Ebony's first attempt at unlocking the seals on Dusk happened nearly instantly, breaking through the first through sixth seals without trouble. All he did was run his mana through the staff.

The seventh was a wall that his mana couldn't sense before.

'Volume of mana helps, but various other factors are stopping the seals from loosening.' He couldn't saturate Dusk with mana, not with Dusk's new Mythical body.

Its mana pool was greater than the power source Kong Jing made for him. Both had a capacity so large he didn't know how much greater one was than the other.

Ebony could compress mana for density, but he didn't know if he could self-purify mana to a purer state to meet the staff's requirements.

'The staff helps purify my mana, so that it can compress further.' He tried to activate only the purification function and used the purified mana to push towards the seal in the centre of the staff.

He felt like it helped to tickle the seal, but that was all. The reaction did tell him that he was going in the right direction.

'I meet the mana density and volume requirements but not the purity, and by a huge amount.' Ebony didn't complain, merely stating facts.

If he had been born normally, he should have been genetically able to meet these requirements easily. But having a stronger soul and genetic resistance to harmful change did feel better than a stronger body or mind, more effective base stats.

Dusk's orb, which had a centre coloured with his mana, stopped growing substantially. He assumed the colour would engulfed the entire orb after massive mana usage and spell casting, but it slowed to a stop soon after. It was barely the size of a fingertip.

After his Priming, his Intelligence and Wisdom stat growth helped his mana explore the seventh seal on Dusk. He broke through the first six too fast and didn't notice that there was a puzzle to solve.

Akin to a 3-dimensional rune symbol formation. Well, it was honestly easy to solve compared to Dusk's tree form's runic formulation, so that wasn't an issue to him either.

It required mana tapping different points within the staff at different speeds, densities, volumes in a certain order without mistake. With his mental processing capacity and mana control, the puzzle was a walk in the park.

'That leaves me with mana purity and this door that wouldn't shake. Let's try Will.'

The 'door' of the seal didn't even react to his Will.

Since mana and Will weren't the answer, he tried the tried and true method of brute force.

The staff wouldn't break under his power, that was certain.

So Dusk helped him internally wreck Dusk itself with all sorts of spells condensed within itself to slam on the seal.

Even a plum bomb didn't shake the seal.

Stepping out of his trance, he invited Apa and Hector in. They were covered in snow, and Hector had a limp. They brought some of Papa Mammoth's meat for the villagers.

Ebony was more surprised Papa Mammoth's body was still lying out there in the open without any of Hoarfrost Glade's monsters partaking. But the giant of a creature had more than enough flesh to go around.

"What'cha up to?" Hector threw himself on the sofa and broke a barrel of alcohol he had in his spatial storage open. Ripping his boots off and tending to his feet that had a clear indication of Apa's hand grip.

"Trying to break the seal on my staff. My mana purity is not high enough."

"Just purify it."

"Do you purify and compress your mana before you cast any body enhancements?"

"Course not, but you can."

"??"

"Don't you purify mana for your clones?" Hector quickly fell asleep on his sofa mumbling, 'You mentioned liking these flowers…' with a snore.

Apa was already snoring outside his house. He was afraid of Vent's aura and shouldn't cause any trouble in the village. Otherwise, a single punch of his would flatten and cave the entire village into the earth.

"...Slipped my mind." Ebony knew how to purify ambient mana using runes, but he wasn't a conjured structure.

Using runes was a solution he hadn't tried, so the idea wasn't completely useless.

His flame petals danced at high speeds in the formation of a mana purification rune symbol.

'It purifies mana that goes through the rune, not the mana that powers the rune.' He repeated knowledge that he already knew.

Modifying his spells to include a purification step, he realised that it would have to go through another process of compression after purification, since purer mana allows for greater compression.

Spell casting this way would give a stronger effect but the time and mental effort were unrealistic to use in combat unless he had someone else take the front and buy him time. Without that…it actually wasn't unrealistic.

His mind's casting, Dusk casting. Neither interrupts his body fighting.

His mana could go through his rune's purification process multiple times before it reached his rune's maximum potency.

The blast of purified mana against the seal elicited a response this time.

It vomited his mana out of the staff.

Dusk reined it back in since it was his energy.

