Around two and half a day later…
At one of the luxurious rooms inside the tomb…
An attractive green-haired woman was gracefully sitting on the bed, she was holding the book in her hand, she occasionally flipped the pages after reading the content, just then her eyelids flickered and she turned to look at the man sleeping on the bed near her.
The man was covered in a blanket, unlike the graceful woman he looked like he had gone through a hellish battle and a lot of labor before finally getting some time to sleep, he had a nice body built but his body gave a feeling that it lacked vigor for him to even move.
The man stretched his arms then slowly opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the beautifully decorated ceiling.
'I... Survived?' Rex thought.
[The nightmare is over, should I analyze your body just in case?]
'Please do,' Rex said.
[Analyzing…..]
[The heartbeat is normal,]
[Your kidneys are somewhat stressed but working fine,]
[As for the rest, it's more or less recoverable, just rest,]
Rex sighed in relief, but then he saw an exquisite face of a woman with emerald green eyes zooming into his vision, he was horror-stricken.
'Don't tell me, she is thinking of another round….' Rex felt that he could see the followers of Yama filling his room.
[It was a nice journey together, you have my condolences,]
Fortunately, what he thought didn't happen, Lerna softly kissed on his lips with a light blush visible on her face then retreated back to the side.
Rex looked at her.
The previous cold woman who had a hard time smiling looked more carefree and happy today.
'I heard people saying love brings you to your doom but it's the first time I realize what they truly meant, and those bastards who say that love between the monster race and human race doesn't have a good end because of lifespan, lifespan my ass! They should have told the real reason instead. No wonder that love is not so successful between them, the person that is going to live for 100 years might die in 50 if this goes on,' Rex thought.
[Actually, even I didn't think that a full-fledged monster race is so high on stamina, I wonder what would happen if she was a Divine Beast, I mean someone like Zakiya,]
When these words reached Rex's ears, he froze on the spot. Zakiya's beautiful face came into his mind but this time it only brought horror, he inwardly decided to treat her with the utmost respect and avoid physical contact, the next time he sees her.
'Today is the first time, I develop some respect for Azure Emperor, he definitely has succubus or goblin bloodline, or how could someone have a harem of 3000 beauties? Unless they love NTR,' Rex snorted inwardly.
He then stretched his soar back and sat up.
"Seriously, honey what did you used to eat before meeting me," Rex couldn't help but ask.
Lerna closed her book and lightly hit his head with it.
"You are asking for it," She said with a slight grin. The way she looked at him now was different from before.
Rex rubbed his head and just smiled, he had seen the change in her mood so he decided not to tease her more for now.
He went to the bathroom attached to the side of the room, to his surprise there was a whole artificial river inside the bathroom, the fishes were swimming inside is similar to the mini pool in the main room, various types of fragrant herbs were growing on the shore.
Rex tightly closed the door from inside so that no one can enter, then he took his fair amount of time taking bath. After two hours he wore a white robe and left the bathroom with a satisfied look on his face.
'At least, I feel more refreshed immediately, it's time to make a decision,' Rex thought while drying his wet hair using the towel in his hand.
He looked at Lerna then decided to call Luna. He just spoke her name in a low tone and the next second, the familiar light specks came out of the void and merged to form the little Luna.
"Half-Master finally remembered Luna, you know Luna waited all this time but no one called Luna, Luna is really dissatisfied," Luna puffed out her cheeks and crossed her hands in front of her chest.
Rex chuckled then patted her head which resulted in her fluttering her snow-white wings, she seemed to enjoy it.
She then eyed Rex for a few moments, thinking of something, she took out a glass jar half-filled with tiny white pills.
"Humph, Luna will forgive Half-Master this time, Luna is kind so I will also give you this, Half-Master seems a little tired, so why don't you use these Energy Pills, Crimson Sun Emperor had made these pills himself. In his time, he used to refine a lot of these, when Luna asked him about it he told Luna that they are really useful for body recovery," She said.
Rex curiously received the jar, took out a pill, and threw it in his mouth. An artifact spirit doesn't play tricks on their Masters even if he was just a Half-Master.
Suddenly, Rex's eyes got wide, when the pill entered his body, it melted instantly and a refreshing feeling filled his body, his stamina was regenerating at a quick pace. In a few seconds, he felt like he has recovered to his peak conditions.
A strange thought then came to his mind, Rex looked around the room, his eyes landed at the dressing corner on the side and the pool in front. He turned to Luna who was preparing herself for another head pat.
"Just asking, but what is the race of Saintess Kissandra?" Rex asked in a doubtful tone.
"Oh, Luna knows this, Luna knows that she is from Angel Race. Angel Race comes in the Divine Beings category, she has a high affinity with Light element, she also has innate skill Angel Halo that could increase the power of her Light elemental moves by 100% temporarily and.." She said in an all-knowing tone.
