestial level expert, and although he had less than 50% of his peak battle power, there was no doubt that he was still within that realm.
For a mere child to look upon him as though he was a lowly and insignificant existence made his blood boil.
If Dyon knew the ancestor’s thoughts, although he would hardly care, he’d have to acknowledge his grand teacher’s words. There was something about him that made his presence easy to hate. Whether that be his unbridled arrogance, or something else, it was there.
Lionel, though, didn’t know how to feel about Dyon’s expression. Unlike his ancestor, he was well aware of what Dyon would have had to do to somehow escape to be here right now. And, although he looked perfectly healthy, the fact he was practically naked aside from the obsidian plate covering his lower regions meant that he had gone through something… And that something, he had somehow survived.
He didn’t want to believe it. How could a teenage boy escape two celestial experts? It didn’t make sense.
‘He had to have used some sort of trick. Considering how many treasures he has, that’s more than likely. But, such a ground-breaking treasure can’t be used more than once, or else why would he have allowed himself to reach this point at all?’ Lionel tried to comfort himself, using logic as his platform.
However, in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but think of the possibility of him being wrong. It was because he underestimated Dyon’s treasures that he had ended up in this situation to begin with. Had Ri not had a treasure capable of holding 3000 living beings, Madeleine’s faith seed would be his by now!
“Do we have an issue here?” Dyon suddenly spoke. Although his voice usually imperceptibly leaked a domineering music will in situations like this, he had to now remember he didn’t have access to it anymore. However, that didn’t stop his momentum from being stifling. The air around Dyon had shifted in such a way that it was completely unnecessary for him to have music will to assert his dominance.
Seeing that his words were clearly ignored, Lionel frowned. But, Evelyn’s reaction was even more severe.
“For what you did to my master, you deserve nothing more than a dog’s death. Get on your knees!” Evelyn shrieked, having lost all rationality. The more she stared at Dyon’s unperturbed attitude, the more she remembered how he looked down on her at the Earth Tower, how he had completely humiliated her.
Those feelings of anger bubbled up, unleashing themselves before combining with the sorrow and pain she felt with the death of Matriarch Niveus.
Considering the Belmont ancestor had yet to untie the two of them, she looked quite pitiful. Almost like a rabid dog trying to escape its chains.
Hearing Evelyn’s words and the audacity she had in playing the victim, Dyon’s gaze threatened to pierce through everything. Was this woman really asking him to repent to the woman who destroyed his home?
Before this, Dyon had no intention of doing anything to Evelyn. Although she had stolen a pill that rightfully belonged to Delia for her own selfish desires, that wasn’t a crime that was worth a person’s life and it wasn’t something that Dyon would have bloodied his hands with. However, something had snapped within Dyon during the past two days. His master had done her best to cleanse it, but that nature was slowly prowling and growing within Dyon. His bestial desire to viciously protect his loved ones while slaughtering all those that even remotely encroached on his wellbeing was growing, and without his soul or wills to rein it in, it was unlikely that it would be dealt with any time soon.
Evelyn’s words caught in her throat. In that instant, she forgot that her husband was right beside her. She forgot that there was a celestial there to protect them. All she felt was terror, a deep seeded fear for the young man in front of her.
A formless pressure laced with celestial energy covered the cave walls, snapping Evelyn out of her condition, causing her to grasp at her chest, breathing heavily along with her heaving snow-white breasts and hair.
“It seems the young have grown in arrogance since I’ve been away.” The Belmont ancestor’s jaw set. For Evelyn to forget about his presence, taken over by an overwhelming ‘flight’ extinct, was yet another slap to his face. How could she be scared of a child with no cultivation while he was right here?! He hadn’t even used any wills yet!
“I assume you’re an awakened Belmont ancestor?” Dyon’s gaze left Evelyn, focusing back on the approaching man in white.
“Do you acknowledge your mistakes?” Was the ancestor’s only response.
“Are you an idiot?”
