"You've got to be joking," Maxine said incredulously as she helped Emily pack, "Do they really not care that I killed Tang Zhiqiang?"

"It's not that they don't care. It's more like they're not surprised by it. You gave him fair warning that it would be a fight to the death," Emily pointed out, "Then, he threatened you with rape if he won. Trust me. The majority of people, women in particular, don't blame you for what you did. In fact, a few of the more vindictive one think you should've ripped 'it' off and left him to bleed to death."

"That's ... enlightening," Maxine said.

"Are you two okay in here?" Howard asked as he walked by the room.

"Yes, we're fine and why are you moving around so much, grandpa?" Emily asked in return, "You should be resting! Or did you forget about the doctor's orders for you to take it easy?"

"I didn't forget, but just it doesn't feel right to be taking it easy when your girlfriend is doing so much of the work," Howard pointed out, "Not that there is much for me to do. Maxine created quite a few of those 'clones' of hers to do most of the work. In fact, if this keeps up, they'll be done boxing everything up in another hour or so."

"That's what I intended to do," Maxine admitted.

"It's almost like you are hurrying us along," Emily said with a small smirk, "I guess you really want us all to live together."

"Actually, I just didn't want either you or Howard to do to much," Maxine said honestly and spotted Emily's glare out of the corner of her eye, "What? You're pregnant and your grandpa's health is beginning to decline. I'm the only one here that's in top condition. It only makes sense that I do most of the work and I couldn't think of any way to keep you guys from helping. So, I created those clones to help you pack as quickly as possible. I just don't want either of you to over exert yourselves."

"Grandpa isn't anywhere near being decrepit and I'm not helpless," Emily said firmly, "But I know your heart is in the right place, so could you tune down the over protective crap for awhile?"

"I'll try," Maxine said with a small smile, "And I'm sorry again about this. Daddy just wants to make sure his grandchild is as safe as possible."

"I get that," Emily said, "He's lived his whole life being hated and feared. He has every right to be paranoid about the safety of his family now that he has one. Although, I'm surprised he hasn't been as pushy towards Orianna as he is with you."

"Orianna has a battle god for a husband and believe me when I say that NO ONE wants to enrage someone with the battle god physique if they can help it. That includes daddy," Maxine explained, "As for me, daddy's reputation is a shield all on it's own, but since he hasn't been vicious lately, it's not as effective as it should be."

"I've noticed," Emily said, "Is that why you're so vicious to your enemies?"

"Yes, in part at least," Maxine admitted, "But it doesn't matter how vicious you are if you don't have the raw might to back it up with. Gold stage is the minimum strength needed to make my father's enemies think twice about messing with me. Although, at this point, I have a few of my own."

"Like the Alchemist Association?" Emily asked, "That reminds me. How the hell did you manage to piss off an entire faction?"

"They were after daddy's alchemical knowledge and believed that I have a full copy of everything he knows in regards to alchemy," Maxine explained, "And by defending myself, I've pissed them off. If they'd asked nicely, I might've shared a small portion of daddy's inheritance, but now, they can eat shit and die for all I care."

"Is being polite that much of a rarity amongst cultivators?" Emily asked.

"It's rarer than you would think. If you're not powerful, have someone powerful backing you, or a very rare talent, don't expect anyone to be polite to you," Maxine replied, "And expect someone to pick fights over random bullshit."

"That's stupid," Emily remarked.

"I agree, but it's quite common on worlds aligned with the Alliance," Maxine said sadly, "Which is why I insisted on having a code of conduct established for cultivators on Earth. It's too bad that some nations refused to endorse it."

"Oh, yeah. I recall a bunch of posters being made and sent to the local guilds," Emily remarked, "But why did you pick a panda for your mascot?"

"Pandas rarely start fights, and are happy to be left alone while they eat their bamboo. But if you piss them off, you better be ready for a savage beating," Maxine replied.

"That's not entirely accurate," Howard chimed in as if to remind them that he was in the room, "While panda bears are generally docile unless provoked, there have been instances where they attack people for no apparent reason."

"Yeah, but most people don't know that little detail," Maxine retorted, "Anyways, we need to finish packing up in this room. My shadow clones should be finishing up shortly. Hopefully, daddy will have the addition to our home finished by that time."

"How does someone add onto their home when it's on the moon?" Emily asked, "How does he manage to keep the rest of the house from decompressing?"

"A formation array surrounds a large area around the house and keeps the atmosphere from escaping as well as establishing a standard gravitational field," Maxine answered calmly, "But I have no idea how to set up a similar formation array. I don't think daddy does either. He probably got a friend to set it up for him."

