The tension within the small cave mounted as the two Old Ancestors began frowning heavily. To them, this was not something to hesitate about, and the choice should be obvious. Eva's behavior right now was very suspicious from their point of view.
Draco understood her quagmire, yet he refrained from influencing her in any way, shape, or form. This was something Eva had to decide for herself, as it would determine the core of her being as well as her path forward.
In order to help, Draco snapped his fingers and used Subjective Magic to slow down time around them. This should be able to give the Celestial Beauty more time to think.
As for the two Old Ancestors, Draco didn't mind them too much. If they dared to harbor any hostility towards his Soulmate for making a divergent choice, he would pull out all the stops to annihilate them and this floor's world before moving onto the Tower next.
Draco was usually playful and silly to the point of retardation, but there were times when he would put down that mask for a more serious and mature one.
Eva eventually shook her head, then nodded with finality. With a smile, she channeled her thoughts to Draco, who also smiled. He removed the Time Control spell he had up and breathed a sigh of relief.
Eva gazed right into the eyes of the Phoenix Ancestor and spoke calmly.
"Show me what to do."
…………….
Eva sat cross-legged before the Phoenix Ancestor, a huge diagram drawn underneath them. Draco and the Dragon Ancestor stood to the side and watched on with differing expressions.
Draco wore a cold look of arrogance, while the Dragon Ancestor was rubbing his beard with interest. He looked at his cold disciple and chuckled.
"What is it, brat? Aren't you a man? Why are you just passively aggressively staring at them? Do you think we forced your girl into this or what?"
Draco snorted, but didn't reply. Eva would never let herself be pressured into making critical life decisions by mere NPCs, not even the likes of Richmond or Nakiu, much less NPC²!
However, hehe… if he didn't make these two old dogs pay some price, he, Draco, would not be able to shit well this evening.
Oh wait, he didn't have to anymore. No wonder cobwebs were growing in his ass.
Seeing his cold response, the Dragon Ancestor chuckled and folded his arms behind his back. "The truth is… sigh."
Hm? Draco's ears perked up as he shifted his gaze to his mentor. It sounded like they had a deeper reason?
"We did force her to select the Phoenix Lineage. Otherwise, my Xue'er would have lost a great disciple." The Dragon Ancestor revealed with schadenfreude in his voice.
Draco's expressions froze.
Fuck!
He gritted his teeth in anger, wishing he could pull out this old fart's tendons and refine them into a tube for his pets to piss through. As for the old fart himself, he saw the look of anger on Draco's face and became gleeful.
"Haha, brat! Are you angry? Are you mad? Does it bother you so much? Good, good, good!"
"Klek klek klek, oh you are really angry? But what are you gonna do about it, huh? Huh? Can you beat me?"
"If you can beat me, try! Ken ken, my face is here, punch away! Beat me quickly! I would love to feel what it's like to be a loser like you for once!"
"Hahaha, what? You can't? Tsk! After having your girl be forced to make an unchangeable life decision, you don't even have the guts to fight?"
"Tsk, tsk, you must be the kind of guy with a grape for a donger and have to rely on powerful men like me to satisfy your wife!"
The Dragon Ancestor seemed to be in his element. After seeing that Draco was bothered by his words, his tone changed into one like he was in the throes of ecstasy, as if he would reach orgasm the next second.
What's more, not caring the least bit about his position or his age, he kept hopping about like a monkey as he provoked Draco with a high-pitched voice. His eyes were half-lidded, curled into crescents from the sheer euphoria he was feeling.
From his smile, to his words, to his posture and behavior, the Dragon Ancestor had exceeded the 'need to beat to death' scale by more than 500%!
Draco trembled as his body shook. When had he ever been humiliated and bullied like this? It was always him bullying others until they coughed blood, yet now it was his turn.
Pain welled up in his chest as he choked, but eventually, Draco spat out a thick gob of blood. The Dragon Ancestor was like a whirlwind as he quickly captured the gob of blood in a pot.
The old man laughed uproariously, swirling the blood with joy. "Haha, this is great! Blood created from anger and indignation is the best ingredient for making poison to take out my enemies!"
