*"Oh, little Sera, careful!"*
Ethan moved quickly, crossing the courtyard in two strides as Sera stumbled backward from the phoenix phantom's sudden appearance. He raised two fingers toward the shimmering shape above the pot and drew them smoothly downward.
The phantom collapsed back into the liquid without a sound.
*"What… what is that thing?!"*
Even knowing from the start that her cheap father was far from ordinary — that was heavenly phoenix essence blood. The essence blood of a heavenly phoenix that had surpassed the eternal lord realm by a considerable margin.
Her father was definitely… definitely an ascendant emperor. Or even…
She didn't dare to think further.
It was too outrageous.
All these years, she had been diligently performing the role of a normal child — precisely to avoid moments like this. If her impossibly powerful father ever noticed something off about her, she would be completely finished.
Looking at his daughter's startled, wide-eyed expression, Ethan felt his fatherly heart fill with warmth.
He set down his ladle, crossed to her side, and crouched to her level, gently pressing a hand to her head. *"That creature is called a heavenly phoenix,"* he said softly. *"But don't be afraid, sweetheart — it's just a little of its essence blood. Nothing to be scared of."*
He kept his voice calm. Inwardly, he was cursing himself.
*I suppressed all the other auras and forgot the most inconspicuous one. Nearly frightened my baby to death.*
*Next time I get to go out, I'm plucking every last feather off those things.*
Far away, in the beast realm of the High Realm, a group of heavenly phoenixes were crouching on the ground, trembling. Their bodies were covered in wounds. Their magnificent plumage was almost entirely gone. They looked profoundly pitiful.
At that moment, without knowing why, a chill ran down each of their spines.
They shrank instinctively smaller.
---
Sera processed what he'd said.
Her internal certainty hardened into something close to awe.
He had spoken of a heavenly phoenix the way someone might mention a slightly inconvenient neighbor.
An ascendant emperor.
*He was absolutely an ascendant emperor.*
The phantom she had seen surpassed anything from her previous life — and her father had dismissed it with two fingers and a mild expression. No effort. No aura. Nothing.
You couldn't tell her that was normal.
She was a reincarnated eternal lord, not an idiot.
From this moment on, she had to be more careful than ever. Act like a child. Reveal nothing unusual. If he ever found out —
*(Ethan, internally: "Silly girl. You're a reincarnation, not a possession. What exactly would you be finished for?")*
*"Is this… is this for drinking?"* Sera asked, staring up at him. *"Are we drinking it?"*
*"Of course not. This is for your physique awakening. The one for drinking is over there."*
Ethan nodded toward the side of the courtyard.
A crimson fire serpent was bound there, completely still. It had stopped trying to move some time ago — a very strong, very focused aura had locked onto it the moment the phoenix phantom appeared. That aura belonged to Ethan. He'd reined himself in quickly, but after the earlier slip, he wasn't taking chances. A beast emperor-class creature startling his daughter twice in one day was not acceptable.
He glanced at the serpent. His eyes swept over it once.
That was all it took.
The Eye of Truth — a gift from the System — activated without effort. Every detail of the creature's nature surfaced in his awareness like text written in clean ink.
*Beast: Fire Serpent. Beast Emperor class. Emperor tier.*
A few notes on weaknesses followed. He didn't read them.
For him, whether such details existed or not made no practical difference. Killing it was a passing thought. The reason he'd kept it alive this long was simple.
It was fresh.
He hadn't needed to eat, once. But ever since Sera arrived, the System had rewarded him with an advanced cooking skill — pushing him further and further down the path of fatherhood, one culinary achievement at a time.
If the System had been listening to that particular thought, it probably would have replied:
*You wanted it yourself. Stop blaming me. Shameless.*
---
Sera, for her part, had long grown used to the presence of a beast emperor in the yard.
It had started three years ago when she'd mentioned being hungry. Since then, Ethan had brought home a beast emperor for every meal, with the cheerful reliability of a man who had found something he was good at.
Beast emperor meat. Every single day.
Truly an incomprehensible level of wealth.
She had simply never seen one alive before — tied up, trembling, watching the pot.
It was a strange feeling.
*It really is very well-behaved in front of Father.*
In the few seconds she stood there, an entire cascade of thoughts had moved through her mind. Three years ago, she had watched Ethan dismiss a heavenly tribulation with a single word. From that day forward, she had been carefully, constantly on guard — monitoring herself, keeping her behavior firmly within the bounds of an ordinary child.
And for three years, Ethan had simply continued spoiling her. He gave her almost anything she wanted, asked almost nothing in return, and cooked beast emperor stew as though it were a perfectly normal thing for a parent to do.
As a result — and she was aware of how absurd this was — at only four years old, she had reached the peak of the ninth tier of the aether gathering realm through cultivation alone.
Without a cultivation technique, no less.
She hadn't dared use the one from her previous life. If her father ever noticed a four-year-old cultivating with an eternal lord-class technique, how would she explain it? That she'd dreamed it? That a mysterious elder had appeared to her in a vision?
Too ridiculous. No one would believe it.
She didn't know that Ethan, who had spent a hundred years alone in these mountains, would have believed it immediately.
But she didn't know that. So she stayed cautious.
---
The concoction in the pot had been simmering for the better part of the day. Ethan straightened up, stirred once, and nodded with satisfaction.
*"Alright, little one — the timing is just right."* He smiled at her, warm and unhurried. *"Everything in this pot is the result of your father's hard work. Half a day's effort, at least. Make good use of it."*
Sera nodded firmly.
She understood what the heavenly phoenix essence blood meant. How difficult it was to obtain. How rare an opportunity this was.
She wasn't going to waste it.
As for where it had actually come from — did it matter? She was a child. Children didn't ask complicated questions.
Ethan turned away.
Entering the pot required removing one's clothes, and a proper father gave his daughter privacy. Besides, he'd been on his feet since morning. The rocking chair was calling to him.
He also had a decision to make about the fire serpent.
*Steam it? Stir-fry? Braise?*
He would ask Sera's opinion once she was done. He had no idea which method she preferred. Terribly inconvenient.
If the beast emperor lying bound nearby could understand what Ethan was thinking, it would probably have started composing its own funeral song.
---
The moment Ethan's back was turned, Sera stripped off her outer robe at a speed that suggested she'd been waiting and plunged straight into the pot.
He really was boiling his daughter.
She had barely registered the heat before something else took over entirely — the moment she entered the liquid, she knew something was wrong.