"Oh my...I can't believe it..." The Vice Lord of Thousand Datura Pavillion gasped. "Ren, you know if even steps foot on the higher plateau, he's qualified to enter the Ninth Floor."
"I'm aware, Chika. He was eligible to ascend to the Higher Plateau after his twenty-fifth opponet. " Ren replied. "But some man just can't take over our home."
"Ren, this hasn't been home for a long time," said Chika. " The Lunar Demon King might of slown down the time in this pavilion to keep us alive longer, but our true location is in Mortal World of the Southern Continent. We can only take so much world qi before someone notices. And the Qi that we do take powers the time isolation array. Everything leftover is of no help to us. All in all, this is a prison and the warden is too kind to kill us and too psychotic to ever let us move on."
"Haiz! So do you want to do?" Ren asked.
Chika looked down from the higher plateau and watched as another concubine fell and I dropped to my knees, panting. Putting my opening my last bottle of Lichen Heart Pills, I poured six pills in my hand as I sighed. I popped two in my mouth then put the rest away. I then pulled out a bottle of soul-quenching pills and swallowed my last five.
The body could go limp and essence can run dry, but one must never lose their soul power completely. It may be sleep you won't wake up from.
My body slowly held and my soul power returned. I had fought for 100 days, sometimes eight or nine times a day. I had many battlefield breakthroughs that saved me in critical moments. But now I'm at the end of the line.
As the last Datura of the lower pavilion stepped onto the stage, Chika called out.
"Enough! That's it for the day. Ingrid, you face him tomorrow." she announced.
Leaving the martial stage, I limped to my room, drew a hot bath, and soaked as my body healed itself. Before drifting off in the tub, I finished off the last of my Lichen Heart Pills. My eyes slowly closed and drifted off to sleep.
After a few hours of sleep, my eyes fluttered and I awoke in a tub of cold water. During these past hundred days, I remember what it felt like to be human. Truly human. Like the times after three, a day training session being beaten beyond your limits for days on end. Even my younger days training in the clan weren't this brutal.
Stretching my body I stepped out of the tub. My eyes immediately locked with Ren, the Lord of Thousand Datura Pavillion. Next to her was Chika, the Vice Lord. They looked me up and down and I was too mentally tough to be coy or embarrassed. I let them inspect till their heart's content.
Naturally, the women didn't blush or show any emotions whatsoever. Compared to them, I was I child.
"How old are you again?" Chika asked.
"And yes, your time in the temple will remain once you leave," Ren added.
"Almost 19," I replied.
"Hmm, very well developed," Ren spoke as she rose to her feet and began to walk around me. She was pretty developed as well. She wasn't overly curvy but her figure was sensual. she had slight bronze pigment and her eyes were deep silver with lilac flecks.
Her claw-like fingernail drain across my skin and a thick glob of blood slowly spilled out like molasses. Stealing the drop, she brought it to her lips as my skin healed.
"Mmm. Delightful." she moaned.
"Purity?" Chika asked.
"The purest I've ever encountered. I've never tasted Princess Amara but his blood is very similar to her aura. And is Elven blood isn't losing in the slightest." Ren explained.
"He's awakened his bloodline so she would surely sense it. Do think the Grand Elder would too?" Chika asked.
"I don't think so. He's too far removed. Though Amara is his daughter, she's the Matriarch of an entirely new line." Ren continued as if I wasn't even in the room.
Moments passed before the two women finally looked at me.
"Get dressed." Said Ren, "We have a lot to talk about."
Sometime later, I was pouring the women tea as they began. "The Lunar Demon King wants to know when you awakened your bloodline. In the time you've been here, a bloodline phenomenon hasn't occurred. And with the purity of your bloodline, it's all but guaranteed to happen." said Chika.
"In the Yin Yang Cave. I was surprised too. It was must swifter and less burdensome than I thought it would be." I replied.
"Did you grow up in the Southern Continent? Do you know who your ancestors are?" Ren asked.
"Yes and yes. What does that have to do with anything?"
The women completely ignored my inquiry.
"You know the Lunar Demon King has your people?" asked Chika.
"Yes," I growled. Between the conversation and knowing my loved ones were the hands of some ancient power. I was growing in rage and frustration by the second.
"Then this will be simple." said Chika, "Tomorrow, you will win. You will ascend to the ninth floor and talk to the Lunar Demon kill, hash out the details, then this lunar temple will be yours. Two things will then happen, one will work the rest of your life to fulfill the terms agreed to with the LUnar Demon King. Two, you'll free the entire Thousand Datura Pavilion."
The situation was so far beyond me that I couldn't see through what was happening. The only clarity I could achieve was by making it to the ninth floor. And wants one more deal compared to the safety and freedom of my people.
It was times like this that tested a cultivator's mettle and could be their downfall. The things you hold close but be maintained by any means necessary. The slightest hesitation can cause a crack in the toughest foundation.
"Deal." I said, "The only thing I want is on the ninth floor. The faster all of this is done, the faster we can all separate."
The women smiled. "Good. Good... get some well-deserved rest. Tomorrow, you meet the King."
