The trip to the Yellow Marshes continent went smoothly, as Pef had the two Empress wives hung onto him like backpacks, front and back, and Aria could fly quite fast as a peak ranked Tyrant.
Aria kinda grumbled at the obvious favoritism for the weaker sisters, but she had to agree they were much slower in flight.
Then again, she was the only one beside Yuan to receive a Green Meridian Pill, which raised her wood qi to amazing levels, and also made her more fertile. Not that she could prove it, but Yen was living proof after all.
And combined with the White Meridian Pill and the Blue one, she was quite ready for her next rank, and become the strongest wife again. It was always a race in this family, as you never knew when Pef returned with another powerful beauty.
At least Yuan was a virgin, untouched and untouchable for as long Pef was still a rank lower. But Aria had her own goals, and Yen becoming a Sovereign would only hasten them, reaching Gaia and rescuing her from the loose state of scattered divinity.
The green haired woman scanned around for some of the fabled migratory bird flocks, but it seemed she wouldn't be so lucky yet. And while diving deep into the sea would certainly find her combat, Pef's warning of Monarch ranked beasts like Thunder Eels or Killer Orcas made her a bit afraid.
Those beasts were luckily not amphibian, so they wouldn't try to fly around, or cross into continents. As animals descendants, most beasts would remain convinced that only their original environment would allow them to live.
Even her reckless husband was wary of the sea, as his uncle who had been an experienced Water Tyrant found his end patrolling the depths. And having seen how strong and well trained Saren Xi was, in Myrrth, Aria knew the lost Tyrant wouldn't have been any less strong.
After a long and boring trip, with a few stops for meals the group reached the Yellow continent and landed for a bit of rest.
Pef's Qi senses reached hundreds of kilometers away and his soul domain almost one kilometer in depth, so the camp was quite safe, despite numerous insects and reptiles infesting the marshes.
Aria gathered some wood for a suspended cabin anyway, and Pef began cooking on his metal stove, then pampered all of them, with delicious meals fed gently in their hungry mouths.
Then the former druid got to enjoy her husband all night, as the Empresses were to tired and fell asleep on wooden cots.
She wasn't grossed out anymore, by the large breasts that had grown on her chest, since Pef made sure to love them intently, and that felt very pleasant indeed. Nor were they both stupid virgins anymore, stumbling and struggling to find each other's hot places.
But she would always be his first, and that knowledge always made Aria feel superior to her sisters, even over holy beauties like Jian or Qin, who had fire qi and sparkled in the dark, of so much hotness and prettiness.
And Mia and Pela couldn't even compare, with their boring black hair and eyes. No, she would always be the first, even if she didn't have a golden aura. She lasted two years of Awakening and her aura was silver. Which meant something, but nobody was sure what.
Well, Pef said it was connected to the Veridian Legion and Gaia, but that only muddled the waters.
The Sovereign woke up half an hour early, to make breakfast and analyze the incoming qi pulses.
'Troop movements, Aspirant. The Etna firecone has received reinforcements from the main sect, and are pushing back the Tangerine disciples from the Yellow Plains. They have freed a dozen breeding camps already.' the glove explained after decrypting the continent wide transmissions.
Pef fists clenched once, and he nodded. 'The god behind the Tang sect?'
'See! You can think on your own, recruit. Now, what will you do, as there're hundreds such places here, and the Tangerine disciples can summon mud and stone and even magma golems?' the glove asked rhetorically. It didn't need to ask, but it was more amusing that way.
'What we always do, my orange glove. Kill bad men, and save innocents, one way or another.' the Aspirant declared with a grim tone.
'That's great, but there're five plants you should collect in this area. When Saren arrives, just trade one set for his wife's new rank.' the system advised him in a prophetic manner.
Triangles appeared over a corner map in Pef's vision, and the Sovereign smiled. Reality just became even easier.
The appetizing smell of Legion maize porridge, with a side of cheese and butter, woke up the wives, and they ran out to wash in Pela's water shower, then get dried by Mia's wind qi.
Pef eyed their naked bodies with lustful eyes, and drenched them again, as he liked wet skin even more.
Angry yells and then giggles and laughter sounded, scaring the poor poisonous critters in the marshes.
Then the pranking Sovereign got drenched in turn, and was forced to get naked as well. The breakfast was set aside, as more important matters caught these young cultivators' attention.
It was only by noon that the party began scouring the wet lands for mysterious roots and grasses that would contribute in refining a Yellow Meridian Pill.
A few hours later, a surprise encounter had all four of them gape with various emotions.
"Is that?"
"A King Anaconda!" Mia exclaimed with a happy laugh, unfolding a Sovereign ranked feather polearm and flying ahead, and flashing her weapon once, with her minute sword qi and the wind qi to hasten herself and her weapon.
Half a second, and the Anaconda Emperor blinked in surprise, its head splitting open before it could open its dangerous mouth.
Pef flashed forward and stored the precious body, and then the head, before it sunk back under the murky waters.
Pela arrived next to Mia to hug her in congratulations. "This beast wasn't hard at all...why did you have problems with it, Pef?" Mia asked with naive eyes.
"Eh, I only had two Sky ranked spears and a Sky ranked sword. Plus no extra meridians open or this much practice. Still, nice strike, Mia. I'm very proud of you, and I should kiss you deeply..." the young husband said in a loving voice, then did just that, the kiss taking minutes and minutes.
Pela pursed her lips expecting her own kiss, but she only got a short one, more of a peck.
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The search kept on, until hundreds of various ingredients were gathered.
Then Pef sensed a dry shape walking fast towards them, and warned his wives.
