Ella sat on the comfiest sofa she had ever rested her butt yet she couldn't enjoy its comfort to the fullest under his gaze. Her heartbeat slightly increased, not only because of the attraction towards the opposite gender but also because of his cultivation level, Body Strengthening stage, level 4.
Cultivation speed like this was monstrous, heaven-defying, and godly.
Despite the large crowds outside, the room was silent. Soon after, a woman in her early thirties came through the door behind him carrying a tray with two cups on it.
The sweet fragrance coming from those cups made Ella's voice salivate to the point that she wanted to jump and gulp whatever inside the cups.
Ghost grabbed the cup with a smile and then, the woman placed the tray before Ella, "Please take it, Elder Ella" Regardless of her covered face, the woman gave her a wide grin, not a fake one but a genuine grin. Ella was surprised by the hospitality, "Thank you"
She couldn't wait any longer, she brought the cup near to her nose getting overwhelmed by the fragrance. Soon, she took a short sip, just only to feel a burst of electricity run through her body. Her black hood covered the sight of her eyes widened, this was nothing like she had tasted before, like nothing. All of her taste buds in the tongue felt alive, delighted, and overwhelmed.
"Delicious isn't it?" After Michael upgraded the system to version 3, he was able to quickly imbue the secret element into the ingredients Raylene brought from Bredia. Although the system said the secret element was pure Arch energy, he somewhat had a hard time believing it. Anyhow, the system made changes to the ingredients in the microparticle level, and coupled with Raylene's 5-star chef trait, anything made out of these ingredients became extremely delicious.
"This is drugs, no it's better than drugs," Thought Ella, quickly finishing the tea in no time.
"Yes, it is delicious" after a few moments, Ella asked,
"Well, Elder Ella, meet the only 5-star in the entire Kingdom of Bredia" Ella's mouth opened further, staring at the woman obediently standing behind Michael.
"Do you know what is the most powerful profession, Elder Ella?" Michael asked after placing the cup on the table in front of him.
Ella blankly shook her head, she was still overwhelmed by the fact the woman in front of her is a 5-star chef. She didn't doubt this fact because no one else could have made a simple tea this delicious,
"Alchemy, there are potions and pills for nearly everything, including for those burn wounds" Michael pointed at Ella's half-burned face, her heart skipped a beat, mouth became dry as she mumbled, "how-"
"Baby Dragon," Ella heard a squawking sound, her mind was blank due to overwhelming surprises and shock she has been receiving ever since she stepped into his home. Soon, Raylene took the cups and left the room, leaving them to their meeting.
"Wow!" she jumped back on her couch, it was a little dragon, a baby dragon. She had never seen a baby dragon before or a real dragon for that matter but she had seen paintings of dragons and the creature in front of her resemble the paintings. She felt the noble aura the creature was radiating, each of its movements was majestic, dignified.
It climbed on his shoulder with ease and dropped the thumb-sized cup it was carrying in its mouth. Michale sent the thumb-sized ceramic cup floating towards Ella, "Apply this cream on the wound in your wrist" Michael had seen those wounds on her forearm despite her full sleeves,
"This will go a lot smoother if you trust me, Elder Ella, besides you have nothing to lose by applying that cream"
"HU!" the baby dragon knew he gave her an order and it kept staring at her until she slowly took a small amount of this bluish cream and applied it to her wound.
The cream touched her skin, her burned skin had long ago lost the sense of touch. Even she wouldn't look at her face or her naked body without feeling nauseated. Half of her body had ugly burn wounds that made her cry her eyes out every single day.
Until thirteen years ago, she was a pretty girl, even though she was not an angelic beauty who would instantly make men fall in love with them, she had a few followers. She was the one who was meant to be the next sect leader of the Broad River sect but this fact changed when she met with an accident, an accident she would never forget until she dies. That day, she was caught inside a burning room, until to this day, she had no idea how the fire started.
The fire engulfed her home and all of her servants, fortunately, her parents weren't at home that cursed day. Because of her wounds, the Elders and the sect leader chose the next in line as the new sect leader, Mathias stating that with those wounds, she can't be the one who leads the sect. They were right, those wounds changed her, changed her from within, she was never the same person after that night.
Men who courted her wouldn't even take a glance at her, those who had no heart would make fun of her. Her friends left her because they couldn't be seen with an ugly freak like her. Slowly she started to wash away her feelings and griefs in booze, drugs, and anything that could numb her brain.
This addiction of hers chased away her parents, leaving her alone. Only after a few years, she slowly began to realize what happened that night was not an accident but a planned event. The booze numbed her brain and kept her from realizing this sooner. When she started to investigate through any means necessary, she had found that it was Mathias who planned this.
However, her realization came too late as he had already reached the Core Formation while she was struggling at the Body Refining stage. The vengeance made her quit drinking and focusing solely on her cultivation. For the past ten years, she was controlling the urge to kill him and waiting for the right moment to strike.
Mathias did not know her true intentions, as far as he was concerned, she was plotting to steal the leader position from him.
"What-" She gasped the very next moment she applied the cream. The wound on the place she put the cream vanished instantly, on that place, new smooth skin began to appear.
She immediately pulled her sleeve up and then, she scooped the cream, trying to apply the small amount of cream everywhere. Although the cream was not enough for all the wounds on her hand, everywhere the cream touched, the wounds got healed.
It was simply a miracle because she had hired numerous healers and tried hundreds of alchemy products but not a single one of them could heal her wounds because the fire that burned her skin was not a normal fire but the holy fire.
"Your wounds will appear again after a few days but I can make them disappear forever" there was a small pause in his voice before continuing "only if you do my bidding," he said while gently rubbing the baby dragon's chin, he looked calm and carless.
"Anything...anything" she saw those ugly wounds disappear, she felt the cold breeze brushing through her smooth skin again. She wanted this cream, she wanted it desperately.
"As we speak, Sect Leader Claire is making an offer, an offer to merge your sect with mine under the leadership of Sect Leader Claire. But you know the outcome of this right?" She nodded knowing very well that Mathias won't even consider this, not even in a million years.
"I can simply kill him and subdue your sect within a day but if I did that, your people will sooner or later revolt, hinder the growth of my sect" She knew he was right, Mathias may be an evil son of a bitch to her but everyone in the sect would definitely leave or revolt if Ghost forces them to join his sect.
"That's where you come in Elder Ella, I know you were the next in line after your previous sect leader and I also know, Mathias is the one who did this to you. I want you to convince your people to join my sect, in return, since Sect Leader Claire can't be in two locations at once, we'll leave the Broad River sect in your care. Plus, I'll heal your wounds" This was a sweet deal, Ella would have even poisoned the entire sect for that miraculous cream if he had asked her to.
"I will do it,'' Ella said with a firm resolve in her voice, making him grin wide.
Michael left all the planning and convincing stuff to Ella as she knew the people of the Broad River sect better than him.
***********************
Eventually, after speaking for another couple of minutes, Ella left his home leaving him with the baby dragon.
"What happened with Ella?" Gaya entered the room and plunged herself into the sofa.
"Just as we planned, how's your end?"
"He wants you to come to his sect, apologize in front of everyone, take a hundred whips from each person's family you've killed"
"How predictable" he sneered,
"He gave you a week of time, if you don't go there by the end of this time, he said that he will come here personally to drag you there"
"Then Ella has a week of time to convince them"