After he left the Merchant Association, Draven first went back to his home.
The bodies in the hall had already been taken care of by the police, so the place was clean. After opening the door, he went directly to his room and pulled out a large wooden chest from under the bed.
This contained all of Lira's belongings from when she died. Previously, Draven had sorted out all the valuables and kept them in his storage ring, which he later gave to Jessy. The rest were miscellaneous items like clothes and jewelry.
The deed to the house was also in the wooden box. Although Draven had told Jessy he was going to sell the house, he did not actually intend to. He had only said it to ensure she would not come back here without telling him, as she had done last time.
Draven opened the lid of the wooden box and took out a black photo album that lay on top of the clothes.
It was a fairly large album with a black cover and golden designs printed on it.
He opened the album from the last page. There was a photo of Lira, Draven, and Jessy taken before Lira's death.
Draven gently caressed the face of the beautiful woman in the picture, who was holding a little Jessy in her arms with a big smile on her face.
"Today someone told me you are not my mother," Draven said with a complicated look on his face. "But I promise you one thing: even if I have to give up my life, I will hunt down all those who caused your death. This is the promise from your son."
After a last look at Lira, he flipped the pages and stopped at the picture of Lira, Henry, and her son. Lira had once told him that this picture was of him, but now Draven knew the child in the picture was her real son, not himself.
With a sigh, Draven flipped the pages once more and stopped at a particular picture. This specific picture was the sole reason he had opened the photo album today. It was a picture of a young man with white hair and silver eyes.
The man wore skin-tight black armor that showcased his impressive physique, and on his left ear was a black hoop earring that looked exactly the same as Draven's.
"Just as I expected," Draven said to himself in understanding.
If he changed the man's hair and eye color to black, his face was exactly the same as Silas, the man he had met in the forest.
"Mother was either related to the Nyxborns, or she is related to Silas in some way. Our meeting in the forest could have also been a coincidence or a perfectly orchestrated plan," Draven frowned, but soon his brows relaxed. "Either way, since he did not harm me, I will set this matter aside for now."
He closed the photo album, placed it back into the wooden box, and stored the entire box into his storage ring.
After that, Draven closed the door to his house and left for the Stonewill family mansion on his Black Phantom.
The sky was dim by the time Draven reached the Stonewill mansion, and the main door was already open.
The Stonewill mansion was a grand, three-story building that looked imposing, like a palace made for kings. It usually had many guards and maids, but today no one was in sight, as though the entire mansion was deserted.
With his hands in the pockets of his white hoodie, Draven walked leisurely towards the entrance after parking his bike to the side. But as he approached the front of the mansion, his seventh sense throbbed and he halted his steps.
Two people stood in front of him with cold looks on their faces. One was a young man and the other a young woman. Both wore light blue armor with the insignia of a pair of symmetrical reddish-orange wings on their left chests.
The young man was handsome and burly, while the woman beside him had a captivating beauty, with her blond hair, golden eyes, and alluring figure.
"people from the Celestial Army," Draven said calmly. "I did not expect the Stonewills to have enough influence to make you personally take action against me."
The pair of reddish-orange symmetrical wings was the symbol of the Celestial Army's Fire Elemental Warrior Division. Draven could also sense thick fire elemental chi circulating throughout their bodies, indicating both were powerful body cultivators of the fire element path.
"My name is Kane, and this is my junior, Aira. Both of us heard about a legend in the 36th stronghold, so we decided to visit and see if it is true," the young man introduced himself and the young woman beside him expressionlessly.
"If you are here to hear a story, I am sorry, but I am not a storyteller. You will have to look for someone else," Draven replied, tilting his head.
A smile broke out on the young woman's face.
"I am sixteen years old and considered one of the top geniuses in the Celestial Army in the body refining path. But when I came to the 36th stronghold for training, I heard of a boy who, despite being only in the mortal realm, could fight against Ascendant realm cultivators with his physical body alone. I am curious if this rumor is true," Aira said in a gentle voice, like the singing of a beautiful bird.
"Then you should go and ask around in the Hunter Association. You may get a lead on this so-called boy from there," Draven replied without any change in his expression.
"Haha. Brother Draven is really as unpredictable as the rumors say," the young man said with a hearty laugh. "My junior sister's charm is well-known in the Celestial Army. Many geniuses often crowd around her like flies just to hear her speak. But today, even after she praised you outright, you behaved as though you did not care in the least."
Aira ignored Kane and continued with her eyes fixed on Draven, "As far as the reports we have on you, at the age of seven you sold your bloodline to the Stonewills in exchange for a cure for your mother's illness. But the antidote proved useless and she died. From then on, even though you were crippled, you somehow managed to survive until now and even sent your sister to the Golden Phoenix Academy, which is an impressive feat in itself. After all, if I were in your shoes, merely maintaining my own life would have been difficult, much less raising such a genius sister."
Draven remained silent for a moment and said, "Life is like that. Sometimes it only gives us two options: to mature and survive, or to stay naive and lose your life. I just chose the first option. If you are just here to praise me for that, I am sorry to say this, but I am currently a little busy."
Kane smiled lightly. "We were told to bring you back to the camp with us by our commander."
Draven's brows furrowed. "You can go. I will come to meet you after I have a friendly conversation with the patriarch of the Stonewills."
Kane shook his head. "No, you will be coming with us right now."
As he said this, a mighty aura belonging to the 10th stage of the Ascendant realm spread out from his body, weighing down on Draven like a mountain. Aira also released her aura, which was surprisingly at the 9th stage of the Ascendant realm and only a little bit weaker than Kane's.
Draven's mouth twitched. Even with his Ultimate Demon Physique, his cultivation was only comparable to a 5th stage Ascendant realm cultivator. The two in front of him were far stronger than that, and to make it even more difficult, both of them were body cultivators.
With a sigh, he activated all his techniques. The True Mountain King materialized behind him like an illusionary shadow, and a thick killing intent and scent of blood spread out from him. Draven's purple eyes also turned ruby red as red lightning arcs crackled all over his body, countering the pressure emanating from the two people in front of him.
Kane and Aira were surprised when they saw this. Even though they had expected it, seeing a mortal realm cultivator standing with his spine straight under the pressure of two Ascendant realm cultivators was somewhat unbelievable.
Seeing their surprised expressions, Draven said calmly, "Please do not interfere in my matters. Even though I am weaker than you, if we fight I guarantee that you will not have an easy time winning against me. The number of battles and near life-or-death experiences I have gone through until now are not something geniuses like you can understand or compare to."
"Then I really want to see how capable you are compared to us," Aira smiled coldly, without any sign of backing down.