He rejected Juno and Cushing, neither of whom harbored excess thoughts about faith. Undisturbed, they merely held the most basic respect for faith; their true beliefs had never changed.
Cushing devoutly believed in the Sun Goddess, while Juno, as a Liberty Mage, wearing a layer of angel-skin, believed only in herself.
Saina and Anastasia...
Wayne coveted their bodies, and denying it was futile. Subconsciously, he hoped they would grow closer to him, which is why they couldn’t control themselves.
Anastasia’s situation was slightly better. Wayne coveted the dark-skinned elf woman’s body while genuinely respecting her lofty moral qualities, thus the condition could be controlled.
It had been so long since the corruption’s evolution, and he hadn’t seen her act uncontrollably direct as Saina did.
A weight lifted from Wayne’s heart. He set a time for surgery with Austin and credited the effort to Austin, preparing him to act as the intermediary for the surgery.
This was a safeguard to prevent the operation from failing.
As for Veronica’s surgery, Wayne certainly wanted to perform it himself.
The two with Dragon Blood were confused, but trusting, they didn’t say much, merely grunting twice to show discontent.
Hefei blamed Austin for studying the Dragon Blood Curse without consulting her and suspected that Wayne approached Saina with ulterior motives, suspecting her of possessing secrets to breaking the Dragon Blood Curse.
It was just like her; deeply moved yet stubbornly silent.
Ask again, and there’d be trouble.
The scene switched to the underground base of Lando Manor.
Megan, upon Wayne’s request, had prepared two separate operating rooms, connected by a bizarre mechanical device resembling a heavy-duty tank, a branch of the Multi-Turret Cult.
The Pale Nest was hidden within, known only to Austin.
Veronica and Hefei, clad in Drake Scale Combat Suits, lay on the operating tables under nurse Megan’s direction.
Chief surgeon Wayne put on medical gloves and signaled to Austin beside him; everything was ready to begin.
Austin furrowed his brows slightly, taking out a Magic Stone imbued with Life Energy and placing it in Hefei’s hand, Wayne performing the same action.
The evolution of the Giant Dragon required choices.
Dragons, powerful life forms with infinite potential, vary in evolutionary branches based on differing faiths, like Saina’s Green Dragon and Megan’s Black Dragon.
Austin immediately eliminated any dark beliefs. As a Dark Knight, his faith in the Dark Goddess was not devout.
Wayne felt the same, aside from Hefei’s strong aversion to Darkness and her reluctance to let her faith be tainted—even if she and Austin both permitted it, Wayne would still intervene.
The Dark Goddess had already set her sights on him; he couldn’t hand over any more chips to her.
Of course, the Life Energy in the Magic Stone was just a ruse.
Wayne explained it stemmed from the energy of Naturalist Knights, a Divine Power gifted by the Nature Goddess; after their evolution, Hefei and Veronica would take on Green Dragon forms, their faith unchanged.
In reality, their evolution had nothing to do with nature and was merely a facade of a Green Dragon; their true evolution lay in The Void.
Wayne had acquired this knowledge from The Void, and then passed it on to Hefei and Veronica through the Pale Nest.
"Teacher, according to the intelligence provided by teacher Saina, the manifestations of the Dragon Blood Curse are diverse, but its core lies in the traceability of Dragon Blood, which propagates downwards, tracing back to a single Giant Dragon..."
"To avoid this Giant Dragon manipulating its descendants, we must find a higher life form that it can’t interfere with."
"Teacher Saina chose the Nature Goddess, and you two are also disciples of the Nature Goddess; this arrangement is fine, right?"
Hefei had no problem as long as it wasn’t the same flashy black as Austin’s; Veronica also had no issue because no matter the selection, Wayne had a corresponding role as God’s Chosen Knight.
Wayne started up the mechanical device for show, pressing several buttons, which pulled several metal ropes that restrained Veronica’s limbs and even included a respirator-like device.
Impressive though unintelligible at first glance.
Wayne was adept at handling corruption, easily leading Veronica onto the path of Void Lifeform evolution via the Pale Nest. Austin’s side was more complicated; Hefei’s evolution needed his reasoning to dominate.
This was to prevent the operation from failing and causing Hefei’s maternal instincts to go awry. Though the possibility was extremely low, almost negligible, it was still necessary to take precautions.
With Wayne’s assistance, Austin completed the overlay, guiding Hefei’s evolution with his mindset.
Mother and daughter each held a Magic Stone, massive Life Energy flowing into them both. Veronica, still some distance from becoming a Golden Mage, wouldn’t undergo much change herself.
Not so for Hefei; her evolution began uncontrollably, her body showing Drake characteristics from the start, initially fine white scales, then gradually a hint of green emerged.
Wayne glanced at Megan, feeling this hint of green had implications.
So then, when would things get sorted? Always dragging things out wasn’t ideal!
Because both were very important to Wayne, this evolution proceeded extremely slowly, with every detail meticulously managed.
Half an hour later, Veronica’s evolution concluded first, her half-dragon form very similar to what Hefei had once shown.