"What? You're not dead yet?" Blood Thorn sneered.

"Bastard!" Devil Bane cursed, "If I die, you're going to equally get punished because you were also there when we let that mysterious powerhouse take Elizar Yantra right under our noses. You're just lucky that I didn't bother to raise the issue with the Poison Lord."

Blood Thorn's mouth went agape in humiliation before he clicked his tongue.

"Tch, just say what you want instead of yapping like a loser."

"Help me kidnap Evelynn Loret. She is Davis Loret's first wife, and he is subordinated to the Dragon Queen-"

Devil Blane began to explain Davis's positions as a subordinate to the Dragon Queen and the Alstreim Family, of which the latter hadn't been thoroughly confirmed yet.

"Are you kidding me?" Blood Thorn's expression became solemn, "We can't possibly go into the Alstreim Family to kidnap someone of that nature, especially when the Four Dragon Families have blocked all the routes. They're still a righteous path power, you know..."

"I know." Devil Bane didn't seem to become disheartened. His expression appeared as if he considered such a scenario to happen.

"We'll be entering and escaping by carving a hole through the Territorial Fog. I've already considered that our best chance to kidnap Evelynn Loret is during the upcoming marriage between Dian Alstreim and Tirea Snow. I'm sure Dian Alstreim would be having his fair share of troubles during the marriage, while the Dragon Queen would have to deal with the four headaches if at all she ever came out of seclusion. Therefore, the best opportunity for us to make a move would be that time."

"But," Blood Thorn didn't seem to be convinced, "Isn't this Evelynn also considered as Dragon Queen's subordinate? Are you sure that we wouldn't be offending the Dragon Queen or, even worse, the Dragon Families?"

"Hehe," Devil Bane shook his head, "She's not a subordinate, but she is the subordinate's wife. As for her husband, we all know how the Dragon Families are when they deal with people. That arrogant brat thought he was a bigshot and offended the Zlatan Family by humiliating their youth. There's no way they would keep him alive unless he swears his loyalty to them. As for the Dragon Queen, she would be taken by them anyway. Why should we bother?"

"True..."

Both of them smirked and nodded to each other's thinking. As for her husband Davis, they didn't even bother to speak about the dangers such a character posed because, in their eyes, he was as good as dead because the Poison Lord didn't leave any man alive if they had an intimate connection with the women he slept with.

Eventually, his life would be reaped as well. It was just a matter of time.

"So," Devil Bane sounded a bit sly, "Since you're free, you should come and help me kidnap a few dozen women in the Poison Rift Vall-"

"I'll decline..." Blood Thorn raised his hand to stop him.

However, Devil Bane raised his brows, "I'll tell on you to the Poison Lord..."

"Fuck! Fine, you win! But remember, you owe me one!"

Devil Bane nodded to Blood Thorn's exasperated expression before he looked towards the west where the Territory Gate to the Alstreim Family Territory was present.

"My life is in your talent and beauty, Evelynn Loret, so don't disappoint me."

=======

In an inconspicuous foggy area of the Twilight Shade Valley, a handsome blonde-haired man and a beautiful black-haired woman embraced each other.

Davis was taken aback by her passionate emotions towards him before he began to respond with equal intensity. Their kissing went on for a while. It wasn't long but wasn't short either because they thoroughly looked satisfied when they separated.

Nadia's eyes looked full of affection while her expression embodied her determination. Her entire body became illuminated with a dark light before she shot back into Davis's soul sea, entering her magical beast shelter, and continued to be showered in the incoming death energy as her bloodline digested it.

She thought that Davis was pushing himself to create this type of pure yet ominous energy, so she no longer had any misgivings despite knowing the consequences. She had entered a do or die state of mind and closed her eyes, purely concentrating on digesting his death energy.

Davis complexly looked at her in his soul sea before he turned around and sounded.

"Fallen Heaven, you better not do anything to her."

"Davis, it was your idea." Fallen Heaven's hoarse voice echoed, "You shouldn't blame me if things go wrong..."

"I know." Davis's voice was cold, "I'm just saying that I don't want you experimenting with her as you do with me sometimes. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand."

Davis nodded but remained skeptical. It wasn't like he doubted Fallen Heaven, but sometimes, it would become interested in something and do its own thing like it tried absorbing a bit of his soul essence to understand its new powers or hide without telling him when the heavenly tribulation appeared.

It was hard for him to understand Fallen Heaven as it occasionally acted as if it were a curious child, but he also deliberated that it didn't have any kind of hostility, so he remained skeptical and kept an active watch on it using his psyche.

Nevertheless, he stopped worrying and continued on with the intent of strengthening himself.

