Death... and me

Reliance was then lost in his own thoughts.

'That shouldn't be possible. A demon beast only accepts one Master during their entire lives. At most, they would be friends or treat others better. Still, their loyalty would always be to that single person. Oh, right! That's what happened. This chick simply thinks about the other kid in a friendly way. It's not like it also got that one as its Master.'

Reliance wasn't wrong. A good example was Nana, Tiria's Snow Crane. Although Tiria was her Master, Nana still liked Rean very much. It's just that if there came a day to choose one side, Nana would absolutely choose Tiria.

"I see... Kentucky also likes your brother, is it? Anyway, I heard you spent some time in our Demon Beasts' area and that you like them as well. Since that is the case, you should have already heard about the fact that Demon Beasts can accept Masters, right?"

Rean nodded.

"Yes. I saw a few Demon Beasts there who have Masters already. What about it?"

Reliance nodded.

"It's just that a Demon Beast can only accept a single Master during its life. Or at least, that will be the case until they get strong enough. At a certain point, a demon beast will become independent enough to decide whether it still wants to treat you as a master or not. It's not like it has a forced bond or anything like that. Anyway, this is something that only happens after Stage Nine, so we probably will never see one of those."

Rean couldn't help but ask.

"So how do you know that a Demon Beast accepted you as a Master?"

Reliance shrugged his shoulders.

"Isn't that obvious? Although there is no such thing as a forced bond between you two, there is still a connection. Touch Kentucky's head and release some of your Spiritual Sense on it. You can definitely feel a small link between your Spiritual Senses. It's nothing that impressive, but it should still be there."

Rean nodded his head.

"There is no need. I already noticed it a long time ago. However... my brother can also feel the same thing."

Reliance's smiled disappeared once more.

"Impossible! There is no way a Demon Beast can accept two Masters."

Droman and Rean looked at Reliance with a puzzled expression.

"Why?"

Reliance then answered... or well, he tried to.

"That's because... that's because... because... Errr..."

It was then that he noticed... there was no reason for a Demon Beast to not accept two Masters. It's just that he had never seen or heard about it before. Several Cultivators have tried to tame Demon Beasts that already had Masters. However, no one succeeded so far. At most, they had to put some restrictions that forced the Demon Beast to work for them against its will. For example, taking the Demon Beast's Master as a hostage. Of course, Reliance had no intention of taking a kid hostage. First of all, he didn't like to force Demon Beasts to start with.

"Anyways, it should be impossible. I've never heard about a Demon Beast with two Masters. Kentucky probably just likes Roan as well, that's all."

Droman and Rean then looked at Reliance with a weird expression.

"Wh-What is it? Did I say something wrong?"

Rean could only tell the truth.

"Ahem... Kentucky... probably hates my brother. It feels afraid every time it sees him."

Even Droman saw the chick's scared face when it looked at Roan. From what he heard, Roan seemed adamant about eating it at all costs. If not that sometimes they had no other choice, Kentucky would definitely not stay with Roan.

Reliance finally lost his patience and said.

"Call your brother here. I want to confirm if what you said is the truth!"

Droman then intervened.

"So what? Are you intending to take Roan as well if you find that Rean isn't lying?"

Reliance then looked at Droman and nodded his head.

"And what if I say yes?"

Unfortunately, that answer only made Droman burst out in laugher.

"Hahaha! Alright then, I want to see if you can really take Roan away."

Instead of telling who took Roan in, Droman was more willing to see Reliance stepping on the mine himself.

'Hmph! Let's see what kind of face you will show when you find out the truth.'

Reliance was a little taken aback by Droman's reaction, but he decided to ignore it anyway. However, Rean didn't seem very willing either.

"Elder Reliance, I don't intend to become your disciple. First of all, why do you want my Kentucky so much?"

Reliance then explained.

"Kid, you have no idea what you have in your hands. Only under my care will Kentucky be able to show his full glory! Believe me, I'm doing you a favor by taking you as my disciple. If not for your heaven-defying luck to get this little guy, I wouldn't spare a second glance at you."

Rean didn't care what Elder Reliance said as he responded.

"So what? I already helped Kentucky reach Stage Two in only two months. I can definitely help him all the way forward on my own as well. Besides, I don't need your help to cultivate. I'm more than good enough to cultivate on my own."

