In the cultivation room, the four children stood shoulder to shoulder before Leyvi, all of them staring at the floor with their heads lowered. None of them dared meet his eyes.
Leyvi looked at the four guilty faces before him and asked calmly,
"So... what did you learn from your adventure?"
He already knew everything that had happened.
After mastering many of his Spiritual Cultivation abilities over the past decade, he had gradually discovered new applications for the mental connection he shared with his spirit beasts. Besides communicating through telepathy, he could now temporarily share their senses as well, seeing through their eyes, hearing through their ears, and even smelling what they smelled.
Naturally, he never abused this ability.
Whenever possible, he would always ask for their permission first. It was basic respect.
Besides, there were simply some things he had no desire to witness.
The last thing he wanted was to accidentally activate the connection at the wrong moment and end up watching Mr. Bison spending quality time with his bison harem.
Some experiences were better left unseen.
Looking at his children now, Leyvi had to suppress a smile.
He had never seen all four of them this dejected before.
Truthfully, he was not angry with them at all.
After all, he was the one who had secretly allowed the trip to happen in the first place. If Senior Lapin had not been watching over them from above, there was no chance he would have permitted a group of children to wander into Bara Forest.
It was precisely because Lapin possessed overwhelming strength and could intervene instantly through his Celestial Clouds that Leyvi had felt comfortable giving the children a little freedom.
Unfortunately...Their luck had been exceptionally bad.
On their very first visit to Bara Forest, they had somehow stumbled straight into the territory of a large troop of demonic chimpanzees.
Even Leyvi had never encountered a colony of that size during his own early adventures.
If anything, this unfortunate experience might turn out to be a valuable lesson.
Better for them to learn the consequences of recklessness while an invisible guardian was protecting them than to make the same mistake years later when nobody was around to save them.
Aside from giving them a chance to experience the outside world, Leyvi had also wanted to see how each of them would react when faced with unexpected danger.
Among the four, Leylin had impressed him the most.
Although the boy had been terrified from beginning to end, he never completely broke down. Every time the situation changed, he adapted as quickly as he could. More importantly, when everyone else had frozen in fear, he forced himself to overcome his own panic and think of a way to protect his sisters.
That alone was worthy of praise.
As for Leyana and Leyina, the twins had relied too heavily on both Leylin and Leywini. Once danger appeared, they had simply followed everyone else's lead instead of thinking for themselves. Leyvi could not even tell whether either of them had made any progress with the talents he had given them because they did nothing at all.
As for Leywini, she was usually resourceful and quick-witted, so he had expected her to handle the situation better. In the end, though, she was still only nine years old. He would not blame her for freezing completely when faced with real danger.
That said, she had shown him something intriguing earlier. When the first chimpanzee they encountered fell unconscious, Leywini had used her power to turn it into a pool of blood.
The question was, he still was not sure what kind of power she had used.
The talent he had given her was the Teleport talent. Until now, he had only seen her teleport small objects over short distances. It was not particularly reliable at her current stage.
Turning something into a pool of blood, however, was something he had never expected from her.
He could not tell if it was somehow related to her teleport talent or if it came from a potential hidden Unique Heavenly Body. After all, she had stayed inside Nala's belly for a full ten years.
The entire situation surrounding Nala's unusually long pregnancy and Leywini's birth remained wrapped in mystery.
After Leywini was born, the Luck talent Leyvi had given Nala completely disappeared. The talent bead menu simply stated that the luck had been exhausted.
Putting everything together, Leyvi believed that the Luck talent had been used the entire time to nurture some kind of special physique for Leywini.
Strangely, though, there was still no visible sign or proof of any extraordinary physique on her, even now.
The ocular technique he practiced also allowed him to check whether someone had been born with a Unique Heavenly Body, and he had already confirmed that Leywini did not possess one.
So what exactly had the luck been consumed for? It remained a complete mystery.
He had no clear answer and could only assume it might be some kind of hidden Unique Heavenly Body that required a specific prerequisite to unlock.
It did not seem too far-fetched. Caterina's incomplete Unique Heavenly Body served as a close example.
That was why he could not help feeling curious when Leywini displayed such a powerful ability. Even if the demonic chimpanzee had been unconscious, turning it into a pool of blood still required a considerable amount of power.
After a long silence, Leylin finally gathered the courage to speak.
"We... we're sorry, Dad. We won't ever do something so reckless again." His head remained lowered. Even now, he did not dare meet Leyvi's eyes.
Leyvi nodded before shifting his gaze. "Yana, Yina. Do the two of you have anything to say?"
