"If his nephew was just an ordinary person with good character, I would have still married him. But to repay him, I am not ready to sacrifice my lifelong happiness by marrying such a person who changes women like changing clothes. Furthermore, I don’t think Uncle Draven had done anything worth me making such a sacrifice. After all, whatever he did was for the benefit of the Emberfall family, not me. As for my admission into the Moon Palace Academy, I passed the entrance exam with the top score of that year. I don’t think I needed anyone’s recommendation there either," Sera said calmly without even looking at the young man.

The young man glared at the silhouette of the beautiful woman standing indifferently with her back facing him. Then, without a word, he turned and left.

"Going outright against the Sky Walkers and the Emberfalls will not be beneficial for us," Mira said with a sigh as she looked at the lonely silhouette of her young lady.

Sera shook her head. "As long as I am not a puppet that will dance according to the strings they hold in their hands, this conflict will happen one day. There is nothing to lament about."

.....

Back in Leon’s room,

Silas examined Leon’s meridian structure and clicked his tongue in amazement. "You really are lucky. When a person awakens the Abyss Crown Phoenix Bloodline, it will strengthen the spirit meridian network with the Obsidian Crown Flame. But in your case, since your spirit meridians were almost useless, it formed a new set of meridian networks by copying your vital qi meridian network. This benefited you since it pushed your spirit meridians directly to the same level as your vital qi meridians."

Leon flicked his finger and like a candle, pitch black flames appeared at his fingertip. He scrutinized the flame and asked in confusion, "But why is this flame spreading all over my body like a black fog? I have a feeling that my spirit qi meridians have become a broken drainage system that leaks all over."

Silas took a sip from his wine bottle and said, "Well, that is what makes this bloodline special. The first bloodline skill of this bloodline is the black fire in your hands. It can devour any type of qi in the world and convert it into abyss essence which is attribute less. At the same time, since the meridian networks inside your body have no definite structure, this abyss essence can be transported literally anywhere inside your body. That means spirit, elemental or vital qi cultivation, you can increase all of them with the help of this abyss essence."

Leon nodded in understanding and asked, "You mean, even if I don’t cultivate any specific cultivation technique for increasing my cultivation, I can still advance my realm using this abyss essence?"

Silas shrugged. "Well, if you get a cultivation technique like the god level technique you created from the wall painting that could improve the quality of your qi or give you some extra benefits, of course you should study it. But there is no need to practice any cultivation technique just for the sake of improving your realm alone. It will be utterly useless given the pathetic condition of your cores."

Leon’s eyes lit up. As expected of his cheat, every time it gave some suggestion, it would always be for his best.

After some time, Silas stood up and said lazily, "I am going out to search for the whereabouts of the person I mentioned earlier. So stay away from the mansion you used to meet me. That place will soon be filled with powerful cultivators who have recently entered the Asura Forest in search of opportunities."

Leon nodded. Just the white ninja costume girl had terrified him so much that even if Silas begged him to go, he would not dare step into the inner forest so casually like before.

Thinking for a moment, Silas took out a cultivation manual and a necklace with a turtle shaped pendant from his storage ring and tossed them towards Leon.

"First try to sense the bloodline artifact around your neck and try to make it disappear inside your body. It will draw less attention. Also, when you go out, wear this necklace. It will automatically activate if you are ever in danger and will protect you until I come to your rescue," Silas said before he was gone from the room like wind. Leon didn’t even see how he disappeared right before his eyes.

He was already used to the old man’s mysterious nature, so he did not think too much about it and looked at the cultivation manual in his hand.

"10 star spirit spell, ’The Hand of Thought’. This seems to be a combat skill rather than a cultivation technique," Leon muttered to himself.

"Leon!"

Just then Leon heard Grandma Mercy’s urgent call from outside. With a frown, he stored the cultivation technique and the necklace inside his storage ring and walked out of the room.

...

When he came outside, he saw a middle aged man in military armor sitting on the living room as though he owned the place.

Grandma Mercy stood at one corner with little Amy and Coco behind her. All three of them trembled non stop from the silent pressure emanating from the man in front of them.

Leon’s eyes turned cold and the next second, a crushing aura like a mountain weighed down on the middle aged soldier, directly pinning him to the ground.

Even before he could process anything, he felt as though someone had placed a mountain on his body. Just when he thought it was the worst thing that could happen to him, a dark silver serpent vine popped out from the ground and coiled around his leg before thrashing him here and there like a dusty carpet.

In less than sixty seconds, a powerful cultivator at the first heaven of the Iron Realm who sat on the chair with gusto was now lying face flat on the ground with bruises all over like a dying dog.

Leon, who stood there without moving an inch, walked up to little Amy and hugged the little girl. He also did not forget to rub little Coco’s head to comfort her.

Grandma Mercy was stunned for a moment before she asked worriedly, "Leo, he is a soldier. If something happens to him..."

Leon looked at the soldier and said indifferently, "He will not die for now, but if he dares step inside this house once more, he will."

The soldier, who was pretending to be dead on the ground, did not dare stay any longer. Supporting himself on his spear, he limped away with his broken leg without even daring to say a word.

Leon did not stop him either, but he also knew that this matter would not end here. "What was he here for?"

Grandma Mercy sighed. "It seems that three soldiers including the head soldier of our village had gone missing and that guy was here to investigate. As for why he had to investigate inside our house, I dont know."

Leon remained silent for a moment before he took out the necklace Silas had given him and put it around little Amy’s neck.

"This is a protective treasure. If bad guys ever try to hurt you, this will protect you, so don’t remove it, understand?" Leon asked the little girl seriously.

Little Amy touched the little turtle pendant on her necklace and asked hesitantly, "Then what if they try to harm you?"

Leon smiled as he pointed at the golden chain with the ornate cross on his neck. "Brother also has one. Furthermore, even if they come, brother will not need this. Did you not see just now? They are far weaker than me."

Leon waited until the little girl was asleep. Then he covered himself in a black hood, wore a tiger mask on his face, and slipped out into the darkness of the night.

Sprinting at his top speed for five hours, he reached a secluded place outside the city walls of Rose Valley Town. Then he slowed to a walk and continued deeper into the gloomy forest surrounding the city.

As time passed, the dark forest gradually showed signs of human activity as qi powered glowing orbs lit the pathways, creating excellent access towards a large clearing reminiscent of a bustling night market back on Earth.

Like Leon, all the vendors and customers here wore masks, looking quite shady. Leon had visited this place only twice with John and it was his first time alone at this infamous black market of Rose Valley Town.

After looking around for a while, Leon walked up to an old man selling storage rings and placed the three storage rings he had looted from the soldiers in front of him.

The skinny old man with a faceless wooden mask chuckled as he inspected the three storage rings. "Storage rings with the mark of the human alliance soldier camp. You are quite bold to try to sell them."

"Are you bold enough to buy them or should I look for someone else?" Leon asked back calmly without minding the old man’s threat.

The old man inspected the three rings and nodded. "All three are at the mortal grade. I can give you one thousand mortal grade coins for each. A total of three thousand."

Leon thought about it and nodded. After all, he just wanted to get rid of this time bomb as soon as possible since he was not sure if the soldiers had some way to track its location.

As the old man was taking out the money from his storage ring, Leon looked at the storage treasures on the display and asked curiously, "Do you have something that can store living beasts?"