“There is a village down there. We should stop and enlighten ourselves on the conditions of the locals.” Elder Yu said, while leaning over the railing.
I walked over and took a peak before shrugging.
“Let’s go down.”
I felt familiar auras the moment we landed but I was also feeling huge amounts of superiority upon seeing a huge crowd walk out the small village to see what big shot arrived.
I swaggered down the ramp with my three main subordinates a step behind me. However, my eyes fell instantly on a rather slender girl dressed in white. She isn’t really the most beautiful in the village, there is one standing beside her that was better overall.
What made me lock on is the fact that she was kind of my first here. Mm, it kind of makes sense she is here now and the early stage void prying realm. Yin Xia is from some sect but obviously not the best sect around. Living in a village like this has to be a low point in her life.
My eyes turned away from her and the man that stepped up close enough to stain her sleeve, to someone that I really wanted to gloat at.
Ah, Princess Zhou Nuan living in a village with conditions no better than the one I used to live in. What a turn of the century.
I am pretty sure the smile on my face had blossomed because Su looked at me weird.
I gestured subtly with my cane, “Crown Princess of the Dynasty I used to live at when my parents were on the run. Her brother was pretty arrogant for how weak he was but they did help me learn how to lead an army of soldiers. I got plenty of experience from fighting demons for a year.”
Butler Su nodded, “We can invite them to be maids. The palace doesn’t have enough supporting staff to be self-sufficient right now. They can help in return for some crumbs.”
I chuckled and glanced at my maids who shrugged, not caring one way or another. “Let me know when Elder Yu stops searching for information.”
I turned around and began my journey back up the ramp. None of these people were truly worthy of me wasting a few seconds to engage in conversation.
“Quinn, shouldn’t you repay that favor you owe me?” a calm voice sounded out.
Interrupting my thoughts to bring me back down. I turned around slowly to see that quiet girl who spoke very few lines. First person I got to experience anal with, stepped out to tell me, I hadn’t repaid a favor. How brave she is.
Though if not for the Fire God Palace, maybe my achievements would have been a little less. I wouldn’t have been able to understand the formation on the island nor recreate it or spend time trying to modify it. I wouldn’t have understand alchemy
Okay, okay. Maybe I owed her a favor or two.
With a single step, I appeared before her and her eyes widened as she involuntarily took a half-step back.
“Okay, I owe you a favor. How do you want me to repay you?” I admitted straightforwardly.
“You can take me and my sect members with you? We can serve as fodder for you when you enter relics.” she said after a second of thought.
I raised my eyebrow in an amused gesture. My lips couldn’t help curling up as ridicule filled in the lines of my face.
“I’m sorry. I’ll have to reject it but I have a counter offer.” I let the silence hang for a moment to notice her face showing a rare expressionless calm. “I’m a City lord and I didn’t bother with recruiting servants and the like. My Butler Su reminded me that I should fill these numbers and since we know each other. You can have this honor, what do you think?”
Yin Xia glanced backward at the older lady and my eyes followed. This was the better looking of the two. Probably some heir of the Sect Leader or most talent female of the whatever Sect.
“She is the daughter of our Sect leader. I and some of the others can be your servants but it is insulting for her to be your servant as well.” Yin Xia said in the same calm manner.
I merely stared at her with a look of amusement. A void Prying peak stage felt like it is an insult to be my servant?
I turned to both my maids who walked over with anger clearly in their expressions. Their aura rose with every step, putting the crowd watchers under immense pressure. Not to mention, this Sect Leader’s daughter thought highly of herself.
“I would like to hear you repeat that once again. A lower plane, void prying is too good to be the servant of a City Lord rank third on the World Strongest List. Then are you telling me that as his maid, I, who is in Void Interpretation stage and peak stage, ranked ninth on the list, am below you?” Shuren gripped her sword hilt as she spat out each word.
Yin Xia's face turned slightly paler, she shot a glance at her senior sister, who had her head down.
“It’s fine. Everybody believed they were proud sons and daughters of heaven. Even though they don’t know their place, I still owe Yin Xia a favor. So how about I change the deal. How about you come be my servant and your seniors who find it insulting to serve those stronger than them. Stay here and marinate in this..” I just wave my hand instead of insulting this place further.
Before Yin Xia could respond, Princess Naun walked over with her boy-ish body.
“How about I be your servant? My people have no problem serving you, your highness.”
Ah, I guess she learned a few things since we last met but she still had a boy-ish charm. I couldn’t get over that.
