Page 451

Of course, these are not the main points, the main point is that this is a sage, a Great Sage whose strength ranks within the top ten in the entire Witch World.

Even though Euphilia had always been confident in her own strength, and although her rank was only at the Peak, she wasn't at all timorous before ordinary sages. But when confronted by this Ancient Great Sage, she could only respectfully acknowledge, "An elder is still an elder after all."

"Lord Pan, you should address me as Little Annihilator."

The Dragon Queen, after all, couldn't resist correcting him.

She had always liked to follow the rules, not keen on breaking them. Even though she and the Great Elder knew each other's real identities, as long as they were in the Judgment Court, Euphilia still preferred to address each other by code names.

This wasn't out of fear of revealing secrets; the main reason was to not casually break the rules.

It's just a pity that if someone else broke the rules, she could beat them up and teach them a lesson, but facing this Great Elder, she could only correct him kindly.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, alright, Little Annihilator, you are still so rigid and serious, lacking the vitality and liveliness that children should have."

The ancient witch, who went by the code name Lord Pan, obediently corrected herself, but her words carried some complaints.

Children???

The corner of Euphilia's mouth twitched under her mask. She was nearly two hundred years old and was already a mother herself—definitely not young anymore. But what could she say to this ancient witch who was tens of thousands of years old? She could only smile.

"Alright, Lord Pan, let's discuss serious matters first. How did the interrogation of the Angel Witches go?"

To prevent the aged elder from straying off-topic, she quickly asked.

"That's been taken care of, of course. A bunch of overconfident wastes thought they were being clever by attempting to utilize the power of the Lord of Glory."

Speaking of this, the gentle and kindly gaze of the ancient witch beneath the mask narrowed slightly. She expressed her frustration as if scolding a child who had failed to live up to expectations.

Because of her emotional fluctuations, an array of horrific illusions of Hell manifested instantaneously in the office. If an ordinary Great Witch were in this office, they might have been mortally wounded by these unintentional displays of power, which is why Euphilia didn't bring her daughter when visiting this elder.

This was also why most Ancient Witches chose to live in seclusion. They were too powerful, and even their slightest emotional fluctuation could result in catastrophe for the weak. While they could forcefully control it, the constant constraint was hardly comfortable.

If they continued to live in Witch City, it would be like giants living among little people, constantly careful not to carelessly crush someone to death, a restraint that was unbearable.

Fortunately, Euphilia was far from being a weak presence. Though she might not yet be a match for this ancient witch, the gap between them wasn't so vast. Moreover, the Dragon Witch, known for her special expertise in the Combat Magic System and her incredible resilience, might not even be killed by the full force of her opponent's strike, let alone such a minor outpouring of power.

She could understand the outburst of the Great Elder, especially since this involved the Lord of Glory. To these Ancient Witches, that ancient King of Angels had been a nightmarish enemy whom they had only managed to defeat with great difficulty. And now, to see their unworthy descendants attempting to wield the power of their ancient foe was enough to fill them with righteous fury.

There was nothing more distressing for these elders than to see the younger generation repeat past mistakes so ignominiously.

"How could they be so foolish? His Majesty the Divine King was so wise and valorous, and yet now the descendants are all so feckless. The long comfort of peace has made them lose their sense of awe, not even weighing their own strengths before foolishly considering using the power of the Lord of Glory. Even I wouldn't dare to now, so on what grounds do they? Who gave them the audacity? They can't even judge if they're worthy..."

Lord Pan grew more agitated as she spoke, and the hellish visions wrought by her power became increasingly terrifying, depicting apocalyptic scenes as if the end of the world had come.

However, for the Dragon Queen, these calamitous spectacles were like a gentle breeze brushing her face. She merely sat quietly on the opposite side, listening attentively.

After a while, the elder regained her composure. She contained her anger and reverted to her kind and gentle demeanor, looking at her excellent junior across from her with even more gratification.

