Feicui Long carries Isabella as he leaves the temple. The family of Isabella's great-uncle, who had been waiting for them anxiously, looks at them in astonishment, especially Isabella, whose hair is now platinum-colored instead of the characteristic blonde, a sign of the awakening of the family's bloodline.
They are warmly welcomed, they eat a sumptuous lunch while everyone celebrates and congratulates Isabella. Then they are called from the palace and have to leave the family temple to go to the Skylion palace.
...
Upon arriving at the palace, Isabella's mother hugs her daughter tightly for fifteen long minutes, to the point that her mother, Isabella's grandmother, has to interrupt her by gently hitting her on the head with her hand and telling her something: "Hey, you're going to smother my granddaughter if you keep hugging her like that. Let her go."
Isabella's mother, Cecilia, releases her powerful hug, letting a now disheveled-haired Isabella escape. She is very happy that she came out safe. When her uncle told her that Isabella had entered the temple's trial, she was terribly frightened because she was worried her daughter wouldn't be able to pass and might die trying.
This beautiful reunion is briefly interrupted by a woman with platinum-colored hair. This imposing, extremely elegant and beautiful woman speaks: "I would like to speak to the current leader of the family. The rest may leave, especially you, little Isabella, and Mr. Feicui Long. You should take the opportunity to bathe since it's been days."
Isabella obeys her ancestor Kristina and playfully takes Feicui Long by the hand, dragging him to her private bath with a not-so-clear purpose, although Feicui Long can already guess what it is.
...
After a while, both bathed, dressed, and changed, they sit alone on the floor of a terrace, watching. Isabella is surrounded by Feicui Long's arms and legs as he hugs her while they watch the stars. Feicui Long says: "You know Isabella, Fernando could have defeated those enemies within the beast clan much more easily, but he refused to use his divine authority to suppress them, not even his title. Do you know why?"
Isabella tries to guess: "Because he wanted a worthy battle?"
Feicui Long smiles a little, amused, and says: "Something like that. He wanted to show them he was serious, to show the entire clan that his ideology wasn't a façade, it was real, and that's why he wouldn't use the advantages the universe itself gave him to defeat them and show why their beliefs were wrong. The reason I mention this is because sooner or later, you'll have to decide what to do, whether to follow his path or another. Whatever it is, I'll support you, Isabella."
After saying this, Feicui Long hugs her a little tighter, taking the opportunity to kiss her neck. This is his revenge for how flirty she has become with him. In fact, he also manages to slip his hand into Isabella's lower region...
While they are fooling around, someone calls to them from behind, interrupting their play, saying: "Young Lady Isabella, Young Feicui Long, dinner is about to be served. Also, Ancestor Kristina and your lady mother have something to tell you. Please come down."
Isabella, very nervous and blushing, can feel Feicui Long's fingers moving and can only stammer: "Y-y-yes w-we're c-coming, d-don't w-worry."
The maid nods and leaves. They do the same and get ready. Isabella looks at Feicui Long a little between angry and embarrassed, yet excited and even happy. They go down the stairs. The servants are running back and forth with things for the banquet hall.
Isabella and Feicui Long quickly sit down. While everyone looks at them, this time Feicui Long emits a completely different aura than at the first banquet he attended. His aura is no longer that of a well-mannered young alchemist, but a dominant aura of a sovereign, one that makes you kneel and beg to follow him.
Cecilia breaks the silence and says: "Isabella, we've already captured Garret's family. The Triumphs have been imprisoned for their connection to Garret, for hiding his abuse of power, and also because we found other abuses and signs of corruption. They will be executed in two to three years."
After saying this with a tranquility that is anything but normal, she looks at the ancestor and says to everyone: "I've called a meeting of the entire family, including those branches ruling other towns and villages. We'll gather for a banquet at the family temple. It will be a very important event, so everyone must stay, including Isabella and Feicui Long."
Isabella looks at Feicui Long and he just nods to show it's okay. Then Isabella takes the opportunity to give the techniques she collected in the temple to her mother. There are so many techniques that, although they may be inferior to the Skylion family technique, they would still be useful for their troops and guards. Between guards and troops, they number 5,500, a very large number for a barony.
