Chapter 436: We All Think The Woman We Love Is The Most Beautiful

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The purple-haired old man had been observing the entire process, and judging by his expression, he was quite satisfied with what Riven had accomplished.

"That’s the First Seal of the Heavenly Poison Body unsealed. The runes across your body will keep growing the stronger you become. As you can see, who you see right now wasn’t my truest form. No, I was pretty big and had a lot of arms and heads, hahah!"

"Huh... I’d rather not look so heinous," sighed Riven. "Unlike you, old man, I’ve got a wife."

"HAH?! Where did all that respectful behavior go to?! The moment you gain some power, you become all disrespectful?!" the old man roared. "I had a wife, you know?! And she was the most beautiful woman in the Western Quadrant Sector of the Universe!"

"Huh..." Riven nodded, looking at him with a somewhat curious expression. "What was her name?"

He hadn’t expected the old man to suddenly bring up his wife. However, considering how long he had lived, it was only natural that he had accumulated all sorts of experiences and relationships throughout his life.

"She was known as the Poisonous Ghost Miasma Empress," explained the Ten Thousand Poison Master. "A fitting name for the woman who pierced my poisonous heart with one hundred thousand needles, hahahaha! Good times! She really stole my heart back then. Nobody had ever matched me in poison cultivation until I met her... and she was a dazzling woman, ah! You should have seen her! Fair purple skin, long green-blue hair, eight beautiful red eyes, and ten long, slender and beautiful obsidian legs..."

The old man’s expression became rather nostalgic as he recalled his wife. He even raised his chin proudly, as though he were remembering the greatest achievement of his entire life.

Riven listened to him with an increasingly strange expression.

"...She wasn’t a Precursor, was she?" wondered Riven.

"If she was or not doesn’t matter!" The Ten Thousand Poison Master roared. "Well, she was half Precursor. Her father was an Elder, and her mother was of a powerful race of arachnid-like alien species named Rashaks. She was the most beautiful of them all!"

"...Did she also have long mandibles?" Riven asked while teasing him.

"NO! She had beautiful lips to kiss me! Stop asking stupid questions!" roared the Ten Thousand Poison Master. "I am not judging your wife, who looks like a little doll with nothing going for her, you know?! I’m really holding back!"

"What did you say?!" Riven hissed angrily. "Say that again and I’ll kill you! Elisa is the most perfect woman!"

He immediately became irritated, his poisonous flames growing a little brighter as his expression turned serious.

He could tolerate the old man’s strange personality and his constant boasting, but insulting Elisa was something else entirely. Regardless of how much power he had gained, there were certain things he simply wouldn’t tolerate.

"And so was my Empress! See? We all see the woman we love as the most perfect and most beautiful! Respect a man’s love!" roared the Ten Thousand Poison Master.

"...Hm," Riven sighed, shaking his head. He realized he shouldn’t judge.

The old man’s words actually made some sense. Everyone had their own preferences, and what mattered most was the affection they held for the person they loved. It wasn’t as though Riven had any right to criticize his appearance or his wife’s appearance simply because they looked different from what he considered beautiful.

"No, you’re right... Uh, I’m sorry."

"Tsk!" the Ten Thousand Poison Master clicked his tongue angrily and ignored him, crossing his arms and closing his eyes.

Riven sighed in relief.

He was glad that the old man had stopped arguing, although he couldn’t help wondering how many strange stories he would have to endure whenever they had conversations like this. The Ten Thousand Poison Master was certainly knowledgeable, but his personality was something else entirely.

After a moment, Riven returned to his original appearance, his enormous body gradually shrinking until he looked like his usual self again. The purple flames disappeared, and the halo behind his head vanished as well. However, the runes that had appeared across his body remained, although they were now considerably less noticeable.

He glanced around at the destruction and the slowly melting ice.

The area had suffered considerable damage during the battle, and the remaining frozen structures were gradually returning to their original state. He could still feel traces of the energy that had been released by the Heart Demon, but most of it had already been absorbed.

There was something else he wanted to ask about, though.

"The Divine King of the Cold Star... he saved me from the Hand of Inevitability when they kidnapped my mind... Do you know where he is right now?"

"His Psychic Avatar is recovering. He was destroyed," sighed the Ten Thousand Poison Master. "It’ll take some time for him to recover... It would go faster if you continued cultivating his legacy."

Riven frowned slightly.

He remembered what had happened when the Hand of Inevitability had attempted to interfere with his mind. Their methods were extremely troublesome, and he had been caught in a situation where he couldn’t properly defend himself. The Divine King of the Cold Star had intervened and saved him, even though doing so had apparently cost him his Psychic Avatar.

He couldn’t help feeling indebted to him.

"It’s the hardest to do, honestly. I’ve only gotten stuff from the investment system," said Riven, narrowing his eyes. "Do you have any other ideas?"

He wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about admitting it, but cultivating the Divine King’s legacy had proven to be rather troublesome. He had received some benefits through the investment system, but he hadn’t made much progress through his own efforts.

The problem was that he wasn’t particularly familiar with the cultivation methods associated with Ice Elemental Mana. His main abilities and techniques were considerably different, and while he could use various elemental powers, properly cultivating them was another matter entirely.

He had been relying too much on his existing methods.

"Why not ask your wife, then?" asked the Ten Thousand Poison Master. "Wasn’t she the original wielder of a fragment of his power? Or, well, the one blessed by the fragment, or the authorities as you call them... What a stupid name!"

"Right," Riven nodded.

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