The fishing village had no glorious name, as the Xi Patriarchy rarely bothered with creativity.

Zan 747 had a bit more than half a thousand people, numbers changing as older people died and new ones got born.

Madam Shen was the local weather council, giving advice when the boats should sail, as well as the local nurse and trader. She was a bit frail now, with grey hair and pains in her back. Due to her sharp mind, she had held the village elder position for 22 years, and was in charge of trading the village produce to the nearby town, poetically named Zan 748.

Shen had been unlucky in marriage, three men leaving her after she failed to birth a child. She had also tried for the Guard, but had been rejected. And for a few years, she also was in charge of the latest migrant, an old man hailing from the capital, as he spoke with clear and cultured words.

Mister Deng didn't talk much, mostly brewing tea and staring at the sea, or rarely going out and returning with a big fish that he donated for a feast. Though, mostly happened when someone died. It seemed kinda morbid, but old people were like that.

The village got used to the new villager, although children were told to stay away, as the man probably had a heavy past.

Then one day, a flock of flying cultivators descended in the village, and prepared a large feast for no reason, and even called the old tea master to join their table.

"You look like crap, Old Deng." the younger man in the group said calmly, sitting beside the elder with two trays full of spicy spider. He passed one of them to the elder, and began wolfing his food.

The old man grimaced in disgust, and tasted a tiny bite from the Sovereign ranked meat. "At least your cooking got better. Still too salty." he replied in a tired voice, and nibbled at the white meat in small bites.

"Yeah, the queens are harder to cook. My skill is not yet good enough, for Sovereign ranks." the young cook admitted with a shrug. The old man looked around, noting the three Fire Disciples and the druid, all wearing the same type of wedding ring, a brass band dotted with a small sapphire.

"And yet, good enough for a Monarch. You did good, young Pef. Just need more practice." Old Deng said in a sad chuckle, leaving half of the food not eaten and producing a wine pitcher made of copper. He shared the wine with this Pef, but ignored the women.

Madam Shen wasn't an elder for nothing. She had suspected the old man was a cultivator, simply because normal people would have died long ago, before getting white beards to their bellies and wise eyes to pierce your soul. And normal people wouldn't go out at sea and carry back fish as large as a boat.

But as this guy seem so sad and harmless, Shen let him live in her house, and share meals or washed his clothes.

The man never said thanks, but offered his tea or a large fish in return. It was his way, and Shen didn't care about this new copper coins which were all the rage in the town.

A tidal wave or a disease could wipe out a town or a village just the same. Even a man eating beast, if they got past the holy barrier. She had offered the old man a pill of the new penicillin medicine, which had saved sick men in the last years, but the stubborn man called Deng had refused.

And now, when these Sky rankers arrived, she thought she had figured it out.

All except the thing about the Sovereign rank. Was the meat a high ranked beast? And the young cultivator had killed it?

"Yes, uncle. To advance to Monarch rank I need your expertise. That Monarch spider I killed in Phobia was too strong. Only by luck I managed to win. My puppy needs to grow teeth, just like yours." this young Pef said in a mysterious and profound

manner, holding out a strange grey knife, with the blade too thin.

Deng smiled amused, and sliced his thumb on the blade, blood flowing and vanishing somewhere before falling on the sand.

"Hmmm. Indeed, you do. The edge is still cracked and dented. So, you intend to pay me with insects?" the old cultivator asked curious, another knife, looking identical to the other appearing in his hand.

The youngster kissed his knife, before it vanished somewhere. "That depends, old monster. I can stay six months. Can you spare six months?" he said in a joking tone, and raised his eyebrow.

The old man didn't answer him, instead turning towards Madam Shen, and asked her. "What do you say, Shen? Can young Pef learn the sword, in six months?"

She coughed in surprise, not expecting to be called out on her spying. But then she opened herself and let her erratic intuition answer. Shen blinked in wonder. The tiny voice in her mind told her, it would take 6000 years for that sword to be learned.

"I don't know, Mister Deng. I won't be alive in 6000 years to see it. But it seems, to be worth a try." she whispered in a shy voice.

Both men laughed amused at her words, for different reasons.

The young man raised himself and held her hand for a second, then scratched his chin.

"What if you were alive in 6000 years, Madam Shen? What if you could live those years, and learn the sword. Would you?" the young man asked curious.

