Ryker made a couple attempts to move from underneath Jaana over the next few hours, but they were all to no avail. Not only could he not move, but he wasn’t even allowed to pull his cock out of her.

  For a woman who was just talking about how embarrassing it would be for her to get pregnant, she didn’t seem to mind letting his baby batter stir around inside of her for hours on end.

  Maybe she was just confident that today was a safe day, but the dichotomy made Ryker chuckle nonetheless.

  Since she liked the feeling, he let her be and picked the both of them up to go and get cleaned up.

  Soon after, they had switched into a fresh pair of clothes, and he had finally managed to pull himself out of Jaana, but she was still clinging to him like a koala bear.

  He couldn’t help but smile. This was the most peace he had had in a long time, and he couldn’t help but fall in love with this Empress of his all over again.

  If any other woman was being so clingy, he would have kicked her out a window long ago. But when it was Jaana, he had all the patience in the world… even if it meant that she was slowing down his progress somewhat.

  ‘In that case, maybe it’s finally about time I did that.’

  After he spoke, Ryker took out the incubation container.

  “Hm?” Jaana looked over curiously, not sure what Ryker was doing. She recognized the item, but why would Ryker take it out now? Did he have an egg?

  However, her lip twitched when Ryker actually took out a woman bound in chains instead.

  This was none other than the cat lady. Ryker had kept her in his thoughts for a long while because she was an important well of information. But the problem was that he didn’t trust himself to take her out until now.

  The more he learned about the Dao, the more he felt that he was actually in over his head. The first time, he had definitely gotten lucky in trapping her even if she was just the projection of a soul.

  Now, he had more to rely on, but still wasn’t 100% confident. The reason he was taking this risk now was because he felt that he had no choice.

  He thought that the only enemies he would have to deal with would be their jailers, only to find out that there was a huge hidden contingent in their Iteration.

  Humans were vile creatures who would always find reasons to cannibalize themselves. Even if Ryu didn’t have a strong understanding of what was happening on the other side, he had some solid guesses.

  If these people had found a way to hide from the culling that took place after an Iteration had run its course, then they would almost certainly be playing their own game of politics.

  Without a timer looming over their heads, there would be a large segment of them who were idle in their lives, another large segment who were only interested in holding onto the power they already had, and yet another segment who already thought themselves to be separate existences from the likes of Ryker and his family.

  These people could not be trusted, and they were a far more immediate threat on top of the fact that they were already aware of exactly the kind of threat Ryker was now.

  There was no going back now. Ryker had taken one of their treasures, and this would almost certainly lead to issues.

  If he couldn’t make use of this cat lady, then he would only be able to watch as his fell and died around him.

  Right now, this was the only thing he could think of to turn the tides.

  Even if he relied on the Dao of Chaos to accelerate his Dao Comprehension, it would only go so far. He needed to use every means he had…

  Even if it meant taking risks.

  In fact, the existence of these hidden factions meant that it was more worthwhile to take this risk.

  Ryker’s main worry was that the cat lady’s soul would be able to escape back to the other side in a moment of carelessness. If that happened, then she would be able to fuse into her real body and inform their jailers about what was happening on this side.

  If that happened, then the timeline he had given himself would be shortened. That was because rather than them slowly realizing that something was wrong because the cat lady had been gone for too long, they would instead learn of it far ahead of time.

  Ryker was unwilling to take that risk unless his Dao of Sealing was much higher. But now that he had this hidden faction of their Iteration that he could throw to the wolves should the time come, it was more worth it.

  Plus, he wouldn’t necessarily have to do that either. What if he just hid in their world along with them when the time came?

  Of course, if they were searching for him specifically, the odds of that happening were much lower, which was why he had still taken the necessary precautions.

  At the very least, by summoning the cat lady outside of the prison, she would have a much harder time finding a path back to the other side of the Iterations.

  Jaana pouted when her surprise faded and she noticed just how beautiful this woman was. She was truly a rare sort of looker.

  Ryker smiled. “You’re much more beautiful.”

  “Don’t lie to me.” Jaana said, her pout deepening.

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  “To my Jaana? Never.”

  Jaana continued to pout, but the happiness in her eyes couldn’t be hidden.

  “I’m not involved with this woman at all, anyway.” Ryker continued. “She’s one of the jailers from the other side. I just managed to capture her. It was because of my interaction with her that I found out about everything.”

  Jaana nodded. Ryker had mentioned this cat lady before and she had her guesses before he confirmed it.

  Ryker’s gaze sharpened and he waved a hand. The Dao of Sealing around the chains had been strengthened by him many times in the past already. This time, he strengthened it even further, even reinforcing it with the Dao of Spirit on top of that.

  When he was satisfied, he unraveled it a bit, allowing the Sealing Runes that hovered around the woman’s head to slowly peel away.

  As this was happening, the entire room was locked down. Even a fly couldn’t make its way in, and he was hoping that this would be enough to stop the woman should she get any ideas.

  The cat lady’s eyes fluttered and she opened them in a bit of a daze. She looked around in confusion, and when she saw the scene in front of her, she was even more confused.

  Ryker and Jaana sat at the head of their bed, the latter practically wrapping herself up in his lap and chest like she was some sort of kitten.

  As a cat lady herself, the woman was quite fond of such a position… not that she would ever do it in the arms of a man like that. Where was her shame?

  Was she dreaming? Why was she seeing such a thing? There was no way she had accidentally strolled into a room she shouldn’t be, right?

  Or was it that Young Master Desmondere had done something untoward to her?

  When she had this thought, the young woman’s face paled considerably, or so it seemed.

