When Tundra Fox ascended to the Sect Master of Verdant Snow twenty years ago, he was already a seven hundred year old man with six wives. Four of his wives gave him ten children all in, and those ten children went on to have their own children. He had twelve grandchildren at this time.

Sixth realm. He was just sixth realm, fifth stage, and yet he was the strongest one in the Verdant Snow Sect, even above his former Sect Master. He walked around his familiar old room, and momentarily, didn’t know how to feel. He looked at himself in the silver mirror, and saw a mature man with short, jet black hair, a muscular face, with little stubbles around his mouth and chin.

The old man with an angry face, and long white hair was nowhere to be seen.

The blessings of cultivation that gave mortal men long life. A regular mortal lived up to 100 years, someone in the first realm could live to 200, for the second realm to 400 years, for the third realm to 800, a fourth realm to 1,600 years, a fifth to 3,200 years, and a sixth to 6,400 years. Each ascension doubled one’s lifespan, though it is said at the 11th realm, the years melt away and the cultivator is functionally immortal.

He peeked out the window of his room, the largest of the rooms in the Verdant Snow Sect, and watched children playing in the square. Somehow, he remembered himself shouting at them, and felt himself filled with regret.

“I’m really back.” He sighed, the memories of their final battle against the Zuja replaying itself over and over. That child held the power of the divine, and Tundra trembled. He didn’t see how he could win against that creature, the only thing he could do was to prevent Zuja from reaching that point.

But he trembled. He remembered the old masters that Zuja claimed. At this point, Fury Blackfurnace, the Former Sect Master of Flaming Phoenix already died fifty years ago, and it’s likely the Zuja already got to her.

It meant the Zuja Cult already had fingers in some 9th or 10th realm cultivators, when he was only in the 6th. If he wanted to prevent Zuja’s summon, he had to move quietly. The Zuja was clearly far more powerful than he knew at this point, and their weak appearance must have been an intentional act.

The weird disappearances by so many cultivators suddenly made sense. There was a knock on the door.

He stopped, and he could feel who it was.

The woman that he killed before the time reversed itself.

Celestia.

“Master Fox.” Celestia gently called out from the door outside. She was just in the first stage of the fourth realm at this time, and she was the newest of his six wives, though not the youngest, at 322 years old. His first three wives passed due to age a few centuries ago as they were not powerful cultivators, and back then, he was just a cultivator with fairly limited resources.

The remaining three surviving wives were Celestia Gale, Marin Eastheart and Elly Mistburn.

Suddenly, it felt like his heart was torn again. Tundra remembered how he lost all of them over the next few thousand years. Marin and Elly were cultivators, but unlike Celestia, they were just in the third realm, and were not able to break through their cultivation bottlenecks. Celestia eventually did break through to the fifth realm, but then the Zuja Worm claimed her soul and she vanished.

Not just that, he tried to be a fair Sect Master, and so, he only gave them his personal cultivation resources.

Marin and Elly were both 290 and 385 years old, and he remembered they were both wives granted to him by way of political dealings. Elly’s family, the Mistburn family, was a small cultivation focused family that wanted to secure an alliance with the rising star of the Verdant Snow Sect. It was a similar story with the Eastheart family.

As for Celestia, she was a cultivator that he met during an alchemy tournament. He was a fifth realm Elder then, and she was just a peak 3rd realm core disciple of a small Sect, the Angels’ Whisper Sect. Somehow, sparks flew over a dinner party organized by the hosts, and Celestia became his sixth wife about thirty years ago.

“Master Fox?” Celestia asked politely, repeating herself. She would not refer to him as Tundra until they were in private settings.

Tundra shook his head. “Yes. Come in.”

The door gently opened and a beautiful woman with dark blue hair walked in. She was dressed in the thick white robe lined with green stripes, the standard outfit of the Verdant Snow disciples. She carried a tray that contained breakfast for two. He remembered her doing this frequently, even though half the time he rejected her, as he was busy cultivating.

Strength. He was so obsessed about it back then.

But so what? Even at the 10th realm, famed worldwide as the Alchemy God, in the end, he lost it all. He lost his wives, his children, his family.

Everything was gone because of the Zuja. He shook his head.

No. The Zuja was just an aggravating incident.

More than half of it was because of his own behavior. The conversation with Jason in his great-grandson’s last moments reminded him of his own flaws. One that he contemplated all the way till the final tragic battle.

Celestia stood uncomfortably, as if waiting for Tundra to say more. He raised his head to look at her, and admired the beauty. He didn’t know why, but he felt lucky that he had her as his wife. “Sit with me, Celestia.”

She nodded, and placed the tray on the round marble table. “You’ve been asleep for a few days.”

Tundra looked at the woman, and didn’t know where to start. There was so much he wanted to say. In the end, he stepped closer, and hugged her.

Celestia froze in shock, but she relented. She hugged him back, and gently spoke. “We were worried.”

Tundra experienced a flashback then. Of all the times they shared and troubles they faced. Of the moment when he couldn’t cure the Zuja Worm, and the day she just disappeared when he was out looking for some new materials. Of his confusion, and his sense of loss.

He thought he had come to terms with them over the millennia. He thought he was numb to it already. Yet as he felt Celestia’s warm, soft body in his arms, he felt a burning desire not to go through that pain again. No. He wouldn’t let the Zuja cult corrupt her into that foul creature.

