During the process of slaughtering beasts, King was also luring in powerful females that caught his eye. The vast majority of them were from bird species, but there were a few with very minor spatial attributes, or extremely powerful standouts. Instead of slaughtering them, they would capture them. Beating them up or injuring them enough for Sage to apply a Human Seal and then sending them into the Universe Ring where they’d already built King a palace. It was another chance for Sage to refine his array formation and construction skills. He let the bird do the decorating, and the only real big difference in the arrays were that they were mostly tuned to lock the beasts in.

After applying so many Human Seals, Sage got more and more skilled in its usage. The benefits of this were two fold. It became much easier to modify the human form that the beast’s ended up taking. More importantly, he learned how to apply the seal to different locations on the body instead of just the forehead. The spot just between the eyes was the best conduit towards the mind, and the mind had a direct link with the soul. Sage shifted the location to directly over the heart. It wasn’t as good a connection as the brows, but it was also a very significant location. He moved his own Human Seal as well as King’s.

The nearly one hundred new women that King had gathered up were in various states of unrest. Some of them were smashing violently at the walls to try and escape, some were running around in frantic confusion, others were just sitting in stunned silence and examining their bodies. After making King promise not to force any of these beasts into bed, Sage washed his hands of the whole affair.

If he really does have hundreds of children, doesn’t that just create troops and flying mounts?

King set about building the Tiankong Clan he always dreamed of. He started a training program, using the Memory Sphere that had taught him and gradually teaching all of his future wives about human culture and customs. After that was done, he started courting them.

Sage ignored all of this nonsense and set about putting his other plans into motion, using his new acquisitions from the Daggerguard City Auction, along with all the creatures he’d acquired with the help of Wan Ling back in the Holy Flame Sect. There were so many possible combinations, and more importantly there was no telling which traits would transfer to their descendants. It took many rounds of trial and error to create the creatures he was searching for.

A few months later.

There was movement from the Golden Egg. Sage quickly called over King and Tao Ba. King walked in, already bragging, “Master, we have to go and get supplies. My first six weddings already have a date set!”

Sage rolled his eyes and then nodded. The two of them then bowed respectfully when Tao Ba entered the room. Not wanting to get on the boy’s bad side. They both knew how scary Tao Ba could be. Much easier to just treat him well. They spent a few minutes with some formalities, bootlicking, and making tea.

Then they all turned their gazes to the egg. The energy from it was fluctuating, the egg shaking once every few minutes. The creature inside was working on breaking free and it was only a matter of time. They had no idea how long it would take to break out, so they just spoke casually and flattered Tao Ba to pass the time. Surprisingly, Tao Ba seemed interested in King’s new stories about his many wives and before long they had switched to drinking wine.

Sage didn’t interrupt, but kept focused on the egg and the changes within. A few hours later, the shell cracked. A few hours later, the shell cracked and a fragment fell free. They carefully stayed back and fought the urge to peek inside. The creature inside had to rest after breaking the shell, but a few minutes later they saw the tip of a beak poke out of the hole. Very slowly it shattered apart the side of the shell and crawled out.

It didn’t look like much. Long stringy hair, wet and matted down. A pale white beak with a touch of blue coloring lining the edges, like colored lips. Its eyes were hard to see, dark and hidden by the shadow cast by its large brow. It looked quite like a newly hatched bird. Then it hauled the rest of its body out of the egg and Sage’s eyes widened. It’s body was long and narrow, with a similarly long and narrow tail. Instead of the squat body of a bird, it was serpentine in nature. The beak, arms, and legs were very much in the style of a bird, but the body shape and tail were decidedly not.

“Congratulations, King. Your first child!”

King stared fiercely at the little creature and then looked over at Sage again.

“There was something wrong with the original egg, and we used your essence. At that point it was changed from whatever it was originally. You can be considered to be one of its parents.”

King’s eyes seemed to shine and then he started to laugh maniacally, “Haha, my first child. The Tiankong Clan truly begins here!”

Sage looked over at Tao Ba, “Great One. Do you know anything about it?”

Tao Ba held up a hand and a gentle wave of energy floated outwards. The curtain of power fell over the little creature and a moment later Tao Ba shook his head, “I can’t tell. Too many muddled bloodlines. It’s definitely quite draconic, and obviously spatial energy from the Breach Hawk. Other than that, it’s too hard to pin down. It will be easier to tell once it grows up.”

Sage nodded and then looked over at King, “You think you can take care of it for now? I’m sure those six wives of yours can spare the time. Just tell me what you need.”

King agreed after some hesitation. They spent the next few days heading to one of the Eightfold Kingdom’s nearest towns. Sage spent a few thousand Spirit Stones and purchased enough silk, wedding supplies, and other materials to fill a whole caravan. Then they flew back to the base, which he’d deemed ‘Tiankong Retreat’. King already had Tiankong Palace inside the Universe Ring, and this was his former home, so he approved of Sage’s naming.

The newly hatched creature had grown quite a bit in a few weeks. It was covered in downy white feathers the color of pure snow. Sage had tentatively given its species a name ‘White Hawk Drake’. A drake was a type of dragon. They were essentially, western dragons. Four legged, two winged, scaled beasts that breathe fire. According to a book from the Timeless Master’s library, the Imperial Dragon came from a higher world and was a true deity, the source of their powerful bloodlines. From it was born many Dragon Gods.

One of them the Azure Dragon was one of the protectors of the east, lord of water, represents spring. One of those other Dragon Gods was known as Tiamat and her line created many unusual forms of true dragons. The most common being the Drake. Of course, the Drakes took the name as an insult and took to calling the Serpentine dragons as Wyrms. Both types of beast would name themselves as Dragon while they named the other type as Wyrms or Drakes. It was because of this that every book would describe every one of them as dragons, only including whether it was a Drake or Wyrm in the description and illustrations.

The little White Hawk Drake was named Ruanfu by King’s wives. The name meant, ‘Soft Belly’. It had feathers covering everywhere but upon its legs and belly, and it was too young to grow scales yet so its belly was extremely soft. It would certainly be a funny name once it was huge and powerful, but Sage didn’t stop them. He had some plans for Ruanfu, but they would wait till it, or she, grew up a bit. Sage wouldn’t give Ruanfu a Human Seal until it was a bit older. Besides… he still had to get the other half of the plan ready.