Chapter 1362: Homecoming 2

Melissa turned immediately, and whatever conversations had quietly begun rebuilding themselves around the penthouse died again as attention swept toward the same wall.

This time, several people felt the change.

It began beyond the limits of ordinary senses, a strange disturbance inside the fabric of space itself that approached from somewhere the eyes could not follow. Reality outside the penthouse seemed to tighten almost imperceptibly, while the enormous panes of glass reflected the room normally despite a sensation spreading through the air that something was imposing itself upon space from beyond.

Dravenna straightened slightly... the Dragonkin’s head lifted feeling the overwhelming sense to get to his knees.

The Elves became alert almost simultaneously. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

The Goddess simply watched.

"Hello, everyone."

Phei’s voice reached them before Phei himself did.

Melissa’s heart lurched before everyone else turned toward the glass.

Phei floated through it like it didn’t exist!

There was no shattering window and no opening portal carved through it and the glass did not even ripple either as his first foot simply passed through the solid pane as though the substance had briefly lost the right to deny him entry, followed by the rest of his body emerging from the night outside.

He was fucking floating in the fucking air so high in the sky before he entered and still floating!

For several seconds, that alone was enough to leave half the room staring because there were no wings behind him, no visible platform beneath his feet and no obvious technique announcing how he remained suspended hundreds of meters above the ground.

Phei merely hovered outside the tower as casually as though standing in empty air had become another mundane thing he had picked up while away.

Then he crossed through the glass and entered the penthouse.

The people who knew him best immediately realized that two weeks had done something impossible.

Phei looked different.

He had not suddenly aged years in appearance, yet something about the boy who had left Paradise Island had vanished beneath the person now standing before them. His features seemed sharper without losing the beauty that had always made women look longer than intended; if anything he was more than he’d been before.

The line of his jaw was more defined while his shoulders appeared broader beneath the shirt covering him. There was a density to his body that did not rely on exaggerated muscle, a frightening physical compactness suggesting strength had been hammered into every piece of soft-looking and fair flesh rather than merely layered over it.

His hair had grown longer too, loose strands framed his face and falling around his neck while moving faintly despite the still air inside the penthouse. The gold in eyes had changed most noticeably, carrying depths that had not been there when he left, their beautiful color now sitting over something vast enough that looking into them for too long created the strange feeling that something else might eventually look back.

Those capable of sensing cultivation noticed the rest.

Sky Sovereign!

That part was obvious.

The problem was that Phei did not remotely feel like an ordinary Sky Sovereign.

His Essence had become so dense and frighteningly pure that even while completely restrained it seemed to possess weight, as though every thread inside him carried far more power than it should. His body radiated a separate pressure of its own, ancient and draconic, while his soul gave almost nothing away except an impossible sense of depth that made spiritual perception feel strangely insignificant around him.

Void lingered around his existence without visibly manifesting.

Cold lived beneath that... Blood beneath the cold; Dragon beneath everything.

Dravenna’s jade eyes sharpened as she studied him, and despite everything Sienna had already told them about his progress, she found herself realizing those explanations had not prepared her for the feeling of actually standing near him.

Even the Origin Elf, who still considered him an especially cruel Dragon whenever she felt like being irritated with him, became more attentive.

Yet somehow none of that was the strangest part of his entrance.

Phei carried something in his arms.

At first, several people mistook the small blue-silver-white creature curled against his chest for some beautiful frozen beast he had found during training.

Then it moved its head—

A Dragon!

A tiny Dragon was lying in Phei’s arms like a ridiculously spoiled cat.

The creature’s blue-silver-white scales glittered beneath the penthouse lights with traces of pale blue moving through their crystalline surfaces whenever she shifted. Her wings rested neatly folded along her back while her long tail curved comfortably against Phei’s side, and one foreleg lay over his arm with the complete confidence of someone who had long since decided this was an acceptable place to rest.

She was small enough for Phei to carry easily, but there was absolutely nothing harmless about her appearance.

Her head retained the elegant predatory structure of a true Dragon, crystalline horns sweeping backward above pale intelligent eyes while fine ridges followed the length of her graceful neck. Even reduced to such a small size, every proportion of her body carried the balance between beauty and violence only Dragons seemed capable of making look natural.

His women even Dravenna and the boys went completely still.

Dravenna’s attention shifted from Phei toward the Dragon in his arms, and something in her expression sharpened considerably because she knew immediately that this was not some pet or beast Phei had casually decided to drag home.

The little Dragon was far too relaxed against him.

Dragons did not make themselves small and vulnerable around people they did not trust.

They certainly did not curl themselves into someone’s arms with their wings folded and their throat exposed enough that an attack could reach before they reacted.

Whatever relationship existed between these two had gone far beyond simple companionship.

The Dragon Lady lifted her head slightly and surveyed the penthouse with pale eyes, taking in one unfamiliar face after another while remaining comfortably nestled against Phei. Her gaze passed over Melissa, the Goddess, Dravenna, the Elves, the Demoness, Vampire, humans and every other increasingly bizarre existence gathered beneath one roof before she looked back toward Phei with visibly greater ease than she had shown anyone else.

Phei glanced down at her for half a second, the smile appearing on his face carrying a softness several women immediately noticed.

When he looked up again to them; that was when the women really looked at him.

Not his cultivation or whatever impossible things had happened to his soul; certainly not the Dragon inexplicably resting in his arms.

Him!

The sharper jaw, longer hair, broader shoulders, deeper golden eyes, the calm confidence of someone who had evidently spent far longer than two weeks living somewhere dangerous, and that quietly domineering presence now wrapped around the same shamelessly handsome seventeen-year-old they remembered.

Melissa and Goddess stared while Roxanne’s eyes narrowed slightly in appreciation. Valentina did not even bother pretending she was not checking him out. Catrina’s gaze moved over him slowly. Maddie and Sierra exchanged one immediate look that communicated far too much.

Noor looked away only after realizing she had been staring but Cassiopeia remained far more composed, although her eyes stayed on him a little longer than necessary.

The Demoness beside her noticed and smiled... Yuki blinked several times. Amber’s lips parted slightly. Delilah looked from Phei toward the others as though checking whether everyone else was experiencing the same problem.

Victoria’s entire rivalry with Soraya temporarily ceased mattering.

Nastya forgot she was supposed to be annoyed about anything.

Dravenna, standing with considerably more self-control than most women in the room, felt her jade eyes travel from Phei’s face down the breadth of his shoulders and his middle part before she caught herself and returned them upward. The realization that Soraya was probably about to say something indecent arrived almost simultaneously with the realization that Dravenna herself would have very little moral ground to criticize her for it.

Soraya simply possessed less interest in pretending:

"You’re so freaking hot!" she blurted, speaking every woman’s mind.