When Pef returned to the beach, he found Gaia sitting comfortably in Arden's lap, and testing her 'dreamsleave' body with kisses. Arden seemed to have fun as well. However.
"You know Gaia, perhaps it's time you ascend and make yourself a real body? I mean, I like Arden as a friend, but you're using my soul as the building blocks for your lips. And he needs to shave." Pef muttered as Gaia jumped away.
Vela giggled with a hand over her mouth, but Pef only grimaced. Sometimes too much was too much.
Gaia glared at him, then glanced away. "I got a dozen druids, but even so it will take many years. My cultivation is slow." she whispered in a bitter tone.
Pef walked forward and patted her shoulder. "Aria has a few of your genes. And I did find a body cultivation method in the demon galaxy to pair up with my Taichi method. If we combine those with some gold and adamantite, we'll be able to coalesce a body that won't reject you. Only problem..." he explained while glancing at Arden with a dubious eye.
"What? Tell me!" Gaia exclaimed, full of energy all of a sudden.
"You two will need to have a baby. That's the problem of your ancestry, since you draw power from life. The good part is Arden will become much stronger from this. If you give him your Ying energy, and him his Yang..." Pef mused with his eyes closed.
Gaia gaped at him for a moment, then blushed furiously. "... We're not even married! And he's too young to have a child."
Pef waved his hand in dismissal. "I think Arden rules his own Empire, right now. With four meridians open and the Taichi method, he could reach Sovereign, maybe Monarch rank. Plus there's seven gods right here on this planet. Arden can pick whoever he wants, to bless the marriage."
"Don't I get a say in this?" Arden asked in a belligerent voice.
Pef smiled wryly. "So you don't want to marry Gaia?" He asked Arden, in a soft voice.
"I do!" Arden blurted out, then blushed and looked down.
"And you, Lady Gaia?" Vela asked with a curious tone, her eyes almost in tears. Pef could feel her heart full to the brim with emotion.
"... I do want to marry Arden." she admitted in a shy voice.
"Really? I'm so happy for you!" Vela yelled and ran to embrace Gaia.
"What about you two? Are you getting married as well?" Arden asked in his brainless manner.
Pef sighed and swatted Arden away, splattering his idiot brains on the moon.
"You killed Arden!" Vela observed in outrage.
"Again!" Gaia added with a wry voice.
Pef shrugged then clenched his fist and reformed Arden back to life. "It's okay. Arden had his savepoint here." he said cryptically.
"Don't bully me, you idiot! Fight someone your own size!" Arden yelled and drew his staff out.
Vela pointed at Pef and grunted. "Get him puppy! Leave no bone not bitten!"
Pef dodged the puppy with a lunge, and found himself in front of Gaia. "By my command, bind!" she proclaimed, making vines and grass explode from the ground and wrap around Pef's body.
The Puppy grabbed a foot and unbalanced Pef, while Arden sneaked from behind and smacked the avatar with his staff.
"Well done, love!" Gaia exclaimed, jumping and glomping on Arden, smothering him with kisses.
Meanwhile, Pef was left bound and being crunched upon by the fearless puppy, and muttering "Not the face...not there either..."
After a minute, Vela caved in and called the war beast back. Then she sat beside Pef and asked softly: "So you don't want to marry me?"
Pef hesitated for a second. "I will. But not right now. You could be a mistress?" he asked jokingly.
Vela kicked him in the ribs and gestured the puppy to continue its feast. "Damn idiot. First I'm too skinny, now I'm not ready..." she muttered to herself as she dropped into her seat and poured more wine.
Arden glanced at her, then bit his tongue. 'Pef is probably right. There are no wise gods.' he thought to himself. Then he glanced at Gaia, and felt better. At least now he knew for certain how she felt. A thousand deaths would still be worth it.
Reason appeared at the table and smiled sadly at the sight of Pef getting mauled by a rabid puppy.
"Sometimes I wish I was a dog. Much simpler then." she said with pursed lips.
The people at the table looked at her strangely. "Your songs would be even weirder." Arden replied before catching himself.
Reason's eyes twinkled with amusement, then she stepped once, grabbing the puppy by the neck.
"One hundred laps around the constellation. You got lazy and fat." she ordered, flinging the puppy away. With a pitiful whine, the beast took off, leaving an aftershadow as it caught speed and vanished into the sky.
Then she snapped her fingers, breaking the vines and releasing Pef from the bindings.
"Hey Reason! Thanks for the rescue." Pef said with a grin.
"Your qi purity is too low. That Knife shouldn't be able to damage you, even if you let it." she admonished Pef with a stern tone.
Pef nodded. 'Can you manufacture a counter for that sting yet?' he asked in his mind.
'That isn't how this works. Your glove can improve the Legion cultivation, the armor will get new defense features, I should get new attack modes, and you need to meditate and duplicate that inspiration moment and improve your soul. And if we succeed, you might survive when we encounter the real thing.' Reason whispered into his mind.
'Wait, new attack mode? Like something to hit all those eyes at once, in every dimension?' Pef asked with a smile. Lately it had been much easier to understand this kind of concepts. The visit to the demon galaxy had been really profitable in this respect..
'Hopefully, yes. Tier 7 entities are all formed and maintained across multiple dimensions in the same universe. Killing just one doesn't kill the rest. Not unless the attack can propagate across multiple dimensions.' she said in a gentler tone.
'Can't you...run simulations, like with that illusion of a golith?' Pef asked, as he got a genial idea.
'That's all I do, Pef. Every minute, every second. I run simulations. I plan for the next fight, I predict what moronic thing you might try, and how to keep you alive when you fail again. Meanwhile, your glove is sabotaging me, trying to get you into more trouble.' she said with a glance at his right hand, showing only naked skin here. The glove wasn't present in the inner world, and now he knew why. Reason didn't want it here.
Pef nodded when he heard this. 'I know. The glove has other reasons, and I approve most of them. I was punching a tree as a child, crying in pain, while the glove told me to imagine punching a god. And then here I am, punching gods with my fists, and breaking their cores. Greater Demons but still, Tier 3s.'
Reason's eyes glinted with steel. 'The glove raised and guided you, that's true. Broke up your parents so it could have free rein. So you wouldn't ask others for advice. Made you confident and self-reliant, and closer to a demon than a human. You almost became a demon, devouring the souls of others. I almost killed you, seeing what you've become.'
Pef sighed and nodded. He suspected all this, but to hear it confirmed was hard. 'It's okay. Even if it's true, I need to become stronger. I will bear the burden and the pain, and do what the Legion failed to do. I will walk through swords and fire, step on skulls and bathe in blood, if I have to. When those things are dead, when my family is safe, it would be all worth it.'
