Meanwhile, in the palace’s Servant Quarters, a commotion had begun.

“The Prince was awarded a dominion! He is coming to pick out maids to take with him! All of them have to be below the age of 16!”

“The maids will be allowed to pick scriptures from the Royal Scripture Palace! They will also be given resources to boost their cultivation, as their duty is to protect the Prince!”

“While the prince is quite young now, the maids will be given the duty to warm his bed when he has grown! They might even be promoted to the status on concubine if they serve him well!”

Countless rumors and gossips were exchanged in the clamor. The prince’s tastes in women, his preference to posing older, his skill in auxiliary arts and sword techniques… Many things, true and untrue were talked about in crazy fervor!

The commotion only ended when a woman graced with royal splendor appeared. She was Chanlong Yue, Heifeng Jiansui’s mother who had come to pick out her son’s followers!

“Within 12 breaths, bring all girls under the age of 16 with bloodlines of more than 40% density before me!” At her imperious command, the head servants scrambled to carry out her command. Finally, 18 girls were selected.

“All of you, come to meet my son! If you are fortunate enough, you might be selected and have your fate turned around!” Hearing her words, all the girls unconsciously perked up, all set to make their best impression to the young prince.

+++

The 18 nervous girls came forward and bowed to the young prince. Heifeng Jiansui looked regal in the clothes he had picked out for his birthday.

“One by one, come near me and show your palms. I will examine your root bones and bloodlines.” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui had a nonchalant expression on his face.

The first girl brave enough to come forward was a blue haired loli with a heart shaped face. He came before Heifeng Jiansui and began, “Milord, this slave’s name is…” but was interrupted by the Prince’s sudden bark.

“Present your palm!” Hearing this, the girl was terrified and immediately thrust out her palms. Heifeng Jiansui’s ten fingers lightly pressed onto the acupoints on the palms as he sent out spiritual sense to examine her as well.

“Age: 13, mediocre root bone, Blue Kirin bloodline, 40% density… Enough to qualify on a minimum level but not enough to satisfy me… Next!” The girl dejectedly returned and another girl came forward. Heifeng Jiansui coldly looked at the bevy of girls as he roughly evaluated their physiques with divine sense.

“Not good enough… I think two of them are up to it, but that means I need three more… I suppose I’ll raise the qualifications to the age of 18… no, 21 and maximum cultivation of Third Layer Physique, Blood-drop Refinement.” After sending this information to his mother via mental transmission, he began to check the talents of the girls via palm reading.

“Age: 15, decent root bone, Ice Phoenix bloodline, 20% density and Azure Roc bloodline, 25% density… I should have specified that 40% density of a SINGLE bloodline was needed, you do not qualify. Next!” One after the other, girls were disqualified from the honor of becoming the Prince’s maid. These girls had been raised unknowing of certain vital cultivation matters, so they didn’t realize that Heifeng Jiansui’s minimum qualifications were enough to enter the ranks of inner disciples of the Five Sacred Beast Sect!

…

“Age: 16, top root bone, White Kirin bloodline, 50% density… a rare genius. You are qualified, next!”

…

“Age: 13, high root bone with blocked meridians, Turtlesnake bloodline, 65% density… you also qualify.”

Heifeng Jiansui looked at the two girls with interest. He could nurture their root bones and cultivate their bloodlines with pills, but it still required a certain threshold. Unblocking meridians with acupuncture needles was trivial for him.

“Both of you are the best from the batch. You,” Heifeng Jiansui pointed at the White Kirin bloodline girl, “Your cultivation is still in the Body Tempering stage, so you haven’t completely solidified your foundations. I will grant you some manuals to swiftly break down your original foundation and start anew.”

After this, he looked at the girl of the Turtlesnake bloodline, “Thankfully you haven’t begun cultivation yet. As such, there is no need to break down your cultivation. After unblocking your meridians, I can give you top grade manuals to train in from the start!”

Hearing his words, they couldn’t help but have complex expressions on her face. The White Kirin girl could not help but feel that her three years of cultivation was a waste. Meanwhile, the Turtlesnake girl was secretly happy at her ‘lack of talent’ that kept her from gathering a strand of qi!

“I thus grant you the honor of becoming my personal maids! State your names!”

“This servant’s name is Xuehu Ying! I thank milord for his kindness!”

“This servant’s name is Gui Tian’er! I thank milord for his kindness!”

A white haired girl who was quite tall for her age and a short black haired girl bowed to Heifeng Jiansui. He coldly nodded at them.

