56

The mountains had verdant slopes on their base, while the Wall curved around the mountain range, since the canal obviously needed mostly flat ground.

There were a few stone forts guarding the mountains, but nobody was stationed inside them.

Possibly some attempt at expansion in the past, which didn't fare well.

Pef scanned the forest, looking for any danger, but there weren't any beasts over Spirit rank.

The guardian probably patrolled this way as well.

And so, Pef flew over the first mountain, seeing only animals and a few low ranked beasts.

At the next mountain range, he had to look for a pass, as those peaks were over 10 kilometers tall.

There were some creatures high up in the snow, but Pef wasn't looking for a fight yet. He had a plan, and was sticking to it!

Get his pill first. Then try for his next rank. He already knew how strong a Tyrant rank would be. Ventu had beaten him black and blue in a light spar! No wonder even Emperors felt their strength was tyrannical.

It was probably the long Practice as well. Over 50 thousands years of sword training and fighting beasts, although perhaps mostly lower ranked beasts, pushed by population pressure and some nasty gods to attack the Wall.

A guy like that, should easily climb to Monarch rank with the right advice and a loving wife.

Sadly, the monsters guarding the Patriarchy were too set in their old ways, never letting their wives or daughters become Emperors or more.

And then they complained their loved ones died! Of course, they would!

'Damn morons.' Pef muttered to himself, while locating a nice clear water lake after the second mountain range.

'Wait by the lake, Aspirant. Your uncle will want to test you.' the glove advised him with a snicker.

'Yeah, sure. I'll get beat up again.' Pef muttered with a dejected tone, coming to a landing next to the lake.

He poked the water, noting it was almost frozen.

The valley was deserted, only low grass and a few shrubs, not even a goat or any living being.

Luckily, he had enough maize and meat in storage to feed himself for a thousand years.

Soon, the valley filled with new smells, from anaconda, to beaver and fox and spider legs.

Pef took his time, as the high altitude made cooking a bit difficult.

By the time the table was set, and tea was boiling, another presence appeared, flowing beside Pef out from the ground.

"You must be Lithos, right?" the young cook asked rhetorically, setting the last bits of sizzling meat on a tray and placing it on the table.

"The world has gone crazy. This newborn beat up my young brother?" Lithos asked himself, examining the young Emperor with his tyrannical senses.

"Not again. It was a light spar! Now eat, uncle, before the meal gets cold." Pef sobbed in a despondent manner, slicing the meat into thin slices with his brand-new sushi knife.

The old Tyrant humphed and began eating at first slowly and tenderly, then faster and faster.

Pef kept out of the whirlwind of grabbing fingers, having set a small plate for himself, with anaconda brain pane, and some maize porridge. The huge meal was for the Earth Tyrant, who likely ate raw beasts as a hobby.

Unlike Ventu, who was elegant and clean, this guy Lithos was unkempt and wild, hair long and swirly, filled with dust. His clothes were so old they possibly predated the calendar, or even writing.

His breastplate was nice though, some kind of high ranked skin, with a few artful bones reinforcing the chest and shoulders. It looked brand new, but that was possibly because nothing could scratch the material.

Pef searched his storage for a bit, taking out a bathtub and soap, and then new clothes and a brass scissors. Then he thought again and put the scissors back.

He couldn't cut his own hair with it, so on the wild Tyrant they'll be even more useless.

Pef searched the storage again, and took out a hand sized mirror.

"What are you doing, boy?" the old man asked in a threatened voice, eying the tub and the soap with suspicion.

"Done eating?" Pef asked with a smile.

"Hmpf! So you can cook. Great! Now what's all those things?" he asked glancing at the torture devices.

Pef went to stand shoulder to shoulder with his old relative, and held the mirror up, then began changing the angle to contrast their appearance.

Where Pef was a young man, with short black hair, dressed in a clean brown shirt and pants, with a plain snakeskin armor, the Tyrant was a worn, wild haired old man, clothes frayed and colorless, nails black with earth and dusty all over.

"I can't have tea with a wild beast, uncle. Give me 10 minutes to clean you up, okay?" Pef said softly, handing the mirror to the Tyrant.

The man cursed inaudibly, glancing at Pef and then at the tub, then longingly at the boiling teapot.

