Hello, dear readers! Here's chapter 129 part 1! Hope you'll enjoy it!
[Same as Part 1]
Last week: I've finally finished making the cover for Book 2. I replaced previous main novel image, which was the cover for Book 1 with it. Let me know about what you think!
I also changed the paragraphs' sizes. Let me know if it's better, worse, or as good as previously.
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Bright Star City, Bright Star Island, Flowing Stars Archipelago, Earth
Omniscient P.O.V.
That answer elicited a few giggles from the Asian-looking woman who replied. "That's usually people's first impression when they arrive at one of Red Tide District's Markets. As for the reason behind its 'order', as you put it, look over there."
While speaking those words, she gestured toward a group of five cultivators in Protector uniforms walking along one of the alleys, their faces a picture of coldness. What Demian found both amusing and impressive was that, as the group of five moved around, it created a strange bubble of calm, with everyone they passed acting in a much more subdued manner, whether it was in terms of gestures or noise volume.
Even the scaly-client/slandering-vendor duo, who were previously cursing loudly at each other, immediately changed their tunes and suddenly became much more polite.
Cocking his brow, the young man commented. "Those Protectors only walk around without saying anything, and everyone starts to behave. That's pretty impressive."
With a reminiscent smile, Ling explained. "To ensure stability in Cultivation nations like the Federation, you need to be even harsher with troublemakers than in Mortal nations. After all, the potential destruction that a cultivator can create is worlds apart from a weak Mortal. And that's just one cultivator, but just in Bright Star City, there are hundreds of millions of cultivators. Sure, proportionally, most of them are only at the Chi Gathering Rank or below, but that still leaves millions at the Foundation Building Rank or above."
While shaking her head, Ling continued. "Even if only a fraction of them were to act wildly, the potential loss in lives and resources would be colossal. That's why the Federation, through the Protector Hall, made sure to carve the idea into everyone's mind that 'Disrupting Social Harmony will always result in receiving extremely harsh punishments'. Trust me when I say that many lives were lost to get that point across people's minds. To be honest, it's still the case today, though not to the same degree."
That statement plunged the four into a thoughtful silence for a few moments, while their gazes followed that small team of five Foundation Building cultivators walking farther inside the market.
When the five of them disappeared from view behind one of the stalls' cover, the previously tense atmosphere vanished, though Demian did notice that people seemed slightly more restrained, lacking the previous 'liveliness', especially the scaly-man-vendor's duo, who quickly finished the transaction before both went about their business.
At that moment, Ling suggested. "Let's walk around the Market first before checking the shop on the side." Since none of the other four had any better idea, they followed her suggestion. As for the team of guards, they were still walking silently around the four Mikhailovs and Feng Ling in the usual square formation.
As they walked around browsing the different stalls, Feng Ling said apologetically. "By the way, I'm sorry I kind of hijacked your date. I know you three have really been looking forward to it. But with what just happened, I don't really feel comfortable leaving the four of you walking around without proper protection."
Indeed, though the date's 'date' was decided the previous day, Liya and Sera had already mentioned many times before to her and Sergei about setting up one with that lucky brat once they all broke through to the Foundation Building Rank. Well, Liya never used the word date, but both Ling and her husband understood that was what she meant.
As for Brynhild, well, that one was a bit trickier, or more specifically, more discreet when it came to her feelings. But if the conversation they just had was any indication, she was probably in the same boat as the other two.
As for Demian, was she really supposed to worry about a brat who scored three beauties from the same family? She certainly would not. Was she biased toward the girls? Of course! Honestly, if it were not because, after observing him for a few weeks now, she noted how protective, respectful, and caring he was toward the three women, she would be much harsher with him.
After all, it was a fact that she had a thing against men with multiple lovers, though only she knew the origin behind that great distaste.
Hearing her teacher's words, Seraphine swiftly let go of Demian's hand to grab Ling's own. She then threw a beautiful smile at the older woman and declared. "It's okay, Teacher. To be honest, none of us would have felt safe without your presence anyway. Plus, it's not as if we didn't like having you with us."
