52+

The two airships continued their flight with minimal stops along the route, until the enormous qi beacon got close and a powerful figure arrived to meet them, at the canal's junction with a huge river, perhaps 5 kilometers wide.

A string of artificial islands with fortified superstructures dotted the river. A large naval force was present here, barges armored in beast skins, and this old looking man, stronger than an Emperor.

His hands came up, and the air became denser and denser, bringing the airships to a stop, in front of him.

"That's the Air Tyrant, Pef. He guards the Celestial River Junction." Erin whispered to her husband, while her heart trembled with worry.

"Hmmm. I'd guess beasts waves along this river are harder to stop" Pef mused, looking down with his other face, the cold calculating strategist.

"Land for inspection, young Pef. You don't need these flimsy airbags anyway" the Tyrant said in a qi infused voice, his voice a normal tone, even if the man himself was 300 meters away.

Pef gestured with two fingers, and Majors Wu and Zhong grabbed the rope coils and jumped out, dragging the airships to a landing.

Then he flew out, and sped for a second, stopping a meter away from the old Tyrant. The men eyed each other with curiosity.

"Well met, Uncle. Let's have some wine and talk" the Emperor said with a careless smile.

The Tyrant snorted in amusement, and dragged him by the neck, towards a fort in the middle of the river. Two seconds later, Pef was deposited like an unruly child in on a bench, in the middle of a tea pavilion.

Then he had to wait for 20 minutes while the old guy danced through the tea ritual, and then drink the first cup in bitter silence.

"The old spirit is fine, I guess?" the Tyrant asked with a longing voice, and glanced at the orange glove for a second.

'Are you, glove? Fine?' Pef asked curious.

'Ventu Xi. Compatibility 0.0010. Age 55 thousand. Killed a Sovereign ranked Magma Golem using a Legion neo knife, during his Roaming. Never married. No surviving children.' the glove replied instead.

Pef looked in awe at the old monster. He didn't look one day past three thousand.

"Really, a Sovereign ranked golem?" Pef asked with obvious hero worship on his face.

"Yes. I was young and foolish then. And I trusted the spirit of the glove. Being burned alive...cured me of that" the man said with a sad chuckle.

Pef scratched his cheek, thinking of how he suffered from nuclear radiation, and his skin melted off him. Probably something like that.

"Yeah. I did something similar in my youth" Pef said in a commiserating tone.

The old Tyrant scanned this unbelievably young Emperor in front of him and nodded. To grow this fast, the poor boy must have fought like a madman, always going for stronger enemies. And Emperor ranked beasts were always dangerous.

He mused in a bit of wonder. "So I heard you beat up young Ang? Even if that boy is a lazy womanizer, he is still..."

"Nah. It was a tournament with wooden swords. Just pushed him out of the arena" Pef said in modest manner.

Ventu smiled and shook his head. Pushing an Emperor? Even that lazy youngster could push back the Celestial River. And did, when he was stationed here at the Junction, and the Hippopotamus wave swam downriver.

In his hand, a Sovereign ranked sword appeared, crafted by his Master, using his own left leg.

He placed in on the table, waiting for the youngling to figure it out.

Didn't take long, with the glove spirit whispering unknowable secrets into his brain.

Pef touched it gently, like the weapon would break. "Crazy old man. He's not the General..." he muttered in a mix of veneration and disgust.

"Keep the sword, young Pef. Soul forging that snake of yours would take a thousand years otherwise." Ventu explained while drawing out his other sword. Men did stand on two legs, after all.

"Sure thing and thanks, Sovereign ranked bones are rather rare, I would guess. But, we need to spar a little. Bloody my new weapon and all" the foolish Emperor offered as payment.

Ventu blinked in surprise, then sprang up and flew towards the forest. He didn't expect the boy to be this brave. Then again, he was the same when he was younger.

For the next three hours, Pef was completely and utterly beaten, stomped, crushed, pasted, sliced and diced and shown his lack of strength with actions.

The Air Tyrant went lightly on him, as the Patriarch wanted to beat up his carcass too, but he just couldn't pass the opportunity.

The trail of devastation marked the site of each sword strike, trees sliced open, beasts and bushes pulverized, and Pef's body rolling through the woods crushed and pasted anything in his path.

Pef held up a hand, asking for a minute, and used all this Practice, to fuel up his inner stove.

Qi was drawn around him and through him, healing his wounds, and then compacted into his Core. Four acupoints opened long his forearm, and Pef felt a bit stronger.

"Hah, this was amazing Uncle. I wish I could stay and train with you for an year!" he exclaimed with a joyous face, making Ventu blink again. The boy was full of surprises.

Then he took out the King Anaconda, right there, and struggled to scoop out a tooth. And failed miserably.

Ventu landed next to the large beast, noting the lances still poking out of the eyes.

Clever and lucky hits. But so were all the Emperors, or they were dead already. Thousands of Emperors had died during the millennia Ventu had protected the Patriarchy. And likely twice that, before he was born.

"Oh, you want to pull out the snake's tooth?" he asked after letting the young boy struggle in vain for a dozen minutes. He had butchered the lip and tried to carve out around the tooth, but hit the jaw bone, and got stuck.

"Eh, I thought this ranked sword could cut the bone, but no, only the skin..." Pef muttered with a dejected face.

