2 Chapter 2

My parents cried tears of joy upon seeing me back in the mansion after my succesful seduction attemp, but there was no time for this very filial son to celebrate your triumphant return with them right now. In order to not waste the newly acquired stroke of inspiration I gained after exchanging pointers with an expert in the Emperor Realm, I immediately locked myself inside my room to reap as many benefits as possible. This time I knew for sure that I would be achieving a breakthrough that would put me ahead of any of my supposed peers.

...

Rule 14:

A young master should practice closed-doors cultivation whenever he is free. Indoors cultivation and eating pills are some of the safest methods available for a young master to become stronger without acquiring new enemies.

You believe that training is useless because you are already ahead of all your peers? FOOL.

MCs are known for being able to fight opponents above their weight is why a young master should only fight someone if their cultivation is AT LEAST two big realms higher than his opponents.

If that isn't the case, then it is recommended for you to say something among the lines of them not being worthy of you soiling your peerless hands and then escape with as much dignity as possible.

...

As I circulate high quality Qi through my peerless meridians, those immaculate cultivation robes of mine that I am forbidden from wearing outside the mansion dance to the rhythm of the wind's playful whistling while the flames watch over them with the glee of those who celebrate a life being reborn into the world. The beautiful warm colored motifs that decorate my otherwise pure white robes seem to shine whenever one of the more mischievous flames touches them.

My parents paid good money for robes that could survive being exposed to fire for days at a time. Clothes made out of giant hell worms' silk weren't exactly cheap (those mysterious insects lived in the deepest part of active volcanoes and could only be collected by high class devils with fire affinity), but they certainly make cultivating ten times easier. My peerless robes are definitively a perfect fit for my cultivation method that can be summarized in heating the air in my surroundings and then breathing it. By turning my own body into a hot furnace in order to refine both my fire Qi and psychical body little by little I was starting to build a solid foundation that would serve me well when I finally attempt to form my hellish phoenix core and make the jump into the Aurous Core Realm once and for all.

That said, it is still too soon for me to make that dangerous leap. My encounter with Senior Sister proved that my previous understanding of the great Dao was comparable to a frog in a well believing itself the master of his small universe. Previously, I believed that one could either walk the righteous path and become a saint free of earthly desires and the evil path practiced by devil cultivators as a mockery to everything the heavens believe to be good and proper.

There was holiness; there was hell.

That is a flawed logic.

If a magical girl like Serafall Leviathan was above good and evil, why couldn't I also do the same. I may be a devil with a peerless phoenix bloodline, but I don't need to follow their path to immortality. Knowing this, what path should I follow now?

I'm at a loss, but there's hope. I may not know what path I should walk, but I know what I should I be doing now.

"I HAVE TAKEN A DECISION!" I state proudly as I make my way toward the living room. "THIS RISER PHENEX SHALL FIND A WORTHY MASTER AND…oh, hello dear little sister. How was your day?"

"It was fine." Ravel answers without taking her eyes off her book. It is a collection of poems written by Thomas Eliot, which is strange since I could have sworn that she was more of a Neruda kind of girl. "Dad decided it was time for me to learn about the family business."

"Aren't you going to ask me about how my last cultivation session went?"

"You are my big brother, so you obviously became way stronger than before." Ravel asserts as if that were the only possible outcome. The unwavering confidence is certainly flattering and utterly deserved.

It is because of little things like these and the fact that she leaves some food and water outside my door whenever I'm cultivating that my little sister has always been my favorite family member. That and because she looks adorable with those big blue eyes of hers.

"Have you read the newspaper?" My sister casually asks.

It has been a while since the last time I bothered to read the newspaper or watched the news. Since my second older brother, Revive, owns a decent part of the biggest media company in the Underworld I usually just ask him if something important happened instead of relaying in those papers filled with lies and exaggerations.

...

On the night of April 12, a tragedy painfully similar to those that our kind suffered during the last civil war took place in our beloved Netherworld, the fall of another pillars of Ars Goetia. The head and last member of the noble house Nebarius, Marquis Titos, was found dead in his castle along with the rest of his peerage. The culprit was identified as Kuroka, also known as the black beast, acclaimed bishop of Titos Nebarius who had shown a great deal of power in recent Rating-games against the…

...

