Chapter 1234 His?
The Demon Sage didn't seem to notice Dyon's odd change as he sighed, looking on at his daughter's lovely appearance.
She lay floating in the air, tilted ever so slightly toward them. Despite being in a deep sleep, her expression carried a dignified and slightly off-putting aura, one only possible by a ruler of many men and an Empress of a land.
Her hair was long, cascading with beautiful shimmer of red rubies and flickering golds. At the same time, her body was dressed in a soft white gown, exposing her small and delicate white feet and her slender and alluring shoulders.
Her features were the pinnacle of perfection, not a single blemish could be found on her face. This was the first woman Dyon had ever seen to match Evangeline in beauty and it made his heart almost stop pumping entirely.
It wasn't until more than half an hour passed that the Demon Sage awoke from his own thoughts and looked toward Dyon with a disgusted impression. His lips curled and his eyes squinted with disdain. It was one thing for him as a father to gaze at his daughter lovingly, but what was with this successor of his? Was he really so weak to beauties?
'He must not be used to seeing beauties who have grown through the celestial and dao formation realm.' The Demon Sage snorted to himself. 'Wait until he sees his first half-step transcendent lady, wouldn't that small cock of his explode?'
The Demon Sage wasn't entirely wrong. Dyon had never seen a half-step transcendent beauty. Before Evangeline could reveal her true appearance, Dyon had passed out.
That said, it wasn't entirely his fault. He had a planet grade aphrodisiac thrumming through his veins. What kind of man could handle such stimulus?
It was only then that the Demon Sage remembered just how difficult it was for him to control his lust in his youth. Back then, could he have spent 25 years without tasting a woman? Absolutely not. He might have been able to go three days at most… In fact, part of what made the demon sage tower so convenient was that he could take his women with him when he went of to train in dangerous environments.
Only someone who had been through it could truly understand how much lust a demonic path cultivator feels on the day to day basis. It was just that it had been so long since the Demon Sage even had a body to copulate with that he forgot.
Thinking to this point, the Demon Sage couldn't help but be impressed with Dyon. Last for so long with a woman… He could never do that. This didn't even mention the fact that Dyon was on the more demanding titan path and it wasn't 25 years he spent without a woman, but rather, 78.
"Kid, wake up!" The Demon Sage finally couldn't wait for Dyon to snap out of it on his own. "It's impossible for me to promise my daughter to you even if you're my successor, so it's best you forget about it. I'm sure there are plenty of women out there who would throw themselves at you considering you look like a flower boy."
Dyon's eyes dimmed, not seeming to hear the Demon Sage at all.
"You said…" He mumbled, almost as though he was speaking to himself, "You said you caused the death of the man she loved?..."
"Ah," The Demon Sage almost didn't know how to answer. How did they go from bickering back and forth to him suddenly having to deal with a broken-hearted teenager? What the hell was going on?
The Demon Sage suddenly felt kind of bad for some inexplicable reason. He didn't understand why, but the pain in Dyon's eyes seemed too real for him to ignore. Although he hated Dyon before, these years… He had grown on him.
"Listen brat, you're my successor!" The Demon Sage tried his hand at making Dyon feel better. "How could you become like this over a woman you don't even know?"
The Demon Sage coughed awkwardly. He had never experienced "love" in his life. Even this youngest daughter's mother was simply a woman he liked the look of. Sure, his harem was filled with women who loved him, but he had never felt that way toward them.
He would protect and go to war for them, yes. But love? He had never felt that emotion except toward his children.
A man like this understood even less about the way Dyon was feeling that even Dyon did.
Over the past hour, they had just stood there. Dyon had been trying to convince himself that the way he was feeling was ridiculous. That so what if she had loved someone else? She was still his, she would still be his, she had to still be his… No?
Yet, no matter what he said to himself, it felt cheap… cheap and empty. As though they were fleeting words that meant nothing in the face of the current situation.
"Can you tell me about it?..." Dyon said softly.
"Tell you about it?"
