Seph’s cheeks reddened. If it wasn’t for his deathly disposition, it would have been obvious, and it was all because Lilith didn’t take her palm off his after two full minutes.

  So, he took his off instead and rubbed the back of his head, forgetting the blood on his palm which soiled his hair. He looked at his hand awkwardly and then at her, before he asked her, “So, what’s the name of your friend? He looks like he wants to eat me.” Seph was referring to the bone dragon on her shoulders that was staring daggers at him, while exuding smoke through the slightly open sides of its mouth.

  “She! She is a female dragon, her name is Baby. Don’t misgender her again.” Lilith gave him a challenging stare.

  “Forget about misgendering, you named her Baby? She is a dragon, for fuck's sake!” Seph said, holding back a laugh.

  The dragon growled at him, and he tried to keep a straight face.

  “What about you? You called your monkey Sun after the great Sun Wukong, awfully ambitious of you, isn’t it?” Lilith said with an impish grin.

  Sun screeched at her, but the dragon roared at him. It was still a cute roar as her roar hadn’t developed, but Sun hid behind Seph’s head, regardless.

  “Okay guys, chill, we are just joking!” Seph said, trying to pacify their pet friends before he said, “Welcome back to the world of the living Lilith.”

  “Thank you.”

  Seph said. “If you would like to say goodbye to your father, his soul sliver is outside of the portal that got me here. If you would like to look at the real him one last time. He is sealed right behind us, but he must be unrecognizable to you, since you saw him last when he hadn’t been sealed for centuries.”

  Lilith looked at the frail person inside the prison seal, and her heart ached upon seeing her father like this. He wasn’t conscious. He hadn’t been for a long time.

  She thought if her seal became weaker, maybe his became weaker too, and she attacked the runed chains that were still intact after all this time, not falling apart like everything else in this temple.

  The dragon scale armor on her body moved towards her hand, like it was a living snake, and became a whip made of dragon scales.

  The scales left on her body weren’t enough to cover all of it now. She had on what looked like a small crop top and shorts made of dragon scales.

  Seph thought, that can’t possibly be enough protection during a fight.

  The whip shot with incredible speed towards the chains, and once it hit them, it got repelled strongly by an invisible power.

  The whip shot back and hit Lilith in the chest, and made her body fly back. Seph jumped in the air and caught her.

  She wasn’t heavy, so he could land safely before he said, “That was very dangerous. I don’t blame you for trying. Your father’s seal is way stronger than yours. Or he wouldn’t have warned me against saving him,” Seph told her.

  “I can’t leave him strung up here like this,” Lilith said. Her voice was strained by her seething anger, and by the flood of tears she was holding back.

  “I understand. Maybe we can find our way back here one day and save him.”

  She snapped at him, “You understand nothing.”

  “I am sorry.” Seph wasn’t sure what to do to calm her down.

  “BABY ATTACK.” Her dragon answered the order and opened her mouth and shot a ball of blue fire towards the chains.

  The fireball was repelled and shot back towards the dragon faster than Seph could stop it. The dragon got hit hard and her body flew back and hit the walls of the temple, making bits of stone drop from the walls onto her body.

  Lilith ran towards her and said, “Baby, I am so sorry!” The dragon moaned in pain in her arms.

  Lilith said, “I am sorry. I let my emotions get the best of me. It won’t happen again.”

  The dragon nudged her in the stomach with her bony nose, trying to stop her from worrying.

  “It’s better we don’t attack the seal anymore. I promise you, if we are ever strong enough. We will try to find this place again and save your father.”

  Lilith gave him a skeptical look before she nodded weakly.

  She was her old self after waking up, but seeing her father strung up from the chains, with swords sticking out of his body. Sent her back to all those years ago, when her life came crashing down around her.

  “Thank you. Just let’s get out of here. I can’t stand being here and feeling all this powerlessness.”

  The duo got up and went back through the portal, with Lilith stopping one last time to look at her father.

  ***

  “Hello Lilith. I am so glad to see you, even though it might be for the last time. I have very little time left after opening this portal.” That was the first thing they heard once they stepped through the portal.

  Lilith stared longingly at the soul sliver of her father, which was a younger version of himself. It had been ages since she saw him in all his glory. Her role model. Her everything in that distant past life. Even though she didn’t feel all that time pass. She still missed him so much.

  “Father, I am so glad to see you again. I am very sorry for what they have done to you. I wish I could go back and change it all,” she said sadly.

  “I know, darling, and I am sorry too that I brought you into a world ripped with a war that, while I didn’t start. I take full responsibility for keeping its flames burning. I had to avenge Amoria. It was the core of my existence. Sometimes life just throws us into inescapable paths that we have to take. Paths that will end tragically, and even if we see it all coming. We end up having so much momentum that it’s impossible to stop,” Scorn sighed before saying, “I am not sure what my older self would have wanted you to do, but I had a long time to think this through, and I want you to be happy. I don’t want you to avenge me, but I also want you to be safe. If anyone comes after you, end them. Try to grow stronger, but in the safest way possible. I am not sure if you would like to, but stick with Seph. He has a bright future ahead of him. Together, you could protect each other, but be careful of the Yin cultivator sect that sent you here. We don’t know what they would decide if they learned that any of my four former officers were still alive and had his own powerful kingdom where they can be safe from the prejudice of the human cultivators.”

  Lilith smiled faintly and told him, “Don’t worry, father. We will figure it out. We need to save his mother first, though. He wasted a lot of time with the detour he took to save me.”

