Turning Point

After clearing the 'misunderstanding' and allowing Khane and Dowon to meet with the residents of the Eighth Layer, Vahn ended up accepting both sisters into his Familia before arranging a place for them in the First Layer.

As descendants of the Land of Peach Blossom's Royal Guard, Khane and Dowon's ancestry could be traced back to a race evocative of Dryads. This afforded them an affinity with nature, so, as could be expected, they felt extremely comfortable beneath the canopy of the World Trees. Thus, at least for the time being, they were more than content with living quiet and peaceful lives among the endless field of eternal flowers that had come to dominate the First Layer. As for the remaining residents of the Wall of Peaceful Coexistence, Vahn allowed the members of the so-called 'Revolutionary Party' to take up residence in the Second Layer while those with darker hearts and ambitions were left to clean up the mess left in the wake of Dowon's unsealing.

Though he couldn't help feeling a marginal amount of guilt, Vahn's decision to 'abandon' the leave the residents of the wall to their own devices was largely due to the fact that Dowon's sealing and Khane's suffering were the direct results of the Royal Family and their descendants. It was the King of their time that tasked the girls' father with fighting against the forces of Jahad, and, once he had lost his life, they had been forced to serve in his stead.

As descendants of a family that had served the Royal Family for generations, Dowon and Khane had willingly entered the service of the Kingdom in order to resist Jahad's rise. In the process, they gave up everything in order to obtain power and fulfill their duty. Despite this, the moment the members of the Royal Family felt their lives were threatened, they promptly yielded to the Empire's demands and chose to seal Dowon, not for the sake of peace, but to preserve their own lives. To add insult to injury, the King of that time even tried to smooth the tensions between the Kingdom and the Jahad Empire by offering up Khane as collateral, effectively forcing her to become a slave or a concubine.

It was her desire to protect her sister and fulfill the promise she had made to their dying father that compelled Dowon to modify the memories of her people. The truth of the matter was that she had made an agreement of her own with the Empire. In exchange for letting herself be sealed without a fuss, they would never lay a hand on her sister. The moment this term was violated, the seal would be broken of its own accord, and, depending on the circumstances, she would do everything in her power to seek revenge against the ones who had harmed her only living family member.

Unfortunately, Dowon hadn't accounted for the fact that certain sentiments didn't simply disappear with a few memory alterations. Corruption, opportunism, and the fear of death had been so deeply ingrained into the Royal Family that they did not hesitate to try and exploit her sister and the loyalty of their family by redirecting all hatred and negative sentiments her way. Every time something bad happened, they would twist facts to pin the blame on Khane. This had continued over the course of several generations, so much so that it was now 'common knowledge' among the residents of the Wall that she was the source of all tragedies that befell them.

Simply put, both the Royal Family and their descendants had unrepentantly treated Dowon and Khane as their personal scapegoats for the better part of ten-thousand-years. The current Chairman of the 50th Floor's Wall, Koer, had even been planning to execute Khane in the near future. As for the reason, it was because negative sentiments had been on the rise as of late so they wanted to renew faith in their administration by being the first leader with the courage to remove the source of suffering at the root.

With a disheartening number of people sincerely believing that Khane was responsible for every bad thing that had ever happened to them, Vahn's desire to help them had disappeared like a drop of water in the desert. There was no way he would help them rebuild their civilization when the so-called 'Nobles' treated their most loyal subjects as nothing more than convenient tools. Instead, he chose to spare the handful of people who had seen through the lies of the former Royals and tried to improve conditions within the Wall.

In total, Vahn ended up relocating twenty-seven people from the Wall of Peaceful Coexistence to a residential district in the Second Layer. This wasn't even close to the number of people required to try and rebuild a population, but, having come to realize that things like race meant very little in the grand scheme of things, there was no harm in letting one gradually disappear by intermingling with another. The Little Garden was, after all, a miniature Realm governed by the Law of Progress. Trying to preserve something like 'blood purity' was one of the most backward sentiments anyone could possess, so, with the people of the Land of Peach Blossoms originally descending from a completely different species, Vahn felt no qualms about letting them become something else entirely.

Fortunately, as was often the case in worlds with extreme racial diversity, interspecies relationships tended to work out with surprisingly few issues. There were even examples of Shinheuh and Spirits obtaining human forms and intermingling with the other races of the Tower, so, while things might not always make sense from the perspective of reproductive biology, similar arguments could be made regarding Innates and Soul Tier in general. In the end, the most important things were always 'intent' and 'willpower'. With enough of both, you could even impregnate the void or inert stone. In that regard, impregnating the member of another species was a relatively simple affair...

---

Though he had promised Dowon he would visit the other Walls in order to unseal others from her time, backtracking wasn't exactly Vahn's modus operandi. Thus, before he could move on to other Floors, Vahn first needed to take care of his business on the 50th. To this end, he ended up reaching out to a representative of the Lo Po Bia Family; and, as a result, he soon found himself face-to-face with none other than Lo Po Bia Pram, Elder of the Snow Leopard Family, and two of her daughters.

Understanding the reason for the duo's presence, Vahn had a difficult time maintaining his smile as all three inordinately fluffy women eyed him like hungry predators who had just chanced upon their favorite prey. To make matters even worse, Pram had made sure to cover her bases by selecting two distinctly different types of girls, one appearing somewhat boyish, complete with short hair and an athletic figure, while the other gave off the impression of a delicate yet mischievous princess. When the three were lined up together, it was almost like seeing the progression of a single individual as they moved through three distinctly different phases in their life...each more promiscuous than the last...

