"If you don't mind me asking, your Highness, what type of gift did you have in mind for Eyvor?" Asked Marley curiously while following behind Elif as he led the way to the Royal treasury.
"Well, I obviously plan to give her some cultivation resources; however, those will merely be appetizers compared to the main gift." Replied Elif with a smirk that was hidden away by his quạt tay.
"So, what is the main gift you speak of, your Highness?" Asked Marley, her curiosity burning.
"Don't know." Answered Elif casually, though his nonchalant demeanor caused Marley's face to twitch.
"Don't give me that look, Marley. The invitation arrived today; did you really expect me to already have everything figured out? I may be the closest thing in existence to perfection, but I'm still not perfect." Added Elif with a smile while displaying his characteristic narcissism.
"Ahh, yes. My apologies, your Highness." Said Marley naturally; having spent four years with Elif was enough for her to get used to Elif's narcissistic personality.
Stopping before Great-grandmothers door, I was about to announce my presence, but before I could, the door opened, and Great-grandmother instantly assaulted me; her tight hug made it feel like she was crushing me.
"Look how big you've gotten, my little Elif! It feels like just yesterday that I saw you for the first time. You've grown from such an adorable boy to a charming young man!" Exclaimed Celeste happily with a smile while tightly hugging Elif.
"Great-grandmother, can you ease up on the hug? You're going to collapse my ribcage!" Said Elif as he tried his best to get out of the hug; of course, that didn't happen, but Celeste did lighten the hug.
"Great-grandmother, I just visited you a couple of months ago; why are you acting like I haven't visited you in years?" Asked Elif while feeling relieved that his ribcage was no longer on the verge of snapping.
"I have to get a fill of my adorable little Great-grandson before you ascend the throne. Once you become the Emperor, you won't visit me again, just like those two little Grandchildren." Replied Celeste while faking sadness.
"Well, to be fair, Great-grandmother, it's not like Mother and Father don't wish to visit you; their duty as the leaders of the Empire is very time-demanding. I'm sure you know more than me about that subject, considering you were previously the Empress." Stated Elif, already imagining how annoying being the Emperor would be.
"Ahh, yes, I very well know the difficulties of being the Empress; definitely one of the most boring moments in my life." Said Celeste, agreeing with Elif's words.
"So, did you come to visit me, or was it to visit the Royal treasury?" Added Celeste, her expression returning to normal.
"One of the Divine Fairy Clan's descendants has invited me to their birthday celebration, and since I'll be attending, I will need an appropriate gift befitting my status. In other words, I need to visit the Royal Treasury."
With my statement, Great-grandmother nodded in response, turned around, and headed towards the Royal treasury through the door in the back of her room, all while carrying me like usual. While I've gotten accustomed to Great-grandmother carrying me everywhere every time I visit her; however, with my size, which is nearly the same as hers, it's become incredibly uncomfortable to be held in her arms. Not to mention embarrassing being carried with Marley's presence nearby; how am I supposed to get her to respect me when she sees the person she decided to submit to get carried around like some child?
"Great-grandmother, could you let me walk on my own? I'm twelve years old and nearly the same height as you; carrying me around like this is embarrassing and uncomfortable." Declared Elif as he attempted to look at Celeste, though with how she was carrying him, it was pretty challenging to do so.
"If the reason you don't like being carried is because of your age and size, why didn't you just say so earlier? That can be easily fixed, you know." Replied Celeste with a smile as she covered Elif in her Qi before Elifs body and clothes started shrinking.
"Great-grandmother, what did you do to me!?" Exclaimed Elif while inspecting his body that now resembles him when he was four years old.
"It's simple little Elif; I merely manipulated space and time Dao laws that encompassed you." Explained Celeste with a light smile as she continued walking down the hallway, though her words didn't ease Elif's confusion one bit.
'Space and time Dao laws? What are those? I've never heard the term Dao laws before. Do they have some connection with Dao seeds, Dao realm, and Dao heart?' Thought Elif curiously while ignoring the problem with his now young body.
"Hehe, don't think about it too much, little Elif. I could explain it in deeper detail to you, but you wouldn't be able to comprehend any of it currently anyways. However, one day you'll understand, all in due time." Said Celeste while smiling as she released Elif from her arms and approached the right side of the vault with the golden crystal.
Inserting the silver crystal into the vault, a few seconds later, the vault door unlocked, and with the opportunity presented before me, I floated to the handle and pulled it open.