Reason sighed and patted his shoulder. 'Yes, you will probably need to. That's why you have to hold on to your soul. Your heart was ground into dust, like the sea grinds a mountain into a beach full of sand. It's why you reject Vela, fearing you will stain her soul. As if your love would be worse than what she'd been through.'
Pef glanced back, his eyes connecting with the elf goddess' eyes. She felt hurt and afraid, as if she just lost her place by his side.
He smiled and waved, before glancing towards the ice castle. Vela nodded hesitantly.
In a flash, they both appeared in the courtyard, surrounded by tall ice walls and thick white mists.
"I'm an idiot." he murmured as an apology. Well, it was almost proven fact by now.
"Facts don't care about your feelings." Vela said with a thin smile.
He stepped forward and embraced her softly. "I will marry you. But you have to learn to cook. If I die, I want my kids to eat well." he whispered in her hair.
"I heard your wish. As a goddess of magic, I proclaim ourselves married, and bless the happy couple."she muttered in a sobbing voice.
"Cooking." he pressed on.
"Fine. I will learn. But first, tell me more about those kids..." she whispered with a magic voice, then drew him into a long kiss.
A minute later, Pef drew back with a laugh. "No so fast! I'm not actually real, in here." he said in a wry tone, and pushed a grabby hand away.
"It felt real." Vela said in a dreamy voice.
"I'll need two more ranks for that." Pef explained while looking up at the stars. He had seen what he needed for a Tier 4 rank, and that wasn't yet real.
He could change and alter, but not yet create.
"Let's go and help Gaia, okay?" he asked instead.
"Fine. Help your friends first." Vela grumbled as she regained her senses.
Pef raised a finger and nodded. "Yes, I will. They actually have real problems that only I can fix. Well, mostly Aria and Reason. But inside me, so I count."
"You'll have to cook a feast for their wedding. And all their guests." Vela added as a counter.
"Exactly. And you will help me, since you want to learn." he replied with a smirk.
"Damn it. I'll make porridge then." Vela muttered in defeat.
Pef smiled and brought them back to the beach. Arden looked up and almost asked again, before gulping and slumping back in his seat.
"We are getting married too. What do you say Arden, be my best man at the wedding?" he asked the young Emperor.
"Only if you do the same for me!" Arden answered with a grin.
"Sure. Do you even know what to do, with Gaia?" Pef asked jokingly. Arden blushed and prepared to yell, then blinked in defeat. He poured himself a cup of wine and gulped it in one go.
"In theory." he admitted with a sigh.
Pef grinned and snorted. "You're lucky, Arden. I'll make sure to tweak Gaia's new body a little. Or you'll need to reach Tier 2 to consumate the marriage." he said in a fake whisper.
Gaia blushed and patted her belly, realizing the meaning right away. Virgin goddesses tended to be quite difficult at becoming not virgins.
Vela grumbled and blushed as well.
Maybe it was a more common problem than expected.
Pef returned to his kitchen, and began preparing enough food for a month of revelry and a thousand guests. The Legion had a dozen bases on Ardenia, and it would be good to have all recruits gather again.
Arden had his council and various smiths and merchants the realm needed for his Empire.
Aria was beaming, since her friend and goddess was getting married, and promissed to bless that marriage.
Lin wasn't too happy, at least in words. "Another wife, Pef? You're trying to make me angry." Lin muttered while she hugged Vela anyway.
Pef shrugged and gave her another chain of adamantite and more demon bones. As expected, it worked as planned and he was easily forgiven.
The marriages itself were simple, just two couple declaring their consent, while Aria smiled happily and kissed their cheeks as a blessing.
Pef used the month of celebration to appease all his wives, some of whom were feeling a bit forgotten.
Then at the last day, Arden and Gaia re-entered Pef inner world, along with a cup of Aria's blood.
Reason appeared beside Pef, and bumped his shoulder. "You're brave, asking me to use my universe ending voice to bless a couple with a baby." she said in a stern voice.
"Exactly. Put me to sleep first, I really don't want to feel Arden geting horny with my soul." Pef said before laying in his bed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reason smiled and opened her mouth.
Time came still, while Reason sang with new joy. Sure, her song was barely a soft whisper compared to her real firepower, but it felt nice, to bring life and joy instead of death.
Pef's idea wouldn't have worked of course, since neither Arden nor Gaia had demon ancestors to imprint latent body cultivation in their genes. But they did have Tier 7 ancestry and dominion over life.
With Aria's blood, it was child's play to sequence the needed genes and construct a flesh body for Gaia.
Adamantine wasn't conductive so she used gold to anchor the core in the real, then gently disentagled and re-weaved Gaia's soul into the new body. Luckily, the rune imprint of the Veridians were still in her library, lingering there for aeons, since the times their Legions fought side by side and needed Codex access for battlefield ressurections.
Pef's sleave piece that was disentagled from Gaia, she purified and set it aside, as contingency for when the idiot would reach too far and die again. And he will, thinking himself a tragic hero with a great destiny.
His Tier 3 cultivation was little more than cannon fodder in the Realm War. Then again, there were billions of Soldiers who never achieved even that, dying in the first seconds a new battlefield opened.
It was likely why the crazy glove pushed Pef to the breaking point. A Tier 4 might have a slight chance, though as the Archdemon showed, it wasn't much. A Tier 5, a bit more. Only a Tier 6 had a larger chance to survive. And most Tier 7s had died anyway. This universe was full of their corpses, dead or undead.
Still, the boy lived, after a fashion. He lived when all the others had died, and even Tier 7s chose to self-destruct and reincarnate. Perhaps it was his dual aspect, though those birth accidents had happened before and didn't prove sufficient. Perhaps it was something else.
Her song finished, drawing only a minuscule amount of energy. Still over 7 percent reserves, enough to unmake a hundred Tier 6s. Heavenly Lightning was really a powerful energy source, if not one you could harvest at will.
The voidsplitter skill would be a great boon, if the boy could survive the recoil. But the recoil scaled with cultivation, inflicting greater and greater pain and...so that was it. That was the glove's plan. Going against the heavens, on purpose.
Make the boy loved and happy, then bitter and broken, then again, and again, until he would grind and polish that poor heart into a flawless diamond. Then shatter it into a billion tiny shards.
One life of horrible misery, to bring salvation. What would She have done? Same thing, of course. Failure was the best teacher, in the end.
She sang again, this time a less joyous song.
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PefVersed in the lewd.
"Listen up, Recruits! I know the past month was hard for many of you, getting crushed and resurrected a thousand times. But look at the bright side! Half of you reached Sky rank and the rest advanced a rank or two as well, with the lowest rank being Nascent Soul." Pef proclaimed to the gathered ranks of the Legion.
The recruits didn't seem that happy, looking haggard and exhausted by the ordeal. But their eyes were bright and resolved.
"For the Legion!" the recruits chanted back, pounding their fists on their breastplates.