He flew his way blind without knowing where he was going. All he wanted was to find a magical beast territory somewhere and slaughter many magical beasts to supplement the increase in quality of his Soul Forging Cultivation.

Last time, he felt that he fell short since he lacked High-Level and Peak-Level King Beast Stage Soul Essences to further improve the quality of his soul, but this time, he wanted to hunt more and be readily prepared to take his prowess to the next level....

'Surely, my soul can increase its prowess by an entire stage if I keep suppressing a breakthrough, right?'

He chuckled with confidence.

Davis headed northeast even though he might be traveling blindly because to the east was the Dark Moon Crow Territory, a magical beast power. He felt that the chances of finding magical beasts would increase if he traveled northeast.

Nevertheless, even after crossing two hundred kilometers, he had yet to meet someone. The entire place was desolate and freaky, and he felt that if he had arrived here with lower cultivation, he would've traveled so slow. But due to his overbearing cultivation at the moment, he was carefreely sightseeing.

'Ugh, I want to use my soul sense...'

Davis thought really hard and felt that the chances that he would meet a peak-level powerhouse here were extremely low. He no longer hesitated and instantly extended his soul sense, quickly finding a magical beast territory to the southeast from where he was.

"Found you~"

Davis creepily uttered, but he was instantly taken aback the next second.

Close to the magical beast territory, what he found was a sea, ah no, a huge river. Waterfalls were all over the place. However, the waterfalls were also like hot springs, creating an intense foggy atmosphere that hinders the range of vision to only a few meters for seventh stage cultivators and higher ranges for eighth stage and above cultivators.

Davis could see clearly with his soul sense, but that was the problem because there were a bunch of naked women laughing, teasing each other with their melodious giggles and roguish smiles on their faces.

"Who!?"

An attractive slanted-eyed woman whose assets were similar to Evelynn's suddenly shot her gaze in his direction. Her body abruptly shone with a dark light before she transformed into a forty-meter tall avian magical beast. Her wingspan alone was sixty-five meters wide while the symbol of a white crescent moon was on her pitch-black bosom feathers.

Low-Level Emperor Beast Stage undulations rippled with intensity as she made her way towards him!

"...!"

Davis instantly took back his soul sense and directly flew away in the northern direction, shrouding himself in Fallen Heaven's death energy while using the Dark Concealing Shroud Art.

*Whoosh!~*

That female magical beast appeared in the place where she found the anomaly within a few seconds before she landed on a tall tree and looked around. However, by this time, the anomaly she was looking for was already long gone.

In the distance, Davis inwardly cried. He found magical beasts he wanted to hunt alright but...

'Nope, that's probably the Dark Moon Crow Empire's female magical beasts. I better scram from this entire area before I get found out...'

He didn't wish to get involved with an Emperor Rank Species, especially not a higher-tiered Emperor Rank Magical Beast Species whose top powers were at High-Level or Peak-Level Emperor Beast Stage.

Humans? The majority of the powers didn't have Soul Emperors, so he could easily take care of them as long as they don't protect their souls but Emperor Beast Stage Magical Beasts? How could he kill them easily?

He would be wasting time, energy, and soul essence if he were to deal with them. Although the benefit might be greater in the long run, he didn't want to deal with a situation of fainting after dealing with a powerhouse and losing higher-level soul essences again.

He would be needlessly offending a top-tier power when he couldn't afford to. Moreover, he came to hunt King Rank Species and not Emperor Rank Species Magical Beasts. However, he wasn't aversed to hunting solo Emperor Rank Species like the Aqua Flood Dragon as that would be beneficial to him instead. No one would be on his tail, and he could simply reap the benefit and get out of there, safely and without turmoil.

"However, they seemed so... cultured like humans..."

Davis recalled the scene in the waterfalls as if was seeing it right now.

'Could it be that long years of adopting a lifestyle similar to humans make them appear more similar to us? After all, they consecrated their Dark Moon Crow Clan as an Empire...'

Davis pondered as he subconsciously went in search of another magical beast's territory.

"This has become problematic. That big-bosomed female crow would likely be able to notice that it was me who glimpsed on them if my soul sense were to ever probe her again. Therefore, I should not use my soul sense until I can confirm that she is not following behind somehow..."

"Who're you calling big-bosomed, human?"

It was as if a sharp voice cut through Davis's neck.

He instantly turned around towards the sky and lifted up his right hand to block.

*Boom!~*

Two wrists clashed against each other! The impact caused a huge wave of wind that almost cleared the fog around them while Davis could clearly see that the woman in front of him possessed crimson eyes and a crazy smile on her face that said she became excited that she failed to slice his head in a single blow!