He looked at the woman now in his arms. She just gently smiled at him. “Are you alright, husband?”

“No. I have a thousand things on my mind, and I have not sorted through them.” Tundra answered as his arms were still around his wife. “But for now, I actually want to hug my wives.”

Celestia gave him a funny look. “Lady Eastheart and Lady Mistburn are with your children.”

Tundra closed his eyes. He would need to talk to them too. And his children. And grandchildren. Ten thousand years have changed him so much. But the thought of the Zuja immediately reminded him of the Zuja Worm. “Celestia. Let’s go to my bed.”

“It’s daytime.” She blushed.

“It’s not that.” Tundra answered with perfect seriousness. “I want to check something.”

Seeing the seriousness of his answer, Celestia nodded and walked with him. He took off her robe, exposing her back and body. But he touched her without any sinister intent, and his energies entered her body, scanning and observing the flow of her cultivation.

The Zuja Worm, from his experience, usually targeted hosts that possessed a certain variant of meridians or spiritual roots, and Celestia met the criteria.

Celestia had a Wood-element Spiritual Root, something the Zuja Worm loved. The Zuja’s Worm was usually the wood element, though he had seen fire, earth and water elemental Zuja Worms as well. The rarest of them was the metal elemental Zuja Worm.

“It tickles.” Celestia whined as Tundra’s energies flowed into her body. Something like this was highly invasive, and personal. Something a woman would only allow in life or death situations, or to her partner.

“You have the Wood Spiritual Root- It’s still at the Lower Peerless Grade.”

She nodded.

The Zuja Worm was known to be dormant for a while, and often found itself hiding in egg form within the spiritual roots of others. He wasn’t sure when she got the Zuja Worm, and whether it was already inside her at this point. In egg form, it was fairly easy to remove. All he had to do was blast it with spiritual energy.

He checked her thoroughly, more thoroughly than he ever did, and Celestia’s fingers trembled. She grabbed him tightly, because the sensation of Tundra’s energies swirling inside her made her feel strange.

She was clean. Tundra breathed a sigh of relief. “Alright. You don’t have the Zuja Worm Eggs inside you.”

Celestia collapsed onto the pillow, unfamiliar with the term. “-you were checking me for Zuja Worm Eggs?”

“Yes.” Tundra said, as his hand tapped Celestia’s shoulder. She looked like she needed comforting then, and so, he rested next to her, and held her in his arms.

She didn’t expect that, but snuggled in anyway.

“Celestia- what if I told you I had a horrible nightmare. A nightmare that was 10,000 years long, where the Zuja conquered the world, and corrupted everyone. You were corrupted by the Zuja, and I had to kill you.”

Celestia paused, and turned to face him. “That sounds like something the crazy people would say.”

Tundra didn’t know how to reply to that.

“How did it feel to kill me?” Celestia asked, curious. “How did you do it?”

“Horrible. I punched you really hard.”

She chuckled. “Sounds like you. But please don’t kill me. I’d like to live a long happy life.”

Tundra nodded. He’d protect her, this time. As he looked at the half undressed woman in his arms, he briefly wondered whether he would have the chance to have children with her in this life. The way he looked at her made Celestia recoil uncomfortably, and she quickly tried to divert the conversation.

“Do you want breakfast? It’s going to get cold soon.”

He smiled.

***

“This nightmare. You believe it’s real?” Celestia glanced at him strangely, as they ate breakfast. It was already cold, because checking Celestia for Zuja worms took quite some time.

“Yes. It felt very real to me. The pain I felt in that dream is so vivid.”

Suddenly, he felt someone run towards his room. It was one of his core disciples. He stopped outside the door, and knocked.

“Sect Master Fox. The Golden Ring from the Jurian Mines vanished from our treasury! There might be a thief! We’re investigating but we can’t find any leads.” The Core Disciple, Yavin Redaxe spoke. His voice trembled in fear.

Tundra Fox knew exactly why. Items with the power of time would slip back into the river of time once they were used. “I see. Investigate it for now, and give me a report tomorrow.”

There was a long silence, as the Core Disciple struggled to muster a response.

Tundra repeated. “Please investigate, and give me a report tomorrow.”

This time, Yavin answered. “Yes, Sect Master.” He promptly left.

Celestia looked at Tundra. She rested her chin on her fingers, and smiled. “The Tundra Fox I knew last week would’ve stormed out and ran to the treasury. This nightmare is quite impressive.”

Tundra turned to face his wife, and joked. “The nightmare added 10,000 years to my lived experience.”

Celestia smirked at the joke. “Well, what do you want to do now, my 10,700 year old husband? I certainly didn’t expect I’d have an ancient old man as my partner.”

Tundra laughed. It felt strange to laugh like this after going through all the struggles in his previous life, but it immediately loosened up his muscles.

His wife merely glanced at him, a little amused. “Well? Did you learn some special cultivation ability or unique pill to give us all some assistance? Or did those extra years bring no benefit?”

The regressor stood, and looked at his woman. It really was an experience to have her by his side once more. He wiped the little tear of joy from his eyes, and grinned widely. “Now that you mention it, I do happen to have something I can do. Right now. Something that would help you.”