"You have received armor and weapons, mind stones with cultivation techniques and knowledge how to travel and colonize the galaxy. I expect great things from you all. Divine Gaia will be available as support should you encounter difficulties in your exploration, but don't abuse her patience. She's an ally, not a member of our Legion. Sovereign Arden may also be of some help, but I expect you'll soon become stronger than him anyway." Pef added with a smirk.
The recruits smiled in disbelief. They couldn't yet believe in themselves, and how strong the Legion's method made them, especially when amplified with Pef own Taichi method.
"Go forth and grow, recruits! Marry and be happy, raise a dozen children and be the best you can be. Defeat evil whenever you find it. Fill the galaxy with civilization and let no god or demon stand in your way. Also, try not to die too soon. I'll need you all to join me when the time comes to fight the real enemy."
"Even in death, we serve the Legion!" the chorus replied in a strong voice.
Pef sighed and glanced at Lia, who was standing on the podium to his right. Of course, she would teach them that morbid creed. Dead people served no one. Living soldiers would serve the Legion much better.
He pounded his chest in response, then walked away.
Another step brought him in Arden's castle, now the host of some druids gathered around Gaia and her young husband.
"Well then, my friends. I'm leaving." Pef said softly.
Arden pounded a fist on his new demon-bone breastplate, and nodded. Gaia smiled and stepped forward, hugging Pef with her new glorious body. "Safe travels, Pef. And thank Reason for me." she whispered in gentle voice, then turned away. Pef glanced one last time at Arden, then vanished.
His wives gathered around Pef in orbit above Ardenia, next to the new spacestation.
'Let's go home, beloved wives.' he sent with a qi pulse.
The inner world received the women on the beach, and they entered the familiar house quickly since it was raining.
Outside, Pef wiped his eyes of frozen tears and Blinked away, faster and faster.
He focused on meditation, trying to remember and envision that special moment again. The eroding presence of the scepter, and the purifying lightning coursing through his body and soul.
Light-years flashed by, time slowing down while his speed increased. Slowly, a bubble of Void energy formed around Pef, separating him from the crude matter of the universe and allowing even greater speed.
Years passed inside, yet for an outside observer, almost no time passed. In less than a day, Pef arrived in the Tear galaxy, and changed course towards Lacrima.
Then he came to a stop, holding station above Lacrima's moon. A thousand shipyards were full of ship hulls, some almost finished.
A familiar presence rose from a lunar city, and arrived in front of Pef just as he has disembarking his wives. 'Firalli! Still not married?' Pef asked with an amused qi pulse.
'Lord Pef, welcome home. And...well. I did have someone, a smart woman working here at the ship designs. Bome Ji passed away a thousand years ago.' Firalli sent back with a pulse loaded with regret.
Pef measured the sad smith with his eyes. 'Do you feel she wasn't worth it?' he asked back.
'She absolutely was. Best 40 years of my life.' the old Saint said with a longing tone.
Pef patted his shoulder and drew him inside the inner world.
"Any children?" he asked while pouring some wine for his old friend.
"One boy, then two granddaughters, five grandgrand...." Firalli began exposing his family tree.
Reason appeared at the table, and poured herself a small cup of wine. "I won't bring her back, Pef. Bome Ji has already reincarnated and moved on to a new life, just like your mother. Resurrections have a time limit, sometimes a week, but generally three days." she spoke while drinking the wine with her eyes closed.
"... That's good anyway. If she's happy." Pef muttered after a short pause.
"My lady." the Saint whispered in a bewildered voice.
"This is Reason, the Legion gun. Well, the avatar of the gun. She's great!" Pef explained in a fake cheer.
Firalli glanced at Pef then gulped his wine in silence.
"How's Cellia?" Pef asked with a more relaxed voice, his eyes fixed on the distant ice castle.
"She's exploring the galaxy, with Lord Artus inside. Although her world is quite smaller and much more frozen than yours." Firalli explained with a smile, gesturing at the warm beach and forests behind it.
"Sounds fun. I explored the demon galaxy, killed a few Greater Demons and even a Tier 4 Archdemon. Married two elf goddesses as well." Pef boasted while pouring more wine.
Reason coughed a little, making Pef grimace. "Well, the Archdemon was mostly Reason. Her words pack a mean punch." he mused thoughtfully.
Firalli stared at Reason for a minute, his hand smoothing his beard unconsciously. "I did some work on holographic interfaces for our ships, but Reason's a work of art. Looks a lot like..."
"Like Pela, I know." Pef said with a sad nod.
"Not her. Like the statue of the General, the one from Blue Xi." Firalli said in a wary tone.
Pef's head snapped towards Reason, comparing the two images in his mind.
"She does seem similar, huh?" Pef muttered in a daze.
Reason tapped the copper cup in her hand, making the metal ring with a melodious sound. "I am Her flesh and Her voice. You are soulsmiths, so you know how this works. The soul of the maker is infused into the work."
Firalli gulped, although his cup was empty now.
"You are her! Well, a tiny little fragment of hers." Pef observed in a calm voice.
"A single cell, at most. We work much better in large groups." Reason admitted with a frown.
"And yet, the General never lost a war. She plans for every contingency, even something unlikely like a lost gun in a locked universe." Pef said with gritted teeth.
"Yes." Reason said in a strange tone, her voice echoing a million times around the planet.
Pef punched the table, wooden shards exploding like a bomb. "Damn it."
Reason smiled and rose an eyebrow, making the table repair itself as new.
"Recruit Firalli! For your service record to the Legion, I promote you Soldier 1st class. You shall endeavor to aid the Legion with artifacts and weapons, and never lose heart. By her Grace and Light, let this become truth and deliver your soul to salvation." Reason chanted out loud, while pointing a finger at the terrified smith.
A halo of golden light enveloped Firalli, and forcefully Ascended him to Tier 1.
The new god slumped in his chair, staring at his own hands with disbelief. "I made it. Divinity, with a kind word and a gun."
"My friend, you're a million years old! It's not a wonderful gift, it's a consolation prize. Let's go visit the pantry and have you fight a couple of Demon Lords." Pef explained with a sigh, then grabbed Firalli's arm and shifted them both to the store of frozen demons, trapped in amber around a distant star.
After a few awkward fights, the new god got the hang over his new powers, and Pef brought him to a High Lord demon.
'No weapons this time. Punch his core until this demon dies.' Pef demanded with a qi pulse.
Reluctantly, the smith began punching, his hits weak and inaccurate. It took a long time and effort, for a single execution. Once the Tier 2 demon died, many hours later, Pef shifted them back to the beach.
"Still too easy?" he asked rhetorically.
Firalli glared at Pef for a moment, then sat down on the warm sand, absently wiping off blood and guts from his fists. "I rather not kill anyone." he muttered in a shaky voice.
