+18 Volume 2- Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Logistics stand at the root of civilization, because at it’s root logistics is the science of resource allocation and distribution. The societies well-verse in Logistics become the greatest empires, while those incapable of even the most basic advances in those fields never become capable of building anything more than small villages filled with mud huts, if even that.

Unlike back at the sect, Seventh Yellow Hill Town did not have the hallmark of civilization, a feat of logistics so great that in my past life it separated savages from civilized people. Unfortunately Seventh Yellow Hill Town did not have running water.

Oh, it had access to water through wells and a series of small rivers nearby that also fed the villages and allowed rice farming, but the town itself had no rivers running through it near or near it's edge.

This was apparently a purposeful decision when the original Yellow Hill Town was made, as the original settlement was meant to be a fortress guarding the surrounding settlements and allowing the villagers to quickly run behind its walls when invaders come.

I could understand the logic behind it, no river meant no water source that can be poisoned or be contaminated with Qi to cause massive unrest and in-fighting. At least if you wanted to keep the place inhabited anyway.

“And flip it!” I shouted.

Da Xiu proceeded to do as I asked and with a single heave we poured the giant wooden tub into the small pool sized cultivator bath.

The thing needed twenty two of these things to fill in and allow a few cultivators to wash themselves.

“It’s annoying to have to do this each time we need to relax in a proper bath.” Da Xiu grumbled.

“I agree, but the last thing we want is to contaminate any part of the village, or worse the aquifer, with Qi.” I replied, my own voice just as annoyed as his.

The knowledge that this was essential, didn't mean that the whole process wasn't annoying to do.

“Thanks for helping Da, couldn’t have done this without your help and I didn’t mean to get the girls to help as this was supposed to be a reward for them.” I thanked Da Xiu once we put the tub down.

The larger man shrugged, almost four years of cultivation made him grow even taller and was almost a full head taller than me and I was about as tall when compared to most men.

His help wasn’t technically speaking necessary, I was strong enough to lift the tub, even when it was filled with water. The issue was that the tub itself was too big for me to able to move it much without being careful, and so I’d need to take it slow, especially as I needed to lift it up a flight of stairs.

“You and Ya Xue did the same for Yu and I when we wanted a proper medicinal bath.” He said with a soft smile.

The medicinal bath the girls were taking was meant to cleanse the body of impurities, parts of the Heavenly Qi they refined into Refined Qi. Impurities are generally bad for humans as they represent spiritual elements that the human body and soul can’t handle and we acquire more of them the more we cultivate. Da Xiu and Yu Zong already had theirs and now it was up for my girls to do.

I'll have one for myself after them, something I eagerly awaited, as a warm bath only for myself with nothing to worry about sounded like a dream come true.

Having a lot of impurities in your body has a lot of downsides, from making your cultivation speed slower, to making your breakthrough more damaging to your mind and even making certain techniques more difficult to do. At least they don’t interfere in the breakthrough chance.

This medicinal bath is meant to cleanse such impurities from Ya Xue, Mei Lin and Bao’s bodies and so, we needed to make sure everything in it was kept in isolated containers. This small pool was the smallest we could make that would allow the concentration of alchemical substances we had to not turn into poison for First Tier cultivators, or we wouldn’t have bothered with something this large.

Even if only taking normal baths, this arrangement would be needed for us to not introduce too much Qi into the local water, especially once we Ascended to the second tier.

“True, when is she returning from the sect?” I asked him.

All of us needed to do gravity training, and so we were split in groups of two that would spend two months at the sect getting accustomed to it and doing our best to map out the tunnels and adapt to them. Currently on rotation were Haoran Lin and Yu Zong and when they would return, the next ones would be Mei Lin and Da Xiu, then me and Ya Xue and then Bao and Cheng Lin.

“Two weeks, do you want to go downstairs and play some board games while the girls are getting ready?” He asked.

“You're on!” I agreed amiably

I took a talisman from the table nearby and fed Qi into it and then pushed it gently into the interior of the little pool. The water immediately started to boil and soon steam started to come out of it.

I moved my hand around the pool to spread the boiling water around the indoor pool.

