Lanqi's Compromise on Forms of Address

The clock in the silver palace ticked away as the three people and one cat chatted for quite a while. Lanqi was still trying to reason with Iphatia. "But Iphatia, Duke Mikhail is my elder. If you call me 'brother,' wouldn't that demote his generational seniority too?" There was nothing pressing tonight, so neither Lanqi nor Talia was in any hurry to leave. "His seniority would be lower than yours anyway, as long as you marry my sister." Iphatia pointed at her sister and spoke with utter matter-of-factness. "Let's set aside that premise for a moment. What should our seniority be right now?" Lanqi thought to himself that the demons' overbearing logic was fundamentally flawed—who begins with the conclusion and only then brings up hypotheses? "Uh, you're still brother," Iphatia answered. "Why?" Lanqi's eyes widened. "Because my sister's boyfriend should also be called brother," Iphatia answered in all seriousness. Lanqi clutched his head. "Give it up, Lanqi. Back in the day, the Demon King hired plenty of demon tutors for Iphatia, and in the end, she drove every single one of them crazy." Talia knew her younger sister was far from stupid; she was simply too clever, and no one could easily alter her way of thinking. Perhaps master educator Lanqi, who had once served as headmaster of Purgatory Corridors Academy, might have stood a chance of convincing Iphatia, but doing so in a short time was rather difficult. "Iphatia, what should we do about your injuries?" Standing behind Iphatia with both hands resting on her shoulders, Talia asked her sister. What she cared about most, first and last, was her sister's physical condition. Just thinking about how her sister had to endure relentless burning twenty-four hours a day made her want to move in beside her and care for Iphatia every day. Yet she also carried the heavy responsibility of aiding Lanqi; she could not leave Lanqi, her contractor. "Ancient texts record that only by obtaining the supreme, ultimate wolf blood can its pure, violent vitality neutralize the poison of the Blood King Divine Fire." Turning her head, Iphatia took hold of Talia's hands, seeing the deep concern in her sister's eyes. Otherwise, in her current state, the moment she left the spatial barrier and exerted even a trace of mana, the Blood Clan would quickly pinpoint her location in Brierda. "Don't worry about me, Sister. If I want to sleep, I can still fall asleep. It doesn't affect my rest," she spoke to Talia with an easy smile. Her sister had truly changed a great deal over the years. Even if some fundamental things remained the same, it was clear that Talia had softened tremendously, having sprouted emotions just like a human's. "Is that so...? You really are incredible..." Talia had almost forgotten her sister's knack for falling asleep in a single second. Had it been virtually any other expert, they would likely have been tormented by this Blood King Divine Fire to the point of sleepless nights, yet Iphatia was unaffected. This was also inseparable from her sister's innate fortitude. "You're incredible too, Tata." Looking at them from across the table, Lanqi told Talia not to sell herself short. In truth, he greatly envied the sisters' constitutions—one could sleep no matter the circumstance, and the other could eat no matter the quantity. Compared to the toxic fire of the Blood Clan, the demon royal genetics were indeed more formidable. "Then why don't you mention Hyperion? She's a demon princess too, isn't she?" Talia retorted with a touch of indignation, thinking Lanqi was applying a double standard. "Compared to you two, Hyperion feels far too much like an ordinary girl." Lanqi had always respected Hyperion the most. "That's only because you don't know...!" Talia started to speak, then stopped. Hyperion could be said to have inherited the exact reverse of Iphatia; the only thing she had in common with Iphatia was that once sound asleep, nothing could wake her. Only Talia knew that Hyperion lacked Iphatia's restful sleeping trait entirely. Her sleep quality was nowhere near as good as Iphatia's; moreover, once fast asleep, Hyperion was prone to talking in her sleep, had terrible sleeping posture, and would sometimes nuzzle and suckle on Talia in the dead of night, startling Talia awake multiple times. "..." This time, it was Lanqi's turn to be struck speechless. He had accidentally heard it all in his mind. "Aah! Forget it right this instant!" Talia immediately dropped Iphatia's hands, blushing furiously as she hooked her arm around Lanqi's neck once again, intending to help him achieve physical amnesia—supposedly, choking someone to near-suffocation could make them lose a snippet of memory! "I didn't hear anything! I swear I don't know this secret!" Lanqi struggled desperately, issuing a solemn declaration, but couldn't break free at all. "What are they talking about?" Listening to Lanqi and Talia's conversation, Iphatia felt it was constantly fragmented. It was as though she were missing half the dialogue, completely unable to