Five
“Please have a seat… grand-daughter,” Elder Ning with a prim expression. He looked as if he’d been chewing on lemons for more than a while. “The Grand Elder will be here within the hour. He is currently indisposed and your arrival, while expected, the timing was unfortunate.
“Your mother and father have been notified of your arrival and are currently finishing their business.”
“Thank you, grandfather,” Jia murmured and then moved over to what was more or less a love-seat and sat Ash down first. Then she sat down directly beside him, pushing her side up against him, and then leaning into him, while pulling his arm around her shoulders.
“Of course,” the Elder murmured, watching Ash closely. He didn’t seem bothered by Jia’s antics, but that was likely because Ash had already demonstrated a great deal of strength.
Realistically, Ash hadn’t needed to use Sneaky-Peeky in a very long time. He generally had a very good sense of people anymore.
Elder Ning was someone at the early stages of an Awakened Mortal. Likely through a long life of struggling for breakthroughs and enough resources to push him upward. He was old for a cultivator which meant he was much older than Ash thought, or he was just slow as a cultivator.
Perhaps slow to understand his own Dao.
Because money and resources were only one part of the equation.
One needed the mind for Cultivation, a Dantian, and a Dao that could grow.
Some people chose a Dao that would never amount to much of anything. Whether on mistake, misunderstanding their own Dao, or what it’s power would be.
Sometimes people would choose a concept so vague, that it’d be almost impossible to ever reach it’s full understanding.
“He is not actually my grandfather,” Jia remarked, turning her head to look at Ash. “But he is directly in my family line, rather than the family clan. He was often around as a grandparent should be, or so I understand from my conversations with Mei.
“My actual grandparents are long passed unfortunately. Two were citizens and died a long time ago, the other two were killed in family skirmishes.”
“Ah, thank you for telling me. I admit I was curious,” Ash replied with a grin for Jia. Given that she’d told him non-Cultivators were sent to the lower realm, or just away he supposed, it made sense that her living relatives would likely be long lived.
One didn’t survive in a Cultivator world past middle-age if they weren’t able to handle the life and death nature of it.
“Mei?” asked Ning Fu, looking curious but also still upset.
“Another woman in my marriage to Ash,” Jia answered immediately before Ash could jump into the conversation. “Now. I imagine you have summoned my ex-fiance as well. Given that you had attempted to retrieve me to sell me off like a prized pig.”
Elder Ning’s face screwed up in a grimace.
“He was notified, yes. He is coming and will be here likely with the patriarch,” Elder Ning confirmed. “You were promised and this is how it must be.”
“I am already married, I have forsworn my life in an oath to my husband, and I would die if it was broken,” Jia said with a shrug. “My title in the lower realm is Jia Sheng the Bound. My husband has been attempting to fill my womb with a child repeatedly for months and I have been used in all ways a woman could be.”
Holy fucking shit that’s not exactly what I was expecting her to say
Fuck.
Ash felt his face heating up as if it were on fire. Regardless of how he felt about her family, her words really didn’t leave much to the imagination.
“I… see,” Elder Ning stated, his eyes moving to Ash. “I will make sure to notify the family of this.”
“Oh, while you are telling them this, please do tell them I will be leaving with my husband at the end of this,” Jia added. “I will not be remaining. If you wish me to fight my fiance in a fight, I shall do so. I am stronger than him. If you attempt to hold me, I will teleport away. If you attempt to cripple me… well… at that point it is likely my husband, Lord Sheng, will then… get involved.
“I cannot guarantee the results will be bloodless. He is very bad at holding back. It is why he no longer spars with people.”
“Lord Sheng,” Ning murmured, then left. Leaving Jia and Ash alone.
A second after Ning left, several young women came in with platters. They were filled with snacks and finger-foods that had a great deal of Qi in all of them.
“Shuang!” Jia said and clapped her hands together excitedly, smiling at one of the girls. “It is so good to see you! How are you?”
“I am well, Mistress,” said the woman with a dip of her head to Jia. Though in that moment Ash had a weird realization. The woman was clearly related to Jia. She looked very similar in many ways, and even had a great many facial features that matched up nearly in the same way. Almost close enough to be a sister.