  Young Master Desmondere had been after her body for a long while, but she had managed to stave him off thanks to her master’s influence, and the fact her standing in her Clan wasn’t too bad either.

  But that young man was too unruly. Had he drugged her?

  But wait… there was no way Young Master Desmondere would ever allow one of his women to be touched like this so casually by another man; he would sooner have her head on a pike.

  And that young man looked nothing like Young Master Desmondere; he was much more handsome…

  Suddenly, the cat lady shook her head. However, she ended up falling over.

  It was only then that she realized she was bundled up in a whole host of chains like some sort of dumpling. The situation left her speechless.

  Had she been captured for the sake of something untoward after all?

  What was happening here?

  Then it all hit her at once.

  That face, she had seen it before.

  She contorted her body on the bed to look at Ryker again before her eyes opened wide like saucers.

  “It’s you!”

  Jaana gave Ryker a questioning look after she heard this. That didn’t sound like a woman that should hate Ryker.

  Ryker could only rub his nose. “I really didn’t do anything like that with her.”

  “Now you’re over-explaining,” Jaana said with narrowed eyes. “I have to vet all the women in your harem. ALL of them. She passes the beauty test, but what about the other tests? Can she even please you properly?”

  Ryker coughed and the cat lady felt like a real cat had crawled inside of her and died. How had she ended up in this situation at the hands of an ant trapped in this cage?

  “Alright, cat lady, I’m going to get right to the point. I’m sure you understand your situation already, so I won’t waste my time. Tell me the things I want to know and we can form a nice relationship.”

  The cat lady didn’t respond, giving Ryker a deadpan look. After she calmed down, she realized that she had much more leverage in this situation than it seemed.

  But by the same token, she had plenty of leeway to protect her life as well. After all, Ryker would never kill her because that would mean exposing the situation in here had gone awry. And it also didn’t matter how much information she gave him because a single Ryker wouldn’t be able to change a damn thing about the situation.

  There had been plenty of talents that rose up in the various Iterations, but their endings were all the same.

  So, there was also no chance of her being seen as a traitor either, so she was safe no matter how she sliced it.

  However, at that moment, Ryker’s lip curled. For some reason, that smile made the woman uneasy. It was like Ryker was seeing right through her.

  “You’re wrong. I wouldn’t mind killing you if the time came. If I realized I was going to die anyway, why would I bother keeping you around? It’s not like I can fuck a soul, now can I?”

  The cat lady shuddered.

  “Now stop trying to be clever; I don’t have the time or patience for it. I guarantee you I’m three steps ahead of whatever you can think of. Now, how about we start with something simple.

  “What is this?”

  Sylas flipped a palm over and a chaotic energy took shape. His Dao of Chaos poured out, allowing space to crackle and pop around it.

  The cat lady’s eyes widened, her heart leaping into her throat.

  She knew what that was; it was a Dao. But she had simply never seen a Dao like that before.

  Then it hit her. “You… how can you use the Dao?! That’s impossible!”

  Ryker’s smile deepened. It sounded like either the jailers on the other side truly didn’t know about the hidden worlds. Either that, or the cat lady wasn’t high enough on the food chain to know of it.

  Regardless of which it was, he could use both.

  Jaana snorted when she heard the cat lady doubt her Ryker, but she chose not to say anything since this seemed to be an important moment.

  “I’m asking the questions here,” Ryker said lightly. The chains around the cat lady tightened and she felt as though her soul was about to shatter.

  Fear flashed in her eyes and she hurriedly shut her mouth and shook her head from side to side.

  She really didn’t know.

  “What about this?” Ryker’s palm flipped over again, revealing his Dao of Spirit.

  The woman’s eyes widened in shock again.

  “… The Dao of Spirit… How many Paths is that? That’s…”

  She wanted to say it was impossible again, but she stopped herself, feeling that she had already been humiliated enough.

  Ryker had the cat lady identify each one of his Daos just to get a balance for her quirks. He was usually pretty good at reading the intentions of people, but he still needed some time to observe first. That would allow him to read her soul fluctuations with greater ease when he got into his real questions.

  When he was satisfied, he asked a sudden question.

  “According to your knowledge, why might a Spirit Beast take up more than nine Circles?”

  The cat lady blinked in surprise.

  “This… It’s possible, but it’s ill-advised. There are beasts of special talent or rare Races that require specific Daos to Contract. It’s possible to compensate for this lack of a Dao with more Circles, but you will never be able to gain the full support of your Contract in this way. It will be much more likely for them to turn on you in the future.”

  Ryker didn’t elaborate.

  “How strong are you?” Ryker asked.

  The cat lady’s gaze flickered. “I… I’m quite powerful.”

  “I’m sure you know what I mean. I’m going to need a better answer than that.”

  “… I am a Second Elevated.”

  Ryker raised an eyebrow. He didn’t expect that his cultivation would be above this woman now. He was also somewhat surprised that they named their cultivation Realms the same way…

  But then again, the Iterations all shared the same Cultivation Realm names as well. There had to be some sort of universal secret linking them all together to allow this.

  “How many Daos do you have and of how many Paths?”

  The cat lady looked down, seemingly embarrassed to answer the question. But in the end, she sighed.

  “Just the Dao of Darkness and Dao of Spirit… 11 Paths and one Path respectively…”

  She was truly embarrassed. It had taken her years to grasp just one Path of the Dao of Spirit, so much so that she had only managed 11 Paths of her Dao of Darkness. She had delayed her cultivation for that one Path, and she had felt that it was all worth it in the end.

  But looking at Ryker…

  It felt empty.

  “Tell me about the experts lording over this jail. Tell me everything you know about their cultivations and skills.”

  The cat lady’s gaze flashed. It seemed that this question had come after all.