54

After lunch, Pef took off, heading for the General's Holy Temple.

As he landed in front of the entrance, he realized with a grin that the Patriarchy had a woman for their God.

Some artist had sculpted a warrior woman holding a thin blade in front of her eyes. The style was heavy on detailed beasts or various weapons inscribed the armor, much like most of the higher ranks in the Guards wore.

'So, the Legion knife is a thin cutter like the sculpture?' Pef asked himself, studying the replica with obvious interest.

'Even without qi input, the knife can cut atoms in half' the glove replied amused.

Pef studied the face of the General, but it seemed to be a local, used as a model. Kinda like Pela, if you squinted a little.

He then drew his water qi and pushed the crowd apart gently, and entered the temple on foot.

A quick scan showed him a room with some 50 Spirit ranks far in the back, well behind some kind of altar with the Manual.

Pef began walking towards it, and only stopped as some Major guarding the altar rose his hand.

"Emperor, beyond here is the domain of the Temple only!" he said politely, a bit confused at this new Emperor and his rash ways.

"And I have the glove. That makes me General's chosen. When I wear this glove, I am the General's Hand." Pef declared with a loud voice, infused with qi.

It was time for the gloves to come off. Well, of course, only figuratively. The glove had to stay, as it was immensely useful.

And so, Pef walked beside the stunned Major, and entered the depths of the Temple.

He sped up and burst into the sacred conclave, just as some priest was plunging a thin blade into a young woman's chest. A normal woman, without qi, which he didn't sense from outside.

"Oops, is this the wrong religion temple? Should I try the next room, for our General's temple?" Pef asked both amused and horrified.

The knife wielder cursed something, holding the blade up and tried to cast a soulspike through it.

From all around, a thick qi like blood converged on the knife, dark red and smelling foul.

"Begone blasphemer!" the High Priest yelled as the spike shot forward.

'Parry the spike, Aspirant. It has some of Locust's qi in it' the glove warned him as Pef looked incredulous at the Spirit ranked priest attacking him.

Instantly, Pef drew his Sovereign sword and forced a bit of sword qi through it.

As the red beam and the white qi collided, the red beam won, and disintegrated the sword.

Pef drew his hand aside as he dodged, then sped forward, ripping the knife and the man's hand off.

Where the beam hit his hand, and wasn't covered by the glove, boils full of blood formed, pulsing and bubbling.

Pef sighed and sliced off the forearm, then poked the glove with his left hand. It neatly folded away from the boiling hand and transferred itself on the new hand.

The blade then disappeared into the glove compartment, by itself.

'Damn priests, my poor weapon was defiled and needs refining. Arrest these morons, Aspirant!' the glove demanded annoyed at the state of its weapon. It will be able to cleanse it in an hour, but the gall of these Tier1s was too much!

Pef began breaking legs and arms, subduing the priests for trial. That Major arrived in a minute, looking at the sacrificed woman with horrified eyes, then at the Emperor's hand, still melting on the stone floor.

"What is this?" the man asked in a low tone.

"Some kind of ritual for Locust, I guess. Divine qi is quite nasty though, don't touch the boiling blood or you'll have to regrow an arm yourself." Pef explained with a shrug.

"Errr. Only the true Xi can regrow limbs. I'll wait outside and call for help" the Major said in respectful tone.

"You will burn in hell! The general speaks to me!" the priest cursed while writhing on the floor, with his own arm ripped off at the elbow.

"Anything you say, can and will be used against you, at your trial." Pef explained in a small inside joke.

"I am the High Priest! There's nobody able to judge me!" the man exclaimed in outrage.

Pef scratched his cheek and sent out a qi pulse. "Seen enough, Old Deng?"

In a minute, the huge qi beacon compressed and then disappeared, to step through the door.

The Sovereign was looking his age though, thin and frail, with a white long beard and spotted skin.

He took in the room with a glance, focusing on the young victim.

"A normal woman. No qi, so I can't sense what they were doing..." the old Patriarch muttered glancing curious at the melting arm, then at Pef's missing arm.

"Yeah...Locust has bubbling qi. Burned through your leg sword too..." Pef answered the unasked question, pointing to the half melted remains of the handle.

"Locust eh? So the woman was a virgin." Deng Xi mused while his hand hovered over the dead woman.

Pef shrugged. The old guy was competent enough.

Two Emperors arrived in another minute, armored and ready to take names. Which they immediately proceed to do, not even glancing at Pef or the Patriarch.

"Name. Age. Rank. Residence. Family. Who else knows?" the question flowed, while the Police Emperors ground the priests into the floor.

Pef ignored them, picking up the broken sword and cremating his old arm, with rice oil and a few tinders.

The Sovereign stayed aside, his eyes watching everything and obviously deliberating inside.

As the blood finally evaporated, Pef stored the Emperor ranked bone of his arm, already thinking what he could craft from it.

"Come, young Pef. I have a mineral spring and some pills to quicken your healing. Damn it. I was going to break your arm myself, as payment for Ventu. You're no fun!" the Patriarch complained as he picked Pef by the neck and shunpo them both, some 30 kilometers in 30 seconds.

The flash step technique was quite fast, though it possibly had some flashy name like Cloud Running Deer or such.

Then Pef was thrown into a sulphurous water pit, boiling hot.

'This isn't healing! I will get boiled into soup!' the young hero screamed inside.

'Try to stay in this pond for a week, Aspirant. Your upper circuit will open completely, and the arm will grow back as well' the glove advised him as an afterthought, just as Pef was preparing to fly out and run away screaming.

"Thanks, old man. This pool is great!" Pef exclaimed instead, setting himself comfortably for a long wait.

"Like I said. You're no fun at all !" Deng Xi grumbled and sped away.

