167 Thank You, Dyon
Suddenly a soft voice came from her side, “big sister?”
Little Lyla was standing on the cushioned couches that surrounded the round table, looking at Ri sadly.
“Ah,” Ri seemed to snap out of it, looking over at the worried Lyla.
Ri trembled as Little Lyla wrapped her arms adorably around her head, “it’s okay big sister.”
Dyon watched this scene with a sadness still in his heart. He slowly stood, walking over to Ri and plopping down beside her.
He smiled at Ri who was holding Lyla in her arms silently, still unwilling to cry.
Dyon looked at the menu to see what had sent Ri into such a state.
There, the image of a beautiful flower shaped fruit appeared. It was a cold, ice blue, and its petals were not unlike the aloe fruit from the human words although their shape was much more delicate and fragile.
The flower spread out from its center beautiful, layering petal after petal in an elegant design. Dyon didn’t know why, but he didn’t ask Ri whether or not she wanted it. He simply tapped the screen, causing the fruit to slowly manifest onto the round oak table.
After waiting in silence for a few moments, Ri pulled Little Lyla into her lap. Patting the little girl’s head, Ri took a deep breath, feeling a little bit better. She wiped the tears from Little Lyla’s eyes, unwilling to the cheerful little girl cry.
“This is a fruit my – my mom used to cut for me when I was younger. It’s called Ice Petal’s Dance. My mother loved the fruit so much, that she created a sword technique named after it… I haven’t had it for a long time. Partially because I miss her, but also because it almost impossible to eat properly,” she said softly.
Dyon looked at the fruit, a pondering look in his eye. “Why is it impossible to eat?”
Ri sighed. “Each petal contains the actual fruit within it, which makes peeling the fruits a near impossible task. There are hundreds of petals. Few people are even willing to go through the hassle. That’s not even to mention that the coating of the petals is bitter to taste, but the fruit inside is really thin compared to the coating. So, if you peel it incorrectly, you could either end up with bitter tasting fruit, or no fruit at all…”
Dyon pondered on this, and suddenly smiled. “How did your mother peel it?”
Ri smiled gently in reminiscence. “Her sword cultivation was so profound… she would use her sword qi to peel the petals back, leaving only the fruit behind. It was delicious.”
Dyon smiled, reaching his hand to the center of the fruit.
Ri looked confused, ‘is he trying to do what my mom did? There’s no way he has that much control…’
But suddenly, Ri’s doubt vanished. Her eyes widening in shock.
Dyon’s eyes flashed with gold, remembering one of the very first arrays he had ever mastered… the spatial array. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
Sweat beaded down his forehead as the array contorted and deformed, slowly coating each and everyone of the ice blue petals.
Little Lyla looked on, giggling happily as she watched.
Minutes passed, and soon, Dyon stopped, looking towards Ri with a large grin.
“Today, I serve you Ice Petal’s Dance,” Dyon gentle grasped the center stem of the flower fruit, pulling upwards.
A sweet aroma filled the private room. It was like lavender dipped into apple cider, giving their noses a slight and gentle itching sensation.
The juices of the fruit slowly dripped from the now pinkish flesh as Dyon held the fruit’s shell in his hand.
Ri’s hands trembled as she slowly picked a petal… peeling it off and softly chewing on it.
The tears she had held back finally couldn’t be held back any longer.
The only sound left in the room was a blue haired girl sobbing in a fit of happiness and an aching longing.
“Thank you, Dyon…”
**
Ri watched silently as Dyon meditated quietly. His skin was noticeably reddened from its previous tanned color and sweat beaded down his forehead. Yet, despite the pain he was in, a wide smile could be seen on his face.
Ri thought Dyon was crazy for enjoying the pain of whatever cultivation method he was going through right now. But, if she knew he was smiling because he was gaining more benefits than he could count without spending a dime, Dyon would lose whatever higher position he had just gained in Ri’s heart.
Little Lyla, though, had eaten her fill and was happily playing around with Little Black.
The food seemed to have been of great benefit to Little Black as well, because his fur and scales were shining with a pure sheen. Even the white swirls that graced his luscious coat seemed to be made of shining with lights of their own.
However, Dyon could be said to have gotten the most from this experience. His blood essence, which had stalled in its integration for such a long time, had been pushed violently upwards. His demon qilin and celestial deer essences were already approaching 10% while his demon sage essence was pushing upwards to 2%.
Initially, this surprised Dyon because he thought the process would take longer. But then he remembered back to the months of training he underwent. Not only did he prime a good percentage of the essences for easier integration, his body itself had gotten stronger, so the process was less of a hassle.
All the while, Dyon had ordered himself another Ice Petal’s Dance because it was the perfect fruit for calming his raging essence imbalance.
The was because Dyon was becoming more and more aware of how domineering the sage’s blood essence truly was. For one, his soul had reached the Essence stage with no problem. Dyon was clear of the fact this was only possible with the help of the sage demon’s blood. If it wasn’t for it, how would Dyon’s body be able to handle such a powerful soul?
The second reason was because despite Dyon’s increase in soul strength, and by extension aurora strength, he still couldn’t heal his own body effectively. Although minor injuries weren’t a problem, if he got injured like he did back at the legacy world opening again, even with his improved soul he would need weeks to recuperate. This meant Dyon had no choice but to invest heavily into using the pill condensation technique to create potent medicine for himself. But, if he had to use such powerful pills already… what would happen when he integrated even more of the sage’s blood essence?
In the end, Dyon decided to cast all of this from his mind. He easily chose strength over those worries. Maybe, one day, he’d be strong enough that he wouldn’t even need to heal at all because he’d never be injured. So, Dyon settled on not only integrating as much of the sage demon’s essence as he could, but also finding an equally powerful blood essence later to help him balance the demonic aura.