Fia cycled her Qi as she formed her three jian blades into a triangle formation behind her back. She leapt into the air with qinggong just as Kel Zhi came at her with a lightning arc strike from her axe. She avoided it deftly and retaliated with a blast of radiant Qi from her palms.

Just as she did so, Zu Tien emerged from thin air behind her, utilizing her [Flash Step] technique. Fia was quick to parry her with her three blades, causing sparks to fill the air. With a loud shout, Gui Zu joined the fray, completing the three on one scenario by coming at her with a series of rapid pole arm techniques.

Gui Zu, being still in the Low-Tier Foundation realm, couldn’t hurt her, but that wasn’t the point. Any hit from him would count as a mortal wound. As would any from her three opponents. They came at her in unison and Fia fell back to her martial training to both anticipate and counter each move. It was challenging, even though her skill level was far above each of them.

Zu Tien was her pupil, employing the same martial techniques as her own. Gui Zu was perhaps just as skillful, if not more so with a Bo Staff and Kelsey, while still learning had an unpredictability to her forms that constantly put her on edge.

With all three combined it was a workout worthy of someone of even her talent.

She kept up the pace for perhaps a minute, before the inevitable happened.

“Stop!” Fia shouted, panting. She held out her hand, yielding as the pain from her stomach grew acute and sharp. “I can’t take anymore.”

Yu Li, who had been watching the sparring match from the side of the gymnasium came running to her aid. “Are you alright, Fia? I told you not to push it.”

Zu Tien, Gui Zu and Kel Zhi echoed Yu Li’s concern as they all dropped martial form and rushed to her side. It was both comforting and humiliating all at once. Her friends were here to support her, even in sparring but she couldn’t keep up with them at all.

“How long was that?” Fia asked.

Gui Zu half frowned looking to Zu Tien. “That felt like five minutes, right?”

“Yes,” Zu Tien echoed him. “A good five minutes, I’d say.”

Fia rolled her eyes and looked to Kel Zhi. “How long really?”

The blond-haired girl chuckled. “I’d give you two minutes tops that run.”

Fia sighed. You could always count on getting the raw truth from Kel Zhi.

“This is becoming much harder than I imagined,” Fia said.

Yu Li harrumphed. “What do you expect at being nearly eight months pregnant? This is so dangerous for the baby.”

“I know. I know.”

Her friends looked down at her silently as she continued to mewl quietly in fetal position on the ground. It would pass, she knew. The crippling pain that ran through her stomach and seemed to pierce straight through her Dantian.

Fia has shared her secret with both Gui Zu and Zu Tien now and while they now aided her in her preparation for the court duel with the Three Bird Sisters, they also now joined Yu Li in their worried and disapproving stares.

“What?” she said. “I can do this. I just need to get used to where my new limits are.”

“Is it truly worth it, Lady Fia?” Gui Zu, always the voice of reason asked. “If your father knew, perhaps he could do something to back out of the match without losing too much face.”

“Back out?” Fia shook her head. “My father has bet our entire family’s reputation on me beating all three of those sisters. And it has to be me, I explained this already. They wouldn’t have agreed if it wasn’t a chance to get at me personally. And besides it’s already being advertised in the community. People are setting dates for the match already.”

“I really wish I could fight this one for you, Fia,” Kel Zhi said. “Those bird-brained bitches have really pulled a number on our sect and I want payback like no tomorrow.”

The young girl flexed as she said it, throwing a fist into her open palm. Kel Zhi practiced the same style as Max, the Furious Lightning technique but even more so, she was a Berserker as well. Or so Max had confided in her before he had left.

Fia knew vaguely how their rage and disdain for their opponents added to their strength. With what Kelsey was feeling against the three bird sisters, she perhaps did indeed have the strength of both body and purpose to defeat them. But the legal and political impediments still remained. Not to mention that only she knew Max and Kel Zhi’s secret and ‘cutting loose’ as Max often called it, was something both he and Kel Zhi needed to hide when in the ring.

“So you have to be the one to fight,” Gui Zu said throwing his hands in the air exasperated. “We get it, but we don’t need to like it. That’s my nephew you are carrying in there.”

“Nephew?” Zu Tien perked up surprised. “Have you ascertained the gender already?”

Fia shook her head with a laugh. “I refuse to use the Qi technique to do so.”

“Then how do—?”

“Because I’m claiming it!” Gui Zu said boldly. “Max deserves a firstborn son as an heir.”

He said it in jest, eliciting a round of chuckles that lightened the mood as always.