  Scorn had a guilty look on his face and said. “I know. I knew that sending him out was going to deprive him of the advantage of the compressed time here, but I didn’t tell him anything. It was selfish of me, and for that I am sorry, Seph.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Seph was annoyed that Scorn did that intentionally, but he felt he had no choice but to forgive. “It’s okay. Lilith didn’t take long to accept coming back with me. I’ll be able to reach my mother in time.” Even though Seph said that he couldn’t help looking at Scorn angrily. He knew that even as a soul, Scorn was probably stronger than him, but he intentionally put his mother in danger.

  “To show my remorse, I’ll give you this potion of longevity. It will not only cure her, but it will also increase her life span by ten extra years. You just need to make her drink it and all will be okay.” Scorn conjured the potion as if from thin air and offered it to Seph.

  Seph’s expression mellowed instantly, and he took the potion, and said, “Thank you. Thank you so much. I am very grateful for this gift.”

  Seph used the eye of the appraiser on the potion.

  Good. This proves mortals can use it. This potion is probably worth hundreds of thousands of gold coins, for some of the most powerful individuals in the world to live ten extra years and be cured of all ailments. That’s priceless, Seph thought.

  “Hate to cut your train of thought, but it’s time for you to get your prize,” Scorn extended his hand in front of him, his palm facing upward, and on top of it appeared a bronze unfolded scroll that was shining with incredible light. It lit up the entire room.

  Seph looked at it impressed, This is an impressive advantage for my cultivation. It’s shiny! Of course it’s good. Seph thought, then he caught himself. Must be impressive because it’s shiny? What are you, twelve? Seph chuckled to himself after this train of thought. Scorn and Lilith looked at him with raised eyebrows and she said, “Are you sure he is right in the head?”

  Scorn answered, “Now that you ask me that, I am not sure anymore.”

  Sun shook his head in disappointment, like he gave up on Seph.

  Seph looked at them indignantly. “All of you wound my heart! How come you all gang up on me without even communicating beforehand? Are you psychic or something?”

  Lilith laughed heartily. Her laugh brightened up the world, Scorn’s world for sure, as he looked ecstatic to see her happy. Seph’s world, though? He loved her laugh, and instinctively when you love how someone laughs you look forward to making them laugh more, because it will make both of you happy.

  “Now that you say that, I am psychic, but I promise I didn’t set this up,” Scorn said innocently.

  Seph looked at him incredulously, “How much of a monster were you exactly?!”

  Scorn said, “Apparently not enough, since I am dead now and all that.”

  That seemed to have made Lilith sad because she said, “I wish I could hug you one last time.”

  “I know darling, I know. I wish I could do that too, but be strong now. You know how the world of cultivation is. Even if those traitorous assholes aren’t alive, it will still be tough. You do your best to be the strongest badass daughter out there, as you used to be.”

  “Oh, I will be. Your star pupil has got nothing on me. I’ll be the one helping him, not the other way around,” Lilith said with a challenging stare, that she then stopped at Seph.

  “Oh, it’s on, we will see who is the badass between the both of us!” Seph stared her down, and Sun joined him by screeching at her. Baby couldn’t sit this one out and roared at Sun again, who hid behind Seph’s head right after.

  “Damn, grow some backbone buddy, it’s just a dragon.” He thought about the impossible words he just uttered, and thought that just one month ago, if someone even told him dragons were real, he wouldn’t have believed them.

  The world of the fantastical was truly out of reach for the mortals, that they rarely saw any of it in real time, and if by some freak accident someone saw them, they would ridicule him to where he would stop saying what he saw, and eventually even doubt he ever did.

  Seph used the eye of the appraiser on the scroll before he touched it.

  Wow, these advantages are sick! I can’t even bend my mind around this. Only time will tell how good these advantages will be against cultivators who are at the same stage as me.

  Seph didn’t think about it further, and just touched the scroll. His entire body shone with bronze light as the scroll got absorbed into his very soul, and it disappeared from existence.

  Seph then pulled up his status screen to check his new gains.

  “Well, congratulations. With this, the trial is officially complete. You are free to leave, but before you do. I have a suggestion on what you should tell the Yin cultivation sect waiting for your return outside,” Scorn said.

  “Yeah, I have been thinking about that. They put a lot of hope on this trial, and are desperate for a purpose, in a world where they are hunted like abominations, but they are too weak. They can’t take on your officers if they are still alive. Each of the officers must have gotten to the realm after core creation, right after they betrayed you. The elder of the sect is at core creation at most, and there wasn’t anyone else present when I last met them who was even at the peak Death Establishment. If they find out that those officers exist, they will for sure join them. They know for a fact that this trial contains your legacy. I have an idea how we could play around that,” Seph said.

  Scorn had an amused smile on his face and asked, “How?”

  Seph said simply, “We could just tell them that your daughter is your legacy. Which is literally what she is. I will keep your story a secret while I gauge if they would actually take your side, or take the side of safety and join these people. I don’t think they would be betraying you, because their position in the outside world, while not desperate, it’s still pretty bad. So, it would be the safe choice for them.”

  “That was what I had in mind, too. You can tell them just that, but since you and Lilith are the only one privy to this information. I’d suggest you protect each other at all cost, being in a sect doesn’t mean that everyone will be your friend. Be careful who you trust, and who you invite into your circle. Also, if you ever find out that they are still alive, seek the King of Beggars, he might become your ally.”

  “Don’t worry, father, I’ll protect your golden boy,” Lilith said.

  Seph shouted, “Hey!”

  She giggled and walked towards the open portal to the outside, with Baby, her dragon on her shoulder, who had her tail curled around Lilith’s neck.

  “Hey, don’t walk away after saying that!” Seph ran after her, Sun laughing while perched on his shoulder.

  Scorn looked as they left his trial, and thought, “They are leaving the safety of my trials, and are walking into the traitorous world of cultivation. I hope for their sake they survive. I have achieved all my goals, and now it’s time for this old soul to rest.”

  End of Book 1

  Patreon,