The atmosphere froze over, solidifying in an instant. The three of them couldn’t believe what they had just heard. Even in this situation, Dyon had the audacity to call their ancestor such a name? Was he truly not afraid of the Belmont ancestor?
“I’ll give you one last chance.” Dyon’s muscles rippled, flooding with endless vitality as his veins of gold pulsed. “Kneel.”
There was no question who Dyon was talking to. He wasn’t speaking to Evelyn. He wasn’t speaking to Lionel. He was speaking to the Belmont family ancestor!
A stunned silence filled the cave, allowing Dyon’s words to echo throughout, reverberating in their ears. No matter how arrogant a person was, there should be a limit, no? This was beginning to border on nonsensical.
However, Dyon’s eyes didn’t say that they were joking. As much as the three of them wanted to jump out and mock him, a dry and uncomfortable laugh was the only thing that managed to be squeezed out.
There was indeed a change between Dyon now, and two days ago. Maybe two days ago, uproarious laughter would have filled the catacombs of the Belmont Holy Land, but right now, there was a different air to Dyon.
When every martial artist was birthed, they were gifted a certain amount of blessings. This blessing was tied to all three forms of cultivation, culminating in the amount of good karma a warrior would have in their life time. This can affect everything from cultivation speed to ability to survive life and death situations.
These blessing are what incentivized ancestors to pause their reincarnation to serve their clans even in their death. That opportunity, for many people, was the best way to increase Heaven’s Blessings, before carrying a small portion of that onto their next time.
But, there were yet other ways to snatch these blessings. The first was perfection.
Heaven’s Chimes and Heaven’s Light are both possible outcomes of achieving perfection in the face of hardships and trials placed by the universe. Of these two, Dyon is very familiar with the first, as it very often occurs when he practices array alchemy. These Heaven’s blessings grace arrays with a boosted effectiveness, increasing their use even further.
This aside, the second way was in defying fate and snatching blessings from the jaws of death.
Because Dyon’s body and energy cultivation were sealed, despite have a culmination of soul talent, his Heaven’s Blessings at birth were exceedingly weak. In fact, even if he had a culmination of talent given by body and energy cultivation, his Heaven’s Blessings wouldn’t be so exaggerated. This was because much of Heaven’s Blessings at the beginning of life are converted into talent itself, it is only through life that it truly grows.
This was the universe’s way of showing fairness.
So, what did this mean for Dyon?…
He just snatched the Heaven’s Blessings of not only a peak saint, but also a dao formation expert! When Dyon killed Matriarch Niveus, it had been through a puppet, and thus it could not be accumulated to him. However, in killing both Elder Daiyu and Loki, both could be said to have died by his hands!
Loki was a man who not only had a faith seed, but was a master at killing those above him in cultivation as a result of this faith seed. His accumulated Heaven’s Blessings were staggering!
As for Elder Daiyu, as a former dao formation expert, it could be said that his Heaven’s Blessings were an ocean compared to Loki’s lake.
This was simply not meant to happen. The idea of a meridian formation expert, now essence gatherer, killing a peak saint and a dao formation expert was unprecedented. The sheer rarity of such an event could hardly be put into words.
In normal circumstances, one would kill those in and around their cultivation level. This would result in marginal increases in Heaven’s Blessings that would slowly progress along with your age and cultivation bracket. Essentially, in continuing like this, everyone of a set cultivation would usually have Heaven’s Blessings of about the same amount.
However, this was where geniuses would make their names known. Killing those above your cultivation level would result in a much faster accumulation of blessings, putting you in a different category entirely.
As for what Dyon did? He was astronomically ahead of everyone else, even if he did nothing for the next hundred years!
No matter how domineeringly talented the Dragon King was in his life, one can hardly understand the sheer weight of filling 9 meridians when stepping into a new level of cultivation. The Dragon King was much too prideful to tell Dyon this, but even he, as an undisputedly top ten talent of Dragons to ever exist, had only filled 8!
With this perspective, one can fully understand just how heaven defying Dyon’s blessings were at this point. Even the universe itself lamented not being able to help him more.
