Royal Castle, Nightingale.
Lith teleported on the rooftop Lilith was sitting at with Fei.
Coming back home, the first thing he saw was a group of ladies gathered around a round table. Along with them were…
"Woooooo!"
Ren howled in excitement and jumped at Lith from Sylvia's arms.
Lith caught him and smiled. "How have you been?"
"Woof! Woof! Woof!"
Ren barked and moved around Lith's neck, then licked his face in happiness, expressing how happy he was.
Meanwhile, the ladies on the rooftop raised their eyebrows in surprise as they saw Lith.
His hairstyle had totally changed. He didn't look as elegant as before, but the rough appearance sure made him seem more mature and classy.
Lilith, Sylvia, Qingyue, and Mayzin gazed at him from head to toe, analyzing his new look.
The aura of this brat had changed too, thought Mayzin, who had arrived along with Sylvia because she didn't have anything better to do.
"New hairstyle?" Lilith asked with a smile.
Lith brought Ren down from his neck and holding him, walked towards Lilith.
"Yes. Stuff happened, so I decided to change my hairstyle a bit."
"It suits you well." Lilith commented.
"I think longer hair was better." Mayzin argued and took a sip of tea.
"Hm. Longer hair has its charms too." Lilith didn't deny.
The two exchanged comments on Lith's hair for a bit while he settled down and got himself poured a cup of tea by Qingyue.
Taking a sip, the comfort of home returned to him, and relaxed him.
Ren went away from his embrace and woofed towards Zen, who was lying comfortably on Sylvia's lap. Hearing his voice, he got down as well and the two began playing under the round table.
"So, what's something interesting happening here?" Lith asked after a while.
"See for yourself." Lilith said and tapped on the table, making a screen appear in the middle of it.
On the screen, Lith saw a monochromatic dark forest. The trees, leaves, bushes… everything was dark.
One thing that particularly stood out within it was the field of roses. They were darker than the usual vegetation and were aesthetically pleasing to the eyes.
Standing in the middle of these fields of roses was a group of wolves, howling their lungs out towards the sky.
Silver moonlight shone on their purple coats and with the aura they seemed to be letting out, one could easily guess that they weren't your average wolves.
The wolves were howling in a circle and as Lith got a top view of the situation, he could see a particular wolf in the middle of them, twitching and trembling as if it was undergoing a seizure.
Lightning zapped around the wolf's body and whenever it came into contact, a part of the wolf would be churned black, then slowly change into a bright purple color.
The wolf seemed to be in pain as it underwent a transformation.
Raising his eyebrows in surprise, Lith turned to look up at his mother.
Lilith smiled. "Yes. That's the pack of wolves you brought home from your first adventure. And that one in the middle is your first pet."
"She's going to transform already, huh." Lith said, amused.
It had just been three centuries and the wolf in the middle undergoing transformation, aka Rena, was already approaching Saint Rank.
"The growth speed is astonishing."
Magical beasts take a long time to grow. One fine example was the three Cerberus sisters. They were half the age of Lucifer, being hundreds of thousands of years old, yet their emotional maturity wasn't as high as it should be.
"Mh-hm." Lilith hummed in response. "Why wouldn't it be? We've been feeding that group with a lot of good food."
If given the right nutrition and environment, why won't the beasts grow?
"Weren't they left to their own?" Lith looked at the howling wolves and asked. Not much difference could be seen within their bodies, so he didn't understand what his mother meant by good food.
Lilith shook her head and took a sip of tea. "They weren't. From the start, Lucy thought you might want this wolf as your mount, so she fed it and her whole group properly with higher tier beast meat, bones, and blood."
"After she went away from the castle on her adventures, a lot of gates from other worlds opened up within the continent. I issued quests for the people to hunt the beasts and whatever good ones that were found, I had them eaten by those wolves."
Lith was quite surprised by the development. He had left Rena to her family and thought she was living a slow and peaceful life in the Dark Rose Forest.
Although it was called a forest, it covered a vast expanse of land, big enough to contain a major city like Evernight within it.
Being so vast, its biodiversity was rich, filled with a lot of plants, and magical beasts. The Purple Night Wolf pack could slowly and steadily grow in this place and would also stay protected from others.
Back then, Lith thought he could use Rena to take care of small fries that came to attack him, but his strength had grown to such a level that there was no use for her anymore.
He could partly understand why those Xianxia main characters always left their subordinates and went to higher realms on their own, cultivating to xyz realm, and then repeating the same process again and again.
Lucy did say he would have a use for her, but he was too busy with other things and didn't focus much on her.
Now, things have changed. His mother ensured to raise them and in just three short centuries, Rena was ascending.
Lith gave his mother an understanding nod and focused on the screen.
The twitching and trembling continued for a good ten minutes until a bright flash of light covered Rena's body.