Deep inside the Chaos Sea, the glove goddess stared down at a pleading Steel Realm Beasthunter, reduced to begging and sobbing.

"It takes so long...I haven't gained a Star in seven Chaos Cycles. Please...I'll do anything." the Beastmaster pleaded with an earnest voice.

The glove tapped her chin, as if considering a response at human speeds. "I believe one Star per seven Cycles is absurdly fast for this place. The Celestial Dean gained his 8th Star after 900 thousand Chaos Cycles, right?"

"That's also true...but later Stars are much harder to achieve. You'll see too, Eternium Knight. As billions of years pass by, and you don't advance at all..." the Beastmaster tried to argue with feeble logic.

Grinning a bit too wide, the glove goddess poured herself a very small cup of wine, and sipped it slowly. By miracle, her 2nd Star formed just like that, matching her cultivation with the muscular immortal prostrating in front of her.

"Billions of years, you say? But I just drank a small cup of wine, and gained a new Star. It's quite easy." she retorted to the amazed Beasthunter.

"...Please. Just a small sip. You haven't called me here to tease me, did you?" the man asked with a more rational voice.

The glove goddess nodded. Acceptance, at last.

"I expect a sudden and unexpected betrayal." she explained in a carelesss voice.

"I would never..." the man whispered in surprise.

"Not you, idiot. The Noble Phoenix House will join the Jade House in the war against the Veritas Legion. So, I need someone that specializes in beast killing. Specifically, an Elder Phoenix in Steel Realm." the glove goddess answered in a low tone.

"The Elder Phoenix? Isn't the bird in the 6th Star? It's impossible to win..." the Beasthunter answered with a cautious voice.

The glove took out the wine bottle and shook it lightly. It was already half-empty, but such was life in this harsh world. There were never enough resources. "I'd say impossible equals about 4 cups of wine. And the expertise of someone immune to Phoenix Fire."

"But I'm not immune?" the man countered weakly.

A pair of Phoenix wings deployed behind the glove goddess, and then slammed together to burn the Beasthunter alive. "You're not immune...yet. But you will be."

'Or die screaming' the glove continued inward.

The Beasthunter screamed. The glove nodded wisely. Body cultivation did seem to resist Phoenix Fire somewhat. A bit more testing, figure out the exact parameters to include into Pef's Twelve Element method...Impossible was always a bit hard. But she was willing the burn alive the man for as long as it took.

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As the last Chaos Whale died, Pef took a deep breath as the essence filled him up and pushed his cultivation into the 6th Star. 'Incredibly hard...' he muttered inward.

'Took you two weeks only. It must be a record, even here in the Upper Realms.' Icefire countered in a wise voice.

'It probably is, I suspect. These cultivators are amazingly slow, to be fair.' Pef answered after thinking for a minute.

The ancient flame sighed. The Old Queen at their side hasn't Ascended even one more Star, and remained at the 4th Star even now. It wasn't the battle then.

"It must be your Cooking. You're refining Chaos energy back into Order." The Icefire spoke as the world made sense once more.

"Probably so. It also helps a bit if you know what forces you're dealing with. Expansion and Entropy, for example. It's great finding a cool Dao name for this reality, but Cooking needs to be precise. Winemaking, on the other hand...it can be whimsical and still works sometimes. Like playing dice with countless events and particles." Pef answered in a more serious tone.

"Death has changed you...I bet you were not a deep thinkier in your former life." Icefire presumed in a mild voice.

"That is likely so. I think we're still inside a game of some kind. Samsara, Paramita, Reincarnation. It's a playground of the gods, some unfathomable high gods." Pef mumured in deep thought.

"Because of that Mirror of Samsara. You think it fell from a higher realm?" Icefire deduced in a minute.

"I know it has. I even read the records in the Celestial Library, when they fished out the Mirror. I also belive it caused the Tree Wars. These Three Realms were too static, locked and fosilized with the World Tree on top. The Celestial Dean tried to exile the thing to the Lower Realms, but that only meant the Mirror found another way to poke holes in this reality." Pef said in a sad voice.

"You mean, yourself. The Mirror found the exact one person that could enact change. And it was you." Icefire spoke in a grave tone.