The twins immediately stiffened. Their eyes quickly reddened, and tears began welling up. They really thought their father was angry with them.
Seeing this, Leylin hurriedly stepped forward.
"Dad! Please don't blame them! Everything was my fault! They only followed because I agreed to it!"
Leyvi was left speechless. He had not even raised his voice, yet they were already reacting like this.
The twins were nothing like their mother, who had once been known throughout the South Region as the Fierce Lady of the South. They were kind-hearted and gentle, the type who could easily be frightened or moved to tears.
Realizing they had misunderstood him completely, Leyvi could only laugh.
"Hahaha!"
The sudden laughter made all four children look up at him in confusion.
"Did you really think I was angry?" Leyvi asked with an amused smile. "Why would I be? I simply wanted to know whether you learned anything from your little adventure."
The familiar warm smile on their father's face instantly melted away the fear that had been building inside them.
"Daddy!"
Leyana and Leyina burst into tears before rushing into Leyvi's arms, hugging him tightly from both sides.
It was not only because they had feared being scolded. Everything that had happened in the forest finally caught up to them.
Leyvi gently rubbed their heads before looking toward the last little girl standing quietly nearby.
"Wini. Aren't you coming to hug Daddy too?"
Leywini bit her lip for a moment before running over as well.
"Daddy!" She wrapped her arms tightly around him.
No matter how clever or resourceful she usually acted, she was still only a nine-year-old child. Today's events had frightened her far more than she wanted to admit.
Feeling the warmth and safety of their father's embrace, the children's emotions finally settled down.
Between occasional sniffles, Leyana and Leyina excitedly recounted everything that had happened during the adventure, describing each frightening moment with far more emotion than before. Whenever they missed a detail, Leywini quietly chimed in to fill the gaps, making occasional corrections here and there.
By the time the story ended, Leyvi already knew what had frightened them the most.
It was not the troop of demonic chimpanzees. Nor was it the terrifying leader.
It was the thought of watching one of their siblings die right in front of them while being powerless to stop it.
Leyvi gently pulled the three girls a little closer before looking at all four children.
"Now you understand why your mothers always worry whenever you go somewhere dangerous."
The children quietly nodded.
"Danger isn't something you can fully prepare for. Sometimes, even adults make mistakes."
He smiled gently before continuing.
"But today wasn't meaningless. You learned what fear feels like. You learned that the outside world isn't as safe as Bara City."
"And most importantly..." Leyvi looked at each of them in turn. "...you learned how precious your siblings are to you."
The four children lowered their heads again, nodding silently.
"So from now on, cultivate properly when the time comes. Not because Dad wants you to become powerful. But because one day, you'll have the strength to protect each other."
The children nodded much more firmly this time.
"Yes, Daddy."
"Yes, Dad."
Seeing the determination in their eyes, Leyvi smiled with satisfaction.
Today's lesson had been frightening, but perhaps it was also one they would remember for the rest of their lives.
Leyvi also made sure to praise Leylin for the tenacity he had shown in protecting his sisters against all odds while overcoming his own fear. That alone, he said, already made him a great big brother.
Hearing his father's acknowledgment meant the world to Leylin. In his heart, he swore to strive even harder to become a better older brother in the future.
"Bring out your new spirit beast. Let me see the difference between your method and the normal beast-taming techniques," Leyvi said.
Leylin nodded and summoned the demonic chimpanzee. A huge figure suddenly appeared inside the room.
The girls, still traumatized by the earlier encounter, immediately hid behind their father.
Leyvi activated his ocular technique and carefully observed the chimpanzee. Before long, he noticed something unusual. There was an energy pattern that only awakened demonic beasts were supposed to possess.
It seemed the chimpanzee's bloodline power had already begun to spread.
Could it be that Leylin's method was capable of inducing bloodline awakening ahead of time? Leyvi found himself intrigued by the discovery.
"Not bad. A high-level demonic beast as your first spirit beast is an amazing feat. Nobody else could achieve this," Leyvi said with a playful smile.
Leylin felt a little embarrassed. He knew his father was only joking. After all, this taming had been guaranteed by the talent, not the result of his own true effort.
Besides, what he had really wanted was a flying demonic beast, not this one.
Suddenly, though, he felt something strange coming from the bloodline source pattern on his palm. It was sending him a distress signal.
Worse still, the signal was growing stronger and stronger, to the point that it began to make him feel deeply uncomfortable.
Leylin frowned as he looked down at his palm. When he lifted his gaze again, the chimpanzee had started to growl.
Its eyes were slowly beginning to glow red.
What? His spirit beast was turning into a crazed demonic beast? How was this even possible?