But deep down it triggered another pain.

Even if she were able to survive the match safely and defeat the bird sisters, there was the status of her unborn child to worry about. Besides going through the shock and disgrace it would cause her family, if Max did not return home in time to marry her, the child would be born a bastard.

Regretfully the same as little Su Ling.

While Fia’s parents still cared for the little girl out of love, the same that they would her own child, she was sure, when it came to their future, however, they would never be able to bear their true family name or title.

She sighed inwardly.

Fia had purposed this pregnancy out of desperation and fear, as insurance incase Max never returned. Her decision haunted her bitterly now. Here she was, on the brink of disaster and Max had come through for her in near record time.

He was almost home.

“I should have had more faith in him,” Fia whispered, more to herself than to anyone else. “Maybe he’ll surprise us once more and be home even before the match.”

Yu Li rested a comforting arm over her shoulder. “Don’t dwell on that. What you did, you did out of love for both you and Max. You did not know he would return so quickly.”

“Yeah,” Kel Zhi said. “And don’t forget. He could still not come back at all. The shit he’s up against is pretty damn heavy.”

Everyone let out a gasp, all looking at Kel Zhi in shock.

“What?” she said, shrugging her shoulder. “I said ‘could’. And I was just saying it to make her feel better about getting knocked up.”

They all let out another sigh of exasperation.

“I don’t know if that helps to make her feel any better Kel Zhi,” Yu Li said. “But thanks, I suppose.”

Kel Zhi laughed. “Meh… don’t worry about me. Me and Max got a whole different view on this death thing than you guys. It’s no big deal really. If it happens it happens. So long as you kill the other guy first is all that matters. I’m sure Max is thinking along those same lines when he goes to fight that planet full of space monster demons. The odds are really going to be against him.”

More silence fell as anxiety filled Fia’s heart.

Gui Zu chuckled and slapped Kel Zhi on the back smiling. “Still not helping. Worse even! Let’s shut up now for Lady Fia’s sake, yeah?”

“Whoops,” Kel Zhi said with a smile. “Zipping it.”

Fia sighed. “It’s alright. I appreciate the efforts. Regardless, I still need to fight this battle on my own and I can barely last a minute at a time.”

“Perhaps it is your style you need to change,” a voice said from behind her.

Fia’s heart jumped.

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She looked behind her to see her mother, Rhi Dong, the Lady Silver Moon at the door to the gymnasium with Su Ling in her arms. All of her friends let out a collective gasp of fear and shock. Fia immediately turned to her to bow on her knees and her friends followed suit.

“M-mother,” she stammered. “H-how long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough,” she said walking to stand over her.

Fia dared to look up. “So… you heard… everything?”

Rhi Dong let out a scoff. “Don’t be stupid girl. Do you think you could fool your own mother for so long? I’ve been waiting for you to finally come to me, but after seeing this ridiculous show, it is clearly now time for me to intervein.”

Tears formed in Fia’s eyes as her heart broke. She let out a sob. “Mother, I’m so sorry. It was foolish what I’ve done. Please forgive me!”

“And you lot,” Rhi Dong said, ignoring her to shoot an accusatory glance at her friends. “Aiding and abetting. But at least you have proven your loyalty to her. And good friends also to try to dissuade her from fighting, but she unfortunately is right. Only she can contest this match with the Shen sisters.”

Zu Tien, Yu Li, Gui Zu and Kel Zhi all pushed their foreheads to the floor, apologizing in unison.

“Forgive us, Mother Dong!”

“We meant no disrespect, Lady Silver Moon.”

“Please forgive us for hiding this!”

“Enough!” Rhi Dong said, but in a lighthearted tone. “You pander to me for no reason. I’m not here to chastise you. I’m here to help.”

“Help?” Fia raised her tear-soaked eyes to her mother. “How?”

“As I said, you need a different style.” Rhi Dong handed Su Ling over to Yu Li and then helped Fia from the floor. “You are used to using your agility as it is the core of the Silver Leaf Clan style, but with my second grandchild in your belly, I will forbid it. You must use a more graceful and less intense style to defeat those girls now.”

“What style do you speak of mother?”

Rhi Dong gave her a thin-lipped smile. “I know someone who can help.”

“Who?”

“You will see,” she said. “But for now, you are to discontinue this form of training until you have learned it, understood?”

“But the court date is less than two months away,” Fia said. “How am I to learn a totally new style in that time?”

“Did I say it would be easy?”

Fia sighed. “No, mother. Thank you, mother.”