Tundra walked to his alchemy workshop. Even when he was in the 6th realm, he focused on alchemy as the main means of getting ahead, and it served him well all up to the 10th realm. Naturally, with the added years, he learned many more recipes, and many more refinements. He stretched, and felt his energies swirl. They were so much weaker.

But it took merely a minute for someone of his experience to adapt to his old, weaker powers.

The workshop didn’t have many of the refinements and equipment he once had, but he smiled as he looked at his old alchemy cauldron.

“This one broke in about- five hundred years.” Tundra looked at the cauldron wistfully. He touched the old Lavasteel carvings outside the cauldron, and couldn’t remember why it broke.

***

Celestia Gale was, for most part, expecting a normal day. Life as a wife of the Sect Master, in the Verdant Snow Sect was fairly peaceful. Cultivators like Tundra Fox, her husband, would sleep sometimes, but it was rare that he slept for so long.

As far as she remembered, all his naps were less than a day long, and he would usually be cultivating, or working in his workshop making cultivation resources for the sect.

As the master alchemist and Sect Master, it was without a doubt that Tundra Fox’s constant supply of high quality cultivation resources was what allowed the Verdant Snow Sect to gain disciples and grow its influence in the region.

Tundra would usually make some extra pills, and pass them to her or his other wives. Celestia took some for herself, but usually, she would give most of them to her former sect, the Angels’ Whisper Sect.

It made her feel better, that she was contributing to her old Sect. All of Tundra’s wives did it, and it was a common practice throughout the realms, for husbands and wives to still pay a ‘tithe’ or make a contribution back to the sects that brought them up.

A custom, really, because the winds of power changed. Accidents happen, as they often do in a world as cruel as the realms. A change in the fates, and even powerful husbands could find themselves dead or trapped. A woman is then a widow, with no allies in a strange sect far from home.

Celestia didn’t know why she thought of that. Maybe because Tundra suddenly mentioned about killing her in his dream, or nightmare, and suddenly felt like her heart skipped a beat. She shook her head as she looked at the strange man she called her husband.

He wanted to make pills, and strangely, asked her to follow.

He rarely did that.

Celestia, following closely behind, still wasn’t sure whether Tundra was just pulling an elaborate prank, but she knew her man well enough to know it’s unlikely to be the case. She looked at the way Tundra held the old cauldron, and saw pain.

He held the cauldron like a man looking at something he once lost.

It’s almost like he felt real pain.

This was far too elaborate for it to be a prank, and so the next conclusion was this nightmare must have been real..

It was real enough that it changed him.

Or was he possessed by some malevolent spirit?

Celestia watched, as Tundra placed the cauldron back on the table. He began picking materials from the various pots, and placed them on the table. He looked around, and then, out of nowhere, a large knife flew out of the cabinet and onto the table.

He cut the various materials, as if he was looking for something within them.

From what was initially a small pile of materials, he was left with only a tiny bunch of cleanly sliced and cut components. He placed them into the cauldron.

At that moment, Celestia realized she didn’t recognise what he was making. Tundra stood next to the cauldron, and she could feel his energies swirling in the old pot. There was no scent, no smell, no heat.

***

“It’ll take a while. If you want to leave, you can.” Tundra said, his energies perfectly stable. As patriarch, he was used to people being busy with their own assignments. No, he expected them to be busy. The elders of a Great Sect are all leaders in the 8th or 9th realm, and it was normal they had their own plans and ideas. It was something he struggled with at first, but age and confidence changed him. He was willing to believe that people knew what they should do, and so, he didn’t need to hold them if they didn’t want to be there, or they had something of far greater importance.

His wife just looked around, and sat down. “You can talk while you refine pills?”

He smiled. “Ah yes. I forgot that I was that focused when I was young. Even what I’m doing now is something I developed in my later years. This is the [Pure Essence Pill Formation], a technique that took me 600 years to develop. I was in the 8th realm when I realized something was wrong with how we made pills.”

“You were in the 8th realm? Are you delusional, Husband?” Celestia blurted out. At this point, Tundra realized she must be thinking he had gone nuts.

Tundra just smiled. “I was. Maybe you still don’t believe me. But I believe this pill will change your mind. Just wait another half a day. You may ask a servant to bring some tea.”

Celestia sat. “You didn’t allow disruptions.”

“I’ve had 10,000 years of practice as an alchemist. Wait. That’s not right. Maybe 6,000 because I spent quite a bit of time cultivating and fighting all those damned demonic cultivators and the Zuja cult. I can do this with my eyes closed.”

“What pill are you making?” His wife sniffed the air, and looked at the ingredients. He only took so little. “And you used to just do simple cleaning.”

“I changed the process. I learnt from some ancient scriptures of how the Old Ones did their alchemy.” Tundra smiled. “You know, there is a belief among the Old Ones that even materials have their True Essence.

“I thought everyone knew that.” Celestia said. All things were given True Essence, and it is why rocks and plants could gain a soul and eventually become a cultivator.

“Ah. But I’ve gotten better at selecting the True Essence from our materials.”

“But- it’s so wasteful?” Celestia looked at the pile of unused materials.

“Not at all. Some of them can be used for lesser versions of the pill. But this one, that I’m making now. It’s just for you and me.”

A servant came to make tea. The servant visibly recoiled when she saw Tundra Fox still standing in front of the cauldron, but Celestia motioned her over. She quickly placed her tea, and ran for her life.