"Grrrr. 10 minutes, and better not touch my beard!" the man growled in annoyance.

Took maybe 15 minutes, as Pef fixed his hair and beard at some two fingers cut, and had to throw out the bath water three times.

As the old Tyrant checked himself again in the mirror, he chuckled in amazement.

Then he sat down and waited for tea to be served, while glancing at his clean and shorter nails with wonder.

Pef tried to copy Ventu's ceremony, but gave up after 5 minutes, just pouring and drinking his tea.

Lithos raised an eyebrow, as he smelled the strange jasmine tea, not found on Blue Xi.

Then he waited more, as the youngling was getting the ants, glancing around his meditation valley.

How long has it been, since he last sat for a tea? A thousand years?

He kinda forgot, days and years flowing and mixing together, only some nice fight standing out in a millennium.

The workings of the Patriarchy always too distant, just cries for help from some Major or weak Emperors.

And then this Emperor...beat up his Tyrant brother and broke his arm.

While Ventu had only praise for the boy, and his cooking.

Damn it, he wished Agius and Saren were around, they could have some tea and chat.

"Dive in the lake, young Pef. Don't take too many, or they'll perish, and never return" he said after the first sip. Not that great of a tea, but only Ventu and Saren really knew how to make tea.

Pef smiled and nodded, and began collecting his metal stoves and utensils.

He then placed a storage ring on the table and jumped into the lake, a water shield forming around him.

Lithos sighed, poking the ring and examining its pitiful small interior. Some snake's tooth, a dozen set of clothes, that awful soap and a metal teapot, with some glass cups and a cubic meter of tea leaves.

Worth a fortune in the city, no doubt. The tooth was Emperor ranked, and had a faint tinge of Ventu's qi.

The weakling couldn't even pluck out the teeth of his kill!

Lithos laughed, the sound infused with qi and causing avalanches high up in the mountains.

The boy had the right heart, brave and kind, and the sick knife accepted him, even to slice his food.

That blade had only accepted killing blows, even if you dripped your Xi blood on it.

And now this new Emperor had tamed it?

Lithos poured himself another cup of tea, waiting for the boy to emerge victorious, or die.

Meanwhile, Pef dove deeper and deeper, as the lake likely went to the other side of the planet.

'It there anymore to go? My shield is strong, but the pressure keeps piling up' he asked himself as the water shield groaned under kilometers of water.

The glove sighed as its user was about to implode under water pressure, like a primitive submarine.'It's your water Spirit, Aspirant. Not your wind Spirit. Your wife told you already. Stop forcing it'

Pef stopped descending, breathing in more qi and diving into his soul palace.

The poor sauna was straining, with cracks in the walls and the stove spewing hot vapors.

He tried to relax, and let the Spirit take the lead. Slowly, the pressure lessened, and the cracks healed, as Pef began to understand what all water mages knew.

The element Spirit chose you, not the other way. Pef remembered how the earth flowed around Lithos, or the air around Ventu, the element moving flawlessly, like another hand.

It took hours, maybe days, but when Pef began descending again, he was twice as fast, and the pressure barely felt, mostly a reminder of where the surface was.

He wasn't yet a water master, but the insight helped, and the Spirit even drew oxygen from the water around, while pushing out the carbon oxide.

Pef offered a bit of thanks, but the water didn't care.

The Dao of water was the key to understanding and manipulating water, and this cultivator understood water better than anyone on the planet.

Not just the molecular makeup, but its states and transformations, from ice to liquid and vapor.

Freezing point or evaporation temperature, even concepts like the Goldilocks zone and high pressure water jets. Pef was potentially as knowledgeable as a god, in his understanding of water.

There was no wonder he was chosen by a water Spirit.

An hour later, Pef reached the bottom, where the Violet Blue Lotus grew, for some reason.

'Take 10 of them, but leave the roots intact' the glove advised him in a strangely caring tone.

Pef took out the neo knife and sliced the leafs off, only going for the plants with petals.

He hesitated a bit, and took a few more. He had his wives to think about as well.

Pef didn't want to end up old and alone, living on a mountain and drinking goat milk.

So his wives had to be nurtured and loved, to grow strong and live beside him.

At least some of them. Or even just one.