At dawn, after the night ended and the forest returned to its calm, Feicui Long got up with the sound of the birds, plus the smell of something delicious filling the air. His whole body hurt and he even felt empty without energy, but the strange thing was that he felt something on top of him.
Slowly he opened his eyes and what he saw was a beautiful woman with golden hair and royal blue eyes, looking at him blushing while she was on top of him moving strangely while going up and down. At first sight it seemed like a very exciting scene even for him.
But when the girl met his open eyes, she froze in shock, stuck in place, static almost as if lightning had struck her, then quickly, very fearfully, she composed herself and tried to explain saying: "Young master, t-this, t-this is not what it looks like..."
Feicui Long looked at her with a serious face, while realizing that he felt his whole body cold, the most obvious reason being because he was naked, only having his underwear on, and he said: "Not what it looks like? Weren't you trying to take advantage of me after I fell unconscious?"
Irina quickly shook her head looking super nervous, even with tears in the corners of her eyes and said: "No! I swear young master, I swear, believe me please, I was only finishing treating your wounds."
Feicui Long, seeing this, smiled and could not help but laugh happily: "Hahahaha, alright, alright, I'm joking. I know you wouldn't have done it. Besides, why do you behave like this? You are a woman of about 32-33 years and you still act like a pure young girl."
Then Irina calmed down a little and then noticed that Feicui Long's eyes this time were exactly the same as the time he used that technique, those mysterious eyes. Then, unable to contain her curiosity, she asked him: "Why haven't your eyes returned to normal after using that technique?"
Feicui Long, realizing what she meant, told her: "That is because my eyes are not the cause of that technique, my normal eyes are like this, that is their true form. It is strange I know, but I cannot do anything. As for those techniques, they are due to one of the capacities of my eyes."
Then he stopped and sighed saying: "As for returning to normal, it is likely it won't happen until after a long time. The deactivated form of my eyes is actually not the base form, but rather the opposite, a form obtained by the very capacities of the eyes."
Irina looked at him a little confused but continued listening quietly.
Feicui Long got up leaning against the rock and continued: "By using my special soul to forcibly use one of the abilities of my species and lineage with it, I temporarily weakened my control over them temporarily."
Then Irina finally got off and stayed calm, but then she looked one last time at those eyes, and this time directly into the pupil, as if she wanted to see a reaction, but what happened was different, because at that moment as soon as their gazes connected, she felt a pressure and fear instinctively without precedent in her, but the worst part was not that, it was that she began to feel a heat rising from below her body.
Feicui Long, who immediately noticed this, quickly closed his eyes and told her: "Alright, alright, you can go do something else like take down the food, also don't stare at them so much, not until you learn to control your lineage."
Irina immediately came out of this strange trance and the sensation of heat was interrupted, nodding she went to the iron pot she had put to cook a soup. After all, after this they would have to continue with the taking of the forest.
Feicui Long opened his eyes upon hearing her leave and then sighed: "This girl, if I am not careful, I would have been devoured in this forest…"
Then, while checking his whole body, he could see how Irina stitched all the serious wounds, which had begun to show signs of healing, while the light and moderate ones had already closed, thanks to the effect of his potions, the vital power of his bloodline and his emerald heart, which although in a weakened state, was still able to heal him.
When he saw it he sighed and said: "Well, something is something, at least I didn't lose much, I must be more careful next time. Besides… now I have another problem."
After saying that, he got dressed and took out a small mirror and could see his eyes, even the hands turning, this made him shake his head a little in defeat and said: "I don't know how they are going to react, but I estimate that I won't be able to deactivate my eyes for at least a year."
Having meditated enough, he returned where Irina was, where the two of them sat together to eat their breakfast, silently enjoying the rare sun in winter.
…
After that Feicui Long and Irina collected their loot, the artifacts from the amalgams and a few from the Lich and his elite guard that remained intact, as well as the pseudo artifacts and the artifact javelins, and all the fragments of artifacts to reforge them in the future.
With that finished, they continued on their way, there were still 2 of the 9 formations left to install. With these formations that would capture the aura and modify it plus the 1000 amplifiers, the whole forest would take the aura of the village's formation and put all this forest under his domain, without anyone suspecting anything.
With that he would already have a colossal territory for himself and a good source of income, which would help his Skydragon village along with the Skylion barony to prosper.
Fortunately the road had no more difficulties so everything went smoothly, when they installed the last formation only those inside the forest could feel a hidden aura, slightly imperceptible that threatened any beast or other superior race from entering the forest as long as they surpassed the elemental realm.
…
Meanwhile this was happening in the branch of the mortal races union, the branch leader kept looking at the signal, finally the two regulatory weeks had passed of keeping the 21 beacon stones emitting the signal without stopping.
Because yes, it was not enough to light the 21 beacons, but you had to keep them for 14 days. After all, anyone could carry 21 of these stones, throw them randomly anywhere wild dominated by superior races and claim it as theirs or as if they had recovered or conquered territory.
But the problem is that that would be far from the truth. If you are not capable of maintaining it for at least 14 weeks, then it means that you never conquered or recovered that territory, hence that time.
The branch leader slightly smiled saying: "That lion lady of Cecilia was not wrong, in the end her son-in-law really could take this legendary forest by establishing a pact with the lord of the forest, I suppose it will be time to do the paperwork to grant him the exclusive right of this territory for 25 years."
Then she looked towards the direction of a certain county: "Although perhaps some are so scared at this moment that they might wet their pants, but that is no longer the problem of the union."
…
Cecilia Skylion, the mother-in-law of Feicui Long, was on the balcony of the palace looking towards the forest, watching the projection of those symbols that today completed 14 days without any going out. Although she had not received any message, she could already guess more or less that it had been a great success.
Soon behind her steps were heard and after that a male voice was heard: "It seems you are very smiling to see this new son that our beloved daughter brought us."
Johan soon hugged her from behind and smiled kindly as he always did: "I still remember how hostile you were towards him when Isabella introduced him to us, you almost wanted to cut him to pieces right there."
Cecilia, without denying it, could only sigh and say in her defense: "A mother must protect her children from the harm of the world, I failed the first time with Isabella and I didn't want there to be a second time."
Cecilia then looked at him from behind and said: "It's just that I didn't expect this boy to have such means, although he is not very powerful, not only was he able to help Isabella awaken her bloodline, but he lifted the curse that plagued our family, giving all of us the opportunity to awaken our lineage."
Johan said: "So are you really going to try it at last?"
Cecilia turned around and kissed her husband, while pointing towards the forest and told him: "Yes, if the young ones make such an effort as to take an entire forest without anyone being able to do anything, how can I as their elder stay still and not advance?"
Cecilia looked him in the eyes and said: "After this new year, I will face the trial and awaken my bloodline. With that, we will only have a few more steps left, maybe in 2 to 3 years, I will finally be able to avenge the disgrace that my grandfather suffered, from those damned traitors of Krötenheim."
Johan gently hugged her and said: "Then at last, I will be able to see you smile more often, stubborn girl."
Cecilia laughed slightly 'Hahaha' and answered him jokingly: "Certainly killing some bastards will help me relieve my mind a little, but even so there will be much more to do, I just hope you have enough time to do it."
Johan told her: "Of course we will, and if not, we will find a way. Wasn't that always how we did it back in the day?"
Cecilia let herself be hugged and calmed down quietly, all while thinking of those crazy days of how a group of 5 adventurers explored many areas and faced many dangers and difficulties… yes, he was right, everything would work out somehow… yes, somehow it would…