Dudumb, dudumb, dudumb!
The sound of an erratic heartbeat filled my ears. 'Nervous, anxious...sick?' I thought as I didn't know how to pinpoint the cause of this fast pace heartbeat. Then, taking me from thoughts, Situ Ren stood up to greet me.
"Uncle Situ, welcome to the Vamoria Clan." I bowed in respect to the General.
"No, no. I've actually come to meet you." General Situ spoke happily.
I raised an eyebrow with a questioning expression.
"Ahh. I understand that Young Master Orym has many pursuers, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to introduce you to my daughter. In four years, she will take part in the Young Generation's Tournament of Three Kingdoms for a chance to participate in the Frozen Wind Sect's outer disciple selection." General Situ gestured for his daughter to stand up.
The veiled girl was dressed in elegant dress robes of gold and ivory. The thin material was cut slim and gave a brief display of her budding beauty. As she walked over, I quickly probed the girl with my senses.
'The Situ girl...Situ Qing' I knew then the cause of that annoying rapid beating.
"Why are you nervous?" I asked, "Calm your heart. Its rapid beating is annoying."
General Situ put a hand on his daughter's shoulder, and she took a deep breath. I gradually lost the scent of anxiety, and my ears were no longer bombarded with the beating of an erratic heart. I also picked up on a brief scent and felt a warmth coming from the girl. I casually looked down at my bare body before pulling a shirt from my interspatial ring.
Once covered, I said, "I am nothing special. You should admire people by how they treat you and not their looks, achievements, or silly rumors of heroism. I am the son of a general, and tomorrow the son of a fisherman can become a general himself. That is the way of the world."
General Situ looked at me, mildly shocked. Situ Qing was equally shocked as she had been groomed in the way of ladyship for so long. Of course, part of such grooming required her to entertain or endure the arrogance or pride of silver-spooned young masters. And yet, I didn't care for any of it. Instead, I openly equated our fathers to the sons of fishermen.
'So doesn't that make us no better than commoners?' Situ Qing thought.
"As for the sect selection." I continued, "I don't care if she is next in line to be a sect leader. I don't care for the glory of sects. I plan to join the army when I reach the age of maturity. Then, I will temper myself in real combat. When I go to the Cultivation World, I will be ready for reality instead of deluding myself with delusions within the safe walls of a sect."
"I'm already I'm fourteen." said Situ Qing, " I'm sure the army will be a wonderful place for me to train."
A natural smirk formed on my face. I remembered Shane first told me about the girl. I remember the day I finally asked him why Situ Qing was so interested in this little one. He simply replied, 'You gave her almond cookies, saved my life, then broke Na Lan's ankle without any care that she was a girl.'
I thought a few years would pass and everything would settle, no this girl is in my house with her father with thoughts of marriage. Haiz! The worst part is the current me couldn't outright decline for several reasons, the main reason being that I needed at least one more Legion.
I had to keep the Situ's distant yet close. Leaving the possibility of an alliance through marriage was good, but it wasn't my ideal alliance. However, the only other Legion worth allying with was the Qin family's Grassland Legion. Their eldest daughter was already married, and General Qin was a fat greedy bastard. Taming him would be a hassle. So the marriage between Situ Qing and I had to remain a possibility.
My mother's pills that spread across the Deep South will soon take effect and reveal their dire side effects. Our Legion was vast and strong. Alliances were the last prerequisite before I tell my parents what I've been planning in its entirety.
"Do what you want. I will propose to you the day we form a connection. Not a moment before. Pedigree, talent, sect disciple, soldier, it all means nothing."
"Then I look forward to the cultivation of that connection." She responded fluently.
"What's your name again?" I asked.
" Situ Qing." she sang, and her alluring voice like music on the wind.
"Orym Vamoria," I replied as I held my hand out, officially meeting her for the first time.
Afterward, the two families spoke for a while. Occasionally we had to steer Situ Ren away from talks of dower and dowery. But, ultimately, the Situs were decent people.
