Chapter 1 Secretary

I gazed out into the world beyond the threshold that was my large window, looking upon it as it teemed with activity, specifically the city, the capital city of the Federation, named Defiant.

Some lower levelled cultivator's tribulation attracted my gaze, with my spiritual sense momentarily scanning over to feed me with information related to the man, though probably a boy by my standards. He was about to leap into Foundation Establishment, unshackling himself from Qi Gathering.

With the preparations afforded to all those within this city, there was absolutely no way he wouldn't succeed.

My pondering was broken when I felt a slight trigger within the array behind me, taking notice of the familiar aura within and allowing the person to enter through the sliding door.

It had just broke dawn, with I having just made it out of seclusion, one not of cultivation, but research. 5 years had gone by without gaining any results. The problem stumping me was an array capable of teleporting those below the Nascent Soul stage. It was an age old problem that had stumped multiple geniuses since the inception of cultivation.

"Secretary Lily, aren't your skirts getting shorter every time I exit seclusion?"

Even when I asked that question, there was no change in expression or bodily fluctuations from the woman. I hadn't turned my body, yet my spiritual sense had picked up on her, like a back-facing pair of eyes.

She was a tall woman with a head of long dark raven hair, an oval face, a pair of dark intense pupils boring holes through my back, chocolate colored skin, and dressed in a skirt short enough to only accommodate half her thighs plus a blouse offering a glimpse into her bosom valley, no doubt being held up by some great designer bra.

"You noticing even a micro-millimeter of shortening is the highlight of my day, Mr. Reed."

I fought back the urge to release an exasperated sigh. Ever since my ascension to the Nascent Soul stage a century ago, many prominent clans had tried to send their daughters, cousins, nieces, aunts, and what-not, to try and get me into their clans. After all, a clan-less Nascent Soul cultivator was a highly sought after piece of meat, whether for those already with a patriarch at that stage, or those wanting to leap past the dragon gate and join the big fish. And if you throw in the fact that I was the youngest to reach that stage, giving me over 1000 years of spare lifespan plus the left over 500 from Core Formation, then literal arenas of beauties had searched for every single reason to throw themselves at my feet, clamoring to become dao-companions.

And among all those women, I had chosen Lily, due to her competence, and my burning curiosity of how a matriarch of an entire clan was going to serve another cultivator in the position of a mere secretary. She had singlehandedly dragged her entire clan to the top, just shy of those with Nascent Soul patriarchs and matriarchs at the helm in just a mere 50 years!

If you asked a normal person to describe a clan raised cultivator, they would say, "stuck up brats", "arrogant pricks" and many other terms of a similar nature. I had expected her to whine and complain, or even act arrogant... But none of that had ever come to pass in the 20 long years she had been serving me. Instead, she had used subtle ways to try and seduce me, like now.

"Well then, let's get on with the catching up!" I turned around from the scenery and took a place upon my desk while Lily delivered a cup of warm premium tea, with sugar, from within her spatial ring. The cup was inscribed with arrays that kept the tea at boiling temperature.

Euphoria enveloped me the moment I took a sip, with the spiritual energy within the tea washing away the fatigue within my brain brought upon when it had been operating in hyperdrive. The spiritual energy also travelled downwards into my core, increasing its spiritual energy generation speed by 3%.

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"Once again you brush off my advances..."

A pout appeared upon Lily's face as she mumbled quietly, even though she knew for a fact that there was no way a cultivator at our stage would miss those words.

"All I see when you look at me is ambition, no love. Such relationships don't work for me."

"What's the point of love in this world?" She asked back with a nonchalance that almost elicited a spike in my spiritual sense, which didn't come to pass as I had held myself in check.

"Love is the catalyst of many many things and events. I don't want simple public displays of affection. If I am to have you, Lily. I want to have your entire body and soul in my grasp, just like I would also give mine in return."

"Oh! I didn't think that you were still this naive in your 300 years on this planet."

"It isn't naivety. Anyway, let's drop this topic before you get on my nerves, okay?"

Lily's bosom rose and fell as she took a deep breath to calm her agitation, then slipped into the calm, stoic and professional mode I liked.

"The first part of your itinerary involves visiting the Maize garden, the one with Nascent Soul level corn. There has been some sort of mutation."

Ah! Maize. The plant with the highest chance of mutation and anomalous growth. Before my thoughts could go further though, a beep interrupted Lily before a large screen of light abruptly materialised within the room, with a figure appearing within it.

It depicted a man who appeared to be in his middle years, with soft eyes, a burly build, a chiseled jawline, coupled with blue eyes that resembled the calm waters of a lake. He was seated behind a desk with a slight smile plastered across his face.

"Reed."

"President."

Lily and I offered a slight bow to the man, the leader of the federation, and also the only cultivator deserving of my full respect. He had been in that seat since before I had even been born, steering our civilization along with a firm but gentle hand, never capitulating to the powerful clans.

"We need to chat. Face to face."

"Okay sir."

"But don't worry, its not that urgent. You can first go about your tasks."

The screen vanished from the room, after which I sensed the curiosity within Lily's eyes upon me. This was probably the first time that she had managed to be here when the President contacted me.

"What other task is there?"

"An interview tomorrow on livescreen about your improvement to the Auto-Cul 1.0."

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Lily(POV)

I liked my current boss, Mr. Reed. He was far too better compared to all the cultivators I had met, and a large number of those had been raised in clans, just like myself.

Bad manners weren't the problem I was most averse with. No! It was the simple fact that they thought too small! A core Formation man I had once gone on a date with had divulged his goal after my continuous prodding to be advancement into the Nascent Soul stage.

There and then I had eliminated him from the list of potential husbands. Even if no one had ever managed to reach the fabled Deity Transformation stage from way back to the present, why couldn't people have such an ambition?

Mr. Reed was a prodigy. Not in the sense of cultivation as even a baby could reach the early qi gathering because of his invention. The term prodigy had moved away from being used to describe those capable of breezing through realms, to those with great intellect and the capability to come up with new things to add to the world, inventors.

And I took Mr. Reed to be such a prodigy. I hadn't worked for him for more than a century, but so far I hadn't seen him bragging about himself, or using his achievements to smack others down. Instead, he holed himself up in research most of the time, and the few times he was free, his mind always appeared to be elsewhere.

He was the right man for me eccept for the single flaw I had just discovered about him. He was a romantic. Love was an empty word to me. Only those teenagers were capable of uttering such a word with stars in their eyes.

But I was a grown up. I had experienced the world enough to know that love was useless. Relationships that lasted involved interests, not some flimsy affection that was subject to change.

How could I go about changing him? I let go of such thoughts, focussing back onto the floating screen in front of him, to notify him of his schedule.

One particular item almost brought a grimace to my face. There was no way I could get rid of this person.

She was the only one capable of ruining my plans, with nothing I could hope to do about it except advancing to the Nascent Soul.

"Miss Livia has requested a meeting."

I forced the words out of my lips while scrutinizing Mr. Reed, hoping that he could refuse.

"Tell her... maybe five days later. I still have urgent things to tend to."

Five days. Maybe I could prepare myself a little better.