24th Generation Saintess

After a certain period, I stopped noticing the changing seasons as well, passing most of my time in sexclusion, ahem, seclusion.

What surprised me the most was the decreasing 'drive' of 16th Generation Saintess along with time.

The 'Hero' had given her a unique pill that let her maintain her youthful looks regardless of her age, but it wasn't something to stop the decaying and maturing of her soul.

Living through seven ages is enough to leave a permanent effect on any soul. She still had her flings here and there for a couple of generations but after that, she rarely even went out, much like me.

Over time, we became known as the mythical transcendental figures within the sect and something of a legend in the outside world as well. Our existence allowed the sect to still be one of the ruling factions of the world.

Gradually, she had turned into a demure and kind old lady that spent most of her time in seclusion. My admiration for her only increased after that and we experienced for a long time, our budding love growing into a tall tree under whose shade we cultivated without a care in the world.

We had some children as well, though most of them didn't amount to much. One of them though grew up to be the 23rd Generation Saint of our sect.

At that point, we were truly gratified and fulfilled. Due to his presence, we also became more active with the sect's affairs, taking it into the most prosperous and calm era of our sect.

In a way, we truly ruled the world with a 'fist of love'.

Perhaps, it was just part of the natural cycle, perhaps, we were punished for fooling that Hero, perhaps, it was just our destiny, but after Generations of prosperity and growth, decline followed.

It began when our son took in a lively little disciple. She called him master but called us Grandpa and Grandma. It wasn't as if we really treated her like our granddaughter but she definitely received the best treatment out of everyone.

One day, after breaking through to a new realm, she decided to leave the sect to visit the outside world. Since it was her first time going out, it was supposed to be a long journey.

The name of our sect at that point was enough to frighten any other previous rivals we had. In our arrogance, we didn't bestow her any treasures, simply thinking that our name would be enough.

But even an immortal could not exact revenge on someone he didn't know of. Taking advantage of that, in the third year of her adventure, she was assassinated by a group of obscure masked cultivators that were hired by our rivals who were afraid of our growing power with each generation.

They might have believed that if such a trend continued, our sect would one day stop ruling the world with love and indifference and simply order the weaker sect for more resources.

Whatever their motivation might be, it clearly backfired on them. When our son, the Sect Leader and the 23th Generation Saint heard the news of his only disciple being cornered and assassinated, he let out a maddened howl.

In his rage, he led twenty Elders and ten thousand disciples and slaughtered every one of the culprits, whether they had direct or indirect involvement with the scheme.

This action of his had severe repercussions. The number of innocent lives murdered was alone enough to fill rivers of blood.

There was one thing he learned before he killed the final assassin with direct involvement though, it was the fact that she was able to escape heavily injured, and they weren't able to confirm her demise.

When we came to know of his slaughter, we blocked his cultivation and sentenced him to permanent house arrest.

He willingly complied, accepting any punishment we deemed fit for his heinous actions.

The name of our sect was finally dragged to the mud. If it weren't for our existence, the other first-class clans and sects would've paid any price to put an end to the sect.

Years continued to pass, but the scars left during our son's rampage still tainted countless rivers and lands permanently with a shade of red.

We became known as tyrants, avoided and feared everywhere, and when the rest of the world gave our disciples those selfless advantages, they didn't refuse.

After all, since even ancient folks like us could be influenced, there was no way for the young ones to stand firm.

People gave us their lands, resources, and daughters with glowing smiles on their faces for advantages but grit their teeth and criticized us in secret whenever they had the chance.

Sooner or later, it was bound to happen, we had no way of stopping or controlling everything. Things continued to escalate, and when the world is in utter chaos, there are only two things that can happen, a revolution or the rise of a tyrannical hero.

A revolution would always bring novel and positive changes to the whole system but a hero... would either lead the world to genocide and regress the entire society by becoming a tyrant or leave holes that could only be patched with another sub-par system of things.

Unfortunately, what came of it was not a revolution.

Twenty Years after the disappearance of the 24th Generation Saintess, a piece of news came, someone had spotted the Saintess teaching a 15-year-old kid in a backward area to the east.

We were stunned at first but since the news had managed to reach us, it meant the chances of it being true was very high.

