Chapter 46: ATG 12

[AN: Sure, why not. Here's the next chapter early.]

Later that night after the banquet at with the Blue Wind Empire, Carl was talking with Caiyi over the mirror communicators and detailing how their trip was going, when he heard a knock on the door.

"Someone is here, honey. Let me see who it is." He left the mirror on so she could hear and see what was happening.

Carl opened the door and was surprised to see Fen Juechen standing there. "Hey, there Fen Juechen. What can I do for you?"

"Can we talk inside for a moment?" Fen Juechen gave Carl a significant look, as if to let him know that important matters would be discussed.

"Sure, come on in." Carl moved aside and grabbed some drinks to share with his guest. "So, what brings you by?" Carl asked after they had settled down.

The young man with a stern face sat still for a moment, trying to find the words. "As a 6th stage Sovereign Profound Realm, I can sense that you've broken through the bottle neck into a higher realm. Which means you are probably the strongest cultivator on the planet. There are a few things you need to be aware of if you stay on this continent for any length of time."

Carl could tell the young man was exceptionally serious, so he didn't try to crack any jokes to relieve the tension. And he wasn't going to reveal any information about his wife's cultivation being right up there with him. He simply nodded to indicate he was completely focused and listening.

"Over one thousand years ago, there were not four Sacred Grounds, there were five. The fifth Sacred Ground was the Eternal Night Royal Family." Fen Juechen was staring with unseeing eyes over Carl's shoulder as he revealed some secrets with a somber face, as if he was remembering the Eternal Night Royal Family's past glory, and their downfall in person.

"The current leader of the Mighty Heavenly Sword Region, Xuanyuan Wentian put out rumors that the Eternal Night Royal Family possessed a Sovereign Realm sword, the Heavenly Sin Divine Sword, and that whoever wielded that sword would be undefeatable. So Xuanyuan Wentian hatched a plan. He framed the Eternal Night Royal Family and instigated the four Sacred Grounds into attacking and destroying the Eternal Night Royal Family." Fen Juechen spat out with great hate for this Xuanyuan Wentian.

Carl rubbed his chin in thought. During Duke Ming's interrogation, he had admitted to contacting someone from the Mighty Heavenly Sword Region and told them that the Illusory Demon Royal Family had a supreme treasure called the Mirror of Samsara to instigate the man's greed. Together they hatched a plot to betray and kill the Illusory Demon Royal Family. It certainly seemed like the same modus operandi. Carl returned his attention to Fen Juechen as he continued telling his story.

"After Xuanyuan Wentian succeeded in destroying the Eternal Night Royal Family, the other three Sacred Grounds found out they had been duped. But in order to save face, they refused to publicly admit that they were fooled, or do anything against the Mighty Heavenly Sword Region, as that would be admitting that they were dupes." Fen Juechen snarled in anger at the cowardly Sacred Grounds who were more concerned with not exposing their stupidity than they were in righting wrongs.

"So why tell me this?" Carl asked. Why would someone give him such interesting intel so easily?

"From the talk from your group, I gathered that you were from the Illusory Demon Realm. Because of where you are from, the Sacred Grounds, especially the Mighty Heavenly Sword Region, will want to attack you. Xuanyuan Wentian is a greedy and jealous man. He will do anything and everything in his power to drive the entire continent to become your enemy when he finds out you are here."

"And since your company hasn't worried about keeping certain things secret, it's only a matter of time before he finds out you are here and attacks." Fen Juechen baldly stated. "And since you will oppose my enemy, I find it benefits me to warn you of the man so you can prepare. If you can help me kill him, my quest for revenge would be completed. Even if I didn't deliver the killing blow myself."

Carl looked over the man for a moment. "You are descended from the Eternal Night Royal Family, aren't you?"

Fen Juechen nodded soberly. "I am."

"Then it seems we have an enemy in common. Happy cooperation in seeking his death!" Carl faintly smiled as he raised his wine cup in toast.

Fen Juechen gave a twisted smile of grim amusement as he too raised his cup.

"Tell me more about the Sacred Grounds, especially this Xuanyuan Wentian." Carl asked. If they were to be enemies, he needed all the information he could.