'Much better than last time. I guess being a peak Divine makes quite the difference.' Thought Elif with a prideful smile at having opened the vault door with relative ease, which was a vast improvement from his first attempt.
In the past four years since becoming a Divine, I've only just recently advanced to a peak Divine, and while that would be considered remarkably fast for even a talented person, I personally found it to be relatively slow. However, there isn't much I can do about it; one thing I've learned in the past four years about being a Divine is that hard work isn't that useful.
Of course, if you wish to improve your cultivation base, you must work hard, but that alone isn't going to work; you must keep a good balance between cultivating and relaxing; otherwise, your improvements will be minimal. Not to mention your comprehension is the most significant factor, and considering I was able to comprehend sword intent within a few minutes of picking up a sword for the first time, my ability to understand definitely isn't lacking.
"Now then, Elif, what door shall we be entering?" Asked Celeste, Elif already in her arms again.
"Let us go to the Pill & Herbs chamber first; then, I suppose, Artifacts afterward." Said Elif with a childish voice to match his childish body, much to his annoyance; however, he preferred to keep quiet unless Celeste somehow made his situation worse.
Entering the pill & herbs door, I'm assaulted with an incredibly strong yet heavenly aroma of pills and herbs; while similar to the other rooms within the royal treasury, I see nothing but shelves of pills and herbs. Only when I used my divine sense could I view the entire room.
"Such a wonderful aroma." Muttered Marley while taking deep breaths to savor the smell.
"I concur. The only thing that can rival this smell is that Immortal pill I acquired from the Auction house, but that was just one pill while there are hundreds of millions of pills and herbs here." Said Elif with a smile, though because of his childish voice, it was hard for anyone present to take him seriously.
"Great-grandmother, can you bring out Divine and God-tier pills and herbs?" Asked Elif after finding nothing he deemed worthy enough to be a gift.
With just a snap from Great-grandmother, nearly all of the shelves sank into the ground before resurfacing, only now with more valuable items.
Scanning the new shelves with divine sense, I picked up some Divine-level herbs, a few God-level herbs, and one God-level pill before floating them over to me with Qi.
'A couple of nine-leaf spiritual clovers, two twelve-leafed spiritual clovers, one mystical lotus, and one soul enrichment pill.' Thought Elif as he gently stored them in different boxes before placing them inside his dimension ring.
"Alright, that is everything, Great-grandmother; let's head to the Artifact room." Announced Elif, feeling quite satisfied with the items.
Exiting the door, we headed toward the Artifact door and entered; the inside looked the same as I remember.
'Hmm, what should I get? Defensive artifact? Offensive artifact? Auxiliary artifact? So many options to choose from.' Thought Elif while scanning the room with his divine sense, hoping one of the artifacts could give him an idea.
"Great-grandmother, is there some kind of self-molding puppet artifact?" Asked Elif, not explaining it that well as he, himself, didn't exactly know what he was asking for.
"Hmm, I believe this is what you mean." Replied Celeste with a thoughtful expression before snapping her fingers, causing all the shelves to sink into the ground and resurface with several lifeless bodies on them.
"Just send a whisp of your soul into one, and it'll do the rest." Added, Celeste.
"Marley, go and do it; I wish to see how it works." Ordered Elif, to which Marley nodded before approaching one of the lifeless, sexless bodies.
Closely watching Marley, I saw her send a wisp of her soul into the body, and nothing happened at first, but I noticed the body began taking on a womanly appearance before; eventually, the previous lifeless body now looked identical to Marley. If it wasn't for one being entirely nude and weak, I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference appearance-wise.
"How does it feel, Marley?" Asked Elif as he watched how both Marleys examined each other.
"It feels normal yet weird at the same time, your Highness." Replied both of the Marleys simultaneously.
"Is that so? Well then, I'll take it for now." Said Elif, to which Marley quickly recalled her soul wisp as she just now realized her puppet body was entirely nude before Elif.
'Well, now that I've got the little gifts out of the way. What about the main gift?' Thought Elif as he stored the now lifeless and sexless body in his dimension ring.
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Created a discord server, so if anyone wishes to join, [https://discord.gg/TGc9yymDJP]
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Elven Legacy (Chapter 208: Maria & Marcus Leave The Empire) || Hero of Harmony (Chapter 89: Leaving The Forest) || One Piece: Chaos Kong (Chapter 152: Strawhat Pirates Defeated!?)|| Marvel's Black Steel (Chapter 50: Eloise's Visions) at [patreon.com/Ozonelayer691]