Droman couldn't help but show a satisfied smile. He knew that Rean was right. Rean and Roan's cultivation growth was due to their own efforts. Although the Sect Helped as much as they could, most of their achievements were from their own.

"Hmph! Do you even know what it is?"

Rean shrugged his shoulders.

"Yes. It's my chick. That's all I need to know."

Droman then sent a Spiritual Sense message to Rean.

'Do as he says and call Roan over. Trust me, he will drop this idea of forcefully taking you as his disciple very soon.'

Rean couldn't help but think of Old Worm. He still remembered how Droman acted super polite in front of him in the past. In the end, Rean decided to trust Droman and did as he said.

Reliance was just about to continue talking when Rean said.

"Anyway. First, let me prove to you that Roan also has this small connection to Kentucky."

Reliance narrowed his eyes but nodded in the end.

"Very well. I need to confirm if you two are really Kentucky's Masters anyway. If that is the case, I will have to take you two at the same time."

Reliance was determined to take Kentucky. If he had to bring another kid together, then so be it. It would all be worth it as long as he could be the one to help Kentucky grow up.

Back inside Old Worm's hut, Roan and Old Worm were working on a new pill. Well, in fact, this was a neutral one. As mentioned in the past, Old Worm's interest in Roan was not only his talent for alchemy. There was also his Dark Element that was much better at destroying impurities than any other Element.

He might not be good at making Pills of other elements. But if they were talking about Neutral Pills, he was confident that Roan was heads and tails above all others. Not to mention that he noticed that Roan could use Rean's Light Element as well. Not only could he destroy the impurities, but he could also protect the herbs and other materials with the opposite Element. Even Old Worm felt quite jealous of Roan's Elemental Affinity.

Suddenly, Roan stopped his concoction as he looked in another direction. Old Worm, of course, noticed that change.

"What?"

Roan sighed.

"Problems."

A moment later, a disciple of the Formations' Hall arrived in the hut.

"Sorry for the interruption. Elder Droman asked for Roan to come to the Formations Hall as soon as possible."

Right after delivering the message, the disciple left. Rean and Roan had their own Soul Connection where they could talk to each other, but the others didn't know about it. That's why Droman sent a disciple to call him over.

Old Worm then looked at Roan and asked.

"Need help?"

Roan pondered a bit. Just now, Rean explained the situation to him and said to bring Old Worm together if possible. He didn't really want to get involved in that mess. However, if Reliance really brought Rean away, his own cultivation will be hindered. He also didn't want to ask Old Worm, who had nothing to do with it. Still, from what Rean said, bringing him would be the fastest way to get things over with.

"Yes."

Old Worm closed his book as he got up. He didn't ask anything.

"Lead the way."

As always, those two only exchanged a few words. Still, it was impressive that somehow, they could understand each other that well.

A few minutes later, Roan arrived at the Formations' Hall. The side occupation buildings were located around the same place in the Dalamu Sect, so it was expected that he arrived that fast.

Reliance then looked at Roan and could immediately tell that he was Rean's brother. After all, they were identical to each other.

"So you are this brat's brother. Anyway, he said that you can also feel the link between you and Kentucky. Go ahead and try to feel it. I will hold your shoulder and use my own Spiritual Sense to confirm as I did to Rean a few minutes ago."

Roan narrowed his eyes, not liking Reliance's attitude that much. However, he wanted to get over with it soon, so he did as he was told.

Kentucky was still sleeping, though. He was digesting the Demon Cores energy that he got the day before after going to the forest with Rean.

Roan then touched Kentucky's head and released his Spiritual Sense. Sure enough, the same link as Rean was also present with Roan.

Obviously, Reliance was startled to see that.

"It's true..."

He then looked at Rean and Roan and noticed that their hairs and eyes had the same color as the crown on Kentucky's head. He heard from Mia that Rean and Roan seemed to have some weird connection that allowed them to use the other's Element.

'Now I understand why the chick suffered a mutation. It definitely had something to do with these twins' connection. Well, so be it. I can take my time to check it later.'

Reliance then assumed an imposing stance and said.

"Since that is the case, you two are my disciples from now on. Get ready. We are leaving straight away."

Unfortunately for him...

"Disciples your head!"

*Pah!*

Suddenly, Reliance was slapped on the back of his head.

Reliance was infuriated for a second as he looked at who dared to slap him. He felt like he was about to explode. However, his rage deflated like a balloon as soon as he saw who it was.