Chapter 1345: Back to Civilization

By the time Phei returned home after the long stretch of training, testing new abilities and finally digging through almost a year’s worth of neglected System rewards had left him feeling strangely lighter.

For the first time since entering the Primordial Frozen Zone, there was nothing immediately waiting for him to kill, survive, understand or break through. The Zone Lord was his, the deepest threat in the region had disappeared into his Soul Realm, his cultivation had settled at Sky Sovereign, and even the pile of mysteries surrounding his soul could wait until he eventually reached World Transcendent and gained proper access to the place.

More importantly, dinner.

He appeared inside their home carrying enough raw meat to feed a small army, most of it freshly cut from a massive beast unfortunate enough to cross his path Cold air followed him through the spatial ripple before the warmth inside the cavern swallowed it, and the familiar mixture of blue-white crystal light, dancing orange flame and distant aurora immediately replaced the raging white storms outside.

His little sister was already awake.

Phei found the Dragon Lady seated on the bed, although she had absolutely not transformed into her human figure.

Of course not.

The Dragon Lady could change her size even while remaining in her true draconic form, and right now she had reduced herself until she could comfortably occupy the broad bed without looking as though the entire cavern had been constructed around her.

Even small, however, there was nothing ordinary about her.

Snow blue-white scales covered her body like perfectly fitted shards of polished crystal, each one catching the blue light from the ice and the orange glow from the fireplace until soft colors travelled over her whenever she moved.

Her folded wings rested along her back, her elegant neck curved above the pelts and those pale draconic eyes immediately fixed upon the heap of fresh meat in Phei’s arms.

Her wings lifted, her neck stretched slightly higher and the tip of her tongue slipped out before she gave several quick flaps of her wings.

Phei stopped walking and stared.

She really did some ridiculously cute things when she was hungry.

That thought lasted only until he looked at her properly again, because describing the Dragon Lady herself as cute still felt like asking to be bitten.

Even reduced to a size that could comfortably sit on a bed, she remained unmistakably an apex predator. Her proportions carried the same graceful perfection as her enormous form, the sharp curve of her horns, the crystalline ridges running down her neck, the sleek strength beneath those glittering scales and the quiet intelligence in her eyes making it impossible to mistake her for some harmless little magical creature.

’Beautiful, absolutely, beautiful.’

Otherworldly enough to make most fantasy Dragons Phei had ever seen in fiction look underfunded, definitely.

Harmless?

Someone would have to be exceptionally stupid.

Phei’s grin widened as he lifted the meat slightly. "Little sister, freshen up. Let’s eat."

The Dragon Lady tilted her head.

Phei took another two steps before his own words caught up with him and he imagined her walking into some bathroom, brushing enormous Dragon teeth and washing her face before dinner.

He laughed under his breath. "What the hell am I expecting you to do, brush your teeth?"

Her stare followed him.

"Forget I said anything."

Phei waved the thought away and carried the meat toward the cooking area, placing the enormous cuts onto the black stone surfaces he had made over the past few months.

He had barely set everything down before turning back toward her, because even after spending almost a year together he apparently had not developed resistance to the sight of an actual Dragon sitting comfortably inside their house.

He crossed the cavern and sat beside her for a moment, one hand moving naturally over the smooth scales along her neck. The Dragon Lady lowered herself slightly beneath his touch, and Phei slowly ran his palm along the side of her smaller body, feeling the familiar cold beneath the crystalline surface.

"You can cultivate those cores we picked up from our last rampage while I’m cooking," he told her. "Might as well squeeze everything useful out of them—as many as you can— before we leave."

Her eyes shifted toward him briefly before she gave a quiet rumble of acknowledgment.

Phei continued caressing her scales for another few moments before standing and heading back toward the meat, although his thoughts remained on her while he prepared the fire.

There were things he had wanted to ask.

Quite a lot of them, actually.

Now that returning to civilization had become something real instead of a distant plan they occasionally mentioned, questions that Phei had deliberately ignored throughout the year had begun resurfacing.

Would she remain in Dragon form when they returned?

Would she eventually feel comfortable assuming her humanoid figure around other people?

Had there once been somewhere she called home before the Primordial Frozen Zone?