Like a second Awakening, the hot water of the pit did indeed open Pef's acupuncture points, and the fragile baby hand had to grow fast and toughen up, and thus ending the crippled phase much faster.

It just hurt a little.

Pef munched on medicinal pills and meditated, sometimes popping out from his glove a maize corn and eating it raw.

To his surprise, by the time the ordeal ended, he was again much stronger, perhaps near half to next rank.

'Hey glove, isn't this like, perhaps too fast of a growth?' Pef asked while delving inside his body for a final check-up.

'You took a hit from a god, Aspirant. Not a full hit, or a direct hit. But it was something. With the pool, you got your due reward. And that bastard gave you a Red Meridian Pill. Which is why you'll regenerate twice as fast, from now on' the glove replied as Pef touched his palms and transferred to glove back to his right hand.

Pef blinked in surprise. If Xi was the Blue continent...'A Red Pill? Like, from the Volcanis adepts?'

'Well, Saren Xi is still alive, isn't he? Every thousand years he sends a new pill to the Xi Patriarch, as tribute' the glove explained with a dismissive tone.

Pef nodded as he got the gist of it. Deng Xi wouldn't want to kill his own son, and just waited for the wayward son to return, after his wives, and the reason for defection were gone. But he still made him pay, and used the tribute as a way to prop up the Patriarchy, with stronger Emperors.

'Is my knife clean now?' Pef asked with anticipation.

The neo knife appeared in his hand, looking like a heavy metal blade, some 30 centimeters long, dark grey and thin beyond belief. Only the handle was more normal, a dark bone cylinder maybe a centimeter in diameter.

The blade was so thin it should have been transparent. Pef kept changing the angle trying to see the edge, but it was invisible.

"Good, your arm has grown, and you took the neo knife. Now come, let's spar a bit, and see where you lack the most" an old voice spoke from behind him.

Pef flew up and put some pants on, noting a small vila a kilometer away and a thin tree line marking the perimeter.

"Sure thing, Old Deng. But first, let me cook something. I'm kinda starved and you don't look much better" Pef said in a careless tone, speeding up for a few seconds to land at the villa.

Two young women looked at him curious, one with a handful of clothes and the other with a copper cauldron, in their hands.

"Hello, I'm Pef. Been staying in the pool, last week" he explained in a polite manner.

The women blinked once then walked away, ignoring the bare chested barbarian.

Deng arrived next to him and slapped his head gently. "Put a shirt on, damn savage. You're flashing my maids"

Pef spat some blood and healed himself while dressing more civilized. Even put on shoes.

"You can keep the shoes in the kitchen. But, don't stain my rugs, with whatever you stepped in" the old man demanded as he deposited the young cook in the kitchen. He did hear about the amazing skill, so he allowed it once, to try it out, and maybe copy it.

An hour later, the men sat in the map room to drink some wine and digest their meal. Without shoes, as the floors were carpeted with soft furs of various beasts.

Pef poured another expensive cup and gulped it with a satisfied face.

"So, you're to lead us? A young pup with barely any strength?" the old Sovereign asked to the point.

"Touch the glove and see" Pef offered in a calm voice.

"I touched it for a hundred thousands years. Tell the old spirit to die already!" the man replied grumpily.

Pef laughed amused, as the glove said the same thing.

"I do need you to touch it though. A Sovereign is no use to me. Even a Monarch will be kinda weak" the Emperor said in a thoughtful voice, holding his palm on the table.

Deng Xi waited for a minute, considering some unknown variables.

Then he poked the glove with a blinding fast finger.

Pef rose his eyebrow and smiled. 'Well, he wasn't too fast for you, was he?'

'He is dying. Maybe 100, maybe 500 years left. Doesn't love anyone. Not even his children. Only duty remains, but is not enough. Is never enough' the glove said in a dejected tone. It had made so many mistakes at first. Poor Deng braved them all, but he wasn't a happy man anymore.

Pef drank another cup of wine, trying to find a solution.

"Cut his beard to a finger length, shave his head, dress him normally. Then send him on quests, to rescue maidens from pirates?" he mused out loud, as Deng was grinding his teeth in anger.

"What are you saying, boy?" he growled in a tense voice.

"The glove is right, Deng. You will never gather enough qi to ascend to the divine. But you can be a Saint, and protect this planet from beasts and bad men. However, the Legion has three pillars, and you and your Tyrants have ignored the last one. Practice, Combat and Love. To put it simply you need a girlfriend." Pef replied with a shrug.

The man crushed his clay cup and stored the broken pieces, taking out another with a trembling hand.

"I've burned thousands of dead wives and concubines, enough is enough!" Deng Xi muttered and drank more wine.

"I won't order you, old man. Free will and all. But in a few years, I'll be a Tyrant. And after my Roaming, I'll be a Sovereign. And in a hundred years, you'll die of old age. Why do you think the glove chose me?" Pef asked rhetorically, holding his gloved hand up.

"You're brave, I'll give you that. But if that worked, Ang Xi would have been a Sovereign by now..." Deng Xi said in a sad voice. Most Emperors tried the harem route, with no results.

"I mean love, not pleasure and hedonism. Caring for a woman for a whole year, while she awakens a second time, in pain and fever. Fighting side by side with her, and sharing hardships and meals and the bed. Emperor Ang sees his wives as valued sculptures, made of flesh. But it's the soul which matters. It is our soul who ascends to the divine." Pef said in a sad voice as well, then sped up and flew away, back to his wives.

Old Deng stared after him, the words lingering in his heart "The soul, eh? You're really no fun, at all..."

He drank all day, and then through the night, until he didn't feel the taste of the wine at all.

'Come take care of the Capital, Ventu' he told his son with a short qi pulse, while his qi condensed to nearly invisible levels, and he left the city on foot, walking slowly and observing the continent with new eyes.