Fen Juechen spoke at length about what he knew of the four remaining Sacred Grounds, their methods and their strengths. After imparting all he knew, he finished off the cup he was drinking, and departed from Carl's room.

Carl then picked back up the mirror. "What do you think, love?" Carl asked Caiyi who had been listening to the whole thing.

"I think that when that man shows up, you will call for me so I can kill him personally." She stated plainly while looking into the distance, remembering her family that was killed and plotted against by this bastard Xuanyuan Wentian.

"You have the portkey that will take you to me. I'll alert you by mirror when he shows up so you can come and take care of him." Carl promised. Caiyi bestowed a loving smile on Carl.

"Good. Tell me more about Feng Ra's new bride and the look on Yun Che's face." Caiyi then changed the topic, trying to regain some of the good mood from earlier.

Carl laughed in remembrance. "Oh, it was so good and satisfying. He was so stumped that his charms weren't working, sort of like when you would give him the cold shoulder. I could barely keep myself from laughing…"

The next day Carl found received word that the Divine Phoenix Empire pulled back to their borders, except for a diplomatic detachment. They had gotten more crystal from Carl than they had hoped for when they instigated the war, so they could return back home without being a disgrace, and they wouldn't have to tangle with the strong cultivators that were Carl, Number One Under Heaven, Xiao Yun, Seventh Sister, and Fen Juechen.

Before they left Carl passed along more resources and some mirror communication devices to Feng Ra, with the promise to stay in touch. Now that Feng Ra had a human form and wasn't his familiar, Carl was pretty sure he wouldn't continue joining him on the jumps. They both knew this fact without saying it.

But Carl was incredibly happy for Feng Ra to have found a place to belong. And in the future, when Carl finally made his way back to this world, he would see if Feng Ra and his bride Feng Xue'er wanted to join Carl on the adventures.

Later that day a very large young man named Xia Yuanba showed up at the Palace. Xia Yuanba was Yun Che's brother in law from his first marriage to Xia Qingyue. He was nearly eight feet tall and built like Brolly in his Legendary Super Saiyan form. His muscles had muscles. He was at the Sovereign Profound Realm, and had the Tyrannical Emperor's Divine Veins, so he was a powerhouse. He was also the disciple of one of the leaders of the Absolute Monarch Sanctuary, one of the four Sacred Grounds.

Carl was impressed at the young man's sheer size, but amused that Yun Che seemed to have gotten a second wind and started strutting a bit more now that he supposedly had back up. Carl didn't care one bit for Yun Che's new attitude and offered to arm wrestle the big guy, if only to show Yun Che that he shouldn't get a big head.

While Xia Yuanba had impressive strength, and made Carl's six foot height look small, he still wasn't as strong as Carl was. After a few minutes of Xia Yuanba straining, Carl almost casually pushed his arm down while looking at Yun Che and smiling the whole time.

After winning, Carl got up, brushed off his clothes, and strolled away, muttering, "Mountains beyond the mountains. Always one bigger."

A bit later in the day Carl sought out Xia Yuanba to have a serious discussion.

"Hey there, big guy. Thanks for coming to talk to me." Carl frowned a bit on the inside though when he saw the angry way that Xia Yuanba was looking at him.

"Just because you're strong doesn't mean you can bully my brother-in-law." Xia Yuanba angrily retorted without any preamble.

Carl sighed in exasperation. Apparently Yun Che had been prepping him with exaggerated stories about what Carl had done to him, to try to get allies to beat Carl's influence.

"Xia Yuanba, I think we've gotten off on the wrong foot here. Let me tell you about my interactions with Yun Che. Once you've heard my side of the story, I'll let you judge if I'm in the wrong here." Carl then began regaling Xia Yuanba about how he had befriended and healed Yun Che's biological family long before meeting Yun Che.

He detailed how he had met his wife, the Demon Empress of the Illusory Demon Realm, and how they had gotten to know each other. He left out a lot of details, like their meeting with the Golden Crow and what they gained. Xia Yuanba didn't need to know those details, and Carl didn't trust Xia Yuanba not to blurt out secrets to Yun Che or his master at a later date.

In a way, Xia Yuanba reminded him of a cultivation version of Hagrid. He was open, trusting, and generous with his loved ones, with not a duplicitous bone in his body. He couldn't lie to save his life. So Carl wasn't going to be trusting him with any of his secrets.

