The women of Mia's house, minus herself, were currently having a serious talk in their garden, along with tea and biscuits.

“That’s mean, Lin! Why did you keep something like this a secret?” Mei asked.

“Because I had to make sure you were not some low woman coming after my boy and that he was serious.”

“I feel offended that you think of me like that.”

“You might as well but the real problem was her. I couldn't just give it to you and keep her in the dark at the same time.” Lin said, pointing to Elara.

“I can see her point. You knew each other for a few years at least. It's not even been one for me and here we are.” Elara himself said.

“You proved yourself good enough. The boy likes you and you like him. You also didn't make any mistakes so I also approve, even if you are not married yet.” Liza said.

“And Mia also accepted you.” Marry added. Something that everyone there couldn't help but nod to.

“Funny how our lives revolve around that girl. I would never imagine something like that would happen to me.” Elana said.

“Just give it a few years and you will have your own.” Lin said.

“I think there is enough Mia around. A normal little girl would suffice.” Elana jokes. Everyone laughed a little.

“Still. How do you even have something like this Lin?” Mei asked.

“Do you think my beauty is all natural? I might not train like our man but I do my thing. It took every trick and tactic I had to buy this manual at the time. I can't just give something like this.”

“What about Marry?” Elana asked.

“We don't talk about Marry.” Liza said, very seriously.

“So, how does this work? Do I need to constantly use it or is it a one time thing?” Mei asked.

“Around an hour or two a day will suffice. After that, you just need to stay close to your man for a few minutes.” Lin explained.

“And just like that we won't age until they do?” Elana asked.

“Yes. In technical terms, we will be feeding on their cultivation, but not in any way that is harmful. The only way to get better results is to cultivate ourselves but if I read you two correctly, that is a hard no, right?”

“It's too hard.” Mei said.

“Not something I had the time to look into.” Elana said.

Marry and Liza had their own situations but Lin, Mei and Elana were just bad at the aspect of life that concerned training. Lin barely could use basic spells and not for lack of training. She just didn't have the talent or drive to train enough to improve. There is also the question of free time. Even now she doesn't have enough free time to have any meaningful training. Not that she wants to, she is quite happy being just a housewife.

Mei is a little better in handling spells but her focus is in other places, like cooking and her future kids.

As for Elana, it's too hard for her to truly absorb new stuff at the level that she would need to cultivate or learn magic. A change in environment is just that. Dealing with people, working another job, are just things that she does with her body as far as she knows. Honing her mind and soul to cultivate and use spells was something that would take time from her that she could use to more important stuff, like getting her life together so she could be a good wife or making sure she was healthy enough to have kids.

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There was also the fact that Mia was enough of a warrior for everyone so keeping the female energy of the household balanced would be preferred and everyone at the table knew it.

After a few moments in which they ate and drank, the talk continued.

“So, what are your future plans?” Lin asked Mei.

“Build our house.”

“Are you moving out?” Lin asked, confused.

“What? No! Mia said that when she learned some new spell she would make my room big enough to be a house.”

“She said that she would make a hot spring bath for me.” Marry said.

“She told our husband that she would give him space to make a smithy here a few days ago.” Lin said.

“She asked me if I wanted a private garden.” Elana said.

“How cute. She only offered to kidnap Jin for me for some reason.” Liza said.

“Well ma'am. Anyone can see you two have history together.” Elana explained.

“That is true, I am not going to lie about that. But there is no reason to go after the man. It's not like he was my lover or something and abandoned me.”

“Liza, I know we've known each other for years but if you don't mind, what exactly is your relationship with that man?” Marry asked.

“I guess you have the right to know. It's not something as grand as you might be imagining so don't get too disappointed. The short story is that I gave all my cultivation to him so he could save a lot of people, my family included, when I was young.”

“And the long story?” Lin asked.

“I was a dumb woman who got drunk on power when I advanced to the next stage of cultivation and bitten more than I could one day. I joined a group of people going into a recently formed dungeon against the warning of the authorities at the time, a stampede began, most people there died. Jin was able to hold the stampede for a while but he was running out of everything and once he did a lot of people would have died. I used a spell that is passed down in our family to give my power to him and that allowed him to deal with everything. But like I said, I was a dumb woman. I didn't study the spell in detail and fumbled it without noticing until later. I gave all my potential to him, not just the energy I had. I lost the ability to use mana in its entirety and became barren due to that too. Once Jin learned what happened he tried to fix the situation for a while but it would kill him so I made him promise to help me again if something happened. That is the origin of that letter I had.”

“I am sorry for touching on this scar.” All the other women there said in some way.

“Don't be. I might sometimes be depressed by my situation but if not for my past mistakes, we wouldn't be here today.” The women there could only accept what was said.

“Well, to cut this depressing atmosphere. What about the moving plan?” Lin asked.

“The rest of the family is willing to come visit but not move.” Liza explained.

“Why not?” Marry asked.

“Because Huang finally broke our 'family curse'. He made it. He is not just some strong man in the middle of nowhere. He is actually someone important. And we as the women of his household we are in a better position than any other woman in our family has been for generations.”

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you think I was a dumb when I was young? I wanted a better life for myself and refused to wait for a man. I always thought that our family rule was that the women support the men but I was wrong. It is that the strong protect the weak and I never saw my weakness like others saw theirs. None of you will ever know how harsh the training the man of our family is and they make sure that it continues that way. I barely started it, thought it was too hard and looked elsewhere. As for the curse, is that we never had somewhere where we could truly raise kids. My dad died when I was 13. Huang when he was 14. My mom lost my grandfather when she was only 10. Our family's men always tried their best to give us a better environment and Huang finally managed it in our old town and now here. Our family might have a long history but it's a bloody one and simply taking advantage of the one that finally managed to break the circle somehow would hurt their pride too much. Also, it's not like there are any people of note left. Huang has no brother or sisters. His uncles that are still alive are the ones that basically abandoned the family. The rest of the woman simply wouldn’t be able to survive here. Once you are woman of the village you can't just stop.”

“I never knew. I always thought that Huang didn't say much about his family because they were far away or something.” Lin said.

“I guess those rooms will be empty for a while. At least until we have more children running around.” Liza said.

To that, they drank.