“Other than these two, everyone has failed to qualify, so you all may return. Since all of you had your physiques evaluated by me, I suppose I will grant you some good fortune.” With a wave of a hand, slips of paper were blown at the girls. “On these slips, I have written the name and description of a low-quality cultivation method. Take these slips to the Scripture Hall and ask for that method. If you diligently cultivate that technique, your foundations will become more solidified, enough to break past the bottlenecks that your low talent will impose on your cultivation path!” Saying these words, Heifeng Jiansui waved his hands, ordering the servants to return.

Finally, the only people in the room were Chanlong Yue, Heifeng Jiansui and the two new maids.

“Take these two tokens. They can transmit spiritual sense, so I can remotely contact you. Keep them on your person at all times!”

“Both of you… I have obtained permission to grant you top-grade cultivation arts. Go to the Scripture Hall and request for the arts mentioned in the slips I sent to you... and do it after all the other servants have left. After I select maids from the older servants, I’ll call for you.” Heifeng Jiansui’s tone was noticeably warmer. The two girls obediently bowed their heads and left.

“There is such lack of talent among the servants of the castle…” Heifeng Jiansui spoke his true thoughts in the company of his mother.

“They are only servants, after all. If your father would have allowed a pick from the nobilities and the courtier’s children, you would have a greater number of talents…” Chanlong Yue commiserated with her son, her jadelike hands waving as she spoke.

“Father actually brought that up, but I refused. I need servants who know their place, not backbiters plotting to stab my back.” Heifeng Jiansui refused to deal with political factors if he didn’t have to. In the end, he was destined for greater than this Black Phoenix great world!

“If there is truly a lack of talents in the palace, there might be some worth cultivating in the Ninebless Phoenix Island. There is a small village in your dominion. They cannot expand as the formations protecting from monstrous beasts is only restricted to a small space, but it is quite good already.”

“The Ninebless Phoenix Island was named after the Ninebless Phoenix Sect, an all female Phoenix sect with 10,000 years of history… During the war with Divine Dragon Great World only 500 years ago, the sect was destroyed. The invaders raped all the disciples to steal their Primordial Yin, and the villagers are the descendants of the great sin.” Heifeng Jiansui calmly stated this, causing Chanlong Yue’s face to pale.

“That so. You must have learnt this from the Scripture Hall. Then let me give you some more information. The sect’s destruction caused the resentful thoughts and final wishes of the disciples to converge and fuse into the sect’s grand formation. The formation, which should have broken down after the sect’s destruction, somehow was reconstructed and sealed away the Ninebless Phoenix Island, causing the invaders to be trapped in it. They were struck by countless curses and were unable to return. Finally, forces from our empire’s army arrived at the island and slaughtered the misfortunate invaders. This is the island’s bloody history.”

“So… what happened after this? Since the invaders were completely exterminated, what happened to the loot from the sect? Was it confiscated by our Empire?”

“…No. Not only were the sect’s items not found, even some of the invading force’s items disappeared. The items must have been used by the formation to reinforce itself. After this, the formation slowly expanded in power, until it permeated over the entirety of the island. It controls the beast’s bloodline, imparting hints of dragon and phoenix bloodline to nurture them. Also, the villagers also seem to have been influenced by the formation. While dragon bloodline is not insignificant among the villagers, it is only passed down in females. No males of draconic descent are born in the village.”

“You might be thinking, why is such a dangerous formation not destroyed yet? In truth, the Emperor suspects that the formation has birthed a spirit and he hopes to use the formation. It is a formation of phoenix descent and our Black Phoenix clan treasures such items. We have stopped searching for the sect legacy and even sacrifice dragon and phoenix blood to it, hoping to engender some measure of trust with the spirit.” Saying this, Chanlong Yue stopped her explanation for some time, before remembering something and carrying on.

“Xingmei’s mother passed you a Phoenix Essence Talisman, didn’t she? That was a Sect Identity token when the sect was active. You can use it to gain insight into the sect’s legacy. At the very least, the formation won’t consider you a enemy if you have it on you.” Saying this, she finally stopped speaking. The reason behind it was the arrival of two head servants.

Both of them bowed twice, once to Chanlong Yue and after that, to her son. “We have gathered all the young servants worthy of the young prince’s attention! Shall we call them inside?”

+++

“Age: 18, top root bone, Fire Kirin bloodline, 60% density… but a cultivation of mid-level Innate Awakening... Your foundation is based on inferior techniques, not qualified, next!” Seeing the spectacled girl turn away in dejection, Heifeng Jiansui felt disheartened. This girl was a top talent, but her cultivation was too high for the foundations to be changed.

