By the time the meal was cooked, Aria and Ching returned to Jovis as well, and entered the kitchen with growling stomachs.
They glanced at the newcomers, then at Pef, with eyebrows rose at the exact same degree.
"This is Saren Xi and his wife. My relatives. The Sovereign lady is unmarried." Pef explained curtly, while pouring turtle soup in copper bowls and handing them over to Xie to be served. The 'yet' was inaudible, but these women knew Pef well enough.
Aria smiled sweetly at the new prospective sister, while Ching sighed and began eating without a word.
The Sovereign already wore a sapphire ring, and had just met the young man!
As she dove the spoon in and out of the bowl, her own sapphire ring twinkled in irony.
"More wives, nephew?" Saren asked amused, as the green haired woman was also a Tyrant and the other woman was an Empress. Not usual for any Xi, at all.
Pef shrugged and sat down to eat in silence. His uncle really wasn't someone who could comment on his love life.
After the soup, came grilled spider meat with garlic sauce, and various fried bits of snake, plus Legion maize, boiled and salted but left on the corncob, to be enjoyed as a desert.
Even the sick auntie seemed to enjoy the meal, and then the rice wine Pef produced at the end.
"It was an excellent meal, Tyrant Pef. Show us to a room, and we'll be ready to depart in the morning." the Sovereign said in a pleased voice, and then hang her veil back, as meeting normal people would cause them heart attacks or delirium.
These 4 young cultivators resisted her fire qi quite well, except the young man, who kinda drooled a bit, but still kept himself under control. It would have been a pity to light him up on fire. The Ignited title wasn't just to sound great, after all.
Pef thought for a second, then called a Guardian with a qi pulse and explained: 'My guests need a nice room or two, til morning.'
"Follow my Guardian, he will know where to put you. I kinda conquered this city by accident." Pef explained scratching his head in a bit of shame.
"I know how it happens, nephew. I was young once as well, I think." his uncle Saren replied with an amused tone, although he looked quite well, not a day over 30. He had the white aura and the straight black hair of the Xi, tied in a ponytail, only seeming older due to his short cropped beard.
'How old is Saren?' he asked his glove to make sure.
'Just turned 84 thousands.' the glove explained with a snicker.
'He looks great compared to my other uncles.'
'And he's the only the have been happily married. Although Lithos will rejuvenate now, as long as he loves his new wife.' the glove stated confidently.
"Leader, these three are your guests?" a Core rank Guardian asked, after taking note of the newcomers.
"Yeah, two rooms would be better, I guess. The Sovereign lady probably sleeps alone." Pef answered then turned to pour more wine to his wives. Ching slashed a finger over her cup, to confirm she had enough wine.
Pef and his wives got a bit drunk and horny, and retired to a room, while the oracle went for a walk on the city's battlement,
and stared at the moon.
Tomorrow would be incredibly dangerous, even with these unexpected Fire disciples to support.
Pef was too reckless, and not prepared or practiced enough. So far they got lucky, avoiding the spells or rituals that could have ended them all.
But that won't be the case in Myrrth. Locust was an oracle, and would have contingencies in place. Things that her own skill won't be able to predict or counter.
As the oracle meditated under moonlight, a feminine figure arrived gently at her side, unveiled and silent.
"Stop worrying, young oracle. Some things must happen, in order to birth a better future. With the Blue pill your Tyrant gave me, I will be sufficient to provide an opening. My god says it will be enough." the peak Sovereign whispered with a qi infused voice, restricting sound with a haze of hot air around them.
Miss Ching smiled and nodded, holding her hand up to admire her own sapphire ring. It didn't take a decade to be called to war, after all. Merely two years since her prophecy.
"Sleep well, Miss Yuan. You'll need your strength." she replied in sad tone, while forming a miniature sun in her palm.
What was she doing, taking part in a battle where Sovereigns will die? Her meager powers won't help at all.
Even Pef was a tiny factor here, expected to surprise the enemy at some crucial point.
Fighting with superior opponents, the skill calculated the chances of survival at 1 percent.
Miss Ching clenched her fist, then turned towards the mansion where her Water Tyrant was cultivating with his wives. If she were to die tomorrow, she won't die a virgin like this Fire Sovereign.
In a burst of speed, she navigated the battlements then entered Pef's room, where he was getting lucky with two women at once.
"Errr. I think you have the wrong room, my dear oracle." Pef muttered a bit uncertain.
She ignored his confused looks, walking towards the bathtub and undressed, then started washing her shoulders with slow moves.