Taking the initiative, Pram had each of her daughters bow in turn as she explained, "Though they are still lacking in various ways, these are the daughters I am most proud of. The bigger one, Iifa, has managed to become an Advanced Ranker at only 519-years-old. As for the younger one, Nio, she is one of the most promising members of the younger generation, so much so that I have even considered grooming her as my successor. She has yet to begin her ascent up the Tower, but I have high hopes for her future. To that end, I would be eternally grateful if the Sage Dragon Emperor was gracious enough to extend a guiding hand towards the both of them...rather, I wouldn't particularly mind receiving a bit of 'guidance' myself..."

Though she had 'suffered' for quite a while following their previous encounter, Pram didn't resent Vahn in the slightest. His warning had also helped to remind her of the mission she had been given, so, while she hadn't come to terms with the fact her recording would be circulating through various information networks, she had come to realize that it could actually be used as leverage.

Despite the previous incident, Pram was confident in her original assessment of Vahn. He gave off the impression of someone that was overly considerate, so, as long as she dealt with him in private, he shouldn't react in such an extreme way. The fact he had instructed her to meet with him on the 50th Floor was proof enough that he wasn't yet willing to cut ties with her family, so, before another branch stepped in, she intended to do everything in her power to secure his favor...

Aware of the woman's thoughts, Vahn briefly exchanged glances with the two hungry-looking girls peering up at him whilst lowering their heads to the ground. Their unconcealed lust, combined with the fact all three girls were releasing a phenomenal amount of pheromones, made it feel as though he had wandered into an inescapable trap. Yes, he could leave whenever he wanted, but, unless he intended to adopt a more forceful approach, cooperating with the trio was the most expedient way to get what he wanted. The problem was, while their behavior could be attributed to their instincts and upbringing, even the innocent-looking Nio treated those weaker than herself with remarkable contempt and unrepentant cruelty. If he weren't exponentially stronger than them, this would have been a 'very' different conversation...

In the end, Vahn's choice wasn't a simple matter of compromise. Rather, the moment he chose to 'fix' things within the Lo Po Bia Family, his nature would compel him to be as thorough as possible. This meant confronting Lord Lo Po Bia and reforming the branch families using the only means they could universally understand: strength.

So long as Vahn could prove himself more powerful, even Lord Lo Po Bia himself would not oppose his decisions. The problem with this was that Lord Lo Po Bia considered Jahad to be the 'Alpha', so, unless he could defeat the self-proclaimed King of the Tower, there was a chance the family would bare its fangs at him in spite of the difference in strength. This would also establish a precedent for him taking over one of the Great Families, so, while it might not matter all that much in the grand scheme of things, Vahn was still a little reluctant to throw caution to the wind. After all, the moment he decided to follow through on the subjugation of a Great Family, his time within the Tower would begin counting towards its end...

As that thought crossed his mind, Vahn's gaze returned to Pram, her mercury-like eyes catching his attention as she returned an expectant smile and manipulated her tail to peek out from behind her shoulder. This caused his eyes to briefly shift to the inordinately fluffy appendage, and, as a result, a bell-like laugh could be heard emanating from Pram's throat before she seductively mused, "Didn't I tell you the last time we met? You are more than welcome to touch...rather, the three of us would be more than a little disheartened if you decided not to. You see, we recently switched conditioners and have been eager to hear the Sage Dragon Emperor's opinion...won't you give them a touch~?"

Hearing their mother's words, the tips of Iifa's and Nio's tails began to twitch slightly as the thick fur coating their length seemed to become noticeably fluffier. This wasn't just a trick of the eye, either, as, in preparation for this meeting, both girls had spent several weeks enduring extreme cold just to increase the thickness of their coats. They had also received 'special training' from their mother, so, even if they had to reduce themselves to the position of pets, they were willing to do so if it meant receiving the genetics of a strong male. After all, while individual strength was important, it was the duty of all members of the Lo Po Bia Family to ensure their offspring were even more powerful than the preceding generations.

In the face of three inordinately fluffy women, Vahn's restraint could only hold out for so long. 'Fluff' was one of his greatest weaknesses, so, with the strength to change both the Snow Leopard and Lo Po Bia Families for the better, it didn't take long for his inhibitions to disappear completely. At one point, he even managed to convince himself that it would have been unnecessarily cruel of him to let the branch families continue fighting amongst themselves. After all, there were plenty of ways in which they could compete without killing each other, and, most importantly, he wanted to provide an environment where the more passive members of the tribe could prosper without suffering the abuse of their own families. Thus, for the first time since his coming to the 'Transcendental Path to Heaven', Vahn decided to reference his memories of the Oyakodon Cook Book for inspiration...

(A/N: Sorry for the silence yesterday. I got wrangled into a New Year's celebration and couldn't find the time to release a chapter. On that note, I hope everyone has a much better 2021 than they did a 2020. Last year was a trial for a lot of people, myself included. Though it might not mean that much coming from some random guy on the internet, know that I am praying for everyone's happiness in the years to come. We might not be able to influence much in the grand scheme of things, but, on a personal level, we can at least make life a little easier by showing care and concern for each other. To that end, I wish you all a happy new year, and, most importantly, thanks for being the best part of EPIC~!)

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