He didn't believe that Yun Che wouldn't try to go and break into the location of the Golden Crow Spirit while trying to gain some more power. He just seemed like the type.

Carl then explained how Yun Che had crashed his wife's 100 year ceremony and made a big fuss when he could have just come to them to make arrangements to honor his grandfather. And that they had a huge funeral to honor him anyway, despite the way that Yun Che had insulted his wife.

He then told Xia Yuanba about all the times that Yun Che had been trying to flirt and tempt his wife in front of him.

"You tell me, Xia Yuanba. If someone was flirting with your woman in front of you, what would you do?"

"I'd break him in half." Xia Yuanba growled, only to realize that the person in question was his good brother in law. He paused, looking awkwardly at Carl, trying to figure out how to excuse Yun Che from what he had just declared.

Carl patted him on his enormous shoulder in commiseration. "Yeah, I wanted to do that to him too. But I can't because he's the family of my friends. So I can only settle for a slap on the back of his head when he goes too far to let him know to back off. Besides, from what I hear he's already got several wives, including your sister. I think he should be focusing on making them happy, rather than adding to his harem." Carl reasoned with Xia Yuanba.

"Yeah, you're right. Sister Qingyue deserves to be happy." Xia Yuanba nodded in agreement, thinking of his sister that didn't seem to have smiled in so long, always so serious and ice cold.

Carl finished by telling him some stories of Feng Ra, Carl's blood brother, who had a fiancé that Yun Che had been hitting on just recently in front of his own wife. Carl explained how Cang Yue hadn't seen Yun Che for over two years while thinking he was dead, and before they even got to have a reunion, Yun Che was flirting with another girl, someone else's fiancé, in front of his wife.

"So that's why I sometimes call Yun Che an idiot. I'm trying to teach him to be more considerate of his loved ones." Carl finished explaining.

Carl could see that Xia Yuanba was still somewhat conflicted. On the one hand he automatically wanted to take Yun Che's side who he grew up with. On the other, he could see that Carl didn't have any malicious motives for chastising Yun Che. He was doing it for his own good.

Eventually Xia Yuanba decided that, in this instance, Yun Che would have to figure out things on his own. He wasn't really being bullied, so Xia Yuanba didn't have anyone to smash.

Once thatissue was resolved in Xia Yuanba's mind, Carl spent some time with the big man, chatting about various things. Carl made sure to have Xia Yuanba send a message to his master at the Absolute Monarch Sanctuary about how he should not answer the call to arms from Xuanyuan Wentian if it came.

Since Carl was strong enough to destroy the Sacred Grounds, he had hope that they would be smart and avoid him when he proved more than strong enough to take them on. Due to the drawback, he knew they would always want to destroy him, but the wording of the drawback said that "…they won't commit to you so extremely that their existence could be threatened…". So they could at least use their reasoning to avoid him.

Maybe that's another reason Xia Yuanba felt some amount of conflict with Carl, yet didn't act on it? Because he was also a member of the Absolute Monarch Sanctuary, he was probably also influenced by the drawback.

Carl shrugged. After the ten years was over, the drawback should be ended too, so when he came back to the world in the future that instinctive hatred should also be gone.

The group stayed at the Blue Wind Empire's capital for another day before leaving. Cang Yue needed the time to pack and make arrangements for the Empire in her absence. She wasn't going to be left behind again while her husband wandered off. Her father had plans to have more sons to try to produce a decent heir, so Cang Yue was free to pursue her own happiness.

So once everyone was gathered, Carl pulled out his Ark again and after everyone was boarded, they set off for the Frozen Cloud Asgard sect, where Yun Che's first wife and Xia Yuanba's sister was studying.

When they arrived in front of the sect, they found that it was being besieged by two Tyrant Profound Realm cultivators and handfuls of Emperor Profound Realm cultivators from the Sun Moon Divine Hall, one of the four Sacred Grounds. Carl sighed while looking over at Yun Che.

"Damn, you must have a curse to live in interesting times, Yun Che. That's two of your wives finding themselves in dire situations when you left them behind. You should start bringing your women with you so at least you can be there to do something about it when the curse strikes." Carl muttered to Yun Che while some of the other members of their group chuckled at Carl's words.

