Chapter 165

Still burning, she snapped her head back toward Orathis. "And don't assume the Kunpeng Beast Tribe swallows the loss of two Two-Turn Ancestors quietly. They'll send more people to Exalted Continent to find out what happened."

"If it comes to it."

"Hmph. The short version is that I take the blame for killing Kain and Azel. All of it."

"If anyone asks, you've never met me in your life."

"Don't let yourself get dragged into this."

"Put your energy into holding Black Dragon Mountain for your master. Keep your head down, and for once in your life, use it."

"I'm going~"

Liana turned on her heel.

She waved once over her shoulder without looking back.

Her white dress moved in the wind, and the whole picture was insufferably cool.

Orathis sat there dazed for a moment.

Then he started up again, wailing at the sky.

"Oh, Master!"

"My poor Master!"

"You died such a miserable death!"

The sea of black fire twisted and warped.

A single figure walked out of the middle of it.

Soren's coercion came down over the battlefield in one sweep and took the space back.

"Drop the act."

"You and I are bound by an exclusive master-servant blood contract."

"Are you telling me you can't tell whether I'm alive?"

His voice carried an unmistakable note of irritation.

Orathis let out a delighted, foolish chuckle.

Watching the silhouette step clear of the black fire, the dragon's demeanor changed on the spot. He rubbed his claws together, fawning.

Liana had stopped walking.

She turned and stared at the shape inside the inferno.

She had no idea what method he had used to avoid being vaporized.

What she was sure of was that he hadn't ducked into a pocket dimension.

He had come back the same way he arrived, out of nowhere and unannounced. No spatial ripples. No sign of a transit at all.

This man. Is he simply unkillable?

Orathis cackled like a duck being strangled.

Liana's lip twitched. The annoyance of having been played by this brat arrived all at once.

Possibly moved by an urge to beat him senseless, she squared her shoulders, and her bare feet carried her back toward them at a pace that meant business.

Orathis, meanwhile, was busy explaining away his theatrical mourning. He had no idea what was walking up behind him.

"Heheh, Master."

"I was only, you know, keeping the mood lively."

"Otherwise how would anyone see the depth of the bond between master and servant?"

"Master, tell me honestly. Doesn't Little Dragon make a good case?"

"My acting was flawless, right?"

"I even fooled my own sister."

"Gagagaga!"

Riiip!

Mid-flattery, an agony tore up out of Orathis's tail.

His eyes nearly watered. Mouth working, he cranked his enormous head around.

Liana had both hands on his charred tail and was ripping away a slab of half-melted, fused scale. Blood came up out of the raw patch in little spurting jets.

She glared at him with the sweetest, most murderous smile in the world.

Her dantian was sealed, but the body under it was still that of an Upper-Tier Spirit Ancestor. Not the ordinary kind either. She had the physical resilience of a One-Turn Ancestor.

Tearing off a strip of ruined scale cost her nothing.

Orathis opened his mouth to complain, and the intent radiating off her made him swallow it.

Eventually he couldn't hold it in.

"Sis... I'm bleeding, Sis."

Soren stepped out of the demonic flames.

He looked thoroughly refreshed. He stopped in front of the pair.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he gazed up into the void, like a man turning over something he had just learned.

After a moment he brought his gaze down and looked straight ahead.

Orathis and Liana stared at him and said nothing. Both stood there like stone.

That lasted a very short while.

Then both faces changed completely.

Orathis's blank stare turned into open, undisguised envy. He started making noises. Wow.

Then out loud:

"As expected of Little Dragon's Master."

"This is outrageous."

"Oh my god, this is genuinely outrageous."

"Holy shit. Outrageous. Absolutely outrageous."

Liana went from disbelief to shock. And from shock straight into panic.

The word terrifying might as well have been stamped across her face.

However wildly the rest of her was moving, those narrow, ice-cold eyes stayed locked on Soren and did not move.

Her throat bobbed once as she swallowed.

If the man standing there had been anyone else, and if her dantian hadn't been sealed, Orathis would have called it immediately. This guy is finished. Dead meat. Three seconds and he's a ghost.

Reading their faces, Soren finally worked out that something was off.

He looked down.

The corner of his mouth twitched hard, and he put his expression back where it had been.

One wave of his hand, and a sleek black martial robe condensed out of pure demonic energy and settled over him, covering everything.

Orathis felt a small heat coming off the side. He turned his big head to look.

Liana's face had gone crimson to the tips of her ears, as if someone had emptied a bucket of molten iron over her head.

Orathis's enormous form shimmered and the beast transformation dropped away.

Back in human shape, he covered his mouth with a fist and coughed a few times to smooth the moment over.

He took a wide step forward and twisted his upper body toward Soren at an angle that suggested his torso had come loose from his legs.

He whispered.

"Master, that was over the line."

"My sister is an innocent maiden. Nobody has ever touched her."

"Look at her!"

"You've frightened the woman stiff!"

"If you have needs of that intensity, aim them at Little Dragon!"

"Just don't make life hard for my sis... AAAHHH, HOLY SHIT~"

Before he could finish the heroic offer, Soren's boot launched him into the stratosphere.

"I don't have hobbies like that," Soren said.

Liana's eyes flashed with humiliation and fury.

Then, a second later, she pushed all of it down and slid back into her cold, arrogant self.

She even walked up to Soren of her own accord, curves swaying.

She understood her position perfectly. In her current state she had no leverage at all to confront him over the Kun-Heaven Nether Sea.

So she didn't say one syllable about it.