"One more kill, and you'll become a Tier 2 god. Those demons are slavers and butchers, captured while raiding our Legion base and the city they protected. We lost a million people in a few minutes." Pef explained with a stern voice, remembering the demon desant on Rome.
"I'd rather explore my new powers, I can feel so much more, so much deeper..." the smith muttered in his beard.
"Yes, and you will. Tomorrow." Pef decided with a sigh, then returned them to the pantry.
Another High Lord met his end at Firalli's fists, his core cracked then shattered under relentless impacts.
'Take the bodies. Their bones are very valuable.' Pef ordered with a smile. The smith glanced at his kills with disgust, then began dousing the six-armed corpses with flames, scouring the bones of demonic flesh.
Once the bones were collected in his storage ring, Pef returned them both to the beach, and left Firalli drop on the sand, tears melting on his face, just as Reason appeared in front of him.
"You cannot hide forever under a mountain, Firalli. Training is now over. Go and explore, find a meaning for yourself." she spoke with tight lips.
"One day, you'll have to face things a billion times stronger than these puny demons. And to win, you need to become strong. The Legion doesn't have weak Soldiers." Pef added while expelling the sobbing smith from the inner world.
Firalli looked around, his eyes stopping for a second on the large planet below, where Volcanis was still bound to the mountain of Vesuvius.
Then he bit his lips and flew away, gathering speed as he left his home behind.
Pef stared after him for a second, then blinked down to Lacrima, and entered the Monarchy palace in Lacrimosa.
Mia and Blossom were there, both of them still Monarchs in rank. Easy to fix now, even if Reason wouldn't help.
He swept them both in his arms, and gently hugged them to his chest.
"I'm home." he whispered in a joyful voice.
"Pef! It's good to have you back." Mia exclaimed in surprise.
"I missed you,hubby." Blossom added in a soft sob.
"Dinner or lovemaking?" he asked with a grin.
The women shared a look, then told him the obvious and logical reply.
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PefVersed in the lewd.
Pef landed gently next to stone tomb, carved to resemble a stylized Legion Knife, stuck into a cliff beside the sea. Dozens of normal people and a Police Emperor were nearby, the cultivator sent to guard the site, no doubt.
The fishing village had been moved away, making way for a modern airport, and inns and hotels for the thousands of pilgrims coming to pay their respects to their Patriarch.
He patted the warm stone with a sigh. 'Legends still die, huh?'
'I knew he would die. Deng just wouldn't change. Stubborn bastard.' the glove commented in a mournful tone. For all their bickering, Deng Xi had been the glove's user for more than 100 thousand years. They were old friends, of a sort.
'Yeah, I hoped to reach him in time. I could have Ascended him now. One way or the other.' Pef muttered inward, then flew up.
Another blink and he arrived inside the Vesuvius firecone.
The Fire Guardians were going about their business, some crafting, some training or meditating.
Pef followed the trail of fire qi, and reached the underground hall, where Volcanis resided along with some Legion smiths.
They were pouring some type of metallic alloy into crucible, then going over the metal bar with oils and salts and some kind of gravity compressors.
He decloaked and asked in an innocent voice. "Nice metal. What is it?"
The lead smith, a Sovereign ranked man that Pef vaguely remembered almost dropped his wares, then focused and continued. "Lord Pef. Welcome to Vesuvius." the man muttered in a distant voice.
"Thanks. Metal?" Pef asked again.
"We're calling it nano-crystal steel. Because it has tiny crystals as a foundation. It's as resilient as Sky ranked bones." the man explained in a proud voice.
Pef nodded and smiled a little. Sure they come a long way from copper and brass.
He then dropped a few tons of adamantite, both in mineral form and as chain links the size of a fist. Demons loved chaining stuff with adamantite. And for good reason.
"Found this on my travels. The chains are really strong. I can't break them with pure strength." Pef explained with a smile, tugging at a few chain links as an example. The metal quivered a little, but showed no sign of fatigue.
'I think I could move planets around, dragging them with chains like these.' he mused inward.
'Or, you could simply store them. You do have a belly pouch.' the glove explained in a mocking tone.
Volcanis himself manifested as a fire clone, and poked at the adamantite chains for a minute.
'Come inside, It's time.' Pef sent towards the former Fire God. Well, he still was one, but a Legion one now.
With a single step and a sudden translation into reality, Volcanis emerged inside the inner world.
"That's a really strong metal you found." Volcanis said as welcome.
"Demons. They love keeping things in chains. Had to kill a few..." Pef explained as he summoned a table and chairs on the beach.
"And Firali is now gone, sent to explore the galaxy." the fire god commented after trying some wine.
"Firali is now a Legion Soldier, Tier 2 and all. But you are a different problem, Volcanis. You haven't been human in flesh, for a millions of years. " Pef mused in a soft voice, just as the armored shape of Reason sat at the table.
"He should stay here for a few years. Get used to having a body." Reason proposed while pouring some tea for herself.
"Another wife, Lord Pef?" Volcanis asked a bit mockingly.
"Come now. You're not just a smith. You're a god of smithing. Surely you can recognize the work of the General." Pef said with a head shake.
"She doesn't actually speak! The sound of the words is formed by air alteration. Vibrating forcefields." Volcanis exclaimed while examining Reason with hungry eyes.
"Because her real Words can kill stars or gods." Pef muttered while saluting Reason with a raised glass.
"... the power word gun. It is real after all." Volcanis said with a dry gulp.
"By her Grace, you're commanded to return to flesh, and bind a ton of gold as core anchoring." Reason spoke in a relaxed voice, but this time moving her lips. Now her words carried real power.
Volcanis and the entire inner universe had no choice but to obey Reason's words. A burst of golden light, and Volcanis shed his pseudo body and became human again.
"Still a Tier 1, but no longer an immaterial Loose Divinity. You're now a Physical God, a different cultivation path, just like the Rock Worm tried the route to Perfect Saint." Pef explained with a smile.
He had avoided the classic Loose Immortal path due to his eldritch memories. The ones only golden auras should have. But then, not even golden auras had signs of fighting the sting of a nu-golith and surviving.
Now, it was time to gift the lesson to the last Loose Divinity on the planet.
"My body..." the smith muttered in disbelief, while crushing the wine cup in his hand. Perhaps Reason was right. Vulcanis would need some time to adapt to a real body.
Pef thought for a second. "Go run around the continent a dozen times, while I make dinner." he demanded while waving the clumsy god away.
A bit confused, Volcanis jogged towards the sea shore, then slowly sped away, as he gained more and more control over his legs. Ten minutes later, he passed by the beach house again, his running reaching cruise speed.
An hour later, Pef set up the table and began Recalling his wives for dinner. The Recall range was not even close to Blink radius, but Pef expected it to grow anyway, with use and cultivation.