Xie caressed Aria's face and then walked out with her into the next room, holding hands. For women, this situation wasn't as confusing as it was for their idiot husband.
"It's your lucky day, beloved husband. Now get here, and wash me!" Ching demanded while stepping inside the tub.
Pef blinked in surprise, then smiled with a lusty face. In a second, he was obeying her demand with zeal and passion.
As the morning came, the new couple got woke up with a douse of water from Xie.
"Wake up lovers! We need breakfast, and then we fly to battle. Hurry up!" she yelled in a sergeant's tone, then ran out of the room, before Pef could drench her back in revenge.
Pef pawed and poked his new wife's body to make sure it was not leaking anywhere, then kissed her lips sweetly. "Welcome to Tyrant rank, delicious woman. I was a bit worried you'd get hurt today, but not anymore. So, you think I have any chance, with the fire virgin?" the Water Tyrant asked while digging around for towels.
Lia Xi flashed a ray of sunlight, bathing them both and drying their skin and hair in an instant.
"Think it through, moron! How would you deflower a Sovereign ranked virgin?" the oracle asked rhetorically, then started dressing herself with a gruff attitude.
Pef glanced down, at his mere Tyrant ranked lovespear, and nodded wisely.
He wasn't strong enough to dream of heavens. He just barely ate a swan, and only at the swan's orders.
"You're right, my delicious swan. I need to grow stronger. Like a toad eating the meat of a swan, to eat a firebird I'll need to become a tiger, but with wings!" Pef proclaimed heroically, falling to his knees and waving his hands like wings.
The former miss Ching, now a proper Xi lady, snorted in dismissal and left the room without looking back. Her husband was an incurable moron!
'So that happened. Can't say I expected my dear oracle to jump by bones, for no reason.' Pef mused inward while getting dressed.
'She has her reasons, and she already wore your ring. It was the Sovereign who pushed her though. Locust eats virgins, remember?' the glove said in a more wary tone.
Pef agreed, this day would be quite dangerous. Especially for the Lady Ignited, as the only virgin in their group.
After breakfast, the 6 Tyrants and the Sovereign flew at half speed toward Myrrth, conserving qi. A few hours later, Yuan Ji stopped, just before the city became visible over the distant horizon.
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She waved her hands and whispered some inaudible words, setting up a formation around her, like a heat mirage.
"Stay close to me. And don't use qi until you have a clean hit." the Fire Sovereign said softly, then began climbing higher and higher.
At about 5000 meters, the air became hard to breathe, and a huge formation became visible underneath, nine concentric circles of ever increasing qi density, appearing dark red in a cultivator's senses.
Pef looked up, but there was only clear skies above, not a shred of cloud, just the sun, illuminating the landscape in warm light. "Lia, could you cover us in sunlight, if we descend at the same angle as sun rays?" he asked as a tactic appeared in his mind.
The woman mulled for a minute. "We'd need to be really, really packed. My sun domain is new and small." she explained after that, gesturing with her hands. Pef shrugged, not actually caring about discomfort.
The fire disciples glanced at each other, perhaps less comfortable at the idea of getting squeezed into a ball with a bunch of young and possibly not friendly people. Or too friendly.
In the end, a ball of sunlight did seem a reasonable disguise, when covered in a heat mirage.
The seven heroes clustered close together, with the men on the outside and Pef ended up leaning his head on the Sovereigns amazing thigh, while his own thigh was grabed at Aria's bossom.
The awkward ball flew slowly until they arrived over the city state of Myrrth, and brief windows allowed Pef and his group to observe the defenses.
The nine layers array extended upwards as well, but only for 4000 meters, possibly to reduce the strain due to gravity.
Groups of Emperor and Tyrants patrolled under the qi umbrella of their formation, 44 Emperors and 7 Tyrants, and checking the side towards Jovis every minute.
Although Pef wasn't a patient man, he forced himself to endure, and wait a little longer while his cheek rested on the Sovereign's divine leg.
The Lady Ignited herself was glad for her veil now, as she was blushing (like a virgin) from the prolonged and indecent touch.
As hours passed, Lia had begun reducing the glare of her sunbeam, since the sun began setting.
Then the Locust adept Sovereign emerged in the air, looking cautiously all around. It seemed he had received a divine warning. "I know you're here somewhere, I can smell a virgin from a thousand li! he claimed loudly in a qi infused voice.
Lady Yuan Ji growled and flashed at speed to attack, weilding a fire sword and pulsing fire novas at speed, incinerating a dozen close by Emperors in a dozen seconds, and making the Tyrants scatter.
