We didn't return to Frozen Cloud Palace until a couple of weeks later. Now that everything had fallen into place, we needed to set up the house, discuss a pile of details, and test the new dual-cultivation technique I'd developed.
Yuechan's breakthrough to the Emperor Profound Realm took another three days, which was surprising.
The new technique was simply mind-blowing, and I'm not joking—for me and for my partners alike. There were a lot of factors involved. Three years of work hadn't gone to waste.
No, I'm not some heavenly genius who created something perfect. Quite the opposite. In anyone else's hands, the technique could honestly be considered trash.
That was because it had been designed around me and for me, accounting for every nuance of my body, my elements, my profound veins, and the toughness of my body. Maybe only my son would be able to use it just as properly, and even that wasn't guaranteed. Not remotely guaranteed.
Did that mean there was no room for improvement? Absolutely not. I was still making corrections as we went. But even as it was, according to the Chu sisters, the thing was abnormal. For my wife, naturally, it was all perfectly normal. She understood everything I'd done. She had created the technique together with me and helped test it without any "perverted" meanings attached.
Not that thinking was easy when pleasure sent your mind drifting off, but progress continued, the technique was polished, and cultivation speed rose.
For an ordinary partner—Yuechan, for example—cultivation speed increased fivefold, exactly as I'd calculated.
When I cultivated specifically with her, my own speed increased sevenfold. That was after her breakthrough to the Emperor Profound Realm.
With her little sister, my speed only increased fivefold. And yes, my wife was a genius and my sneaky manipulator. I have no idea how she managed to convince her teacher or what arguments she used, but one evening Yueli walked into my room. That was surprising, considering she'd never stopped looking at me sideways before.
No words. No greeting. The beauty operated in her signature icy style. Well, for the first ten minutes.
Still, we didn't even discuss it. One day, we simply started dual cultivating.
At least, that's how it looked from the outside. On the surface. Dig deeper, though, and there were hidden currents of female politics churning underneath, and sticking my nose into those was absolutely not in my best interests.
Here's what I figured out: my Yue had simply taken charge of my harem and now possessed unquestioned authority. She was the one who decided where the Chu sisters sat during meals, who came to my room and when, and so on.
Most importantly for me, my smart girl already considered the future child hers too. Not that she was going to push Yuechan aside. It was more like she saw herself as a third parent.
She was the one who found the best doctor in town, made arrangements with food suppliers, found a pile of things for the future mother, and so on.
And me? I sighed heavily and started paying my debt to my beloved sect. What else was I supposed to do? Being lazy in this matter would have been far too unpatriotic. Downright vile on my part.
Seriously, though, it changed nothing for me. It wasn't as if I was burning with lust and especially thrilled by the situation.
No, I'm a normal man, and of course I'd quite like to have a bunch of beauties around me. Those are perfectly normal male instincts. But my wife—Yue—was more than enough for my happiness.
And there was also the technical question. Why spread myself thin if I could simply choose one strong partner for cultivation?
Because normal cultivators' profound veins quickly overheated, grew tired, started aching? Call it whatever you want, but even with those three beauties I couldn't dual cultivate all day. After a couple of hours, they got tired and couldn't continue.
Yue lasted a little longer, because her profound veins weren't ordinary either, but even she got tired after three hours.
Me? The tempering from the "fire chicken" hadn't been for nothing. And the fact that my veins worked with both cold and fire—two opposing elements—was extra tempering in itself.
I'll be honest, Phoenix fire helped a lot, no matter how much I cursed that chicken.
Yue and I both broke through to the Earth Profound Realm, which was already very good. Yueli was at the peak of the Sky Profound Realm, while Yuechan had stabilized her Emperor Profound cultivation.
Frozen Cloud Palace was now officially the strongest faction in the Blue Wind Empire. Would that help the Palace with the coming disasters? Not at all. We needed much, much more power. Even Feng Qianhui's breakthrough didn't solve the problem in any decisive way.
As for me, of course I was strong, and in theory I could fight even a Sovereign Profound practitioner. In practice? It was the Hulk fighting a fighter jet. It didn't matter how strong Hulk was if he couldn't fly. That simple fact alone made me far weaker.
Sure, I'd run into idiots—and there would be plenty—who would plant their feet on the ground like epic heroes and accept a mortal duel. But the moment I met someone with a brain, they'd simply fly up and start throwing ranged attacks at me.
They naturally wouldn't be able to hurt me, but I wouldn't be able to do anything to them either. And I had the Palace and my family behind me. I was automatically in the weaker position.
Either way, my power was now growing at a normal pace, and the cherished Sky Profound Realm wasn't far away. A couple of years at most, and everything would be sorted out.
As soon as we returned to the Palace, we went straight to report to the leadership, and this wasn't something that could be done in the throne hall. We needed a private conversation.
One thing was having the first male disciple appear in the Palace. Who knew what miracles might happen?