But at the same time, they are quite weak, precisely because they lack decent cultivation and combat techniques. With the ones she brought, they would go from having 5 cultivation techniques and 50 combat techniques in the earthly palace to 350 cultivation and 1,000 combat techniques. These also include 300 earthly master cultivation and 750 combat techniques, 250 earthly commander cultivation and 600 combat, 200 earthly regent cultivation and 450 combat, 150 astral king cultivation and 350 combat, 100 astral emperor cultivation and 250 combat, 50 astral sovereign cultivation and 150 combat, 35 epic realm cultivation and 100 combat, 30 legendary realm cultivation and 50 combat, 25 mythical realm cultivation and 35 combat, and even around 10 spiritual palace-level cultivation techniques and 25 combat techniques, which could be given to the family's elite who have gone through the lion pact.
With this, they could form a new, more capable army over time. This surprise gift makes Cecilia very happy. As for Kristina the ancestor, she doesn't care, in her time, when she was peak earth divine realm, she had legions in the celestial immortal realm and even several demigods under her command. But she understands that her family has fallen into the clutches of that insidious enemy...
The dinner proceeds calmly. After dinner, Johan, his father-in-law, gives him the money from selling what he brought. He earned 2 platinum coins and 75 gold coins. Now a little richer, Feicui Long thanks him and then takes Isabella to sleep together.
…
The next day Feicui Long takes Isabella shopping. In truth, Feicui Long has more money than what a normal mortal could wish for; even wealthy mortal merchants couldn't even wish to have more than 30 platinum coins. To understand this, a common mortal per month only needs to spend between 15 to 20 copper coins. A maximum in a 14-month year would be between 2 silver coins and 10 copper to 2 and 80 copper, and this is in a very expensive city that has to import a lot of food despite having internal production within the walls like Vienna. In the Skylion barony, this would drop to 7 to 11 copper coins, being able to spend only up to 98 copper coins and 1 silver coin and 54 copper.
But to an alchemist and a cultivator, this is really little. Technically, he could have more if he sold at the price of other alchemists, but at the same time, his experience as a doctor on Earth alters his way of seeing treatments. Besides, they are already truly profitable for him; even selling them cheap, he earns almost 30% to 50%, and for him, it doesn't take as much time as it does for a regular alchemist, so he sees it as completely unnecessary. So, his wealth remains stagnant at 77 platinum coins. He tends to save, but now he wants to give Isabella something and also himself.
Isabella walks beside him, for the first time without disguising herself. Many people are surprised to see her, especially because of her now proud walk, like a reborn lioness. She curiously looks at the shops, but nothing really catches her attention, so she proposes to Feicui Long if he will gift her a beast so she can use her beast taming skill for the first time.
Feicui Long thinks about it and nods. They go to the headquarters of the UIDNCGM. It is much smaller than the one in Vienna, but it looks busy. They look at some beasts until Isabella decides on a little puppy of a snowy dog. It is the only one left. Apparently, all the other puppies have sold very well. It is a very cute and sweet beast, but also quite useful, since not only is it extremely loyal, but it also has very good support functions. Although the real reason Isabella chooses it is because she wants to have a companion similar to Feicui Long's celestial dog.
Isabella names her Nivea, because of her relation to snow and because it sounds nice. Feicui Long finds the puppy cute, although it will really be difficult to train her. Feicui Long will have to ask Mariane to help teach Isabella the basics of taming.
While they are here, Feicui Long sees a sign in which the UIDNCGM is desperately looking to buy slimes since there has been a plague of poisonous toxin rats, a kind of dangerous rats, especially because they like to prey on slimes. Since these are used to maintain the quality of water, consuming waste and microorganisms alike...
Well, it has become an urgent need to replenish the population in the capital Madrid and cities of the region. Feicui Long sees this as an opportunity. Slimes are rarely bred due to their high reproduction rate and few predators, which keeps their numbers high. So, there will hardly be many slime breeders in the empire. Even if there are, a part of the pie will be his. He will have to ask Mariane to help him breed more slimes.
He takes one of the signs. When he sees something that piques his curiosity a bit, a bunch of baby Black Steel Arrow Scale Lizards, it seems that his potions helped a lot in the control of this constant threat. But what catches his attention is a clearly white variant...
This basically makes him whisper in Isabella's ear something: "Honey, do you have any problem if I use your family's weight to buy one of those lizards and reach an agreement about the slimes, as well as future purchases and sales of other beings?"
Isabella shakes her head and says: "No, my family is now your family, you can do it if you want."
Feicui Long nods and asks to see the boss, shows his membership card to this union with the special symbol to one of the support members, and he immediately takes him to the head of the place. When they enter, the image of an impressive woman comes to their eyes. This woman is...