Adeliya, Bryn, and Demian quickly echoed the purple-haired woman's words, prompting Ling to smile back while saying. "You guys... Thanks. I'm glad we picked you up and didn't let you stay in that dump. That would have been a waste."
Though she said it in a teasing tone, the barely discernible emotion in her voice told them all they needed to know about her true feelings. The group fell silent for a brief moment, but the constant bustle around pulled their attention back from their contemplation, with Ling commenting playfully, while gently caressing the younger woman's cheek with her free hand. "Alright, Xiao Zi, you can let go of my hand now. Otherwise, your man here might become jealous." [A/N: Xiao Zi: Little Purple]
Giggling at the older woman's joke, Sera then followed her instruction, but as she turned toward Demian to grab his hand, she suddenly froze. Someone had dared to steal her 'place' and now both of the young man's hands were taken. While pointing her finger toward Bryn's smug face, Sera exclaimed resentfully. "You... You stole my hand!"
Rolling her golden-blue eyes, the Golden-Jade-skinned woman retorted. "YOUR hand? Is your name written on it? Because I didn't see it anywhere." Tilting her head while cocking her brow, she then added. "Come on, little Sis. You've had him for long enough. Leave some for the rest of us."
Speechless, Sera then moved her gaze toward Demian's face, the latter sporting an innocent expression, though she could see right through his pretense, sensing the amusement radiating from him. With an indignant expression, Sera complained. "Are you not gonna say anything?"
Chuckling at the woman's pouting expression that he could not help but find adorable, Demian stated. "Well, I can't exactly take sides between my future wives, now, can I? As a citizen from the Federation, I'd rather promote 'social harmony', Love."
Narrowing her eyes, she snorted while sullenly turning her head away. "I'll remember this, Demian Mikhailov!"
To which Adeliya commented, firmly. "Alright, honey. Stop acting like a drama queen. Your sister is only holding Demian's hand for a while, not stealing him from you."
Listening to her mother's shameless words uttered so confidently while her big boobs kept 'accidentally' touching Demian's arm was truly... Speechless, Sera exclaimed inwardly. 'That's rich coming from you.'
However, since she decided to share her man with those hussies, she had to bear the 'consequences'. So she, as someone broad-minded, simply replied. "Fine. I see you're all trying to bully me, but I won't bring myself down to your level."
After snorting with displeasure, the young woman grabbed Ling's hand and said. "Let's go, Teacher. We'll just ignore those childish people." Right. Very broad-minded. In any case, Seraphine was not as annoyed as she showed others.
Otherwise, would she even bother arguing that dramatically? No, she would spill blood to make others understand her point of view. Want her man? Not even in your next life, bitch!
However, sharing was one thing, but she still had to mark her territory, making them understand that even if she allowed that handsome man to have other bi... women, she was the original, the extraordinary, and irreplaceable first wife. No wonder Demian asked her if she had some kind of cat bloodline...
The female elf's random thoughts aside, Ling burst into laughter when the younger woman grabbed her hand before commenting. "You kid, you're really something else..." Shaking her head in amusement, she then added. "But it's a good thing you're still on good terms despite your current relationship. Or relationships, I guess."
Mirroring the older woman's smile, Seraphine replied. "I may be possessive of Demian, but that doesn't mean I'm completely selfish. At least, when it comes to my big sister and mom. Yeah, I get a bit pissed off when I see them around him without me, but I'll get over it. Those three are the people I love the most, and I found that sharing the same man is the best way for us four to stay together for as long as we live."
As something came to her mind, she added. "Actually, you're the fourth person I love the most, Teacher. So, don't be jealous, okay?"
Seeing the mischievous grin on the younger woman's face, Ling's heart melted slightly. Recalling the conversation with Sergei about them having children, she wondered about what their own kids would look like. Would they be as adorable as Xiao Zi?
With her mind slightly distracted, Ling asked, her tone slightly teasing. "So, you're saying that you forced your mother and sister into a relationship with your own man, just to have all of you stay together."
