In the Ethren Empire.

At a certain room in the Royal Palace.

A woman with gentle yet beautiful features sat and held her head as she squeezed her fingers. Her purple hair fell over the side of her shoulders while her body was draped in a robe belonging to the Alstreim Family.

The door opened and two figures, one tall and one short entered the room.

The woman finally smiled, "You're back..."

"Of course! It took some time to satisfy Tia's explorative spirit, otherwise, we would've returned sooner!"

"Hmph!" The short one harrumphed and echoed in a female voice, "Mother, where's grandfather?"

These two were none other than Edgar Alstreim and Tia Alstreim while the woman who was called as mother was none other than Lia Alstreim.

Lia Alstreim's expression changed into one of disgust before she sighed.

"What happened?" Edgar Alstreim couldn't help but ask as he creased his brows.

"He accepted the Ethren Family's bribe..." Lia Alstreim spoke as she pinched her forehead.

"Well..." Edgar became tongue-tied for a moment, "This does happen often in our Alstreim Family. Your father is powerful but shouldn't he also have done numerous things like this before he became an Envoy to rise in ranks?"

Lia Alstreim scoffed.

"The problem is... One of the princesses of the Ethren Empire is in my father's room..."

Edgar Alstreim's mouth hung agape.

Tia Alstreim who understood a little bit of their conversation jumped up and pushed up her father's chin, closing his agape mouth.

Edgar Alstreim looked at his daughter speechlessly before sighing, "Leave it... We can't change his ways..."

He suddenly laughed, "You should be worried about me. Today, a woman was intently viewing my handsome face! I think she has already fallen for my suave traits and gentlemanly features, no?"

Lia Alstreim had an amused expression on her face, "Well, if you want her, you can have her..."

"But I'll cut ties with you before that and take our daughter with me, is that fine?"

Edgar Alstreim acted as if he had a heart attack, holding his chest while his face scrunched up in pain.

"Father, you fail at acting..." Tia Alstreim giggled by the side.

Edgar Alstreim pursed his lips and groaned, "Then what now? Are we going back?"

Lia Alstreim pondered for a moment before she nodded her head, "Probably, yes. Maybe tomorrow or the day after tomorrow... It might change depending on my father's mood..."

Edgar Alstreim narrowed his eyes and thought about Davis Loret's warning.

"I'll be accompanying you two from here on to sightsee. Now that I recall, the last time I went out with you was ten years ago. I must thank this lass for bringing us out..." Lia Alstreim smiled while Tia Alstreim reciprocated in glee.

Edgar Alstreim who had been thinking if he should head to the Conferred Queen's residence had his plan squashed in infancy. He could only both reluctantly and joyfully nod his head.

======

A week passed.

Davis came out of the lair and saw that it was dawn. Chilling out in the cold and foggy atmosphere was Nadia and Evelynn.

...Nadia had her enormous eyes closed as she rested on the cold ground and slept in a comfortable position while holding her two fluffy tails. However, Nadia seemed to have something changed within her body. It was as if she grew quite a bit.

In the middle of the two fluffy black tails was Evelynn. She looked as if she were sleeping on some luxurious bed, comfortably and satisfactorily laying her head, even going far as to hold the fluffy tails to her side.

Looking at this scene, Nadia didn't seem to be offended at all!

Davis interlocked his fingers and twisted, cracking some nuts in his fingers to wake them up.

Their eyes instantly shot wide open as they became startled. They didn't sleep entirely but Davis was just that sneaky, unable to be found easily.

Nadia blinked, deeply shocked as to how Davis could evade her senses when he was this near to her.

Davis just smiled in response to Nadia's shocked look.

Indeed, he had used Dark Concealing Shroud Art to conceal himself.

During this time, he refined the two Peak-Level Saint Beast Stage Soul Essences and successfully stepped into the Peak-Level Mature Soul Stage.

Surprisingly, he also made a breakthrough in Body Tempering Cultivation, to the Mid-Level Martial Ascendance Stage.

As for his Law Seed Stage Cultivation, it still remained at Mid-Level but his last battle increased his comprehension of Lightning Laws by a bit.

Evelynn had defended this lair from stray Three-Winged Venomous Lizards that attacked the lair to claim it back. They tried to spit at her but she dodged with her incredible speed and poisoned them back like it was tit for tat.

A few Saint Beast Stage Three-Winged Venomous Lizards had also appeared but they were all taken care of by Nadia. She fought them and even protected Evelynn from ambushes during the battle and received injuries in the process.

She had been specifically poisoned by their horns but her body suddenly managed to breakthrough, reaching the Lord Beast Stage. This breakthrough effectively released a grand magnitude of energy and curbed the poison and removed it from her system.

Needless to say, all Three-Winged Venomous Lizards ran away with their wings between their abdomen after witnessing the new menace that is the Seventh Stage Twin-Tailed Dusk Wolf, Nadia.

Hence, the dilemma.

Now that Nadia had reached the Lord Beast Stage, she thought she would finally be able to stand on top of Davis in a sense even though she was a Magical Beast Mount for the time being...

But now, she still found herself inferior... not even able to find his concealment.

"You're really strong..." Nadia inadvertently opened her mouth as her yellow pupils released a unique luster.

"That's a given..." Evelynn smiled beside as she flew towards Davis.

She stood in front of him and tidied his newly draped golden-black robes like a faithful and satisfied wife.

"Have you made a breakthrough again?"

Davis nodded his head and smiled back, pinching her cheeks.

Reaching the Supreme Soul Stage would probably take him months considering that it is the next stage, so he didn't refine the Mid-Level Lord Beast Stage Soul Essence of the Crimson Darkness Condor but kept it in his Soul Sea.

He felt that he should refine it after he comprehended the necessary mysteries of heaven and earth energy while resonating with it so that he could break into the Supreme Soul Stage without encountering any problems.

Right now, he was rather at the extreme peak of the Peak-Level Mature Soul Stage as he had refined all the Soul Essences other than the Mid-Level Lord Beast Stage Soul Essence.

In the meantime, he decided that he should hunt some Low-Level Lord Beast Stage Magical Beast so that he could use their Soul Essences in the future and step into the Supreme Soul Stage.

With his, he deemed that he would not waste complete potency of the Mid-Level Lord Beast Stage Soul Essence.

If a few Low-Level Lord Beast Stage Soul Essence wasn't enough to make him breakthrough since the gap between stages, especially the Sky Grade and King Grade is wide, he felt that he could hunt more magical beasts to use their Soul Essences and then use the Mid-Level Lord Beast Stage Soul Essence to stabilize himself in the Supreme Soul Stage.

After all, whenever he tried to reach a new stage, it took more Soul Essences than the usual of crossing a level. He just was not sure how many it was going to completely cost him to enter the Supreme Soul Stage.

In any case, he felt three were enough since he had a Mid-Level Lord Beast Stage Soul Essence in his Soul Sea, waiting to be devoured.