The words the Matriarch spoke were the last piece of the puzzle that Theron needed to grasp.
He was wondering what Patriarch Nightingale had been planning out this entire ti, and how it related to Lyrah.
Suddenly, everything made sense. In fact, from what it seed, Patriarch Nightingale had probably been the one to set Lyrah up with the current Patriarch of the Umbra, orchestrating Lyrah’s existence and even her path to becoming a disciple of the Nightingale Sect.
In fact, he had probably purposely slowed Lyrah’s cultivation, taking her soul not just as a matter of control, but so as to weaken the Umbra Clan’s wariness of her as well.
If Lyrah had her complete soul, she would have long reached the Do of Heaven Realm, and such a person would be too much of a threat for the wives of Patriarch Umbra to ignore. If Lyrah ended up dying too early, it would be a huge detrint to Patriarch Nightingale.
This also explained why Lyrah was so close to the Quasi Do of Heaven Realm, and yet Patriarch Nightingale didn’t seem to have any plans in place to kill her any ti soon.
He had never wanted to kill her in the first place. He wanted to use her.
He had another thod of controlling her, that being none other than Lyrah herself, just as Theron had deduced.
Soone as cautious as Patriarch Nightingale—a man who also knew for a fact that he couldn’t control Quasi Do of Heaven Realm experts with his King Soul Lamp—wouldn’t have waited until the last hour to deal with Lyrah. To avoid mistakes, he would have dealt with her long ago.
Theron couldn’t help but shake his head inwardly.
Patriarch Nightingale was truly scheming. Maybe it made sense for soone who was so old, but he also sohow felt wise beyond his years.
Yet, he had fallen to Theron’s blade nonetheless.
Even Patriarch Nightingale couldn’t have possibly imagined that while he was orchestrating the fall of the Umbra, it would be a child who was a re fraction of his age that took his life in the end.
But this was the reality of the martial world.
Scheming, books, intelligence, planning, and forethought... it could only take you so far.
Maybe this is also why no one ever questioned how old Patriarch Nightingale was becoming. He was in the spotlight for so long, but no one ever wondered just what he had stumbled into to allow it. Maybe those clever enough or strong enough to want to find out were also wary of the Umbra and what the Nightingales had once been...
"I’m sorry to inform you, Matriarch, but I have no idea what this Soul thod is," Theron said before the Nightingale Ancestor could reply.
The Matriarch’s gaze sharpened. "It seems you didn’t—"
"I understood what you said perfectly well. But I think you’ve also misunderstood sothing as well. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m no Dark Mancer—I’m a Water and Dark Dual Resonance Mancer."
The pupils of the Matriarch constricted into pinholes.
"In fact, my Dark Mancy is far weaker than my Water Mancy."
Theron lifted up a palm, facing it toward the skies. All the water in the courtyard thrumd, releasing a resonant hum.
The temperature plumted, a deathly chill hanging in the air. And yet, the water continued to flow.
Ancient markings danced in the depths of Theron’s eyes, silky strands of blue Mana hanging in the air, threaded with Rune-ford lace.
Primal Resonance.
The Matriarch could hardly hide her reaction at all.
"As you can see, my Water Mana Resonance is at a Primal Resonance Grade. My Dark Mana Resonance, however, is still just at Celestial. You seem to have a lot of questions about the Dark Resonance half of my family. Why haven’t you asked anything about my Water Resonance half?"
Theron smiled a gentle smile.
Maybe this wouldn’t work if the Matriarch hadn’t already seen how deep his connection with the Nightingale Ancestor Bird was. Soone as wise as a Do of Heaven expert wasn’t so easily fooled.
But it was much easier to drink long after you had been led to a stream. The Matriarch was already under the assumption Theron had a deep background. Accepting that it was deeper than she originally assud was far easier.
However, Theron had no intention of banking on this alone.
When placed with an opportunity of a lifeti, real cultivators wouldn’t give up so easily. Even if it ant going on the run, if she had a chance to change her station in life, the Matriarch might even decide to outright abandon her Sect.
This was the way of the cultivation world.
Right now, they were in her palace. Who knew what sorts of traps and other hidden advantages she had here?
They had had no choice but to follow her here for reasons that beca obvious after she revealed her understanding of the Umbra and Nightingales. If she had revealed that in public, it would be far harder to suppress.
But now that they were here, they had to deal with the situation as it ca.
Luckily, Theron didn’t need an Ancestor Bird to help him out of this. His intelligence wasn’t sothing he wanted to rely on, but that didn’t an he would ignore it.
Not yet.
"In truth, I did co to your world here for a reason," Theron continued.
"... And that is?"
"An Ice Spirit."
The Matriarch’s pupils constricted once more. Theron could even feel that the Nightingale Ancestor Bird was agitated. It had seen Theron take the Ice Spirit, but it didn’t expect him to ntion it here.
"I’ve already taken it and fully integrated with it. No need to look."
"You expect to believe that?" the Matriarch asked coldly. "Only a Do of Heaven expert could possibly do that."
"How many Voidwroughts do you know, exactly?" Theron asked, his smile aningful.
The Matriarch froze, and Lyrah tensed, her knees bending as she almost fell to the ground once more. Luckily, her resistance to the word seed greater this ti.
"I didn’t tell you this to rub it in your nose. It’s just that I found sothing very interesting when I was there. A trio of rcenary Guild mbers sohow got there before , and they were using a special thod to restrain it.
"Now, if you ask , it’s impossible for a trio of weaklings like them to do such a thing. Not to ntion the fact that making it to the core—where the Spirit was—should have been impossible, but having such a unique thod is at least unheard of to .
"I, myself, used quite a special thod to learn of the Ice Spirit’s existence ahead of ti. Forgive for not telling you the details, but family secrets and all. That said, I believe that this was quite the overextension on the part of the rcenary Guild, no?
"In fact, I felt that the master of that trio was quite peculiar as well. From what I could tell, his reaction when you said the word Voidwrought was quite fake.
"Now, I don’t want to overstep any bounds or anything, but what sort of compensation do you think you could get from the rcenary Guild for not only the loss of an Ice Spirit but such a breach of trust?"
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