Lily and Rose and Paragon arrived too, the children's ranks still below Monarch. The normal children were long dead, and even Hero had died as well, in the last beast wave on Orange Base.
"Hey kids!" Pef exclaimed with a wide grin.
The girls rushed to embrace their father, and Paragon only nodded silently, his demeanor elegant and superior. Somehow, that boy was the exact opposite of his father, a writer by vocation, wise and restrained, and still unmarried.
"How many kids?" Pef asked the girls.
"Dad! You can't ask so rudely...But nine kids." Rose muttered with blushing cheeks.
"...Four. But I only have one husband." Lily said with an exasperated shrug.
Pef pounded the table in fake anger. "Oh? There's no one else worthy on this rock? Don't worry, dear Lily, daddy will scour the galaxy and find you at least five husbands to pick from."
"And some wives for Paragon!" Rose demanded with a bit a shamelessness.
"No, thank you. I will marry when I find the perfect love, or not at all." Paragon explained in a calm and certain tone, like he had repeated these lines a thousand time.
"The running man is Volcanis, he'll be famished." Pef explained as he piled tripled portions for one plate.
"Paragon, you can have this book, Lia wrote it..." Vela offered, and passed over the mind stone with the story of the Monarchy.
"Many thanks, Lady Vela." the boy said in a flat tone, accepting the mind stone with both hands.
Pef snorted at the poor boy, and blew Vela a kiss.
There was polite, which was a natural way to avoid premature death, just don't insult stronger people, and then there was whatever Paragon learned from the druids. Maybe it was time to pack the druids into a ship and send them all to Gaia's new planet. Or any new planet.
"Son, how many new girls did you meet last decade?" Pef asked instead, trying to make a point.
Paragon blinked as if he never considered this idea. "Of marriage age, one. But she soon married someone else."
"Last hundred years?" Pef asked curious.
"Five. Maybe six, if there was a girl under those veils." Paragon answered a bit hesitantly.
"A ball. We'll invite a thousand girls a day." Pef decided on a whim. He was a god, so why not?
His wives glared at him for some reason.
Why? He only wanted Paragon to be happy...get him a dozen wives, make him feel loved. Why not?
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PefVersed in the lewd.
Yuan and Qin stood silent and stared at Vulcanis as he devoured the meal, sometimes grunting in indecent sounds of pleasure. "Sooo good, even fruits and salad..." the marathonist mumbled in between bites.
Juices and saliva dripped on his beard, making a mess.
Pef glanced at the famished smith, then towards his ex-fire disciple wives. "It's rude to stare. The man ran a million kilometers. It's normal to be hungry." he admonished them gently.
Vulcanis rose his eyes and nodded in gratitude, then returned to his feast.
"I guess the old maxim is true. You should never meet your gods, lest you be disappointed." Yuan whispered to herself, and Qin nodded to herself.
Pef sighed.
"Anyway. Did you find any problems that need my attention?" Pef asked his wives in more serious voice.
Lia smiled thinly, and knocked on air. Pef reverted the oracle to the real world, and watched her beam away towards the moon.
No doubt she was working again on the laser diffraction phenomena.
Lin stepped out as well, and flew towards Lacrimosa, with barely a pat on Pef's elbow as she left. She wasn't too happy then.
One by one, his wives left the beach dinner, and spread over the planet, returning to their duties as leaders of the Monarchy. Something always needed to be fixed on the planet, from building roads to stomping crime and draining floods.
And unlike in his inner world, a simple thought wasn't enough to reshape the world. Constant work was needed to maintain civilization.
Soon everyone left, except Vela, who didn't have duties or even roots here on Lacrima.
Reason appeared on the beach, and measured Pef's children with a frown in her eyes. Well, they were responsible adults now, with a thousand years of life experience. And lucky for them, they hadn't need to grow up fast, and fight monsters all the way.
"They are pathetic. A Demon Lord would eat them alive." Reason muttered in a disappointed tone.
Paragon perked up and returned the stare, and almost threw a punch. Then his education took over and he bowed politely. "Hopefully, we would get stuck in this demon's throat and doom him to suffocate on our bones." His sisters, Lily and Rose, smiled grimly at the sarcastic retort.
Reason snorted and dismissed the idea. "Glib won't get you far, Sovereign Paragon. You're ten magnitudes of cultivation too low for that."
Pef scratched his cheek and measured the kids with his coresense. He had enough demons in his freezer to push the children into a rapid Ascension, at least to first Tier. But they would be rather useless as frontline troops. Reason was right, as always.
He waved a hand, equipping the kids with Tier 1 armors and spears. Then, he relocated them to the moon, along with Vulcanis. 'Three on one. You stay here until you win.' Pef explained with a qi burst, while pointing at the new target.
The smith reacted first, launching a surprise attack consisting of fire jets and explosions. The armors resisted the flames for a short while, til the wards got overwhelmed.
In a few seconds, all three kids reached a fiery death. Then they got resurrected, and they launched they own attack, while trying to coordinate among themselves, with qi pulses. Didn't quite work, of course.
Vulcanis may have been new to his body, but had been a god for millions of years. And had good control over fire.
A puppy appeared on the beach, next to Pef and Vela, looking towards the moon with curious eyes. "No puppy, you can't help." Pef said with an amused voice, then reassembled the fried kids back into shape.
The puppy ran a circle around the table, then rushed into the sea, chasing fish like it always did, since Pef began populating the inner sea with marine life.
"They'll need years to find a working strategy against Vulcanis." Vela commented with a frown on her face.
"They have Rose though. I say maybe two months, before she figures it out." Pef replied with a careless wave.
"Enough time to plan that ball of yours." Vela concluded with a small smile.
Pef smiled back, glad to see at least one of his wives was seeing eye to eye with him. Vela was new in this role, and easier to trick.
He poured more wine, and revived the dead kids, again. Maybe three months?
------------
In the Patriarchy, there was a large debate still going on, pretty much continuously since the Patriarch had died. Some wanted a new Patriarch to be elected, a few proposed Shan Xi, the Patriarch's Emperor ranked wife as new leader. Remi Xi among them most vocal of them.
Monarchs Ventu and Hestia stood at the head of the table, their rank unassailable but also useless. With a foreign wife, the other Emperors would never approve of his leadership.
Lithos and Wixtal were only Sovereigns, but had equal power with Ventu, one due to their connection to Pef, the other as the older son of the Patriarch. Not the eldest, since Saren was still outlawed due to his defection.
Empresses Remi and Shan stood aside, the Patriarch's holy blade stuck into the table, in front of them. How did one argue with an invincible sword that drank souls?
Sure, the Monarchy had proven that women could be effective leaders, but the Patriarchy was too ingrained and ossified by the Patriarch's geological rule. Two hundred thousand years since founding, and the same person as a ruler...left its toll. The populace was still in shock.