'Time to work.'

❅❅❅

Xin bragged about how nice her husband was. Their honeymoon's highlight of slaying a Saint, with help.

Athena tried to tease her about how her nightlife was, but after similar talks with the Shis, she wasn't so shy about it anymore.

"What do you do about birth control?" Mallory asked curiously.

She knew about Xeng's general infertility and the fact that they didn't make babies till they were at the peak of Emperor ranks.

"What about it?" Xin cocked her head. "We're not ready for babies, I stop my eggs from being released. That's about it."

"You can control that?" Mallory asked with real shock. She had loosened her reaction up when it was just the few of them together.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Uh? Of course I can, can't you?" Xin didn't know why she was shocked.

All they needed was good bodily control. Blood magic wasn't even required.

"No! That's not common knowledge for us." Mallory had similar energy to Ebony, only when it came to anatomy and what it could do.

"Uhm if I had to be honest, I am starting to lose control while he…" Her and body got hot from recalling how he makes her body lose strength.

"AAISH, I don't want to listen anymore."Athena placed her head on the table.

Mallory took the opportunity to lead them to their shopping destination.

It wasn't that she didn't like Ebony's clothing designs, but she wanted to surprise him in little ways.

She also didn't want to waste his time when he clearly had his evolution in mind right now.

"Young ladies, fancy a divination?" A fox lady accosted them from her street tent.

'A street tent…within the Central District amongst these shops?' Xin learnt how to be a bit suspicious as she grew up.

More importantly, she just stood out.

Fox beastmen were either users of foxfire, seers or both. They were rarely warriors like the wolf or lizard beastmen.

As the granddaughter of a divination mage, she knew their tricks.

When it came to divination, she barely trusted her very own grandmother!

Who knew how the seer was trying to mislead them, for whatever purpose.

Although her Intuition was silent, it didn't mean nothing bad could occur.

However, Athena already jumped on the offer. "No harm listening. How much?"

"2 Blues for a reading for a Grandmaster on a specific topic of choice."

"Expensive!" Athena didn't hold back but her hands already pulled the mana ores out, "Me first, I need a good weapon and new perception skill."

"I'll take that as looking for opportunities for strength?"

"Sure."

Xin watched the robed fox lady closely. The small woman had fox ears poking through her robes and most of her face and body covered. There was no crystal orb, no staff, no wand, no wooden board.

'Cards. That's rare.' According to the divination mage in her life, connecting to the Astral Realm was pretty much how most divination was conducted.

To do so, a medium was used because the Astral Realm typically doesn't react with the living. Veronica used to use a dowsing rod till she was a Master and swapped to her Mask permanently. Although a medium wasn't necessary for her currently.

The fox lady held a blank white card between two slender fingers with bluish painted nails and blasted light blue flames across the card. People had mistakenly assumed her husband's flames were foxfire on more than one occasion thanks to the similarity.

Xin was surprised that the seer didn't ask anything or take anything from Athena. No blood, no hair, no nails and she didn't even ask for information. She simply pointed at Athena and let her foxfire touch Athena's fingers. That meant this seer could directly connect her target to the Astral Realm without physical connection or information to use for divination.

If she wasn't lied to, that put this fox lady at Elcrain Ducal or Archducal levels of proficiency with divination. Yet, this person was unmistakably only a Grandmaster.

The card in her hand expanded and unfolded into a piece of paper as wide as her tiny table. Her foxfire painted an image, and colours spread across the image.

"Ahh ~ your opportunity lies in Fragadal's Sea. Look here, there seems to be a bow dropped by an Elf 2258 years ago that hasn't burned to a crisp and is forgotten. 8 Gur away from the largest volcano is a dungeon that produces volcanic stakes and a creature called Pyroeveil that utilises a fencing and dagger mastery equivalent of a Tier 4 skill." Xin was so used to Ebony's distance that she needed time to translate that to 40,000km.

The largest volcano was right in the centre of Fragadal's Sea and 40,000km away from it meant that the dungeon was pretty much at the centre of the forbidden zone.

"How confident are ya? I'm not gonna spend months chasing nothing down, am I? If I am, I'm gonna swap to chasing you down, you hear me!" Athena didn't sound that angry, and Xin could sense that she already believed the seer.