More than half of the article was filled with junk and boring devil propaganda. The most interesting thing in it was the picture of the criminal standing next to a loli wearing some kind of unique goth lingerie...or maybe it was a dress.

"A cultivator is currently being chased by the authorities because of the crime of killing an evil cult master. Fortunately, she had the protection of a great expert."

This is exactly what I'm looking for, the legendary loli divine ancestor that the book always mentions. It won't be easy, but as long as I manage to bond with this rogue cultivator, her ancestor will surely take me as her student.

As a rightful young master, it is my duty to take full advantage of the situation and help this person in need for the sake of my future safety net.

"Please stop thinking with your dick." I scoff at my sister's horrified request.

The criminal was extremely hot, but that doesn't have anything to do with my decision.

...Well, it does, but my sister doesn't need to know that part.

"Sorry Ravel, but this is what a filial son should do for his family's sake."

Deadpanning, she silently hands me a note.

...

Dad: Do not go looking for this criminal just because of your training obsession. I can't stress this enough, stay inside. We have enough problems with Leviathan trying to send you both literally and figuratively to the heavens.

Mom: Dear Riser, please remember that senjutsu and ¨cultivation¨ are not the same thing.

Ruval: Riser, I would like to congratulate you. Sona Sitri is really a lucky girl, and you really should visit her right now instead of doing whatever you are planning to do.

Revive: Little brother, listen to your older brother and don't try to put your dick in crazy. Criminal girls are hot, but they aren't worth the pain of being castrated during your sleep. Believe me, I am talking from experience here.

...

My family failed to see Mount Tai in front of their eyes. Fortunately, it isn't too late for Ravel to see the truth.

"Ravel, you must see underneath the underneath." I calmly say with the same voice that our father reserved for only his most important and urgent lessons. "Look at the facts. The Nebarious Clan was famous for their scientific progress. They were widely known for experimenting on rare and exotic species. In fact, we were their principal financial backers, yet the amount of money we lent to them wasn't enough to pay for the sheer number of projects that they worked on. It is only logical to assume that someone, probably a rich family from the Ars Goetia, was funding them from the shadows. Do you follow?"

That also means that I shouldn't expect any kind of help from the government since they are fully aware of what transpired and are doing their best to hide their involvement.

"They were poor and didn't have any real source of income."

And now that they're dead, most of their assets would go to our family. Stealing from the dead is one of the secrets behind your family's financial success.

"A few days ago, father talked with me about the advantages of my engagement with Sona Sitri, and I learnt that the Nebarious were also in debt with the Sitri. They bought an insane number of strong anesthetics that are usually used when someone must perform surgery on either a dragon or a powerful devil. And since it is obvious that Tannin would never allow the likes of Nebarious to own his brethren…" I dramatically wait a few seconds for Ravel to connect the dots before I reveal the convenient truth. "Titos Nebarious probably wanted to perform some illegals experiments on the criminal against her will, so she was forced to kill him in order to escape with her life."

Ravel slowly claps her hands in what I assume to be awe.

"You make SherIock Holmes look like Lindsay Lohan."

She must have forgotten about my 630.000 IQ.

"Therefore, she is a rogue cultivator that committed a crime for righteous reasons, so if we catch her before an MC appears and seduces her, we will be able to meet the divine ancestor that helped her escape from the authorities. If the criminal likes me enough, then her ancestor will teach me something to make sure that I, her Dao companion, won't be killed so easily."

The clapping stops.

"So, you are planning to go and seduce a dangerous criminal that may have a grudge against our family because there is an extremely low possibility that her backer will teach you something useful if all of that happens." Ravel deadpans.

…It does sound stupid when she puts it like that, but the path to immortality has always been more of an art than science.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Do you think that mom will like this souvenir?"

While it is heartwarming to see Ravel enjoying herself in a foreign country, this isn't the time to get distracted by earthly desires. There is a mission that needs my full attention.

In order to catch a rogue cultivator, I need to think like a rogue cultivator, meaning that I should put myself in the shoes of a lesser cultivator who isn't aware of the danger that MCs represent for everything that is good and fair.