“I owed that old man something so, I can repay that favor through you. Su, help them settle down.” I deflected the girl away with a simple statement. Ending the relationship before it even started.
Butler Su looked slightly amused but didn’t say anything just motioned to the ramp. I almost coughed blood when I saw about sixteen weak beans walking out of the crowd and following the Princess. At least the women were outstanding unlike the Princess herself. Sadly, the men look a little too protective. Ha, guess they will learn soon that power dictates who gets what resources and people are resources.
Anyway, I wasted enough time. I turned around and headed back onto the ship. Yin Xia obviously was going to lead the six of her sect mates onto the ship. They would be foolish to have pride when they couldn’t even rival a maid.
Which reminded me, it was almost that time for the late comers to be coming in. In another month, after this month, which is the second month. Haha, I’ll get some servants to come. Send these useless people to take over mines.
***
After several detours to attack a few forts, we finally landed at the relic. Like they said, the relic was surrounded by high level soldiers but after two rounds from the cannon, they disperse with a sense of urgency.
I sent Elder Xue and Elder Yu down there to get count of how many people were trapped and what kind of relic it is. However, their report left me disappointed. Techniques could be divided into levels. For mortal planes, Yellow, Profound, Earth, and Heaven. These grades dictated how strong it would resonate with a user and the sequent power they could display.
Heaven skills usually were all related to concepts embedded. This is a helpful way of teaching someone how to comprehend it before they reach that level. Major forces would have at least few heaven rank skills.
Then you had the Celestial Realm grades. Human, Earth, and Heaven. The differences between these and the former is that all these require concepts to utilize the full power. Humans are just using a concept with skill, like wind to make the blade faster. Earth relies on combining concepts to form complex attacks and heaven grade takes it up a notch. It requires principles to form attacks with power greater than natural occurrences.
With this knowledge, it is quite easy for someone in lower planes to be excited about finding a relic with an Human grade skill. For middle plans, finding a peak earth or low grade heaven skill, they are now in paradise.
This relic only contained an Earth grade set of skills that belong to some expert that called himself the Wine Saint.
Li Wei walked onto the ship with another lady. Walking side by side as if they were best friends but I could tell by the lady expression that she didn’t have much in common with Li Wei.
They met up by accident when coming to ruins and made a temporary truce to focus on defending the soldiers and split the profits. This is clear to see by how the lady eyes lit upon seeing me.
“Little brother Li, was it worth it?” I asked as they walked over.
His eyes said it was but his expression was carefree.
“It’s hard to tell what relics would end up as. Sometimes you get something good other times you don’t. Just got to try again later.” he sounded wise.
I turned from him and looked at the lady, little princess of the Yue clan. Interesting.
“Miss Yue, I didn’t think you would be out treasure hunting. I guess you didn’t hear the rumors that bandits are stronger and more cruel than the soldiers.” I reminded her out of politeness because her sister worked in the Blue Wind Merchant group and they were good for their work.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Miss Yue smiled and replied with an equally polite tone. “I received reports but they all suggested they were hanging around the main cities. Not out this far where the villages are located. Thus it was opportune time to go record the Wine Saint inheritances. It has a lot of good recipes for wines that he made during his time. A lot of these would go Royal grade treasure during his time. Now, it would be essentially worth dozens times more.”
I raised an eyebrow and she pulled out a jade crystal from her storage ring. I carefully took it and scanned the imagery that played like a slideshow. Ignoring his worthless skills, the method to brewing and recipes did seem valid.
I turned to Miss You with a smile.
“How much do you want for a copy of these?”
Miss You broke into a huge smile. “Consider it a gift from the Blue Wind. Plus we still would like to request a ride back to the city, City Lord.”
I nodded and passed the crystal to Elder Chang who immediately studied it before frowning.
“Palace Lord, there should still be something down there. These recipes are at most basic level and anybody with a lick of common sense will be able to make this as long as they have the materials. I think the real inheritance is hidden and utilizes this as a veil.”
Chang Ai made excellents sense to me.
“Go see if you can find it. You have two days, after that. We will utilize a different method to find it.”
Elder Chang bowed her pretty little head and vanished. I turned to Li Wei and Chu Yue.
“You can rest up on board.”
I vanished the next second as there is something I was interested in.
***
“City Lord, they found it. Elder Chang managed to remove all the traps and formations. However.. It’s not an inheritance but just a group of celestials who died together. Their leftovers are rather biased towards brewing wine but it isn’t worth as much as the Wine Saint according to Miss Yue”
Shuren gave such a terrible report. I waved a hand, splashing some water at her, Not bothering to open my eyes, and I continued resting in the tub.