Athena's close-range technique with her arrow stakes was self-created, and it sat between fencing and dagger style. This Seer was not playing around with what she could see.

"I'm certain. How about you, young miss, care for a reading?" The Seer moved on from Athena to Mallory.

"…I don't see why not. I would like to ask about Lure's highest status member currently present on Elcra."

The fox lady chuckled, "if that's the case there's no need for another divination, go straight to Fragadal's Sea. The individual in charge of the activities of Lure on Elcra goes by the moniker of Tenka. She is currently sealed under the volcanic range, somewhere in Cheruf's Pit. The previous generation Elven Matriarch sealed her. Be careful, she might be sealed, but she's not something you young ladies can take on."

Xin's back tingled when the fox lady turned to her; she couldn't see it, but she could sense the playful mirth under the thick covers the Seer wore. "How about you, young lady? Anything you would like to ask about?"

"Sure," She didn't have much hope but there was always something she had on her mind. "I would like to ask about the whereabouts and condition of my parents."

The Seer didn't even wait for payment before a blank card was flicked between her fingers, and her foxfire burst out.

Xin let the foxfire that extended to her touch her gloved fingers. The fire mana in foxfire was not something she could control, its properties changed so much from normal flames that it was not unlike a different element. A different type of fire altogether.

"Ah ha, what do we have here?"

Xin was deaf to the Seer's playful tone. She stared at the paper that reached the same size as Athena's reading.

On it was the exact same image of Fragadal's Sea.

Xin's Divination resistance was pretty much only lower than those of the Zhao Clan by birth, but Divination had many weird loopholes.

All the Seer or Mage had to do was divine on the things or people around their target and they could form a coherent picture of what they wanted to see. If they were good enough. Hence, she wasn't too surprised that the Seer got a result to begin with.

Red surfaced by instinct. Their sword thrust out at the Seer's neck without missing a beat.

"Tsk." Her brows tightened when all she stabbed was a dissipating mass of foxfire. She swung her sword dry before sheathing it and letting Black take over again.

Her Intuition also couldn't tell her where to go, which meant the Seer was either entirely out of her Intuition's range or the Seer could actively meddle with her Intuition.

They learned nothing new.

When a Seer willing comes forward to give you a reading, they must be plotting something. As the receiver of such divinations throughout her younger days, she had grown to strongly dislike such plots.

Her Grandmother, her extended family would not leave their child for no reason. As much as she hated that they'd been apart from her since her childhood, she knew better than to charge to Fragadal's Sea to investigate what her elders couldn't. It was obvious enough that they were hiding things from her.

In fact, she might as well have been avoiding that region. And her husband quietly respected and followed her wishes by not ever mentioning that place to her.

Xin had lost her aimless rage years ago.

Red, was not a wrathful version of her, and her power no longer derived from pathetic, aimless rage at nothing.

When they were boiled down, the Xengs were simply prideful creatures.

She was no exception.

Her pride overcoming her immature wrath, was another reason why Red was in better control of herself. It grew during the time the suppressed Wyrmie, she was too prideful to lose to a bit of gluttony. Gluttony that wasn't hers.

She was confident that she didn't need Ebony's Will to remain calm when Red took control. Athena being alive and Mallory not locked under her barriers was enough proof for her that she was stable.

However, she didn't lose her memories of her youthful rage. Angry at herself for not being strong enough to help her family.

The Zhao were too incompetent.

Her parents were too weak.

Her Grandmother was too weak.

The Nings were too weak.

The Ning Saintess was too weak.

That was the only conclusion Xin had on why she had to be apart from her family when they were all 'outcasts' of the Ning Clan

Her wrath didn't get her far.

But she had her gluttony and pride.

"Don't forget your lust." Red hollered within her mind.

"Shut up!" Black reprimanded, but a figure rose in her mind. Not tall, not wide, but a support that didn't seem to fall under any weight.

"Still…" Xin muttered and found a broken branch a few steps away from her feet.

Picking it up, she imbued her mana on one end of the stick and tossed it lightly in the air.

It landed and pointed at her feet.

"Who does she think she's messing with…" When her Intuition agreed, she was already sure she knew which direction the Seer was.

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