She was also just as pretty as Jia was.
“This is my older sister! She is older by a year than I. She was kept rather than sent away because there was an opening for a family servant,” Jia murmured. “She is not allowed to leave the manse because of that She was a very good friend to me.”
Jia hadn’t sat around and had left her seat. Going right up to the other young woman and hugging her tightly.
As Ash sat there, he felt the momentum of the room shift. Qi attempted to filter into Shuang only to fade away. As if she had a Dantian but it wasn’t active or open.
“She has an unopened Dantian though?” Ash asked.
“She… does not,” Jia stated, turned her head, and looked right at Ash.
“She does. It feels like there’s a space Qi is trying to cling to. As if she had a Dantian,” countered Ash and gestured at the woman then stood up. “May I?”
The woman was staring at Jia and Ash in a strange way. As if she didn’t know whether to run away, remain hugging Jia, or to lay down on the ground and pretend to be a carpet.
“Yes, do so,” Jia ordered, grabbed Shuang, and pushed her to stand in front of Ash.
In that moment he realized she really was eerily like Jia in almost too many ways. Just a little thicker her, a little thinner there, a touch taller.
It made him wonder if their mother also looked like them. That perhaps she just had a set of genetics that was a hard stamp in her daughters.
Frowning, Ash lifted his hand and placed it atop the young woman’s stomach. He began to push Qi into her her and search around. Looking for the Dantian he was certain existed.
At this moment, he felt like perhaps it was a Ying Yue situation. Where it was just undersized but existed.
Closing his eyes, he let himself slide into his dao, the Qi, and a quiet and slow inspection of Shuang’s body. Filtering Qi into her and retrieving it with his other hand from her lower back.
Qi slid through her, came out, then back into her. Moving through Ash’s hands like a slow rolling wave. Measured controls of Qi leaving and then returning. Each small internal part of Shuang providing a bit of resistance here, a bit of resistance there. With each pass he was able to see more and more details of her insides.
It’s like a ultrasound.
“Yes. It is. I’m taking notes. I will be musing this aloud to Rou. Perhaps she uses it, perhaps she doesn’t. Though, I think I understand what’s going on with Shuang. Do you?”
Yeah. Someone broke her Dantian. Deliberately.
When she was young and before anyone would’ve noticed it.
Shattered it to pieces.
She survived it because she was so young, I imagine.
The fragments are all there. The Dantian is entirely there, just… shattered.
I think a few fragments reflect just a hint of Qi and that’s what I felt.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I think. It could be interesting to see if we could rebuild it. I think using Scrivening, Transference, Bone Carving, and your unique Bonds of Sheng could provide a situation that you could fashion her Dantian anew.”
Indeed. That could be a fun distraction and I think it’d earn me ‘happy Jia’ points.
“Yes, it would. It’s clear she has a great deal of positive feelings for her older sister. You sure this isn’t just you wanting a ‘second Jia’ in your harem? One with a bit bigger bust?”
Ash didn’t answer that.
Because he didn’t want to consider the question.
“Her Dantian is shattered,” Ash said, pushing his Qi directly into the location her Dantian should be. He felt around in her and began to gently gather up all the bits and pieces of her Dantian. “Shattered in a million tiny pieces. It was there though.”
“Are you quite done putting on this nonsense of a show?” growled an older voice from Ash’s left.
Opening his eyes he turned and looked to the speaker.
He was an old man with dark-gray hair, a dark gray beard, and dark brown eyes. His hair was long and he looked quite old.
Beside him was a middle-aged man with a strange grimmace on his face, as well as another middle aged man, standing next to a woman that was almost certainly Jia’s mother.
She clearly was where Jia and her sister got their beauty and looks from as she was an older version in many ways. Though a bit heavier with age.
Given that, the man beside her was clearly her husband though he didn’t seem to be what Ash had expected. He bore no resemblance to anyone and was likely married into the family, where as Jia’s mother was a daughter of the family.
“You’ve been inspecting her for nearly an hour. Shuang and Jia have been chatting quietly during it. The old man just arrived.”
“It’s not nonsense,” Ash stated and stood up.