Carl didn't bother to intervene when Yun Che and Xia Yuanba slaughtered the group, since the action was necessary. Although he did intervene when he saw that Yun Che wanted to let one of them go to carry a warning to the Sun Moon Divine Hall. Carl killed off the cultivator that Yun Che wanted to use as a messenger.

"Idiot." Carl called out to Yun Che. "If you want to send a message to your enemies, then wait until you've set up a trap for them to jump into before sending them a message to get them to jump in. Don't just randomly send back a survivor. He's got intel about just how strong you are so your enemies would be able to prepare better."

Yun Che scowled at Carl angrily, although Carl did have a point. All that time back at the Illusory Demon Realm Yun Che had been trying to get Carl to act jealously to paint him in a bad light to Caiyi, and Carl hadn't reacted. Now that Carl was not holding back and calling out his stupid decisions, he really didn't like that it painted him in a negative light in front of his women.

Carl scoffed inside when he saw that attitude of Yun Che's. 'He should have thought about it before being such an ass to me. Never thought Karma would strike so swiftly, right Yun Che?'

Carl didn't even bother to listen to Yun Che's justifications, he just moved on and entered the Frozen Cloud Asgard Sect Grounds after they saw he as there with Yun Che, who had apparently become one of their disciples in the past, despite being an all female cultivation sect.

Carl didn't even bother asking why. Yun Che's identity as the world's protagonist was explanation enough, in Carl's mind. Weird things always happened to protagonists.

After talking with the people of the sect, Carl found out that their sect master, Feng Qianhui, was injured fatally and was on the edge of dying. Carl got to her in time and began healing her with a combination of his profound energy and magical techniques. After she pulled through, Carl found that another higher up, Gong Yuxian, had also been seriously injured and would have died without help. Yun Che was just finishing treating her wounds, and she would pull though.

"Good job there idiot. You've got some good medical skills." Carl complimented Yun Che. No one could claim that Carl didn't give credit where credit was due.

"Of course! My master was a medical Saint." Yun Che bragged.

Carl nodded. "I wouldn't mind comparing notes sometime, or even meeting your master." Yun Che smiled proudly at the compliments. Carl internally rolled his eyes at the man.

After everyone was healed and the group was gathered in the banquet hall for a feast in celebration, Carl finally got some answers about why they were being besieged. Ye Xinghan, the leader of the Sum Moon Divine Hall, had gotten word that Xia Qingyue had a special body type, the Nine Profound Exquisite Body, and wanted to use her as a cauldron, which was basically a sex slave that would let him plunder her profound energy to enhance his own cultivation.

They had just about been ready to use a teleportation array to send away Xia Qingyue to safety. Even though the sect would die from the Sun Moon Divine Hall's retaliation, they hoped that Xia Qingyue would be able to gain revenge for them at some point in the future. Luckily Carl had brought help just in time.

Carl was amused to see Yun Che's two wives together for the first time, and with Xiao Lingxi also in the mix trying to get and keep Yun Che's attention, Yun Che had a bit of a chaotic time of it trying to keep all three of them happy.

Carl spent the time during the banquet talking with the Sect leader and the higher ups trying to get a decent grasp on the political landscape of the Profound Sky Continent, as well as the actual landscape, namely the geography. He was hatching an idea of how to solve several problems at the same time and get some revenge on the enemies of the Illusory Demon Realm.

While talking with the Frozen Cloud Asgard Sect leader about the locations and attitudes of the Four Sacred Grounds, Carl learned that the Supreme Ocean Palace, the last of the Four Sacred Grounds, was very hands off on the continent. They were situated 1,500 km south of the Profound Sky continent and rarely interacted with everyone else.

Apparently their main duty was to watch over the Moon Slaughter Devil Nest, which was a deadly ground that was filled with evil Yin energy. Carl could see that Jasmine, the red headed ghost, was very interested in that information. Carl filed that information away for later, in case it ever became relevant.

Later that night in his room, Carl created a portkey that would bring him back to his room at the Frozen Cloud Asgard, and took a different one back to his and Caiyi's rooms. It had been several days since he had been with her. He missed her presence.

