2 months after regression

“Edison, what do you think?” Tundra said, as the Verdant Snow Sect welcomed the messenger from the Blood Blade Sect. 

Edison shifted uncomfortably, unsure what to do when he, Anna, and Larian, the three eldest of their own sub-branches of the family, were asked to sit in the receiving hall, just one platform below the Sect Master. Tundra did tell them that they needed exposure. He wasn’t expecting to be giving opinions when there were messengers from enemy sects!

The messenger from the Blood Blade Sect naturally came to bargain for the fate of their Formation Master. 

The messenger had demanded that the hostage be released, well, with no compensation. Tundra wondered why they were so confident. Tundra’s knowledge of the future didn’t help, because this was a sequence of events that did not occur. He’d send another core disciple out on an investigative trip.

As for the messenger’s demand, it was so preposterous that Tundra would turn it down. But, he’d milk it for training, and so looked at his children, and decided to let them speak. 

His wives were in the audience, and his three elders were immediately next to him. The platform comprised three levels. On the highest level was where the Sect Master sat, and was flanked by his elders. On the middle level, three children, seated to his left, and three core disciples, seated to his right. On the lowest level, it was currently empty.

Edison stammered. He could talk, but when put under the spotlight, in the receiving halls of the Verdant Snow Sect, the pressure and atmosphere was different. “I think- I think we should not accept it. They can’t just come in and demand we release a prisoner.”

Tundra nodded. “I do agree. Messenger, even my son thinks it’s unreasonable. Surely, you can do better than demand us to release a prisoner? Not even a pill? I’d let the hostage know that your sect isn’t even willing to part with their treasures to save her.”

The messenger raised his voice. “Sect Master Fox, don’t presume that we are afraid of you. If you release our formation elder, the Blood Blade Sect is willing to agree to a truce.”

Tundra laughed, and then looked at Anna. “Anna, what do you think about this truce? Do you think it’s worth it to release a prisoner when they are already weakened?”

Anna naturally noticed the leading question. “No, father. They have no bargaining power.”

The messenger’s face was angry. “The Verdant Snow Sect has grown arrogant-”

“Arrogant?” Tundra chuckled. “Core Disciple Yavin. Do you believe we are arrogant?”

Yavin Redaxe clasped his hand and stood. “No, Sect Master. It is merely a statement of fact. The sect master of the Blood Blade Sect is only in the peak of the 5th realm, by all measures, we are stronger.”

Sect Master Tundra laughed. “See, Messenger. Even my disciples know the difference between heaven and earth. Surely, the Sect Master of the Blood Blade Sect knows the difference too!”

The messenger frowned. 

Tundra glared at the messenger. “Messenger, as you are merely a messenger, I shall overlook your offense today. Instead, I ask you to tell your employer this. ‘Your formation master is currently well taken care of, her limbs are intact, and her cultivation untouched. I cannot guarantee her condition will remain this way. The conditions she is in, when we return her to the Blood Blade Sect, will depend on the compensation provided. Please decide wisely.”

The messenger’s eyes looked bloodshot. “You! You claim to be an orthodox sect?!”

Tundra laughed, and his aura slammed into the messenger. He paled immediately. “Messenger, behave. We are a righteous sect, we will not do things that would sully her honor. We observe the rules for prisoners, as a righteous sect should. But as a prisoner, her condition is at our liberty.”

The Verdant Snow Sect was always a righteous sect. Orthodox, as the Imperial Empire calls it. This meant that even if a sect engaged in battle, it would not perform actions that tarnished the personal honor of both men and women. Torture and interrogation of prisoners were allowed, but acts involving tainting their honor were not. Rape, kidnapping of defenseless children, murder of mortals were things a righteous sect tried it’s best to avoid. A righteous sect is expected to expel any cultivator that performed any of the forbidden actions, and is seen as a just cause for other sects, or even rogue cultivators, to take action to enforce justice.

In practice, many righteous sects get away with some of the transgressions, particularly against mortals who couldn’t stand up against powerful cultivators. 

“Go. Go before I change my mind.” Tundra said, and the messenger ran.

***

The meeting was over, and the attendees left. 

“What do you think father is thinking?” Edison said. 

“I believe this is called exposure.” Anna countered.

“I feel like he just embarrassed me publicly!” Edison barked. 

“I didn’t think so. I thought your explanation went well. You even allowed his setup to rebuke the messenger.”

“He manipulated us.”

