Chapter 188: Dryad's Problem
As he followed behind Janette and Lillea, Zhang Fei continued to sigh as he watched the surrounding area of the city. From the remaining buildings that were still standing, he could see that the forest city was actually beautiful, but half of it had been destroyed, and there were so many Dryads who had been injured and died by enemy attacks.
Even so, none of them had the desire to leave the forest city, mainly because they had lived in that place since long ago, from the time of their ancestors, and the forests spread across the Diyu Realm were not suitable for them as Dryads.
"When was the last time they attacked this town, Mother?" "When was the last time they attacked this town, Mother?" Janette sadly asked, and her eyes filled with sorrow as she watched her hometown crumble.
Lillea sighed heavily at her daughter's question. "Three days ago, and they might attack us again in the next few days, so we have to start preparing now to face their wave of attacks."
Janette turned back and looked at Zhang Fei, who immediately nodded at her, so she stopped walking and grabbed Lillea's shoulders. "Mother, I have repeatedly asked you about the root of our problems, but you were never willing to tell me the truth. However, I am much more mature now, so I hope you can tell me the truth."
"She's right." Zhang Fei joined the conversation. "You may think that I'm still weak, but I can assure you that I have the ability to help you. However, I can't do anything until I know the real problem, which makes some rulers target you, so I hope you can tell us about it, and I will think of a solution to stop them."
Even though she didn't know for sure about Zhang Fei's strength and abilities, Lillea could see his confidence, so she immediately nodded and led them away to her private quarters. When they arrived there, he immediately told them the truth. "They want you, my daughter."
Janette and Zhang Fei looked at Lillea with raised eyebrows. "What really happened? Why do they want to get me?"
"You are no ordinary Dryad, and you are more special than me." Lillea then took a deep breath before revealing it. "Back then, I accidentally found one of the ten demon lord seeds, and I used it to give birth to you. That's why some of them want to capture you, and some of them want to kill you, especially since your existence threatens their ambition to become the supreme ruler of this realm."
After she heard that, Janette looked at Lillea in a daze. As a native of the Diyu Realm, she naturally knew about the ten demon lord seeds, but she never expected that her mother would find one of them, and she was even born because of both. "Is that true, Mother?"
"Yes." Lillea then touched Janette's body and muttered their native language, causing her body to radiate a black aura, which was attributed to the demon lord seed within her. "I purposely sealed it with my power so that people wouldn't know about it, but I never expected that a member of our race would sell you out, which has been the source of our race's suffering for the past few years."
Janette's face darkened after hearing that. "Who did that? You always treat them all well and fairly, so no one should betray us."
"Do you remember Rose?" Janette nodded to Lillea. "She was the one who leaked it to them, and now she's the twin Amaris' right-hand man."
Janette clenched her fists tightly; she really didn't expect that one of the people she trusted would betray them, and her actions made their people suffer.
"Amaris?"
Lillea turned to Zhang Fei. "Amaris are twin girls who represent Gemini; we call them the white Amaris and the black Amaris."
"I see." Zhang Fei nodded in understanding and patted Janette's shoulder. "As I said before, you can take revenge, but don't let hatred and vengeance blind your eyes and heart. Moreover, you are not alone, and you have me now; I will definitely help you solve your problems."
"En, thank you, Fei." Janette gratefully replied.
Lillea looked at Zhang Fei in surprise, then at Janette, before muttering in her heart. 'It seems that my daughter has a special relationship with this human.'
'Scan Lillea, Mei.'
[Alrighty!]
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Name: Lillea
Age: 1500+ Years Old
Gender: Female
Race: Dryad
Rank: Marchioness
Element: Wood
Physique: Tree Demon
Abilities: Plant Manipulation, Plant Mimicry, Plant Aura, Plant Domain, Heavenly Charm, Life Absorption, Shapeshifting, Curse Inducement
Strong: Wood
Weak: Metal, Fire
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'Hmm? She's got so many abilities?' Zhang Fei was quite surprised to see Lillea's status. Furthermore, she didn't have the darkness element, but she did have the curse inducement.
[Hehe, her plant manipulation and plant domain are amazing, Master.] Mei replied with a soft laugh.
Zhang Fei raised his eyebrows. 'What are the functions of those two abilities, Mei?'
[Plant manipulation: Users can create, shape, move, control, interact with, and manipulate plants. The user has the ability to cause plants to grow faster, duplicate, move, attack, or even rise from the soil and walk; mutate plants by rearranging DNA structure; and revive withered or dead plants.]
[Plant domain: an area in which the user has absolute power, through magical, supernatural, scientific, or other means, which may be a physical area or an entire dimension. Some users may have omnipotence within their domains.]
'Hmm? Plant manipulation is more useful, right? Janette's tree control was only used to control plants from their location, and it also accelerated plant growth.
However, Lillea's ability was more complex than hers, and it was much more useful for alchemy, especially since it could duplicate and mutate plants.' Zhang Fei was more interested in that ability because there was a domain ability in the system shop, but he still needed a lot of resources to buy it.
[Yes, it will be useful if you are an alchemist, Master.] Mei then asked in a teasing tone. [Does that mean you're going to seduce Lillea, Master?]
'Why not? However, I won't do that right now, and the most important thing is that I want to explore the sub-realms of those rulers.' Zhang Fei then asked Lillea. "Actually, aside from the twin Amaris, which rulers attacked you?"
"Tauri the Taurus, Leon the Leo, and Avros the Sagittarius."
Zhang Fei nodded thoughtfully. "In that case, I'm thinking of going to the twins' sub-realm first."