The next day I awoke and it was just as Chika and Ren said. I won the match because the last Datura of the Lower Plateau never showed. I'm sure there was a complicated reason behind it, but I was absolutely certain that Thousand Daturas had become nine hundred and ninety-nine.
Ren explained how winning 25 matches qualified me to ascend to the eighth floor. She went on to tell me how clearing the seventh floor qualified me to skip the eighth floor and go directly to the ninth.
There are no words that can tell you how small I felt during those days. I was being played by ghosts and whores. But I finally made it to the ninth floor and I could get my people back. It was all worth it.
Stepping onto the Ninth floor, I followed the main hallway to a large refining room. Looking closely, one could tell that it was suited for weapons, armor, and alchemy. Next, I passed through an herb garden that was so thick in fragrance that a slight haze with a myriad of colors hovered in the air.
Then came the Martial fit with man training areas to train different styles.
I continued on for some time before the hall morphed into stary heaven connected to the top of a great tree, a spiral cyan blue galaxy at the center of the trunk. White, crimson, and violet colors swirled from its roots. Above it all, I stood on the surface of dark water. Floating torches created an isle and at the end was a magnificent throne made of moonstone, sapphire, and black onyx. The scent of Honey and cinnamon saturated the air with its pleasant perfume.
Upon the throne, a beautiful woman with flawless heavenly jade skin, full lips, and vibrant grey eyes with flecks in a myriad of colors like a galaxy, sat in illustrious undiluted divinity. Her long purple-grey hair was styled in a mix of Goddess faux locs and dutch braid on the side of her head. All of it was pulled back while some draped over her shoulders, falling a few inches below her breasts. In her hands, she toyed with a thick-bodied, 2 feet long onyx black mamba.
I gazed upon her unparalleled beauty with eyes full of splendor and adoration. This woman emitted an air of sensuality that excited me. My heart threatened to burst forth from his chest, right into her hands, who had locked eyes with me and wore a playful smirk.
I slammed my eyes shut and shook my head. When I opened them again, I looked at the woman with years of beauty refined through cultivation.
"Who are you you?" I asked.
"Don't you know?" She spoke and her voice made me dizzy with shock.
"Haiz. Temple Spirit or Lunar Demon King?" I asked.
"Whichever you like," she replied
I chuckled, annoyed. "Where are they?"
She waved her fingers gracefully and the spaced rippled in front of me. Shane, Nimue, Alessia, and Wu Zexi appeared unconscious but breathing.
My body trembled with seething anger. " Where is she!?" I roared.
"Your little wife? Hehehe." The Lunar Demon King bit her lip playfully, "Hear me out. She's died but she's not dead."
I can't recall what happened afterward as rage caused me to blackout. All I know is that attack and woke up again in a large room saturated in the scent of honey and cinnamon. In front of me was a large diamond coffin surrounded by but twelve floating lanterns.
"Oh! you're awake." the Demon King sang. "Don't do that again or she's dead forever."
Looking around, I heard her voice but couldn't see her.
"In the coffin!" she roared.
I ran to the coffin hoping to see Situ Qing but found the Lunar Demon King.
"Confused?! Yeah, that's why I need." She spoke as her ethereal figure appeared. "You're Senior Sister, Verenia. Saved my life after the war. While my body healed, my soul was too shattered. Remained in the body would only cause it to decay. The Dantian is now fixed and the meridians are repaired. The Martial Physique was shattered and the wounds from the war have tendered the body. The body is only as strong as a peak Foundation Establishment Realm."
"Why are you telling me all of this?" I asked, still fuming and anxious.
"Because you are Dog Shit Luck. That's what you said. Like the people around, you've come into my life during a low time and now I have a chance to die happy because the Chaos Serpent Planet is cut off from the cycle of reincarnation."
My eyes widen in disbelief. "No, I knew a man..."
"He must have found a divine technique. And he back to this planet, as himself, right?"
"How?"
"Because what I said is true. You can get a do-over if you're fated for one. But you can not reincarnate from this world. When I die, that's it. " She restated.
The news was terrifying, to say the least.
"But how can I, why would I help you? You just told me that you killed my wife." My voice cracked and I forced myself from attacking again.
"Because I can bring your wife back, give her and her clan a better fate. Because you and I are the same. I am the Lunar Demon King, Kaesha, the last King of my people before my clan was destroyed by the Royal Dragon Clan and the Lunar Pythons all in an effort to wipe out your people. All because of those golden streaks in your hair, right now."
My body went cold. What a twist of fate.
"Lady..."
"Lord!" She corrected me, "Only Kings can rule an immortal clan and I killed my brother for this title. I am a King!"
"Lord Kaesha." I began again, "You bring her back, bring my QingQing back and I'll destroy every continent on this planet."
"Not that simple." she said, "This simple soul fragment is on its last leg. I spent all I had to put up the time barrier around this temple. My power is waning, so you get nothing until we state our duties, rights, and privileges under the terms of a contract signed with a blood and Dao seal. Your Martial Dao to be exact. Thoughts of betrayal and you will never achieve Martial Dao. Die before the contract is fulfilled and all those who share your blood, die."
"Then let's get to it," I growled.
A table appeared with a long scroll, brush, and Inkstone. We took our seats at each end of the table as Lord Kaesha said, "Term 1..."