“That will heat it and signal to the girls to come up. Let’s go.” I declared

Ya Xue and Mei Lin should hear my talisman going off now. Ya Xue has managed to bring herself close to the peak of the second tier, as both of us decided to help consolidate our dantian to account for the rushed pace we cultivated at and not cause issues. It also allowed us to wait for Bao to reach us, as she will be affected the most by Ascending between the three of us, so we decided to delay it and make sure she only has friendly faces near her and that there is no chance of our minds being affected by Ascension.

Elder Shen Xifeng said it’s unlikely to cause issues to us, as Ya Xue and I were born with Water Meridians, but we are not taking any chances. Bao can go first, once she recovers I’ll go and when we're sure I am fine Ya Xue will Ascend.

“Let’s go.” Da Xiu replied.

Both of us went down the stairs. On the second floor was the bath, the first floor were the sleeping quarters and the ground floor was the training dojo, so we had to go outside in the garden for the games.

We silently went to the bench and table and looked over the games.

Most of these were made by Ya Xue, as our resident carver was quite eager to make use of her carving skills.

“What do you want to play? I asked the other man.

Da Xiu took a moment to consider my question, then grinned.

“Falling Towers.” The man said with a toothy grin.

“That’s not a board game but fine.” I replied with a sigh.

He did help me after all.

Falling Towers, or Jenga as it was known in my past life, was Da Xiu’s favorite game, as he had the natural ability to be as annoying as possible with it and always left the towers just a single movement away from falling.

“Haha, I’ll win again.” The man declared smugly.

“Not if I have anything to say about it, now stop counting your chicken before they hatch and help me build the tower.” I replied, my tone thick with annoyance.

The man did as I asked him and together we focused on making the tower.

Ya Xue made the pieces to fit in a five by five grid, as she claimed it’s easier for her to carve to specifications, as opposed to the three by three I originally asked for, but that was fine.

That only made things spicier when there were only two pieces on each floor.

“Have you considered if you wish to try and Ascend to the Second Tier?” I asked Da Xiu as I removed the first piece.

It was one straight in the center floor of the tower. It was a safe enough removal, as it was one of the center pieces.

“Yes, but I don’t know if I should try it. You saw the numbers, one in two survive.” He replied.

He removed a piece from the top, one of the edge pieces.

“And survival does not mean success.” I continued.

You can fail the Ascension and still live. You’ll lose your stored Qi and can try again once your pores and organs stop sweating blood, but you can do it if you're lucky and have a healer nearby.

The second time you attempt is more likely to succeed, close to nine in ten, if not higher, but few actually bother, as the experience scares most people off attempting again.

“I know. But Yu wants to reach higher with her alchemy and not depends so much on sect resources for it. It’ll also make fulfilling the quota easier.” Da Xiu said.

I grunted at that.

That was the main reason I didn’t go into alchemy, that and my past life's fear of the subject, but that factored less in my decision making than one would think. I am not my past life after all.

There is mundane, elemental and spirit alchemy. Mundane Alchemy is chemistry that occasionally involves Qi enhanced materials, Elemental Alchemy is done solely with materials refined by other alchemists and Spirit Alchemy requires cultivators to mess with Qi directly.

Mortal Alchemists and Tier one cultivators can only do mundane Alchemy and small bits of Elemental Alchemy, but the sect wants a heavy payment for providing the materials and resources to learn the craft, which comes with a quota of refined materials that alchemists aligned with the sect have to provide each month.

Tier two is the minimum required for the most basic Spirit Alchemy and where one can make the more terrifying things alchemy is known for, and that includes alchemy with permanent effects on a living body.

Talismans may be far less versatile in the long term, but they provide great utility, especially when paired with an array master. So what if I can’t make elixirs of youth? With a little bit of paper and Qi I can disrupt enemy formations, help our own array masters make theirs in a fraction of the time required and provide temporary resistances to many Qi techniques. And unlike Formations, Talismans are mobile and can be used offensively with ease.

“Fair enough, but what do you want?” I asked him.

“I told you already.” He replied, his tone flat

Before us, our game continued as both of us were in the process of laying the field for the moment each of us would use to bring down the tower.

“You told me what you and Yu Zong are planning for, not what you want.” I corrected.