“Patriarch, Great-Elder, Mother, Father,” Jia stated and bowed her head with each title. “I have come to pay off my Bride-price that you accepted on my behalf. I will pay it directly to him when he arrives and I will include a natural interest as if it were an investment but that he lost nothing, and gained nothing.
“Beyond that, I cam to establish relations so that you may come to know my new family.”
“You will most certainly not be leaving, nor will you be paying off your bride price. It was accepted in good faith and you will be handed over,” stated the middle-aged man.
They all… talk like Jia, don’t they? Her brother didn’t.
I wonder why.
“I most certainly will not. If you attempt to do so, I will him with my martial arts,” Jia said, straightened her shoulders, and lift her chin. “I warned Elder Ning that if you tried to keep me here, I would translocate away. If you attempt to cripple or destroy my Dantian, it is likely my husband would be forced to intervene and he does not… know how to control himself.
“Patriarch, Great-Elder, please remember this moment if you decide to force this issue. It will be the end of the Fu family and the Nie, Quilin, and Pang will pick over your corpse within a day.”
“Jia,” said the middle-aged man that was likely the ‘Patriarch’. “This is unacceptable. You will most certainly do none of those things.”
“Do you think I would have returned here if I did not believe I could withstand your pressure?” Jia asked with a laugh. In the next moment he felt her Qi swirl out around her in a lethal promise. Her killing intent rose like a tide swelling and she clearly grasped at her Dao. “I’m a peak stage Enlightened Mortal, transitioning into Awakened Mortal. I believe my Fiance was destined to be not much more than a Spirit Refiner, which is why you struggled so mightily to prevent me from learning. This is no longer something that can be tolerated.”
The Patriarch and Great-Elder both looked rather shocked at the situation. Clearly they hadn’t realized that Jia was as strong as she was.
“He is not a Refiner. He is an Enlightened Mortal,” muttered what was likely Jia’s father.
“Fine. I will fight him, beat him, and then the Fu family can suffer the disgrace of it,” Jia continued and then shrugged her shoulders. “It is irrelevant. I will—”
The Patriarch shifted partially where he stood and a wave of Qi and killing intent washed out from him. It felt like the bright sun overhead beating down on everything and everyone.
The man was in the ugly pit between Awakened Mortal and Sovereign Immortal. Where one could be stronger than the latter stage, yet not reach it. Because it required enlightenment that wasn’t given to all.
“You will do no such thing and—”
Time to be Lord Sheng.
Time to be more than anything they’ve ever seen.
Ash grasped at his Dao, dump a massive lump of his Qi-Sea into it, then held up his right hand, his left hand moving behind his back.
Qi rods appeared in both hands and quickly shot toward the ceiling and the floor. In a second, it’d covered both surfaces and was sliding down the walls.
Grasping at the Qi the man was putting out, Ash began redirecting it away from him and straight into Ash’s own Qi construct.
“Ashley darling, they are not threatening me,” Jia put in quickly even as the walls suddenly were covered in Ash’s qi. “My Uncle is merely trying to assert hismelf and—”
Ash’s Qi connected at the walls to the floors and ceiling and then multiple spikes shot out throughout the entirety of the room.
Pointing at each and every person other than Shuange, Jia, and Ash.
The Patriarch snapped off several that were near him, yanked out an artifact from a storage device and put up a Qi-shield around himself.
At the same time the Great-Elder had nearly done the same thing, though he’d unsheathed a heavy long sword and used it to clip off multiple spikes.
Jia’s parents didn’t do much of anything other than stand there, but that might’ve been because the spikes that’d moved toward them hadn’t really gotten that close.
By and large they’d seemed uninvolved with the situation other than being there.
“They behave as poor hosts and family,” accused Ash.
The Dao of Momentum was thrumming now. Throwing out deep and ugly booms as if an army was starting to be called to war.
In response he felt the Divine Brides begin hurling Qi at him in heavy waves.
Followed immediately by Ren, Si’Sha, and Liu.
Then the Brides as a whole.
Everyone was suddenly paying attention to Lord Sheng and his thrumming Dao.