'And incredible stamina of a Divine Being,' Rex thought while looking at the pills in the jar.
[Crimson Sun Emperor… What an incredible man,]
Rex shook his head and decided to ignore these things.
"How many Sky Body Formation stage experts are inside the tomb? Can you show me their current situation or location?" Rex asked.
Luna nodded, she flew to the mini pool in the room and pointed at it, a tiny speck of light shot out from her finger and landed on the calm surface of the water, creating several waves of ripples.
As the ripples covered the pool the scenery inside is distorted, after the ripples subsided the scenery changes. The water surface acted as a screen and a big map was shown on it. It wasn't a 2D but 3D map model.
There were moving humanoid silhouettes in it, every figure had a tiny Karmic Indicator floating above their heads, the Karmic Indicators were of different colours, some were orange, some were black, the highest number was in the red or orange-red shade, while the least was in green.
'As expected of the Higher Realm,' Rex thought.
"There are a total of 8 Sky Body Formation experts excluding Half-Masters who has already cleared the tomb. The size of the Karmic Indicators on the map is changed depending on their cultivation base. The lower the cultivation base the smaller will be their Karmic Indicator and vice-versa," Luna explained.
There was no need for the words, the model map told everything, the silhouettes of cultivators were highly detailed, their uniform and facial features were also visible.
Rex scanned through the map, he saw that no one except him had reached the trial of Leech, even if they had some good bloodline and Luna wanted to pull them to the trap they have to meet another requirement, which was high wisdom and talent in his arts just like how Rex passed the test of chimera analyzation.
Rex also saw Nera, the sect master of Sky Pagoda Sect, after getting separated from Rex, she chose the long path but after reaching the next trail point she got trapped inside a cubic room. At the moment, she was cultivating, apparently, she didn't meet Leech. Luna didn't give her the death privilege because neither did she pass the previous test on her own nor did she had any special bloodline to nurture the Leech.
Except for her, the closest to the core part was the Calamity Lord from Relion Family. He was engaged in a fight with a Lion Chimera, the Chimera had the body of a lion but his tail was like a snake, his claws were similar to a crocodile and his sharp row of teeth was similar to a shark.
Another silhouette caught his attention, but this time it made Rex frown. The man was not normal, his body had dried skin, his left hand had frog-like skin and crab-like claw, his right hand was normal but the skin on it didn't match the rest of his body. He was wearing a wooden mask so Rex recognized him, he was one of the men that entered the tomb with him. At the moment, he was collecting his loots after slaughtering a group of cultivators who met him on the way, the Karmic Indicator on top of him was pitch red as blood with a tinge of black.
"A True-Devil cultivator? Luna trap him and finishes him off," Rex said without hesitation. True-Devil cultivator and Evil cultivators had only one main difference, the former had no bottom line, neither their race nor their appearance.
Being like a monster and being like a devil are two wholly different things.
Luna shook her head.
"Luna has said before, Half-Masters had limited permissions, Half-Master cannot interfere with the trails of the tomb only true Masters can do that," Luna said. To her, it didn't matter who kills who, she only thinks about her Master and the given orders. If Rex becomes her Master then no matter what he does, it will always be the right thing in her eyes.
Rex took a deep breath and exhaled.
"Okay then, let's make the contract," Rex said as he looked at Lerna.
On meeting her gaze, she closed her book, then came to him with a smile on her face.
Luna was so excited that she flapped her wings so fast that a few of her soft white feathers came out from her wings, fell to the ground, and disintegrated into light particles.
She snapped her little fingers and a big ancient-looking bronze scroll appeared out of thin air, the scroll unfolded on its own, several strange inscriptions flickered on its glass-like surface, giving out a mysterious feeling to the onlookers.
'Ancient Language? Dammit, I knew it, he considered the possibility of others trying to break the contract but he wasn't worried because he had an Ancient True Oath Scroll,' Rex laughed bitterly.
[So now what?]
'What do you expect, we will proceed, even if we cannot complete the contract, we would still have 100 years, right? We can surely become strong enough to survive the backlash from the contract or find a way to break it,' Rex said.
"Half Masters just need to place their hand on it and recite the oath I said," Luna said.
Rex looked at Lerna and slightly nodded, they both placed their hands on the bronze glass-like surface of the scroll and recited the two conditions to fulfill the contract Luna talked about before. As soon as they finished speaking, small cracks started to appear on the scroll, it broke like glass and fell to the ground.
But both of them ignored it, right now they could feel an illusory seal flickering inside their Inner World then disappearing.
Rex was familiar with this feeling, it was just that this time, it targeted the Inner World instead of his soul. Lerna was anxious for a moment about what was happening but then she looked at Rex and felt relieved.
"Congratulations to Luna, Luna finally got two new Masters," Luna said as she flew around in circles.
Rex looked at her and smiled.
'Rose looks like we found your soulmate,' He thought.
[...]