“Tell them to record everything and let’s head back. I can’t be out and about as long as I want.”
Shuren bowed and left while Xinyue pushed my head up until she forced me to lean forward. She tugged my head downward, pulling up a bowl to drench my hair. Her actions methodically and kind of reminded me of clever serial killers.
Bring up the bowl and let the water drive out while her fingers comb through the strands. Over and over, while humming. Isn’t this a murder mystery? Exactly how people die in movies. Passive occurrences like this with a beauty like no other. Her every gesture charms, pulls the lonely fool into a dance that ends with his organs sold on the market.
Xinyue stopped pouring water and began lathering shampoo into my hair. I had to admit, it felt really good. She leaned towards my ear, and I felt her lips brush it.
“Master do you want me to help you?”
Any horniess I might have experienced disappeared quicker than a breeze on a hot day. Cold sweats littered my back but it was a good thing she began pouring water down or I would be a bit embarrassed right about now.
Mm, women were the biggest traps ever created. People constantly look down on women because a lot of them were beautiful and useless. But that is just a small population of women who forget what they could do. What they could become given the right incentive.
I watched enough heroine movies to know. Crazy women can become more diabolical than a crazy man.
Footsteps sounded hurried but I couldn’t glance back. Sometimes you have to place absolute faith in someone to have your life in their hands. I think my faith was breaking down.
“Oh, can you give us some privacy?” Long Yun's voice rang out.
Xinyue snorted and didn’t stop washing my hair. I heard Long Yun stomp her feet and walk to the point where I could see her green eyes.
“Can you ask her to leave for a moment?”
“Can you leave for a moment?” I parrot.
Xinyue snorted and began braiding my hair.
“Master, said I don’t have to obey orders if I don’t feel like it. I have the strength to do what I desire and I desire to stay. What can you do about it?” Xinyue smirked.
I could only shrug and look helpless. Definitely when her nail grazes my neck, sliding across the artery. Scary.
Long Yun looked like she wanted to scream and stamp her foot a couple of times but she did that cool down thing. Breathing deeply and her hands index and thumb pinching together while going up and down.
“I wanted to talk to you about Jingyi. What are you going to do if that child is yours?” Long Yun spoke directly, too bluntly.
Xinyue even stopped combing my wet hair to stare at Long Yun with a killing intent thick enough to distort the air between us.
I wave my hand dispelling the awkwardness and glance at Long Yun.
“Mm, I already talked to Father and Emperor Li about it. If Li Wei has something to say about it, I’ll kill him when we return.”
Long Yun lips curl in disgust.
“What if I have a problem with it?”
I shrugged, “What problem do you have? Ignoring the fact that you still aren’t showing signs of developing, I don’t see what problem you can have if someone else achieves what you don’t want to.”
“It’s a disgrace to me. If you wanted to knock someone up, why didn’t you just tell me and we picked out someone from my family. At least, the bloodline will stay with us and I wouldn’t feel as if you are saying I can’t please you.”
But you don’t please me? Laying still and squeaking like a mouse sounds nice but their is no motions with that. It just, ‘okay, on your knees…’ pause.. Expect her to move, rock back or something. Sadly, she waits until you start thrusting, its not that pleasing. Jingyi obviously learned something from her mother.
“I understand and I’ll talk to you about the next woman. Anyway, if the child is mine. She will live, I don’t want to see any of that royal family bullshit in my family. Treat everybody with some respect or don’t talk to them. Otherwise, you will get on my bad side.”
Long Yun lips twitched, “I don’t think you should keep her. Even if father and Emperor Li agree, she is still someone else's woman. What is that saying about you? That you are snatching the weak-men’s women? The City Lord is a tyrant of a man that is still married to men wives. How would the weak feel about that?”
I shrugged, “Thewomen would probably feel good about that? They would think that my wife can’t perform in bed enough to keep her man out of someone else's bedroom. I would probably have a lot more female visits to ask for personal training and then my love life will undergo a transformation.. An american dream..”
I sunk back down disregarding the redden cheeks she displayed. What did her anger have to do with me? I’m technically the victim. She got the good deal out of this.
“You should consider your position. Whether you realize it or not, your father didn’t place all that much hope on you achieving something. For women like us, our family’s heads only consider us tools. Tools that can be exchanged for greater profit to the family or themselves. In your case, any meager achievement you were capable of making just so happens to amount to being a woman that could give birth and pull a supreme talent over.” Xinyue didn’t start off light.
