Draven's hands paused for a moment when he heard this. "What rubbish are you speaking? Are you in such a hurry to reincarnate?"
James was momentarily stunned by the unexpected reply before he asked in surprise, "Don't you know about this?"
"I already told you, I don't have time to play these mind games with you. Tell me who is behind you, otherwise I will make sure you see hell on earth," Draven said coldly as he increased the strength in his arms once more.
James's eyes bulged and he felt his head was going to blow up at any moment. Summoning all his willpower, he shouted out loud, "Lira used to live in the 15th stronghold along with her husband Henry and only son, Leon. I knew her even before she was married. Believe me, you and your sister are not her children. It is not worth it to offend such powerful beings for the sake of a woman who is not even related to you by blood."
Draven's expression shifted as he thought about his reincarnation. When he first entered this body, he was only five and a half years old. He didn't have any recollection of his past, so he naturally assumed Lira was his mother. She also treated both Draven and Jessy like her precious treasures, so Draven never doubted her until the day she died.
Draven released his hand and stood up. "Explain everything you know, without missing a word," he said coldly.
James felt as though his head was spinning the moment Draven released his hand. Stabilizing himself, he hurriedly looked around for a way to escape, but when he turned, he saw Draven's ruby red eyes staring back at him. He suddenly had a feeling that if he dared disobey the man before him, he would be torn into pieces.
Taking a deep breath, he steadied his emotions and began explaining. "My full name is James Nightcrawler. I am from the Nightcrawler family. Lira was not the fragile woman you know. Years ago, she was one of the most talented geniuses in the way of body cultivation and weapon arts."
"At that time, our patriarch got hold of an ancient technique left behind by one of our ancestors. It can refine a Nightcrawler Insect Queen out of a living human by extracting their inner world. This queen can then lay eggs, giving birth to more and more humanoid monsters with the same level of talent as the human from whom the inner world was extracted."
"The limitation is that the Nightcrawler Queen requires several precious treasures and blood sacrifices to form its egg, and this newly refined egg can only be used on a single target, so the target had to be selected carefully. Lira became the target of our patriarch, but her background was such that even he dared not harm a hair on her head. In the end, he came up with an idea and somehow made Lira fall in love with his youngest son and marry him."
"That way, no trouble would later come to us from her family since she came to our family on her own will. Everything went smoothly, and years later she gave birth to a boy named Leon."
"At that time, our patriarch acted. He extracted her inner world and ordered his men to kill both mother and child in the middle of a jungle so that everything would appear to be an accident. But our patriarch's youngest son, Henry, betrayed us at the last moment and ran away with Lira and his newborn son."
"We searched for her for about two years, but found nothing until one of our men spotted Lira living in the 36th stronghold with two little kids. With this lead, we tried investigating the whereabouts of Henry, but the news we received was that both Henry and his son died during a beast tide, leaving only Lira behind."
"It was also then that we learned you and your sister were slaves Lira brought from a slave trader. It was only because of your negligible identity that we spared your lives even after killing Lira. But now, seeing your exponential growth, we were afraid one of you would one day cause trouble for us."
"That's why the 8th elder ordered me to kill you under the banner of the Stonewill family."
Draven listened to the whole story and asked after a moment, "You mentioned that your patriarch is afraid of Mother's family. If they are that powerful, why didn't they inquire about her well-being after she disappeared from your family?"
James sighed helplessly. "Who told you they didn't? They came and almost eradicated our entire family. Our patriarch was cut into pieces bit by bit while he was still alive. It was fortunate that some of us managed to escape that massacre since we were not at the 15th stronghold at that time."
"When we heard the news, we escaped to different places. Some of us took refuge in the 36th stronghold. That's when we spotted Lira. After observing for a while and making sure no one was there for her protection, we acted against her in secret, staging her death as an accident."
"What about your cultivation?" Draven asked again. "You mentioned before that you were once at a realm even I can't imagine. I assume you were far stronger in the past."
James nodded. "Yeah, but to hide my identity perfectly, I destroyed my own cultivation, limiting it to the Ascendant realm. After all, Lira's death couldn't be hidden from her family for too long, and I was afraid of their revenge."
Draven didn't speak anymore, but the pressure emanating from him didn't show any sign of stopping. Instead, it grew even stronger. Red lightning arcs flashed all around the place with him as the center.
Although James and the Ascendant realm police officers tried several times to cast an elemental spell to fight against Draven, the moment they tried to gather elemental essence, it was dispersed by the red lightning. As for the Mortal realm cultivators, it was even worse for them. Except for a few who were still conscious, all the rest, including Alexandria, lay unconscious on the floor.
…
At this time, high in the sky above the Hunter Association, a muscular tiger demon with two jade horns on its head and a young man with a wine gourd in his hand watched everything from within a faint mist that obscured their figures. Even though they were high in the sky and a roof stood over the Hunter Association, it didn't seem to affect their vision.
"Master, should I go down and crush him under my paws?" the jade-horned tiger demon asked in the voice of a young boy. If Draven were here, he would have recognized this tiger as the same one that had chased him like a dog throughout the Devil Swamp Forest.
"No need. Let's see what the kid will do," the man, whom the tiger demon called master, waved his hand expressionlessly. Again, had Draven been present, he would have recognized this man as the same mysterious one who helped him walk out of the jungle.
"Master, are you sure this brat is really qualified to be your successor? I don't think the rest of the elders will be happy with this decision," the tiger demon asked suspiciously.
Silas took a sip from his wine gourd and said, "It was her responsibility, but since she is no more, let him bear the burden. As for qualification, that kid directly made our ancestor's remnant soul let go of his obsession with finding a successor and disperse his last bit of consciousness himself. That qualification is even greater than what I have."