Everyone present in the room went silent when they saw the paper Draven had given James. After all, just the fact that this paper was from the First Stronghold was enough to make them cautious, much less something like a direct order from a family head of the First Stronghold.

One had to know that, unlike the 36th Stronghold, the First Stronghold was a holy land of cultivation. Even the old man you casually saw drinking tea at the roadside might be a 10th realm expert, capable of killing a group of Ascendant realm cultivators just with a sneeze.

"Give me a call after the negotiation is over. Also, don't tell them that I am the one who is going to take this mission. Just tell them that it is two seniors from the Nyxborn family of the First Stronghold. I will just be going in to get some experience, so no reduction in price. Only contact me if 50% is okay with them. Otherwise, just find some other way," Draven said with a light smile. After bowing respectfully to everyone in the conference hall, he left the room.

"James, is that paper real?" an old man asked with a frown.

James sighed. "There is a seal of the Nyxborns here, and it is legit. Anyway, this is not much of a surprise to me. It would have been something unbelievable if someone as talented as him had no one backing him up from behind."

Everyone nodded in understanding.

"21st Elder, let's just report this matter to the higher-ups. Let them decide on their own. Since the Nyxborns are involved, this game is going to be even bigger than we initially expected."

"Yes, yes. Let's wash our hands clean of this mess. At least we will get some extra reward as the ones who reported the news."

James also nodded when he heard the opinions of the people around him.

...

Before he went back, Draven brought food for himself and Zappy from the canteen on the way. As usual, he brought second-tier food for himself, and first-tier food for Zappy, since he was not even a cultivator yet.

When Draven returned to the consulting room, his mouth twitched as he saw the scene inside. Healer Noah was looking at some medical reports while Zappy was being massaged by two beautiful ladies at the side.

"Ah, Draven, the reports are all normal. He is as fit as he could be," Loah said with a smile when he saw Draven.

Draven nodded. "Thank you, Elder. By the way, how much is the consultation fee?"

"Just 10 gold coins," Loah said casually.

Draven nodded and handed him 10 second-tier coins. "Thanks for treating him."

Noah accepted the money with a stunned look on his face. It was usual for him to get such extra commissions from wealthy clients as a second-tier healer, but this was the first time someone had actually paid him such a big amount. By the exchange ratio, 10 second-tier coins would be ten thousand gold coins. That was definitely not a small amount.

Draven ignored him and directly walked up to Zappy, who was squinting his eyes as he enjoyed the massage. Without even giving Zappy time to think, he picked up the white otter by the scruff of its neck like a cat and began walking out after a polite nod at the two nurses.

"Hey, what are you doing? The treatment is not over! Let go of me!" Zappy tried to protest, but even after trying to scratch Draven's hand with his tiny claws, it didn't even leave a scratch, so he gave up in the end.

"That's a care treatment for pets. Weren't you the one who was saying, 'I am not a pet'? Now what happened?" Draven asked playfully as they walked out of the Merchants Association.

Zappy angrily crossed his arms and didn't even look at Draven until they reached back home.

"Come, I will teach you how to use a storage artifact." Draven took out a first-tier storage necklace from his own storage and wore it around Zappy's neck.

But before Draven said anything, Zappy touched the silver stone at the locket of the necklace and sent his consciousness inside the storage space.

"Wow, so much food! Are they all for Zappy alone?" Zappy asked Draven curiously.

"You know how to use a storage artifact?" Draven asked, surprised.

Zappy nodded. "Didn't I tell you? Zappy has a super brain."

"Now that's not a super brain, but an abnormal brain," suddenly, Silas appeared before Zappy like a phantom.

Like a scared child, Zappy hurriedly ran into Draven's hands as soon as he saw him.

Silas frowned as he squinted his eyes at the little sea otter before him. "Zappy, huh? What a coincidence. One of my nephews had a white tyrant dragon called Zaphael, and she too called him Zappy."

After jumping into Draven's hands, Zappy found some confidence and asked back timidly, "So what?"

Silas smiled. "Nothing. It just seems a little strange to see such a fascinating creature like you in a backward stronghold like the 36th. A genius blend of two of the rarest creatures, which should not have existed by all heavenly laws."

Draven frowned. He could tell that Silas had some guesses regarding Zappy's existence.

Suddenly, Silas snapped his fingers, and the young shopowner appeared before Draven in a miserable state. Most of his teeth were gone, and there was a beast claw mark on his chest, likely from a tiger.