And now, he exuded the air of an expert far above not only what he truly was, but also far above the celestial ancestor before him now.
It caused his enemies to pause, unsure of what to do. And, whenever Dyon gained his access to wills again, not only would his one with heart become incomparably strong as compared to those of his cultivation level, with sovereign path would gain an edge of dominance capable of effecting even those above him in cultivation.
However, none of this could change just how embarrassed the Belmont Ancestor was of his actions. He had allowed a child to affect his mentality not once, but twice! How could he allow such a thing? It was a stain on himself as a martial artist!
“You…” The Belmont Ancestor dryly laughed, unable to muster a more mocking laughter. He was simply too restrained by his status as an ancestor to directly combat Dyon’s presence with his own. How could a dead person beat a person of the living in such a thing?
“It seems you still don’t understand your situation.” Dyon’s eyes sharpened. “Recognize the error of your ways within ten seconds, or else I’ll ensure that your karma is forever tarnished.”
Confusion began to color the features of the Belmont Ancestor. He couldn’t understand just what was happening.
“Ancestor, he’s simply bluffing. He’s a mere meridian formation expert who took part in the World Tournament just two da –“
A sudden realization hit the ancestor. A resounding boom violently shook the catacombs as Evelyn and Lionel’s eyes widened in shock.
The ancestor… The ancestor that they had placed their lived in the hands of… Had just kowtowed before Dyon!
“Please forgive me!” The ancestor trembled, unable to look up to meet Dyon’s gaze as his head repeatedly slammed against the ground.
He couldn’t believe what he had almost done. Of course the person before him should make him feel inferior! What had he been thinking?!
The bound Lionel and Evelyn could only watch listlessly. There was no way such an expert could be bluffed to this extent, right?
“Get up.” Dyon finally said, not displaying even a hint of surprise. “Take these two and let’s go. Lead me to the exit.”
“Yes, yes.” The ancestor didn’t hesitate to stand, not bothering to remove the dirt that accumulated onto his white robes, almost as a reminder to his foolishness.
Lionel and Evelyn could only dumbly stand, forcefully stood up by the now docile and servile ancestor.
“Ancesto –“
“Silence! Don’t speak unless spoken to.” The Belmont Ancestor immediately spoke, cutting off Lionel entirely. “If it wasn’t for the young lord’s orders, I would have already killed you for trying to have my name tainted by attacking him.”
The Belmont Ancestor carefully chose his words. Although he was well aware that if he chose to attack Dyon, Dyon would be the one to die, he didn’t speak in absolutes, instead giving Dyon every bit of face possible.
‘Could it be…’ Lionel’s lip twitched as he glanced at Dyon who was following behind them. But, he couldn’t find the courage to look him in the eye.
It was simple really. How could a Belmont meant to spent their life in servitude to Amethyst, not follow the orders of her husband?!
Dyon’s master had long told him that he had not two, but four primordial yins within him… Elvin Queen’s Reign, Goddess’ Disposition, Kukan’s, and… Amethyst’s!
It seemed that Lionel had miscalculated. How could he have known that a being that lived for thousands of years had remained a virgin?!
From the moment the Belmont Ancestor appeared, Dyon had already calculated the perfect path to escaping the situation. Where others would see despair, he only saw victory.
**
The Daiyu seemed to be steadily losing momentum. The rain of javelins from the sky, the pincer attack from both sides, all coupled with the facts the Niveus God Sect members weren’t very strong to begin with all culminated in a battle that seemed they were fated to lose.
Under the berating of the demon generals behind them, Ronica and River finally gave up their places as vanguard. How they had fought for more than a day without rest was beyond be the Daiyu, and they almost sighed in relief when they finally switched out… Only to find that the two warriors who replaced them were not only large and sweaty men instead of the vicious beauties they had to deal with, they were also just as strong!