Looking at the few girls remaining, it seemed like he would have to pick out a talent from the Ninebless Phoenix Island. There didn’t seem to be any talents with good foundations remaining.

“…cultivation of mid-level Blood-drop Refining, you are a true talent but…”

“…bloodline of Azurewolf, too common and without elemental affinity…”

“…low-grade root bone, it will be difficult for even your Ice Phoenix bloodline to breakthrough…”

One after the other, all servants failed Heifeng Jiansui’s expectations. Finally, a quite tall 21 year old girl bowed to him. She had a well-toned body and calluses on her palm were visible, but the strange thing about her was…

“No cultivation?” Hearing Heifeng Jiansui’s surprised words, she lowered her head.

“…Just show me your palm.” On his command, she quickly thrust out her palm with a lowered head.

“Your root bones are the sturdiest I have ever seen, and with your physical training, you have squeezed out all their potential. But it seems that your meridians are sealed… since your body is tempered well, it will be quite easy to resolve. As for your bloodline…huh?!” Heifeng Jiansui was temporarily rendered speechless!

Among the servants he had seen through, other than Phoenix bloodline wielders, most of their bloodlines were Draconic lineage. The reason behind this was that dual-cultivating with dragon-lineage women would bring the most advantages to phoenix cultivators; the so called “dragon and phoenix as one”.

While there were a large variety of dragons, the palace mostly had Ice and Fire attributed bloodlines. There were some rare Earth Dragon bloodlines as well, but they were quite few with lower density. But this girl was a Azure Dragon bloodline possessor, and furthermore, it was a Perfect Azure Dragon bloodline!

Top-grade root bone, Perfect Azure Dragon bloodline… She was a shoe-in candidate to become a Chosen Disciple of the Five Sacred Beast Sect, ranking above even True Disciples! After going countless stacks of hay, he had finally found the needle!

“…You have a quite dense Azure Dragon bloodline. Even though your lack of cultivation is a problem, it can also be good fortune due to not having a foundation to re-establish. You have also been tempering your body well, so your root bone has not lost potency due to lack of use. I suppose I will take you as a maid, then.” Heifeng Jiansui knew that this girl was unaware of her bloodline, or she would have her meridians cleared already. He would casually give her some pills and she would unexpectedly end up ‘perfecting’ her bloodline; this would inculcate a sense of debt towards him, her benefactor!

“State your name, then.”

“Qinglan Weiwei greets the master!” Overjoyed, the girl furiously kowtowed to her master. At this moment, he handed her the token that allowed him to remotely communicate with her.

The moment Heifeng Jiansui proclaimed her as his new maid, an uproar sprang up!

“That trash has been unable to gather a drop of qi all along, and the Prince took her as a maid?!”

“Does the Prince have eyes, this trash…?!”

“A small carp like her leapt through the Dragon’s Gate today?”

Heifeng Jiansui could hear the insults clearly. Looking at his new maid’s expression, it was filled with humiliation and resentment. All through her 21 years of life, she had been put down by her peers! And now, even on her golden day, their words didn’t stop biting!

“Shut up.” Heifeng Jiansui’s cold voice froze the chatter. He immediately pointed out 5 servants from the group. “You five who dare insult my maid, come forward.”

Fearfully, the five women came before him and kneeled. “Forgive us, young master!”

To their desperate cries, Heifeng Jiansui only snorted. “The one you should be is not me, but her.” He pointed at his new Azure Dragon. “You are my, the Crown Prince’s maid. Naturally, you rank far above these junior servants. Handle them as you see fit!”

Qinglan Weiwei had a cold expression on her face. “On account of being acquaintances, I shall not be too ruthless. Both of you, you are henceforth fired from your posts as servants. Thus, this Palace housing the Imperial Family is forbidden to you! Begone or face execution!”

On hearing her words, both of them were frozen for a moment. Their faces turned pale before they furiously kowtowed to her, even pulling at her leg to kiss. She simply kicked them away, repeating, “Begone or face execution!”

Hearing this, the girls reluctantly turned away to leave. One of them wanted to leave some parting words, but seeing Qinglan Weiwei’s cold stance, turned away restricting all doubts and grievances to her heart.

“Quite decisive.” Heifeng Jiansui praised his new maid before turning to look at the group of servants. “You all can leave now.”

Silently, the women left. Today, Qinglan Weiwei had showed her dominance; only a fool would dare cross her now!

“Then the recruitment of maids has ended… I suppose it is time to open up your meridians now. Let me take you to meet your colleagues as well…” Saying this, he sent messages to convene in his residence to the two girls.

Heifeng Jiansui and Qinglan Weiwei walked together. They were taking the first step to awaken her destiny!