Tsk, they say women aren’t mean. Women unite together. What horseshit! I watched Long Yun stare at me without responding to Xinyue ignoring her completely.
Xinyue giggled, “Your father took you and some top geniuses out to train. Not even a day later he returns to announce your marriage. This is your value to him but you are wasting an excellent opportunity to showcase that you can have value to your husband. If I were you, I would study something. Such as how to earn more money for your husband. He lacks a good manager for the finance side of things. Yet, you picked up a sword and played games. You risk not only your lives but the lives of others. You are only showing your value as someone to be a warm body at night. You are actually a disgrace to women trying to achieve something through hard work and clever thoughts. Yet, you are worried over another woman having your husband's child.”
Xinyue snorted and stood up. Long Yun tosses her a single glance filled with contempt as if Xinyue wasn’t worthy for her to argue with.
Such exceptional bearing. Ah, I’m a little impressed.
“Your friend is smart. She knows the right things to say. The right things to avoid. Her husband is useless and lost his value. She went and secured a better genius for your father. Emperor Li probably jumped up and down while fist pumping because of her decision. Your father probably thought why weren’t you the one pregnant. He, at this moment, might be thinking. What if he gave another one of his daughters to Master. I can tell you that when the next group comes in next month. You will find one of your sisters here and the progress you made? It will go up in flames because you are utterly useless.”
Long Yun finally couldn’t hold her tongue, she rounded on Xinyue with lips curled up in disdain.
“A mere servant is talking all mighty. Having to surrender yourself as a maid, spread your legs like any ole slut. Such a bitch wants to discuss life decisions with me? Haha, when is it the turn of such trash bitch to talk in my presence?” Long Yun's nose turned up and she turned away with a crisp step.
This made me realize, even in the ancient era, women were really cats fighting out here. Ah, so terrible to be the guy between the two. Is this why marriages went from fuck all you can, to I love only you and you forever? Hahah, I can understand this logic now. Harems are troublesome and I haven’t even said I love you to a single woman.
Ah, why can’t they just realize that right now, they are good fucks and that’s it? Have to add all these extra feelings to things that shouldn’t be. I’m just fourteen trying to live a dream.
Holy shite, mate! Woman!
I stood up before they could throw another round of insults and Xinyue instantly flashed over with a towel. Drying me off when I lift a leg out of the tub. Wrapping a thick bathrobe around my shoulders when I step completely out.
“So what is your response, husband?”Long Yun snapped, her white cheeks sprinkle with a bit of red anger.
I scratched my forehead. To be honest, I forgot what she was asking to begin with.
“Um, hmm.. What did you say again?”
Long Yun’s eyes widened and her finger moved to point at me. A ‘You..’ slipped out of her mouth before she caught herself.
“I am asking about the child. If it's born it's an insult to me as the wife. How are you going to solve it.”
I tilted my head and thought only for a second. This is a more violent world and power is the only thing that can be judged for what is right or wrong.
“I can kill you?” I said with half-seriousness.
To be honest, her reputation wasn’t my biggest problem. Accounting for the first consummation, we had sex about three times. I’m a horny guy, which means this is depriving me of something I find joy in. If her friend comes without any of that batshit a crazy game Long Yun is playing. Am I going to say no now? What man would say no to a pretty face with a nice ass? Not many in this world apparently.
Li Jingyi obviously didn’t play any games. Plus it is exciting hiding it from her husband. Sneaking here and there and she was so aggressive and forward. Not unlike Long Yun who was so.. New to it that she basically laid like a dead fish.
Even if I didn’t sleep with Li Jingyi, my two maids are also exceptionally beautiful women. Who like all women, worry about their looks so they take special care to look exceptionally yummy all day. So even if Jingyi wasn’t there, I would still have found someone to sleep with.
Her getting upset over reputation? Her reputation is merely as my wife. Not even that big or impressive. Her concept is at the level of Intermediate level and her power is the worst out of twenty star palace’s elders. There isn’t a true reputation for her among my men.
Thus where is the humiliation coming from? Her own thoughts or her friends not yet here?
Sad life.
I walked away as she stood there with a pale expression. Her lips trembled as she realized that I might have been entirely serious. Xinyue might have been a bit tactless but she did remind me of something. Father-in-law could just replace Long Yun with one of her sisters. To him, I had much to offer at this current time frame while Long Yun didn’t present a great benefit.
Even though I would never truly harm her just because she didn’t agree with my logic. I definitely wouldn’t allow her to harm my child either. We will just have to see who has the biggest balls.
Life is never dull though. Kind of fun.