Tundra stood, and continued to work on the cauldron. It hummed. There was a subtle vibration from it.

“I’ll have to make a new cauldron.” Tundra mused.

Celestia sipped her tea, as she waited. But she kept looking at him, trying to figure out what happened.

Tundra looked at her. “Celestia.”

Celestia raised her head and looked at him. He looked back at her. For a moment, time stood still.

“I’m really glad to see you again.”

Her heart pounded, and suddenly, even the hum of the boiling cauldron vanished.

She didn’t know what to say to that. It’s been barely a few days since they last saw each other, but for Tundra, it’s been centuries since a proper reunion. Foul meetup with the corrupted Celestia didn’t count, because in his heart, that was never her, just a creature that resembled a woman that used to spend years with him together.

“And it’s done.”

The humming stopped, and inside was five perfectly round black pills with absolutely no presence. Tundra took a cloth, and placed all five in them.

“Alright. One for you, one for me. As for the three other pills, I’ll keep them for the future. We best go to a room. This will likely hurt.”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“What.” Celestia looked at her mate strangely. “Why would pills hurt?”

“It’s the True Essence of the materials combined. It’s going to hurt because of how the nature of the essence conflicts with our own. But taming it will do wonders for our cultivation.”

“It’s not a cultivation pill?”

“No. It’s not. This is the Roseflame Essence Pill, and would improve the conditions of our spiritual roots, our meridians, and help cleanse our body of impurities.” Tundra didn’t say it’s also one of the many pills he developed as the means to combat the Zuja plague.

The Zuja Cult was initially very selective in it’s use of the Zuja worm, targeting high potential targets with high compatibility. But as the Zuja Cult’s power grew, it became more aggressive, and started flooding the general populace with a lesser variant of the Zuja worm. The Zuja Eggs, which were often nestled in the meridians and the spiritual roots, would lay dormant until the right time came along. So, the sects needed a pill capable of cleansing spiritual roots and meridians that could be taken even when the cultivator was weakened.

This wasn’t the mass production version. Tundra later invented the [Whitesand Essence Pill] that could be easily made by even 4th realm alchemists, with resources far easier to obtain, that could purge Zuja Eggs, but could not purge Zuja Worms. Despite it’s limitations, that was sufficient to prevent wide scale infestations by the Zuja eldritch plague.

“But it’s perfectly pitch black and I feel nothing.”

Tundra grinned. “That’s the magic of it. The Old Ones believed in locking in the entire essence of a pill. Over the years, I came to see their point of view.”

The two returned to Tundra’s room. They sat together, and both ate the pill together.

Instantly, Tundra felt the pill’s contents melt in his belly. It’s contents, compressed and condensed by the alchemical process, roared unrestrained. It’s energies exploded and smashed into his heart meridians, and then to each of the other meridians.

Cultivation is the training of two parts. The soul, and the body. The soul is where all the energies gathered are stored, and it is a metaphysical place that does not exist when a body is cut. When a cultivator speaks of their Core or their Soul, they refer to their Soul which exists on the spiritual plane that overlaps with the physical plane.

The meridians and spiritual roots are the means by which the energies stored on the spiritual plane interact with the physical plane. These are gates and doors. Spiritual roots are like suction tunnels, or holes, where energy is absorbed from the physical world and into the spiritual world. Meridians are two way doors, where the energies can move in and out, on the will of the soul.

A mortal is said to be cut off from the world of cultivation when they lack either meridians or the spiritual roots. Spiritual roots were the primary means of absorbing natural energy, and so, the lack of it meant the path forward was significantly harder since meridians were not suited for the function of absorbing energy.

The pill he made burned and expanded the spiritual roots. It’s not something that can be taken more than once.

Then it came. The pain.

The burning pain.

Celestia winced immediately as she felt it, her spiritual roots and meridians purged of impurities and forced to expand.

The fire energies of the Roseflame Essence Pill flooded Celestia’s meridians and spiritual roots, and doused it in a flood of fire.

Fire. Fire burns wood. For someone with the Wood-attuned Spiritual Roots, this was the cleansing flame. The flames pick up the wood, and burns brighter than ever. An alchemist is part doctor, though he is no master doctor, he must master how the elements interact with a person’s cultivation, spirit, and meridians.

With the right element, it would be strongest

For Tundra, his spirit roots were Metal in nature, and thus the Roseflame Essence Pill’s effectiveness was muted on him.

It was just pain.

A lot of pain.

***

It took three hours before both of them were ready to talk.

“How?” Celestia could not believe it. She didn’t doubt her husband’s alchemy talents, but creating pills that expanded spiritual roots was well in the realm of legends. If her husband could do this, it wouldn’t be long before the Great Sects come after him. Not just that, it meant everything he said about this nightmare was probably real.

“Nightmare.” Tundra said. For Celestia, it would most likely triple her energy absorption rate. For Tundra, it was only about an extra fifty percent. “You’re still in the Fourth Realm’s 1st stage?”

She nodded. “I thought I just-”

“My sense of time and things has been warped by my nightmare.” Tundra said.

Celestia took a deep breath, and then nodded. “This knowledge of yours- what- what realm did you reach?”

Tundra turned to face his wife. “10th.”

Her eyes widened.

