Contrary to his host, this news didn't fill him with dread, sadness or anger. Rather, he became intrigued and a bit excited, as there was a high likelihood that he had stumbled upon a jackpot!
Playing the role of a grieving close acquaintance, he subtly inquired about the Imperial Han Family and its members. Although most of the villagers, even the elders, didn't know much about them other than some general knowledge, there were two merchants currently resting at Shanxi Village who had dealings with them before.
From them, he found out exactly what he had wanted to know: Whether or not they had any special physical features.
The descendants of the Imperial Han Family looked mostly human, but depending on the purity of their bloodline, they would develop animalistic, reptile-like features which they proclaimed to be the proof of their noble dragon lineage! These included but were not limited to: Slit-like pupils, golden scales on various parts of their bodies, a split tongue of absurd length and dangerous claws. Not only were their physical forms affected, but so were their minds. The more pure the bloodline, the less rationality they still retained, instead growing murderous and deceitful, as well as filled with lust.
After being made aware of all of this, a regular person might have come to the conclusion that this family could really be descendants of some sort of dragon, as everything listed above did indeed sound like what one would expect of such beings.
Yet, Theodore knew that this was not the case, for the simple reason that he was now entirely certain that he was dealing with exactly who he had hoped to encounter. The name 'Imperial Han Family' was infamous throughout the entirety of the Heavenly Dao, and the appearance as well as behaviour of their people was known to all. They were considered a plague by the vast majority of forces, after all!
Contrary to the Ravagers, which were classified as a natural disaster, the Imperial Han Family were an entirely man-made one. Or rather, a snake-made one. But just like their insect counterparts, because they couldn't truly threaten the most powerful forces or Named Families, they were looked down upon and ignored on the regular, only exterminated if one stumbled across them and their behaviour was too terrible–which it usually was.
But how come that they were so hated? What are they exactly, and how did they proliferate to the point that eliminating them in their entirety was a real hassle? Well, it all started with a snake.
Several hundreds of eons ago, not too long before Huang Xian's death, an unremarkable world which had recently come under the Heavenly Court's jurisdiction saw the rise of a formidable powerhouse by the name of Laghu.
Born as a common python, he managed to overcome any and all limits imposed upon him by his species and evolved further than any other snake before him. Due to having hatched with a Unique-grade Talent providing him with near-undying longevity, there was no bottleneck that he could not overcome with a healthy dose of patience.
By the time that he left his home world and explored the Heavenly Dao, instead of resembling a regular snake, he had grown to almost a thousand meters in length, his scales solid enough to resist against the Lesser True Void beyond. Multiple pairs of claws had sprouted along his long, serpentine body, while his head had elongated, grown horns and morphed into a more monstrous, threatening shape. Instead of swallowing his prey, he could now chew them apart with the mouthful of sharp teeth that he had developed.
For a long time now, instead of being proud of how far he had come, Laghu had been ashamed of his ordinary heritage. So, as he stepped unto a broader stage, he chose to go by the moniker of Long. This was an effort to compensate for the embarrassing meaning of his birth name, and to serve as a stark opposite to it. To further distance himself from his origins, he claimed to be a dragon, rather than a highly evolved snake.
The problem with this was that one of the first Named Families of the Heavenly Court, as well as one of its strongest Supreme Pillars... was the Dragon Family. Their non-humanoid forms' looks had been repurposed by the World's Will of John's old world as the 'Western Dragons'. Clearly, the ones representing the concept of a dragon in the Heavenly Dao were nothing like Long, so how could they possibly allow him to run his mouth and besmirch their image?
Contrary to what one might expect, however, the Dragon Family approached Long with kindness and understanding. As one of the first non-humanoid species to rise to greatness, they looked highly upon any newcomers in the field, even providing support and protection to those which they deemed worthy.
An evolved snake with a Unique-grade Talent was exactly the kind of genius that they loved to see! With that in mind and impressed by his achievements, they offered to go so far as to adopt him into their family to make his claims legitimate in the eyes of the Heavenly Dao.
Seeing no reason to refuse–in spite of his origins having been understood at a glance–and tempted by the benefits, Long agreed. After another eon of journeying through many worlds, he finally settled down and started his own branch of the Dragon Family, which he termed the 'Long Family'. Of course, he had discussed it all with the higher-ups in advance.
Nothing particularly remarkable occurred for the next few eons, but it was at this time that Long managed to reach a slightly more advanced cultivation realm than even the strongest patriarch of the Dragon Family. Nobody knew how he had managed to accomplish this feat, as his previous progress had always been slow but steady, not rapid. Clearly, something major had taken place unbeknownst to all! Whatever secrets there were behind it, though, Long did not breathe a word about them.
What he did do, however, was to publicly proclaim himself as the 'Divine Dragon', as the forefather and most supreme of all dragonkind–of course, he had invented that title himself.
