Chapter 801: Dark Secret
After seeing the little girl's angry response, Leon was taken aback by surprise for a moment before he corrected her, "I didn't say sick cat… What I said was Si-kat."
"What's the difference?!"
The little girl glared at him like a cat that just got her tail stepped on.
Nevertheless, Aria couldn't stand to watch the situation further and quickly stepped in to intervene as she threw a blaming look at Leon.
"How can you this adorable little girl such a poor name, Leon?" she said.
"I… It was actually better than the other names I thought of; I couldn't have called her Dark Princess or Little Black, can I? I'm not good names…"
Leons scratched his head with a wry and awkward smile before suggesting, "Why don't you give her a name instead?"
"Hmph, I will!" Aria snorted before turning to the little girl with a warm smile. "How about it; would you like a big sister to give you a name instead? It'll definitely be better than the names given by that villain."
"Mm!" the little girl quickly agreed.
'Big sister…'
At the same time, Leon silently thought with a smile wryly.
The Eternal Night Demon Empress's daughter might have the appearance of a little 8-year-old girl, but she was a few thousand years old at the very least.
'Is this the result fusing a living being with a Divine Artifact's heart? It seems that doing this will allow the living being to age at a much slower rate than other living beings…' he mused.
It was an interesting discovery, but at the same time, it posed a serious question that is worth looking into.
Since living beings could become artifact spirits, does that mean there were artificers out there who also sacrificed living beings to create artifact spirits for their artifacts?
The thought of it made Leon frown.
'If a grown person were forcefully sacrificed to the artifact heart to become a spirit, it would undoubtedly become a spirit full of hatred to its creator…'
However, if an infant is used instead, it will develop intimacy with its creator or owner once it becomes capable of its own thoughts…
'Back in the Divine Realm, countless infants go missing after their birth every year; it can't possibly be due to this, right?'
Leon felt unsettled at the thought, causing his expression to turn ugly.
…
"What do you think of the name Luna? Do you like it?" Aria asked while carrying the little girl in her arms.
"Luna…" the little girl didn't immediately agree but sought its meaning first, "Does it have any special meaning?"
"Luna means the white moon," Aria said.
"Since your mother sacrificed a lot to give you a chance at life, it shows how much your mother loves you—just like how these flowers thrive and glow in this dark place, which is also like the white moon shining in the night, Luna."
"So, do you like it?" she asked again.
"Luna, Luna, Luna…" the little girl uttered the name repeatedly, growing increasingly fonder of it before she nodded excitedly, "Mm, I like it!"
"Great! Then I'll call you Luna from now on!" Aria said with a fond smile as she pinched the little girl's nose before shifting her gaze to Leon. "We've decided on—what's wrong, Leon?"
"Hm?" Leon glanced up and before saying, "Seeing how the Eternal Night Demon Empress's daughter—"
"Don't just keep calling me; I know I am! But I have a name now! Call me Luna, Luna, Luna!" the little girl interrupted.
"Alright, Lunalunaluna," Leon raised his hands in resignation. "Though, you've ended up with a strange name anyway…"
"…" Luna pouted, feeling upset before asking, "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"
"Hahaha, I jest. Don't take it seriously."
Leon ruffled Luna's head roughly, making her spiritual form shaky and out of shape before replying to Aria's question, "Luna's unique situation makes me think about the missing infants in the Divine Realm."
"The missing infants…?"
Aria took a moment to search through Aria White's memories before widening her eyes with a startled look.
"Are you suspecting the infants are used to create artifact spirits?!" she exclaimed with a near-shrieking voice.
The artifact creators were vile and evil beyond belief if it was true!
Leon nodded heavily.
"If we think about it, an artifact takes a long time to give birth to an artifact spirit—such time could take hundreds to thousands of years. However, there are forces like the Divine Treasure Pavillion that churn out Spirit Artifacts, which only take five to ten years to give birth to artifact spirits."
"This is outrageous! They must be using newborn infants in their artifact production!" Aria accused the Divine Treasure Pavillion with outrage. "Such vileness is unacceptable! They should pay for their crimes!"
"It's ironic how the Divine Treasure Pavillion is also one of the forces that support the prosperity of mortals the most," Leon said contemptuously before shaking his head in resignation.
"Nevertheless, this is just our speculation. And unless we can travel to the Divine Realm, we won't be able to investigate the truth behind the Divine Treasure Pavillion and other related forces' artifacts' quick spirit births."
"Even if it's just a speculation, we can't deny its possibility either," Aria continued to argue.
In her heart, she had already accepted the possibility as the truth.
Even a prosperous kingdom like the Crawford Kingdom declined due to corruption; it was impossible for the Divine Realm not to have corruption of their own.
Given the nature of humans, she believed it definitely exists.
"For now, we should just focus on increasing our cultivation. We still have a long way from being able to travel to the Divine Realm," Leon stated.
"Mm." Aria nodded.
Meanwhile, Darlene and Luna were utterly lost; they failed to follow Leon and Aria's conversation.
"What is the Divine Realm?" Luna asked.
"It's a whole new world that exists far beyond this world," Aria patiently but briefly explained the Divine Realm to the little girl.
Shortly after, she glanced around before she said, "It seems like the central floating island is also a bust; we made an amazing discovery here, but there's nothing we can use."
"Not exactly. There is something useful here, but Luna will not agree with me taking them," Leon said while glancing down at the black-purplish glowing flowers.