After spending a few cozy nights with Clara, Dyon left in secret to head to Snow Palace where he quickly found Ri. It would only be a few hours until the Valley of Geniuses opened, so Dyon decided to go there ahead of time.
Entering the large, pristinely white palace, Dyon creeped up to Ri's cultivation room and slowly opened the door. When he saw the sight before him, he couldn't help but inwardly sigh, he was a truly lucky man.
Ri was currently naked, but he could only see her back-view. Her ten white tails silently twitched with life as she slowly circulated her inherited techniques.
From the sheer cold in the room, it seemed that Ri was forced to take her clothes off lest she shatter them into icicles.
Since she was cultivating, Dyon didn't dare disturb her. He silently sat in a corner, using the residual cold to acclimate his body to obscenely low temperatures.
Suddenly, the temperature dropped again as Ri's tails turn to black ice. Her beautiful silver-blue hair darkened, waving around wildly even as she emitted a dense void will.
BOOM!
A vacuum of violent proportions erupted, threatening to pull Dyon in the depths of a black hole.
'Whoops...' Dyon began to regret sitting here, but he knew he couldn't distract Ri. So, he grit his teeth, silently sinking his fingers and toes into the ground to keep himself from flying toward Ri.
Despite the situation, Dyon was quite happy. Ri's cultivation technique was a high level one left for her by Kukan within her legacy. It replaced her individual meridians with separate cyclones of void will that acted as blackholes to endlessly suck in energy. Because of this, Ri's stamina in battle far surpassed that of those at her cultivation level, and she also had no need to temper her meridians like others did.
The fact that such a violent reaction was happening now meant that Ri had just broken through. Calculating the momentum of the breakthrough, it seemed that she had just stepped into the 11th saint stage and had begun to connect to her 91st meridian.
This speed of cultivation might seem slow compared to Lilith and the other Devil Path cultivators, but there were many factors to take into account.
For one, Devil Path cultivators almost completely ignored comprehension of wills during their early years because said comprehension was just too poor, so they had more time for cultivation.
Secondly, Devil Path cultivators didn't have to enter trials. So, although Ri was 32 years old now, and had just stepped into the 11th stage while Lilith was only 21 and had already stepped into the 12th stage, Ri had stopped cultivating in order to first become an Empress.
Thirdly, Ri's requirements for advancing were far more rigorous than anyone else. Although her cultivation technique gave her the ability to have more energy and faster recovery than others, the trade off was that each meridian took much longer to fill. This didn't even mention the fact that this cultivation technique was highly dangerous.
The last point was that Ri had spent her childhood in an energy scarce environment and had even restarted cultivating from step one when she was already 18 years of age. The fact that she was already a saint was mind-numbingly shocking.
The momentum of Ri's breakthrough finally calmed a couple hours later. Her raised tails and hair settled down and also recovered their vibrant and pure colors, before she opened her eyes with a light smile.
Suddenly her hair raised and her head whipped around, "Who?!"
It was only after she saw that it was Dyon that she calmed down. She hadn't had her guard up because Clara had laid down plenty of formations around the palace, the only people who knew how to get in were her, Madeleine and Dyon. It was just that she didn't expect to see Dyon here.
Dyon had wanted to inform her before, but Ri hadn't been responding to his messages. So, he assumed she was in seclusion or trying to comprehend something. Clearly, he was right.
Looking at Dyon's disheveled appearance, Ri giggled. "Who asked you to peek on me? This is what you deserve."
Ri gracefully stood, not shy about her figure being seen by Dyon at all. Since heaven's energy was still shining down on her after the breakthrough, she looked even more stunning than usual... It was almost hard for Dyon to breathe. He was so distracted that his fingers dug into the hard marble ground even further.
"Am I beautiful?" Ri asked with a sweet smile, her silver-blue eyes twinkling with amusement.
Dyon's breathing quickened as his mouth dried. He could already hardly handle the beauty of his wives after their bodies had been cleansed by saint energy, wouldn't he directly die after they had been purified by celestial energy? Just thinking about it made all his blood rush out from his head.
"Too beautiful." Dyon squeezed out.
Ri giggled lightly. "I assume you're here to escort your wife to the Valley of Geniuses? You know..." Ri reached Dyon's sitting figure before elegantly taking a position in his lap and wrapping her legs around his waist. "We do still have a few more hours until then..."
If Dyon needed to hear anything more than this, would he really still be a man? It wasn't long before Ri's feverish moans filled the cultivation room.
Dyon had a lot of enemies going into this rare event... Whether it be Arthurian, or those of the 74th quadrant, or Emytheus, or Aki Void... He faintly wondered how they'd feel if they knew he was care free enough to roll around with a beauty before confronting them.
It would be no surprise to anyone that by the time Dyon had tamed his beauty, the pair were already running slightly late. But, there was no real use in complaining about it, Dyon could only wait for Ri to recover her strength.
Eventually, the couple tidied up and Dyon let Ri choose his outfit. It seemed she wanted to match, so he acquiesced to wearing sky-blue robes to compliment Ri's white gown and light blue belt that also helf her weapon. If it wasn't for the domineering sword she kept by her hip, one might mistake his wife for a dainty maiden who couldn't protect herself.
After she was finished dressing Dyon and herself, Ri moved to grab her white visor, but before she could, Dyon grabbed her hand. "Must you?"
Ri giggled, seeing Dyon's unwillingness to hide her appearance. "You want to show off how beautiful your wife is while I can't show off how handsome my husband is? What a double standard."
Seeing Dyon's sadness, Ri put the visor away. How could she not understand the heart of her husband? Dyon had been willing to be with her even when those bastards of the Elvin Pillar Clans bullied her for her average appearance.
Dyon didn't want Ri to wear the visor because he didn't like the idea of the Void Clan holding a permanent place in Ri heart. It was also a constant reminder that he hadn't been there for her when she needed it most. Although Ri only saw it as a source of motivation, Dyon saw it as a source of pain that only fueled his anger. How could he enjoy his time with his wife if he constantly felt a boiling rage within himself?
The Demon Sage's blood didn't only affect his personality by way of lust, anger was another major point that left Dyon discontented. He flew into a rage much quicker than he used to and always acted in the extreme. It made him feel like a lesser version of himself, like he was a man who couldn't rein in his own emotions. How pathetic was that?
Ri was perfectly right, had he learned of what Aki did to her before he met Aki, he would have ignored all of his laborious planning for the sake of a single moment. Of course, he wouldn't regret it, but at the same time, he knew he had to be better for the sake of not only his future, but for the futures of everyone around him.
The more Dyon felt this way, the more he thought about his grand teacher and how he had advised him to go to the Crystal Dragon Clan's territory to find an opportunity to use their treasured spring.
From what Dyon knew, Crystal Dragons were among the very few treasures in the world with the capability of naturally restoring their own mental energies. It was likely that this spring that his grand teacher referred to was linked to this in some way.
As for how Dyon would get such an ancient clan to allow him to use their most prized inheritance, he didn't know. But, if it was for the sake of protecting his wives, Dyon was willing to do anything.
"Let's go," Ri smiled sweetly, grabbing a hold of Dyon's arm.
