When a blue portal appeared beside Alchemist Rejin, the man just sighed inward, and continued to refine more pills.

'I told you Pef will return soon. He now equals the Silent Monk in strength as well. ' the Ancient Divine Cauldron said in a bleak tone.

"Lord Pef, you seem stronger" the Alchemist observed without even looking at Pef. He had pills to make, so it was understandable. Pef didn't actually mind. The pills were made for the Legion after all.

"A few Stars, nothing too big." Pef allowed in a careless voice, as he sat down to watch real Alchemy at work. His own skill at Alchemy was still child-play compared to the old man.

"Top three in this multiverse is not too big?" Rejin muttered slightly annoyed. Apparently, the old Cauldron could evaluate Pef's real strength in just a few seconds, not that it was that much of a stretch for a Tier 9 Artifact. They all seemed to have mysterious abilities.

"If only everything could get solved by waving a big sword around." Pef answered with a sad sigh. Even if one could in fact carry a big stick and have everyone listen to him, you still needed capable people to carry out those orders, or make things like pills and weapons. The General herself was the very embodiment of this principle.

"So, what do you want?" Rejin asked in an abrupt voice, still waving his hands at the Cauldron.

"Firstly, I want to remake your Nine Universe Array." Pef disclosed just as the door of the Alchemy Hall opened and Aria and Vela rushed in, probably to confirm he had indeed returned.

"Write down a project. I'll look it over when I have time. And keep your wives out of my room." Rejin answered with a calm voice, and implicitly chased him out.

With a wry grimace, Pef grabbed his wives and stepped away, leaving the Alchemist to work in peace.

"Pef, are you well? Did you eat?" Aria asked in a worried tone, as they arrived in the kitchen.

Pef turned towards his green-haired wife and poked her forehead. "I finished the Dao of Cooking, idiot. I can feed myself just fine." he muttered as he offered each of them a Hualitep eye, Icefire-fried to perfection.

Vela just smiled and bit into her meal, enjoying the masterful cooking. From this single meal, her cultivation grew an entire Star, although it didn't mean that much at Tier 5. "You worked hard hubby. I could feel your pain as you fought this creature. Tier 8?" the former Elf vestal asked as she licked her lips.

"Yep. That was one of Hualitep's eyes. And what you taste and smell is called victory." Pef proclaimed in a prideful tone.

"Phuff! Still the same moron." Aria snorted then bit into her own fried eye. "Your cooking got better indeed." she added after considering for a minute, almost as an afterthought.

Pef just slumped and laid back in his seat. The finest meal in the multiverse and the woman still wasn't pleased enough.

"Give me a few more." Vela demanded instead, while raising her eyes.

"Ten each." Pef offered generously as he waved his gloved hand and deposited the Tier 8 delicacies on the table.

As the two women began eating in earnest, Pef took out his notebook and began drawing out an amplification array for Alchemy, while constantly probing his glove for ideas about special materials and inks and the exact Formations to use. Luckily he did obtain a wealth of cultivation materials during both his lives, and even some rare things from the Dark Forest beyond the Haze Gap.

'The horn of this Void Narwhal? It's only at Tier 7. Are you sure?' Pef asked the glove.

'Yes. It has both Metal and Lightning Dao properties, so they will balance by themselves, and even create extra effects. Electromagnetism, remember?' the glove answered in a serious tone.

'I see. And it will become stronger the more Heavenly Lightning we add into the Cauldron. Like those magnetic stars...' Pef murmured inward.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

'Exactly. We can mimic the magnetar stars like this, and compress the array by ten orders of magnitude.' the glove explained patiently.

'Can we do the same with some Dark Matter object? Gravity Dao...' Pef wondered as he explored more possibilities.

As Pef continued his own work lost to the world, the kitchen mirror flashed with grey light and Lia stepped out, and simply sat down, too tired to stand.

Barely noticing, Pef waved his right hand and offered the wife her tribute, ten crispy golith eyes.

Almost asleep, Lia munched on Hualitep's eye without caring for taste, only needing the energy of a spirit-infused meal. But as her energy slowly recovered, she kept eating more and more eyes, until the table was almost empty.

Only Vela still had several fried eyes in front, as she had a lower cultivation and couldn't digest everything so fast.

"Hualitep's eyes. I guess the hunt was successful." Lia remarked in a level voice. Oracle skill proved his worth once more, but nobody at the table seemed surprised.

Still focused on his drawings, Pef flicked the red-lightning cloud eye on table. "I got lucky. Any idea who we should raise at Tier 7?" Pef asked in a far-way voice. While most of his body and mind was focused on creating the new array, Pef still had a few idle selves to autopilot himself, at a lower capacity. It was one of the perks of reaching Tier 7 after all.

Lia pocked the wonder dish, then raised her eyes at Vela. "Instant Tier 7. We could use a Captain with strong Mind powers in the Legion." she noted with a somber voice. Since she had integrated the Dark Heart, the universe appeared a much bleaker place, especially now after she realized the cost of every Ascension.

Still, Vela had suffered more than enough, millions of years in the cold bore of mind stone mining and refining. She deserved an easy pass, at least for now.

As she glanced at Aria, Lia observed a tiny smile from the green-haired druid. "I need like a hundred of these normal fried eyes, and it would be enough for my Tier 7. Ascending the Garden will be much harder." Aria answered while waving a few fingers in Pef's direction, while her other hand clenched on the wooden necklace at her neck.

Pef raised his eyes to measure the Garden necklace, then smiled. "Barely an inconvenience. But, you will have to visit Lord Serghoul to attain Death Dao in a reasonable timeframe." he explained as he flicked a storage ring towards his druid wife.

Then he tapped his foot and the Grail array formed around his wife, followed by a single drop of blood from the Taotie. In a flare of green Life Dao, the Veridian Garden armor was forcefully Ascended into Tier 7, while also receiving a few valuable buffs from the Formation array.

Naturally, this time Pef took care to limit the array and not kill himself via qi exhaustion again. He was a bit smarter in this life, after all.

"It was that easy?!" three female voices filled the kitchen as they gathered to examine the wonder of a Tier 7 Garden.

"Heh. I am a Tier 8 powerhouse, after all. Eat the cloud eye, Vela" Pef spoke in a wry voice.

He could trust Lia to make the right decisions, even when he wasn't so certain. If the Oracle thought Vela was the worthy one, then it must be so.

Especially since she also reached the peak of Tier 7, even without his help. There should be a nice story there.

Vela picked the red-clouded dish and ate it in a single gulp, then sat down to meditate. In a mere minute, and without the bother of a Tribulation, the platinum-haired Elf climbed swiftly from Tier 5 to 6, and then to 7, and kept climbing until she reached the peak, matching Lia in cultivation ranks.

"This sucks. Learning Death Dao will be a pain..." Aria murmured as she observed her sister-wife overtake her cultivation effortlessly.

Lia just nodded sadly. There will be quite a lot of pain indeed for Aria. However, immortality had no price. It would be worth it, in the end.