The tower started to lean as I removed the latest piece. It seems we’ve reached the mid-game.

It’s one thing to plan something as a couple, and another to want something as a man or woman. Marriage causes us to think of compromise before we even speak, or try and decide a course of action. It’s rare for married couples to just start with what they want to do, instead each considers what they think the other wants and try to fit it in what they propose.

Da Xiu told me the decision they’ve reached after both of them started from a compromise and then reached a decision based on it. I want to know his opinion not filtered by compromise and the desire to keep his wife happy.

“I would rather advance before we have children, but Yu Zong is worried that the sect quotas would prevent her from looking after the children properly, so she wants to delay it until after.” He said, his voice flowing slowly like a volcano.

There was annoyance flowing freely out of it, but beneath it was a small stream of anger. I could understand it somewhat. Bao, Mei Lin and I needed to fulfill a quota ourselves.

I needed to provide one hundred talismans a month, something I could do in two days of constant work now, while Mei Lin needed three days of work with no sleep. Bao on the other hand needed to perform maintenance on local arrays and occasionally travel around to the north and do maintenance there.

The quota of an alchemist on the other hand took a week to fulfill no matter your cultivation or skill, as alchemy was a slow process and making the reagents the sect needed required exacting procedures which took time. At least Alchemists didn’t need to slow down their cultivation for it and use their ow Qi, unlike the rest of us.

The quota is hard on Mei Lin especially, as she needs to drop a small droplet of her fresh blood filled with Qi on a talisman to finish making it.

The sect gives us plenty of resources, but we need to pay them back with our labor if we take a crafting profession. Most of us take it, and those that don't agree to take extra missions themselves to not feel ungrateful for what they are being offered.

“I understand the frustration, I would have rather had children by now myself, but Bao and I decided our children will only know one of our selves and won’t have to live with seeing their parents become different individuals from one day to the next.” I replied.

It would also prevent us from harming them if we did grow crazy. You can’t harm those who don’t exist yet, not easily at least.

“Yeah, Yu Zong complained once or twice that a concubine would have helped, she could do the quota, and children would have two parents to look after them all the time, but I am not complaining about having my wife only to myself.” He said with a grin.

Both of us looked to the side at the same time and towards our quarters, specifically the last floor where my wife and her concubines were alone in the same small pool and doing whatever they felt like to pass the time.

“Eh, I get to join in on the fun quite often, so it’s not a bother.” I said with a shrug.

“I still don’t understand why you’d bring other people into your household.” The man declared and removed another piece.

Concubines are I’ve found a complicated topic for men and women both.

Most men genuinely can’t be bothered with them. Our wives just give us all of the sex we need and there’s few idiots that wish to risk having some fun with other women when their own provide it.

Women on the other hand see concubines as tools for their games of social influence in their friend networks and an extra set of arms, which naturally the concubines don’t appreciate. And since a concubine can, in the early days at least, just leave whenever she wants, that meant the wife needs to treat her concubines well and not lose any leverage they had over them by allowing them to have children before thirty. Once the thirty years mark passes and the concubine doesn’t have children, then the wife has an incredible amount of leverage over the concubine and most of them can become little better than slaves.

The last parts didn’t apply to cultivators naturally, but the sort of tension and social expectations inherent to the system remain.

“I am not one of those strange men that brings other men into his bed, all of the children in the marriage will be mine, so I am content with the arrangement.” I answered.

I would need to be careful now, we’re in the part of the game where a single wrong move could bring down the tower.

I removed the wooden block and there were only two left on that floor. There weren’t many floors with only two of them left.

“Still, bringing someone in just to be an extra pair of hands to help feels weird. Also, having to look after adults that can’t make it on their own and that can leave whenever you try to instill some discipline in them doesn’t feel worth it. Easier to just have one wife, less headaches that way.” He replied , his tone turning absent minded as he tried to focus on the tower in front of us.

He tried a risky move and removed a border piece between two other floors where that already happened. If he succeeds then I doubt I’ll be able to remove another piece easily.

I remained silent out of courtesy.

The piece slowly left its resting piece as Da Xiu moved with with far more dexterity people would expect from the bulky man.