Carl brought Caiyi with him into the Heavenly Time Pearl for their reunion. After they exercised for a full night and had their reunion, Carl brought out the pensieve and showed her his memories of all that he'd learned. The two then put their heads together on how to set up an ambush to gain their revenge on those who had killed Caiyi's father and brother and harassed the Illusory Demon Realm for so long.

A couple weeks inside the pearl was almost no time in the outside world, and so Carl had taken the portkey back to his room in the Frozen Cloud Asgard sect before anyone even knew he was gone. In the morning he had some plans to set in motion.

Several days later, on the grounds in front of the Frozen Cloud Asgard stood Carl, Number One Under Heaven, Fen Juechen, Xia Yuanba, and Yun Che. The rest of his group and the Frozen Cloud Asgard members were holed up inside the sect, shoring up the defenses.

Carl had engineered certain messages about "treasures" to be leaked to the Sun Moon Divine Hall and the Mighty Heavenly Sword Region. His reward ability that he gained from the completion of the scenario in the Harry Potter world insured that the word would be spread.

So Carl wasn't surprised when forces for both the Sun Moon Divine Hall, with Ye Xinghan at their head, and Mighty Heavenly Sword Region, with Xuanyuan Wentian at their head, showed up.

Carl calmly looked over the results of his information sowing. Carl had made sure that Xia Yuanba sent a message to his master to not bring his forces from the Absolute Monarch Sangtuary to the shindig. He wanted someone that was at least somewhat neutral to him and the Illusory Demon Realm to be in a position of strength after this fight.

But if they still continued to harass him, or went after Feng Ra's Divine Phoenix Empire, then Carl wasn't averse to retaliating against them.

The numerous forces of cultivators arrayed in front of Carl's group came to a halt. The two leaders were eyeing each other in consternation, figuring that each other would be their biggest competition with getting the rumored "treasure". Carl chuckled to himself to see their posturing. The fools didn't even know the trap they had stepped into.

Carl looked down at the communication mirror whose link was open to Caiyi, Carl smiled at his wife. "They are in the target area, eyeing each other up. They are ready to be reaped." Carl then activated the arrays he had set out, which could only temporarily paralyze those inside the confines, as well as keep them from utilizing escape techniques. "Now." He gave the signal to Caiyi.

Caiyi didn't waste any time. Their own army portkeyed in. Carl had set up the paralysis array, which was very temporary, to make sure their troops had time to orient themselves after portkeying in before battle would be joined. The Illusory Demon Realm troops then fell on their enemies with a vengeance. Caiyi didn't waste any time either and attacked Xuanyuan Wentian.

Carl attacked Ye Xinghan with everything he had. From the Yun couple he had learned that the people of the Sun Moon Divine Hall liked to use cold poison, so Carl didn't waste any time and used his hottest flames to burn the guy to ashes in only a few seconds. It was very anticlimactic, but that's what happened when a cultivator at the Divine Origin Realm fought one at the Sovereign Realm.

Yun Qinghong had been a little disappointed that he couldn't end the man himself for what he did so many years ago, but at least he got to go on a killing spree now of the men from the Sun Moon Divine Hall.

Carl, though, kept one eye on Caiyi's battle with Xuanyuan Wentian while occasionally helping their forces out against the two Sacred Grounds that were on the battlefield.

Caiyi was wielding her flames expertly with great skill and precision. But she was toying with the man, picking him apart a bit at a time, making him desperate. Carl kept close in case he had any trump cards. Villains like him always had trump cards.

When it looked like Xuanyuan Wentian was about to lose his life against Caiyi's flames, he suddenly yelled, and turned into some weird black gas that flowed across the battlefield and seeped into Fen Juechen's body.

"Great, we've got a Voldemort wannabe here." Carl muttered, already pulling up his magic to cast some exorcism spells on the bastard. In a flash of flame wings, Carl was next to Fen Juechen and cast the spells.

The black smog poured right back out of Fen Juechen and solidified into Xuanyuan Wentian again. Carl almost casually lopped off the man's hands while he was still disoriented from the abrupt exit from Fen Juechen.

Caiyi flew over, and saw that Carl had Xuanyuan Wentian under control. Carl placed some profound energy blocks on the man so he couldn't try anymore escapes and handed the prisoner off to Caiyi with a smile.

"You get me the best gifts." Caiyi called sweetly to Carl.