"Eh!?" Both women were shocked by Zhang Fei's decision, and Janette then took her hand. "You should not go there, Fei. The twin Amaris are powerful, and their rank is Duchess. Furthermore, they possess an abundance of unusual abilities, especially illusion."
"I know." Zhang Fei then patted Janette's head. "I came here not only to help you solve your problem but also to train to increase my strength, remember? That's why I decided to go to the sub-realm of one of the rulers, and I'm sure that I will find many strong opponents there, so I can progress faster."
"But, Fei, you-"
"Don't worry too much, okay?" Zhang Fei interrupted Janette as she pressed his index finger to her lips. "The twin Amaris are women, right? After all, I am an incubus, and my abilities definitely have a strong effect on them. Besides, I am a cultivator with the light element, and I still have my beast abilities, so I'm fully confident that I won't have any problems going there."
Seeing that Janette was still hesitating, Zhang Fei decided to summon Boitata out of his beast space, making her frown and scold directly. "Ugh! Master! Why did you summon me to a place like this? This place is filled with demon scents and auras, and I'm really uncomfortable staying here."
"Who is she, Zhang Fei?" As she looked at Boitata, Lillea asked. "I feel that she is much stronger than me, and she might not be any less powerful than the twin Amaris."
"Her name is Boitata, and she is my beast contract." Zhang Fei's answer really surprised Lillea, especially since his beast contract strength was higher than his. "Honestly, I don't know for sure about the strength of the duchess rank demons, but I think her strength is equal to or higher than the twins, so she can protect me when I go to their sub-realm."
Lillea nodded in agreement with that. "Unfortunately, you can't go to their sub-realm today, and you have to wait some time to go there."
"Oh? Why is that?" Zhang Fei asked with a raised eyebrow, particularly because he couldn't stay in the Diyu Realm for too long due to the time flow being the same as Earth's, and time in the Sky Jade Realm would pass too quickly if he stayed here for too long.
[Don't you have Mei Xiang and Qiao Ran in the portable mansion, Master? For the time being, you could increase your cultivation by dual-cultivating with them, and their Yin Qi was strong enough to help you, even though it wasn't as strong as Zhang Lingxue's or the Liu Sisters'.]
'Well, I've thought about that, Mei. However, they will miss me if they don't see me for too long, especially the spoiled Qing'er.'
Lillea then told Zhang Fei. "The portal to their realm only opens once a week, and it last opened five days ago, so you still have to wait two days to go there."
"Two more days, huh?" Zhang Fei muttered with a soft sigh. 'In that case, I have to immediately complete my new daily quest and dual cultivate with Janette, so I can upgrade my demon body double to level two, and I will leave my second clone here.'
[That's a great idea, Master. That way, you don't have to stay here too long, and you can go to the Sky Jade Realm again.]
'Yeah.' Zhang Fei then spoke to the two women. "Since I can't go there right now, I'll look for demon beasts not far from here and train by fighting them."
"I'll accompany you, Fei."
"No need." Zhang Fei immediately rejected Janette's wishes. "You haven't seen your mother and the rest of your race for two years, so you can stay here and reunite with them, and I'll be back before you know it."
Without waiting any longer, Zhang Fei immediately opened the map to find the location of the demon beasts gathering, and he left the forest city using his teleportation after sending Boitata into his beast space.
After he left, Lillea immediately asked her daughter. "Are you in a serious relationship with him?"
"Eh?" Her question momentarily took Janette aback, but she nodded immediately. "Honestly, Mother, I already had sex with him once. However, you don't need to ask whether we love each other or not, especially since the answer is no. I decided to sleep with him because I needed strength, and I also believe that he can help me change the fate of our race.
Otherwise, the rulers will continue to oppress us, causing our race to decline and ultimately become extinct."
Hearing that, Lillea released a heavy sigh and hugged Janette. "I'm sorry, this is all my fault; I trusted Rose too much, but she decided to betray us, leaving our race in a precarious situation now."
"It's all right; you don't need to blame yourself, Mother. I took this decision of my own accord, and I will never regret it." Janette expressed this as she briefly hugged Lillea before releasing her. "Let's go. I haven't seen the others for a long time, so I want to meet them now."
"All right."
.
.
.
Meanwhile, Zhang Fei had arrived in another forest area in his incubus form, and he sat on a large tree branch while observing the collection of demon beasts below him, which consisted of various races. He then took out the Demon Extermination Sword and seriously observed it. "What should I do with this sword, Mei?"
[This sword is a soul weapon, Master. So all you need to do is drip your blood onto it, and it will instantly recognize you as its master.]
Zhang Fei nodded in understanding, bit his finger with his fangs, and dripped his blood onto the Demon Extermination Sword. Soon, the sword glowed black and flew into the air, but it shot straight towards him before entering his body through his forehead, leaving a black sword tattoo on his forehead.
Zhang Fei felt strange about that, so he rubbed the tattoo on his forehead and summoned his sword again. In the blink of an eye, the tattoo flashed, and the sword had reappeared in his hand. "This is really convenient, and I can summon it whenever I want."
[The Demon Extermination Sword has been fused with you, but you have to be careful when using it. A soul weapon is not a random weapon; many greedy people will try to snatch it from you if they find out about it.]
"I know." Zhang Fei nodded in understanding. "Anyway, what kind of new feature do I get after the system upgrade?"
- To Be Continued -
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My other novels
1. Cultivator With Modern AI
2. Primordial 'Dual Cultivator' Dragon With System
3. Otherworldly-Cultivator
4. Tang Xiao: The Birth Of The Multiverse
If you guys haven't read all four, maybe you can take a peek at them, who knows you might like them.
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