Legacy of a Benevolent Lord
Chapter 60: Your Highness… Sister… I - I’m sorry

Chapter 60: Your Highness... Sister... I - I’m sorry

While they were speaking, they heard a loud thud one after the other. They snapped their heads to the side to see the two birds finally drop their snakes.

Riven didn’t waste time.

Drawing the Green Cloud Sword, he slit open both serpents and extracted their gallbladders - the skills which he had learned from his guards... who surprisingly knew how to skin animals and cook.

The orbs were deep purple, thick with spiritual energy, and still pulsing faintly from within.

He placed them in a clay wine jar filled with fire liquor to sterilize the blood stench.

"Selene. Nysalea," he said, calling the two girls over. "Each of you, take one."

"What about you?" Nysalea asked immediately.

She hadn’t expected to be offered the first pick.

"These aren’t ordinary snake gallbladders," Riven explained calmly.

"They increase raw strength, boost internal vitality, and offer resistance against all forms of venom. Even for our Innate bodies, this is a treasure."

"Then you should take one," she insisted. "You fought that divine bird."

Riven waved a hand. "I have divine bones. Physical strength isn’t an issue. Besides, there are likely more snakes deeper in the valley. I’ll find another."

Selene: "I have divine bones too, though...", she said in suspicion.

Riven: "Enough! What I say goes. Take it."

His tone was stern and firm, offering no room for refusal.

When it comes to boosting women’s strength, he won’t settle for anything less than exceptional efforts.

He will likely ensure they receive even the critical returns.

However, the two girls were nonetheless stunned.

Each gallbladder was worth equal to or more than a Heaven-grade pill.

And the serpents were at least a hundred years old! Even elite sect disciples would fight to the death over one.

And here he was, giving them away.

Selene was used to Riven’s generosity but was not immune to its impact.

She looked at him, lips tightening.

In her mind, she thought: Do I really deserve him?

Riven was the kind of man who gave without asking.

Who lifted people up without expectation....

Who walked into others’ storms and asked for nothing in return.

Although he would not do this for just anyone, and he did it sometimes out of boredom...

He was going to get hurt for this.

Unless I stand beside him, she thought. Unless I shield him so that no one can use him.

Nysalea, too, felt something twist in her chest. She looked at the jar. Then at Riven.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "I’ll remember this."

Riven just smiled. He felt Selene’s thoughts and saw the gratitude in Nysalea’s eyes.

"Stop being so dramatic and take them before they get cold." He joked.

Selene and Nysalea exchanged a glance, then nodded in unison.

Each took a gallbladder from the wine.

It was still warm, soaked in liquor, soft to the touch. The scent was heavy, not unpleasant, but musky with a powerful aroma.

Neither dared bite.

Closing their eyes and scrunching their pretty faces, they swallowed them whole.

[Ding! You gifted Selene Virelyn a Pusiqu Snake Gallbladder!]

[Thousandfold critical return triggered!]

[Reward: Heaven-tier Lower-grade Myriad Serpent Golden Pill!]

[Ding! You gifted Nysalea Nightsilver a Pusiqu Snake Gallbladder!]

[Hundredfold critical return triggered!]

[Reward: Flying Serpent Gallbladder!]

Riven stood contemplating for a moment.

Two back-to-back criticals. And they were a hundred and a thousand.

He stared at the system prompt, his jaw tightening, resisting the urge to laugh in joy.

These two really were his lucky stars.

He smiled to himself, eyes softening.

....

Selene and Nysalea had already sat cross-legged by the cliff’s edge, beginning to refine the medicinal effects.

Their bodies pulsed with energy. Energy coiled around them, forming faint outlines of phantom serpents and swirling vapor.

Selene, in particular, looked ethereal.

Her body gave off a soft frost mist. Her breath curled like winter smoke. Her skin glowed faintly under the sunlight.

At the center of her forehead, a soft symbol shimmered and pulsed.

The pure yin bones within her were responding to the essence of the snake, intertwining with it and merging with her inner dantian.

She was moving closer to finishing the Yin Divine Physique.

He estimated that once this refining was over, he could ascend to the Innate life-form realm with her.