"Anything for you, love." Carl replied.

Carl first checked on Fen Juechen, and saw he was doing fine. He then turned to see how their forces were doing and help where he could. It only took another 20 minutes until the last of the enemy were killed, subdued, or surrendered. Carl then went among his men and started healing any injuries they sustained.

Once the battlefield had been organized, Carl, Caiyi, and the leaders of the Guardian Families and Duke Palaces that came to the battle spent some time interrogating Xuanyuan Wentian. The man was a greedy piece of work all right. The number of people he had killed or discredited in order to ascend to his level of leadership was astounding. The man was not particularly talented in his youth, but there were no lows he wouldn't stoop to in order to gain cultivation resources. No one he wouldn't sacrifice or betray in order to gain just a little bit of advantage.

Everyone felt vaguely dirty after hearing of all his deeds. So Caiyi executed the man with little fanfare. The satisfaction of imprisoning him and torturing him wasn't worth the chance he may escape and cause problems in the future, and at least this way Caiyi got her revenge against one of the men who killed her family.

After everything was organized, Caiyi brought her troops via portkey back to the Illusory Demon Realm while Carl would handle the final arrangements. He completely ignored any questions from people about how the troops had arrived.

Yun Che decided to help out the Frozen Cloud Asgard and left plenty of pills that he concocted for the Frozen Cloud Asgard members to help them get stronger so they wouldn't get bullied.

Carl was somewhat interested in just how Yun Che was able to create complex cultivation pills in a snap. He remembered back to the jump documents description of the Heavenly Poison Pearl, and how it could perfectly refine and concoct any pills or elixirs instantly. He had the suspicion that Yun Che had the Heavenly Poison Pearl, but ultimately decided he would leave it be. Killing allies for treasures, no matter how annoying the ally was, wasn't Carl's modus operandi.

Besides, with how Yun Che hooked up the Frozen Cloud Asgard, it showed he wasn't all bad. So it wasn't like Yun Che deserved to die.

Carl also passed out some communication jades so that the ladies of Frozen Cloud Asgard could keep in touch with Xia Qingyue, who would be joining her husband and family back in the Illusory Demon Realm.

As repayment for Carl's help in protecting them, the Frozen Cloud Asgard allowed Carl to look over their ice cultivation methods and techniques. He had already had a pretty decent idea of how the techniques were utilized, based on watching Yun Che use them back in their duel. But seeing the actual text of the method helped Carl immensely and shortened the time he needed to learn how to utilize the ice techniques himself.

Once the battle was over, Xia Yuanba was planning on leaving to join back up with his master to continue getting stronger. Carl beating him in the arm wrestling contest had lit a fire under him to work hard to get stronger. Xia Yuanba had also decided that he liked being in charge of himself and his own group. So he would be taking over the Absolute Monarch Sanctuary soon enough.

Fen Juechen decided to stay and try to rebuild his Eternal Night Royal Family. He had seen that he wouldn't be getting anywhere with Xiao Lingxi because the girl was hung up on Yun Che. So while he remained a sworn brother to her, he left to find his own path in life. Carl made sure he got a communication jade in case he ran into anything interesting or needed help. His information on Xuanyuan Wentian had come at just the right time for Carl to set things up and avoid future troubles.

Right before they were about to leave, Carl finally found out about another woman of Yun Che's that no one knew where she was. Chu Yuechan's sister, Chu Yueli, was really worried about her. The two sisters were part of the Frozen Cloud Asgard sect. But Chu Yuechan had been kicked out for having relations with a man, getting pregnant, and refusing to abort the baby.

'Damn, Yun Che. Can you not keep track of your women? Does the world plot only want you to remember to worry about them at certain key times? Will we get back home in the Illusory Demon Realm and three months later I'll find out you've got yet another woman out there that I'll have to help you save?' Carl scoffed in his mind at the idiot.

Since Carl didn't want to faff about, he simply used the point me spell along with some of Chu Yueli's blood to find the woman. It took only took a few minutes of flight by Carl's Ark, but they found a lonely and remote cabin in the icy fields of the North.

And that's how Yun Che met his 2 year old daughter for the first time. Yun Wuxin was a really cute little kid, Carl had to admit.