“The Verdant Snow is a Great Sect under my leadership. Our sect grounds covered the entirety of the Greenstream Region. Verdant Leaf Town is the Great Verdant City, a city home to five million at it’s peak, instead of the fifty thousand today.”

“Wow.” Celestia said. “Do you want to do that again?”

Tundra shook his head. “-I’m still thinking about that.”

“The old you was so sure about what you wanted to achieve. To think you actually did it. But- why not do it again?”

Tundra turned to look back as his wife. “I’m not sure whether I want to go through that again. I lost you. I lost Marin and Elly too. I even lost the wives I took after all of you passed or left. I lost my family. Then, our children fought among themselves, other sects and killed each other. Our grandchildren were poorly brought up and brought us to war with the other sects. I fought horrible wars with the Flaming Phoenix, the Cloud City, the Eastern Silk Sect, and the Venom Serpent Temple. Tens of thousands died in my name. No. Tens of thousands died in the name of my arrogant grandchildren who attacked the heirs of other Great Sect. Then the Zuja plague consumed us all when we were not watching, and then I went from fighting fires after fires, to fighting plagues and wars after wars. I went from one battle to another, from secret realm to secret realm.”

He didn’t know why, but it’s as if his bottled up frustrations over the centuries emerged. It made him so mad that it was just a foolish loop of constant fighting. His emotions swirled in his heart.

He didn’t even know how or why he always insisted on their pride. That they have to prove that they are a Great Sect. He hated the others that accused the Verdant Snow Sect as undeserving of the title of a Great Sect, but now, at this moment, he realized, the Verdant Snow Sect, for all its power, size and influence, really didn’t deserve to be a Great Sect.

Even though he achieved so much, there are times where the others said he shouldn’t be up there.

No.

He looked at Celestia, and the image of the corrupted, Zuja-possessed version flashed in his eyes.

“I may have lived for 10,700 years, but there was a lot of pain in those years.”

Celestia just sat quietly. She touched her hair briefly, thinking. “It pleases me that I have a place in your heart, that I can still cause you pain.”

Tundra laughed.

His wife looked at him, and then touched his hand. “So, now that you’ve woken up from that nightmare, what do you want to do differently?”

The old sect master sat, and felt the weight of his age. He’s given a chance to go back, and bend the arc of time again. It’s divine happenstance that the ring was in his possession when he died. He reached over and touched Celestia’s face. There were so many things he wished he did differently.

His wife received his touch, his fingers gently on her cheeks. There were words she wanted to say, but she didn’t dare say them.

Ten thousand years of fighting, cultivation and alchemy. He was already a master of alchemy, but he looked at his surroundings, and wondered what else he could be. It should be something that would augment their fight against the Zuja. A skillset they lacked during the final moments, or even before that.

“Do you think I should be a healer?” Tundra wondered aloud.

“A healer? But you were just-”

“Average.” The regressor admitted. His mind swirled. Formations expert? Inscriptionist and crafter? Teacher? “What do you think I should be?”

His wife’s fingers touched her own chin, as she thought about it seriously. “I think you should be a diplomat.”

Tundra choked, and coughed. He couldn’t imagine himself as a diplomat. “That’s impossible.”

“It’s what your story needs, though. So many deaths, so many fights, all entirely avoidable.”

“True.” Tundra couldn’t be a diplomat. He lacked the gift of the word. He thought about being a warrior, but felt like that wasn’t what they needed. Pure power wouldn’t undo the sinister corruption of the Zuja. It wouldn’t reveal how deep the Zuja’s corruption was.

He needed to find a way to dig out the Zuja’s tentacles, and then, thought about the Verdant Snow Sect. Could he transform the Verdant Snow Sect into a Hidden Sect? One that lurked in the shadows and hunted the creatures?

The first thing he needed to do was avoid painting a target on themselves. Right now, he didn’t have a solution if the Zuja unleashed their stored potential on his sect. Not with his current treasury.

Tundra felt a bit disturbed, but by now, it was already getting late and dark.

“We should have dinner. The servants would have prepared the food in the main dining hall.” Celestia redirected the conversation. “If- if there’s nothing else, I will take my leave.”

“I will go with you. Elly and Marin will be there.”

She nodded.

***

The dining hall was a noisy, noisy place. All the younger children were talking happily. Well, not very young. Some of his children already had adult children of their own.

Some of the children were born from his second and third wife. He didn’t manage to conceive any children with his first wife. He was too young then, and he didn’t have much resources to really look after a family.

He took his first wife when he was just an inner disciple, at a fairly simple occasion. Her family was a mortal family, chosen by his master to be his wife. Tundra’s master was an old fashioned man who believed that cultivators should have husbands and wives, in order to grow as individuals and have wider life experience. Thanks to his guidance, she managed to become a 1st realm cultivator, but with a full lifespan of 200 years, she didn’t have much time left, and sickness claimed her eventually.

He had his second and third wife later, at his wife’s request. His first wife wanted children, and yet, somehow, without an illness to either of them, they were unable to have children. So, his wife made him take on more wives. Cultivators who lived for tens of thousands of years usually had multiple wives and husbands, so it was not altogether strange.

For mortals married to cultivators, they were just butterflies who stopped and rested in their hands for a brief moment of time, the time they spent together, no longer than a candle. The second and third wife were also cultivators in the first realm, but death claimed them too.