With an amused smile, Sera shook her head before replying. "Actually, forcing is too strong a word. I only nudged them slightly, and they fell headlong into his arms, as if they were some kind of teenage girls in love. That's actually pretty funny when you think about it."
At that moment, they both heard a loud cough coming from behind them. Turning their heads toward that direction, they noticed the array of different expressions on the three's faces. Adeliya, who was the one faking a cough, had a slight blush on her face, though she otherwise acted relatively composed while saying. "Watch your words, young lady."
'Or what?' was pretty much written on Sera's face, though Liya's following answer immediately wiped the joking grin from her daughter's face. "Or I'll ask your sister to spar with you until you can't stand up anymore. Every. Single. Day."
At the idea of having to spar with her battle junkie of a sister until she was too tired to stand up, the young woman felt horrified, especially when she noticed her sister staring at her with a mix of bashfulness and resentment, her entire face from the neck up having completely turned dark golden from embarrassment.
As for Demian, well, he was regretting not having some popcorn, though if he did and ate it, he might have been burnt at the stake by three angry women, sending him back into the cycle of reincarnation faster than he came out of it.
That being the case, he could still watch the show as long as he kept his expression neutral, and as someone with a Peak Elementary Grade Special Physique, that much was extremely easy. Though his 'thick' skin might have played a bigger role than his physical cultivation if one took into account how easily flustered Bryn was.
As those three bickered, the atmosphere turned a bit awkward, prompting Demian to suggest."Alright, girls. Why don't we continue our market tour instead of giving the crowd a show?"
Indeed, unbeknownst to them, a few people were currently staring at them with smirks on their faces, although no one mocked them openly, most likely because of the group's average cultivation being at the Foundation Building Rank.
To be fair, the women's beauty may have played the biggest role in catching the people's attention, as most of them were men, with only a few women staring with jealousy at Liya and Bryn holding Demian's hands.
The men's jealousy, however, was, to no one's surprise, directed toward Demian, who could not care less about what those irrelevant people thought.
With the young man's suggestion, the atmosphere shifted back to the previous light-heartedness, and thus the group then resumed walking around while browsing the stalls, with Ling explaining the different items' characteristics since the Mikhailovs' knowledge base was pretty lacking, and that was putting it mildly.
After all, cultivation was one thing, but general knowledge was completely different, and none of them had taken much time to learn anything else but cultivation-related things, such as Skills, Techniques, etc. Ores? Herbs? Artifacts? They knew next to nothing about them, besides some general knowledge like the fact that Healing Pills healed, Defensive Artifacts were used to defend against attacks, etc.
Honestly, Bryn was slightly better off since her bloodline specialized in Blacksmithing, and thus had a kind of Blacksmithing knowledge bank awakened after her breakthrough, which included a massive amount of knowledge about Ore.
However, the number of different types of Ores in the Cultivation World was staggering, so knowing them all was pretty much impossible, even for the highest Tier of Blacksmith, though in their case, by analyzing the Ore's property, it would be easy to use it as a replacement for other known Ores. So, Bryn knew of a lot of different Ores, but there were also a lot present on the stalls that she had never even heard about.
As for Sera's bloodline's memories, maybe due to the relatively low purity, they only contained cultivation knowledge. At least, that was the case for now, but it might change after her breakthrough to the Foundation Building Rank. She would have to wait until then.
In conclusion, the four were listening avidly to Feng Ling's 'lesson', with each of them resolving to dedicate a big chunk of their daily schedule to study general knowledge, or they might get the short end of the stick in future encounters.
That aside, it was not long before the four noticed something odd. Indeed, most items present in the market's stalls were clothing-related, while the rest seemed put there as an afterthought.
Intrigued, they asked Ling about it before the latter responded. "In the Red Tide District, there are two types of business plazas, or squares. Those specialized in one type of item, and those without specialization. This 'Flowing Silk Square', where we currently are, and as the name implies, is focused on clothing-related items. That's why you see every stall with either raw material or finished pieces of clothing."