"What do you think of her?" My father asked after the father and daughter left.
I sighed and replied honestly. "She's no Suyin…But...I don't know...There's something off about her."
"The dream wife?" My father asked.
My mother wanted to cry when she heard the name of the dream woman that poisoned her son with turbulent nights and a heart lined with sadness. My father looked at me but said nothing as I stared off into the distance. It was because I told my parents about the girl that plagued my dreams that they allowed him to casually refuse marriage requests as it was best for me to manage my own love life.
"Anyway, I want to do the fire bath exercise. I think I'm strong enough now. After cultivating the Six Natured Limit Breaker, my soul force is decently robust." I explained the initial reason I sought my parents out.
"Most people would be celebrating after reaching lower attainment in Martial Intent. But not my son, all he thinks about is work. And who said you can join the army?" My father rambled, and I rolled my eyes as I went to greet my mother. We then began to talk happily and left my father in the greeting room, alone and downtrodden, as his family ignored him.
Sometime later, I had extended my soul force and protected the leaf from burning within the cauldron. It was bathed in fire then pulled out without being singed.
"Fantastic!" My mother cheered for me, "Now you can start to refine herbs into liquids."
My mother dropped two boxes of herbs on the table with a haunting smile. Then four boxes of equal size appeared on the table. The boxes were full of jade bottles to contain and maintain the freshness of the medicinal liquids once I refine them.
"Good luck!" My mother sang as she left.
I collected my gifts and left quietly. My father then stopped me at the door and spoke with rare seriousness. "Is there anything you need?"
"Double-bladed polearm," I replied.
The weapon was our clan's signature weapon. I had been practicing many weapon styles over the years but intentionally avoided the double-bladed polearm until I felt ready for such a deadly elegant weapon.
"Hmm." My father quickly willed the training weapon from his spatial ring as the double-bladed polearm was mostly used by elves alone, and training versions were extremely rare to find on the market.
I took the training weapon and tested its balance before I thanked my father.
"Be careful. I noticed you've been eating less Daemon Best meat, and you slowed down on the pills. It's been five years. Breaking through now wouldn't be a loss." My father added.
"I can handle it, dad." I replied, "Send Situ Qing to my courtyard when she arrives. I have a plan I'll tell you about when I've had a chance to crunch out the details."
"You think she would return so soon after leaving?" My father asked.
"I may be younger, but I am very well developed. And I'm sure the ladies of the mortal world are less conservative than those of the cultivation world. She's hungry for love and achievements. Besides, she visits Shane regularly. Why wouldn't she take five minutes to travel here after we've met." I explained nonchalantly as looked father looked at me with a sly smirk.
"When did you become so corrupt?" My father teased.
"Pft… She'll mostly come with Shane. When did you start thinking so ill of your son?" I scoffed,
"The day I realized my son was a devilish punk with cunning ways." My father replied without any hesitation.
"Bahaha, You're the same. Just too lazy to tap into it." I told him.
I then said, " Can you ask Fei Rong to look into the Sects of the South Continent associated with the three kingdoms and three empires? I also want to know about this younger generation tournament."
"You want to join? I did a few tournaments on the West Continent. That's how I met your mother." My father spoke with excitement and a reminiscent glimmer in his eyes.
"Haha, did she beat you up? Love at first punch?" I joked, and my father swung at his devilish son.
"Come here, you little punk!" My father shouted as he chased me, "Who told you about that?! Your mother? No, it was that little bitch Fei Rong wasn't it?!"
I laughed as I ran, remembering the tale my mother told me during my years without sight. She spoke of the boy that was so struck by her beauty that he didn't react to her punch, and she ended up knocking his light out in front of the whole clan.
"Come on, punk! We haven't had a good spar in a while. Let's bond!" My father shouted. I immediately stopped and turned around with an excited smile.
"You sure you don't have Legion business?" I asked.
