"Don’t even bother..."
Iesha looked at Davis as she narrowed her eyes, making him wonder if she was offended before he saw a playful smirk appear on her lips.
"That’s because all the Immortal Inheritances left in these places belong to us, spirits. After the spirits of yonder sealed the lands with their great strength, the youths went on to the receive the inheritance and emptied out all of them."
"Ugh..."
Davis groaned in displeasure before he took a step forward and moved.
Iesha wasn’t surprised by his interest in Immortal Inheritances as she followed him. Even she was disappointed when she heard that there was none left anymore.
"It’s so silent that it’s eerie. Tell me about something..."
Davis spoke, his voice resounding around the area as if he was shouting loudly.
"What do you want to know?"
Iesha appeared eager as she raised her brows that Davis could see that she was a talkative spirit despite being ice and cold, prideful, which should be her true nature.
"I don’t know. Talk about yourself or about your spirit race. I’m curious as to what kind of existence you are..."
Davis intensely stared at her, causing Iesha’s icy white expression to become a shade of red as she turned her head away. After a pause, her lips moved.
"I’ll tell you how the Frigid World Spirit Empire came about and persisted then..."
"I’m all ears..."
Davis smiled while Iesha happily nodded.
"We Frigid World Spirits have the special ability to create an icy world that encompasses thousands of kilometers. You just battled my father, so you know how tough it was to break the defense, right?"
A hint of pride was filled in her melodious voice.
"I did..."
Davis knew that the entire Planet Mars would be frozen in ice with that kind of power. It was not at the level of creating an ice age, but even further. Turning the planet into an ice sculpture where a single tiny asteroid descending on it is enough to shatter the entire world into countless shards of ice.
Iesha proudly nodded and continued.
"Spirits have small numbers, and in these hundred thousand years, we have scaled to no more than ten thousand Frigid World Spirits from nothing but our Great Ancestor, the first Frigid World Spirit. With each subsequent generation, our population increases at a slow pace because most female spirits can only give birth to one progeny in their lifetime at most, even though it is difficult to become conceived in the first place. If they’re lucky, they will be able to have two offsprings, seldom three, but more than that, I have never seen or heard of one."
Davis raised his brows.
"What about marrying within inter spirit races like the Seeker Spirits with an arrow mark on their forehead? I know that you cannot mix with spirits of opposite nature and not mix with spirits of other attribute nature most of the time. Surely, the spirit who first created your Empire had to do it with another spirit, mixing his bloodline or spiritline, as you people call it with that spirit. What are the odds that he or she found a similar race spirit? Isn’t your spiritline already impure?"
"No, Great Ancestor did find a female Frigid World Spirit, and only then did he create an empire and also would be considered a True Empire in the Spirit World. Purity of spiritline comes first, and that’s why we imperials only have pure spiritblood while most Frigid World Spirits you saw out there have mixed spiritline, making them impure. Great Ancestor also took his first and second daughter as his wives. Therefore, while they are my first aunt and second aunt, they are also my second grandmother and third grandmother."
Davis stopped asking as his head ached.
He was purely curious how spirits mated because their entities were mystical and not aligned with the normal background of humans and magical beasts he was aware of.
Before, he had been wondering why her father would mention that he could take her as his woman, but now, it finally made sense. Turns out that what he and many others would consider interbreeding was rampant and quite normal in their system.
Iesha looked at his disbelief before she smiled.
She proceeded to explain the history of their race as she described their struggles and difficulties, including casualties, to reach the mark of ten thousand after a hundred thousand years.
"Because our race is small, we practice these kinds of relationships to keep our spiritline untainted. After the spirit race is established with ample men and women, any one of the opposite gender other than one’s father and mother is allowed to be taken as their companion. Sometimes, when the race is on the brink of extinction, even that rule is scrapped. In this case, we aren’t any different from magical beasts and could be said to be even more so as we have lesser alternatives to choose from."
"Why doesn’t your Great Ancestor just take every woman in your race then?"
"To let everyone have a loving companion."
Iesha gratefully smiled.
"If the Great Ancestor took every one of the women he created, the other men who were given birth would be forced into a state of depression and distress of not being able to continue their spiritline in a pure descent. That’s why everyone respects our Great Ancestor, and also wouldn’t disrespect my imperial father, and wouldn’t dare to go against their words unless they’re truly powerful. To date, there are only two Frigid World Spirits who challenged the Great Ancestor, and they were two of his sons, also my imperial father’s second brother and third brother."