But when Yun Che reunited with Chu Yuechan and blurted out that he'd always been looking for her, Carl had to bite his tongue from saying anything to ruin the idiot's reunion with another woman of his. 'What "always been looking for you"?' Carl thought mockingly. 'You haven't been doing jack squat. And you make it sound like it was you, and not my spells, that found her. Whatever, that's a protagonist for you.' Carl found himself surprised his eyes didn't roll right out of his head.

Finally everyone was together, all the reunions over, and so Carl took everyone back to the Illusory Demon Realm via his Ark. Carl happily settled back into the palace with his wife.

Yun Che had a couple more weddings soon after, at the insistence of his mother. He added Xiao Lingxi and Chu Yuechan to his family. Chu Yuechan's sister Chu Yueli had come with them, since she didn't want to be separated from her sister anymore. She settled in with the Yun Family, and became a very interesting topic for the young men of the Empire to pursuit.

Carl was quite happy to make sure that the many women of Yun Che got all the cultivation resources they needed, that their 54 profound entrances were opened so they could match Yun Che's cultivation speed, and that they were on their way to becoming powerful enough to hopefully rein him in a bit.

At the very least with his wives present Yun Che stopped coming by and bothering Caiyi all the time, which meant that he wasn't bothering Carl either. Thankfully.

After a couple of months, Carl got notice from Feng Ra about his marriage, so Carl and Caiyi and quite a large group of people from Duke's palaces, to Guardian families also attended the celebration, gifting the newly wed couple plenty of nice things.

Carl laughed and laughed when he saw Yun Che's hang dog expression at Feng Xue'er marrying someone else. It cracked him up that his pewter dog turned Phoenix familiar was the one to steal a woman away from Yun Che.

'Of course I probably did in the end too.' Carl thought in satisfaction. 'If the way Yun Che was panting after Caiyi was any indication, then the world plot probably wanted to hook the two up. Stupid world plot!'

Another month after returning home from the wedding of Feng Ra, Yun Che came to Carl with the request to ferry him to a couple places. The first place was the Moon Slaughter Devil's Nest that Carl had noted that Jasmine was interested in earlier. Apparently Jasmine needed a Netherworld Udumbara Flower for whatever reason, and it was most likely growing in a place of great yin concentration.

Over the past several months Yun Che had slowly been turning more tolerable due to the constant influence of his family and wives. Now that Yun Che wasn't running around everywhere like a wild wolf and getting in fights left and right, and he was actually being respected by the people around him, he was actually beginning to lance that anger boil deep inside him.

So Carl wasn't as against helping Yun Che as he was before. Besides, the favor was for Jasmine, not Yun Che.

So he accompanied Yun Che and Jasmine to the Moon Slaughter Devil Nest where they hunted down a flower that only bloomed every 24 years. It just happened to be blooming right then. Carl rolled his eyes at the way the world plot worked. Of course they just happened to run across something at just the right time.

'Don't really know why I bother being sarcastic about the workings of the world plot anymore.' Carl chuckled to himself. 'That's just the way it is.'

Carl listened to Jasmine telling Yun Che about the soul attacks they were feeling from the evil Yin rich grounds, and how it was only because of the Dragon God and Phoenix Legacies that he could withstand it. Carl realized that Jasmine was saying it for his benefit too, and simply went with the flow. Jasmine then retreated into some space to protect herself when the Evil Yin became too damaging for a ghost like her.

Carl almost laughed out loud when some strong Sovereign Profound Realm Devil jumped out and bragged about how he used to be a Devil God and would return to his peak once more. Carl didn't even wait to hear what his dastardly plan was and just summoned up his Yang rich Golden Crow flames and burnt the bugger to ashes in only a few minutes.

While Yun Che was struggling to get closer to the Netherworld Udumbara Flower, Carl noticed a small black marble sized bead on the ground where he had burnt up the devil. Carl picked it up and whistled at the luck in having found another Evil God Seed. He realized that if he hadn't come along, Yun Che would have gotten the seed. Smiling quite contentedly, he put it away for later and looked at Yun Che's struggles.

Carl sighed and helped Yun Che collect the flower for Jasmine. Yun Che passed out from the stress on his soul. Carl had been just fine because he was a much higher realm than Yun Che. Levitating Yun Che's unconscious body behind him, Carl brought them back outside and returned to the Illusory Demon Realm.