Eventually the piece was away from the tower and firmly in his hand, the tower still standing up. He gently placed it on his pile of wooden blocks and looked at me with a mocking look.

Both of us knew that one small breeze could bring down this tower from how unsteady it looked.

“Ha.” He declared arrogantly.

‘Son of a bitch.’ I said as I looked down at the tower.

I needed to make a move, or Da Xiu would win by default, but there was none I could do that wasn't all but guaranteed to bring the whole thing down.

Under the mocking glare of Da Xiu I prepared myself for it, but a small breeze came out of nowhere and the tower fell before I could even begin to touch it. I looked up at the man as he looked furiously at the tower as if it had betrayed him. I started to laugh at him and slowly he too started to laugh with me.

“Want to go for another round?” I asked him once both of us stopped laughing.

“Yes.” He said.

Both of proceeded to do just that as we prepared for a second round.

~~~ Bao Xiaoli ~~~

Getting your body invaded by virulent Qi wasn’t something I expected to feel before. I didn't expect Qi to even feel like this, it was as if it was like a river flowing beyond and beneath my skin.

After the boys left us the bath to ourselves we came and let ourselves in the steaming hot water. Normally it would be too hot for us, but our bodies were strengthened by cultivation, so much so in fact that what once would have been scalding water was now a comfortable temperature as we relaxed in the pitch black water.

A single drop of the Body Cleansing Elixir was enough to turn the water from it’s clear color into the sort of black I didn’t even know was possible. The Elixir contained Liquid Qi, so I shouldn’t be surprised by it’s potency, but it was still somewhat disturbing to see it.

“How strange.” I remarked as I held some water in my palms.

There were small flickers of white in it now, as the Body Cleansing Elixir attracted all my impurities into itself. It looked like a starry sky, but with far more stars.

It was… pretty… in a strange, disquieting way.

“Yes, I didn’t imagine we had so many impurities.” Ya Xue said from behind me.

I relaxed further in, her breasts serving as a cushion for my head. Mei Lin’s large watermelons would have been more comfortable, but she was shorter than me and the logistics of that in this water were annoying to deal with.

“Especially as I seem to posses more than both of you put together.” Mei Lin said from our side.

She was right. The water was barely filled with small white specks near Ya Xue and I, but around Mei Lin it was nearly pure white. It was as if she was in an entirely different liquid than us.

“Elder Shen Xifeng did tell us this will happen.” I remarked.

“Just one more thing to curse the spiders for.” Mei Lin mumbled

She then proceeded to lower herself deeper into the bath until only her nose and mouth remained above water and the amount of impurities emanating from her tripled.

Our master told us that Ice Blooded were the result of the spiders experimenting on humans to turn our species into cattle and make it impossible for us to rise against them.

Mei Lin’s cultivation manual was made specifically for her to be able to cultivate despite the impurities that her body was made to absorb naturally from the air, even without cultivation. Her physique was made to make cultivation impossible, but fortunately it failed at it.

There are special techniques and manuals that allow Ice Blooded to cultivate, despite their physique and impurities, but as a result they become far more sensitive to mind altering techniques. The spiders used that to turn the Ice Blooded into their ever loyal cattle and it was for that reason most of them were exterminated centuries ago.

Some survived the purges, or are born from people with ice blooded ancestry that aren’t aware of it, which can be the source of much heartache, especially among cultivators who know exactly what they are.

Thankfully, there are elixirs to prevent that, even if they are obscenely expensive, but Ascending to the Second Tier should allow us to afford it in a few years.

“Do any of you feel any different?”I asked and separated myself from Ya Xue to slowly swim towards Mei Lin.

There was another part of her that remained above the surface. Her breast stood proudly up into the air, her small nipples all but begging me to nibble on them, something I happily did, which earned me a small moan.

One couldn't help themselves when they saw something this pretty.

“The Impurities are a symptom of my issues Bao, not the cause of it.” She replied.

Her right hand was already moving across my lower body. I trained her to respond to my touch well, but unfortunately now was not the time for this sort of fun.

“Hands down girl, I was just testing for a reaction, we can have our fun on another occasion. Also there’s no reason not to check.” I instructed her.

The woman sighed, but did as I instructed and her hand went back to where it came from.