We didn't tell our son, we truly meant it when we banished him from the world permanently, and so I ordered 5 Elders to go fetch her back if she was real and also solve any troubles she might have encountered.

But the Elders, with their tyrannical mindset, misunderstood the meaning of that order.

When they reached the place, the stench of hay and mud put down their mood.

Before they could appear in front of the 24th Generation Saintess, she stopped them and told them to go back.

When asked why she told them she had a family of her own now and refused to identify as the disciple of the 'Demon' that caused bloodshed throughout the continent.

The Elders were naturally angered by this comment of her but their status didn't allow them to drag her back.

Just as they were about to go back, a weak and rough-looking 'hobo' came to her side and arrogantly told them to f*ck off and wait for their child to slaughter the 'Demon King' of their sect and 'save the world'.

...and so our Elders returned after crippling that hobo and bringing news of the Saintess' decision and her exact words.

I naturally didn't believe such news at first. The cute little girl that used to jump around calling us 'Grandpa this... Grandma that' couldn't do that.

But then I looked at my Dao Companion looking back at me with a concerned expression and counted the years she hadn't left my side, 1,2,3... 216 years, and then I realized... that people change, with time and circumstances.

Gradually, the attention their family of three received increased exponentially, even top sects sending their branch personnel to keep an eye on them but due to the fear of provoking us, every one of them avoided contact with them.

The news that we received therefore escalated as well. Our face was dragged to the mud, and even when we refused, some unscrupulous people kept troubling them to curry favor with us.

Their life truly became miserable. If she had decided to come back to the sect along with her family, even if it was a hobo she took as her husband, we would've made him a mortal King at least with our influence, but no, she wasn't willing to come back.

And so finally annoyed, I ordered some Elders to bring her back to the sect, so that we could cut our ties with her. Her attitude, even after my son bore the name of the Demon for her, had crossed my bottom line.

If she wanted to survive, so be it. But she wasn't allowed to profit off our sect anymore. In addition, another thing that annoyed me other than her unnecessary and crazy moral high ground, but the fact that to feed her family, a useless husband, and a trash son, she cheaply sold out the Martial Arts and Cultivation Manuals of our Sect in the black market for a cheap price.

A few days later, she was brought in front of me. According to one of the Elders that fetched her, the hobo and his son tried to fight them to 'rescue' her.

The family continued to shed unnecessary tears even after being told that she would be brought back peacefully if she answered everything truthfully.

She gave me a resentful stare but my cold gaze was enough to remind her of who she was talking to.

Like a frightened bunny, she began to tell her tale. Turns out, she had only regained consciousness after an entire month of that assassination attempt. By that time, she could've chosen to come back and save millions of lives but at that time she thought her master had gone mad and became afraid of him.

In addition, she... had fallen in love with the hobo that saved her. Also, I'm not calling him a hobo to demean or insult him. The man this idiot married was a homeless bum. He lived in the dark and rotten street, ate food from the dumpsters, and had long disheveled hair. What else could I call him? Even hobo seems too sophisticated for the guy.

When that bum found her, she was too heavily injured and fainted. Then he sold every piece of treasure, gold, or gem he found on her body and pawned it to buy a house.

Infatuated, he took care of her all day. Then she told me something that almost drove me mad. 'He really loves me. You wouldn't understand, he gives me so many gifts and spends all his time with me.'

"Stupid Harlot, he's still taking advantage of you. The gifts he gave you all came from your own money. As for spending time, do you think he would still spend his time dumpster diving when he has a beautiful bank like you to caress every day?" I hollered.

Hell-bent on angering me to death, the bi*ch sneered. I was about to slash her but she got saved by my spouse.

"Consider this our last act of grace," I was hearing something cold coming out of her mouth after a long time, and even I felt a slight chill upon hearing that.

We then hosted a ceremony and announced to the world that the title of the 24th Saintess would be revoked, and the sect would have no further contact with her.

As for her punishment of secretly selling the Manuals of the clan, she was crippled of her cultivation and doomed to live a mortal life from that point.

The last time I saw her, her face was dark but she still had a twisted smile on her face as she shouted, "My husband will take me away. You can't bound me. He'll destroy your sect."

She was taken away to be placed into permanent house arrest as well.