"Do you know how precious you are?"
The demon began to narrate about the existence of Essence, the purest and most stable form of energy. She gave a concise description of why Tubians such as her needs to consume the Essence to live.
As Tubians consumes Essence, they naturally obtained an acute sense to detect the presence of 'edible' Essence.
=====
9 PM.
9,577,700 Essence harvested.
=====
As another hour went past, Lee grew very bored to listen to the demon's lecture. He promptly decreased the output of Essence to see her reaction.
And as Lee Shen expected, her brows knit for a brief moment but loosened up afterwards.
After taking a moment of pause, she let go of Lee Shen's wrists and he quickly took a few steps backwards.
"I will give you two choices. You can either live here as my Essence generator or die."
Lee Shen creased his brows and asked-
"When my Essence is depleted, will you kill me?"
The woman let out a chuckle and replied-
"I don't need to kill you. When your Essence is depleted, you will naturally die."
Lee Shen took a moment to act like he is weighing the pros and cons of the choices. But he was talking to Hudson and D regarding the audacity of this bitch to consider the mainstream races as Essence farms.
[Aren't you doing the same?]
'Well, I am not as wretched as them. My Essence farmlands include trees, plants, animals and mischievous people, like the mercenary gang and a bunch of cultivators.'
After a short session of 'contemplation', Lee Shen raised his eyes to the female demon as his fist clenched with resolve.
"I hesitate to live under the likes of a demon-like you. You can kill me."
Both the voice and face expressed his unwavering determination to face death rather than living as Essence farmland for this demon.
But this was an unexpected revelation to the demon. Her hands crossed in front of her chest was loosened up and the smirk on her face faded away.
As a Tubian, she had great strength that overshadows the most powerful cultivators. But above that, the otherworldly race had an appreciation to those who exhibited unnatural courage even in adverse conditions.
Her face gave birth to a smile of admiration as her hands clasped behind her.
"Tanya, that is my name. Remember well."
As she brought her arms to her sides, a dagger was in each of her palms. The visibly menacing design of the twin daggers was meant to scare the enemies at the first glance.
Hudson promptly notified Lee Shen that those daggers once belonged to a demon.
When Tanya took a step forward, Lee Shen raised his voice.
"Wait!"
Tanya paused her steps as she asked-
"Are you having second thoughts?"
Lee Shen shook his head as he spoke-
"No. Since you are going to kill me, I would like to know something before I die."
Tanya took a step forward and replied-
"Speak your last wish."
Though she did not hold any hostility at Lee Shen at the moment, the fact that she is exceedingly stronger than him and the sight of the twin daggers were bothering his resolve.
He did not forget to take account of her true powers which are unknown to him!
Thus, he took a step backwards in caution.
"Why did you destroy the waterfolk settlement?"
Tanya's face turned blank as she heard the least expected query. She never expected someone about to face death to ask about the reason behind one of her casual and chaotic act.
When she fidgetted her index fingers over the daggers, the menacing twins disappeared. Her arms came back in front of her plentiful asset and crossed in a way that the bridge highlighted her beauty.
"What you asked is something that I should not disclose. But since you are about to die, perish peacefully."
As she raised her left arm and snapped her fingers, a pitch-black rock on the seabed rose and became a platform for her magnanimous rear to rest.
With a smile, she said-
"Be at ease."
Though she smiled, it was like a barbarous grin to Lee. He who has seen the stats of Tanya was very cautious as he decided to sit on the seabed.
"Tell me, do you know about the continents?"
Lee Shen nodded and implied that he knows about the eight continents.
"Then, have you heard about the Forgotten Trinity?"
[Forgotten Trinity. Where have I heard this name? Ugh... I can't recollect anything these days.]
As Lee Shen heard the words of D, he shook his head sideways and conveyed that he does not know what the Forgotten Trinity was.
'Hudson, anything from your side?'
[I do remember this term, but I forgot what the term meant. Let's hear it from the demon herself.]
After Lee Shen conveyed his lack of knowledge regarding the term, Tanya scratched her chin as she tried to pinpoint where to start.
"Ah, screw it! I will just spew all out so listen closely.
Before the eight continents came to existence, there were only five landmasses. Apart from the mainlands of Intellus and Chaos, there were three more which were collectively known as the Forgotten Trinity!"
----
Time passed as Tanya elaborated the past of these chaotic non-sentient disasters. When comparing to Tanya's explanations, the description that D gave him paled.
She went on describing the properties of the Forgotten Trinity with great detail and precision. Her words were so vivid that Lee Shen assumed that she might have seen them first-hand.
Throughout the lecture, neither D nor Hudson made any noise as they both were absorbed in this detailed account of the Forgotten Trinity.
Even the hourly notification was dismissed before it could manifest in front of him.
As a result of unflinching attention, it was noteworthy that the duo of D and Hudson was able to acquire some vital information that they did not know about.
------
"...and that is the story of the Forgotten Trinity."