It was only after he had ten children that the poor Ling and Jiao were finally able to rest. The back to back pregnancies had started to take a toll upon them, but they loved their children too much to care. The problem was that pregnancy was just as hard for a cultivator as a mortal and he worried about their progress. With the help of the Inner World, they did not need to burden themselves with birthing dozens of children. It would take only a few generations for the Lang Clan to grow explosively, especially if their children all insisted on having large families.

Surprisingly, the many stories from that old fossil, Jinxi Po, became useful inspiration for their parenting issues. They used his recollections as a form of advice, but even so they weren’t foolish enough to show the old coot any sympathy. They also had plenty of others to get assistance and opinions from, but the old Jinxi had the unusual trait of raising many different generations of children with completely different styles. Since the man took on different personalities through his different lives, it was quite interesting to learn how the children turned out.

Given his authority on the Inner World it was more than possible for him to spend every waking moment with his children, and he had been prepared to do so at first, but both he and his wives quickly learned that it was necessary to plan time for themselves. With their superhuman physique, willpower, and memory, they had thought raising children would be quite simple. They could sit alone in a dark room meditating for months on end, so how hard would it be to take care of a child? They had a powerful advantage over normal mortals, but they still had limits.

Once they realized their folly, the three parents would try to get an hour or two to themselves every day, especially once the children started to grow older. By the time they’d decided to stop having more children, the oldest boys were put into training. It started first as a sort of game and exercise, having them follow along with his movements for a few minutes, repeated a few times a day. Before a cultivator started training to become a cultivator they were first trained in the martial arts. To step onto the path of the cultivator required mastery of a specific breathing technique. Combined with the fact that they wanted them all to be able to protect themselves, they all needed to learn to control their bodies. Martial Arts were a tried and true method to train the control of the body, build discipline, and also for self defense. Even if these kids of his decided they didn’t want to become fighters, as part of his family there was a chance they might come into danger.

A few years later, the rear courtyard of their home had the air of a dojo. Ten children of varying ages were lined up and performing forms in unison. Inside the house, a group of women were arranged in front of a large glass window and looking into the yard. They’d been blocked from coming outside in order to preserve the prestige of a pair of large and brawny men that were standing in front of the children and watching their every move.

To the side, Sage was standing beside a lovely woman with long dark hair and a vibrantly colorful face full of makeup. She had red violet lips, blue eyeshadow and a tint of peach to her cheeks. Just like one of the two brawny men, she wore the uniform of the Purple Mist Sect, except she wore a long flowing dress, a hanfu, over top of it rather than the simple robe with slitted sides that most did. The burly man at the front on the other hand had no shoulder pads or sleeves on the Formation Armor that was the Purple Mist Sect uniform. He also chose not to wear a robe over his armor, choosing to wear the bare minimum he could get away with. As for the other large and brawly man at the front of the crowd, it was the bear waisted Wan Yuhan.

The ten children finished the form, or at least the ones in the front did. Those behind were younger and did the best they could to follow along. Wan Yuhan laughed heartily and focused upon half of the children, “These little grand nieces and nephews of mine are quite good!”

The other man slapped Wan Yuhan on the back, “No bias! These little rugrats aren’t too bad for their age. At least they aren’t an embarrassment.”

The older children couldn’t hold back their smiles, but then the lady standing beside Sage took a step forward and walked over to the front of the children to stand between the two big men. Then her hands moved swift as lightning and slapped each of the two men upon the back of the head, “Clumsy oafs! You call this good? That was pathetic. I am surprised though; surprised that none of them injured themselves with that weak performance.”

Sage couldn’t help but look over to the window where he saw a furious glare enter the eyes of his two wives. This woman at the front was exactly the reason the two of them were currently watching this ordeal from inside. Hearing her harsh ratings, Sage walked up to join the other three and then carefully looked over his children to see their reactions. Then he made the introductions.

“Children, you all know your Grandpa Yuhan. This immensely strong fellow here is Liuxian, and this lovely lady is Yijun. The three of them are going to be in charge of your training from now on. Every morning you will all need to spend a few hours doing physical training with Grandpa Yuhan, every afternoon you will be tutored by Liuxian, and in the evenings Lady Yijun will teach you martial arts.”

There was a strange look in some of the children’s eyes when they heard his arrangements. Exercising with their grandpa was no big deal, but that other burly man was the tutor? He was going to teach them literature, history, and numbers? Then that mean lady was going to teach them martial arts?

The smaller children couldn’t hold in their groans and whining complaints, but then Yijun’s eyes narrowed and a fearsome aura emitted from her. The energy of laws swirled in the air. The children had no idea what was going on, but they could feel a fear from deep inside that made them all stand stock still in front of this scary lady.

Sage didn’t wish to be harsh to his children, but the outside world was not a kind place. If they grew up with every possible luxury and without facing a single hardship, wouldn’t the chance of them being spoiled and arrogant young masters go sky high? A few of them would succeed faced with the expectations of their parents, but many more would just turn into wastrels. Or at least that’s how he saw it. It took some effort to convince his wives, but finally they relented. It was for this reason that he placed their training into the hands of these three. At least for their early years. There were many others in the Purple Mist Sect that they could approach to be their masters if they wished, but for now they all needed a basic foundation.

Sage made the decision to give them some harsher training, but he was only slightly better than his wives in this whole thing. It was too hard to treat his own flesh and blood so ruthlessly, so he had to bring in these two from the sect to be the bad guys.