"...Say that again, Mother?" Luo Ming blurted out, completely caught off guard by the words.
"Why are you so surprised?" Meng Lin tilted her head, "It’s pretty normal for men of high status and power to have more than one wife."
She pointed at herself, smiling thinly.
"Your own mother, Ming’er, is a second wife."
Those words struck Luo Ming’s mind like a hammer, making him finally notice something that had been in front of him the whole time.
’How did I not make the connection? My mother is called Second Madam. Which means there’s a First Madam.’
That was enough to confirm that his father, a man whose features he could barely picture, had more than one wife.
Luo Ming couldn’t really blame himself, though. Even knowing the concept of a harem existed, Paris hadn’t been a country where such practices were common.
"Let’s not even get started on your grandfather." Meng Lin continued, her lips twitching, "I couldn’t tell you the exact number of women he has."
"Because you don’t know?"
"Because it’s too many to count."
"And no one minds?" Luo Ming asked the most important question, "No woman resents this tradition? Well, if I can even call it that. A culture, maybe?"
"Some women obviously don’t like it." Meng Lin nodded, as though she knew such women personally, "But most don’t mind. Think about it, Ming’er. They’re born and raised in a kingdom where this is...common. Not just this kingdom, either. Most of this world is the same."
She shrugged.
"You have no choice but to accept it as normal, under those circumstances."
It made an unsettling amount of sense.
No doubt exceptions existed. But those exceptions only proved the rule.
’Interesting.’ Luo Ming thought, unable to suppress a smile at this new knowledge.
This shifted something important in his goals. Wasn’t his ultimate wish to build a family that felt like...home? A family he could be happy and proud of?
Back on Earth, he never would have imagined such a thing...but this wasn’t Earth.
Call him greedy if you wanted, he wouldn’t bat an eye, but the possibility of having multiple wives, of building the great family he’d longed for, suddenly felt far too tempting.
Who was he kidding?
He was sold.
However...
"Not the sisters." He said, refocusing, "Wei Ting is too much trouble. And I have my suspicions she has feelings for someone else."
"Wei Bing, then?" Meng Lin pressed, eager to learn more about her son’s thoughts.
Ever since the incident, she’d noticed her son had suddenly become...more alive. As if he were finally seeing life in color.
Her happiness at that thought was so overwhelming it threatened to burst her heart.
"Wei Bing is a rather delicate subject." Luo Ming said carefully, "I’ll see, Mother, once I meet her again. I promised to play the zither for her, after all. What day am I supposed to go?"
"In three days."
"I’ll remember that." He nodded, leaned over, and kissed his mother’s forehead, "Father must have been blessed to have you as a wife."
Meng Lin grinned with pride and arrogance, "Don’t tell me that. Go tell that father of yours."
"I’d need to actually see him for that." He chuckled, turning to head deeper into the courtyard, toward his room.
"Take care, Mother. I’m going to go see what I got, then cultivate. I need to be ready for the Sect, right?"
Meng Lin smiled sweetly, "I know you’ll be the best."
Luo Ming chuckled dryly.
"Let’s hope so." He said, then paused abruptly, something occurring to him, "Mother, what’s Origin Blood again?"
"Origin Blood?" She tilted her head at the sudden question, "It’s the blood that can only be drawn from your heart. Why?"
"Just curious." He said lazily, then walked off, "See you later."
Meng Lin watched her son’s back, deep in thought.
"It seems my son is going to bring me many wives." She grinned, then let out a loud laugh, "Well, why not? Many wives means many grandchildren! Perfect! I’ll be the best grandmother there is!"
From within her shadow, a voice slithered softly into her ear.
"Is that alright, Master? What if he meets women like Miss Rose and wants to marry her?"
Meng Lin winced immediately, shaking her head. "I doubt my Ming’er would be interested in women like that. Let’s forget about Miss Rose and tell me instead..."
Her eyes turned dead cold.
"...that maid’s family, have you found them?"
The shadow fell into heavy silence before answering with a sigh.
"...they were gone. They must have anticipated our move."
"What did my brother say about the help I asked for?"
"Nothing yet."
"Heavens curse that useless, bloody fool." Meng Lin snapped, then stormed off, "I’ll find out who did this, sooner or later. Myself!"
Her spiritual aura flared.
"And they will pay."
...
Finally, Luo Ming arrived back in his room. He set the black box and the ring atop his bed, staring at them with excitement.
"Origin blood...blood from the heart." He grimaced, "...this is going to hurt."
But he needed to do it.
So without much fuss, he pulled out a knife. The key was making sure it only touched the heart deeply enough to draw blood.
Easier said than done.
’I hope I don’t die. Again.’
Luo Ming decided to investigate the Lost Ring of Pengu first. It was the most intriguing item, especially since he still didn’t even know the description of the other one.
Closing his eyes, he muttered a few random words of encouragement, then drove the knife toward his heart. He grunted, lips trembling as the same sensation he’d felt when he died washed over him.
This time, though, it was different. This time, it was voluntary.
Unwilling to waste any time, he moved as quickly as possible.
The moment he felt the blade brush against his heart, piercing deep enough to draw blood, Luo Ming yanked the knife back out of his chest, gasping for breath.
The pain was immense, far beyond anything he’d braced himself for.
His lips trembled as his body curled inward in agony. He forced his mind to stay alert, grabbed the healing pill he’d prepared in advance, and swallowed it.
It touched his tongue and dissolved instantly, unfurling into a wave of Qi that healed him almost immediately.
Luo Ming breathed hard, steam pouring from his mouth, his hands, veins bulging thick beneath the skin, clutching his chest tightly.
"Fuck." He cursed, eyelids trembling as the pain slowly receded.
He gritted his teeth and pulled himself upright, taking the ring in his still-shaking hand.
Without hesitation, he smashed the ring against the ground, cracking the crystal free from its setting.
Reaching out, he picked up the crystal, which, once separated from the ring, began shifting through countless colors.
"Let’s do this." He whispered to himself, then took up the knife again. At its tip sat a drop of blood redder than any red he’d seen, tinged with hints of gold and silver.
It was oddly mesmerizing. Luo Ming was tempted to just stare at it.
But time was running out.
So he shook his head and smeared his Origin Blood onto the crystal.
One second. Two seconds. By the third, a blinding, instant burst of multicolored light flooded the entire room.
Luo Ming instantly felt a strange connection forming inside him, confirmed as the crystal dissolved into liquid and sank into his body.
He collapsed to the ground, feeling the liquid swirl and twist against his chest, right where his heart lay, coalescing into something indescribable.
Instantly, he tore off his clothes to look at himself.
It was unbelievable.
The liquid had formed a black, gold, and silver shape: a mesmerizing, pupil-less eye.
The sensation stopped shortly after, with no pain to speak of.
Luo Ming was breathing hard, confused and more than a little unnerved by what had just happened.
"What is this...a tattoo?" He whispered, bewildered, already imagining how thoroughly his mother would kick his ass if she saw this.
But all of that fell away the moment information began flooding his mind, unbidden.
Luo Ming’s silver eyes went wide.
His lips trembled as he sank into his own consciousness, just as he had when exploring his Soulblades.
He found himself back inside his Inner Mind, where his two Soulblades still sat.
But now there was something else.
Before him stretched a vast scene: mountains, rivers, countless zones marked in red, green, orange, every color imaginable.
Luo Ming studied the sight and slowly arrived at a stunning realization, his heart pounding.
"Heaven’s Breath... this is..."
...the Map of the World.
—End of Chapter 16—