"You... Why didn't you say all this before?" Brandis Mercer possessed a sorrowful and aggrieved expression, "I... I thought he was respectfully protecting you all this time while maintaining the perfect distance, that he had finally changed from being a womanizer to a guardian..."
"I..." Tina Roxley wryly smiled, "As I said, I didn't have any evidence. Aurelius himself was careful, knowing when to back down as he bided his time, perhaps, slowly trying to whittle down my resistance towards him while showing good faith like buying me expensive resources..."
"Nevertheless, with the resources he gave me, I secretly bought a Peak-Level King Grade Formation, Lesser Five Elements Formation to kill him if he ever made a move to force me in my bedroom."
"What...? How did you do that...!?" Brandis Mercer became stunned.
"Did father forget that I was forced to handle some matters of the underground auctions because of my wretched Roxley family? I know a few ins and outs of the trade routes, where to take advantage of loopholes and stuff like that..."
Brandis Mercer became tongue-tied, not really knowing what to say to her statement.
Davis blinked, thinking that Tina Roxley was a really sharp and smart woman, but when it came to love, she became intensely obsessive as she threw away her smarts out of the window. Or was it better to say that she gave priority to her emotions rather than her smarts when it concerned him?
Nevertheless, he moved on.
"Can I look into your soul sea?"
Tina Roxley's body shook.
"Wait... This is rather hasty..." Brandis Mercer raised his hands as he felt that it was inappropriate.
"Go ahead..."
However, Tina Roxley closed her eyes and pursed her lips as they trembled, looking like she was prepared to be kissed.
Brandis Mercer became stunned, but he didn't know what to say after Tina Roxley gave her permission. How could he stop a King Soul Stage Expert from checking the soul?
He would be unable to stop his own soul sea from being invaded by Davis even though he was a Mature Soul Stage Cultivator himself!
Davis's expression became complex in her belief towards him. He took a breath and extended his hand as he kept his finger on her forehead, his soul sense heading into her soul sea through the glabella.
"!!!"
Tina Roxley shook as she felt the foreign energy invade her. Her fists subconsciously clenched, but she didn't resist and tried hard not to resist. After a short few seconds, she felt that strange feeling fade away while the touch of his finger on her forehead also disappeared.
She opened her eyes and looked at his lips move.
"You don't have anything strange in your soul. My King Soul Stage soul sense assures it..." Davis spoke as he acknowledged, feeling that it was right to think that he was the one who caused their fates to change.
"I see..."
Somehow, Tina Roxley became both disappointed and happy.
For one, she wasn't the reason that her fate had become miserable for most of her life, and for the other, she was disappointed that she didn't possess something unique about her.
With this, how could she even hope to be wed to a Soul King?
What was before an ordinary yet valiant youth was now an extremely powerful Soul King that she didn't know how to match up to him, further feeling like she lost her rights to be together with him.
She became angered at herself and looked at Aurelius in an enraged manner.
"Is that why you lusted after me? For the Fate Discarnate Soul?"
Aurelius remained kneeling, his expression unchanging as he did not answer.
"Answer all her questions..." Davis added, and only then did Aurelius's lips move.
"... Yes."
Tina Roxley's expression shook severely, but then a wry smile filled her face as she felt ironic for him. He lusted after her for something she didn't have.
Aurelius had become a mindless slave for nothing!
"Why?" She couldn't help but ask.
"That's because the Fate Discarnate Soul makes us Mystic Diviners almost invincible as we can considerably lessen the backlash we receive from peering into the heavens..."
"So it was for benefits..." Tina Roxley relaxed, thinking it was not for love.
If it was, she would've felt pitiful for him.
It wasn't her intent to harm anyone, but she didn't like anyone harming her either. She felt that she still would've killed him if Aurelius made a move on her. That part of her thoughts didn't change as she coldly stared at him.
Nevertheless, this also explained why he began to act strangely towards her after the second divination failed, resulting in Aurelius spitting out a mouthful of blood and collapsing from weakness before he began to secretly pursue her.