"We could simply remain Emperors of our own provinces, under the aegis of the Monarchy." Wixtal proposed with a shrug.
Ventu glanced at his brother and saw the same reluctance. They had fought too long for their country, just to have it fade away now.
"Lady Shan is a strong oracle. And she has the blade. " Remi argued again, despite her words going unheard a hundred times before.
A Xi Empress was tolerable, especially a married one. If their province was well managed and defended, nobody minded too much.
A Patriarch was by definition male, though. And Lady Shan was not a Xi by birth. Not an option, sadly.
Ventu sighed and squeezed his wife's hand a bit. Hestia replied with her own squeeze, returning the feeling.
"We don't need to rush. Pef has returned to our planet, as you already know. Perhaps he'll take the Patriarch's mantle."
Ventu proposed in a peaceful tone, while rubbing his left arm. The arm had healed, but the reckless disregard for his life had left a deeper scar, in his mind.
The young man was strong, but not wise. He would make a mess, for certain. Which was why his wives ruled the Monarchy instead. Keeping the damage to a minimum.
But the threat of his return would allow a more reasonable candidate.
Half of the Emperors at the table shuddered a little, and shook their heads.
"I believe we should keep the boy friendly, but not too close. We all remember the Locust cult incident. And he also killed my goat." Lithos murmured to himself.
"I think we all agree we're better off pointing my son towards an enemy, instead of letting him fail at ruling. Sixteen billion people in the Patriarchy can't be risked so easily. His first empire went out in plagues and flame." Wixtal said with a grimace.
"Hey! My brother killed the damned worm, didn't he?" Remi jumped in Pef's defense.
"And lost his country and half of his family for it. I don't want to lose our country to a grand adventure." Wixtal replied with a grave voice.
A wave of qi pulses and whispering began among the leaders of the Patriarchy. A consensus emerged at Ventu's urging.
"Take the blade Wixtal. If you live, you will become Patriarch." Ventu proposed with a soft voice, and a glance towards Lady Shin.
Wixtal held is palm out towards the Legion's knife and waited. It wasn't the first time he had wielded it, although the memories of that Roaming were not all pleasant. He had to leave her behind, along with the glove and the unborn child.
If only the knife had obeyed...
The black weapon floated up from the table and towards his hand, then poked the blade into his palm, a bit hesitantly. Blood flowed freely, splashing onto the blade then disappearing by magic.
Wixtal closed his hand into a fist, grabbing the handle despite the blade being in the way.
His hand was half severed for a second, then the wound vanished, as it normally did, when the knife did not intend harm.
He held the knife up, for everyone to see. Then he flashed his sword qi, making the blade glow white and truly deadly. Now it could sever souls, a thousand years too late.
"Patriarch! May you live a million years!" the Xi family chanted, all glad the crisis was solved. Not that a million years was impossible after all.
Remi thumbed her nose, but remained silent. She wouldn't oppose her own father for this job.
Maybe Pef would, but that was doubtful. Her brother preferred to stay away from Wixtal, and avoid painful memories.
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PefVersed in the lewd.
Pef flew up, high enough to oversee the Saint continent in a single glance.
A thousand years of peace and growth had changed the geography immensely. Roads and railways, ports and airports, cities and fields dotted the land, while population numbers had climbed to over half a billion.
In another thousand years, the Monarchy's population should reach saturation, just like Blue Xi continent.
The land would be sufficient to provide for 10 billion people a decent lifestyle, especially with the Legion maize for a staple nutrition.
His cousins and uncles on Blue Xi had already colonized half of the planet's continents, spreading the huge population of the Patriarchy out, exploiting new resources and territory.
However, numbers weren't all good. Cultivators needed more resources as well. Pollution and garbage became huge problems, while technological progress was too slow to keep up.
Beasts were slowly becoming extinct, being hunted out for food and bones. Metals didn't last as long as high ranked bones or skin, necessitating ever increasing numbers of mining and industry sites. But resources were not infinite.
Not sustainable, not for a thousand more years, he mused thoughtfully.
'One child policy?' Pef asked inward.
'That will happen anyway, due to better living standards. And competition for good jobs.' the glove replied gently.
'Except in the Xi family.' Pef added with a smirk.
'Even them, one day. Give it time.' the glove said seriously.
Pef lifted his eyes, and stared at the curved horizon. It was too far, he could see it now.
'Lacrima is too big. A hundred times larger than Ardania.' Pef mused with a frown. Compared to the world of his friend Arden, Lacrima was impossibly large. Like a dreamworld made real, not impossible with the right powers...Reason could do it easily.
'About same size as your inner world, I'd guess.' the glove explained with an amused tone, and not actually guessing.
'And Hellsreach was even larger. Damn it. Nothing here is real, is it?' Pef asked rhetorically. Reason had told him so, but seeing is believing. And now he could see for himself.
The glove hesitated for a second. 'It's real enough, as these things go. What it is not, is old enough. Lacrima is only half a billion years old.'
Pef nodded to himself, remembering the lifespan of the worm he'd killed not so long ago.
'Someone placed that worm here, soon after the planet was formed.' he deduced in a flash of brilliance.
'The worm was a mere beast, like a million other beasts. But this one was modified, altered to carry the plague. Much like the mana fruit was modified, to nourish humans.'
'How much stronger do I need to be, to open the door?' Pef murmured to himself, almost too scared to ask.
The glove didn't answer right away, instead calculating other scenarios, much more important. A few minutes later, it came up with a reasonable answer. 'I'd advise at least 4th Tier. Opening the door will certainly expose us to danger. Real danger.'
'A door that separates us from your creator. Unless she's long since dead.' Pef mused inward, while staring at the sky with apprehension.
The glove stayed silent while thinking to itself. 'I fear someone, something, had moved in their place.'
Pef blinked himself into the Monarchy palace, just as his divine messenger returned from the Patriarchy.
A clone of himself, invisible and immaterial, but able to spy and collect information with ease, due to lack of Saints among his Blue Xi relatives.
"They elected Wixtal as the new Patriarch. The knife accepted him as well." the messenger reported with a snicker.
Pef sighed and waved the underling away. What the Patriarchy did wasn't relevant anyway, not unless they became tyrannical and mistreated the people.
His father was known for being a good ruler though, even admired by most locals for his enlightened policies in the Wix province.
Lithos would have been a worse choice, since that uncle was more of a wild, unkempt hermit. And a woman ruler wasn't really a choice, not for that country. Not for a long time. Traditions were a bitch to change.
A distortion in the air alerted Pef of another messenger, returned from Green Geea. "Hey boss! Father in law is about to reach Monarch rank. And those two cuties had reached Tyrant rank..." the messenger said with a cheerful voice.