"I'm the General. I choose my business!" My father spoke haughtily.
On the balcony overlooking the inner Courtyard, my mother braided Nimue's hair as she watched her husband and son horse around.
"Mom, is that true?" Nimue asked.
My mother chuckled. "Of course it is. That pretty boy, Gellis, only wanted to count the clouds back then. When he met me, I was the first thing he had ever wanted to look at more than the clouds. I was a year older than you at the time. And you obviously know how we elves mature. Your momma's beauty is kingdom toppling. But you surely take after your aunt!"
My mother gave Nimue's honeydew melon-sized breast a squeeze, causing Nimue to shriek in surprise. Nimue frowned at her mother with searing red cheeks as Mina laughed at her daughter's embarrassment.
"Don't act all prudish with me, little girl. I know all your little secrets." Said Mina.
"Mom!" Nimue cried out before turning around to watch her father and brother spar in the courtyard.
Elven Sages, like most mythic races, have superior constitutions. While I appeared to be years older, so did Nimue. Even my father and mother fully matured by fifteen, sixteen years old. After that, we Elven Sages don't age again until our early forties.
That night after a spar that usually left me with welts, my father sent Fei Rong to the Cultivation World. She gathered information about the sects that the three kingdoms and three empires of the Deep South allied with. She also collected some information about a few sects with branch families in the Mortal World.
Like Situ Ren said, the Dark Water Kingdom sent its subjects exclusively to the Frozen Wind Sect. One sect for every power in the Deep South, this kept loyalties from being crossed. But loyalty wasn't something easily given to Mortal World powers.
The Outer Disciple Selections that Situ Ren talked about offered Mortal Wold powers a set number of slots. To determine who received those limited slots, a tournament is held. This tournament is why I decided to scrap all of my previous plans for something much more diabolical but extremely beneficial to the family's future success.
It was a day after Fei Rong returned. I sat my parents down to tell them my innermost thoughts based on Fei Rong's information.
"You want to do what?!" My mother exclaimed.
"I like it." My father added. "So this place that the tournament is held. Do you think it has some treasures?"
"Maybe even the legacy of some old powerhouse." I replied, "But there are two temples, so If we rob one, we naturally have to rob the other."
"And one temple belongs to the three empires, while the other belongs to the three kingdoms."
"Pretty much," I replied.
"It's that why you had me sell dangerous pills to the whole of the Mortal World?" My mother asked.
"No. I was going to rob every big family of any of their secrets once their foundation was destroyed by your pills. I would then subjugate the Mortal World, flood the Cultivation World with our people, and silently take over. But that could take years and countless resources."
"But now you want to rob the Lunar Temples of the Deep South. Okay, well, Fei Rong and I can do that right now." My father spoke as he stood up.
"No! Idiot!" My mother and I spoke in unison.
"If two experts smash their way in and rob the place. Then the experts in the cultivation world will notice, and then we'll have a real problem. Right now, the Lunar temples aren't worth thinking about." I explained.
"So, how are you going to rob the place?" My mother asked.
"I'm going to pull off the biggest heist of the ages while making sure none of the people we rob can come after us."
My parents looked confounded.
"I'm going to start a war. And I still want our potential allies to join us, along with our Woodland Legion." I replied with a devilish smirk.
"Why?" My father asked.
"Isn't it obvious? If we want to return to the height of our ancestors and get vengeance for the destruction of our clan, we'll need an army and the resources to help cultivate them properly. I realized that creating an empire now would be premature, but the resources from the temples can be enough to cultivate a small force to surgically cut our way through the cultivation world."
My father chuckled, "Holy shit, this little punk wants to take us back to the Inner Region."
"It won't be easy... The hurdles we'll face are no joke. The war will thin our ranks. Your power needs to stay hidden, subjugating allies and fucking over kingdoms that have been around for centuries. Who knows what their true strength really is." I explained, but the explanation was pointless as the fire in my parents' eyes blazed like miniature suns.