Riven watched her quietly.

His eyes were full of something unspoken.

Every night, she practiced the "Sunflower Manual" with Riven. The pure yang and pure yin powers converged, tempering her body.

After more than a year, her foundation was now incredibly solid, not inferior to those who had been entrenched in this realm for decades.

The difference is that they may lack hope for advancement because of various issues, but her journey has not even begun.

In a moment, she had refined the snake gallbladder.

She opened her eyes, beams of white light shooting out, as solid as if they were tangible.

She stood up and jumped around, feeling her increased strength. She had changed from a dress to white training attire, pants, and a T-shirt.

Taking a stance, she gently shot out a palm strike to the side, freezing everything in its path.

Since she possessed the subordinate divine bones originating from the Pure Yang Divine of Riven, her physical strength was undoubtedly enormous.

She could lift one of those 20-foot-tall alchemy cauldrons with a single hand.

Retracting from the martial stance, she closed her eyes and felt her state.

"In a few more days, I should be able to ascend to become an Innate life form," Selene Virelyn thought.

Buzz!

At this moment, a gentle breeze stirred, vibrating the surrounding atmosphere. A very faint and distant sound of a sword clashing was heard in the world around them.

Her beautiful eyes looked over; Nysalea Nightsilver’s aura surged, her charming face radiant, as she condensed a breath of inner energy.

A hundred-year-old snake gallbladder.

It wasn’t enough for Selene, with her deep foundation and her Divine Yin physique, to break through to the next realm.

For Nysalea Nightsilver, however, it should have been enough... yet something was different from the expectations.

From the moment she had consumed the gallbladder, a Pusiqu serpent nearly a century old, she had expected the surge to come, expected that wall to shatter, that invisible threshold to crumble beneath the force of her blood, soul, and spirit working in harmony.

She had expected her cultivation to break through to the Innate. And why shouldn’t it? She was already on the verge. Everything had aligned.

The universe had delivered her a miracle wrapped in a second chance: true love blooming, a rare treasure granted, and the unwavering protection of people who believed in her.

What more could heaven require?

But as the energy began to rise within her, it did not push upward. It did not rush like a tide toward that singular barrier as she had envisioned.

Instead, it dispersed.

Not outward.

But inward.

No! What’s happening? Why is it like this??!!!

It dispersed, like a cloud of starlight sucked into a void, not vanishing, but seeping into hidden corridors within her that she had never known existed.

Untraveled paths. Dormant veins. Bones still waiting to bathe in energy.

It was as if her entire body transformed into a vessel... more like a labyrinth... absorbing energy not to hasten a breakthrough but to nurture something more ancient and profound.

The main effect of this gallbladder was never raw power. That had always been the mistaken assumption of surface-level martial artists.

The strength boost was a mere byproduct.

The cultivation rise? Convenient stuff, but not the true treasure.

Its value lay elsewhere, in nourishing the spirit, enhancing the physique, and strengthening the foundation, which would sometimes help in awakening slumbering qualities buried so deep within a person that even they were unaware of them.

This was a catalyst. And it was searching for her.

Nysalea sat motionless, cross-legged on the stone platform, surrounded by the scent of mist and moss. The wind in the canyon had quieted. Even the birds had ceased their calls.

The only sound was the gentle rustling of the trees, as if nature itself was observing her.

She gradually opened her eyes, and the first thing she noticed was two silhouette figures standing guard over her. Still and steady, but a mix of emotions.

Riveron Ashvale. Selene Virelyn.

The man who had granted her safety, and the woman who had granted her sisterhood.

Her chest tightened.

To be able to share a moment of vulnerability, to reach this point in her path under the gaze of such people, what had she done in her past lives to deserve this?

She lowered her gaze, fists clenched tightly on her lap.

She had made a vow, quietly, in the solitude of her own heart, beneath the roar of her inner sea: never be a burden. Never again.

And yet... reality was cruel.

"Your Highness... Sister... I - I’m sorry," Nysalea whispered, her voice barely audible above the wind.

"I thought- The gallbladder would be enough... but- I... I’m sorry."