Chapter 495 - 493: A Daughter’s Preferences Take After Her Father

Chapter 495: Chapter 493: A Daughter’s Preferences Take After Her Father

Victor’s gaze fell back to his shoulder, where the scorpion’s tail was still twitching.

He stiffly raised a hand and pressed it against his cheek, forcing his head to turn away. He didn’t dare look. He really didn’t.

’Hold on.’

’I can’t knock it off. This is a gift from the Princess. I have to take care of it, even if it kills me.’

Standing beside Javier Sinclair, Celeste Grant glanced at Victor and Yvonne, then broke into a smile. ’So Yvonne’s husband is afraid of scorpions. A great cultivator, scared of something like this?’

Victor Rhodes edged closer to Yvonne Sawyer. He reached out, tugged lightly on her sleeve, and whispered, "Yvie... get it off me."

"Aren’t you embarrassed?" Yvonne shot him a look. "It’s just a scorpion."

Victor Rhodes was speechless.

’But I’m scared,’ he thought.

’It’s a scorpion! So terrifying.’

Yvonne said irritably, "I’ll have to cure you of this someday, you coward." As she spoke, she reached out and plucked the scorpion from his shoulder. The creature was clearly intelligent; it didn’t resist or try to sting her when it was in her hand. Instead, it let her hold it docilely.

As she held the scorpion up to her eyes, she noticed a mark on its abdomen. "There’s a pattern on its belly... huh, it looks like a serial number." Since Yvonne and the others had been with Celeste Grant in the Lower Realm, they were familiar with this kind of numbering.

Hearing this, Celeste Grant could only offer a wry smile.

She spoke up, "You can drop the ’looks like.’ It *is* a serial number." Her eyes glanced at the scorpion’s abdomen. "This one is number 10001. Your Venompetal Spider is number 888. That’s a lucky number, you know. Haha, Elise must really like you."

Celeste Grant was telling the truth. Otherwise, Elise wouldn’t have given Yvonne her favorite pet, Poppy.

"The number 888 really is lucky. Thank you, sweetie. I’ll be sure to take good care of her." As Demon Cultivators, they wouldn’t have any trouble keeping these creatures alive. They were used to handling such things.

Yvonne held Poppy in one hand and the scorpion in the other.

Her gaze swept over the serial numbers on the Venompetal Spider and the scorpion.

Judging from the numbers alone, Yvonne could already imagine just how many "good things" their little princess was raising. It wasn’t just a few; it was a teeming multitude.

At this thought, she remarked, "It seems our princess is raising quite a few scorpions and spiders."

"Mm-hm, quite a lot."

Celeste Grant threw up her hands in mock despair.

As the girl’s own mother, she said with a sigh, "That’s nothing. There’s a number 30005, too! I think it’s a mutated, blood-red centipede. She’s raised it to be all sleek and shiny, and whenever she’s bored, she takes it out to pet it."

That particular centipede had left a deep impression on her.

「Three months ago.」

Celeste Grant had decided to cook for the father-daughter duo herself, showing off her skills. The three of them were sitting down for a meal together.

They were in the middle of a pleasant meal when her daughter pulled the centipede from her robes and placed it on the table. Beaming, she introduced it as her little pet, number 30005.

Her daughter picked up the chopstick-length centipede and casually wrapped it around her wrist. While heartily eating her food, she couldn’t help but praise how beautiful and smart her centipede was. Seeing her daughter’s practiced ease, Celeste’s hands had trembled, and she suddenly lost her appetite.

While she wasn’t afraid of such creatures, seeing so many of the venomous things all at once always gave her pause. More than that, it made her skin crawl.

Her beautiful, adorable daughter had gone down the path of raising these creatures and was never coming back.

Even Celeste couldn’t help but want to laugh.

From the moment she was born, her daughter’s tastes seemed to have been inherited from her father. She had an unusual appreciation for things others found strange or terrifying: skulls, skeletons, and all manner of venomous bugs and Demonic Beasts.

Every time it happened, she would shoot the girl’s father a complicated look, wanting nothing more than to walk over and kick him a few times.

As for the girl’s father, he would look sheepish but still manage to say, "There’s nothing wrong with it. A girl needs to know how to protect herself when she’s out in the world. With our daughter like this, who would dare mess with her?" After all, a girl who dared to keep venomous creatures as pets at such a young age would surely be a force to be reckoned with when she grew up. Thinking it over, Javier Sinclair saw nothing wrong with it at all. In fact, he was quite proud. He thought his daughter had excellent judgment—her tastes were just like his.

Whenever you saw his daughter casually reach into her robes, you never knew what she was going to pull out next.

Celeste Grant had gone from wide-eyed shock to numb resignation. Now, she was so used to it that nothing surprised her anymore.

As if on cue, her daughter giggled and pulled the blood-red centipede from her robes. "Aunt Yvie, this is the one Mommy was talking about. See? Isn’t it pretty? This is number 30005."

The blood-red centipede writhed in her hands.

"Yes, it’s very pretty. You’re amazing, Princess."

Their Exalted One had raised a green centipede back in the Lower Realm. That centipede was Sprout, who was still in the Lower Realm cultivating. Based on Sprout’s progress, it would likely ascend to the Upper Realm in less than two hundred years.

"But enough about that for now," Celeste said. "Yvonne, you two just arrived in the Upper Realm. You should go see your mother and uncle."

Hearing her mother and uncle mentioned, Yvonne nodded eagerly.

Victor Rhodes waved his hand happily.

"Yvie, let’s go now! We can give them a surprise. Mom and Uncle will be thrilled to see us."

They had originally thought that at their rate of cultivation, it would take three to five hundred years before they could be reunited with their family. They never expected to arrive in the Upper Realm after only half a year.

Yvonne was also eager to see her uncle and mother. With a slight nod, she said, "Then we’ll be in your debt, Madam. We’ll go see Mom and Uncle now."

Celeste Grant nodded gently.

Javier Sinclair raised a hand and gestured.

"Guards."

The words had barely left his lips when a disciple of the Demonic Domain, clad in black, appeared before them in the blink of an eye. The disciple immediately dropped to one knee, bowing their head with a solemn expression.

"This subordinate greets The Exalted One, the Madam, and the Young Venerable."

"What are your orders, Exalted One?"

Javier Sinclair said, "Take them to Elder Sawyer’s peak."

The Demonic Domain disciple rose to their feet.

"As you command."

Yvonne looked toward Celeste Grant and the others, then bowed.

"Exalted One, Madam, this subordinate takes her leave."

Celeste Grant waved her hand. "Go on, go on! We’ll have hot pot tonight for a proper get-together."

"Yes, Madam."

The Demonic Domain was Javier Sinclair’s territory.

With both Javier Sinclair and Celeste Grant here, Yvonne and Victor didn’t feel out of place at all upon their arrival.