"But I tried. I was told the General doesn't need weak soldiers. And never got accepted in the Guard." she replied with a tiny bit of hope.

"Yeah, those priests were stupid bigots. See, a strong general has only strong soldiers, because she takes weak humans and makes them strong. It's the training that makes one strong. And starting weak, gives those soldiers a good heart and a worthy soul. Do you know why you never had children and was shunned by the men of your village? Because cultivators need a hundred years of trying to have a child, and you're around 40?" Pef asked at the end of his explanation, kinda rhetorical since he had all info on this woman.

"So, can I? Really? Become a cultivator and fly through the skies?" Shen wondered with hopeful eyes. Not to mention getting to live thousands of years and even have children.

Pef turned towards the old man, face thoughtful and deep in concentration. "Your fate has brought you here, old fool. You eat and drink together and share the same house. I bet she cleans your clothes and looks after you. She could be stronger than you, and yet you keep her tied to a village, to die without awakening. And then, it's you who complains you lived a lonely life and died forgotten and miserable." he proclaimed with an accusing voice, pointing at Shen like she was a capital witness.

Deng lowered his eyes and sobbed, like a scolded child. "She's too young for me. Everyone is too young..." he muttered in a low tone, like hiding something.

"Yeah, Madam Shen is so young, she'll die of old age in a couple of years. Gah, let's go and fight, I feel like breaking your stupid bones right now!" Pef yelled and flew out towards the sea.

The Monarch wife gestured at Deng to follow, simply waving him after Pef's qi trail.

It took a second, but then the old man flew away, in the same direction as Pef.

"It will take them a few hours. Let's build a new house and a pool, til they get back." Qin said in a perfectly calm voice.

"Hmmm. And a sauna." Yuan added with an ulterior purpose.

Jian glanced around, then focused on Madam Shen. "A basement would help as well. Don't worry, auntie Shen. Six months will pass in a blink of an eye."

The fisherman elder looked at the crazy cultivators with some confusion. She wasn't stupid, and her oracle skill helped. But she just didn't know what they were talking about.

Six months later, as her Awakening finished she muttered upset. "It wasn't a blink of an eye!"

Green Blossom had shared the basement with her and nodded sagely. The Xi method was truly painful.

Luckily, the fire sisters were always close and helpful, and Pef as well, when he returned battered and bruised every evening, to cook more spider for them and hug and kiss and wipe her tears.

Deng became a bit closer to Shen, still brewing tea for her, and learning to be human again. It wasn't easy at all, for him. But it was a small start, just enough to move his stone heart a little. He will never be a kind man, but that didn't matter.

His soul was slowly changing, and that's all anyone could hope for.

Lady Yuan struggled to craft Monarch ranked weapons and armor from the remains of the black queen, and after six months finally made herself a spiked hammer and a breastplate. She also made a 35 Sovereign feathers into long polearms, as well as 35 Sovereign ranked armor suits, but those took only the first month, while getting used to her new powers.

Jian and Qin practiced as well, learning a bit of sword qi and forging items, and when Pef wasn't too tired, cultivating the mysterious techniques from Qin's notebook.

Then the glove told the Aspirant it has enough. The Practice was nice, but it would need to be put in practice, using the cutting skill more often. And with Yen Xi now indoctrinated, there was no more reason to remain in Blue Xi.

Pef made a last feast for the village, and he and Yuan gifted the old Patriarch their payment for the sword lessons.

A Monarch rank storage ring containing 35 sets of Sovereign weapons and armor, along with 35 White Meridian pills.

Madam Shen received a pill as well, along with her own armor set, and a beautiful Sovereign ranked sword.

After she ingested the White Meridian pill, her soul awoke and her rank grew from Practitioner to Nascent Soul in a single day. She would have 300 years to reach the Spirit rank now, and would likely do it much sooner, if she stayed beside old Deng.

Yuan used that day to ingest her Green Meridian Pill, increasing her energy and fertility.

"We're going home today?" Yuan asked her husband as she awoke, and found him cultivating arduously and vigorously with Yen Xi, while Jian and Qin scribbled diagrams and sketches and giggled between them in a relaxed manner.

"Ummm. Give me another hour, dear fairy. Cultivation is still hard..." her husband replied in a heavy breath.