38

For the next two weeks, Pef and his wife were guests of the Tan 443 garrison, as the Guard Leader and Xie sparred every day, and Pef cooked for them to help them recover.

Second lieutenant Dong Fen became Pef's keeper, trying to keep the young Sky rank out of trouble. Didn't work quite as planned.

"Your continent must be really backwards, to allow some creepy sects to terrorize people or whatever those spider guys did with babies" Dong said while chugging down his beer and smacking his lips in delight.

"Well, not anymore but yeah, it was kinda hard for the people. So there's no sects here in Blue Xi?" Pef asked curious, while pouring another round of beer.

"Hah, of course not. You were a young Earth rank and managed to wipe them out, imagine what an Emperor could do! No sects are allowed in the Xi Patriarchy. Even when the Volcanis guys come to trade, they have to stay on their ships. No converting any of our people to some heathen god. The General is all we need!" Dong proclaimed and saluted with a fist to his chest.

'Glove, what did you do?' Pef asked in annoyance.

'Gave these savages a real deity to worship? Like a Tier 8 Heavenly Dian.'

'Well, I suppose that's better than some local dude who drinks blood from babies...' Pef muttered to himself.

'Locust prefers virgins. Hmmm, technically babies are virgins too' The glove mused wisely.

Pef grumbled and slammed his tankard down, no longer in a mood to drink. 'Ritual sacrifice I presume?'

'No point getting angry now, Aspirant. Remember the mission'

Pef picked up his escort and returned to the barracks, while holding a tipsy Dong Fen under his arm.

"Hey look, it's Pef and the guy you sent to watch him!" Xie told Erin in a fake whisper.

"So, you're going to Tan Ang?" Erin asked in a wistful voice, ignoring the drunk man slumped at her feet.

"Yea...The Province Emperor is of the Xi bloodline right?" Pef asked to make sure.

Lady Erin blinked for a second in confusion "Of course he is. Who else is the Patriarch going to train?"she asked rhetorically.

Pef scratched his cheek in deep thought. "Let's hope Mister Ang is not a murderous autocrat. It be creepy to present Deng Xi with the head of a relative. And the old man might not like me afterwards..." Pef mused out loud, thinking of possible futures.

Lady Erin coughed a bit of blood and wiped her mouth with a cloth, checking the spotted cloth is a surprise. "He is joking right? Nothing..."

Xie patted her back and hugged her waist "Don't worry Erin. I'm sure Ang Xi will be reasonable and Pef won't have to kill him. Take care now"

Pef flew up, holding Xie's arm, and then sped towards the capital at subsonic speeds.

Erin stared after the strange couple, her face wary. "No matter how badass your husband was on your Saint continent, the gulf between Sky and Emperor is wider than the ocean. Your cute young husband won't last a single blow, my friend" she whispered to herself, before remembering a detail.

'How did Pef know Patriarch's name, Deng Xi? Nobody alive today knew more than simply Patriarch Xi. And the young man even called him old man, out loud. If the Patriarch was paying attention, he might have even heard him...'

The journey to the provincial capital took two more weeks, but Pef didn't stop at any more local garrisons.

Although his bloodline would allow a flight permit, he did need a seal from the local Emperor. And such, he flew directly towards the Emperor, to obtain a permit to fly. Perfect logic, in his opinion.

However, as the capital became visible on the horizon, three Sky ranks approached at high speed, and circled his airship.

"You, present your permit!" An older guy asked while pointing at Pef with a stern face.

"Yes! That's where I'm going, to see the Emperor and get my permit. Have a nice flight!" Pef replied cordially, and smiled widely.

"Major Ang Shian, this youngster didn't present a permit..." the guy on a left remarked with a unbelieving face.

"And he didn't salute either!"

"The Manual doesn't say anything about dead flying snakes filed with air" the Major mused with doubtful eyes. Enforcing the rules was one thing. Inventing new rules wasn't.

"But, the Manual mentions flying beasts, sir. It shouldn't matter if they flap their wings or not" the first guy legalized an answer.

"You might be right, Major Wutan Ang. But, best make sure. Go check with Air Control. This flying ship is moving quite slowly" the Major ordered to his younger subordinate.

"Right away, sir!" Major Wutan yelled and sped away.

Meanwhile the old Major came about and flew level with the flying cradle.

"You should salute higher ranks, young man" he offered in a cautionary tone.

The boy scratched his cheek and thought for a moment. "That's actually true, Major. But there's two problems. One, we're of equal qi rank. And two, I may be in a higher organisational position. So you should be saluting me"

The old Major steeled himself, although no one had invented steel yet, and considered the youngling's words. 'Perhaps a true Xi? On a pleasure cruise with that purple haired woman?'

It was remotely possible. However, there was still the missing flight permit.

