Chapter 684

"Aren't you going to sleep for a while?"

Rod half-reclined against the headboard.

Bai Huahua's body lazily pressed against him, greedily absorbing the pure energy of the 【Creation Dew】.

Eighth-rank peak, let alone Rod's solid, ultra-high-quality spiritual essence.

Under the operation of 【Elibert's Secret Guide to Pleasure】, every depth and motion surged to elevate his own strength.

"No! Again!"

On the disheveled bed.

Eve, exhausted and dazed with satisfaction, panted, ignoring her aching arms as she forced herself up, her body slick with sweat.

She pulled a stimulant potion from her spell satchel and gritted her teeth to drink it down.

Rod grabbed her wrist and pried open her fingers.

"Don't drink any more—this stuff causes tolerance."

From dusk until now, dawn barely lightening the sky, nearly half a day, without pause.

Eve had already hit her limit and exhausted her stamina by midnight, but she'd clearly prepared—downing five clarity and stimulant potions in a row.

Like a middle-aged man's stubbornness in bed, she insisted on battling Rod until dawn.

The greed points on her panel rose faster than the lust points.

This girl really treated Rod like a juicer.

"I—I'm about to ascend."

"There's plenty of time. I'm not some fleeting fling—you're not in a hurry, are you?"

Rod pulled her into his arms and gently patted her smooth back.

But Eve refused to play the delicate maiden; she leaned beside him against the headboard.

Seeing the dog-man show no reaction, she angrily pulled her muscular, sinewy arm into her chest, making it look as if Rod were clinging to her.

Her serpent tail coiled around Rod's thigh, deliberately brushing upward.

"Hmph, who knows? You promised to come, then vanished for two months without a word—what do you think I am?"

Rod thought for a moment, then smiled: "A transaction partner for power and sex?"

Her beautiful serpent eyes instantly glared at him—angry, yet secretly tinged with sorrow.

"Fine, fine, now I know exactly what kind of woman I am in your eyes. Okay, then, get out."

"Didn't you say that yourself? Why does it make you angry when I say it?"

"I—"

Rod rolled over and kissed her cheek.

At first Eve resisted, dodging, but soon she clung to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, refusing to let him go.

The soft pressure was staggering, swelling and expanding, its sensation spreading everywhere.

Her tongue was long, flexible, and powerful—Rod truly lost to her.

But he was immediately overwhelmed by the effect of 【Enthralling Fluid】.

Sensing the girl's lack of security, Rod immediately activated the power of his Lust Domain, soothing and promising her endlessly.

"Hmph, you don't even live in the Mirror Desert—when you're gone, how am I supposed to keep the underlings and newly conquered territories in line?"

"How about a goodnight kiss every day? I can come by easily."

"Do I even care about your kisses? Funny."

Well said.

Then why are you still biting my lips?

"By the way, isn't your mother already at seventh-rank peak? Why so anxious?"

Rod smoothly steered the conversation toward Lady Lilian.

Yeah, I've wanted to ask this for a while.

"Mother's progress since the Axe Beach trip has been rapid, but—but—"

Eve hesitated a moment. "But since then, she's been distracted, rarely attending to state affairs, always sending people out of the Mirror Desert to search for some human, and secretly carving a wooden statue of a man at night. I suspect she's been emotionally deceived by a man."

"Hmm, maybe it's not deception? Are you the type who opposes your mother remarrying, Eve?"

Rod broke into a light sweat, feeling a bit overheated.

"I don't oppose it. Land Naga don't have as many moral constraints as humans. But she should find someone who can help the clan—not some pretty boy. I saw that carving—bushy brows, big eyes. Could be some useless bard."

"What about someone like me?"

Eve didn't catch on, thinking he meant rank: "Of course that'd be best! Two eighth-rank peaks—forget the Mirror Desert, our Bular Clan could start expanding right away!"

"Good."

Rod smiled.

Eve was truly exhausted, beginning to drift off, yet still sharing stories about her mother Lady Lilian.

