Their lives were also hanging on by a string, but unlike those female disciples, he had to hold back from going to help them. "What else do you know about the castles?"
"I know that simply making your way to them is a trial in and of itself considering we can't fly. I also know that this is just the first phase of them. Within each castle, there are multiple keys. After a year, the next phase opens and the process repeats. Then, there's a final third phase with only a single castle. Legends say that this final sky castle is heavily tied to the Sovereign Flame.
"There's another point as well. For the first two phases, there are 'visible' and 'invisible' castles. Phase one has three visible castles, but phase two only has one. These 'invisible' castles are left entirely to luck to find."
Dyon looked up to the rainbow rock hovering before them as he listened to Madeleine. "So the final phase reward is the Sovereign Flame?"
"Maybe yes, maybe no. It's kind of like the rewards for the tower trials, no one ever tells others what their rewards were. They cause too much greed so it's better to be silent." Madeleine followed Dyon's gaze. "What did you end up doing with the mineral sprite?"
Dyon's eyes flashed with an angered expression. "I put it in the same torture array I put the Holy Princess and Matriarch Niveus in."
Madeleine sighed. "You're too vindictive. Matriarch Niveus, I understand. But the Holy Princess was trying to do good while the mineral sprite is basically nothing more than a child."
"You're probably right, but no matter what that truth is, if they had succeeded in what they wanted to do, I wouldn't be here right now. Then what would happen to you? To Ri? To Clara? To Amphorae? To all of those people relying on me?" Dyon shook his head. "This is life, the decisions you make have reverberating effects whether you want them to or not."
Madeleine smiled lightly. "Then how about you put them to use instead? I'm sure a Holy Princess has knowledge on many useful things. For example, doesn't Amphorae comprehend Holy supreme laws? She'd find her very useful.
"Also, imagine how helpful a mineral sprite would be. You wouldn't have to wait for Little Meiying to reach the dao formation realm anymore because this sprite would be more than capable of finding resources for us. They're very sensitive to such heavenly treasures.
"Just look around." Madeleine pointed to the mountain around them. "It's already accumulated so much wealth without guidance."
Dyon laughed. He knew that this wife of his was saying these things so he'd have pity on them, but he had to admit that her words were effective. There wasn't an ounce of what she said that was incorrect.
"Plus," Madeleine tried to put the nail in the coffin, "I've never seen or heard of this rainbow mineral before and I believe it's the same for you. Who else but the mineral sprite would know its best uses?"
"Okay, okay." Dyon shook his head. "You win."
In the next moment, a spherical cage filled with complex gears appeared in his hand. Then, two sorry figures were released even as the third's agonizing scream filled the silver mountain.
Dyon coldly stared at Matriarch Niveus' withering soul before closing the geared cage. He had lost count of the number of times he had upgraded the torture system, but even if he hadn't, it was clear that the old woman had long since lost herself to despair. Surprisingly though, she was still lucid enough to recognize Dyon's figure.
Matriarch Niveus could be considered a talent, just like anyone else who managed to reach the celestial realm in that energy poor universe of theirs. In a normal environment, she would have most definitely become a dao formation expert, so her mental stability was quite firm.
By Dyon's calculations, it had been about 100 or so years total since he put her in there. There was the 13-15 years of his trials, plus his 2-year coma. Then there was the 50 plus years of training, then the 25 or so years with the Demon Sage. Plus, this leaves about anywhere between 3-5 years Dyon spent in leisure with his wives and within the Soul Rending Peak sect.
Considering Matriarch Niveus had lived for almost 10 000 years, 100 years was a small time for her. So, Dyon didn't expect her to completely crumble for a long while more.
Unfortunately for the Holy Princess, her time spent in the torture chamber wasn't too different. But, Dyon didn't feel bad for her.
She appeared in a shivering state. She had, impressively, not forgotten her original form, so distinctive hands and knees covered her head. Despite having been tortured for so long, she had held on against all hope. She still had a mission to complete, but who knew she would have been thwarted by a child?
To her right, what seemed like the crying sounds of a child came from the blob of light that was the mineral sprite. Despite it having experienced just two days of torture, it was in an even worst state than Matriarch Niveus.
Both of them had chains of gold around them, impeding any escape they might have thought of.
Suddenly, the Holy Princess looked up in confusion. That pain she had gotten so used to for so long had actually… Disappeared?
"You… you…" The Holy Princess pointed a delicate, illusory finger toward Dyon, filled of grievances and hate. "You evil scoundrel!"
Dyon rolled his eyes. Even after 100 years of torture, she couldn't think of a better insult?
"You're lucky I released you in the first place. If it was up to me, you would have rotted for the rest of your life." Dyon said coldly.
The Holy Princess almost erupted in anger, but seeing the seriousness in Dyon's expression, she shrunk back as far as her chains would allow.
"Evil man…" She muttered before what Dyon thought were tears began to fall down her cheeks. Since she was nothing but a spirit, they came out like oddly, droplet shaped, motes of light. "You sacrificed so many people yet you're still so cruel."
Dyon temper flared. No matter how good natured he was to his wives, there was still a deep and hidden bestial nature he still found hard to control. If you weren't someone he cared about, he didn't care what cruel methods he used. This was a large part of why his grand teacher referred him to the Crystal Dragon Clan. It was still very difficult for him to control his lust and rage.
However, before he could act, Madeleine had stepped forward. "You've wrongly accused my husband and you almost killed him because of your mistake. I believe anyone would be angry at you for this regardless of what good intentions you had."
The Holy Princess looked up like a pitiful child. "Wrongly accused?" She thought for a moment before shaking her head vigorously. "That's absolutely impossible. No one could be naturally born with such a powerful soul. Plus, I saw tens of thousands of constitutions floating within him, they were clearly stolen!"
With treasures of the 33 heavens like the Spirit Body being a matter of reality, it wasn't unheard of for constitutions to be stolen. Clearly, the Princess believed that Dyon was one of these evil people.
Still, truth be told, the Holy Princess immediately had a good impression of Madeleine and couldn't understand why such a pure young woman would call such an evil man husband so lovingly.
Madeleine shook her head. "My husband comes from a Clan of cruelly ostracized people…"
In the next few moments, Madeleine proceeded to tell the truth of the matter to the Holy Princess. Obviously, this was something Dyon didn't like wasting his time doing. When others offended him, when had he ever bothered to 'tell the truth'?
For example, even when he was accused of rape by Violet, had he ever gone out of his way to clear his name? No. In fact, he allowed everyone to think what they wanted. He was sure that there were still some stupid ones who still believed that he had done it.
Explaining himself just wasn't his style.
The Holy Princess, however, broke down into tears once more after hearing Madeleine's explanation. Much like Madeleine, she was very sensitive to the purity of others, so she knew that she was being told the truth.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." The Holy Princess began to bawl like a baby, unable to control her emotions. Even Dyon began to feel bad at this point.
"Okay, okay. These matters are all in the past." Dyon waved his hand dismissively. He had acted disproportionately just like she had, so it would be petty of him to continue being angry.
As this reconciliation was happening, the mineral sprite was completely ignored, only further solidifying its grievances.
