Chapter 29

After taking a sip of her tea, Luo Huifang said, "Instead of discouraging Jianhong to quit his passion, eldest brother suggested that he combined his passion with cultivation. That gave Jianhong the inspiration to create a house that could help cultivators cultivate faster. These days he could create a simple house that acted very much like those caves filled with spiritual energy meant for closed door cultivation. He also made it easier for cultivators to absorb and filter spiritual energy while in the house."

"Is there a chance I could hire him to build me a new shop?" Mimi wiggled his brows.

Luo Huifang rested her chin on her entwined hands. "I'm sure he'll do it freely if you challenge him to build an overly complicated design. The harder it is for him to complete, the more he wants to succeed. Sometimes I think he's a masochist."

"Ho, ho, ho, hardship was what formed Lan Jianhong, now he enjoys it thoroughly. Like a moth embracing the sun." Mimi brushed his beard, untangling the knots of hair.

Lastly there was the story of Jie Qiqiang. "Qiqiang came from a famous family of smiths, who are in close contact with the Jinlong sect. Many Jinlong sect members frequented Qiqiang's family for weapons, including eldest brother. Before Qiqiang had created eldest brother's current weapon, he needed a replacement weapon every now and then, since his weapon kept on breaking apart." Lai Meihui said.

"But since eldest brother kept on breaking his weapons, many of Qiqiang's family members were unwilling to create more weapons for eldest brother." Luo Huifang recalled.

Lai Meihui perked up. "That's right, eldest brother wasn't famous back then, so no one was chasing and begging him to allow them to create a weapon for him. Only Qiqiang was willing to create eldest brother a weapon, though it constantly broke."

Wu Jinjing nodded. "According to Qiqiang himself, it was because eldest brother kept on breaking the weapon he handed him that he learnt how to be a great weapon smith."

The ghost hummed and asked, "How did all of you come together? Did the Golden Crowned Lord introduce you to each other?"

Luo Huifang shook her head. "No, some of us had known each other beforehand. Take example of me and my little sisters, we were already friends. The same could be said for Jianhong, Xiaotong, and Qiqiang, those three had also known each other. We never knew that we were all acquainted to eldest brother."

"Until eldest brother realized that we all knew each other, and the ball rolled from there. Then he introduced us to elder brother, Jiayi, and Liwei." Lai Meihui said.

"At first some of us were reluctant to be in contact with each other, but after realizing how handy it was to have acquaintances with different backgrounds. We all became friends with benefits, friends, best friends as Jiang Xiaotong called it, then sworn siblings." Wu Jinjing said.

The ghost ate some more peanut essence and drained his tea's essence. Wisps of green entered Mimi's mouth. "Now that you've cut ties with your sects, what are your plans?"

The three women shared a small laughter at the ghost's curiosity. Lai Meihui exclaimed, "We're creating our own sect!"

"Hoo, I thought that might be the case. With all of you giving up all your possessions, opening the Da dynasty secret realms — three of the Da dynasty secret realm even — made the obvious choice sourcen to fund your yet to be formed sect. " Mimi smiled.

"You figured that out too, didn't you?" Lai Meihui chuckled.

"It was an easy guess once I learned that all of you were affiliated with one another." Mimi said as a matter of fact.

The best were always saved for last, and it was none other than Ming Yongnian. "So, regarding the Golden Crowned Lord, which one of you will tell me?"

Wu Jinjing looked towards Lai Meihui. Lai Meihui looked towards Luo Huifang. And well, Luo Huifang looked towards the ghost. The four of them played a strange game of relay.

The honor ended up falling to Luo Huifang, who could only accept her fate. "The baby that eldest brother was carrying, is indeed his child."

Once Ming Yongnian found out that Luo Huifang had spilled the beans on him having a child, the immortal will surely punish her in the most painful yet kind way. Just imagining it felt like having all of her nails plucked out.

Flipping his beard aggressively, the ghost leaned forward, causing the three women to do the same. His voice a mere whisper, "Did the Golden Crowned Lord… do the deed?"

Lai Meihui followed Mimi's example and started whispering, "The child is born of a spiritual foetus."

"He said the child was an accident." Wu Jinjing also whispered.

The ghost was quiet, but his face was marred with deep lines, eyes squinted deep in thoughts. His hand began toying with his beard.

"What's wrong Mimi?" Luo Huifang knew that when this old ghost acted this way, he was thinking of some ridiculous possibility.

"He said it was an accident?"

"Yes." The three women answered.

Still playing with his beard, the ghost said, "Just before his ascension… a few months actually, the Golden Crowned Lord and the Devil Venerable fought against one another. From what I heard the Devil Venerable was badly wounded, he is still recovering as we speak. The same should be true for the Golden Crowned Lord.

"The reason for their fight was to obtain an auspicious item that might help them break through their bottleneck. For the Golden Crowned Lord it was to reach immortality, and for the Devil Venerable it was to gain the potential to defy the heavens.

"Where they learned the location of this auspicious item was a mystery, that would help a cultivator break through, even I had no knowledge of an auspicious item that appeared out of nowhere. So perhaps the two had shared a premonition and went after the auspicious item."

Lai Meihui had to cut in, "Mimi, what are you trying to tell us with all of these?"

"I'm getting there, don't interrupt me." Mimi held his hand up to Lai Meihui, after Lai Meihui made an action to seal her lips the ghost finally continued, "Spiritual foetus are very fickle, if the parent could not provide the foetus with abundant spiritual energy, the foetus would not grow, worse case the foetus will perish. Even a nascent soul cultivator needed to concentrate more than half of their spiritual energy.

"The three of you said that the Golden Crowned Cultivator had found the spiritual foetus by accident. He was injured in a great fight against the Devil Venerable, he would not have enough spiritual energy to nourish the foetus. The important aspect here is 'accident'. I highly doubt the Golden Crowned Cultivator would deliberately sire a child. Thus the only moment an accident could occur, the moment when he released a massive amount of spiritual energy was when he…" Mimi left the three to fill in the blanks.

Wu Jinjing was the one to fill in the blanks, "Fought with the Devil Venerable."

The ghost gave Wu Jinjing an applause. "Correct! But the Golden Crowned Cultivator was not the only one who released a massive amount of spiritual energy." The ghost watched as colour drained from the three women's faces. "There is a very good reason why when a cultivator is in the process of nourishing a spiritual foetus they went as far as putting up a strong restriction array covering a whole mountain range. Even the restriction array had to be casted by the cultivator. Because a small amount of spiritual energy from another would mean that that person is also the child's parent."

"Eldest brother…" Lai Meihui didn't have the strength to say it.

"Had a child with the Devil Venerable." Wu Jinjing's words cut through them like a blade.

***

The celebration and the fireworks were ear deafening, overlapping with the cheers below. Despite this, for the four men it felt like they had been submerged into the ocean. The sound was greatly muffled.

His entire body was tense, frozen, battle ready. One simple gaze from Ming Yongnian made Feng Delun's squared shoulders rounded. How could his eldest brother tell him to stand down, now of all times when the Devil Venerable himself appeared before them?

"Since the city's array has not imprisoned you, it means that you bore no evil will towards anyone in Dongfu including Nian." Kaijun's statement was like a cold bucket of water thrown at Feng Delun.

"No evil thoughts?" The Devil Venerable seemed amused. "I am evil itself, saying that I have no evil thoughts…" The man scoffed. "Is like saying a rain with no clouds, the sea with no salt."

"What business do you have in my beloved city?" Kaijun questioned.

"Who are you to question me?" The Devil Venerable stepped forward, each step the man took would make one's legs tremble and fall to their knees.