"Recently, while inspecting the territories, Mother found several villages under our protection had disappearances. I wonder if she's figured out anything yet..."

"You know, I really miss being a child, curled in Mother's arms—soft, fragrant, so warm—I slept so soundly..."

"After this is settled, I'll take you to meet Mother. Dress nicely."

I can vouch for that.

Lady Lilian's embrace truly was soft, fragrant, and warm.

Slowly, Eve fell into sleep.

Rod held her, using his Grass Domain to aid her recovery, and clicked his tongue.

"Disappearance incidents..."

Mirror Desert.

Geku'er Village.

The noble's tent of the Brual Clan.

"You're saying that Eve led a team of twenty, and not only occupied a region east of the Guraysh Clan's Zaka Oasis, but also killed four of their high-stage Seventh-Tier fighters?"

The land naga Lady Lilian rested her elbow on the low table, her serpentine tail coiling elegantly.

Her upper body was wrapped in a silk robe of deep indigo interwoven with gold thread, the fabric draping like water.

The cut of the carefully tailored robe outlined her full, noble curves just so.

— A high-waisted, broad gold belt cinched her slender waist, while the slightly fitted upper half of the robe set off her full bosom without seeming wanton.

Her long hair was jet-black, braided with pearls and gold thread and pinned up.

Her snow-white, slender fingers pressed against her temple; on her wrist was a silver bracer with openwork engravings, solemn yet stylish.

Lady Lilian's looks resembled Eve's, but softer and gentler; at this moment, however, a touch of anger creased her brow.

"When did Eve pick up this bad habit of exaggerating her exploits?"

Her elder daughter Eve had always been more reliable than her flighty younger daughter Betty; in recent years her strength had advanced swiftly, and she was all the more diligent and ambitious.

But she hadn't expected her to be infected by that younger daughter Betty as well?

The naga soldier kneeling prostrate ahead hurriedly said:

"Reporting to the Priestess, my lord. When the vice officer of Princess Eve made his report, soldiers had already been dispatched to pioneer the route; the march records, the march registrar, and the quartermaster had all been reassigned. Given Princess Eve's character, it is most likely not false. Moreover, it wasn't only those twenty elite soldiers — Princess Eve also brought a man."

"A man?"

"Yes, Priestess, my lord — a human man. He single-handedly slew four high-stage Seventh-Tier fighters of the Guraysh Clan; his strength is terrifying. And it is said that Princess Eve is quite close with that man."

"Oh?"

Lady Lilian's languid, elegant beautiful eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Just now someone sent word saying that man and Princess Eve entered the same tent, and raised a soundproofing ritual."

"Excellent!"

Lady Lilian was overjoyed. Her elder daughter was reliable enough, but a naga, born with a lascivious nature, having no husband was, for those beneath her, a glaring shortcoming.

Ever since the betrothed husband they had abducted back from Axehead Beach had been unable to resist being with her and then run off, she had been feeling quite guilty and regretful.

At last, things were easing up a little!

"I must go back and see what sort of eye Eve has for picking men."

"Ah? But you are still on your inspection. Those disappearance cases—"

"Curfews, patrols, population registration, safety propaganda — I don't need to teach you these things, do I? Once I finalize them tomorrow, I'll leave. You stay behind afterward; if you can't get to the bottom of it, you'll answer for it."

"... I obey your command."

After the reporting subordinate departed.

The golden light of the setting sun shone down, and a bleak, dusk-like atmosphere washed over everything.

Lady Lilian fell silent, her excitement draining away in an instant.

A heart-wrenching weariness coiled in her chest; she couldn't help but clench her fingers until the knuckles went white.

She turned her head with a brooding grievance, looking past the cloth curtain separating the inner and outer layers of the tent behind her — at a splash-shaped water stain stuck to it that had never been washed away.

The tent was still the same tent, but the person from that time had long since vanished without a trace.

"Sigh—"

(End of this chapter)