"So that was why you lusted after my daughter! If... If that was the case... You could've purely asked for her soul in a manner of cooperation, and with Tina's character, she wouldn't have refused! Why...? Just why did you do this...!?"
Brandis Mercer still felt betrayed that his long-time friend and sworn brother would do something like this. Their friendship had lasted for thousands of years, but Aurelius ended up doing an immense wrong and became a mindless slave in the end.
He couldn't help but feel both sorrow and hatred.
"Answer him..." Davis added as he sighed.
"...No, to use her Fate Discarnate Soul, she must have absolute trust in me... To make her possess unwavering trust, I had to make her my woman so that I could use her soul without harming her... Otherwise, there are unorthodox and cruel methods to forcefully plunder her soul, but I felt pity for her, so I... chose the former..."
Aurelius mindlessly uttered without even a tinge of emotion while Brandis Mercer and Tina Roxley's expression both froze!
So it was either make her his woman or forcefully plunder her soul from her for Aurelius. This made them wonder if things would've been different if the method to use the Fate Discarnate Soul was different...
However, there were no what ifs in the real world.
"So what would you have done if Tina Roxley outright refused to become your woman?" Davis coldly asked as he had an amused expression on his face.
"... I would use the unorthodox method to violate her, make her give birth to my child, refine that child's blood and soul essence to make a hypnotic pill and feed that to her to make her absolutely trust me before ultimately plundering her soul and making it mine to benefit my path to the peak of the Mystic Diviner world."
"!!!"
"Ahhh!!! I was a fool to have believed that you were an upright person!!!"
Brandis Mercer roared in rage as he moved forward to seriously beat him up, but Davis held his shoulders, not letting him move.
"It was funny to see you two be moved by his perseverance in not wanting to harm Tina, but his compassion was on the condition that she does not outright deny him. All he felt was lust for you, Tina. I can assure you that..."
Indeed, both Brandis Mercer and Tina Roxley were now deeply disgusted that they wanted to outright kill him now, no feelings barring them from acting on that thought. Before, when they heard that he did not use forceful methods, they were a bit saddened to think that he had met this kind of fate, left without a choice but now, all they felt was hatred.
In fact, they couldn't be blamed for thinking that Aurelius was a righteous person. After all, the Heaven Gazing Sect accepted him.
Even if he was a bit bad in the past, how bad could he be now...? However, they didn't discern his limit to how insidious and wicked he could be!
Davis utterly relished this feeling of revealing a person's true character, especially when they act like a righteous person, but on the inside they were full of disgusting, wicked thoughts. However, at this time, even his face became ugly, his hands subconsciously clenched in rage as he couldn't take all these thoughts being directed towards Tina Roxley.
It took everything within him to not utter a simple command of making Aurelius kill himself!
"Aurelius, you bastard...!" Tina Roxley gritted her teeth as her eyes almost became bloodshot, "What more have you done to get me...? Don't tell me you were also behind those young masters and old heads suddenly wanting to marry me...?"
"... Yes."
Tina Roxley increasingly trembled as she raised her head and took a deep breath, "Was this all to force me to rely on you sooner? What about my little sister's kidnapping? Were you behind it too?"
"... Yes."
"!!!"
"You son of a bitch...! Die!!!"
Tina Roxley shed tears as she snapped, unleashing a powerful wave of flames at him, wanting to burn him into ashes.
*Shhhh!~*
However, a red-colored domain expanded, stopping Tina Roxley's flames from reaching the kneeling Aurelius.
Obviously, it was Brandis Mercer who blocked her, but he still had an ugly, disgusted expression on his face, wanting to kill Aurelius himself but unable to as he painfully knew that if he did so, he and even all of them might be hunted down by the Heaven Gazing Sect.
"Ahhhh..."
Seeing that her attack was blocked, Tina Roxley broke down as she began to helplessly cry. She no longer wanted to hear what kind of hideous plans he had for her. She turned around and embraced Davis as she began to cry on his shoulders while feeling awful.
It was a repeat of what happened with her biological father, except this time it was someone whom she thought of as her uncle.
Why exactly did all this happen?
Tightly embracing Davis, she cried her heart out like a little girl who had lost enough things in this world.