"She is a curious girl who sometimes becomes too immersed in her own mind, completely unaware of her surroundings," Barcas continued, his tone polite and earnest. "She is highly intelligent, yet she can be surprisingly gullible and naive at the same time. I hope that you will not dislike these traits and that you will treat her well."
Leyvi smiled, his expression turning warm and genuine. "Don't worry, Brother Barcas. I may not be many of the things people claim a man should be, and I won't pretend to be perfectly impartial, but I can guarantee you this. I treat all my ladies with the sincere intention of making them happy and ensuring they live a fulfilling life. I will be the pillar for them to rely on whenever they need support."
And when everything went well, I will live off my wives and enjoy life. Hahaha! Leyvi continued inwardly.
"If that is the case, then I will hold you to your words and be at ease," Barcas replied, a look of satisfaction finally settling on his face. In the end, he did not care much for other considerations; he simply wanted his sister to be treated with kindness and respect.
After that, the atmosphere lightened considerably. Leyvi, Barbara, and Barcas chatted happily, with Livana occasionally joining in the conversation.
Barbara enthusiastically talked about Leyvi's prodigious talent as a Spiritual Cultivator and his record-breaking achievements with Spiritual Touch. Barcas was initially skeptical, but when Leyvi demonstrated the power and precision of his current abilities, his skepticism turned to genuine shock. In the Cloud Continent, Spiritual Cultivation was still a developing field. The best talents, after over twenty years of dedicated cultivation and training, typically only achieved combat power equivalent to the early Core Formation Realm.
Yet here was Leyvi, whose Spiritual Touch power had already surpassed those established prodigies in a fraction of the time. The sheer scale of the gap made Barcas wonder if the Institute had made fundamental errors in its talent selection process.
Soon, the friendly chatting session evolved into an intense research meeting. The brother and sister pair, united by their scholarly curiosity, became like a team of voracious academic monsters.
They began extracting as much data from Leyvi's body and abilities as they could. Leyvi soon regretted not excusing himself from the conversation earlier, for now it was far too late. He could only sigh inwardly and accept his fate, resigning himself to the role of a living test subject.
---
A week later, the celestial cloud was passing through a vast, snowy region where the air was bitingly cold. As they drifted over the stark white landscape, Leyvi spotted a massive Commander Level Demonic Moose resting within a deep crater that had been filled with snow over twenty meters high.
Only the top half of its head and its immense, sprawling antlers were visible above the snowdrift. The creature exuded an aura of dominance, marking it as the undisputed lord of this frozen territory.
The celestial cloud came to a stop high above and at a safe distance, its occupants debating whether they should attempt to hunt the beast. Little Fiery floated nearby, its flames radiating a comforting heat above Anda to ward off the pervasive chill.
"Let us hunt it," Ava suggested, her voice firm. She then proceeded to share something she had learned from Tamina.
She explained that consuming the flesh of an Awakened Demonic Beast could do more than just enhance one's physical body. According to Tamina, it was possible, though the chances were exceedingly low, for a pure body cultivator to inherit the beast's bloodline power.
Throughout the long history of the Protogaea Continent, there were records of hundreds of people successfully inheriting such powers from the awakened demonic beasts they consumed. Most of these individuals were pure Body Cultivators, with a small number being pure Spiritual Cultivators. Strangely, no Qi Cultivator had ever been known to inherit a bloodline power.
From this evidence, experts had concluded that the Qi within a Qi Cultivator's system somehow prevented the chance inheritance from occurring. Furthermore, since body cultivators had a higher rate of success compared to spiritual cultivators, it was theorized that individuals with a greater degree of physical enhancement had a better chance of receiving the bloodline.
"Is that true, Anima?" Leyvi asked, using Tamina's temporary alias. Since both Dastan and Tamina were traveling in disguise, they had adopted new names for the journey. Tamina had become Anima, and Dastan was going by Dan.
Tamina nodded in confirmation. She had indeed shared this information with Ava during their time working together on the excavation. She remembered being surprised that Ava was unaware of the possibility. After learning just how underdeveloped body cultivation was on the Cloud Continent, she understood the reason for Ava's lack of knowledge.
