"Y-Yuan! Is that true?! You impregnated this young lady?!" Wang Xiuying turned to him for answers, as she couldn’t believe that someone as innocent as Yuan would do something like that to a woman he’d only recently met.
Yuan nodded in a calm manner and confirmed, "Yes, she asked me to impregnate her, so I decided to help her."
"U-Unbelievable..." Wang Xiuying stared at him with clear disbelief on her face.
Finding out Yuan had impregnated another woman was akin to a hardcore fangirl finding out that her number one idol had a girlfriend for Wang Xiuying.
The shock she felt was unique and different from what Meixiu felt when she first found out about it.
After many moments of silence, Wang Xiuying spoke again, "W-Well... Congratulations! I cannot wait to see the baby in nine months!"
Wang Xiuying was unaware that Divine Beasts had a much longer conceiving time.
"Nine months?" Lan Yingying raised her eyebrows.
She then said, "It will take at least a thousand years before I can give birth. Divine Beasts are different. We cannot give birth so quickly unlike humans."
"Is that how it works? But one thousand years... We’ll be long dead by then..."
"As long as you reach Spirit Grandmaster, you’ll be able to live over a thousand years comfortably." Grandma Lan said to her.
"Perhaps in this world, but alas..." A bittersweet smile appeared on Wang Xiuying’s face. Although Spirit Grandmasters can live to be a thousand in this cultivation world, they are only inside a game.
’There’s no such thing as cultivation in the real world, after all...’ Wang Xiuying thought to herself.
A few hours later, they arrived at the cabin in the Divine Forest.
"Go ahead and make yourselves at home. I’ll go brew some tea." Grandma Lan said to them.
After they sat down, Grandpa Lan said, "I will be right back."
He then disappeared somewhere.
"Yuan, what are you going to do once you go back outside?" Lan Yingying asked him.
"Well, I am going to return to my sect for a while. Then I am going to enter this place called Dragon Temple. Once all of that is done, I plan on leaving the sect so that I can explore the rest of the Lower Heavens before I decide to ascend through the Stairway to Heaven." Yuan laid out his plans.
"The rest of the Lower Heavens? That’s going to take years, Yuan." Wang Xiuying said to him.
And she continued, "There are four continents in the Lower Heavens, and as far as I am aware, a single continent in this world is as big as all of the continents on ’Earth’ combined."
"Really? Then I guess I will just look around until I feel like going to the upper heavens." Yuan said.
"What about following that Senior Nie to Spirit Heaven? You opened the Mystic Pagoda, so you automatically qualify to ascend with him." Wang Xiuying then asked.
"Nah. I’d rather ascend with my own effort. And there are still things I need to do in the Lower Heavens." Yuan said.
"Makes sense." Wang Xiuying nodded.
Sometime later, Grandpa Lan returned with a small wooden box in his hands.
He sat down in an empty seat before placing the box before them.
"I want you to have the thing inside this box. It’s a farewell gift from us— the Lan Family." Grandpa Lan said with a mysterious smile on his face.
And he continued, "You deserve it."
"What is it?" Yuan couldn’t help but ask.
"Open it up and see for yourself," he said with a smile.
Yuan nodded and opened up the box, and to his surprise, there were two familiar-looking objects resting inside the box.
There were two crystals— red crystals.
"T-This is... Demon Cores?" Yuan asked in a dazed voice.
"Yes. One of them belongs to the minor demon you had sealed but never got to finish. We finished it for you after your disappearance." Grandpa Lan explained.
"As for the second demon core... It belongs to the Demon Lord."
"Wait... What?" Yuan’s eyes widened with surprise.
"Didn’t the Demon Lord explode himself? How could his demon core have survived that?" Yuan asked.
"Although it may be called ’Core Detonation’, it doesn’t actually require the demon to destroy their demon core. In fact, a demon’s core has nothing to do with their cultivation, as they store their cultivation inside their body."
"So their blood, their muscles, their bones— every single cell in their body. This is one of the reasons for their near indestructible bodies, as their bodies are made mostly out of spiritual energy."
"If a demon core isn’t their Dantian, then what is a demon core? And why does it contain so much spiritual energy?" Yuan asked.
"Unfortunately, I do not have an answer for that question, as I don’t know that much about demons, to begin with." Grandpa Lan shook his head.
"I see..." Yuan mumbled.
"Anyways, we found the Demon Lord’s demon core at the place where he self-destructed. We were going to feed it to Yingying when she’s actually pregnant so that the baby can feed off the spiritual energy and grow stronger, but seeing that you’re still alive, we’re going to give it back to you." Grandpa Lan said.
"Are you sure?" Yuan asked.
"Yes." Lan Yingying nodded.
"I see... Thank you." Yuan accepted the demon cores and tossed them into his Dragon Spatial Ring.
"Now, onto our next subject..." Grandpa Lan said as his expression suddenly turned solemn.
"Yuan, what do you think about letting Lan Yingying follow you outside?"
"What? Miss Lan?" Yuan’s eyes widened with surprise.
"Grandfather..." Lan Yingying was also surprised by his suggestion, as she thought he was only joking back then when he first mentioned it.
After a moment of silence, Yuan turned to look at Lan Yingying and asked her, "Miss Lan, do you want to follow me? I cannot guarantee you that it will be entertaining."
"I..." Lan Yingying opened her mouth, but she didn’t continue, and she turned to look at her grandparents with a hesitant look, clearly reluctant to leave them behind.