Chapter 699: Forced Marriage

At the sound of that wretched, mournful roar, the restless, surging auras of those figures in the forest halted and quickly receded.

A cold snort from one of the elves in the 【Chain of Far Speech】 reached them.

Clearly, emotional debts were not their concern.

The honest tree spirit Vivian had turned around, standing in the shadowy depths of the tree spirit layer, watching with a blank expression.

Tally, annoyed, put her hands on her hips: "Who the hell is your sister? Why should my master marry? If he must marry, he should marry me first!"

"A succubus? You keep a succubus? How can you face my sister!"

The elegant cloud elf's pupils flashed gold, and he immediately let out another mournful howl, "Does my sister know? Does she know you already have a woman?!"

Rod took another sip of frozen yogurt.

Coming from the clouds, a cloud elf.

Not hard to guess.

"Is it the brother of Lyla Starwhisper?"

"Indeed! My name is Claudio Starwhisper. All eight songs on Lyla's entire album are about you; even while confined by our father, she constantly chanted your name. Even her manager, Camille, has let slip a few details."

"Wuwuwu... my poor sister! The man you like is actually a scumbag with one foot in two boats."

Tally pouted: "Correction: my master's girls are not just me; counting only the ones on the surface, there are fourteen."

"What?! Fourteen! Damn, damn, it's truly enviable... uh, I mean, a scumbag tying boats together with iron chains! Today I will drag you to Cloudweave City to marry!"

"You may have misunderstood something. I have only met Miss Lyla Starwhisper four or five times; it is not the relationship you imagine. Besides, Miss Lyla is not my type."

Rod shrugged.

Cloud elves are shriveled, proper flat-chested; he would only be interested if he were possessed by a ghost.

However, the explanation did not calm Claudio Starwhisper; instead, it made him angrier.

Cloud energy surged forth, spiraling upward in mid-air.

His face twisted: "What do you mean? What do you mean 'not my type'?! My Lyla is a thousand times, ten thousand times more beautiful than your succubus! How dare you look down on her!!"

Snow-white turned; formless, shapeless clouds gathered into a huge, fluffy fist.

Of course, it only looked fluffy; the fist struck the air in mid-flight, shattering layers of airflow, and smashed fiercely toward Rod.

Rod could only smile bitterly.

Behind him, blue-white soul mist had already scattered, and a magnificent ancient tree growing straight upward slowly took shape behind him.

A phantom figure with dragon-scale-like cracked bark directly burst through the clouds, tearing the flowing clouds into wispy shreds.

A wooden girl extending from the tree trunk, equally phantom and translucent, leaned her hands affectionately on Rod's head and made a face at Claudio Starwhisper.

Rod extended one hand forward, palm lifting lightly.

A super-large +43 【Rejection Technique】, amplified by 【Blessing of the Ancient Sky Tree +10】, mixed with Moonfire and ice shards, erupted forth.

The surging airflow and reaction force made Rod's feet sink directly; a crisp white gale rushed toward the forest, blowing the tree canopy into a violent shake.

Boom!!!

The tremendous impact and Moonfire tore the cloud energy apart backward, instantly ripping the huge cloud fist into a honeycomb, which crashed down with a clatter at Claudio Starwhisper's feet.

His expression was stunned; his elegant mustache twitched slightly.

Then he revealed a smile brimming with fighting spirit: "Not bad! Only this qualifies you to be my brother-in-law! Again!"

"Are you not bored?"

Having spoken, he caused the cloud energy to surge once more.

At this moment, another cloud pillar descended from the sky.

"Stupid older brother!"

Lyla Starwhisper's skirt and sleeves fluttered as she hurriedly flew over, "Father told you not to embarrass us! Come back quickly!"

"Older brother is solving your lifelong matter for you! Don't rush; I will tie him up and take him back immediately. We will marry tonight! Have a child next year!"

"What nonsense are you spouting? Lyla and I are not in such a relationship at all!"

"Then what were you doing last night, the night before, and the night before that, gazing at the moon while chanting his name?"

"I was writing songs! Come on!"

"Seeing an object and thinking of a person, using an object to represent a person; older brother has been there, having once experienced a love that carved itself into the bones. I understand."

"You understand nothing! That girlfriend of yours back then was an old succubus that older sister hired to prank you!"

Claudio Starwhisper shuddered, looking at her in disbelief.

Lyla Starwhisper shrank her shoulders, decisively distancing herself: "It was older sister! She wouldn't let me say!"

"Joyna! I will never share the same heaven with you!"

Claudio, furious, roared at the sky; cloud pillars coiled upward to the heavens, and his figure instantly vanished from the spot.

In his place stood a middle-aged man whose hair was entirely white cloud mist.

His spiritual essence within was solid and plain, yet his aura was surging and overwhelming.

"Father."

Kraft Starwhisper.

The true owner of the 【Eye of the Firmament】, the domain power of 91 points on the superstar Lyla.

He nodded to Rod, revealing a faint, elegant smile.

"Cloudweave City has come this time to thank Mr. Rod for the assistance rendered to my daughter. This wicked son somehow obtained news and rushed here ahead of us; forgive the embarrassment, Mr. Rod."

Rod smiled and shook his head, indicating he did not mind much.

Seeing them stand down, Tally nearby handed over the frozen yogurt again, having secretly added a bit of Tally juice.

"Mr. Rod is not one lacking money; reaching the ninth tier is easy for him. I, an old fool, do not understand the hobbies of you young people, so I can only come specially to ask what gift you desire."

Don't say it.

Rod really did have something he wanted to consult him about, so he skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point.

"Then I won't stand on ceremony, Mr. Kraft. Your mastery of Domains is impressive. I wish to ask if there are any methods to rapidly improve one's Domain and break through bottlenecks."

Kraft smiled slightly:

"I like your directness. This matter is simple to explain. First, naturally, is the plain and steady tempering; it is safe but takes a very long time;

Second, 'accomplishing a great feat related to the Domain,' such as the Plague Domain carrying out a plague contamination across an entire continent;

Third is anchoring the Domain to a specific object, just like the Fear Domain of the porcelain-white long sword at Rod's waist, or the Domain Mage Tower of the Aethelorn Kingdom, though the latter comes with many restrictions."

There was nothing more to say about the first two points.

The third point, anchoring the Domain... it sounds somewhat like the construction of a Divine Realm in the Divine Power system, except it is anchored to an object rather than a region, so the difference in quality is quite large.

Rod nodded, having formed a plan in his mind.

"By the way, Mr. Kraft, regarding the legends of First Era artifacts in Shi Ying Town, do you know anything?"

"Artifacts of the First Era? The star fate of this object is concealed. All I know is that it is a clay tablet recording the lizardman myths of the First Era. There are rumors that it contains records of various Evil Gods."

Kraft's expression grew heavy. "I originally thought it was merely the ignorant misidentification of natural phenomena by ancient lizardmen, but regarding the encounter between Mr. Rod and my daughter in the Star Association Labyrinth, I will spend some time investigating."

Even the top combat power on the continent was unaware of the sealing of the clay tablet before this?

But during the Campbell Labyrinth, that Yige Sect Cardinal explicitly mentioned the Evil Gods... how did they come to know?

Before he could think further.

Seeing that Rod did not seem to intend to ask for more things, Kraft felt slightly that the situation lacked sufficient seriousness.

He then tossed a few items over from his spell satchel.

(End of Chapter)