“Good,” she said. “And no one said getting pregnant out of wedlock would be easy either. You had best pray that Max does indeed return home in time to make this child a true heir. But as for you, you need now commit yourself to defending this family’s honor in his stead.”

“Yes mother,” Fia said, feeling the gravity of her choices weighing on her soul. But it was a great relief in some extend for her mother to now know and for her to choose to help her also instead of disowning her. But then another thought occurred. “Does father know?”

Rhi Dong laughed. “Of course not! He is not as perceptive or as interested in your comings and goings as I. You are fortunate that he is still preoccupied with keeping this ever-growing household afloat while keeping a step ahead of the Warden.”

Fia noted the way her mother looked at her stomach when she said ever growing.

“But you were not wrong about not telling him,” Rhi Dong said. “This would be too much for him to bear right now. And as I already have a solution to it, it will all be fine. We will tell him as soon as you win the match.”

Fia didn’t know whether to feel relief or uneasy at that. “He will despise me won’t he?”

“He is your father,” she said. “And I can say from experience that much good can still come from what was previously a rash choice.”

Rhi Dong smiled at little Su Ling as Yu Li held her in her arms.

Fia was thankful.

Her mother’s grace was perhaps as much due to little Su Ling as anything else.

“And splendid choice on those mummer’s robes,” Rhi Dong said as she glanced her up and down. “You can barely tell you are with child.”

Yu Li smiled. “See! Didn’t I tell you they would work?”

“These were Yu Li’s idea,” Fia said.

Rhi Dong grinned. “Figures a mother would know. Now off to rest with you, Fia. I will summon your help. They are but a province away and should arrive in a few days. For the rest of you, go keep my husband busy. The less he knows about all this, the better.”

* * *

Princess Lunalah could barely contain her excitement as she dropped into lotus position within the confines of her office. Cycling her Qi, she peered inwardly and tapped into the heart of her Dantian. There, deep within the core of her being, she glimpsed her sacred secondary soul.

It was the same image of herself, only ten times more refined.

More beautiful, if even it were possible.

It stymied her that she was perhaps still decades from breaking through to the Lesser Deity Realm, where she could actually embody the form of her Sacred Soul in the physical realm, but as a 9th Tier Sacred Soul cultivator she was close.

Perhaps closer than she even gave herself credit for.

Her Qi density was perhaps appropriate for an attempt, but she had seen far too many of her older siblings attempt to test the fates and fail. If they were lucky, they would end up merely dead. The less fortunate would survive to live out the disgrace of their failure, often ending up crippled spiritually and physically for life, becoming even less than mortals. Others still, ended up on the wrong side of the spiritual realm, becoming demons that slaughtered their entire clan and households before being put down.

She shuddered at the thought.

Perhaps that was the true reason why she opted to wait.

There was far too much for her to still do before temping the fates.

And what purpose would ascension truly serve her right now?

She had political power to gain in the lower courts first. Being but a third princess was already a great hurdle to overcome, but she could distinguish herself greatly from her older sisters if she were to secure not only a love match, but one that would put their dowdy, perfunctory husbands to shame.

Just the thought of it riled her insides with excitement.

And now, her wishes were seemingly coming true far faster than even she had hoped.

Truly a sign, she thought. The fates are with me.

Embodying her spirit within her secondary soul, Lunalah focused her Qi a moment more to perform the technique that truly defined one as a Sacred Soul Realm cultivator. The ability to not just project one’s secondary soul outwardly, but to truly inhabit it, become it and venture forth with it across the physical realm.

When she opened her eyes, she was in the body of her spectral self, a towering goddess two stories tall and encircled by six jade crystals that spewed constant spiritual energy for her to cultivate from. With a glimpse into the spiritual realm, she honed in on the spiritual energy of her target.

The Lady Silver Tear.

She was in Jurin province as expected. Lunalah could will herself there instantly through the spiritual realm, but she chose to traverse the land in spectral form instead, getting a true sense of the scale of her great empire. She traveled west at unimaginable speed, taking in vast landscapes of desert, mountain and forest. She flew over huge cities, filled with both natives and citizens from her home world.

If they could ever get the Omni Gate completed, there would be countless more from the interior core worlds to fill her treasury with wealth.

But now her treasury was near empty.

No matter, she thought.

Her Legionnaire Consort would soon return to her with both a bounty to fill her treasury and a passion to fill the desires of her heart—if fate would have it, that was. And now fate seemed to be doing just that, fulfilling her wishes in abundance and in record time.