“If you want to play around, you do know that Ya Xue responds better to this sort of thing.” She replied.

I nodded, even if I knew she couldn’t see it. Her senses allowed her to hear me, even with her ears submerged, but it was better if she wasn’t opening her eyes beneath the water.

“Yes, but that is no reason to leave you unattended.” I said simply.

I then gave her left nipple a bit of a nibble to not leave it feeling lonely. The woman didn't even react to it, now that she was expecting it.

Once my checks were done, I was back to my pillow.

“What about you little Ya? Your ears giving you any trouble?” I asked her.

The woman sighed fondly at my question. I don’t know what Tai told her when they came back from their first mission, but she was suddenly much more open to my touch and teasing once she returned. She occasionally froze up when I wished to push things but when I tried again a few days later she wasn’t, which was all I needed to know that she was just being silly again.

“No Bao, I haven’t exactly gotten my head submerged like Mei to check, but even then, I can live comfortably without formations covering up the intent in the air now, with or without impurities. ” She said.

I knew that, but like always, it didn’t hurt to check. These two women were my responsibility to look after and that meant asking questions all of us thought knew the answer to. Ya Xue's body has adapted to her Water Meridians for a year now after all, but that didn't mean I can't use it as an excuse to be a bit more nurturing than the situation calls for.

“I would be open to a bit of fun however.” She whispered softly into my ear.

Her hands were also quick to find their proper place on my body, her left hand down near my flower and the right one on my right breast. I knew that if I wished it, my left nipple wouldn’t be left unattended for long either.

“That won’t be needed little Ya, we’re here to relax after all, we can have the sort of training match you enjoy on another occasion.” I informed her.

“That’s not what I was talking about~” She sang sweetly.

I sighed theatrically.

I wasn’t dumb and despite how the woman might look right now, I knew perfectly well that she was teasing me. She wasn’t the sort of person to initiate this sort of thing. It took careful nudging over the course of several days to get her to agree to come to my bed for some fun.

She knew that I liked the teasing and the touching, but right now I wasn’t in the mood for going further than this.

I didn't much care for who was doing the teasing and touching, as long as it was happening and the people that did it were those I cared for and neither did my concubines. Normally this would be a nice little occasion to 'bond' further, but unfortunately we had important things to discuss, and this was one of the few occasions where all three of us could talk in private.

It would have been better if Tai was here too, but he wanted the bath for himself at least once, and considering he helped fill up ours and that of Da Xiu and Yu Zong, then helped deal with the Xi-contaminated water nobody felt like making him change his mind.

“Not in the mood for too much teasing either little Ya.” I said as I brought my left hand up and caressed her cute face as I brought down her eyes to meet mine.

She stopped teasing my lady parts and blushed greatly due to being gently nudged to meet my eyes as she was teasing me. For some reason having her look into my eyes always took the wind out of her.

Message sent. I made myself comfortable again.

“That’s not like you Bao, did something happen?” Mei Lin asked from beneath the water.

“Just thinking about the future and the logistics of children.” I replied airily.

That caused Ya Xue’s body to freeze beneath me.

The topic of children wasn’t taboo in my household, but neither of my two concubines were exactly happy to talk about it. Ya Xue still had her reservations about laying with a man, even if it was Tai, and Mei Lin was rather grumpy from having to wait until we get her the elixir that guarantees she won’t have ice blooded children.

It's not like we need to wait much longer for it. A few months and we'll be able to afford it. We could do it even now, but we'll be left with no spirit stones.

Both of my concubines wanted different things and I wanted at least two of us to have children at roughly the same time, which meant that I either needed to rush and have them at the same time as Mei Lin or continue stringing her along until then.

“Have you come to a decision?” She asked bluntly.

“If Ya Xue is comfortable with it I am willing to have Tai make you both pregnant as soon as we get you the Elixir.” I informed her.

I was still a month or so from being ready for my breakthrough, and both Ya and Tai were waiting for me to Ascend and recover from it before Ascending too. If Ya was willing, I could allow both of them to Ascend and then once they recovered and had the spirit stones we needed, Tai can impregnate both of them.

