Chapter 14
All in all, cultivators could only have sex with cultivators to those who had strong bodies. If a woman possessing Yin were to have sex with a mortal male, she would suck all his innate Yang essence, killing him on the spot.
In vice versa, the procedure I just explained would happen. The insides of a woman would burn, or melt in extreme cases. So until I managed to make the bodies of the women I had sex with stronger, sexual intercourse was a thing I could never even imagine.
For that, I needed three things. First of all, I needed Ki, the second thing I needed was the skill to transfer Ki, and the third thing I needed was an excuse to transfer that Ki, cleansing the bodies of the women while also molding their bodies, turning them stronger.
Women could only cultivate Yin because cultivating yang could have drastic measures on them, but it was a different thing if I could make their bodies strong a little, and then have them eat Yin awakening elixirs. They weren't cheap but after pillaging the Yin sect, along with many others, for centuries, I had many things locked away in my inventory to last me a life.
Treasures, weapons, elixirs, artifacts. You name it, I got it.
"Gonna stare at it all day?" Jacqueline asked, seeing me silent and it just so happened that while I was thinking all of that, my gaze went to her butt.
Her words managed to snap me out of my thought train and I said, "It's hard not to."
"So original. Like I haven't ever heard that before." She said sarcastically before she turned around and left, "Come on, or Mom would be mad."
I nodded and followed behind her. As we arrived in the dining area, I saw the whole fam sitting at the table, awaiting our arrival.
"Nice of you to join us," My brother, the only person I hadn't met until now and I wasn't so keen on meeting either, said with annoyance apparent in his voice.
"Sorry. We ended up catching up." Jaqueline apologized for us being late.
"It's all right, sweetie." Mom said and we both took our seats. Dad sat at the head of the table, the seat reserved for the head alone. Mom sat on the other side of the table. I took the seat next to her on the left while Jaqueline took the seat next to her on the right.
The lane on Mom's right was where all the girls sat while me and Denver sat on the other side, with a chair between us. Like always, Denver stuck to my father, like his tail. I used to make fun of him for that.
"Can we begin now?" Denver asked, quite irritated by his tone.
"No one was stopping you," Samantha said.
"Whatever." He was visibly annoyed by something but I didn't care. My focus was on something else. The dinner. This dinner would be something I used to imagine in Murim a lot, and now I was here, sitting at the table with everyone. I just wished it was under better circumstances.
"So, how's everyone been? Samantha?" I asked.
"Nothing new, I guess. Work has been going as it always did, slow but there are days when profit is amazing. Other than that, I'm also taking self-defense classes." Samantha said, covering all the topics that didn't leave space for more questions.
"You have? Why? And since when?" Mom asked Samantha. It wasn't just her, almost no one at the table seemed to know. Dad, as always seemed uninterested, and Denver copied him. Josephine also didn't know but the same couldn't be said for Jacqueline.
It made sense since she and Samantha were very, very tight.
"A few weeks ago. I had no reason to though, I just wanted to." Samantha brushed off the reason.
"No one does anything for no reason," Denver spoke. Nosy as always. He took that from Dad, always trying to be the dominant one in the family.
I had an inkling why Samantha was taking self-defense classes but I wasn't so sure she wanted to bring up the reason here at the moment so I said, "Someone had to be the man of the house with Dad on business trips. Not like she can count on you."
"Pffttt!! Hahahaha!!!" Josephine laughed, and Jacqueline also chuckled. Samantha didn't seem so amused given the topic must have reminded her of different things.
"Like I would have time for that. I am too busy honing myself to take charge of the family business, right, Dad?" Denver replied while he sucked up to Dad.
"Hmm," Dad replied, being as distant as ever which Denver didn't seem to be satisfied with.
"How about you, Josephine?" I asked. Growing up, Josephina had a nickname but I wasn't so sure she would be liked to call that for now, given that she was grown up and also not happy with me at the moment.
"Out of school, chilling, and looking for a job, I guess?" Josephine replied. From the looks of it, she wasn't very keen on getting a job but with Dad at the table, she didn't want to be lectured by him.
"What are your interests?" I asked.
"I was thinking about painting since I also want to major in arts," Josephine replied.
"Painting isn't very efficient in the long run. You should focus on other things, more useful things." Dad interjected. Josephine rolled her eyes but I didn't think this was for her.
As the saying goes, 'Looking at one place and aiming at another'. Dad's words were more pointed at me who had wasted his time in college pursuing a degree in psychology.
Dad had used the same speech then and now he was just reminding me of that. Almost everyone at the table understood that except for Josephine.
"What about you, Mom? You haven't been around much lately." Jacqueline, ever the wise one, changed the topic hurriedly before Denver could give his input.
"Oh, you know, nothing unusual. There were a few new brands and the company needed to expend some extra effort on that. Me being an important figure also had to put in some time but now I'm mostly free for a long time." Mom replied.
Mom managed a fashion company her mother was a part of. She retired and gave her position to Mom. To be honest, my aunt was more capable than my Mom but she wanted to pursue her own path and she was quite successful in that too.
So Mom inherited her mother's position on the board of directors of the fashion company. Her work wasn't much at first but from the looks of it, she had started to involve herself more in the time I wasn't here.
"What do you plan to do now that you're mostly free?" I asked.
"Help you all settle. Now that all my kids are back home, I want to be here too, for all of you. And I get to spend all my time with you would be just a nice bonus." Mom replied with a smile.
"I don't know about us, but Jacob would be a handful for sure," Samantha said, teasing me but someone else had other intentions.
"And it only seemed to have gotten worse in college. So worse that they had to 'ask him to leave'." Denver said.
If it was me before Murim, I would have jabbed back as well but it was correct to say that I had matured very well, "I'm going to be the big nice brother and ignore that remark."
"Hpmh. You're just a minute older than me. Always a cheater." Denver said, not happy with my 'big brother' remark.
"I'm going to ignore that one too," I said.
"Enough, both of you," Dad said, which didn't have much effect on me but the Dad's pet cowered and went silent.
"Since the conversation has come this far, let me say this, I plan to retire. Very soon. A year at most. By then, I need an heir. However, I won't hand over my legacy to just anyone. Both of you are my legacies as well but you need to prove yourselves." Dad said.
"I will prove myself to you, father." Denver once again sucked up while I only listened.
"That said, with Denver focusing on the business, I need you to do the same, Jacob. I wouldn't say that I wasn't disappointed with your expulsion but ever since you returned, I have sensed maturity from you." Dad began his lecture but it wasn't quite what I expected.
Surprisingly, there was no insult in there. he continued, "You didn't argue when I took your stuff, nor did you view it negatively. You didn't kick your sister out of your room and even took the initiative to take the basement. Even now, you handled your conversation with Denver like an adult. These are the traits of the man who makes do what he's given."
Praise after praise, I was very surprised.