As much as she detested the disappointing younger generation, she cherished the outstanding ones. After all, with age came diminishing desires, and aside from her great aspiration of Ascension to Godhood, her only remaining hope was to see the younger generation thrive and, ideally, surpass their predecessors.

This young dragon sitting across from her was so outstanding despite her young age that the elder almost wished to offer her heart and soul in joy. This was how the heirs of the Witch World they had fought so hard to establish should be, and with such heirs, the Witch World could look forward to an even brighter future.

"Speaking of which, the young one who led the capture team this time was not bad either—quite excellent. I heard that's one of your newly promoted promising talents, Little Annihilator. Very good, almost half as impressive as my own little princess. She deserves to be nurtured well."

The rage had been fully vented, and Lord Pan had no desire to bring up those disappointing descendants that soured the mood, so she changed the subject, saying this.

Euphilia, who had been looking completely calm until now, was suddenly energized. She had been waiting for half the day, and finally, the elder brought it up. She had wondered if you had changed your ways, huh?

Underneath the Dragon Witch's mask, a broad smile bloomed across her face.

The venerable Lord Pan had few hobbies these days, the greatest of which was showing off her kids everywhere.

Although it seemed that all elderly people did this, this particular one suffered quite severely from it. But what could be done when her family had produced a Witch King like the Devil King?

With such family pride, anyone would love to boast about it all over the place.

Of course, since the Devil King had been reigning for tens of thousands of years, one had to show a bit more respect for the Witch King. You couldn't just go around talking about their embarrassing childhood stories every day.

Yes, after being punched by the Devil King's dutiful iron fist, even a Great Sage like Lord Pan sadly had to abandon her grand plan of distributing the adorable baby photos of the Devil King's chubby childhood to all the witches for free.

It was a pity that even though she could no longer boast about the Devil King, the most excellent of children, Lord Pan's hobby of showing off her children remained unchanged. As the strongest race in the Witch World, the Demon Realm had no shortage of remarkable youngsters. And as the Ancestral Elder, Lord Pan could show off a different kid every day without repeating for the whole year.

However, this hobby of the elderly frustrated the other two Great Judges at the Judgment Court quite a bit.

Let's not even talk about the Divine King Faction. Just seeing their descendants being more useless than the next was infuriating enough, and then this old immortal had to show off her excellent offspring in front of us every day; wasn't this adding insult to injury?

Really, if they could actually win, the Justice Chief of Righteousness from the Divine King Faction, who was also a Sage, would have started a fight long ago.

As for Euphilia's side...

Well, guess how a dragon mother who had just lost her daughter would react to someone bragging about their children in front of her daily?

It's like pouring salt on the wounds.

Otherwise, how do you think the Dragon Queen realized she truly couldn't beat this elderly predecessor?

"Oh, I'm sorry, Little Annihilator, look at me running my mouth off."

At that moment, Lord Pan quickly covered her mouth, realizing she had misspoken.

Ever since she was challenged to a duel by her junior out of the blue fifteen years ago, after the daily child-bragging sessions, resulting in a frenzied thrashing and harsh biting that nearly disassembled her old bones, she took the time to investigate this junior's background, knowing they were heartbroken.

Although she was of advanced age and a mischievous Demon Witch who enjoyed poking at people's hearts, she still retained a bit of conscience and knew there were some jokes you just couldn't make, so she had been enduring quite painfully ever since when facing this junior.

It was just that today, seeing a promising newcomer under the subordinate's command, she was so delighted she couldn't help herself for a moment.

However, to Lord Pan's surprise, today her junior appeared unusually easy to talk to and didn't get angry.

"Lord Pan, although you are a predecessor and I ought to respect you for that, I must disagree with you on this point. Your little princess may be excellent, but compared to my newcomer, she still falls short by a tad bit."

Euphilia calmly picked up the tea Lord Pan had just poured for her and said so earnestly.

She suddenly understood why the old predecessor had this child-bragging hobby in the past.

It's truly thrilling.

...The Dragon Queen enjoying her secret triumph...