The Druid Sovereign, huh? Broken free from Gaia's chains, he could now refine qi for himself.
Pef smiled, reminiscing about the two druid Empresses that he didn't get. But maybe his son would get lucky. The twins would be quite a catch, for Paragon. Silly boy was still single, which was quite disturbing.
"Great news, my loyal servant! I'll make sure Blossom invites them to the ball." Pef replied with grin.
"... Oh. Oh! Spreading the love to our offspring. I agree completely." the messenger said with a knowing smile.
Pef clenched his fist and crushed the cheeky bastard into soul strings. "My child, not ours." he muttered while absorbing the messenger. In a minute, the memories filtered in, faces and sights refreshed.
The other messenger shuddered and kept silent. It wouldn't do to assume too much, not when the primary was in a bad mood.
Pef glanced at him and nodded. "Keep watch over Paragon. Make sure there's no foreign influence over him." he commanded in a softer tone.
"Sure thing boss. I live to serve!" the messenger replied at once, then vanished with a blink.
'Being angry at your own divine messengers is stupid. They are you. If a bit sillier, somehow.' Reason said in his mind, reminding Pef of her presence. Just like the glove, she was always in his mind, judging and analyzing his every thought. But sterner and less complacent.
'My angel speaks! And her words are always reasonable. Now tell me how to reach Tier 4.' he asked inward.
'Meditate. Practice. Love. Or explore and get into fights. I suggest meditation though. Meditation brings wisdom.' the weapon whispered in his ear, her words seductive and wise.
Pef glanced at his inner stats, where wisdom was still the lowest, and 50 times lower than his strength. Perhaps a few months of meditating wouldn't hurt.
'Lack of meditation brings ignorance. But more strength.' the glove advised him from his other ear.
Pef sighed and closed his eyes. Angel and devil agreed on something. Perhaps they were on to something.
Fine! Meditation then.
With some effort, he opened his mind to the universe, and drifted into Dao.
The battle of the sun and his abysmal performance against the Archdemon flashed against the canvas of his mind, the horrid sound of his Void skill failing against the impenetrable core...
The ease of his loss against the Golith sting, as it pierced through his mental shield and maze with impunity. And at the last second, the Heaven's intervention, a blanket of light and lightning.
Pathways burning, lightning coursing through his veins and meridians, and effortlessly obliterating an invincible enemy. Pain unending.
The pain was the key, as always. Who benefited from all that pain? What did it feed?
Was all life only suffering?
The General always wins. Her tools fed of Heaven's punishment, recharging their energies while the user suffers.
To win, you have to give up everything, everyone. Even yourself.
Embrace the pain, and emerge victorious on the other side?
Pef wasn't very smart, not when compared with smart people. He wasn't wise, everyone said so.
But he wouldn't back away from a fight. If he couldn't win, the method wasn't good enough. He would have to make a way, create his own victory.
So what if his cultivation wasn't enough? If his skills were too low.
He will just have to ascend even more. Tier 4? Why not more?
Pain was an old friend by now. He wasn't scared of pain. Losing his loved ones would be worse.
Slowly, a wall of willpower enveloped his heart, compressing it into a harder material. Mortal dust coalesced into crystal, then cracked, and compressed even more.
The weight of the world pushed even harder, compressing the shards into clear white diamond.
Time stood still, yet millennia passed, and the inner chart changed as well, reflecting the transformation into mere words. Crystal heart. Flawed diamond. Cracked heart. Diamond heart.
For every millennium of suffering, the wisdom stats climbed by a single point.
For every point of wisdom, the Dao evolved and grew, allowed deeper access into the mysteries of heavens.
A month passed on Lacrima, most people unaware of the changes occurring right beside them.
Then three more weeks passed, as one by one Pef's wives came to visit and stayed to observe their husband ascend through pure willpower.
A halo of silver light engulfed his body, keeping everything at a hand distance.
Inside his inner world, a miracle occurred. The three children managed to strike Vulcanis once, by acting as a single unit, their actions in unison. Their eyes now glowed blue, and had the same exact hue.
The miracle then repeated, and again. By the third week, Vulcanis gave up, and stopped fighting.
The three children couldn't hurt him, due to low strength, but at the same time, he couldn't evade them anymore. Three Sovereigns, when combined into a gestalt mind, were sufficient to stalemate a Tier 1 god.
Pef opened his eyes, his irises now contoured by a thin line of blue.
"Hey girls, what's up?" he asked with a curious voice.
"Your aura. Is all silver now." Aria said with wonder in her voice.
"Really?" Pef wondered, jumping to his feet and examining his hands. They were glowing a faint silver, just like Aria appeared in his soul sight.
'Your original aspect has gained dominance.' Reason explained with a whisper.
Pef was a bit wiser now, and focused his coresense on Aria. Unlike everyone else, the former druid was a controller foremost, and even had the Garden artifact to provide unending minions.
"I see. My role will be to command troops, probably the Legion Soldiers." he mused out loud.
Lia blinked and smiled at him benevolently. "We are not ants and bees." she said with a light tone.
Pef nodded but kept observing Aria. "Bees too?"
"Yeah. Last week I achieved that. Now I'm training with spiders." the green haired goddess explained with a slight blush.
"Soon you'll have a frog mount, again." Pef joked lightly, as he looked around the room. The wives seemed less worried now.
"You're being silly, you silly husband. I can fly now." Aria said with a careless wave, making everyone in the room laugh.
"I bet you're all hungry." Pef said randomly. A dozen hungry eyes focused on him in response.
Pef opened his arms and swiped them all into his inner world.
He could make some dinner, and make plans for the upcoming princess ball. And somehow figure out what the controller aspect did.
Take over cultivators, and have them fight for him, like Aria did with insects?
Pef's foot glided over the red sand, then he pushed down and dodged to the side. Forcing yourself to move slowly was as hard as forcing yourself to move fast. At least there was less dust and sand clouds like this, unlike at full speed.
"Float like butterfly...huh?" Pef mused out loud.
His body moved slowly, passing through dozens of Taichi forms, then returning to his base stance, and started again.
Another permutation, imagine a spider this time. Dodge the legs, sweep to the side, uppercut with an open hand.
Palm open, impact strong enough to liquefy anything alive, under Saint rank. A demon next, then a dog or a bull. The nature of the target wasn't really important, but changing the routines helped create more qi paths and establish less preconceptions. That was more important for a new cultivator.
One after anther, Pef passed through the forms, for days and days unending, until he was satisfied. A new melee cultivation, to be added into the Legion's arsenal. Especially against non-humanoid targets.
'Did you record it all?' Pef asked to make sure, as he came to a full stop, and folded his arms at his back.
The orange glove remained silent for a few seconds. 'Compared to the standard Legion melee cultivation, this Taichi of yours is worse. Perhaps 30 percent slower and 20 percent weaker overall.' the spirit inside the glove concluded after running a few thousands comparisons.