Since the criminal doesn't have my background nor my peerless intellect, it is safe to assume that she would seek the protection of a powerful sect that hates her enemies. Even if her backers don't care about her plea, they would still help her just to give their common enemies the middle finger. That said, the sect helping her likely wouldn't want to start a war with their enemies, so at most they would hide the rogue for some time and then kick her out. For the next few months, I would need to stay far enough from my backers so they can deny any involvement with me, but close enough so can I still use them as a distraction if necessary.

Since Kuroka also appears to be a proper cultivator, there is little doubt in my mind that she would choose a place rich in spiritual energy as her hideout.

There are only two places that I can think of that fulling these conditions: The West Youkai faction and the East Youkai faction.

Now, my eldest brother has told me that the East Faction disliked devils in general despite all those peace treaties, so the most likely place for Kuroka to be hiding is Kyoto, which is why we are now here.

"My logic is truly peerless."

"Yeah, yeah. She rolls her eyes. Let's check the map so we can finish this stupid adventure and go back home."

"You won't have a fortuitous encounter with that attitude."

Ravel doesn't reply to that. She must know that I'm right.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ravel Phenex's POV:

After exploring the city for a few hours and buying some gifts for the whole family, she and her brother found themselves in an alleyway where a young group of youkai with more bravado than sense stood in their way.

"Whatcha you doin' in our territory?" It seems like you ned a lesson about don' stickin' your nose in other people's houses." A very tall dog youkai sneered.

His accent was quite strange, but maybe that was standard in this country.

"Do you have a problem with us?"

"Yeaaah, how dare you?"

No, the other two sounded normal when compared to their friend. Ravel thought about asking them about it, but she decided against it. Not only would that be quite rude, but it wouldn't matter anymore in a few minutes.

"Oh, you are asking this young master if he dares? Are you mutts trying to court death?" Her brother smirked condescendingly just like their mother taught them to do when they were younger. "But don't worry, this young master is generous, so if you beg for forgiveness, I am willing to turn a blind eye to your disrespect and let you go."

"Why ar' oiu speakin' so weid?"

"… I will start with that one."

The youkai didn't appear to be impressed by Riser as they surrounded the siblings, cutting most of their escape routes.

Ravel inwardly scoffed and started filming the whole thing with her phone. Had they wanted to escape, they could always fly away, but she knew that wouldn't be necessary.

There were a few things that most people didn't know about her older brother, mostly because he practically never left his room.

"Since this young master is both magnanimous and mighty, he will let those with a lower cultivation perform the first technique."

"What das dat mean'?"

"I think that he is offering us the first blood…or maybe he is insulting our vegetables."

Her brother may be a crazy neet who believed that SMS stand for Sword Message Service, but there was something that most people failed to understand.

Riser was strong.

Because her brother was strong, he easily grabbed the monk staff that one of the youkai swung at his head before kicking the attacker in the chest. Riser slowly but surely moved his front leg forward, his soft breath setting the pace of his movements as he proceeded to expertly block the incoming blows and counterattack in an almost aloof manner. There was an intrinsic grace there that Ravel could not explain with words, the movements were fluid and ever-changing as if they were a whim of the moment rather than a proper collection of techniques, something akin to a portrait painted in the air that few could hope to replicate.

Only someone as strong as her brother would have been capable of breaking free from a binding spell that one of his opponents was chanting just by stomping the ground and creating a miniature volcano that erupted directly in the guy's face. His level of control over his own fire was such that the molten stone merely damaged the youkai instead of burning him alive, something that went against the very nature of his attacks.

The less Ravel had to say about the other yokai after Riser burned all the oxygen in the surroundings, the better. What he did to those stupid with the monk staff in his hands was likely too graphic for the general public.

Despite her brother less than stellar reputation in the Underworld due to his...unique lifestyle, there was no doubt in Ravel's mind that Riser was the strongest devil in his generation. It was only a matter of time before he surpassed Lucifer himself.

That said...

"I still don't understand why we needed to steal all their stuff while they were unconscious. We are already rich."

"It is not about the wealth; it is about sending a message." Her brother explained while kicking one of his already defeated opponents just for fun.

That didn't mean that Riser wasn't a complete moron.