This plummeted the morale of the Daiyu. All this time they had thought that the reason Ronica and River didn’t take a break was because they couldn’t afford to. They thought that as long as they got these two beauties to quit, the war would be won. They’d be able to storm into the cave and capture Ri and Madeleine, forcing the rest of the demon generals to surrender.
However, that didn’t happen! The personal guard Dyon had chosen for his wives were much too strong. Even Kaeda, who was on the weaker side, was the best healer the demon generals had!
The only demon general that had made a single mistake during those days was Thatch, but even that mistake couldn’t be considered to be his fault. How was he meant to deal with a celestial by himself? It was simply impossible.
Although he was trembling, he had done his best to hold his ground, and even now, he faced the dark tunnels, protecting their backs in case that celestial came back, even while knowing he was no match.
Chenglei, seeing that the Daiyu were slowly, but steadily being pushed back, began to grit his teeth in agitation.
‘Do I really have to do this for such a small matter? Weren’t the Ragnors supposed to have won by now? What’s going on?! And why isn’t grandfather back yet?!’
Everything seemed to be falling apart, but Chenglei still didn’t want to pull out what he had. If he did so, there would be no going back and the Daiyu would be forever crippled in the future.
Suddenly, Thatch froze. His ears twitched as he picked up the faint sounds of footsteps, and if he was correct, there were four pairs. But, that was one more than the amount that had left. Had they gone to get someone? Was that Celestial really coming back?
“Enemy!” Thatch shouted in a low but resounding voice. He knew he couldn’t handle this alone, so he had no choice but to ask for help. The problem was fighting on one front as a small group was hard enough, how could they possibly fight on two?
Thatch’s words immediately caught the attention of the demon generals and Ri and Madeleine.
Ronica and River immediately flashed forward. Unfortunately, because of the size of the tunnels, it didn’t make sense for all three of them to fight side by side, so Ronica stood by Thatch while River began to emit a dense ice intent that coated the walls and snaked toward the enemy.
The brows of Ri and Madeleine furrowed. They had too much to worry about, and were fatigued beyond belief after pushing their souls so far. In the end, they had done all of this to ignore the fact they could no longer sense Dyon’s soul, hoping to bury that feeling by pursuing something else, unwilling to believe he was dead even while all the evidence pointed in that direction.
However, the sight they saw in the next instant, threw them all into a pit of despair. The celestial had come back! He was the first to appear out of the darkness, his white robes providing a striking dichotomy that was easy to spot.
The atmosphere around the demon generals tensed. The two who manned the entrance, one of which was Thadius, had no choice but to focus on their task, unable to look back. In fact, because Ri and Madeleine had stopped using their weapon’s hell formations, the pressure on the two of them had increased manifold.
But, that was when three more figures appeared behind him. Two were faces they had just seen, their escaped prisoners that had come back.
That said, the third face was one that managed shocked them even more than the fact Lionel and Evelyn were still bound.
“Go and kill the Daiyu with your remaining time. They’ve attacked your Holy Land, I think it’s time a real Belmont do something about it.” Dyon said simply, a small smile on his face.
Without delay, the celestial flashed out of the cave, appearing in the air like a god ready to smite its non-believers.
Thatch didn’t know how to feel. The very same celestial that had shaken him to his core was being ordered on a whim by Dyon… He couldn’t help but raise Dyon’s place in his heart. This man was truly one worthy of being followed. And right now? He held the air of not just a king, but of a supreme Emperor, unmatched by the heavens. One could almost forget the fact he had an obsidian plate covering his crotch.
Ri and Madeleine stared with their eyes glistening. They couldn’t understand why they couldn’t sense Dyon’s soul even though he was right in front of them, but none of that mattered. He was here… He was safe.
They rushed forward, forcing Dyon to have no choice but to drop that plate he had been using to wrap his arms around both of their waists, causing Ronica and River to turn their heads and blush furiously. But, Ri and Madeleine didn’t care… Not right now.
Dyon smiled genuinely for what seemed like the first time in forever. The darkness that was threatening to take over his heart was beat back just a bit, cowering in a corner.
“Miss me?”