Silas casually sat down on the sofa and said, "Since Zappy doesn't know anything, let's ask this shopkeeper who was pretending to be a second-tier cultivator, even though he was at the 8th realm. Tell me, young man, why did you lie to us?"

Draven looked at the young man in disbelief. He never expected such a development even in his wildest dreams.

"You came to the 36th Stronghold one day after his sister was taken away by the Skywalkers. Overnight, you bought a mount rental shop in the 36th Stronghold and became the boss of it. Do you really think I will believe all these are just random coincidences?" Silas asked lazily.

The young man didn't refute. He lifted his head and gave a harmless smile to Draven. "This beast is a gift from my master to you. How is it? Do you like it?"

Draven stared back at the young man expressionlessly. Of course, he didn't even understand what this idiot was trying to say.

"I know you are a little confused, but don't worry. Master asked me to enlighten you about everything. It's only because I was not sure who was guarding you that made me act a little cautious before," the shopkeeper said as he glanced at Silas indifferently.

Silas didn't respond to the young man as he continued with his drinking, as though he had nothing to do with the whole situation.

The young man took a deep breath and sat cross-legged on the ground itself as he began speaking. "Actually, neither you nor your brother is a demon vessel. It only appeared you are one because of some minor flaws left behind in your genes when your body was biologically modified. At first, we thought we failed in your case, but we didn't expect it to succeed in such an overwhelming way."

"Speak clearly. Are you saying that replica I saw with that old man from the Skywalkers is my brother?" Draven asked with a frown.

The young man remained silent for a moment and said, "Yes and no at the same time. Actually, both of you were created from the body of the real Draven Skywalker. It can be thought of like binary fission, where the main body is split into two equal but distinct individuals. But halfway through the process, your father somehow broke free from our imprisonment, and a war broke out in which half our research center was destroyed."

"Although my master intervened and killed your father, by that time your mother had already disappeared with you and your sister, leaving only your brother behind since she was not aware of his existence. Although we tried to find you, there was no news, except the fact that your mother was later found in a vegetative state by members of the Everhearts."

Silas frowned when he heard this. "Elena is alive?"

The shopkeeper nodded. "She is in a vegetative state, likely due to an irreversible injury to the soul. The reason is not clear. It took us a year to finally track you and your sister down, but by then your inner world was already destroyed, making you unfit for our master's experiment. Still, we were not ready to give up on you. That's why we gave you the Ultimate Demon Body Forging Art, to see if you could be made into a summoning vessel."

"But it turned out you are even more talented in this art than my master, so until now we have been nurturing you for the day of awakening, which will be coming soon. When that day comes, you will awaken as our master's loyal subordinate and rule this world alongside him. As for this little dragon, it was made using your mother's contracted beast and an ancient beast from our master's collection."

"While both you and your brother are results of binary fission, this dragon and otter is a fusion-type life form, incredibly powerful and unique in this world."

Both Silas and Draven didn't speak for a long time. In the end, it was Draven who broke the silence. "Why did you let him go and come after me instead?"

The shopkeeper chuckled. "It's simple. Compared to him, you are a thousand times better, so we chose you to be the summoning vessel instead of him. After all, if we fail this time, there won't be a second chance to undo this mistake."

Silas took a sip from his wine gourd and narrowed his eyes. "Are you guys really not worried about telling all your plans openly to us, especially after knowing my identity?"

The shopkeeper smiled, but the next second his smile froze and he lifelessly fell to the ground.

"His soul is completely destroyed. He might have used his soul to form a slave contract with his master, who chose to destroy it after he was captured," Silas said with a frown.

Draven shook his head. "His master wanted us to know all this before he died, so he waited until now. This might also be a trap to lure both my parents' families to this place once more. After all, he might be pretty sure you will contact them once you know I am also a descendant of the Skywalkers, and they misunderstood the situation."

Silas nodded. "Since they tried to sell this otter to your elder brother first, there may be some other threads connecting all these incidents together. So what do you think? Should I inform your grandparents or not?"

Draven looked at the corpse on the ground and shook his head. "Since this is what they want, we will do the opposite. Let's keep the matter between ourselves. Now, one thing that is puzzling me is, what is this summoning vessel, really?"

Silas lightly waved his hand, and the corpse in the room vanished into thin air. "It's similar to the demon vessel. In the demon vessel, the soul completely occupies the body, absorbing its characteristics at the cost of losing its cultivation. On the other hand, the summoning vessel will directly summon a god-level entity into the vessel's body, fundamentally transforming him or her into a god-level existence with their cultivation intact."

Draven stroked Zappy's fur with a deep look on his face. Things were becoming more and more complicated.

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