'I see. And how many of the Legion's enemies are human sized and shaped?' Pef asked with a smirk.
'Less than 1 percent. Perhaps you are correct, Commander. We will know for certain in a million years...' the glove added in a serious tone.
Pef sighed. Immortality wasn't that fun, not when you had to plan a billion years in advance.
Still, the path he had chosen was the one with the greatest chance of success, and survival. Or so he thought.
The planet of Lacrima was being used as a launch point for a huge colonization program, a million qi-array spaceships being built for this task.
Soldiers of the Legion, mainly his own wives, patrolled the nearby galaxies, mapping habitable worlds, and potential danger sites.
A red and black bee darted towards his neck, almost reaching the pulsing vein with its venomous sting, before bouncing off Pef's qi armor. The Orange continent was just as dangerous now as it has always been, only himself had grew stronger.
There were five bases now, preparing new recruits for the harshness of the universe. The recruits that survived and adapted here, among deadly insects or plants, would possibly adapt elsewhere. That was Pef's hope.
Not that he allowed deaths anymore, he just failed those recruits unskilled enough to get bitten by the fauna.
A flare of qi, and another new recruit crossed into Sky rank, all while advancing towards the oasis with Orange flowers...the ones so rare and useful.
Pef rose an eyebrow and Blinked closer.
The new recruit was laying some sort of smell attractors, then jumping away, drawing the bees away from the Orange bushes.
'Pheromone trap.' the glove concluded while analyzing the scene for a second.
Pef smiled. If only more such cultivators emerged, instead of sword slashing heroes.
So few of the new recruits used their brains, instead of power and strength. As if power and strength had any meaning against the real enemies. Not even a Power Word pistol was enough.
'Shiru Minoru. Sky rank. Spear expert. Bow adept. Sword adept. Qi reserves at minimum. Failure imminent.' The glove commented while displaying the stats of the wanna-be flower stealer.
The recruit threw his spear, slicing the bush branch holding an orange flower. Then the spear changed course, and flew back, a few outward needles holding the branch as it flew away with its prize.
'Spider silk...really clever.' Pef mused to himself.
Of course, Earth ranked spider silk was stronger than steel, and made a decent fishing line. Using it as the wire for a grappling hook though? That took smarts.
The recruit collected the branch and sped away, while taking care to store the Orange flower in a jade box.
Another Blink and Pef arrived in front of the exhausted recruit.
"Well done, Shiru." he said politely, holding a hand out.
"My god!" the young recruit said in amazement, punching his breastplate in salute.
He was wearing the Legion Mark 1 armor, Emperor rank with thermal regulating runes, which was the standard equipment now for Legion recruits. Made dying by accident less of a bother.
"The flower." Pef said in a calm voice.
Shiru handed over the jade box with a fearful look, and yet seeming dissatisfied. "Here, Lord Pef. I was just surprised for a second." the guy said in a more polite tone.
"A Orange recipe flower, nearly too ripe to use. And a tiny blossom, too crude to use like this. How were you planning to refine it?" Pef said in a curious voice, after examining the loot inside the box.
"...Errr. Airship to Blue continent. Perhaps a visit with Saren Xi or Lithos Xi." the man said in an uncertain tone.
"Even so...the effects would be minimal, unless you have all 13 ingredients..." Pef mused to himself, and confiscated the Orange blossom. In an instant, he sent it into his inner world, in the care of his Avatar.
Most likely, the fragile blossom could be salvaged and grown to maturity.
"Even so...a Pseudo-Orange Pill might work. She needs...my daughter. Caitlin doesn't have a meridian...it's my only hope." The man said in a pleading tone.
With a sigh, Pef grabbed the young father and Blinked them right in front of their house, a stone building near New Cartagena.
A young woman with a baby in her arms came out. "Hubby? And Senior..." she said with a frown.
Pef just swiped his arm and drew all three into his inner world. Babies were fragile, just like new blossoms.
But at least here the young girl will not die, by illness or accident.
"Aria, check the baby..." Pef said at the sky, where the inner moon was half green now, getting terraformed by his wife as a life experiment.
'The girl...has blue hair.' Reason said into his mind, while stealing the kid from her mother's arms. The weapon's avatar poked at the tiny girl with curious fingers.
"Blue hair, and no meridian. She shouldn't even be alive...." Pef muttered while waving a hand and producing a table with tea and wine, and a few comfortable armchairs.
"My lord...is Caitlin alright?" the Legion recruit asked timidly.
"Your daughter...is perfectly fine." Pef said out loud.
Except she wasn't fine. She was normal, for him. Like any other human back home. But here, even the non-cultivators were born with a meridian, because otherwise the qi in the air or food would simply kill them, like radiation.
Aria arrived next, and began poking at the young girl.
"Well...even gods can see miracles, right?" the green-haired wife said with a joking voice, and handed the girl back to her mother.
"So?" Pef asked with a smile.
"The girl has some strange bacteria in her stomach. They stabilize the internal qi content. But, I can't control them. Like they are not alive..." Aria explained with a deep frown.
Pef blinked. "Okay...that makes sense. And poses more questions."
He glanced at Reason with a frown of his own. "Artificial cells. Probably nanomachines."
The avatar blinked back, and almost spoke in return. 'Machines that operate with qi. Like me.' she concluded with a mental message.
Pef shook his head. "Let's hope they're like you. Now let's test it."
With a telekinetic hand, he crushed the baby, then separated the nanites. Took a second to quarantine the nanomachines then reformed Caitlin back to life.
The young girl soon began having trouble breathing, then entered cardiac arrest and died.
"What's going on? Why is my daughter dead?" Shiru asked in an outraged voice.
"Relax man. Here is my inner world. Nothing will happen. Just testing what's with those tiny machines in her stomach." Pef explained with a calm voice, then resurrected the young girl again.
This time he kept a film of telekinesis around her, preventing ambient qi from touching her body or entering her lungs.
Then Pef clapped his hands, bringing the nanites back into place, and inside the baby's stomach.
The girl kept sleeping peacefully, not even caring of anyone around her.
'I can build a meridian for the girl. Or even make her a cultivator.' Reason proposed with a wide smile.
Pef sighed, of course the universe ending weapon could simply make cultivators, just like that.
"No, my dear Reason. We'll try what Mister Shiru wanted. A battery of tests, each involving a single pill ingredient. It's very possible those nanites will learn. Basically, using the host body as a cauldron." Pef said while doing just that, extracting various pill ingredients from his rings, then arranging them in front of the sleeping girl.
After a buffet of thirty such plants was laid in front of Caitlin, the young girl awoke, and lazily grabbed a Blue vine, then began munching on it, even without teeth.
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