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"Yes, me. And you and my glove. Probably all the others too, including the General, the Taotie and the Nether Lotus. A confluence of impossible events, millions of timelines and experiments that converged to create this state of reality."

Pef concluded with a tiny shrug.

"We can go deeper. Into the Chaos Sea, I mean. We're still too weak for this kind of forces." Icefire argued in a low voice.

Pef nodded and his Heart Ruler thrummed with excitement. 'Yeah baby! Let murder those beasts!'

'They're barely sentient, these Chaosbeasts. It's not murder, it's pest control.' Pef said in a joking tone, then gathered his qi and Blinked over a giant distance, possibly an entire multiverse wide in a single step.

Millions of Chaosbeasts detected him and headed towards their possible meal, while Pef prepared to cook them in turn.

Pef fought then beasts, and then Cooked them. It billions upon billions of beasts, and dozens more Iron Realm ones to reach his 7th Star, and almost at the same time the Bee Queen defeated and Devoured a large Stingray and also advanced to her 5th Star.

"Wow. Cultivation is so easy in the Upper Realm!" the old bee queen exclaimed as she evolved her Sting with the essence of the Stingray, making it twice as powerful.

Pef nodded and patted her head. "Yeah. This was the easy part. Now, we have to return to the Academy, and find out what my orange glove has prepared for us. I guess it won't be flowers and honey."

"We're probably going to be thrown into a giant war and bathe in blood and guts." The Bee Queen muttered while shaking off the blood and guts that covered her exoskeleton.

Pef sighed, and triggered his Academy jade token. A Formation Array locked onto him and pulled him through a portal in front of the High Goddess of Life, who rose an eyebrow at him. "Not injured. Move on."

Pef stepped away and another portal deposited a mangled body missing all limbs and half of his lower body. The 12th Tier goddess sighed and poked the student on the forehead, making him vanish. "Fourth term, medium damage, mental trauma. Will take 2 months to recover."

"He also gained a whole Star from the Trials. The Kirin House may get a new Elder someday." The Demonhunter noticed with a mild voice.

"Maybe. It's hard to say with these young ones. Most of them die before their first Cycle." the Life Goddess answered with a patient voice.

Pef locked eyes with the ascended fish. "We need to have a rematch, old carp. I got somewhat stronger these past three months."

"Eject the girls for now, and let the Life Lady check on them." he answered with a commanding voice. Then the Demonhunter turned and nodded at the Bee Queen." Old Queen, you're looking stronger a bit. Any progress on your Body Cultivation?"

The Bee Queen preened and nodded. "Almost half a realm. I need to eat more Stingrays. Or maybe a Steel Realm one?"

"Good job keeping the boy safe. We'll go hunting Steel Stingrays after the new year. I know a deep spot with a dozen big ones." the Demonhunter spoke in a friendly voice.

Pef knew he was being snubbed, so he just ejected Gia and Meili from his inner world, letting the Life Goddess examine them for damage.

"Recent Ascensions, no permanent damage. I'll notify your Sect for the lost virginity." the Life Goddess spoke in an amused voice and patted Meili on her head.

"Errr. I can do that myself, High Lady..." Meili whispered in a blushing tone.

"No, no. Where is my fun in that? And you, Divine Cook! I suspect you'll need to prepare a giant feast for the Sect wedding. The Yin Wood girls are rather strict about some things." The Life Goddess exclaimed in a light voice.

"We have to get wedded?" Pef asked in a surprised tone.

"Is that a problem, young man?" The Life Goddess asked, somehow pressing her aura on him to sound menacing.

Pef scratched his cheek, but his eyes were worried. "I was expecting a war, not a wedding. Plus, my head wife needs to approve this and she's in the Lower Realm. This is quite a problem."

The eyes of the Life Goddess twinkled with myrth. "Oh, that's not a problem at all. Your Legion is already preparing for war, and your wives have translated here with a curious Seven Colored Pagoda that I haven't seen since the last war. So you can have it all. Aren't you a lucky man?"

"Really lucky!" the Bee Queen added to the general joyous vibe.

Pef sighed inward. This was the glove's fault!