After Elara and the others left through the east gate, Haochen returned to the governor's mansion.
He had spent years walking the edge between life and death and had seen every kind of ugliness in people, but lately he had become interested in the things she taught him. He wanted to go back and read the book she had personally written for him.
Since she wouldn't take him to the border, he could only stay quietly in the mansion that still carried her scent. That way, at least the restless feeling in his body would calm down a bit once he left her side.
But just as he reached the governor's mansion and raised his hand to knock on the door, a sharp pain and dizziness suddenly hit his head.
He groaned and held his head for a while, clearly in discomfort. When he opened his eyes again, the youthful clarity in his gaze was gone, replaced by something deeper and more indifferent.
Three days this time... not bad. He was waking up three days earlier than usual.
After slowly absorbing all the memories from the past three days, "Haochen" curved his lips into a faint smile.
Thinking of the result he had discovered during the last time with that woman, he pulled back his hand from the door and turned toward a cold, empty alley nearby.
A few minutes later, a tall man—almost 190 centimeters, slim and graceful with strikingly handsome features—slowly walked out of the alley.
His posture was relaxed and his appearance was breathtaking. He stretched lazily, his joints cracking faintly, like bones that hadn't moved in a long time finally loosening up.
Maybe he was too good-looking. The children on the street kept glancing at him, and when women passed by, they couldn't help but let their eyes linger on him longer.
The man seemed used to and amused by this kind of attention. His thin lips curved as he flirted openly, tossing a few teasing winks at the women and children passing by.
But just as they slowed down, trying to get a better look at him, he was already gone. His figure had vanished.
It was as if it had all been an illusion, like flowers in the mirror or the moon reflected in water.
That stunning, almost inhuman man might have just been a trick of their eyes.
Marigold territory, somewhere outside the northern city
The tall, graceful man looked like he was walking slowly through the forest, but every step he took covered hundreds of meters in the blink of an eye.
If someone happened to be nearby, they would feel only a gust of wind rush past, without catching even a glimpse of the man himself.
Not long after, the man's unhurried figure appeared in front of a secluded residence deep in the woods.
He glanced casually around the area, then slipped into the residence.
"You're here."
An old man who had been waiting inside nodded slightly at him. His eyes, lined with wrinkles, turned sharp as a hawk's the moment he straightened up. His voice was serious and full of reproach.
"You've taken far longer than expected for this mission. You're late. The master is already running out of patience."
As he spoke the last part, his entire demeanor shifted sharply.
Though he had used polite words at the start, now he seemed like a punisher holding a whip, ready to lash out at any moment.
The man let out a low laugh. He seemed completely used to this and paid no attention to the threatening tone. He strolled into the main hall and picked the most comfortable spot to sit before finally glancing at the old man behind him.
The old man's face grew even more stern. "So? Did you bring what the master wanted?"
A dagger had appeared between the man's fingers at some point. He spun it lazily, the tip brushing against his fingertip as he played with it for a long time. Then he finally answered with a drawl, "No. She already absorbed the Phoenix Sigil."
"Useless fool!"
Before his voice even faded, a harsh female shout exploded through the air.
At the same time, the man lounging on the soft couch suddenly let out a muffled grunt. A powerful, invisible force threw him into the air and slammed him hard against the wall.
The stone wall cracked behind him. He clutched his stomach tightly, and the veins under his skin began to squirm visibly, as if his whole body was filled with something alive crawling under his skin.
Even in such a horrifying state, the man still smiled. Cold sweat rolled down from his forehead, but he slowly raised his head and looked at the woman who had suddenly appeared in the main seat.
"If I'd known you were here too, I would've come sooner."
The woman was beautiful, dressed in luxurious robes and exuding a powerful presence. But the way she looked down at him was like she was staring at a filthy insect.
"Can't get the Phoenix Sigil back, but your sharp mouth is still working. Wipe that disgusting smirk off your face and tell me. Is she really the heir of the Phoenix Sigil?"
As soon as she finished speaking, an invisible force lifted the man's face again. The grip was so strong that he could almost hear the sound of his jaw cracking.
Still, there was not a trace of pain on his face. His lazy smile only deepened.