There were five main tables, and a few smaller tables for everyone. The first table was for the children of the 2nd wife, the second for the children and grandchildren of the 3rd wife, the third table for the fourth wife and children, the fourth table for the fifth wife and children, and the fifth table for Celestia. Celestia’s table was shared with some of the other elders of the Verdant Snow Sect

When Celestia walked in, the talking continued. The room was noisy.

“Wait- is that Grandfather?” One of the children pointed as Tundra walked in, behind Celestia.

The noisy family dining room instantly turned dead silent.

Both Elly and Marin, who were busy with their own children, turned to look at Tundra with a look of surprise and horror.

Tundra looked around, and remembered the nasty familial politics with each of the wives. It was even worse in the later years when Tundra was away.

“Elly, Marin, Celestia. Sit with me.” Tundra said as he walked to Celestia’s table. The servants panicked. They were not expecting the Sect Master here. They hurried to get ready.

There were just three elders in the Verdant Snow Sect at this point, and all three were present. The three immediately stood and saluted him.

“Sect Master!”

“Ah, Jon, Severian, Jashen, please sit. It is rare I join you all for dinner.” The three didn’t normally have dinner, either. But by some twist of fate, all three were here today. The three elders of the Verdant Snow were in the 5th realm, and Severian was the strongest of them.

He had good memories of them. All of them fought loyally by his side, though all of them died before they saw the Sect transformed into a great sect. Elly and Marin hurried over to sit, and before they were given the chance to choose where to sit, Tundra selected the seats for them.

“Elly, on my left, Marin, on my right.” He tapped the table, and sat down. The two wives quickly sat as commanded.

Tundra sat, as the servants served wine and tea.

“Husband, let me serve you.” Elly immediately poured wine in his cup. Marin merely stared, inwardly cursing herself for moving a step too slow. Celestia merely grinned as she sat next to Marin.

Tundra nodded, took a sip of the wine, and then asked. “Get me another cup for the tea. Marin, can you refill my tea?”

The servant ran with her life on the line, because Tundra was fairly sure Marin would give that servant a good scolding if she waited too long for the teacups.

“My friends, and my wives.” Tundra declared, as he sipped tea this time. “I’ve been asleep for a while. Celestia told me I was asleep for days.”

The three elders nodded. Severian immediately asked. “Is everything alright, Sect Master?”

“No.” Tundra answered. Both Elly and Marin froze, wondering whether it’s something they did. He immediately placed his left hand on Elly’s lap, and his right hand on Marin’s lap. “Calm down. It’s nothing to do with you. Instead, it’s about what I saw during my long sleep.”

The three elders leaned forward, surprised. They all leaned in to listen.

“I saw a future in my dream. A future I did not like. In the future, we would face a great plague from an enemy that hid it’s power. It would consume us all, and more.”

“The demonic cultivators?” Elder Jon Blackstone asked. “I hear they’ve been trying to revive the Demonic God Suraz for the last few centuries, and have been getting more and more aggressive.”

Tundra wondered how his actions would shift the flow of events. It was too late now. The very fact that he is here prevented the events from ever being the same. “They are one of it. Zuja, Suraz, many others.”

“Zuja? Those bug-worshippers?” Severian looked at Tundra suspiciously.

“Yes.” Tundra knew they were trustworthy. “I hope you speak of them carefully, because I believe in a few hundred to thousand years, they will only grow in strength.”

Elder Jon Blackstone seemed to have noticed Tundra’s changed demeanor. “Is there something else you are not saying, Sect Master?”

At this point, Tundra had questions of his own. The conversation about how things have changed made him wonder whether he was infected. “Elders, I want the three of you to help me do a full body inspection.”

This made his three wives recoil in surprise. “Husband!”

The three elders themselves didn’t expect it. “Sect Master, what happened?”

“I wish to be sure about myself, and there are some things I cannot see myself. Elders, please come to my room tonight. My three wives, I hope you three come too, to witness it.”

Elder Jashen leaned forward. “Sect Master. What do you want us to look for?”

“Eggs. Worms. In my meridians and my spiritual roots. Any of them.” He was fairly sure he removed them with the Roseflame Essence Pill, but with his metal spiritual roots, the effectiveness of the cleansing flames would be subdued. There was still a chance it escaped.

The servants served the food. It was a fairly lavish banquet, though a few dishes were clearly added at the last minute.

The three elders nodded. For the Sect Master to request for it. It had to be a grave issue.

“Elders, how many disciples do we have?” Tundra genuinely could not remember.

“As of now, excluding your family, we have eighty. We have ten core disciples, twenty inner disciples, and fifty outer disciples. Core Disciple Yavin is still investigating the missing Golden Ring as you requested early this morning-”

“Tell him not to worry too much about it. I suspect my strange dream is linked to the missing ring.” Tundra said as he ate the food served by his wife. The elders were unused to the scene, so they kept looking away.

He downed his third cup of rice wine.

After what felt like a long silence, Tundra decided to change the topic.

“I’m thinking of changing our sect’s focus.” Tundra said. “I remember I previously wanted to expand our influence and take control of more lands. It is good, but flawed. Instead, I’d like to be more selective in our targets.”

There were so many cities and wars he fought that he later came to regret. Not all conquests was worth it.