fathom why her sister's emotions kept swinging up and down. "They have a private chat channel, meow. You can't hear it." Boss Cat shook his head. He had protested against Lanqi and Tata's exclusive channel several times, but to no avail. "What do you mean?" Not quite understanding, Iphatia poked the black loaf of bread. "Can you sense that their souls are connected? It's like your sister has become Lanqi's summoned creature. In truth, they're currently in a state similar to having formed a life-bound contract. They can communicate telepathically at any moment, and neither can hide their inner thoughts from the other," Boss Cat explained. "Good heavens, then doesn't that mean they live together every single day?" Iphatia took the little black cat's paws in hers and asked, swaying them back and forth. "Yes, meow. We live in a two-story villa at Saint Creti Monastery. But so far, the most they've ever done is hold hands—no further progress than that, meow," Boss Cat reported to Iphatia. "..." Across the table, both of them froze at the same time and looked toward Boss Cat. For one, Boss Cat gossiping right in front of their faces was a bit much—the excited sparkle in Iphatia's eyes as she stared at them was impossible to conceal. And secondly... how did Boss Cat know they had held hands? Logically speaking, Boss Cat shouldn't have been there that day they had dinner in the City of Flowers, Palieu. What happened that day was definitely not something anyone else could know, or the two of them would truly die of embarrassment together. Just as both of them were wracking their brains— "Meow, meow, Iphatia, you said the supreme, ultimate wolf blood can cure the burns of the Blood King Divine Fire. Does 'wolf' refer to the blood of the ancient Wolf Clan?" Sensing an impending chill, Boss Cat's survival instincts kicked in, multiplying his IQ several times over as he steered the conversation straight back to the main topic. "Yes. That's what was written on the ancient Moon Temple stone tablet Barton's friend found for me. Furthermore, it must be from a Wolf Clan member at least at the peak of the eighth tier; otherwise, its vitality likely wouldn't affect me, let alone neutralize the Blood King Divine Fire that poses a threat to a peak eighth-tier expert," Iphatia replied. The ruins of the Moon Temple—the present-day Saint Creti Monastery—held many treasures preserved from ultra-ancient times. The library was one part of it, though for security and preservation purposes, only a select few possessed authorization to consult it. Even for those permitted to browse, finishing all the ancient tomes in Saint Creti Monastery was a near-impossible feat. "The Wolf Clan? Where are we supposed to find someone of that race?" Talia asked quickly. Compared to her own affairs, her mind immediately pivoted right back to her sister. She had heard of this race in Lanqi and Hyperion's second Shadow World, the Banquet of Sanctuary Villains, where Lanqi had found books on witches and werewolves in the library of Lichtenstein Castle to unravel the mystery. Correspondingly, however, the Wolf Clan had long since gone extinct, leaving neither clan nor homeland behind. Those remaining were largely just a few humans carrying traces of Wolf Clan blood who exhibited atavism, and they scarcely even knew they were of the Wolf Clan themselves. Merely trying to locate someone with such rare atavistic Wolf Clan blood was difficult enough, let alone an ultra-high-tier Wolf Clan member. "Uh, Boss Cat and I actually know a very strong Wolf Clan member, but unfortunately, she's not here." Lanqi glanced at Boss Cat. "Is she far away?" Talia gripped Lanqi's shoulders and stared intently at him. Her heart raced furiously. She hadn't expected Lanqi to have whatever was needed at his fingertips, immediately providing a lead on the antidote for her sister. "She's in the Northern Continent, so don't even think about it, meow. We won't find her anytime soon. Even if we set off northward right this second, we'd be lucky to reach her in two months. We can only resolve the Creti Empire's Blood Clan problem first, then take Iphatia north to find her, meow." Boss Cat sighed. In truth, he missed Side too, but Sigrid was separated from them by such a vast distance that seeing her anytime soon was virtually impossible. "Doesn't that turn into an endless loop...?" Talia's gaze went vacant as her arms fell limp. They needed to cure Iphatia of the Blood King Divine Fire first so this powerful eighth-tier hero unit could join the team, bolstering their fighting strength against the Blood Clan and ultimately launching an assault on Blood Moon City. Yet they had to conquer Blood Moon City and settle the Creti Empire's crisis first before they could seek out that Wolf Clan member in the Northern Continent. "Or, if we can get our hands on Violet's blood, that would work too," Iphatia added. She had looked into this long ago. Her situation was not a dead end. What truly surprised Iphatia was Lanqi's claim that there was another qualifying Wolf Clan member besides