"Maybe..."
The woman's expression turned even darker at his vague answer, her disgust for him plain on her face.
But two seconds later, her expression suddenly changed. A smile spread across her face too, her eyes now filled with dangerous charm that oddly mirrored the man she was looking down on.
Yet this smile sent chills down the spine. Anyone she locked her eyes on would feel like they might be skinned alive the next second and dragged straight to hell.
"Uncle, Whipmaster, this trash has been gone so long this time. Maybe he hasn't tasted the whip in too long and has forgotten the rules."
The man, already unable to stand because of the pain and the poison raging inside him, was roughly yanked up from the ground by the elder behind him.
Several black-clad servants leapt out from the corners of the residence, each holding long spiked chains. They locked the chains around the man's limbs and neck.
The moment the chains tightened, the spikes pierced into his skin. Any slight movement made his body feel as if it were being stabbed by countless tiny knives.
But the man didn't resist at all. He even let out a quiet sigh with a faint smile on his lips as the servants strung him up like they were going to tear him limb from limb. The elder holding the whip gave a respectful bow to the woman in the main seat before raising the whip high and lashing it down fiercely again and again.
The cracking sound of the whip echoed violently through the dark and quiet courtyard.
No one knew how much time had passed before the man's body, except for his face, was completely covered in blood. Only then did the woman raise her hand slightly to signal the elder to stop. She stared at the man and asked again,
"Can you confirm now? Is she really the successor of the Phoenix Seal?"
The man, whose entire body had been beaten until no part of his skin was intact, suddenly started laughing. Blood spilled from his lips as he smiled.
He spat out a mouthful of blood and cleared the taste of blood from his throat before speaking slowly, "Maybe. I already said that just now."
He was telling the truth. After all, the most likely reason the divine stone didn't react was because the Phoenix Seal had already been absorbed.
Still, that was only one possibility.
The woman in the main seat seemed enraged by his defiant attitude.
She suddenly stood up, her long, luxurious gown dragging behind her as she stepped in front of him. Her beautiful eyes locked on his face for a few seconds. Then a strange and cruel smile appeared on her lips.
In the next moment, a pale pink glowing jade box appeared in her hand.
"If you still don't know, then I'll have to use your useless body to find out for myself."
She looked toward the elder, who immediately stepped forward and with a crack dislocated the man's jaw. His bloody fingers picked up the pink pill from the box and forced it into the man's mouth. Then he squeezed the man's throat until he swallowed it and reattached the jaw with another crack.
"Do you know what you just swallowed?" The woman's expression finally relaxed a little when she saw the man had taken the pill. Her face twisted with satisfaction.
The man, who had just had his jaw dislocated and been force-fed, let out a low cough as pain surged from his limbs and neck. He didn't answer.
But the woman didn't care if he responded. With a twisted smile, she answered herself, "It's a fertility pill. Any man in a non-pure matriarchal nation who wants to bear a child for a woman has to take it. A. Fertility. Pill."
The man's coughing finally stopped. His eyes, reddened by pain and tears, slowly turned to look at her.
Seeing emotion finally appear on his face, her satisfaction grew stronger. There was a vicious kind of pleasure in her gaze as she continued, "You could be considered half a man from a matriarchal country. Too bad you were born mixed-blood and can't bear children for women. But this time you're in luck. I'll kindly help you purify that filthy half of your blood."
"The poison in your body is weak. But that woman actually used her own blood to cure some of it. Heh. Good timing. A man who's taken the fertility pill just needs to consume a woman's blood, and in three months, he'll carry that woman's child in his belly."
"If that woman really is the successor of the Phoenix Seal, once you give birth to her child, the child will have a fifty percent chance of inheriting her bloodline traits."
"So even if you're too useless to confirm whether she's the successor, we'll know through the child."
The man stared at the beautiful yet venomous woman. Only after she finished speaking did he slowly lift his aching neck. Strangely, there was no pain or fury on his face, even as his body was about to be changed forever. He only asked her with what seemed like curiosity,
"What if I give birth to her child, but the child doesn't inherit her bloodline? You just said it's only a fifty percent chance."