"They fell in love with their second sister and third sister, but since Great Ancestor took them as his wives, they challenged his rule and died as a result. The Great Ancestor did not love anyone else and only took women who wished to fall into his lap from that day onwards. Like the Great Ancestor, my imperial father also married his first and second daughter. Therefore, my first and second sister is also my first mother and second mother."
Davis pursed his lips, feeling somewhat nauseous to Iesha’s words that appeared completely normal to herself. He couldn’t help but ask.
"What about your mother?"
"My mother..." Iesha spoke in a distant tone before she nodded.
"My mother, who was a distantly related Frigid World Spirit, became a Spirit Ancestor and successfully attracted imperial father’s attention, becoming his forty-fifth wife and gave birth to me from their union."
"Oh..."
Davis heaved a sigh of relief and exhaustion, feeling like he had heard some horror story or something.
"Are you looking down on us? I can sense that you feel somewhat disgusted."
Iesha narrowed her eyes at him, causing Davis to shake his head.
"Not going to lie. It is straight-up weird for me to hear stuff like this... For us humans, this is forbidden, but, oh well, I’m not surprised. If humans were driven into extinction, and there’s just a man and a woman left, they’ll still end becoming companions regardless if they’re connected by blood or not. In truth, human families with magical beast bloodlines, like the Dragon Families, also practice this kind of relationship. Looks like I’ll just have to rewire my mind to accept this as the norm for spirits, but it’s going to take a while. Until then, I guess I’m going to look at you spirits with a weirded-out eye."
"Dragon Families..."
Iesha uttered with interest, wanting to know what Davis meant by that, but she didn’t ask so as to not offend him. As for what he thought about her race, she didn’t care as this was something completely normal.
At this point, Davis, Iesha, and Pia, who was ignored, reached the opposite end of the Hades Spawn Abyss Territory and reached the Territory Gate leading to the Inferno Spirit Chamber.
They reached the other side of the Territory Gate and saw the flaming world, seething with boiling volcanoes, blazing streams, and crimson skies, vastly different from the icy world of the Frigid World Spirit Empire Territory.
Iesha and Pia Noel looked annoyed and disturbed, but there was not much of a difference in their health and endurance, considering that they were Peak-Level Spirit Supremes.
Nevertheless, before they could be spotted by the fire-attributed spirits, Davis concealed them with his concealment skills and took them towards the location of the spatial tunnel that he remembered. However, Davis knocked out Pia since he didn’t believe her like he believed Iesha.
Iesha didn’t seem to be surprised, making him once again be taken aback by her quick understanding and grasp of the situation.
After they crossed the fiery towns and floating palaces, a voice echoed out.
"So, the Great Ancestor you mentioned was missing in action. Is he dead?"
Davis resumed the conversation halfway while Iesha’s lips curved instantly as if she was happy to talk.
"No, Great Ancestor already passed the heavenly tribulation fifty thousand years ago and ascended along with his wives. Since you came from the immortal world, I’m sure you must’ve heard of him."
She spoke in a proud tone.
"I don’t know." Davis shrugged with a surprised expression, "I was born in the last century..."
"Oh..." Iesha lightly uttered before her pupils dilated, "Wait, what? A human who is lesser around hundred years old has reached this kind of cultivation base? Who do you think you are lying to!? I’m not that foolish to believe in your nonsense!"
She lashed out, causing Davis to grin at her.
"Believe what you want."
"It is like that in the immortal world?" Looking at his expression, Iesha rubbed her crown, "Maybe, it is because of vast resources. Sigh, I don’t know as I heard humans were slowpokes in cultivation, but I’ll believe you for now."
"Why? Because I let erased your slave seal and managed to gain your trust?"
"You could say that- Wait. Was this intentional? Are you plotting something again?"
Looking at the adorable looking Frigid Ice World Spirit gaze into his eyes, Davis couldn’t help but feel strange.
’Is it me, or do I like her presence more than ever?’
At this point, when he wanted to try holding her hand as she did before, a landmark appeared in his gaze.
"Oh, we are near..."
Iesha’s brows raised as she looked into the distance, wondering where his home and wife were as she scoured with her spiritual sense. However, no matter what she sensed, this was nothing but a rocky and blazing wilderness.
But before she knew it, she found herself above a spatial formation.
She blinked, knowing that she was going to be taken somewhere before her expression became awry.
"Wait...!"
*Bzzz!~*
Davis activated the spatial tunnel at the same time. They disappeared from that place as space engulfed them before it spewed them out in another space as they landed on Planet Earth, Algerian Megaliths.