The eastern lands were about what I expected. Broad plains, vast ocean views where the land met the coast, the Dragon King’s island stronghold, known as the Azure Citadel, lots of serf labor forbidden from doing anything but working themselves to death for bare subsistence. The Dragon King was known mostly for his militant doctrine. He’d raise up the greatest warriors he possibly could, then slaughter them at the peak of their ability in the hope that they could make him just the tiniest bit stronger.

Wasteful. And stupid. Li would have a blast owning his posterior, when the time came.

The southern lands, where the Tiger King reigned… well, that was a lot scarier. Even for the qi-draining methods of the Four Heavenly Kings, the south was particularly dead. People… well, there weren’t any. Even the animals were few and far between, and I could feel a small tug on my own qi as the land itself was slowly draining it. Plant life was extant, but stunted and twisted as it struggled to draw enough from the land to survive.

The White City seemed to thrive, but I dared not get too close. There were no animals in the city, merely people.

And every one of them wore a distinct black collar.

That hurt. I knew I couldn’t save everyone, but I could tell that those collars were directly tied to the Tiger King’s qi, and exactly what he was planning to do with them.

Truly, he was the most monstrous out of the four. Especially since I knew something about him the other three kings hadn’t. But that was a secret I’d keep until I took him down. It’d have to be me against him, I don’t think anyone else could pull the necessary trick to eliminate the Tiger King, if my suspicions were right, and trying to kill him while the Dragon King yet lived wouldn’t work.

After all, I’d seen that black collar on the Dragon King when I’d chased the two off last month. I don’t think the arrogant fool even realized it was on him, or what it signified. I did, but I wasn’t about to help my enemies. And we had to consolidate what we had before we could make a move on these two.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

So I quietly hopped back to the north, and took some nice deep gulps of mostly-restored qi. Another reason to avoid being pregnant while scouting, the drain was pretty bad these days, even just in the east. I shifted to human again, grabbing a pack I’d left in a cache the previous week when I’d started and drawing out another bottle of that nasty restoration potion I’d shoved down Kaoru’s throat. I needed it after my experiences in the south, plus I was about to go against my own advice and knock myself up. My own metabolism wasn’t quite as drained as Kaoru’s, but I’d had enough twins to about match her for total number of children and had learned a few tricks on cultivation I didn’t dare reveal to the baby-crazy fox.

She wouldn’t be the only one having triplets this time.

I also felt a few awakened creatures on my way home, and called to them with a thread of qi. It was an interesting bunch, with a few mice, a couple of cats, and a very confused mole among those who’d reached the Novice rank and would have to be trained. Human cultivators are far more common simply because they can make the conscious choice to begin the process during their lives, but just about any animal could awaken under the right circumstances, and several had over the years as the qi levels began to surge, then normalize.

Oddest cultivator I’d ever met was a queen bee. She’d been quite distressed about the whole ordeal, and chose to keep her native shape instead of trying to join a human society. Since we didn’t have that whole “non-human cultivators are abominations” thing going on, it worked out pretty well. Her colony’s honey is some of the best I’ve ever tasted, and even those born human will agree.

But that was yesterday. Today, I’m satiated, pregnant, and feeding my youngest to make up for lost time. Probably the only thing I regret about this rebellion, I’ve never had as much of a chance to be a part of my children’s lives as I’d like. So much time spent preparing for this or that, or working ourselves to the bone just to eke out a meager living. So I was going to get some playtime in today, just after I checked on all the expecting mothers, and the new batch that would just be finding out that their mating on the feast day had succeeded.

Walking into my clinic… I frowned pretty hard upon seeing two teenage girls with rather sheepish expressions. I stuck my arm out the door and pulled in Kaoru, who’d been rather conveniently passing by.

“Alright, you two. Now that your mothers are here… explain.”