"Hmm, how hard would it be to learn how to set up formation arrays?" Howard asked.

"Extremely," Maxine replied, "In fact, it's harder to learn than alchemy. Hence, why there are fewer formation array masters than alchemists."

"I believe it," Emily said. I'm not surprised there. I remember telling you a few stories about Horatio Quay throwing me into a formation array that contained endless battles.

"You should... Hrm?" Maxine said as she sense a strange fluctuation of energy to the south and realized in the next moment what it was. She extended her spiritual sense to the south and found the source of the fluctuations. It was a pair of fraternal brazillian twins. One was male and the other female. Unfortunately, due to their proximity to each other and their near identical cultivation level, she couldn't tell which one was undergoing the breakthrough. What concerned her was that they were in the middle of the rain forest and they were running from a large group of beasts.

"Someone is undergoing a breakthrough to gold and I need to move them to a better location. Be right back," Maxine said before she shadowstepped next to the siblings and grabbed both of them by the shoulders. Next, she swiftly created a globe around the three of them and teleported to the middle of the same desert that she underwent her tribulation at. She immediately threw them in opposite directions to ensure that they were at least half a mile apart.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

With them that far apart, she could finally tell it was the male sibling that was undergoing the tribulation and immediately appeared at his side while shoving a lightning protection and healing potion into his hands. [Drink these. They will increase your chances of surviving your lightning tribulation,] Maxine said via spiritual sense and when he started looking around, she added, [Don't worry about your sister, she isn't that far away. Just focus on surviving. I'll keep anyone from interfering.] He nodded and swiftly drank the two potions as Maxine moved to his sister's side.

His sister got into a defensive stance the instant Maxine appeared. [Relax, I'm here to help. Your brother is undergoing his lightning tribulation and I've given him all the help that I can to ensure he survives it. The rest is up to him.]

The girl looked past Maxine at her brother and looked as if she wanted to run past Maxine. [Don't even think about it. You will only make your brother's lightning tribulation harder if you interfere,] Maxine warned the girl.

[But he could die,] the girl finally replied.

[He could, but for now, all either of us can do is watch and pray,] Maxine said firmly.

At that moment, the first bolt of tribulation lightning fell towards the girl's brother. The young man roared as he punched it and Maxine reflexively winced. Fighting a tribulation with nothing but your body is a very bad idea. If he's lucky, he'll only be covered in severe burns. Wait! Is that fist energy? That increases his odds quite a bit. Still, he'll still get some burns. They just won't be as bad. The lightning scattered before his strike and nourished his body. Although, it did quite a bit of damage to his clothes. I guess it's a good thing I have a bath robe in my dimensional ring. He'll definitely need it after this is over.

Each subsequent bolt of lightning was scattered by his punches until he reached the final one. The final tribulation lightning bolt that fell was as thick as Maxine's thigh and even though, the young man punched with everything he had, it wasn't enough to scatter it. Roughly, a quarter of that energy arced all over his body and left second degree burns all over his body. However, it wasn't enough to put him down for good.

Maxine glanced up to make sure that his tribulation was over before swiftly moving to his side and began healing his injuries. Thankfully, they were no where near as bad as hers had been when she brokethrough to gold and there wasn't nearly as much tribulation lightning lingering in his wounds.

[Will my brother be alright?] the girl asked.

[He'll live,] Maxine answered as she healed his wounds, [Now, what are your names?]

[I'm Andrea. My brother's name is Miguel,] the girl answered.

[Family name?] Maxine asked.

[Our family name is Silva,] Andrea replied.

[And I'm Maxine Cinderson, if you were unaware,] Maxine said calmly and finished up healing what she could, [Now, would you like me to return you to your homeland?]

[No, thank you,] Miguel said, [The cartels will not leave us alone if we returned in our homeland.] That sounds like complete bullshit to me. He shouldn't have had any trouble with the cartels. If anything, they would try their best to befriend them. Fist energy is rare. I better ask Amanda to keep a close eye on them.

[In that case, I can have a word with my government about giving both of you citizenship, but I suggest that you at least learn how to speak english,] Maxine advised as she tossed him the bathrobe from her dimensional ring.

"I can speak english, but my brother can only understand it," Andrea said, "He never learned how to speak it properly."

"He should start practicing, then," Maxine told them, "And it wouldn't be a bad idea to learn about the history of my country."

"Alright, but where will we stay?" Andrea asked.

"I have a friend that I can ask to provide you with some temporary housing," Maxine said.

"Thank you," Andrea said.

"It's the least I can do," Maxine said, "And our world needs all the gold stage cultivators that it can get. Although, I didn't expect another one to crop up quite so soon."