’There has to have been... surely.’

Phei knew where he had found her and what had been done to her afterward, but that was not the same thing as knowing how she had arrived here in the first place. Someone did not simply appear in one of the most hostile regions, become captured by the Zone Lord’s servants and spend centuries imprisoned without possessing an entire life before that moment.

She had lived somewhere.

’Perhaps with other Dragons? Perhaps alone.’

Maybe there was a family somewhere in the world that believed she had died centuries ago, or another Realm she once belonged to, or someone she had once trusted enough that whatever happened before her imprisonment still hurt more than the chains themselves.

That last thought had bothered Phei several times during their battles.

There had always been anger in her.

Some of it was obvious. Anyone imprisoned, drained and used for centuries had earned enough rage to burn continents, but the stubborn fury Phei occasionally felt through their Soul Bond seemed older and deeper than captivity alone. When she fought the Zone Lord’s servants, there were moments when the hatred surging through her had carried something personal that Phei could not place.

He had almost asked her more than once.

Each time, he decided against it.

The Dragon Lady would tell him when she wanted to.

Phei had already spent enough time learning that there were some things she guarded far more fiercely than treasure. Her humanoid figure was one of them, not because she disliked it but because becoming human seemed to leave her feeling exposed in a way that reducing her Dragon form never did.

Whatever memories existed before the Primordial Frozen Zone might belong to that same protected part of her.

Phei had no intention of dragging them out because curiosity was bothering him.

The same went for returning home.

If she wanted to live in Paradise with him for the next thousand years while never once showing another person her human form, that was fine. She could become as small as she wanted without abandoning her draconic body, which meant hiding what she truly was had become unnecessary anyway.

Besides, pretending Phei lived anything resembling a normal human life had become laughable a long time ago.

He had an Elf.

Actually, three of those, and they were beginning to become a problem if he counted properly.

There was a Dragonkin, a Demon, two Vampires, an Undead Queen and whatever collection of monsters, World Transcendents and women his life had somehow gathered without asking permission. Sienna herself was the Nether Goddess, while Dravenna, if Phei understood her correctly, was a full-fledged Dragon too.

And then there was Phei.

Cosmic Dragon Bloodline, Primordial Soul, Primordial Blood, Void and enough strange abilities that listing himself under "human" was beginning to feel dishonest.

Adding one more Dragon to the family would hardly be the thing that finally made everyone question his life choices.

The thought made Phei smile as he began cutting the meat into enormous portions and feeding Essence into the flame beneath the black stone basin. The fire rose immediately, orange light brightening their home while the scent of fresh meat slowly began changing beneath the heat.

Behind him, he heard the faint movement of scales against pelts as his little sister settled more comfortably.

Phei glanced back once.

The Dragon Lady had already lowered herself beside the bed, her eyes half closed while cores floated before her. Pale blue-white Essence had begun flowing from it toward her body in slow threads, disappearing beneath the glittering scales along her chest as she cultivated.

Phei watched her for several seconds before returning to the food with a smile he could not quite suppress.

Civilization was going to be interesting.

’Melissa’s reaction alone might be worth everything.’

There were the others:

Sienna would probably understand what she was looking at before anyone else. Eira would absolutely have opinions. The Goddess might remain calm for approximately five seconds before deciding whether bringing an ancient Dragon home counted as another example of Phei’s syndrome of collecting dangerous women. The Maddie, Sierra, Maya Catrina, Valentina, Patricia, Delilah, Emily, Vic, Lydia, Elena, Amber, Soraya, Roxanne, Noor and others and everyone else would have their own reactions once they realized the young Dragon standing beside him was not another servant.

She was his sister.

His actual little sister as far as Phei was concerned.

And after spending nearly a year with just the two of them wandering through the Primordial Frozen Zone, hunting, flying, training and occasionally sitting beneath auroras without saying anything, the idea of introducing her to the enormous mess he called family made returning home feel considerably more exciting than it had a few days ago.

He couldn’t wait to—

Phei’s eyes narrowed.

The change in space was faint at first, so far beyond the reach of ordinary perception that even most powerful cultivators would have noticed nothing until it was already happening.

Phei grinned. "My wife is here to get us."