Chapter 396 - The Fated Decision
Winter passed, with the snow not being very strong this season, and Spring followed soon after with warmer weather than usual.
I stared at the Spring Array erected around my home for many years now, offering soft weather and greenery during the harsher seasons. But now I had to move on from this tradition.
After all, my kids were going to be spending a lot of time in the vicinity, and I wanted them to experience the different seasons and play with snow within the protection of the arrays around the home.
I shifted the barrier around a bit, and there was the sound of glass breaking and that was the Spring Array breaking down.
Fu Yating opened the door and came out of the house with a frown, but when she saw me there, her worries eased.
“Some of us have kids to take care of. Can you keep the noise down? What even was that?” she complained.
“Sorry,” I apologized.
“Good, just don't do it again next time,” she said, and went inside the house before coming out again with a plate of sweet dumplings.
“What are those for?” I raised a questioning brow.
“I remember during the twins’ first birthday, you liked eating these, so I made you more as snacks,” she said.
Despite her complaining ways, she was a sweet woman overall and remembered the small things.
It had been a year and just over a week now since the kids had been born, and the more time passed, the more caring Fu Yating seemed to become toward me.
Though I had been a bit busy recently, I had made time for her sake and the twins during their birthday, spending the whole day with them.
I took one of the dumplings and chewed it whole. As a cultivator, I wouldn’t choke, and I got to enjoy the full flavors.
The inside of the dumpling exploded like a bomb inside my mouth, with the taste of chewy honey filling my taste buds.
Damn, this was good!
Fu Yating used to be a good cook before, but after becoming a mother, it was like she had gained a cooking buff. This was the kind of taste that mass-produced pastries could never match!
I swallowed the first one, and my hand was already going for the second sweet dumpling as Fu Yating held the plate with a proud look on her face.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” I told her. “The Spring Array will no longer be around, so the kids can experience the weather and seasons like normal, playing with snow during winter and chasing butterflies in summer.”
I explained the general gist of how she couldn't let the kids stay outside during winter and all that. Common sense stuff.
She nodded along to my suggestions, smiling, though a sharper look entered her gaze. After I finished, she began telling me about her own worries.
“Also, I think that during the next birthday parties, we shouldn't invite Jiang Yeming, your student, at the beginning. Since she dotes on Liu Sha too much, wanting the party to be bigger and have more gifts, willing to pay out of her own pocket,” she sighed.
Jiang Yeming and Liu Sha, now that was another problem. Even though she tried to be friendly toward both twins, she always went the extra mile with Liu Sha, and sometimes she was almost like a third parent in their relationship.
“Try and keep an eye on Liu Sha when she is around,” I warned my wife. “And always be around, never leave Jiang Yeming alone with him.”
It was nothing strange for now, but knowing that Jiang Yeming was a regressor, it came off as a creepy obsession with my kid. She might be crazy enough to take him away and run off with him. Perhaps that was her master plan for getting close to me, there was no way to know.
“Do you think she will harm him?” Fu Yating asked, her face shifting from smiling and proud due to my liking her cooking to the eyes of an ice-cold killer.
“No,” I shook my head, reassuring her.
I was pretty sure Jiang Yeming would never harm Liu Sha. That tender look in her eyes was like someone looking at the most precious thing in their life.
Just then, the twins, Liu Sha and Liu Ma, walked out of the front door that Fu Yating had left open.
“Hey, you two were supposed to be asleep,” Fu Yating frowned at the mischievous rascals.
They giggled, as if knowing they had done something wrong, and Liu Sha charged at me while Liu Ma wobbly ran toward his mother.
I smiled at my son.
With everything I had observed, I was sure that Jiang Yeming had a close relationship with Liu Sha in the timeline she came from.
Good. She would be the best guardian I could ask for to protect him. After all, with her delusions of the future, I was sure she would be very loyal.
Liu Sha reached out and was about to hug my leg, but I crouched down and picked him up, rubbing my face against his soft, chubby cheek.
Spending time with children was like nourishing the soul.
“Mama!” Liu Ma, my other son, suddenly called out from his mother's embrace.
That was his first word.
I immediately frowned, feeling that instinctive annoyance at my kid's first word not being me. But Fu Yating spent more time with them, so she deserved it.
“Mama!” Liu Sha copied his brother, calling out to me.
I chuckled and rubbed his head, pointing at Fu Yating.
“That there is mama. I am dada,” I told him.
But after I put Liu Sha on the ground, he just ran toward her and hugged her leg. Fu Yating smiled and lay on the ground, with each son by her side, smiling so brightly that the sun looked dim by comparison.
Both my kids were now one year old, well, they had been for over a week now.
Yet seeing this stage of growth for them was a weird feeling as a parent.
I walked over to them and lay down next to my family, smiling and laughing with them, tickling the twins and pinching their soft baby cheeks so they wouldn’t bother their mother too much by trying to bite her face.
Fu Yating looked at me, smiled, leaned over, and gave me a soft peck on the lips out of nowhere.
There was no lust in that kiss, as she quickly turned back to taking care of the kids. But there was a warmth there…
Our acts of love were no longer just fueled by lust, necessity, or being purely performative.
I wasn’t sure if Fu Yating loved me, but I knew that she loved this family, and that was all I could ask of her.
Was this what people in arranged marriages meant when they said that love would eventually come? This was an unfamiliar feeling, since in the modern world one usually had to at least love someone a bit before marrying them.
Learning to love someone… it wasn't all that bad.
There were also couples in my previous world who had kids, thinking that would bring them closer together. It usually never worked. But for Fu Yating and me, it did feel like we were much closer after our marriage. We had also taken the next step after having kids, and I genuinely cared about this woman, to some degree.
The absolute thoughts I had about relationships were becoming more flexible now.
I was never the type to become a family man. Not to mention achieving all that in a completely different world of Qi and fantasy.
Sometimes life was truly a strange thing.
…
Months passed, and summer came with its blistering heat, as the region around the Blazing Sun Sect was quite tropical.
But the weather around the Blazing Sun Sect no longer mattered to me, at least for now, as I was in the miniature world inside the mirror. Where the weather was consistently the same.
I had locked myself in here as my Qi approached a critical point and got infinitely closer to a minor breakthrough.
After all this time relaxing and preparing, it was time to take the next step.
The sound of birds and other creatures I had brought here to facilitate an artificial ecosystem reached my ears.
I could also sense Wu Yan standing in the forest in the distance, as I sat alone in this wide, flat field. Song Song was also guarding the mirror outside, just in case something happened.
The Qi inside me swirled like water in a bottle, forming a whirlpool and drawing in Qi from the other two bright pillars, each with techniques engraved on it.
I felt a sense of electric wonder rush through me as my heartbeat increased by the second.
But just like that, I took the next step and became a three-star Foundation Establishment Cultivator, imbued with my third foundation technique in the new dim pillar.
Once again, no complications arose.
The breakthrough came and went as easily as always. It felt more like taking the next step forward, rather than breaking down a barrier or wall.
My breakthroughs were coming faster than anticipated. I had assumed it would be every five years, but instead, it was every three. My solid foundation was building upon itself.
I sensed Wu Yan approaching, so I stood up, my body releasing cracking sounds as my Qi wrapped around me like a flickering flame.
As for testing my third Foundation Technique, it was another one of those that didn't increase my combat ability. But it was very useful in my research and compatible in the long run.
I was in peak condition, and with the breakthrough over, it would be a while before the next one came.
So I should just spend some time getting used to this technique and then…
…then it was time to return to the Misty Mountains. I could no longer keep avoiding things forever, as that place seemed to operate under very different rules than the ones I was used to.