"Oi, Dan! Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" Leyvi complained, turning to the disguised crown prince. "If you had, we could have hunted more commander-level demonic beasts back at the lake."
"What do you mean?" Dastan retorted, his tone defensive. "How was I supposed to know you were ignorant of something so fundamental? Don't blame me. Blame your backward continent. Besides, it is not as if you could inherit any bloodline power anyway. Did you not listen just now? You use Qi. It will not happen for you."
"I don't need it for myself, but my wife Ava does," Leyvi explained, gesturing toward her. "She is a pure body cultivator. She can inherit a bloodline power."
Ava could not help but blush a little upon hearing Leyvi refer to her as 'my wife Ava'. The flush of warmth was brief, fading from her cheeks almost as quickly as it had appeared.
Dastan shook his head in dismissal. "Keep dreaming, Leyvi. Did you not hear how few people have managed to inherit a bloodline power over the long millennia? That small chance is even smaller than you can imagine. There are many who have dedicated their entire lives to hunting and purchasing awakened demonic beast meat, yet nothing ever happened for them. She would need to be the luckiest among the lucky to ever succeed."
"Come on, we can at least try," Leyvi persisted, his eyes alight with the prospect of action.
"Before, it was just me. Now we have more people. Hunting a Commander Level Demonic Moose down there should not be that difficult. How about it? You are a Nascent Soul Realm expert now. This should be easy for you. I bet you can kill it all by yourself." Leyvi was not just advocating for Ava; he was also feeling quite bored and was itching for a fight.
"Bullshit!" Dastan shot back. "Do you think a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator can just casually kill a Commander Level Demonic Beast? Many of the advantages I held over you worked because you use Qi. Most of those advantages will not work on an awakened demonic beast because they don't use Qi at all," he revealed, laying out the practical complication.
Leyvi raised an eyebrow as something finally clicked into place.
"I see," he said, a note of realization in his voice.
"No wonder you didn't want to spar with Bodo or Ava. They both don't use Qi. If you fought them, I might have noticed this weakness. Dammit! So this is why you acted so mysterious, telling me to figure it out for myself. You just wanted to keep beating me for as long as possible!" Leyvi scolded, pointing an accusatory finger.
"Daa hahaha! So what if I did?" Dastan laughed, not even trying to deny it anymore. "You bullied me for so long. I deserve to have my turn too. Also, even if you know about it now, you still can't beat me. As long as you are a Qi Cultivator, I can influence and disturb your Qi one way or another, even if you are not actively using it."
This clown prince, Leyvi thought, the final piece of the puzzle snapping into place. No wonder my movement became so sluggish and dampened during our spar.
"So, you can't fight a Commander Level Demonic Beast?" Leyvi asked, steering the conversation back.
"Of course I can. I am much stronger now," Dastan stated, though his tone was cautious. "But why should I fight if there is a real chance I could lose? I might die, you know? If you want me to fight a Commander Level beast, wait until I reach the Soul Transformation Realm." He said this without a trace of shame, his self-preservation instincts fully intact.
The corner of Leyvi's mouth twitched. This clown prince. He is still the same coward, even as a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator. He only dares to act tough and bully those in a lower realm than him.
"Tch, coward," Leyvi mocked.
Dastan merely shrugged, acting as if he had not heard it. Thanks to his extensive history with Leyvi, he had built up a formidable resistance to insults. He would not be easily provoked anymore, and he was privately quite proud of this personal progress.
Nearby, Tamina giggled softly. In the past, she would never have witnessed such a candid interaction from her royal fiancé. Some of his core personality traits remained, but others had undoubtedly changed, and she believed it was for the better.
Leyvi then turned to the group's biggest member. "Brother Bodo, do you want to join me to hunt this demonic moose? Maybe you can get lucky and inherit its bloodline power."
"Dohoho! I will join, I will join!" Bodo replied, his excitement immediate. "But getting its bloodline power is not possible for me. I already have a bloodline power. My masters gave it to me."
"WHAT?" The exclamation came not just from Leyvi, but from nearly everyone present. They were all utterly shocked by what they had just heard.