If he had stopped right there, while he might have made many members of the Dragon Family unhappy, he would have merely had to beat them in a duel to make them shut up for good, only daring to curse him behind closed doors. Yet, his overinflated ego and confidence led him to rename his branch the 'Imperial Han Family', then make them embark on the course of enslaving and suppressing every other kind of dragon out there.
"All of you who are not of my blood are inferior creatures destined to become the servants of the supreme bloodline!"
When he was criticized for his ruthless actions against his own kind by an elderly member of the Dragon Family, his statement incited outrage not only from the entirety of his adoptive family, but also from those who were on friendly terms with them.
In an effort to resist, many forces were called upon, and the Imperial Han Family's troops which he was so proud of, alongside Long himself, were routed in a single battle. They simply couldn't handle being the public enemy.
It was at this time that his descendants chose to split up into countless small groups and entered innumerable worlds, both within the Heavenly Court's World Cluster and beyond. There, they reproduced like mad, usually turning into the supreme rulers of their chosen homes, whose indigenous inhabitants could never again escape their influence's shadow.
Long himself was heavily wounded, but after another dozen eons, he not only recovered, but became more powerful than ever. He planned to announce his return by slaughtering a few of the patriarchs of the strongest Named Families that had stood against him to send a message.
Yet before he could do so, the Heavenly Empress intervened and sentenced him to eternally battle the Heavenly Court's enemies at the front lines beyond the Heavenly Dao. For her, it was extremely simple to force any living being into a binding oath which they could never break or escape from, where they could do nothing but what she wanted them to. In such an anticlimactic manner, the tale of Long the self-proclaimed Divine Dragon came to an end.
The Dragon Family had long expelled him since that fateful battle, which was why neither he nor his descendants held the qualifications to be called dragons any longer. To this day, he had never returned, forced to fight battle after battle unceasingly.
The Imperial Han Family, who had been accumulating strength and lying low, waiting for Long's command, was now without a leader. They were incapable of enduring endlessly, so they started a second war–this time not only versus the Dragon Family and its allies, but also against the rest of the Heavenly Court!
Many scholars had attempted to find an explanation for this utterly ridiculous act, but the only point that they would eventually all agree on was that Long's descendants were inherently extremely arrogant, putting nothing and nobody in their eyes. Even if the Heavenly Empress stood right before them, and they were abundantly clear of the difference in power and status between the two sides, they would still degrade her and verbally elevate themselves above her, seeing her as nothing but a lesser being. This wasn't a random example, but actually an event that had occurred on multiple occasions.
In such a manner, the Imperial Han Family dug their own grave deeper and deeper over the eons, turning into the publicly recognized most hated force out there. It was as if they were deliberately trying to disgust every single influential figure that they could find–yet they merely saw their actions as a matter of course. They believed that their supreme bloodline were the rightful rulers of the entirety of existence itself!
The only reason for them to continue to survive until this day was that the Heavenly Empress, alongside the Supreme Pillars of the Heavenly Court, had designated them as the most well-known public training dummies for upcoming geniuses. Without Long's leadership, they couldn't pose too much of a threat and all of them who could possibly grow to the point where they could do so were immediately sent to reinforce their progenitor. The ones left behind would then be ideal for the younger generations to accumulate experience against.
Of course, there were still instances where those who had personal grievances with them and had become strong enough would eradicate entire worlds in an effort to get rid of this plague. But due to their lustful nature and the resulting rapid reproduction, as well as them constantly sending out small groups to absolutely everywhere, they always quickly shrugged off their losses.
It seemed that even the event venue which the Heavenly Empress had created could not escape their influence–or perhaps, they had been deliberately placed here to serve as a trial.
Whatever was actually the case, to Theodore, the most important thing was that their numbers were extremely great and their Talents usually far above average. Their presence here, especially at this juncture when he desperately needed a huge amount of Attribute Points, was practically a godsend!
'After that atrocious start, finally, there's some luck!'
When he returned to Xie Mei's home now that he got all that he wanted from his investigation, he came across the girl wailing to herself in silence, her gaze a mix of confusion, anger, helplessness and sadness. Not once had she considered that she might lose her parents when she was still this young!
Shanxi Village had never been visited by any imperial descendants, as it was just too remote and unremarkable. Due to this, they rarely ever even heard about the atrocities committed everywhere in the more populated, famous areas. The next town over, where Xie Mei's parents had sold their produce regularly, was itself already far too distant for anyone from the Imperial Han Family to usually come to.
In other words, they had been extremely unlucky.
But none of that mattered to the daughter that they left behind, all on her lonesome. Although the villagers had only ever treated her kindly, there were always some wolves in sheep's clothing in all decently sized groups of people. It would be quite dangerous for her from here on out.
Thinking of this, Theodore initially planned to ignore this matter, as he was pretty much about to leave. While she had helped him a little, he had more than repaid the favour. Still, considering that he did have a good impression of her, he decided to at least ask her about her exact situation to see if lending her a hand wouldn't be too much of a hassle.