Lunalah had been prepared to wait three years, but the Iron Bull had seen fit to complete his task in less than a third of that time. It was another confirmation that he was indeed the true fruit of this otherwise fruitless world.

A prodigy of cultivation and one worthy of only her hand in marriage.

The thought spurred her on as her spectral form crossed the great continents of the East.

After crossing a small ocean, she reached the Western continent which contained the province of Jurin and quickly sought out the Lady Silver Tear. Lunalah found her within the private garden of her estate, at the topmost portion of the Imperial city, now radiating with the light of the aetherite crystal in the darkness of early evening.

Lunalah hid her appearance as she approached, but the Lady Silver Tear, being a Sacred Soul Realm cultivator herself, quickly sensed the presence of her Qi and stopped.

“Why, Princess Lunalah,” she said, turning about to offer a deep bow. “To what do I owe this esteemed private visit?”

The woman was filled with false pleasantries as usual.

But no matter.

The news she had to share was of too great of import to douse her spirits.

Lunalah revealed herself, her ghostly spectral image appearing before Lady Silver Tear with a burst of Qi. It had the effect she had hoped, forcing Silver Tear to bow even more deeply before her.

“You need not have gone through such trouble to reach me, your majesty,” Silver Tear said. “I could have travelled to you via skiff to save you from spending your Qi reserves needlessly.”

It was more pandering, but Lunalah decided to play along with it. “Too true. But these days I find very little opportunity to expend my Qi and thus even a short jaunt such as this is quite welcome to exercise one’s spirit as it were.”

Silver Tear smiled. “I see. In that case, I am happy to be of some service in that regard.”

They shared a pleasant artificial smile between one another, taking up the void of silence that quickly fell between them. Eventually Silver Tear spoke again.

“Be that as it may, I am certain even an exercising of one’s spirit alone is not enough to warrant such a direct visit from her majesty?”

“Indeed,” Lunalah said. “I shall get to the point. I have word that the Lady Silver Light has been challenged in the courts for a three versus one battle with your grandnieces. Is this your doing?”

The Lady Silver Tear hesitated a moment, perhaps not knowing if she would be praised or chastised depending on what she uttered.

“It is a somewhat complicated matter,” Silver Tear said guardedly. “But yes, I saw it as an opportunity to fulfill your mandate to harass the girl. Rest assured I keep your ultimate goal in mind. No permanent harm will come to the girl as of yet.”

Lunalah chuckled satisfied. “Well done, Seventh Warden, but I am pleased to tell you that you may not need worry of taking care when your nieces enter the ring with this girl now.”

Silver Tear raised a brow. “Oh? Has something changed?”

“Indeed,” Lunalah said, barely able to contain herself. “I’ve received early word that the Iron Bull has passed his final examination at Du Gok Bhong Academy and is currently enroute to the Hell Worlds. And it was by no help from me, I assure you.”

All color drained from Silver Tear’s face. “What? How is that possible? It has not been even a year.”

“The man is clearly gifted, it would seem.”

Silver Tears eyes grew unfocused, looking at the ground. She was no doubt contemplating what this rapid increase in the Iron Bull’s power might mean for her own duel to come with him.

“Fear not,” Lunalah said. “My promise to you is assured. So long as you follow through with my wishes, you need not ever fear your future encounter with the Iron Bull.”

“Are you saying you wish me to kill this girl now? At the court battle?”

“Yes,” Lunalah said. “But you must await my confirmation first. The Iron Bull must pass his last trial on the Hell Worlds with certainty before the match is to take place. Is that understood?”

“Yes, of course.”

“When is it scheduled?”

“It is just under a month away.”

Lunalah smiled. “The timing should be perfect then. And when it happens, ensure it appears accidental. I would not want him distracted by some fruitless quest for revenge.”

“Such would only be against my grandnieces,” Silver Tear said. “And were it to come to such, their loss to the clan would not be a great one.”

Lunalah laughed. “Shrewdly calculating as always, Lady Silver Tear. Even your own clan holds no special favor in your unbiased sight. Once my domain reaches the point of expansion, I will indeed call on your expertise of dispassionate discernment to lead the cultural appropriation of whatever savage new world we will be destined to tame.”

Silver Tear smiled at the compliment. “I shall always be at your service in that regard, your majesty.”

“Very good,” Lunalah said. “You only need fulfil this special service in a few weeks’ time, to ensure your longevity in my kingdom.”

Silver Tear smiled once more.

“Consider it done, your majesty.”