After recruiting the Longfei sisters as his maids, the group of six were taken around the village by the sisters. The village named Ninebless was exceedingly small, with the majority of the population being mortals. While the bloodlines of the villagers were descended from dragons and phoenixes, descendents with pure bloodlines rarely appeared, perhaps once in a generation.

Finally, they arrived at the home of the village chief. The person looked like a ordinary old man, but he certainly had a high cultivation base concealed. “Young Prince, how do you like the twin geniuses of our Ninebless village?”

“They are amazing. I will certainly take care of them.” The Longfei sisters scowled on hearing the conversation that treated them as items being traded.

“I hope you do… Their parents were the geniuses of the previous generation, and joined the Five Sacred Beast Sect. After these two were born, they entrusted the twins to me for raising. They left secret arts and other resources as well. Due to the twins still being young, none of them have been used. As their proper inheritance, I will entrust them to you now.” Saying this, the man handed over a spatial ring to Heifeng Jiansui.

Heifeng Jiansui watched the ring for a moment, before tossing it to the sisters. Longfei Yanyang caught it and put it away. After this, she gracefully bowed at her benevolent master for not seizing her inheritance.

“It seems that your parents are quite wealthy cultivators. It has been 13 years since they entrusted you to the chief here, did they ever return again?” Heifeng Jiansui posed this question to the Yanyang twins.

“No, young master.” Thinking about their birth parents, the twins were at a loss. It was most likely that they were dead, having escaped to hide away their children before perishing.

“Hmph… Well, if they return, do tell them that their daughters are now my women! I will gladly receive them if they return!” Saying these bold words, Heifeng Jiansui left the flabbergasted village chief and left the village.

+++

“Young master, where are we heading to?” It had already been hours since they left the village, and the group of five were still treading through the woods of the forest outside the Ninebless village. Thankfully, they had not met any true demonic beasts and all other wild beasts were dispatched by Qinglan Weiwei’s spear strikes.

“Our destination is still a bit far away… It won’t do to get exhausted so early, so keep walking. I won’t be bedding you for at least a decade, so you have to be useful in other ways!” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui ignored their complaints and continued walking.

“Not bedding us for a decade…? Of course, he is still quite young so he must be forbidden by his family from sexual relations until his foundation stabilizes!” After knowing this, the twins became more energetic and stopped complaining. Of course, Heifeng Jiansui had concealed his true age, so they still thought of him as a peer!

“How strange, normally we would have encountered a demonic beast already, but it seems we are in luck today…” While Longfei Yanyang was relieved at not being caught by demonic beasts, they would be perfectly safe even if attacked today. The Royal Palace would never allow a Prince to be assigned to a remote place without a powerful guard!

While Heifeng Jiansui told the twins that he had come without guards, they did not believe it. A secret guard must be tailing him unnoticed, protecting him from peril!

Of course, Heifeng Jiansui truly did not come here with guards. With his ability to craft Spiritual Weapons, the Emperor was sure that it was impossible for him to come to harm in this place unless he deliberately courted death.

By using his spiritual sense techniques, Heifeng Jiansui avoided all demonic beasts. While he could easily handle them, he didn’t want to discourage his battle maids by proclaiming his strength that did not need protection.

Finally, they reached their destination. There was a vast lake with a small islet in its centre. The waves rolling on the water gave a sensation of peace. It seemed as if all burdens on the heart had been relieved.

“All of you must be feeling a sensation of calmness, as if all the burdens on the heart have been relieved. This is a specialty of this place which even the grand formation that is close to achieving sentience cannot perceive. Since arriving on this island, all of us have been tracked by the grand formation until we arrived here. Now that we are away from its eyes, the subconscious feeling of danger has abated.” As Heifeng Jiansui said this, all the girls were shocked.

“This place is concealed from the Phoenix Requiem Array?! How is this possible?” Feilong Yanyang couldn’t help but say this in a surprised manner.

“So you natives call the grand formation Phoenix Requiem Array… Anyway, the truth is that under this lake is a Wood-Water spirit vein. It opposes the Ice-Fire spirit veins upon which the grand formation was built. Thus, even Heaven’s eyes cannot see this.” Hearing this, all doubts were resolved.

“Now, this place shall be our new home.” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui removed a gem from his spatial ring and threw it into the lake. The gem accurately fell in the exact middle of the islet and resonated with the core of the spirit vein.

And suddenly, like Mt. Sumeru within the mustard seed, a palatial estate sprang up on the isle. A peerless abode for cultivators housing various formations was formed on the isle in the middle of the lake!

Heifeng Jiansui held up his right hand, as if to call for the door to open. And the door of the mansion indeed opened, with a wooden bridge crossing from the isle to the lake shore forming in a instant!

