Half a year before...
The knife, which had been thrown with enough force to shatter crystal, dissolved into a shower of pink rose petals just before it struck the woman’s chest.
The petals fluttered to the ground, their sweet fragrance a strange contrast to the cold, hard reality of the ruined city.
"How rude," a voice, smooth as silk yet laced with a playful reprimand, whispered directly behind his ear.
Rhys did not flinch. He slowly turned, his pitch-black eyes eting a pair of pink, heart-shaped pupils.
His eyes widened as he recognised the face, "Yuki!"
[Analysis of the recent entity confirms she is a fragnt of the sa Celestial Spirit Fox as Yuki. Her core power revolves around the concept of Seduction, a form of high-level mind and emotional manipulation.]
"Yuki... Yuki..." the woman mused aloud, tucking a stray strand of her vivid pink hair behind an elegant fox-like ear. "So, this is what it feels like to have a na... ara ara!"
"PAAAPAAAA..." Sera rushed to him, followed by the Behemoth. She planted herself defiantly between Rhys and the newcor, glaring with an intensity that belied her small fra.
"You coquettish bitch, stay away from a married man!"
"What?"
[...]
Seduction’s laugh was like the chi of tiny, crystal bells.
"Oh, my. Such vulgar language from one so small. It appears my foolish little sister left quite an impression on your... offspring."
Her gaze lingered on Sera, a complex mixture of amusent, curiosity, and a faint, almost imperceptible, twinge of jealousy dancing in her depths.
"Child, look at . Don’t I resemble your mother?" she cooed, leaning forward ever so slightly.
Sera turned her face away with a huff. "You look like a cheap knock-off."
"A what?"
"Ahem." Rhys cleared his throat, commanding the attention of both females. "What do you want?"
"What do I want..." Seduction breathed, taking a slow, deliberate step towards him. The silk of her dark pink robes rustled with the movent. "Isn’t it obvious? What a wife wants, I want, of course."
Rhys’s expression remained unchanged, but internally, his mind was racing.
Wife? This was a new level of absurdity. Elder Solon had been a master manipulator, but this woman’s thods were in a different league entirely.
She did not use logic or fear; she used pure, overwhelming audacity.
"I am not married..."
"Then who is she?" Seduction pointed at Sera.
"She is not my daughter."
"Papa, are you going to abandon ?" Sera’s voice trembled, her eyes welling up with perfectly tid tears.
[...]
A throbbing headache began to build behind Rhys’s eyes. There were two primary reasons he had not resorted to further violence.
[You have already resorted to it, host. But failed...]
’Shut up.’
Firstly, she was a part of Yuki, and he felt a certain indebtedness. Without Yuki’s core, Sera might not have been born.
’I would have been born naturally anyway. That coquettish bitch acted on her own. Hmph.’
Rhys ignored Sera’s indignant ntal comntary and considered the second reason. The prospect of having a Celestial Fox as a pet was an undeniably appealing one.
’I am not a pet, but a wife.’
’I am not marri—wait. How are you speaking in my mind?’
’Have you forgotten? We share an Equal Transfer Contract.’
Three pairs of eyes locked in a silent standoff. He understood the nature of an Equal Transfer Contract and knew precisely what Yuki—and by extension, this new fragnt—desired from him.
’Lifespan...’
But there was a catch.
"What do I get in return?" Rhys crossed his arms. ’And please, spare the tales of sacrifice. There must be sothing you possess that is of equal value to what I provide, correct?’
"W-what do you want?" Seduction’s voice was a breathy whisper as she glided closer, subtly lowering the neckline of her gown to reveal a tantalising glimpse of her cleavage. "Take... whatever you desire... husband."
Rhys placed a hand on her forehead and gently pushed her back.
[You are under the influence of lust...]
’In what universe do you think I’m influenced by lust?’
[The bulge in...]
’Shut up.’
"Alright, since you seem incapable of negotiating without resorting to your... impure traits, I will state precisely what I desire from you."
Seduction’s lips twitched, a faint smile playing on them as a bead of sweat traced a path down her neck and into the valley between her breasts.
"I want to learn about the true nature of elents and their properties."
Seduction was taken aback. The playful seductress vanished, replaced by a genuinely surprised woman.
"You have already bonded with every possible elent. As for their properties, how can a stranger assist you with sothing that must be understood through personal enlightennt? I would much rather teach you about so... delightful positions of pleasure."
"Drop it." His gaze turned sharp and serious. "As per our Equal Transfer Contract, this is what I demand in return."
Rhys had his reasons. He had long suspected that the conventional understanding of elental properties was incomplete.
A cultivator with a single dantian, upon choosing to bond with an elent and selecting one of its properties, was locked into that choice.
However, with multiple dantians, he theorised it was possible to utilise the sa elent with different properties.
His attempts to house two properties within a single dantian had all failed spectacularly. Yet, Yuki had wielded at least two distinct properties of the sa elent.
Previously, without his own elental bonds, he could not discern the specifics of her power. Now, looking at this fragnt of her, he could clearly sense her base elent: Water.
But how had she derived seduction and teleportation from it? She possessed no trace of the space elent.
Seeing the unyielding seriousness in his eyes, Seduction’s playful deanour wavered.
"Papa, just break the contract with this liar."
"I suppose if she is unable to fulfil her end of the bargain, we should sever our contract—"
"I agree!"
"Good."
And so, Rhys’s family grew by one, gaining a mber who was not, in fact, deceased.
He spent another half-year within the Ashen Dinsion, during which he learned a great deal from Seduction about the true nature of elents and their properties.
His lessons were an eye-opening revelation. The "properties" that cultivators believed they were selecting were, in fact, variations of the base elent. In the immortal realms, these were known as mutated elents.
A cultivator could not typically wield more than one mutated elent of the sa type because their similar yet distinct structures caused them to repel each other.
However, it was not impossible.
By precisely mixing the mutated elents in specific ratios, or by combining mutated elents from different base elents, the repulsion could be negated.
Yuki’s power was a pri example. Her base elent was Water, but her mutated elents were not derived solely from it.
She had fused a mutated elent of Water with one from Ti.
In essence, a cultivator could wield any number of properties, or mutated elents, as long as they could prevent the repulsion between them, either through precise ratios or by utilising different base elents.
Rhys could use Fire and Earth to create Magma, but attempting to combine the "burning" and "purification" properties of Fire within a single dantian would result in a violent repulsion, as they had entirely different outcos.
However, if he controlled the ratio of each property according to his desired purpose, he could wield both without conflict.
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