Dyon calmly raised his sword, trying to slice into Loki's stomach. But, the result were as expected. Not even a white line resulted from his best effort.
"Hiding in a turtle shell, I see." Dyon's tone was flat.
"Provocation won't work for you here. Although, pleading for mercy and signing a soul contract might. After all, having a puppet capable of using 33 heavens weapons would be greatly beneficial."
Dyon didn't respond. Ever since he had found out the truth of his parent's lives, something within him had changed. Although he was no longer at a loss for how to control his emotions because of his Master, that didn't mean he wasn't still heavily affected by those things.
He had accepted the fact he needed to let the memories of his parents rest, and that he needed to move on. But that wouldn't change his anger. The people who had put him in this pit of despair would pay.
In one swift motion, Dyon's sword morphed into a dark wrist band. Looking down at himself, he scanned over his cracked and charred skin. Pain was still wracking his body, but from his expression, one would think that it wasn't his body that he was looking at, at all.
Dyon turned and began to walk away, but this only incited more laughter from Loki.
"Run while you can. There isn't a single person in this universe that can stop me."
What did Loki have to fear? No one would be able to find him unless they made use of that Meiying girl who disappeared, but his highest form of protection was Dyon's injuries. How would Dyon make it out of the catacombs? Whether it be his body's condition or his stamina, he was too lacking. It had taken hours to reach this place.
Even worse, even if Dyon was fully healthy, his spatial will comprehension wasn't high enough to not get lost! All of this pointed toward Loki having as much time as he wanted to recover. Then, he'd leave this place and go and end this war. With his presence, and his capabilities, he'd be able to greatly boost his allies before stealing back that Meiying girl to find a Dyon that would still probably be lost!
When he thought through all of this, Loki couldn't help but laugh himself silly.
He thought about all the ways that he'd torture Dyon for revenge before turning him into a puppet. The sinister glow in his eyes only increased with each passing second.
However, unlike what he first believed, Dyon didn't walk toward the exit. Instead, he stopped beside the massive corpse of Elder Daiyu.
"Tell me, Dragon King, how useful is the corpse of a dead Dao Formation expert?" Dyon asked. He had begun to realize that due to the Dragon King's personality, unless he directly asked questions using their master-weapon relationship, he wouldn't go out of his way to help. Dyon found this quite interesting, though. Because if it hadn't been for the Dragon King, his grand teacher wouldn't have known to help him.
'Hmph," An ancient voice once again filled Dyon's mind. 'Why would you want anything to do with this inferior bloodline.'
"I only have a bit of soul stamina left and I need to use it properly," Dyon explained as though the Dragon King wasn't already aware, "I need to know if I can use my Tree of Life and Death technique, or not."
'Normally, absorbing essence from a dead corpse without the consciousness of that person present is a death sentence.' The Dragon King explained, 'A corpse automatically accumulates death qi. The only way that essence is protected from death qi is if the consciousness protects it either by separating it from its body before death qi becomes a factor, or by actively protecting it while the consciousness is still of this world.'
A sudden realization hit Dyon. So that was why he was able to accept the Demon Sage's, as well as his master's and her husband's essences. His master actively protected her and her husband's essences, likely for the benefit of Little Black, before she ended up gifting them to Dyon. The demon sage definitely did this as well.
'However, you're different because you've mastered death to the one with heart level. You can ignore this small bit of death qi because he's hardly been dead for a few hours. In fact, his soul hasn't even entirely dissipated.
'That said, this corpse has no essence remaining. He was a former dao formation expert that was forced to recede his own cultivation in order to preserve his life. The only reason why he burst with dao formation power at the end was because he burned his remaining essence. So, there's nothing remaining of that to absorb, unfortunately.'
Dyon sighed. That meant that there was no possibility in absorbing the Black Jade Dragon bloodline. Although the Dragon King turned his nose up at it, Dyon was a human with a body much too fragile. The Demon Sage's bloodline was great and provided him with plenty of power, though. In fact, considering the Dragon King hadn't said a single word of bad about the Demon Sage, he may very well approve of the demon sage's bloodline – a truly shocking this for the King of all Dragons.
'But, that doesn't mean there's no benefit for you on his corpse.'
Dyon's eyes brightened at these words as he listened intently.
'He diverted all of his essence to burst with vitality. That energy is currently leaking from his muscles and being eroded away by death qi as we speak. He's essentially become an extremely digestible energy stone perfectly tailored to body cultivation. You can use your Tree of Life and Death to absorb this vitality to heal you wounds and boost your existing bloodline.
'Why you would want such a pitiful bloodline when you have the one running through your veins is beyond me.'
Maybe under different circumstances, Dyon would have grinned wildly.
