Valentina nodded, "Why say sorry?...it doesn't hurt at all. I only have to sleep and then I will be okay. But...who did this to Big Brother?" Her tone became slightly resentful at the end thinking about the person who dared to hurt her Big Brother.
Damien was a bit surprised to hear her change of tone and heaved a sigh as he said, "Just some bad guy I wanted to take care of. Don't worry he won't be ever showing up again."
Even Valentina didn't realize that she was exhibiting different emotions over these days whenever it involved Damien.
Before Damien thought of saying something else, he realized he forgot to close the wound on her wrist. But when he looked at her wrist while holding her hand, it had already closed by itself and not even any scratch could be seen on her wrist. It was as if she had never bitten her own skin in the first place.
'She can heal this fast?!' Damien was awed seeing her healing speed but he knew that it would take up a significant amount of her ethereal energy.
Damien didn't say anything and simply pulled Valentina into his embrace.
Having her tender and petite body in his arms, he stroked her head as he softly said, "Thank you."
He knew that saying anything else was futile and she would do something like this again without any hesitation.
Valentina shook her head, "No need. Didn't Big Brother say there's no need for thanks between us?"
Damien smiled gently, "I am not thanking you for healing me. I am thanking you for coming into my life."
Valentina smiled and hugged Damien tighter, "Then I also thank you for being my Big Brother and I don't want Big Brother Damien to ever leave me." Her tone became stressed towards the end.
For the past two weeks Damien and Valentina had gotten more close and enjoyed their moments together by playing, learning and especially when Valentina snuggled up to Damien every night in his warm embrace.
Without her realizing she had gotten quite attached to Damien and would satisfy her curiosity about the world by asking Damien about various things. She learned that Damien would be leaving the Rong Empire soon and her heart wrenched at the thought of Damien leaving her forever and being left alone.
From the day she vaguely learned about Damien's agenda, the thought of Damien leaving her weighed down in her mind ever since. For the first time in her life, she felt a feeling of intimacy towards someone and she enjoyed that feeling by being with that person.
She couldn't imagine herself being all alone in the dark and gloomy forest again or even sleep on the cold ground without Damien being there for her to snuggle with. Every day she was looking forward to see Damien's gentle smile and his pampering.
Damon heard her nervous tone and assured her while caressing her head, "Don't worry. I won't leave this empire without you. When it's time for me to leave, I will take you with me no matter what. So this is a done deal and you are not allowed to back out at that time, okay?"
He was a bit surprised that Valentina was willing to leave the forest she had lived in for all these years to go with him. He didn't want to bring her with him now since he thought it would not be safe for her till he leaves for Xeton Empire and wouldn't be able to pay much attention to her since he had some plans to follow up before he leaves.
Valentina lifted her head and looked at Damien with a jubilant expression on her face, "En. I will never change my mind about coming with you. Let's do a pinkie promise."
Seeing her smile as pure as snow, Damien chuckled, "Haha, okay...pinkie promise." Doing a promise like this again, Damien thought of Lily and his expression for a moment became solemn thinking about her situation.
After all, within a short time of 2 years, he had to at least have the power to cover the whole continent with his palm. He knew the biggest obstacle lying in his path was the Xeton Empire which is exactly why he was planning to take a trip to the Xeton Empire.
Noticing the sudden momentary change in his expression, Valentina asked in a worried tone, "Is it hard to keep the promise?" She worried whether it was because Damien found the promise hard to fulfill.
Damien realized what she was thinking and shook his head and smiled, "Of course, not. I was thinking about the things I have to do in the future. Ah...thinking about the future, isn't it time for you to breakthrough?"
Damien knew that Valentina planned to breakthrough this week by consuming the Five Petaled Bloody Flower.
Valentina nodded, "Mm. I was planning to breakthrough today."
"Oh, then why don't you try to breakthrough now? It will replenish your ethereal energy and I will also get to witness your breakthrough." Damien said with a bit of anticipation in his tone.
Valentina smiled and got up, "Okay! Watch me, Big Brother Damien." She got excited thinking about how Damien would see her breaking through.
She took out the Five Petaled Bloody Flower and simply popped it into her mouth and transformed into her ethereal beast form.
Damien was interested as he wanted to see how a breakthrough of an ethereal beast would be like.
"Murrrrrr"
A few moments later, bright red lines fanned out from her belly towards the rest of her body and her facial expression winced.
Damien was closely monitoring her breakthrough but a few minutes later his eyes slowly widened as he sensed her cultivation rapidly breaking through many levels! saw her becoming bigger!
"She's breaking into the Spirit Ethereal Realm." Luna's voice sounded in his mind.
"Spirit Ethereal Realm? But how? Isn't she just at the level six of the Nascent Ethereal Realm?" Damien was surprised that Valentina could skip four whole levels at one go to breakthrough into the next realm of her ethereal cultivation.
"You can't seriously compare her with other ethereal beasts. She is one of a kind." Damien felt that Luna seemed to know more but for some reason she was just being vague.
Damien nodded but another fact that surprised him again was that Valentina's size was still the same and did not even get slightly bigger. Usually ethereal beasts would grow by a little whenever they breakthrough. But Valentina was still looking like a cute kitten.
He thought that it was because she was not a simple ethereal beast.
However, even after the breakthrough her face was still scarred. Damien's brows knit together thinking how her scars could not heal with her miraculous healing powers. So, he asked Luna, "Why are her scars not healing?"
Luna casually replied, "Those scars seem to have come from a poisonous ethereal beast way more powerful than her. With such a power gap and the poisonous ethereal energy mixed into her injuries, she would have to increase her cultivation even more to heal the scars away. Her healing powers did heal the injuries but to remove the scars, it's quite impossible for her now. It's even a surprise she even managed to survive from that ethereal beast."
Damien felt pity that she still has to bear the scars on her face for the time being. Luna could probably remove her scars but Damien knew that it would be asking too much from her and Luna wouldn't sacrifice her precious soul essence for someone she doesn't care about.
After all, removing scars would require her to use laws related to restoration when she doesn't even have her Shard Of Restoration.
But if it was just removing poison from a body, she could easily use her Shard Of Essence to remove the poison essence completely from one's body. Just like how she easily saved Damien from dying due to poison before.
He knew there wasn't any poison in Valentina's body but the after effects of the poisonous attack left ghastly scars that are tough to heal. Valentina could slowly heal those scars but it would still take time. He then wondered if he could concoct a pill to heal scars and decided to research about it later as there weren't any effective pills below Rank 5 like the Star Soothing Pill to heal scars.
But he broke away from his thoughts as he saw Valentina transformed into her human form.
Valentina put on her clothes but had a dejected expression on her face.
Damien asked with a bemused expression, "Why the long face?"
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