A mostly naked Zhang Dong looked up to the ceiling. He had woken up after an evening filled with passion. The wedding night had lasted all up till the next day as the two lovers showed stamina worthy of nascent soul masters. Unbeknownst to him, a legend had been started this way, it would be later named the ‘Passionate Earthquake’ that kept everyone from the sect up for the entire night.
Feng Liena laid bare under the red bed sheets. Her wedding dress was tossed to the side along with Zhang Dong’s bead hat. He smiled a bit as he descended without making any noise. He used his nascent soul powers to cover his sleeping wife with the rest of the bed cloth before heading outside.
The villa that the two were now resting in was quite large and it even had a nice room with a fireplace. He sat down with a towel wrapped around his nether regions, his chest exposed. He started spacing out, the memories of the previous night still fresh in his mind.
‘Well, that was something, she is surprisingly flexible…’
He found himself comparing this night to his first time. That was a long time ago, reaching three years now. It felt a bit different and somehow better, but he wasn’t sure if it was only due to him not having done the deed in a while. This cultivator body worked differently than his old one as he didn’t feel like he needed to perform the usual tasks.
‘We didn’t use any protection either, but she is my wife so that shouldn’t matter.’
He recalled that he might have gotten a bit overzealous but what was done was done. He would face the consequences later. He stayed seated there without doing much, there were no servants or anyone to bother them here either. Soon enough he heard the door opening up and the figure of Feng Liena appeared.
“Husband?”
His mouth quivered a bit after he heard the way she referred to him. He was certainly not used to that one as the woman used to refer to him as senior brother not long ago.
“W-wife? Wifey? I’m down here.”
He felt a bit awkward, the two might have known each other for years now but their interactions were limited to mostly business.
Feng Liena had woken up a bit after Zhang Dong left the room. She was a bit out of it at first and then confused as she didn’t find her husband next to her. She recalled the previous night and how forceful her hubby had been which caused her to blush furiously. She then left the room in search of him, worried that he might have left somewhere. She didn’t need to go far as he was sitting just there on the floor below with only some cloth covering his lower parts.
Zhang Dong looked at his wife. She had appeared wearing some kind of nightgown robe hybrid that he wasn’t accustomed to. The moment she saw him sitting there she started blushing yet again which kind of made him want to tease her. The two had already seen themselves naked so from his standpoint there was no reason to be shy.
“Are you hungry, the sect had prepared a feast in the other room and even set up a formation to keep everything fresh.”
He stood up from his seat while looking up, Feng Liena covered her face a bit but followed the movements of her hubby while looking between her fingers.
“No need to be shy after what we did yesterday…”
He had gotten over his nervousness during the deed, his wife on the other hand was still acting a bit reserved. He flew up to her and lifted her up into his arms before heading out into the room with the food. Liena was skittish at first wiggling in his arms while trying not to show too much skin. She would probably need a bit more time to get used to this type of treatment.
The two continued their lovey-dovey honeymoon for a couple of days before heading back to the sect. They still had a lot of things to do and even if they wanted they couldn’t just remain there.
They were greeted back by their family members. Zhang Jin and Huo Qiang had smirks on their faces, Zhang Dong was unsure why but soon he would discover the earthquake he caused.
“Welcome back Patriarch and Matriarch…”
The people clasped their hands while acting awkwardly, even though their two nascent soul masters were behind a defensive formation, the tremors reached up to the main castle structure. Luckily they had reinforced all of the furniture in that villa beforehand.
“Anything happen while we were gone?”
Zhang Dong asked while floating down, hand to hand with his wife.
“The guests have already left, the people from those three sects left on the first day…”
He recalled the young man that tried to insult him and the other two. He managed to resolve the situation somehow but wasn’t happy that they still weren’t getting taken seriously.
“Good, how are the formations? We should be able to proceed with the plans”
“Yes, the crafting masters would like a word with you, they want you to approve the teleportation gate design.”
“So we are close to the finish line…”
He continued talking with Zhang Jin. The moment they connected the Dimensional regalia with the outside was the moment they could start setting up the true sect. This was an immortal grade treasure and it was repairing itself the more energy they fed it. There was no danger of it getting destroyed by a cultivator, the only thing that could cause damage to it was another item at that grade.
The medallion was hidden in a closed location at the sect. He deliberated hiding it in the place that he found the floating cube. But he was afraid that someone or something could appear there and snatch the treasure with his people in it.
Feng Liena and Zhang Dong finally parted with each other. Huo Qiang and her would leave the sect for now and patrol the rest of their lands. There was still danger of other nascent soul masters trying to sneak in.
