"Alright!"
"Let's do it!"
"Yingluo is the best!"
The group's spirit was high. The women were all smiles. The men were also content because women were happy. The Bei Clan was finally back and their first stop was their old home.
Bei Yingluo led the way and the group set off. They left the city square with the teleportation array and headed down a main street. It was approaching sunset it soon got more crowded. People emerged from their houses to take care of chores or to open up their shops. Others set up stalls in the street to sell food and various wares.
Drifting Sand City was not a large city. At its peak, it could hold several hundred thousand souls but right now, there were barely over one hundred thousand. The population always fluctuated based on the season but after the monster invasion, it still had not recovered to its original level.
"Strange, first aunt, I don't think I remember seeing so many southern food stalls before."
The one who spoke up was Bei Mingyu, Bei Yingluo's little sister. She had been looking at each food stall with a keen eye as if she had not eaten in many days.
First Aunt Bei Yujing, the most senior of the women at the age of forty-three, looked around and nodded, "You are right. There does seem to be more stalls selling southern food than before."
They referred to southern food as coming from south of the Great Hui Desert, from the Aiqin Mystic Archipelago. This cuisine included a lot of seafood and was not the style that people of the Bei Clan or most others that grew up in the desert preferred.
"Look!" Bei Mingyu shouted excitedly, "Grilled sand lizard! I can finally have grilled sand lizard again!"
Bei Yingluo resisted the urge to roll her eyes and so did many others. Sand lizards were a popular snack as well as a well-known pest. They dug holes in the ground and in the dirt walls of the houses within the city. They were abundant but they had little value for a cultivator. They could fill one's stomach and that was about it so they were popular with kids in the city.
Bei Mingyu ignored the others and dashed up to the stall. An old woman was busy cooking over an open flame, turning multiple skewers of skinny lizards. From head to tail, they were about twenty or thirty centimeters long. There wasn't much meat on them but the stall owner glazed the whole lizard with some kind of sweet and savory sauce that smelled great.
Bei Mingyu quickly bought two that were already cooked and immediately dug in. "Yum! Mmmm!"
Seeing her demolish two lizard skewers so quickly, the other Bei Clan women also gathered around the stall and bought the skewers as fast as the vendor could make them. Although it was cheap, it reminded them of their home, that they were finally back.
Second Aunt Bei Hao even fed tiny morsels to her baby who was no more than an infant.
"Hey, Haohao, he's too young to eat that!" Feng Xuqi, her first husband, tried to stop her.
"He'll be fine! It's just a bit of lizard meat, there's no harm. I ate this thing growing up. We all did!" Bei Hao said and then ignored him.
"But…"
"Brother Feng, it should be fine." The second husband named Liu Enshang said, "The baby is strong. He can take a little bit of solid food."
"You… how can you take her side on this!"
The trio continued to argue to the amusement of the rest. It was a common sight among the Bei Clan women. Now that they had the backing of an immortal sect, they could get multiple talented cultivators as husbands, ones who were willing to share a wife with another man. Such a thing almost never happened in the past and only if the woman was particularly beautiful or talented. It could be said the Bei Clan women were living the best possible lives.
Chen Wentian could have never imagined men actually being satisfied with this arrangement but he was seeing it in real life. Standing in the rear, he observed the interactions with slight amazement. These men were good cultivators. They could be considered the upper tier in terms of loose cultivators in the mortal realm.
But whether it was Feng Xuqi, Liu Enshang, or the other men that had chosen to marry into the Bei Clan, they made that decision willingly and eagerly. This was the appeal of absolute power and near-endless resources. For these men, the Bei Clan women were the best wives they could possibly hope to find and they were even willing to share their status with other men to be in this position.
And one could also reason that he, Chen Wentian, was the one supporting these women to make their own male harems.
He scoffed and shook his head wryly. The things he did for his disciples… it was too bad that they were so amazing. Now, if only he could unlock more of Bei Yingluo's secret ability. He hoped that once she stepped into the immortal realms, her realm-hopping battle power would become even more unreasonable. She could even become one of his secret weapons.
"Elder Mo, do you want to try one?" Bei Yingluo walked up to him, holding several skewers of lizards.
"Is it good?"
He had to admit that it did smell good. The sauce that the old lady concocted was something deserving of praise. He was a connoisseur of roast meats so he discreetly sent a shadow anchor to follow her and perhaps obtain the recipe.
"You won't know until you try one!" She insisted.
He humored her and took a bite. "Mmm, not bad."
It really wasn't bad, far better than he expected.
"See, hehe." Bei Yingluo skipped back to the front, "Alright everyone, it's getting late. We really should get going!"
It took a little while longer to wrangle everyone back together and they headed off down familiar streets. The women all knew the way. Even Bei Mingyu remembered.
After several turns, the streets became narrow and they were lined with all walls that sectioned off each residence from the next. Finally, they all stopped in front of a set of bronze doors that guarded a manor of modest size.
"Hold on... the door is different." Bei Yingluo said.
"Yeah." Her mother, Bei Rongyin, added, "The door lock also different. Did somebody change them?"
"No way, Let me check." First Aunt Bei Yujing said and went up to knock loudly on the door. "Anybody there? Open up!"
She continued shouting for a while before the door creaked open.
A small-statured man with an unfriendly face peeked out, "Who's there? Go away!"
"Wait!" Bei Yujing forced the door wider, "Who are you, why are you inside the Bei Clan's home?"
"I don't know what you're talking about! This place is the property of the city lord. If you want to cause trouble, go cause trouble for the city lord!"
Bei Yujing's eyes flashed with anger. "You dare! This land belongs to the Bei Clan, these buildings belong to the Bei Clan. Our clan raised these walls brick by brick. If you don't give me a proper explanation, don't blame me for being rude!"
"Ridiculous! We're done talking. Men, kick this old hag out!"
"Yes, steward!"
"Yes, sir!"
Several strong voices sounded from behind the man. The twin bronze doors swung wide open and a squad of guards in armor and carrying swords marched out, ready to fight.
---
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