Greeted by Jane

Having finalized their plans for the afternoon, they chatted until the next class started.

It was soon the end of the last class and everyone gathered at the school entrance, waiting for Pia. They didn't have to wait long before an excited Pia ran towards them.

"Hey!", she exclaimed, when she came near them. She then hugged Greg and looked at Ivan with a prompting gaze. "Let's get going."

It seemed like she was the most excited of all of them. And Ivan had no intention of curbing her excitement. The thought of going out to play with his friends and daughter gave him a warm anticipatory feeling. The only thing missing was Lara.

Together they used public transport to reach Lara's villa. When the others first saw it, they couldn't help but exclaim in awe. For them, it was something they usually only saw in films, a common entertainment method.

"Wow, your wife really is rich. Then how come you are still dressed as before and act as if you are poor?", Greg asked curiously.

"Yes, she is rich. But it is her money and not mine, so I don't want to use it this way. I'd rather prefer to earn my own money.", Ivan explained.

"Then you will be using your money to pay today?", he asked in surprise.

"No. Since this time it is mostly about having fun with my daughter, it is alright to use her money."

"Ah, so you'll only use her money when it concerns your daughter?", Pia asked, having understood the differentiation.

"Yes. If it is for our daughter, then there is no problem with using her money.", Ivan confirmed her guess.

"Then how is paying for our swimsuits something that should be paid by her?"

"Of course it is. After all, it is so Jane has some more people to play with.", Ivan answered her with a smirk.

"Haha, so we are only here to be playmates for your daughter? And here I thought you invited us because we are your friends.", Greg joked. All of them knew Ivan well enough to realize that he was only joking.

While bantering, they had reached the entrance of the villa and Ivan opened the door.

Instantly they were greeted by Jane, who had already been waiting for them. She ran towards Ivan who hugged her and whirled her around, as she liked. After setting her back down, she then greeted the others.

"Hello, I'm Jane.", she cutely introduces herself, before greeting them by their names. "Hello, Greg, Serge, Irena, and Pia.", surprising everyone besides Irena.

"Huh, how do you know our names?", Greg asked. He had instantly taken a liking to the small girl and was now beaming a smile at her. Happy that she knew his name.

"Daddy said that one of his friends was fat and named Greg, so who else could it be?", Jane acted as if it was the most natural thing to say.

The group laughed at her answer. Unlike some, Greg had no problem with being called fat. In fact, it was even something that he was proud of. According to him, it showed the love of his parents for him. Because if they didn't love him then would they provide him with enough food to get fat?

The others had to smile whenever they heard this justification but they had to admit that he wasn't completely wrong. Still, they felt that it was just an excuse.

"Hoho seems like you are quite intelligent. Then did you deduce who the others are from that point?", Greg asked, trying to make himself important. Now that he knew Ivan had told his daughter about them, then the logical conclusion was that Jane had easily been able to identify the others after distinguishing him.

Jane understood what he was trying to do and she ruthlessly destroyed his hopes. "Of course not. Serge is just as recognizable as you.", she answered, looking at him like he was stupid.

"Hahaha.", Pia broke out in loud laughter. She hugged her boyfriend's waist but continued laughing. "Hahaha, did you think you were that unique?"

"Well, at least I'm unique enough for you to like me.", Greg easily countered.

Their interaction made the other smile. The two of them were always good for some fun time.

"Daddy, Celine said that you should come to her room first after you are back and then we can go.", Jane informed him after they had calmed down.

"Alright. Then you'll wait here with Irena and the others? By the way, where is Lucia?"

"Sure. And Lucia just went to her room to get something."

Irena too indicated that she would look after Jane. When Ivan walked towards Celine's room, he could hear her asking about Celine and Lucia.

He knocked onto Celine's door and after getting her approval entered the room. It didn't look any different from his own since they both were originally guest rooms. Celine was sitting on the bed and was looking at him when he entered. An undecipherable emotion flashed through her eyes when she saw him.

"Are you sure you want to do this?", she asked him.

"You didn't even explain it yet, so how can I be?"

"True. I didn't.", she took a deep breath. "I guess you have already guessed, that I would need a big amount of vital qi if I want to restore my youth for some time.", she started.

Ivan nodded. In his eyes, that was the only way it could work.

"And you are correct. But there are two problems with it. First of all the amount is big and is kind of wasted, since it will soon be burned, without improving my body's condition. And because of that, it is impossible to use just your essence blood. Which leads to the second problem. I have a way to extract enough vital qi from you in a short time, but it will hurt your base essence."

"My base essence?", he hadn't heard about it before.

"Yes. Every being has a base essence. It is a part of your soul and is necessary for the creation of essence blood and vital qi as well as spiritual qi. Basically, it is the controller and converter for the qi in your body."

"Then hurting the base essence would result in me being unable to generate qi?", Ivan asked. This sounded more serious, then he had expected.

"No. You will still be able to generate it. As long as the base essence isn't damaged too much, it will always generate qi. Just not as much and from that which is generated, a part will be used to repair the base essence.", she explained.

When Ivan heard that he was reminded of her condition, "Then your base essence is heavily damaged?"

"Exactly. I told you that if it is damaged too much it will stop working, and that is what has happened to me. I'm currently using your vital qi to nourish my body as well as repair my base essence."

"Then what exactly will be the aftereffects of your method?"

"Because, it overdrafts your vital qi, it will slightly damage your base essence. But the damage should be minuscule, only resulting in you lacking vital qi for a few days. At most, in two weeks you should be back to normal."

"Then how are we going to do it?", Ivan asked, making his decision clear.

Celine blushed, "There are two outlets for vital qi. One is in the essence blood, which is used for oneself, while the other is in the sperm, where the vital qi is for the potential child."

"Huh?"

"It's only logical.", Celine hurriedly explained, "Think about it. For a child to come into existence it, of course, requires a huge amount of vital qi and spiritual qi. While most of it will be supplied by the woman during pregnancy, the man has to supply some as well, to kickstart its existence."

"Um.", Ivan was speechless. What she said made sense, but at the same time sounded weird to him.

"Well, in reality, it is not that easy. If not every man that had sex would severely deplete his vital qi. There is only a small chance that the sperm is infused with a larger amount of vital qi. Most of the time it will contain next to nothing.", she once again paused. It was very awkward for her to talk about this.

"Anyway. The reason why sperm is better for transferring vital qi than essence blood is that it is easier to manipulate the amount of vital qi infused into it. Every fertility ritual or spell is based on increasing the vital qi in the sperm and the woman's egg. Essence blood, on the other hand, can't be manipulated by anyone besides the person himself and it is impossible to force the body and base essence to create more."

"So you want to do a fertility ritual and then absorb the vital qi from my sperm?", Ivan asked stunned.