Draco's eyes became bloodshot as he roared. "Old Thing, the two of us cannot co-exist under the same sky anymore! I want you to die!!"
The Dragon Ancestor put away his pot of hard-earned blood from his disciple and chuckled. "Brat, there's no need to be angry. Your master here was simply trying to gather some resources. In the future, wouldn't it be nice to poison your enemies to death and defecate on their corpse?"
Draco's eyes flickered briefly, for that really did sound like something he would like. However, the next moment he remembered that he had various ways within his bloodline to achieve that anyway, and reverted into rage mode.
"Dieeeee!!" Draco roared as he channeled his Horned Demon Inheritance, which he covered up by manifesting his Demon Martial Spirit. His Strength increased greatly, not to mention he coated his fist in the red, empowering energy of the Demons.
The Dragon Ancestor was shocked by Draco's sudden outburst, seemingly having expected his words to pacify his disciple with ease. That fact alone almost made Draco spit up another batch, yet the knowledge that it would benefit this old shit, made him forcibly swallow it back down.
The punch landed squarely on the shocked Dragon Ancestor's right cheeks, deforming it almost in slow motion as his expression warped from fearful to 'big ouch'.
The shockwave from the punch rushed throughout the cave, ruffling the hairs of the concentrated Eva and Xue'er, but neither reacted as they were completely focused on something of far greater importance.
Draco roared heroically and followed up with a flurry of punches, striking almost all the joints of the old man's body in order to destroy him thoroughly. The fellow almost moaned loudly when his strikes felt like they were connecting with something, not to mention the audible sound of bones breaking.
Finally, he finished his long and powerful combo by double punching the Dragon Ancestor in the gut, making the fellow fly back like a bullet as he struck the wall of the cave, digging a hole in it as the entire place shook.
Draco panted, his hair matted with sweat. He felt good after unleashing his fury, like he was a fellow who had done a light workout and was feeling pumped.
He peered at the Dragon Ancestor, who crawled out of the hole in the wall slowly, falling to his knees as he coughed up ten wads of black blood. Draco was mentally calculating just how severely he had injured the old fart, however, after about ten minutes, the fellow jumped up like he had swallowed a senzu bean.
"Bwahaha, brat! You really are my lucky star!" The Dragon Ancestor laughed happily.
Draco froze, wondering what the fellow was on about. Seeing hid disciple so confused seemed to please the old thing as he smiled, but he didn't keep Draco in the dark for obvious reasons.
"Ten thousand years ago, I was severely injured by a Demon Cultivator by receiving a blow in place for Xue'er. This was before I reached Qi Condensation, and his energy had lingered in me for all these years, preventing me from going higher."
The Dragon Ancestor then pointed at the mediating Phoenix Ancestor. "As Xue'er and I are Dao Companions, our Cultivation Methods have long merged using the special Dual Cultivation Method called the Dragon-Phoenix Blessing. If I can't progress, Xue'er also cannot progress, though she has no problems otherwise."
The fellow sighed with pain. "How could a proud, handsome, suave, and gentle man like me be happy about holding back my babe? The only thing I do is hold her down so I can fill her up with the good stuff."
"HOWEVER! In came you, my beloved disciple, who out of love and benevolence, struck me on with so much pure Demonic Energy that it broke down what was left in me and healed my injuries!" The Dragon Ancestor finally revealed while wearing a loving expression on his face.
What?!
Draco was flabbergasted to his very core. He felt like his soul was about to leave his body, but he quickly grabbed it back with his Control. He then gazed at the Dragon Ancestor with a look of slight defeat, mumbling:
"B-but… your bones… your joints…"
The Dragon Ancestor began stretching himself out casually while feeling like a newborn baby. "Oh that? After spending so many years in seclusion, just like how my body was tainted so badly that I required Destruction Energy to cleanse it, my joints had gotten stiffer than my donger when Xue'er bends over."
"Thankfully, your punches were so focused and powerful that they cracked my joints and made me limber again. Oh, I think I even came a bit thanks to the feeling of it, keke."
Hearing this, Draco couldn't take it anymore. He crouched as he spat out blood like a fountain.
The Dragon Ancestor, ever the enterprising fellow, made sure to collect every drop with glee.