Violet. "The High Priestesses of the Moon Temple have always been individuals with faint Wolf Clan blood. Under the blessing of the Moon God, their ancestral bloodline gradually revives over time. Violet is already practically a Wolf Clan member." Iphatia relayed the intelligence Barton had gathered for the two of them. "So that's how it is...?" Lanqi rested his chin on one hand, deep in thought. "Did you reach any conclusion?" Talia swallowed nervously, wondering what major discovery Lanqi had made this time. Judging by his solemn, contemplative expression, he might have uncovered some extraordinary secret. "I've realized that physical-type wolf warriors tend to have lighter hair, while magic-type wolf sages tend to have darker hair," Lanqi looked at her and answered. "Who asked you to draw generalizations!" Talia smacked him upside the head to knock some sense into him. "Regardless, the Sixth War God's blood won't be easy to obtain," Iphatia said, hurriedly raising a hand to intervene and keep her sister from bullying Lanqi. They could not forget Saint Creti Monastery's headmaster Violet's other identity: she was also the empire's Sixth War God, bestowed with the Aquamarine Seat. Setting aside whether there was any bargaining chip that could convince Violet to part with some of her blood, simply raising such a request could arouse Violet's suspicions toward Landry. Furthermore, they couldn't rule out the possibility that Violet was controlled by the Blood Clan. If she was currently aligned with the Blood Clan, telling Violet they wanted her blood would allow her to instantly deduce whom Professor Landry was asking for, and trace the thread right back to Iphatia's hiding place. It was precisely for this reason that even though Barton had connections within Saint Creti Monastery, he had never attempted to obtain Violet's blood through an intermediary—not unless someone truly trustworthy came along. "It's not entirely out of the question. If I use the pretext of needing to refine the Philosopher's Stone to ask Violet for a bit of blood for experimentation, that would qualify as a relatively reasonable excuse. Of course, whether she agrees is another matter entirely..." Lanqi mused aloud. "Indeed. She isn't very familiar with you right now, so she'll most likely refuse, meow," Boss Cat agreed. This was an easy concept to grasp. Just like back when Lanqi first arrived in the Northern Continent and met Sigrid: had he bluntly asked Sigrid for her blood right off the bat, Sigrid would probably have been disgusted and flatly refused. But if Lanqi had made that request later on, as they grew closer, she likely would have proposed conditions, willing to trade as long as Lanqi fulfilled them. And by the end of their journey, Sigrid would surely have helped Lanqi outright without asking questions. Such was the difference that favorability made. Although Sigrid's self-professed favorability rating was always inaccurate and she was constantly making empty promises to Lanqi, the reality was that Lanqi had never once taken the initiative to ask anything of Sigrid. Had he actually done so, he would undoubtedly have felt a marked difference. "Once Violet returns, I'll first find out if there's anything she wants. Even if I'm not that close with her, as long as the bargaining chip offered is big enough, there's a very high probability she'll agree," Lanqi decided, looking at Iphatia. At present, Violet was away from Brierda and wouldn't return for another two days. It was precisely because of her absence that Elsa had been attacked. Lanqi could not help suspecting that the Blood Clan had orchestrated the illusion of ultra-ancient divine beast Bone King fragments appearing within the empire, thereby luring Violet away on a trip to Lake Starbergern near Botswana Province. If this hypothesis held true, the likelihood of Violet being an agent controlled by the Blood Clan dropped significantly. "Brother, don't take any risks. Your safety is what matters most," Iphatia nodded repeatedly, speaking with immense gratitude. "...Rest assured." Lanqi had instinctively wanted to express his discomfort with how Iphatia addressed him, but upon seeing her innocent, expectant eyes, he ultimately couldn't bring himself to repeatedly shoot her down. [Do what is important before it becomes urgent.] —That was Lanqi's principle of time management, and the motto of Purgatory Corridors Academy. Right now, the only things truly on the verge of becoming urgent were the immediate missions before him: finding allies, amassing combat strength, curing Iphatia, and bringing her out of the subterranean palace. In any case, he wouldn't be seeing Hyperion anytime soon. No matter how Iphatia interacted with him, Hyperion wouldn't discover it. Even if Hyperion did see Iphatia, she might not necessarily recognize that this "younger sister" beside Lanqi was actually her own mother. Once he wrapped up everything in the Creti Empire, he would have a proper talk with Iphatia about generational seniority before taking her back to the Hutton Kingdom.