19

Three weeks later Pef arrived over Port Li, and circled above, looking down in amazement.

The port was now full of trade ships, and smoke from a hundred smith foundries filled the sky.

'Ah, the smell of civilization!' he proclaimed with a sniff.

'And they have an airport as well' the glove answered, forming a descending arrow over the site, on its user retina.

'Nice. I'll have to start an airship industry as well...' Pef mused in deep thought.

'At most you'll get a thousand snake ships. Then you'll have exterminated all the available snakes of usable size, on this continent'

'Yeah, even beasts have a hard time evolving here'

'Tier 1 universes are low on qi, Aspirant. You'd have been an Emperor already, if this was a tier 5'

'And I bet that's why there's so few cultivators. One in a thousand or so?' Pef thought to himself.

The glove didn't respond. The user had enough information for now. He would need to practice hard. There were no shortcuts from here on.

Just hard work. And love. Luckily, love would be easy for this user.

Women on this planet preferred to wait and find a strong husband.

Pef floated down into his garden, checking out the school and the recruits.

A dozen more had entered Core, and three were close to Nascent rank. Two of them women, for some reason. Pretty good for a few months of training. Then again, qi levels were low and easy to reach with some hard work.

"Guardian Piet, well done!" Pef declared loudly, and patted the man on his back.

"I did my best, Master Xi. I can run 100 rounds around the school now!" Piet said with a proud face.

A few more Guardians gathered round, telling stories of bravery and police work.

Pef checked their hands, noting a few got married, by heir rings.

"Guys. All of you need to get married. You will grow faster. Be brave and ask the ones you love."

A few shyer Guardians dug the ground with their toes.

"But is she says no?"

"Ask a dozen women. But only after you form your Core." Pef advised the shy Practitioner.

"Wong Leader has like 20 concubines..." a nearby Guardian complained and sniffed.

Pef clenched his fist.

"I'll be back soon. Prepare wood and stoves for a feast" he ordered then jumped over into the next garden.

The young Wong master lazed in a woman's lap, being fed grapes like an immortal.

"Ah, this seems very pleasant..." Pef said in a deceptively approving tone.

"Master Xi!" the man yelled and jumped away, bowing in front of the scary alchemist.

"So, you've decided to marry already? A normal girl?" Pef asked curious.

The girl blushed and hid her face. She wasn't any beauty, but had large airbags. Pef approved inside. The airbags looked very comfortable.

"Well...I haven't thought about it, that hard. Just having fun..." the Wong Leader muttered a bit embarrassed.

"If you like her, then marry her. No problem. Don't shame her and her family, though"

Pef said softly, while patting the woman's head. No qi and maybe a dozen years left.

"Okay then. Fen Li, marry me!" the young man asked, taking the woman's hand.

The poor girl fainted, and Pef set her gently on a pillow, to rest.

"I hope that was a yes..." the Wong scion wondered, a bit confused.

"It was. Now, I hear there's twenty more? Go visit them and select those you love. Send the rest away, with some copper bits. They'll need the money, to move to a new town" Pef demanded with a stern voice.

Wong blinked confused, trying to think which women to keep. As wives.

"Only one more I guess. I don't even like the others..." the fop admitted shamelessly.

"Good. And next you go visit Miss Feng. And see if you like her."

"But...isn't she dying?" Wong asked with wide eyes.

"I'll try to fix that. Give her 20 more years. More than Fen Li will have" Pef explained in a soft voice.

"Oh! You are indeed a great alchemist, Master Xi. I'll do this right now!"

"After you clean the house. And wash off the perfume" Pef ordered with a flick to his forehead.

"Right...then I'll be off" Wong replied in a bewildered tone, walking slowly towards his mansion. He rubbed his head in pain as he entered, then turned back to check. Nobody was behind him anymore.

Pef had already jumped away, landing in his own garden.

He noticed two Guardian women chatting rumors, while they set tables. No rings.

"Ladies. Not married, are you?" he asked with a nefarious purpose.

"Ah, of course not, Master Xi. Not yet a hundred years old...but if you're interested?" one of them, Kira, said with a blush.

Pef blinked, taken aback. The other Guardian smiled sweetly.

"Well, we can play a little if you want, but marriage is serious" Pef mused while he began setting his cooking implements.

"Ah, sorry to have been frivolous, Guardian Leader. You are rather dashing...just not husband material. I want a man to share my life with. Just haven't found him yet" the woman whispered, as she came to help set the stoves.

"The Wong Leader needs to be kept in check. Should you choose to accept him, and this mission" Pef whispered back, in a secretive way.

"Him? He's only a Core though, and a weak one...I'm close to my Nascent Soul" the woman replied while looking at the sky.

"But if I give Wong my Xi method?" Pef asked curious.

"I see. I'd need to beat Wong daily, keep him in shape and obedient... Maybe tonight we can share a few drinks...and talk about this more." the Guardian mused with a frown.

"Wong is sort of cute though." the other Guardian whispered from the other side, having tiptoed to spy on the conversation.

"Want to team up with Wong, sister?" the first woman asked with a grin.

"Yea, okay. He is rich too. But first we enjoy our own Leader, right?" the second woman smiled while slowly dragging a nail over Pef's ear and neck.

Pef gulped as both women smiled sweetly and eyed him with hungry eyes. After the feast, Pef got taken to a room and exploited for long hours by these hungry Guardians.

The day, Pef presided over Wong Leader's wedding to four women, two of them normal homo sapiens sapiens, and two of them homo sapiens immortus.

Although chances were better for qi children from sages, it wasn't a hard rule. Cultivators appeared at random sometimes, or from a single cultivator parent.

Problem was only the lifespan, which was 10 times shorter for normal people without qi.

Miss Feng had sadly refused Wong, as a husband, feeling it was pointless with only a few months to live.

Kira had crossed into Nascent Soul last night, and her sister Guardian wasn't far.

'Is it me? How did she advance so fast?' Pef wondered while staring at the happy new Wong lady.

'You did inject lots of Sky rank qi into them' the glove snickered.

'Oh yea, I did' Pef admitted with a grin.

'In fact, your own father did something similar to...'

'I kinda suspected that, my glove. I know how babies are made'

'Just saying, aspirant. So, glass factories now?' it wondered.

'You bet. Maybe more Practice will unlock this formation anchoring ability...' Pef mused with a frown.

'Yes. And more love. Go recruit more Guardians. Females in particular.' the glove explained with a snort.

Pef smiled and blushed a little. This was an easy job after all. And not that painful anymore.

Well, except for the new recruits. But such was the way of the Legion.

Pain, training and love. And then you got to kill gods, or die trying.