"Trust me. My brother didn't expect this either," Andrea said.

"I imagine so," Maxine said, "You were being chased by essence beasts and weren't even trying to break through to gold. Perhaps, the stress of the situation forced out his potential. Regardless, he's gold stage now and if you two are ready, I can create a portal to my friend's guild."

Andrea looked at her brother for a moment and turned to Maxine to say, "We're ready."

"Alright," Maxine said as she waved her hand and created an arch that lead to the front of the Fire and Ice Guild headquarters, "Follow me."

As soon as she was through, she paused for a moment when she saw Emily standing next to the entrance with Hellen and Amanda. Amanda did not look happy.

"So, I can assume that you want me to take care of these two strays?" Amanda asked, "Your mom filled me in."

"Yes, these are the two," Maxine said and added via spiritual sense, [You might want to keep an eye on them. Their story doesn't make a whole lot of sense.]

"Alright, but you're going to teach a class on blade energy. You can meet them on the training field," Amanda demanded, [I was going to anyways and don't worry about calling any government officials. I'll take care of it.]

"I thought I told you that people either learn it or they don't, but if you insist, I'll still do it. I Just don't know if it will go very far," Maxine complained, [Thanks. You're a life saver.]

"Can we watch?" Emily asked.

"I don't see why not," Maxine said as she walked into the building and made her way to the back where the training fields were. She only had to take one look at the training field and groaned in annoyance. Most of them were young women with their hair dyed silver and looked as if they were about to squeal in excitement when they spotted her. Just fucking perfect. Fan girls.

Maxine found a small spot The gathered cultivators noticed her rather quickly and got quite excited as they gathered into a group infront of her. She even heard a few excited squeals before all of the students finished assembling.

"Okay, you guys requested to learn how to use weapon energy, but to be honest, it's one of those things that you normally need to figure out on your own," Maxine explained in a calm voice, "But I can tell you what it is. Weapon energy is similar to killing intent. If your killing intent is strong enough, you can kill a weaker adversary simply by focusing your killing intent on them. The same applies to weapon intent. If your intent to cut, crush or harm your opponent is strong enough, it will enhance your strikes to reflect that intent. For example, my blade energy enhances my ability to cut though nearly anything so long as my intent to cut or cleave it is powerful enough."

"What about people who fight bare handed?" a rather muscular and tall man asked, "Is fist energy a thing?"

"Yes, it is and it's quite potent. And it has the most variations out of any other kind of intent," Maxine replied, "But it's also one of the weakest when you first start out."

"What do you mean by it has the most variations?" a fangirl that was slightly shorter than Maxine asked.

"Well, every intent is unique to each individual," Maxine explained, "But when it comes to weapons. The intent's effect usually revolves around what the weapon can do on it's own, but with a bare hands, it can vary greatly. A hand chop could cut like a blade, a fist could smash like a maul, a finger poke could pierce like a spear or any other number of things could be possible."

"Cool," a younger cultivator said, "Does that mean if we train up our fist energy enough that we can throw punches without actually using our fists?"

"I guess that would be possible, but don't hold your breath," Maxine said honestly. I've never heard of anyone pulling that off using just fist energy.

"What about being able to use a stick as a medium for sword energy?" a young woman asked.

"You could do that, but it wouldn't be anywhere near as effective as using an actual sword," Maxine answered, "Regardless of what energy you use, it only enhances what's already there. Now, are there any other questions?"

They asked a few more questions, but they were questions she already answered with different wordings. "Well, with all of that out of the way, I'll try to see if I can stimulate any of you to unlock your weapon energy."

"Um, how will you do that?" a smaller woman asked in a confused tone.

"So glad that you asked," Maxine said as a vicious smile appeared on her face, "Brutal training. Oh, and if you havn't figure it out yet, you should be arming yourselves." They swiftly pulled out various weapons and surrounded Maxine. She chuckled at them and created eleven shadow clones before rushing at them with her bare hands. This is the safest way to stimulate them without them actually going into battle and as a bonus, it will teach them how to cooperate with others on the spot.

While she sparred with the students, a thought popped up in her head: How was it possible for 3 cultivators from the same planet, including herself, to have natural breakthroughs to gold stage within the time span of a year? This is very concerning. It could still be a coincidence, but I need to watch for others that have natural breakthroughs. Hopefully, it's a coincidence, but it could be a unique feature for people born on Earth. If that's the case, I'll have to do my best to make it appear that I've been supplying all of them with breakthrough potions. Otherwise, Earth will get hectic from too many offworld cultivators wanting to start families on it.