You Big Tease...

Ava had only managed to partially refine the Wonder Willow so she only had the most basic control over its abilities.

She could use its Spiritual Sense, borrow some of its power, and easily defend herself within it, but that was it.

In their last life, Hazed and Ava hadn't become close until over two-hundred years after The Awakening when her situation was much different and she'd already gained full control over the Wonder Willow, although it didn't have a Spirit.

So Hazed was rather surprised to learn that she had so little authority because she'd rented out the space within The Wonder Willow for some resources and protection from the Wullin.

She hadn't even been the leader of Wullin Alliance for long, and she spent more than half of it as the in-name leader only.

Even though she didn't really need protection while she was within the Wullin, she was basically trapped.

Ava apparently had and still has some very deadly enemies, and that's not including the people who are lusting after the Wonder Willow itself; which would've included the Wullin if she didn't make a deal with them.

The Wullin was large and well organized, but that was only because there was a need for it to be.

The 'evil' or 'dark' side of the Jainhu is much, much larger.

And Ava had a particularly dangerous history, even stealing the Wonder Willow itself from an infamous Devil Sect when she was young.

This was something that she'd never even told Hazed about, he'd only just 'seen' it when they connected through Wendy.

Ava 'saw' her last life with Hazed, but Hazed 'saw' the life she'd lived up until now.

Even though she'd had centuries to get over it by the time they'd met, he wished she would've confided in him.

Not even to make her feel better, because Hazed knew she's not that weak.

Instead, he just wanted to know everything about her while also wanting her to want to share everything with him.

That's what Soulmates should do, and he knew that they could truly become Soulmates, especially now that they've been connected through Wendy.

Many intangible forces that can't be measured by mortal means that he never beleived in as a regular guy like Luck, Love, Faith, and many more are as real as gravity, and Love is one of them.

Hell, even the power of friendship is a powerful force that Immortals can measure and manipulate.

Those forces that have enough power to affect even mortals 'naturally' are the 'True Paths of Power'.

Love is just one of the True Paths of Power, and by becoming Soulmates with someone you're stepping onto that path, or at the very least you're borrowing from it.

When you start to walk your own Path of Power after becoming an Immortal, or a 'Fake Immortal', you'll be able to see, be influenced, and influence other Paths of Power.

While it's possible to touch upon them earlier which is extremely beneficial it's unbelievably difficult especially since it's difficult even to know what to do; Love just happens to be one of the paths that he knows how to touch upon early.

Once a Path of Power becomes a True Path of Power that concept start to appear 'naturally'.

An example is that Fire is a True Path of Power, so fire has 'become a part of nature', while Eternal Fire is a rather popular path of power but since no one has succeeded in cultivating it to a True Path of Power, Eternal Fire won't appear naturally even if it can be created.

Sadly, becoming Soulmates isn't easily done, even with their advantage of the connection.

After all, he has to get Ava to love him even though he plans on having at least one more wife, and he has to prove to himself that you can have true love, and be soulmates with more than one person.

In his last life he'd never even brought up polygamy, nor did he cheat, so he didn't know how she'd react at all.

On top of that, at this point and time his 'first wife' was just a mere mortal teenage girl, as an elite of a few centuries old he was worried about Ava's relationship with her.

Heck, it was one thing in his last life when he was two hundred years old, and she was over five hundred years old, they looked the same age and had the same maturity.

But now he was worried that things would change since he was only nineteen and she still had a few centuries under her belt.

Of course, he didn't care, it's not like she's aged physically or mentally since she was in her twenties.

As Cultivators get older they can and usually do mature without aging too much mentally.

The difference being that the former is a good thing, the latter is a bad thing; at least after a certain mental age.

If Ava joined his Sect then the leadership of New Cali's Wullin would be under an unknown, young, weak Cultivators control.

It's not like they could stop her from joining, and removing her from leader would basically be giving away the Wonder WIllow, something that none of the Clans afford to do.

So instead of having her join right away and likely causing a scene or even becoming enemy #1, they decided to play it safe and have her talk things over with everyone first.

Hazed planned on making one giant alliance anyways so that last thing he wanted to do was piss everyone off.

The biggest downside is that they can't just take the Wonder Willow to be their Sects Holy Lands, but since his house had become a better environment for him to cultivate because of the aura that their reincarnation caused.

Well, at least it is temporary.