A stone golem appeared, somehow stepping on the wet mud without sinking. Pef estimated it at Tyrant rank and just a bit too fast for either Mia or Pela.
Still, it was an opportunity for combat, which was also why they came here. With two fingers, he gestured sharply towards the target, making Mia and Pela assault the golem from two sides.
Pela's hits were stronger and harder, but not precise or focused enough, bouncing off and merely chipping tiny bits from the golem.
Mia instead hit much faster, and once in twenty hits she got a bit of sword qi, gashing a deep cut through the 5-meter tall golem.
But if they weren't airborne, both women would have been overwhelmed already. Aria prepared a trap with some fallen trees and tried to entangle and trip the golem from far away, but the creature was too strong.
'Seen enough?' Pef asked his glove.
'Tyrant ranked Earth mage, 31 kilometers south-east, hidden under a hill. Has a dozen more mages in his garrison.' the glove replied, after deciphering the control qi codes for this primitive remote.
Pef flew up, and his wives abandoned their fight with the golem on the ground.
In a minute they arrived over a red-orange hill, overlooking a small camp. Pef's senses quickly discerned the purpose of the camp. He had seen similar camps in his teenage years, after all.
"Aria, you deal with the men in the camp." The Sovereign ordered in a cold and calm voice.
Meanwhile, a thick fog formed from nowhere, surrounding the hill and obscuring it from view.
A jet of pressurized water emerged from his ring, emptying a thousand tons of water in seconds, and washed the top of the hill away, like a water hose. But much stronger.
A dozen golems formed to fight the attackers, but were swept away with a mere glancing hit from the powerful water jet.
Then, 13 men dressed in reddish robes were revealed, a bit wet and miserable.
Pef took out his beloved puppy and kissed it for luck. "Hands and knees, only. My wives need to have some fun too." He told his knife and imbued it with a second of sword qi.
Then he let go, using the weapon as a magic missile knife.
A streak of white light crisscrossed among the Tangerine disciples, then the knife flew back up, and came back to kiss his user.
While an incurable idiot, this user was quite fun and had quite innovative ideas. Still not a registered Soldier, but then nobody in this universe was. He would have to do.
And its teeth had began growing again, making fights exciting and much less painful.
Mia and Pela descended to attack and finish off the mages, while screams of the impaled men in the breeding camp filled the skies and nearly pierced the concealment fog.
The Sovereign kept watch, making sure no surprises snuck on them from somewhere.
Then, when the mages had been killed and looted, the group met in the camp, finding a thousand women in various sorry states, a couple even pregnant, while the human faced pigs were left impaled on various appropriate wooden stakes or old weapons from Aria's inventory.
Pef took out the new Anaconda, and began crafting a passenger ship, while handing the extracted meat to his wives to be cooked and feed the rescued women.
It took a week for the women to recover somewhat, even when aided by nutritious food.
But it also took a week for most of the rapist scumbags to die, unless a revengeful woman began chopping off bits from him.
Which also often happened, unless their victim was catatonic.
In the end, Pef boarded 700 lucid female victims in his Anaconda Two zeppelin, and set the remaining victims and torturers on a large pyre. After they'd been killed, of course.
It was sad, but for someone not able to survive on her own, they would have become beast food, or maybe get enslaved again. Then Pef pushed the airship towards the nearest city, and landed it on the outskirts.
'City state of Lamia. Patron deity: Tangerine. Accepted cults: Arachne and Sifar.' the glove explained helpfully.
Pef mused a bit at that, going through all the deities he knew about. 'There's another tier 1, right?'
'Indeed. But it's not the kind to need followers. The God of death, or the patron of souls. Clever choice as a mantle, since everything mortal dies.' the glove said a warning tone.
The Sovereign took a snapshot of various Tangerine disciples and rankers, noting two more Tyrants and three Emperors in the city. Not a strong presence at all. There were instead thousands of Spirit ranks, converting qi in an industrial manner, then returning to a nearby breeding pen to recharge.
He pointed Aria at the nearest camp, and Mia and Pela at the next. Then he sped up, flashing through defense arrays and catching both Tyrants with their pants down. His knife flashed a second, leaving the men to stare confused at their elbows and knees lying on the floor.
Then he grabbed them by their heads and sped back, dropping them in front of Mia and Pela.
"What do you say, my lovely wives?" Pef asked with a grim smile, while he broke the jaws of both men before they could say something nasty.
"You're the best Pef! I'll take the one with tentacles tattoos." Pela proclaimed with a wide grin, and started chopping off more bits from the crippled Tyrant.
Mia sighed and just sliced through the other one's head, with her Sovereign feather flashing white with qi.
At the other camp, Aria had already impaled some Emperor through his ass, then dantian then his mouth, and left him getting roasted over a camp fire.
It would take him a month to die that way, but Pef knew it would take some time to civilize this place anyway.
He sped up again, and caught the other two Emperors before they could get away. This time he used his strength to dismember them, and it was a bit difficult. Took him almost a minute of strained muscles.
The disciples in the town got alerted at the intrusion, and gathered in small companies at key locations, sparing Pef the work of finding them among the civilians.
He took out a feather and slashed in an arc, and then stepped towards the next group. Thousands of low ranks got split in two, then stored into the glove.
What Pef couldn't grasp though, is why there were some women among them. Surely they could see what happened to the victims?
So he asked, leaving a disciple alive just for this question.
"Is what god commands. Some disciples get blessed with female children, and they become mothers for the sect..." the woman proclaimed in fervent righteousness.
Pef nodded and flicked his feather again.
Another body joined his glove, and then he began setting up pyres and get rid of these dark cultists.