"Hahaha, it is indeed a virgin! And what a catch, a Volcanic Fire Ignited. I haven't sacrificed one of you, in a hundred thousand years!" the man yelled in glee, ignoring the flames as if they couldn't hurt him at all. And they didn't.
Saren and his wife attacked on of the other Tyrants, she blinding him with a firestream while the Saren shunpo himself in the air glowing white with sword qi and split the adept in two in a single sword cut.
The two Sovereigns battled at blinding speed, their weapons flashing and deflecting ten times per second or more.
Xie and Aria also engaged a pair of Tyrant adepts, with little success, almost like moving too slow.
'Found it! Marking the array focus now.' the glove said while designing a yellow triangle somewhere in the city's inner sanctum.
'Mark the Sovereign too!' Pef demanded while climbing up towards the sun, and pulsing to Lia for cover.
The oracle glanced at him and nodded, speeding herself to be positioned in the sunbeam as well.
Then Pef waited, while his glove computed the difficult part. A minute later, the target triangles aligned and flashed.
The battlefield froze around the hero, the sounds gone and only lazy sun photons passing Pef by, in slow motion.
His neo knife Cut through the air, producing a thin white beam falling from the sky, through the Locust's Sovereign shoulder and heart, and continuing downwards, eviscerating an unlucky Emperor and then impacting the array source.
Then time resumed, as the formation vibrated and dispersed in a wailing scream, the nine qi circles evaporating, but the enemy Sovereign still alive somehow, even with only a hand and half of a black heart.
His power was rapidly declining though, without a dantian connected to his infected brain, and was soon hit by fire spells, from the three Fire disciples at once.
He screamed in anger, and maybe anguish, then Pef arrived next to him, punching his face once with his Sovereign dagger and bouncing off, then stabbing through his murderous brain with the Legion knife, then slicing out, removing half of the putrefied brain.
As Pef was searching for his next target, he saw his dear oracle get attacked by two adept Tyrants at once, and struggling to hold on, only defending with precise sword techniques.
He wanted to jump in and help, but the heavens chose to interfere, and send down the punishment for defying the Heavens with his banned skill. "Noooo!" the hero yelled, as his glove dragged his hand to intercept the lighting and get the upgrades it wanted.
Blinding light and pain and electricity full of coded information enveloped the desperate Tyrant, but he didn't care about all that.
He forced himself to move, but his body was getting electrocuted and wouldn't obey.
So Pef used his soul, and sent a soul spike at one of the Tyrants, the water qi still imbued with lightning and making the dastard convulse in pain for a second.
Lia Xi wasn't an oracle for nothing though. In that second, her sword flashed with sword qi and cut through the Tyrant's eyes, then the return stroke opened his neck just above his armor.
The next seconds though, while Pef struggled to survive and digest the immense qi of the Heavenly Lightning, Lady Ignited jumped into action, transparent fire wings emerging from her back, and moving at supersonic speeds to disarm and
cripple all the flying enemies, starting with the Tyrants.
In a minute, the airspace above Myrrth was pacified, and the young Tyrant wives divided the six surviving Tyrants between them, to gain to most experience from this encounter.
Meanwhile Saren flew around, collecting storage rings and searching for their actual target, the elusive origin lotus.
As it happens he found three of them in the dead Sovereign's rings, along with tons of valuables like gems and jade stone and artifacts.
When Pef stopped defibrillating in mid-air, his uncle arrived at his side and examined him with eyes full of wonder.
"Lower circuit is almost open. And your qi rank increased...to medium rank. You're as strong as Ventu or my wife now. But you would still have died, without the Red pill, stupid nephew."
"Y-yeah, it kinda hurt. B-but I got the old bastard, didn't I?" Pef stuttered as his lower jaw would quite obey him.
The Fire Sovereign arrived next to Pef, and held out her hand, with her little finger and a piece of her sleeve missing. "You owe me a new robe and and new ring, damn idiot!" the virgin proclaimed in a distinguished voice, like doing him a favor.
Pef scratched his cheek, thinking it wasn't an accident the glove targeted her hand. Indeed, she still wore Pef's ring on her left hand, and it was the right hand needing to regrow a little finger and gain a new ring.
"Don't be greedy, Lady Ignited. I'll cook something nice for you, and craft you another ring. But I don't make women clothes." the young hero explained bravely, with a hand wave.
He should have stayed silent. Getting lit on fire hurts.