“She barely accepts sleeping with you Senior.” She said, her voice twisted in a slow drawl.

I didn’t need to see the eye roll to know it happened, her voice told me enough about it.

“Then you’ll have to wait some more until I ascend and all three of us have recovered. It won’t matter what Ya Xue is comfortable with then, you and I are going to get pregnant.” I informed her.

“I’ll hold you to that promise.” She said simply.

And that was that. I held took little Ya’s hand into my own to get her to relax, I did not like it when she was so tense.

Calling her little was a bit of a joke these, days, she was the tallest woman around but I took a great sense of amusement from calling her my little Ya. Her blushes were just the cutest!

Eventually, the woman relaxed again and she was once more my very comfortable pillow. The talk about children was over, now came the more important talk.

“The Year of Ascension comes in seven years and then the Era of Blood. Who is staying behind?” I asked the two women.

Mei Lin came out of the water and gave the stink eye.

“This is not where we should be talking about this senior, also it is probably not the right time either.” She said, her tone as filled with respect as she could pretend to hold.

“It is junior.” I replied and silently ordered her to drop the act.

“I didn’t think I’d live to see The Year of Ascension or a new Era of Blood.” Ya Xue mused.

I considered if I should mimic Mei Lin now and put my own head beneath the water, but decided against it. I did not wish to consider the implications of her words and there wasn't much else to do beneath the water but think.

“Master Shen Xifeng will be among those attempting to Ascend, and once the Ascensions happen we will proceed to wait another year before invading the Spider Clans. When I was last in the sect I heard rumors of a super-weapon meant to deal with them, but that will require the entire sect present to allow it to fire.” I told them.

They already knew this, but it didn’t hurt repeating myself.

The Year of Ascension comes once every five hundred years where the direct disciples of all sects attempt to break through to the Fourth Tier and become Nascent Soul Cultivators. Once that happens there is a period of revelry and joy and preparation as the Empire of the Blazing Sun Rejoices at it’s growing military might before it prepares itself to go to War.

The Era of Blood refers to the next period where the Empire focuses it’s entire might on a single spider clan and prepares to exterminate it. During the last Era of Blood the Empire burned the Northern Spider Clans to the ground and turned its Mountain Bastions into the Ash Hills.

Now, the Empire is preparing for it again, and as we will be having children, half of us are allowed to stay here and raise them and serve as reserves for the one hundred years of grueling warfare that awaits us until the spiders and their reserves run out and we are back to low-intensity conflict.

“It is to soon to worry about it Bao.” Ya Xue said.

“Hug me.” I demanded.

She did so without complaint, her hands now in a loose hug around my chest.

“Someone has to stay behind. Mei Lin I know my promise to you, so you will be among the ones to stay.” I informed the Ice Blooded and ignored Ya Xue's complaint about time.

Tai and I promised her she will have children to look after her, they can’t do that if she’s dead, so she stays behind. That left Ya Xue or I to go with Tai.

Neither of us believed for a second that the man will stay behind, and if we tried to keep him we knew perfectly well that he will demand a divorce. Any man would ,if he were told by his women to stay home when War comes.

Normally, all three of us would stay behind, but one of us needs to go with him, because we are cultivators and cultivators are always the first into a fight and the last out of it.

“Thank you senior.” Mei Lin said and swam until she reached in-between my legs.

“You can come rest on my chest, I told you I am not interested in this sort of thing tonight.” I informed her.

The little seductress kissed my flower gently, which caused a light gasp to escape my lips and then slithered slowly across my skin until she was resting on my chest.

“Are you comfortable there little Ya?” I asked her.

The pressure of two bodies resting on her wasn't dangerous, but the last thing I wanted to do was make her stay here physically uncomfortable.

“Yes senior, are you certain we should decide this sort of thing now?” She asked me, her voice clearly uncomfortable.

Hopefully it was only the topic of our discussion that cause her to be like that, and her issues with 'propriety' and 'intimacy' weren't rearing their head again.

“Yes, the more we leave it be, the greater the chance we forget and then we’ll have to rush to decide. Better to handle it now and steel our hearts before we need to rush a decision we will regret.” I replied.