The Patriarch would remain and help set up the core area for their most trusted people. There was much work to be done and now that the defensive arrays were fully operational Matt didn’t need to remain so passive. He could start crafting weapons, creating pills and combining techniques to form new superior ones. If this continued they could finally become a proper sect and even open their doors to new disciples.
He also had the option of traveling through the lands. There were a couple of undiscovered places that reached into the lower areas of the empire. Most people didn’t bother with those as spiritual energy was faint there, unsuited for cultivation. He was able to find some treasures in that type of location. There was a spirit vein hidden here as well as the obsidian material that he couldn’t even budge with his full power.
He wasn’t in a hurry, the sects wouldn’t be going against them for quite some time. Everyone adopted a wait and see approach as they weren’t willing to offend his so-called master. Their new sect was also flying under the radar of the true behemoths of the empire. The other powers also had others to contend with, just as the fallen Dark Palm sect if they showed any sign of weakness they would be eradicated.
‘Think I can design that testing course for new disciples now…’
He thought back to the words of fiction that he used to read. They were weirdly similar to how this world operated. He remembered the sects setting up various tests that the prospects could go through.
He already approved one idea, it would be a corridor with some wooden puppet soldiers. Similar to the test that his disciples went through at the dao festival. They would need to reach the end to qualify further.
There would also be a Qi measuring device but it wouldn’t require a person to perform any punches. He had his system to help him out, he could imbue some devices with some nice measuring features.
He wanted to create a machine to measure all-around aptitude, current strength level as also their deposition. His system could tell a person’s alignment, if they had an evil heart or were someone just. The system showed it to him in a D&D alignment system, raging from lawful good to chaotic evil.
These alignments weren’t set in stone though, they could even shift in the middle of battle. For instance, the Dark Palm sect leader’s alignment was Lawful Evil before they started the fight. When he turned himself into that monster it shifted to Chaotic Evil in a matter of seconds.
Still, this would save him from accepting anyone sketchy into his sect, he was still on the fence if he should accept Chaotic Neutral people, they were a bit random to work with. You never knew what they would do, they could very well abandon their sect brothers in a time of need.
‘Would be probably better to cap it at true neutral, just to be safe.’
While Zhang Dong was thinking about the improvement of his sect another scene was playing out somewhere deeper in the empire.
There was a certain gathering of old men and women taking place. Only two from them were talking with each other, the rest remained in place without moving a muscle.
“Hey, old Wang, that grandson of yours has been causing quite a ruckus in the sect.”
“He even crippled old Jing’s grandson and stole his fiance.”
One old man asked another one while laughing. Everyone in here was a nascent soul cultivator and a pillar of this behemoth of a sect.
“He won the duel fair and square, if that bastard even dares to lay a finger on my grandson he knows what will happen.”
“Is he taking after you? So ruthless!”
The two laughed while sipping on some spirit alcohol. The other people in the room didn’t respond, one of them seemed a bit dejected by what was being said here but he held his mouth shut.
“He sure has been progressing at a fast pace since two years ago, quite the late bloomer.”
The person called Wang nodded at the remark while sipping on some more alcohol.“As long as he progresses…, wish he didn’t develop that little hobby of his, that girl probably won’t last long either…”
The moment the nascent soul elder mentioned his grandson’s ‘hobby’ the other people in the room started coughing and looking to the sides.
“Well, geniuses are like that as long as the sect prospers I don’t think we should worry about that. Not something we can’t fix with some spirit stones.”
The other man laughed out loud while the others looked even more uncomfortable after hearing him talk. The man named Wang just gave out a sigh and nodded.
“Enough about my grandson.”
“Anything of note in the empire? It would be nice if we got some good news for once. Maybe that bastard of an Azure Emperor died?”
“If only old Wang, if only.”
“Nothing much besides one of the middle-sized sects going under, what was their name again? Dark Foot? Dark Fist? Well never mind, they weren’t important, think the other little sects already had their fill of their lands.”
“They colluded with each other to ransack their remains, not like they pose a threat to our Soaring Dragon Sect.”
Old Wang just snorted.
“That’s a given, there is only one reason we aren’t at the top of this empire.”
The other man that Wang was talking too also gave out a snort of disdain. They talked some more while the other people in the room remained silent, not uttering a word unless they got asked. The two elders delved into the country’s politics some more, rumbling on for quite a bit till everyone left and it was already dark outside. The old man stood up from his seat and walked outside.
“Junior greets the Sect Leader.”
The man didn’t look back as he continued going, his eyes started glowing with a blue light before he disappeared into the ether. He appeared moments later above the large sect ground that he was the master of. He just glanced at the massive structures that were on even larger mountain peaks.
“Soon my sect will reign supreme over this land, we will crush everyone in our path and even the Azure Emperor will stand no chance.”
He smirked slightly before disappearing once again, this time towards an unknown destination.