He looked around, and was fairly certain the nearby tables were all trying to listen in. No one spoke a word, and everyone barely ate, except for the youngest children who had servants helping them with their food.

Elder Jashen looked relieved. Elder Severian and Jon didn’t react to it. Jashen immediately spoke up in support. “That’s a relief. I had concerns about overextending our influence and people. Even though the three of us are in the fifth realm, and as a sect, we rank as mid tier, it would still be quite a challenge to wrest control of so many cities and towns with just core disciples and inner disciples.”

“Good to hear that.” Once Tundra quickly finished eating. His presence made everyone uncomfortable, and so he quickly made himself scarce. “Well, I’m done with my food. Elders, see you later. I’ll get ready for our inspection.”

Tundra had to step away. The dining hall was dead silent, and the cause was himself. He knew that as the Sect Master, even in his earlier life, he gradually learned that the best way to observe others is when they think he’s not there.

***

Elly and Marin glanced at each other once Tundra Fox was out of the dining hall.

“Did you know he was coming?” Elly asked, breaking the silence.

Marin shook her head. “No.”

The three elders leaned forward and stared at Celestia. Elder Jon Blackstone glanced at Celestia, and asked. “Sect Master Fox came with you, Lady Gale, and I was told by the servants you were with him the whole day.”

Celestia Gale waited for a minute, before nodding. “Yes. He woke up this morning, and started this strange behavior. He claims to have experienced a 10,000 year long nightmare, and went to the alchemy hall to brew a strange pill to prove it.”

“Is it real?” Elder Jon asked.

“The pill is real, at least, but I have no idea how to prove his claim is real.” Celestia said.

Elly and Marin looked at the elders. “Do you think he suspects he is possessed, that’s why he asked the three of you to inspect him?”

Elder Jon countered. “Why would a possessed man ask others to check whether he is possessed?”

The three wives and three elders glanced at each other. Eventually, Elly asked the obvious. “Maybe it’s a trap?”

“The old Tundra Fox would not engage in such traps.” Elder Jashen countered. “But we should be careful. Let’s all prepare.”

***

Tundra Fox was fairly amused when all six of them came in war gear. His three wives were decent fighters for their realm of power, but against someone in the sixth realm, they wouldn’t help much.

The three elders were decked in war gear from head to toe, and that was worth respecting. He smiled, and unbuttoned his robe, revealing his chest.

“Elders. Please.”

The three elders gulped. It was true that he was very vulnerable at this point. If they wanted to kill him, they could. Yet, somehow, they were the ones feeling incredibly vulnerable.

Elder Jashen was first to sit down. “Alright. Preparing inspection energies.”

The other two elders quickly followed. The scan was invasive. It investigated every single part of the Sect Master’s body, and took a few hours. It was a few hours past midnight when the three were finally done.

“Nothing. I found nothing.”

The other two repeated the same, but Elder Jashen immediately asked. “Sect Master- Your metal cultivation roots were lesser Peerless, correct? I can’t seem to identify what grade it is.”

“Yes.”

The other two elders immediately noticed the irregularity. “Wait. I wasn’t sure what grade it was, but it didn’t look infested.”

Tundra immediately turned pensive. He looked inward, and through great effort, managed to look at his own cultivation roots. It wasn’t his old cultivation roots, but the cultivation roots he had when he was a 10th realm cultivator.

Over the 10,000 years, he found various items and divine grade ointments to improve his spiritual roots, and moved his spiritual roots three full realms to the Lesser Divine grade. Naturally they couldn’t identify it, very few people have seen cultivation roots at the Divine Grade.

Tundra Fox mulled. With this sort of cultivation roots, he wouldn’t need 10,000 years to reach the 10th realm.

“I see.” He said. “Thank you, elders. I’m glad my nightmare wasn’t just some possession or infestation playing tricks on my mind, but an actual out of body experience. Please, I’d like some time with my wives.”

The three elders nodded, and left the room.

***

“Do you still think the Sect Master is playing a trick?” Elder Jashen said the moment the three of them were out of range.

“No. It doesn't seem like something he would do. He feels the same, even if different in some ways. It really does sound like he aged.” Elder Jon countered. “And he has no reason to lie. What does he aim to achieve by this?”

Elder Jashen scratched his chin. “Immediately, he wants to change the strategy of the Sect. Though I agree with the change in strategy, I’m concerned about where this change of thought comes from.”

“We checked. There’s nothing.”

“Nothing we can find.” Elder Jashen countered. “A power capable of possessing a sect master of the 6th realm should be beyond us, isn’t it?”

“That is true.” Elder Severian answered. “Some of the doubts are dispelled, for sure, but it is not entirely impossible that a far higher power is at work. We have two main angles of approach. One, we go with the flow and see what happens. Two, we remove him as Sect master, and have someone else inspect our Sect Master. Someone more powerful.”

Jashen looked at Severian. “Do you have someone in mind?”

“No. I don’t trust any of them.” Severian countered.

“So you’re saying we can only go with it.” Elder Jon interjected. “Honestly, I don’t trust any of the other powers either. They’d rather kill our Sect master or take the opportunity to weaken him.”

The three nodded, and then Jashen continued to scratch his chin. It wasn’t itchy, but it made him think. “The best we can do is try to get his wives to learn more of this new Tundra Fox. Let’s say he truly saw a vision of the future, there must be some things he can predict. If we can test it, then it can prove true.”