Ventu chuckled amused and folded his sword away. Then he grabbed the tooth and slided it out of the alveoli, by deftly inserting his own qi into the dead tooth. It was taller than a man and wider as well. Perhaps could be made into a weapon?

"It was not hard, at all..." the Tyrant said with a shrug, holding the tooth gently, as to not shatter the enamel.

"Two more sword practice hours, but you help me extract the teeth and my spears out?" Pef offered with a pleading voice.

The old man laughed amused, as the youngster had balls of stone. "Sure, but you have to show me, how you truly beat up young Ang!" he allowed with some ulterior purpose.

Pef nodded hesitantly. "It is dangerous, as Heavenly Lighting falls when I use that skill. We'd need a formation." the young Emperor said in a fake whisper. Not needed, as sound would not escape Ventu's air domain, unless he allowed it.

The Tyrant hand-waved the concern away. "What do you think these swords are?" he said in a dismissive manner, pointing at the Sovereign sword being defiled as a toothpick. The youngster was amusing and brave, but his lack of knowledge was obvious. Then again, he wasn't yet 20 years old.

At that age, Ventu was only hoping to form his Core, dreaming of fighting beasts and finding a sweetheart.

In half an hour, the head of the King Anaconda was chopped off and butchered for skin and bones, while Pef kept the lower jaw for something called a nacelle, for his airship.

The rest of the teeth and bones were divided into 40 piles, and then Pef took out a fistful of storage rings and began filling them up with Emperor ranked bones.

Ventu raised an eyebrow, curious at the gesture.

"Eh. I plan to gift the teeth to my uncle Emperors. I bet they'll love making Emperor ranked weapons and armor for themselves" the boy explained with a cheerful grin.

The Tyrant shook his head and listed the living Emperors in his mind. Only 18 of them would need better equipment, the others having relics or got strong enough to hunt such beasts themselves. Like Wixtal did.

And his son likely inherited that crazy skill from him, and it sort of completed the picture, when added to the glove itself.

"The problem is not the bones, young Pef. There are plenty bones. It's the skill of soul forging and the time it takes. You can send a dozen gifts to the newer Emperors, but they're not smiths. Even the older ones, they find smithing boring and tedious. They mostly prefer to rule, from their harems" Ventu explained with a grimace.

Pef frowned. Ang and Kuong Xi would be elated at receiving the anaconda teeth. Why not all of them?

'You've gathered 11 wives in 11 years of cultivation, Aspirant. Now think yourself in 8000 years'the glove said with a smirking tone.

'Oh. I should be...more selective?' Pef asked himself in a bit of doubt.

'Not with golden auras, if we ever find more. But otherwise, yes. One wife would be enough to sustain your soul.' the system explained in a sterner voice.

'Some backup wives can't go wrong. People die...' Pef replied a bit more philosophical.

The glove stayed silent after that. Humans died so easy. A bit too hot or cold, a tiny virus, a single wound...

It was reasonable to consolidate a reservoir of love, and keep it full to sustain the cultivation.

Perhaps not thousands though. Just visiting them all once, would take all year, and then you'd need to start again.

Pef stored the snake and the bones for now, and turned towards Ventu, his new sword held gently to his side.

"Be strong Uncle, and try not to die!" he yelled and released the Cutting Skill. The sound and wind stopped.

The Air Tyrant glowed white for a second, as did the Sovereign sword in his hand.

Then the old man was pushed away, as if a gust of wind was pressing on his sword.

His qi erupted even stronger, and the man anchored himself some 50 meters away. The sword was intact, but his armor, clothes and skin were chaffed away. His right hand was broken, and he had to support it with his left hand.

Pef covered himself in water qi, and held the Sovereign sword up.

The lightning came as it always did, a few seconds of tense wait and threatening vibes, then a burst of qi energy straight down from the Heaven.

To Pef's surprise, the sword absorbed and diverted most of the qi, while the remainder was nourishing and barely hurt, entering his pathways and then his Core.

Pef felt like he ate an elephant, and tried to convert and refine the foreign qi into his own. It took him a few hours until he regained mobility and some senses. He found the Tyrant sitting in front of him, his face a bit amazed.

"The sword is made with what the Patriarch glimpsed, by studying the Neo knife for a hundred thousand years. But is not a god tier weapon. It will break, next time you channel lightning through it" Ventu said softly, poking his shoulders with curious eyes.

"What? Is there something there?" Pef asked in confusion, looking down at his shoulder.

"Look for yourself, young Pef. Damn it, you hit as hard as that old monster..." the Tyrant complained while nursing his broken forearm.

The Emperor delved inside, examining his body and the qi pathways with his new senses. Along the shoulders, a dozen acupoints had opened, nearly completing a circuit.

This is good, right?' Pef asked his glove,

'Yes. Will make achieving your next rank, a hundred years shorter. Ventu got a bit stronger too, and is now close to his peak.' it answered while computing a dozen new scenarios.

Still, the bastard was the key, the Patriarch himself. He was too used to being in charge.

"Hey Ventu, come and meet my crew. I'll cook some of this anaconda and get you healed up in no time" Pef said in a worried tone, offering a helping hand to the old Tyrant.

The man sighed deeply and flew away, and Pef followed much slower.

Soon he had to agree, the youngling was a great cook. And his arm did heal overnight.