Heifeng Jiansui gracefully stepped on the bridge with his maids following. This place would be the castle of his dominion, a place where only his control reigned!

+++

“…And these are your rooms. You can pick and choose.” Heifeng Jiansui had shown the five girls around the house, something that was usually a maid’s duty.

“””“I’ll pick this room.”””” With the twins picking a single room, every other girl picked a room of their own.

“Before this, I have granted all of you secret arts and armor. Well, now that we have arrived at my estate, I can grant you girls a weapon to battle with. Come with me and take your pick.” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui took the girls to a door that led to a hall.

“The Hall beyond the door has a Earth-grade ‘Weapon Heart’ formation. It guides you towards the best weapon to train in. A supreme talent in swordsmanship will not fare well cultivating spear arts. After all, like elemental Dao, weapon Dao are also based on talent.” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui smiled. “All of you, please enter at the same time. This formation has illusory components so you will not be distracted.”

+++

Once again, the girls sat together with their Prince in his bedroom. This could have been the prologue for a more interesting scene, but it wasn’t time yet!

“As expected, Qinglan Weiwei’s talent is in the spear. Xuehu Ying has chosen the path of the claw. Gui Tian’er is embarking on mastering the staff. And Feilong Shanxue and Yanyang have chosen the saber and the sword respectively!” As Heifeng Jiansui stated this, the girls nodded.

“I already know about your bloodlines and elemental affinities. So, the only thing remaining is the battle spirit!” After he said this, Qinglan Weiwei immediately awakened her battle spirit. Azure leaves with red veins were formed on her fingers. “Azure Dragongrass, Plant-type martial spirit.”

This was a trash martial spirit, only able to form the grass of a common herb. But long ago when she was a impoverished girl without resources to train in martial arts, she slept in a field of this grass and it nurtured her battered body to health. Since then, she used this as a recovery method in lieu of pills. Unexpectedly, it caused the quantity of grasses that she could form and control to rise higher and higher!

Heifeng Jiansui caught a drifting leaf, casually biting it. “Well, this is a fairly common type of spirit, so manuals of battle spirit techniques for this mus be common as well. I’ll get a manual of the best techniques sent to you in a few days.” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui turned to Xuehu Ying.

The short Xuehu Ying caused phantasmal claws to appear over her fingers. “This is my battle spirit, White Tiger Claws, weapon-type martial spirit.”

Heifeng Jiansui stroked the claws with his fingers, causing Xuehu Ying to shudder all over her body… “If you had shown these earlier, I would have designed claws that you could fuse your martial spirit with… Don’t worry, I will forge new claws for you anyway.”

Without prompting, Gui Tian’er awakened her martial spirit. A illusionary tortoiseshell formed with a green light and quickly flew into Heifeng Jiansui’s body. He immediately felt a defensive power cover his body. “Tortoiseshell Barrier, support-type battle spirit.”

“…This is fairly rare. I will have a look if supportive manuals for this technique exist.” Saying, he glanced at the Feilong twins.

Around Feilong Yanyang, a white fire formed while her sister called ice around her. Ice and fire converged to create a white beast with dragon head and phoenix tail. In the end, it curiously looked a swan instead.

“While my battle spirit is Firestorm, Elemental-type battle spirit and Shanxue has the Icedragon Phantasm, Beast-type battle spirit, we can perform spirit fusion to form the Pure While Phoenix Dragon!”, Feilong Yanyang proudly said this.

“Good. Your spirit fusion beats all others in destructive power. I’ll ask for Ice-Fire spirit fusion techniques in addition to manuals about your battle spirits.” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui smiled. He finally knew everything needed to gather their scattered power into a force capable of defending him.

“Now, I know there is to know about your battle spirits, bloodlines, elemental affinities and your innate talents. Even with it, your chance of protecting me in a crisis is zero. All of you are mortals without cultivation and thus useless while facing a cultivator. Thus, the only thing that can shore up your power is one: battle formations!”

“Here, these are five copies of the Five Blades Converge Art. It is a foundation battle formation with the cores being weapons. Even though it is basically a foundation scripture, it is good enough to keep you from dying against a pack of wolves. That’s good enough for you in your current state… You have a week to practice, basing on the amount of food stored in my spatial rings. After that, it is hunting time! Train well! I am going into seclusion for the week as well, so don’t bother me when you are starving!” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui nonchalantly threw a spatial ring containing food and a map of the surroundings.

Heifeng Jiansui wasn’t worrying about their death. The area near the lake specifically kept away demonic beasts. He happily walked in the direction of his room until he arrived at his doorstep. After sealing the door from the inside, he ran out of the door to explore the vast world outside.

It had been truly a long time since his last kill.