“It has to be really specific, though. And as far as I know, visions are very often ambiguous.” Elder Jon commented. “We could be falsely accusing our sect master when he really does have a vision of the future.”

The three looked at each other, and then Elder Jashen nodded. “I believe all we can do is wait and see what our Sect Master does. His actions will tell us whether he deserves our continuing respect and support.”

***

Meanwhile, in the room, Tundra was flanked by his three wives. He smiled, and asked both Elly and Marin to sit next to him. They were both pleasant, and attractive women that found themselves in his arms due to their family’s needs.

They were not together out of love. It was a political, mutually beneficial arrangement.

The affection they both showered on Tundra was born out of necessity. They wanted to provide advantages to their offspring, in an environment where there are other wives who also wanted to provide limited resources to their children.

So, the three wives had a tense, even if still cordial, relationship.

Still, the presence of other women just increased the competitive edge. No one wanted to be the one left behind. So, the two sat closely, without a gap between them and Tundra.

He looked at his 4th and 5th wives, while Celestia sat on the stool next to the tea table. Elly Mistburn and Marin Eastheart.

Tundra remembered how he met Elly. It was almost 240 years ago from the Imperial year 34,000. He visited the Mistburn family as a representative of the Verdant Snow Sect, then as an Elder.

Mistburn family ruled the town of Mistburn, along Lake Whitemist. He brought them gifts, mainly to entice them closer to their side, instead of the other competitor sects.

At that point, the sect master of the Verdant Snow Sect was a single old man who didn’t have any relatives or children, while the Sect Elder Tundra Fox was a widower who lost his earlier three wives.

The Mistburn family was a large family whose hold on power was fairly tenuous, as their Sect Patriarch was only in the early stages of the 5th realm and the rest of the Sect was just in their 2nd or 3rd realm. So, to shore up their own power, Elly Mistburn became the rope that tied the two parties together.

Since then, Elly gave him four children, and those four children went on to have five grandchildren. Thus, Elly was indirectly the matriarch of the Fox family, as she was the most senior of Tundra Fox’s wives.

But her power over the rest of the family, especially those not her children, was almost non-existent.

He looked at Marin Eastheart. Similarly, the Eastheart family ruled a group of towns close to the Dragon’s Earthspine Mountains, and Marin’s father, the patriarch, was only in the 4th realm. So, they were a vulnerable family that was at risk, and Marin was hastily offered to Tundra Fox as a means to secure the Verdant Snow Sect’s alliance.

His marriage with Marin gave him two daughters.

“You two are still as beautiful as I remembered.” Tundra said wistfully. Cultivation is an amazing thing. These two were both in the 3rd realm, and that meant both of them would live up to 800 years.

Of his six wives, he loved his first wife, Sara Winds, the most. She was after all his first love. But he was too weak then, and it was not possible to force cultivation when she didn’t have talent. His 2nd and 3rd wives were also mortals that he married out of duty to some of the families in Verdant Leaf town.

He did the deed and made children, as his in-laws expected them to.

But after his first love, he’d rank Celestia second, and it was why Celestia was often tasked by the other wives to serve him. They would say they were busy with their own children.

Elly and Marin both just nodded. Marin retorted, unused to this version of Tundra. The old Tundra Fox was serious. Proud. Focused. “This nightmare made your mouth a lot sweeter than it was.”

His wives all had a sharp tongue, especially in private settings. Tundra smiled. “And I do miss your nagging.”

Marin blushed. “I don’t nag. Lady Mistburn nags a lot more.”

“Do I nag, Celestia?” Elly asked.

Celestia didn’t want to answer. Elly has so many children and grandchildren that she nags almost by second nature. Elly looked absolutely betrayed at Celestia’s silence.

“Let’s pretend that my nightmare is real, and I’ve not seen both of you for thousands of years.” Tundra said, and just pulled both of them close. It was nice to feel the warmth of his wives after so long, even if they didn’t really love him.

“Why did you ask us to stay back, husband?” Elly tried to get to the point. This conversation was so weird she wanted to get out of the room and find somewhere quiet to think.

“I’ve neglected my wives and my children.” Tundra said. “I’ve been so focused on cultivation, on gaining power and influence, that my children grew up rowdy and without my presence.”

He was an absent husband. An absent father. An absent grandfather.

Marin didn’t know why, but her first response was sarcasm. “Really? After two hundred years of marriage you finally noticed? And it’s a dream that made you notice?”

Tundra’s face was somber. In fact, it took him more than 200 years. It was 10,000 years in the future that he realized how much he neglected his family. Of all the things he’d change, family was pretty much the first thing on his mind.

When he reached the 10th realm in his earlier life, he thought he would feel like he finally made it.

But it didn’t. All it did was reveal a path to even higher realms, and in his heart was emptiness. He didn’t have anyone to share it with.

His family and descendents didn’t care or love him, even if they worshiped and obeyed him. All they had was a common family name.

What was the point to the top of the mountain, if he didn’t have a family to share it with? People he loved? What was life without a family that would be proud of him and truly shared in his suffering and struggles?

He’ll climb that mountain again. He has to. But this time, he’d do so with his family and friends.

He looked back at Marin, and nodded.

“Yes. And I’m sorry. To all three of you.”