The best solution would be to move the Wonder Willow to his land, but that wasn't an option temporarily.

They'd spent years and years building defensive arrays and other security measures to protect the Wonder Willow where it is, and even if every clan in the alliance was willing to help defend the Wonder Willow, they still wouldn't be able to keep it.

So Ava begrudgingly used her funds to build Hazed a basic foundation for their sect, but she refused to lend Hazed more.

Over the years almost every job has been either completely overhauled, or at least partially improved by using things and knowledge that only Cultivators can have, and these are called Qi Professions, but most people just differentiate them by saying 'job' or 'Profession'.

While the Carpenter Profession mainly became much easier and more efficient, the Architecture Profession that also absorbed the Feng Shui Profession is one of the most amazing and mystical of all of the Qi Professions.

The Architect was a genius if Hazed had ever seen one, he was extremely young but had brilliant ideas, coming up with ways the Sect to benefit that no one else would think of.

With many well-paid Qi Professionals working hard to earn the favor of the Wullin Leader, the foundation was expected to be down within three days.

The foundation only had a few of the more important facilities, it was being built to be adaptable, and it was clearly the beginning of something great.

Honestly, if the Sect was as beneficial to cultivating as the young Architect claimed, he would for sure recruit him into his Sect no matter what it took.

He needed to plan, one day they'd be heading to the Divine Realm and when they did Hazed planned on building a whole new empire, a true home in their new world, and an amazing Aritech was a huge part of that.

Although the Divine Realm was very far off, as long as he survived he would one day head there, and since no one planned for dying he might as well plan on living long enough to fulfill his promise to Luna.

***

"What made you change your mind and come with me?" Hazed asked Anza curiously.

"Since there is nothing for me to do, I decided to come to school with you, at least until the Sect Building Foundation is built."

Hazed laughed and nodded, "That makes sense. You don't have to be so nervous hun, I was only curious. This works out perfectly since I don't have a Dorm Room because of my nearby house. How about we sign you up and stay at your Dorm?"

The Dorms were organized into three sections, On-Campus Male, On-Campus Female, and Off-Campus Co-ed.

The Off-Campus Dorm was notorious for its noise, parties, and the resident's total disregard for the school and education.

So obviously it didn't have the best reputation, but they still decided to stay there instead of renting a nearby apartment or staying separately.

Anza panicked adorably and asked, "You want us to stay… together?"

Hazed smiled and teased, "I thought you said that 'you weren't too young to do anything?'"

"I'm not!" She guaranteed instantly, so quick it even seemed like a reflex more than a thought out answer.

Especially because she blushed so badly and covered her face.

"Haha good, then you can stay in the same dorm as me without dying. Let's go."

It wasn't like Hazed was planning on doing anything with Anza. It was just more convenient for them to stay together. 

Anza could tell that he was just teasing her and she felt both relieved and dejected at the same time. She pouted and followed behind while mumbling, "You big tease…"

Hazed stumbled in disbelief.

"Are you ok?!"

"No, no, I'm fine. I, uh, just tripped…" he said out loud, but he was really thinking, 'Did she really just call me a tease?!'

A while later they arrived at the school and Hazed smiled, taking Anza's hand in his own, "Well, let's go sign-up!"

Anza blushed and felt her heartbeat speed up, the warmth and protection that she felt from just holding his hand blew her away. Her adorable self barely managed an, "Mm!" before she was dragged along by Hazed strong hands.

'How could I feel like I couldn't live without him already, even if he did save us, he's someone that I just met… even if I had a crush and grateful or whatever I wouldn't feel like he was my entire world already, would I? Is this because of the bloodline?' Anza questioned herself in disbelief

If you asked her if she loved him already she would be able to say no, she had a crush but it's not like she'd truly fallen in love with, not yet at least. However, if you asked her if she could live without him, she wouldn't be able to answer, at least not honestly., because the moment that he took her hand, she felt something, and from that moment on, she knew that she needed it, whatever it was, as badly as she needed water.

If she wasn't too embarrassed, and she admitted this to Hazed, Luna would explain that it was mainly from their connection through the 'Star Priestess' becoming mixed with her true feelings.

One of the main instincts that her new bloodline gave her was to protect Hazed, and that losing Hazed would mean losing her bloodline, but she'd misinterpreted this new instinctual feeling into something more emotional, something romantic.

***