It was another matter entirely if that disciple was fucking a couple of fairies and the future Palace Mistress. That was a rather abrupt shift in the political current. Many girls—even children—would be frightened and unhappy.
First, I needed to raise my popularity at least a little.
"So," Gong Yuxian looked at me with undisguised hatred, then looked much more gently at her adopted daughters, "how did the trial go?"
"Reporting to the Palace Mistress," Yue began speaking while I kept my mouth firmly shut—because I was scared, that's why. "We successfully passed the trial. Feng Lun became the full inheritor of the Primordial Azure Dragon God, and I absorbed a drop of his blood."
"Chu Yuechan?"
"Palace Mistress, the Great Mistress's task has been completed. I broke through to the Emperor Profound Realm and received several other improvements. All damage to my body was repaired, and my vitality was fully restored. My profound veins became much wider, and all profound entrances opened."
"And what about...?"
"I am pregnant, Palace Mistress, as planned."
"Palace Mistress, if this disciple may speak, let us discuss that subject a little later, in the presence of the Great Mistress. This disciple will provide an explanation for her request."
Smart girl. My wife was so damn smart! She knew perfectly well this was my "reverse scale." This idiot would blurt out something like, "Give birth and get right back into service, we'll put the child somewhere," and then I'd have to explain to Qianhui why her daughter had turned into a two-dimensional picture on the wall. Better not. Expecting tact from an Ice Heart cultivator was already foolish, especially from this man-hater.
"Any problems? Questions?"
"Palace Mistress, I have a request."
"What is it?"
"Allow Feng Yue and me to study the Divine Art of Absolute Ice. We are ready for it now."
"The Great Mistress will decide that question when she comes out of seclusion. For now, you are dismissed. Return to your affairs. Yuechan, Yueli, stay."
My wife and I bowed and went back to our rooms.
The stupid bitch had refused me purely out of spite, even though you'd think their precious Ice Heart was supposed to suppress emotions like hatred and make a practitioner rational. Yet this was more proof that the damn thing was defective garbage, not an art.
Over the following days, all I did was go hunting with the younger disciples until the fairies and senior disciples were convinced I could protect the little ones if anything happened. I basically became the children's guard.
Naturally, I was doing it for political reasons. I needed to become a familiar face and raise my popularity.
And in general, I'd always been good with children, so I became pretty popular. The juniors often came up to ask me about cultivation, and I gave them genuinely useful advice, which helped the kids.
The problem was, I wasn't allowed to cleanse the children's profound veins, which was rather unfair and weighed heavily on my heart.
All we needed was to buy an array that blocked a room off from profound energy. Things like that existed, though they were expensive.
Set up the array, pack the room full of female disciples and me, I activate the Great Way of the Buddha, and it starts devouring the cold energy that has accumulated in the children's profound veins. That's all there is to it. At my current level with the technique, I could cleanse everyone in the Palace in a week, then repeat the procedure every six months, and we'd all live happily ever after until the new generation started being born with stronger bodies.
But I had no permission to do anything like that. Neither did Yue. She had also landed on the "blacklist" in the eyes of the idiot running this organization.
And despite her grumbling, my wife, the Chu sisters, and I continued practicing dual cultivation anyway.
"I never thought my Palace would turn into a brothel when I accepted you as a disciple," Feng Qianhui said after opening the door to my room and finding me surrounded by three naked, sleeping beauties.
"Jealous? No reason to be! You could just join us."
"Don't be sarcastic. I expect all of you in my room in half an hour. I hope the disciples know nothing about this?"
"Of course not. Who do you take us for? And yes, there are soundproof barriers in the room."
Naturally, my partners woke up quickly and heard the conversation, so they were redder than beets and didn't dare even look toward the Great Mistress. But there was no time for reflection.
We quickly got ourselves in order and trudged off to report.
"So, Lun? Everything according to plan?"
"Exactly. The inheritance is obtained, the technique is created, Yuechan is pregnant. Everything just as we agreed."
"How effective is the technique?"
"For the partner, cultivation speed increases fivefold. For me, it depends on how much stronger the partner is than I am."
"Fivefold? That almost sounds unbelievable."
"There are nuances. The technique is compatible only with me and accounts for my peculiarities. It won't work the same way for anyone else."
"Why am I not surprised? Yuechan, how useful will it be for the fairies?"
"Great Mistress," the younger sister stepped forward, "allow me to answer that question."
"Yueli?"
"My sister received her benefits from the virgin seed, so she cannot know. I can see the advantages more clearly. My vitality has started recovering, and my body is becoming stronger."
"Lun?"
"Virgin seed is powerful, of course, but ordinary seed isn't just liquid either. I'm the Dragon God's inheritor. My partners will receive a lot of benefits."
"Any others besides restoration?"
"Most likely, compatibility with both fire and cold will improve. Not very much and not very quickly, but with regular practice it could matter."
"I will think about it."
"Great Mistress, it's time to start preparing for Operation Wedding."