As I spoke I looked down and saw Mei Lin resting peacefully on my chest and for a moment I forgot what she was, all I could see was a girl with only her siblings to keep her company, and those siblings now had their own families to look after, even as she was welcomed there whenever she wished.

I once came with her, and even as the twins did their best to welcome their sister and Mei Lin’s sisters-in-law did their best to make her feel welcomed, Mei Lin knew that their homes weren’t hers anymore.

“I am a pure fighter, I’ll eventually have to leave for the capital to join other Sky Seers anyway, so I’ll go. Besides, you're a Formation Mistress, your kind are not very good on the offensive.” She said with steel in her voice.

My gaze turned towards Ya, who was looking down on me with the most severe look the woman has ever had.

“I could still be useful, formation masters are always useful, especially if we are being assigned away from the Main Assault to the fortresses meant to resist the spider’s counter-offensives, or to protect that super-weapon” I replied.

Both of us knew that the chances of us returning were low. Master Shen Xifeng told us quite clearly that the sect recovered from its losses the year after the rest of us joined in. Five hundred years ago, the Blazing Fist Sect was down from one thousand members to fifty members, with a single Nascent Soul and three Golden Cores, one of which was Master Fu Jian, who decided to ask for special permission to Ascend after the old sect master decided that she can’t be one anymore shortly after.

“Perhaps, but do you think Tai will let you? Or that we will?” Mei Lin asked.

I looked back down.

“Oh, do you think you can stop me?” I asked with a raised eyebrow at my impertinent junior.

The woman smiled viciously.

“Will you trust your children to women who need you to look after them?” She asked, her smile far too foxish for my taste.

That argument was far too perfect to have been made just now and my eyes narrowed as I realized the trap I ran into.

“You planned your answer ahead of time.” I mumbled.

Ya Xue shuffled silently beneath me and then begun to massage my shoulders. It was a bit awkward due to how I was resting on her, but somehow the woman managed.

“We do rely on you a lot Senior, but we aren’t dumb. We know very well that Tai, while friendly and kind to us, personally only cares for you. He is willing to work with us, take care of us when you are not present and will probably fight and kill for us, but all three of us know perfectly well that you are the only thing allowing us to live as a family. If something happens, then as far as Tai Su and I are concerned you are to be the last one to stay here and raise the family.” Ya Xue told me bluntly.

“You even got Tai into it?” I asked.

Is everyone but me plotting together for the future ahead of time?

“Yes, I doubt I am ever advancing past the first tier, so I’ll need someone to look after my descendants too and I am sure that having an Array Mistress left in reserve here in the south is something the sect will allow. Someone needs to keep the local formations up after all.” Mei Lin admitted.

She then proceeded to kiss my belly to remind me just why she said that.

“Impertinent Juniors, I should have you whipped for conspiring behind my back with my husband.” I mumbled.

I didn’t actually mean that, but I was annoyed. We've been in this arrangement for years now, and the furthest I went in disciplining my juniors was with Mei Lin getting me to shout at her once recently.

I didn’t want to be left alone and so I was probably far softer than I was supposed to be, Tai and I both now that I think about it if our concubines think to plot against one of us, because Tai certainly can't be bothered to be sneaky about this sort of thing. When there's a problem, my brute of a husband may speak softly to you about it, but he will speak and be direct about it.

Ya’s massage turned into a warm hug as she sent me emotions of safety and understanding in the same way she and Tai fed Mei.

“If it makes you feel any better, just think it as us repaying you for giving us a warm home worth living into.” The woman behind me said.

“Besides, you won’t be alone, Tai’s family will still be around to look after you, as I doubt his siblings will let their nephews and nieces to live alone.” Mei Lin continued.

I sighed in defeat, the conspirators thought of everything and now I have no more arguments.

“Fine, but Ya Xue, you are not going to war without at least leaving one child behind with me, that is my price for agreeing to this.” I told her bluntly.

If I am to risk all of them dying, then I want something from all of them to remember them by.

“Yes senior.” She said, her tone sounding far too defeated for pulling off what was essentially a flawless ambush on her and Mei Lin’s part.

The silly woman should stop being this silly, it’s just children, everyone must have them and they are cute. I’ve helped plenty of women in town and mother Su with their children to know that.