"Tell me about the man she loved…"
"This…" The Demon Sage paused, uncertain of how to respond. "… I don't know much. As I said, I left her when she was just a toddler. Whatever man she fell in love with was a man she met when I was long gone. By the time I came back, he was also gone."
"Just say what you know." Dyon pressed, his eyes lacking any light to speak of.
"Um…" Sargeras coughed. If he wasn't a spirit, he was certain that he'd be sweating buckets. "I really don't know much about this man. When I asked those who had survived along with my daughter, they said they had never met him. In fact, she refused to talk about him even when I asked."
"Then.."
"How did I find out? My daughter has an odd disorder… After the meridian formation realm, cultivators can stay awake without sleep practically indefinitely. Many only indulge in that act to calm themselves, relax or quickly recover drained mental energy, but it's not strictly necessary.
"However, my little girl often falls into deep sleeps. According to her aids, it started when she turned 16. It never got worse, but it also never got better. It was during one of those fits of sleep that I heard her continually mumbling the words husband and lord husband.
"At first, I was very angry. Who dared to marry my daughter without permission? And who dared force my daughter to call them lord husband? If anything, my daughter should have a harem of her own!" The Demon Sage snorted, clearly very angry toward this long dead man he had never met.
Dyon's body trembled, but he did his best to stand upright, did his best to pretend as though the demon sage's words weren't knifing through what remained of his psyche.
"You never tried to cure her?"
The Demon Sage awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "In truth, in her sleeping state, she's safer than ever. When there's no danger, she'd lie dormant. But, at the slightest hint of killing intent or if a threat to her life appeared, she would burst forth with strength even I'm fearful of.
"If I had to guess, it's similar to a selfless state, one so deep that even the heavens bless her. Also, in her sleeping state, she also passively cultivates with a speed that puts me to shame.
"With the help of the Jafari Clan treasure, I was only shipped 150 or so years into the future, yet my little girl was already a middle dao formation expert!" He beamed proudly, looking on toward the beauty with fatherly affection in his eyes.
One had to remember that after entering the Timeless Library, upon exit, one could be teleported anywhere along the timeline whether that be the absolute first year of all existence, or the last year. For the Jafari Clan treasure to be able to narrow this near infinite time to 150 years… It was clear how heaven defying it was.
Still, this young woman's cultivation speed was even more heaven defying!
What had the Dragon King said? He said it took him 300 years to enter the dao formation realm and 300 000 to become a half-step transcendent!
For this woman to not only become a dao formation expert, but to also reach the middle realm in just 150 years?! Genius wasn't enough to describe her!
The gap between an early and middle dao formation expert was so large that it overshadowed the gap between a low celestial and a peak celestial by more than three to even five times over! It took even geniuses thousands of years to fill even a single meridian with enigmatic energy, yet this woman progressed so far so easily!
To put this into perspective, the Dragon King entered the dao formation realm at 300 years old. That then left him with about 300 000 years to make it to the absolute peak. That's an average of 25 000 years per stage!
The low dao formation realm consists of the 1st to 3rd stage. The middle dao formation realm consisted of the 4th to 6th stage! If one were to convert, this woman did what the Dragon King would have needed 75 000 years to do, in just a few decades!
Of course, these measurements weren't exact. It was easier to cultivate at the beginning and progressively got more difficult. Also, these 300 000 years included the time spent stuck at the peak dao formation realm, trying to break through to the half-step transcendent realm. However, this was impressive nonetheless!
"So, there's really no need to cure her… I suspect she has an unknown constitution that allows her these boosts in her sleep –"
As they were speaking, the eyelashes of the beauty fluttered, causing Dyon's heart to seize once more.
He wasn't sure if he was ready… He wasn't sure if he could face what it meant for this beauty to open her eyes…
How many years had it been? For him, it was just 90 or so years since he last saw that beautiful cascade of red hair… felt that air of a queen… his queen… 90 years since she had sacrificed her life for him…
However, for her, it had been several trillion years… Eras had risen and fallen… Clans had come and went…
Was she truly still his?... Was she still his Amphorae?...