After examining Yun Che, Carl determined he would be fine and just needed some rest to recover from the ordeal. He delivered Yun Che to his wives with an explanation of how he needed rest so they could take care of him and sit on him.

Carl naturally returned to his wife's palace to continue his daily routine. He was really enjoying his life. He gets to cultivate and train, play with cool toys, and spend intimate time with his hot wife. It really was good to be a jumper.

Carl was a little surprised to see Jasmine a few days later show up. She apparently was no longer a spirit, she was a real girl, with a body and everything. Carl congratulated her on getting her body back.

Jasmine still acted all snooty and passed a few treasures to Carl, trying to balance the books so she didn't owe him. Carl shrugged nonchalantly and thanked her for the gifts. She soon departed to do whatever spirits do when they get a body back. Carl couldn't be bothered to ask. It wasn't like they were BFFs or anything.

Just like clockwork, three months later Yun Che was back with another request to pick up one of his women from another continent. 'Just how does he do that? How did he even get to the Azure Cloud Continent?' Carl wondered.

After talking to Caiyi about the issue, she declared to Yun Che that this was the last time Yun Che gets to pull that kind of thing without planning beforehand. Car naturally agreed with her, he wasn't an idiot to argue with his wife for Yun Che's sake.

So Carl carted the two of them in his Ark and went to track down another of Yun Che's women in a different continent.

It seems they got there just in time, since Su Ling'er was being chased for some treasure of her clan. They saved her and killed her attackers. Yun Che, as usual, took all the credit for finding and saving her. Carl had seen Yun Che do it before, so he just snorted a bit in ridicule but let it go. Why would he care, he wasn't looking to gain favor with Su Ling'er?

'Why am I being a chauffeur again? Oh, yeah. I like the Yun couple and Xiao Yun and I don't want to deal with them acting like kicked puppies if I didn't help expand their family with Yun Che's Waifus.' Carl sighed. 'That's what happens when one gets domesticated. They have to make their friends and family happy. Although, it is certainly working to make Yun Che a bit more tolerable to be around. His women take up most of his time, so he doesn't have much extra time to be annoying.' Carl finished with a smile. Overall it was a win.

And since Caiyi put her foot down, even the Yun couple couldn't prevail on their friendship to have Carl drive Yun Che around in order to borrow sugar from the neighbors. Or snatch more wives.

After saving Su Ling'er and her father, they went and found Yun Che's medical Saint master, Yun Gu, and saved him just in time too from an encirclement of cultivators. Carl wasn't even surprised at the world plot for setting up situations like that anymore. He just went along with it.

With their task finally finished, Carl returned to the Illusory Demon Realm, and settled down to enjoy the next two years of time in that world. Especially now that Caiyi had firmly set her foot down on giving Yun Che rides whenever he asked, Carl could insincerely tell Yun Che that it was out of his hands. And Yun Che couldn't get his family to emotionally blackmail Carl into helping the dude. A Demon Empress' commands always trumped Carl's friend's pleading.

Yup, life was now truly enjoyable for the husband of the Demon Empress.

[AN: One of the reasons I found writing this last section so amusing is that you rarely see these big bad MCs acting domestic. Yes, they are a holy terror to their enemies. But they are people too. They want their family to be happy. They occasionally get sent to get milk by their significant others on a Friday night.

Funny story, one Sunday evening years ago I was in a Safeway in Monterrey Bay, and I saw, no shit, Clint Eastwood there with a grocery list. He looked a bit frazzled, poor guy. And even though he was a big shot director and actor, made tons of money and all that, there he was, grocery shopping on a Sunday night for his family. I thought it was cool. Very human. "They put their pants on one leg at a time too" kind of sentiment.

So here is Carl, like any other person despite being super powered and jumping from world to world. The powerful MCs still have to go to family reunions and put up with Uncle Bob's weirdness, or their cousin's strange obsessions with frogs, and other such stuff. But, hey. Family.

So while Carl complains about some of the stuff on the surface, inside I imagine he really enjoys the time he spends this way. Since he knows he's gonna keep jumping. So a bit of domesticity isn't going to hurt his self image or make him any less of a genuine bad ass.]