With a clack, the doors were shut and the walls began to close in on the Fu family as the Qi began to thicken and come toward them. The sharpened Qi spikes moved closer until they were all herded together and near one another.
More spikes growing in even as the Fu Patriarch and Great-Elder began readying themselves for a fight to the death. He could feel their momentum grinding against his own and their killing intent matching his own.
“Ashley. Please?” asked Jia in a tone that was all sweetness.
Stopping, Ash glanced at her she had wide eyes, a pouting lower lip, and was peering up at him with her chin tucked low. Shuang was beside her and had her hands pressed together tightly.
With a click of his tongue, Ash retracted the spikes, but didn’t release his hold over the room. He hadn’t enjoyed this conversation one bit and right now he was feeling aggrieve.
The Patriarch, Great-Elder, and Jia’s parents, all stared at Ash. Their defenses no longer needed but still ready.
Except his Brides had decided this was unacceptable.
Hui, Siu, Chunhua, all stepped out of nothing, as if Locke was dropping them off.
Then a handful of Brides appeared around him.
All of them in uniform, their weiamo put on correctly and veils down. Each and every one of them was in the late stages of an Enlightened Mortal, and one was an Awakened Mortal.
“Biyu? Shu? Lifen?” Ash asked with some surprise as he recognized the Awakened and the two next to her. Causing all three to jolt slightly, clearly look back at him, then ready themselves for combat.
“Oh me, oh my,” whispered Siu, both of her fans sliding out, one in front of her face, the other at her side. “You lucky trio. Your husband ever remembers you.”
“Sisters, all is well,” Jia put in quickly. “Ashley just did not like how they were speaking to me.”
The Fu family seemed to be filled with wide-eyed people who only now understood that they weren’t bothering a young woman who had come home to apologize and make amends.
They were bothering a grown woman with a family and backing.
Ash could feel a great number of people attacking his Qi walls outside the door. Heavy blows that dented the Qi and even shattered some of it.
Only for it to be replaced immediately by Ash.
This is informative. This’ll help me figure out how much power to put into this later as we claim this realm.
I admit I was curious how much strength I’d have to put into my Qi walls to deal with them.
I think I could handle a full Awakened Mortal with this but more than one and I’d be on the losing side.
The only reason it’s working out right now is they haven’t figured out they could destroy the walls to have more people attack the Qi walls.
“Forgive them,” Jia said getting the attention of her blood-family members. “They are very defensive and possessive of their family and especially Ashley. Now… may we speak civilly? Or did you want to have this end the way it is going and the rest of the clan discovering little more than your bones when Ashley finally lets the walls down.”
“It would seem I have no choice,” growled the Patriarch, looking at the thudding Qi walls behind him, the armed Brides in the room they were in, and finally Jia. “You said you were here to repay the bride price as well as to establish relations. Fine. Then do so as a daughter of Fu.”
“Of course, as someone who was once a daughter of Fu. Now though my name is Jia Sheng. Often Jia Sheng the Bound,” Jia corrected and then reached out to gently pat Ash on the back. “Now, let’s get all this settled before my ex-fiance arrives. I am sure we have a lot to discuss.”
“Honestly, that’s rather surprising. I thought for sure they’d have taken that one straight to the death. It’s a huge loss of face if this gets out. I feel like… something else is going on in Anyi. Maybe… something else in the realm?”
It’s not so surprising. The Realm Lord has to establish his power without the Emperor.
There may even be many hidden masters in the Immortal Realm that’ve been waiting and biding their time, or those who were on the cusp.
This realm is going to explode into activity I’d say.
Ash flicked his hand to the side and began withdrawing his Qi into his left hand. Putting everything back into the Hall.
Locke would make it into ‘Awakened Stones’ for him he imagined.
“Of course I will. It’s easier to convert fresh Qi into those stones, rather than trying to alter the Sheng or Spirit stones.”
Then use it all. Give it to all those who aren’t in the Bonds of Sheng and empower them. I’m sure we’re supporting a great many cultivators outside of my reach. We’re always generating more Qi.
Though… admittedly the amount most of the Brides can generate if much smaller than what the Awakened Stones require. It’s definitely a whole new playing field here.