He scanned his soul covertly, noting half of the white aura usual in the Xi family. The woman had the same half-white aura, which made him more circumspect.

"Why didn't your Emperor present you a flight permit before take off?" Major Ang Shian asked with a curious voice.

"Ah, that's a difficult question indeed. On the Saint continent, I am the Emperor. So I can fly on my own recognisance. Basically, I permit myself to fly. Now, for the other part, you'd have to ask Wixtal Xi, my father. The idiot could have left me a permit, but he must have forgotten" Pef answered with a shrug.

"Most likely, you weren't a Sky rank last time you two met. Emperor Wixtal Xi hasn't left the Wix province past twenty years or so." the Major said in a grave tone, now more confident of the problem.

"Probably right. I'm some 18 years old, so last time he saw me, I was likely a spurt of Emperor rank qi, being injected into my mother" the young man replied with a chuckle.

The woman laughed melodically as well, but poor Major Ang Shian didn't know if to cry or laugh. The story rang true, but then this young man wasn't officially part of the Xi Guard, only by birth.

The third's Major eyes were bulging with the effort to stay afloat, as he was a new Sky rank and rather weak.

"Go back to your post, Major. And send word to the Emperor. He has a nephew on the way." he told his adjunct, who nodded and flew away.

"That guy is kinda weak. You should have him train some more, maybe fight some beasts..." Pef remarked callously, and turned away to cook something.

The old Major approved inside, but that young Major had a a General's priest as a father. He would have an easy life, nothing anyone could do about it.

Major Wutan returned some half an hour later, finding the airship had barely moved 3 kilometers.

"Sir, Air Control says the airship must land before flying over city proper. The would be risk of crashing or fires or aerial attack otherwise"

Pef nodded and held up a wooden spike with grilled meat on it. "Sure, we'll go on foot through the city. We also have airports back home, for airships to land safely outside the cities"

Xie smiled, grabbing her food, and added: "And to prevent revengeful people dropping stones over forts or something" Then she bit into her food and ignored the men flying beside the airship.

Two hours later, Pef stored the airship and flew down with his wife, landing a few meters beyond the first houses.

"Well then, see you later Majors!" Pef exclaimed politely, and walked away, hand in hand with the purple haired woman.

"...The Emperor is waiting for him, at his mansion. The other way" Major Wutan muttered in a low voice.

Major Ang Shian sighed and ran after the lost couple. "Mister Pef! Come with me. The Emperor's mansion is this way" he said politely and gestured towards a hill to the west.

"He's better have a room ready. I missed sleeping in a bed" Pef muttered a bit audibly.

The Major sighed and hoped nobody would die today. Not even himself.

Two hours laters, after walking half the city on foot, the three people arrived at the Emperor's Ang Xi mansion.

Which was a large structure made of stone cubes, 50 meters in height and 500 meters wide.

It had a wide wooden gate which stayed open.

As they entered, a dozen guards peeled off and escorted them up an immense flight of stairs, 50 meters wide and leading to the roof. Pef counted 500 steps going up. Someone made an effort to appear grand.

On this stone roof, the Emperor had arranged a pavilion and a reception platform, lined with officials and various armored men, again with decorated armors of various colors.

"Hello Uncle!" Pef yelled as he noticed the most powerful aura around, a bearded man with a white robe and a Sky rank breastplate.

The Major beside him sighed in pain and veered of, leaving Pef standing in front of a hundred officials staring at him with various moods.

"Come closer nephew. Let me see you" the Emperor spoke with a qi imbued voice, making the air waver.

Xia opened her sliver eyes and grunted. "Hit him back, husband. This guy is too arrogant" she urged her man. The qi amplification could be seen as an attack.

Pef however really didn't want to start a war. He just needed his flight papers. Or whatever they were.

"I'm fine right here, thanks. So I hear you give out flight permits, right? Get me two!" Pef demanded in an easygoing voice, while his qi circulated to hold himself together.

The Emperor muttered something inaudible, and flicked his fingers.

A painted servant rand forward carrying two wooden plates covered in red wax.

He laid them reverently in the Emperor's hands, and a surge of qi enveloped them for a few seconds.

'A formation? Something about mass restrictions?' Pef asked himself as he didn't get everything the spell did.

'The flight permit allows one person and the personal belongings. Weapons are not included' the glove said after a moment.

'So, if I draw weapons in flight?'

'The wax breaks' the glove concluded.

'Clever. But won't stop me dropping a citadel from 4000 meters' Pef said with a wry grin.

'Storage is assumed limited. 10 cubic meters at Emperor rank. At most 100 cubic meters for Sovereign ranked rings'

'And you have a thousand times that' Pef mused with inner glee.

---------------------------------------------------

The glove sighed inward, but didn't respond. It could store a galaxy, once the user had the proper rank. Folding tridimensional space in 8 dimensions wasn't hard at all.