“It’s exposure, brother.” Anna didn’t know why Edison took it negatively. All this while they wanted a seat at the table, to be treated like family, and now when his father did it, his first reaction was suspicion.

Anna still had her reservations, after all, decades of neglect do not just fade overnight. But she appreciated the attempt. 

***

 

It was Tundra’s Sect Matters day, and the three elders gathered to discuss what’s happening. Jon was in charge of the Scripture Pavilion, Training, and Internal Affairs. Jashen was the defense and branches elder, in charge of the branch offices. Severian, was the diplomatic and Imperial affair elder. Severian was the one he sent out to meet the other Sects, when he couldn’t do so himself.

“The Imperial Summons were extended to you, Tundra, I received it on your behalf when you were away.” Severian presented the golden-encrusted letter from the Imperial Family. 

An emissary came, and left as soon as the letter was accepted. They had many other sects to visit. 

Tundra’s memory of the Imperial Summons. It was his first Imperial Summons in a 100 years, and he was summoned to compete in an Imperial Alchemy Contest, and brew a special pill for the Sixteenth Princess of the Imperial family, the Princess Luharl, for her attempt to break through to the 7th realm. 

It was rare for alchemists of the same rank to win, since even alchemists that were a few realms above him would compete, so in his first life, he didn’t especially prepare for the task. 

All he did was go, and do a decent enough pill to satisfy the imperial officials, and leave. There were wars to be fought back home, in his first life. The Verdant Snow Sect was stretched thin back then, and it wasn’t worth it for Tundra to even bother working too hard. 

The summons would happen in a year, and in Tundra’s mind, he thought it’d be a nice time to take his wives on a trip to the city of Princess Luharl, the Sixteenth Princess City of Luharlia.

That’ll have to wait after the little hunting expedition in Marin’s home grounds. 

He snapped back to the three present, and then took a sense of their cultivation. They all have improved, benefiting from the higher quality pills. Tundra’s pill production speed and qualities were leagues above what it was before. He needed less time, to make much more with less. 

In other words, the Verdant Snow Sect now had a pill master with 10th realm’s worth of experience. 

“How is your cultivation coming along?” Tundra asked the group, and then, after thinking about it for a while, admitted. “I intend to break through to the 7th realm in the next six months, but I will have to go on a hunting trip.”

Tundra would likely be stuck in the 7th realm for quite a while, after that, maybe 20 years, unless he obtains some kind of divine-tier relic or material. 7th to 8th would likely take about 100, and 8th to 9th about 300 to 500. 9th to 10th, probably around 1,000 to 2,000 years.

The speed of his rise would depend on the pills and resources he can get his hands on. His pace would be legendary even amongst those with unique and special opportunities, but in the greater scheme of things, entirely expected. He walked that path before, and a beaten path is infinitely easier than pushing against the unknown. 

The greater headaches are the resource constraints with the much, much smaller sect. 

If there are some secret-

Tundra paused, and sorted through his memories. There were so many secret realms over the centuries that it was hard to remember which was available at this point in time. In their world of cultivation, few things were uniquely heaven-defying. 

Everything was heaven defying, thus nothing was. 

Almost all 10th realm cultivators devoted centuries to create powerful weapons and artifacts, in their quest to break the 11th realm. In the hands of the 4th or 5th realm, sure, these are heaven-defying, allowing to reach a realm above. But Tundra had seen many of these artifacts and relics, and what was good for the realms below was not enough to reach the apex.

Severian was the closest to the 6th realm, and declared his intention. Tundra nodded, and stood closer. There was another six to seven weeks before they would need to depart to Marin’s hometown.

He would help. The hunt in Marin’s hometown would help provide the pills needed to push the three elders to a stronger level.

***

A week later, Nine weeks after regression

“The young master of the Blackshore family and his two sisters are in Verdant Leaf Town?” Tundra said, surprised by the report from the Core Disciple Yavin Redaxe. It didn’t take long for Tundra to get a sense of the plot.

He then summoned the older children of his family, and the core disciples, along with his wives and elders. 

“Caden Blackshore, and his two sisters Clarissa and Carla Blackshore, are in Verdant Leaf Town.”

The crowd mumbled to themselves. What did the Blackshore family want? 

They were allies. But he didn’t like them much. “The Blackshore family are our allies in Lakeshore, and therefore, when they are here, they are our guests. We are to ensure that they are safe, and well provided for, within reasonable terms.”

The crowd nodded. 

“That said, the Blackshore family itself isn’t a reliable ally. There is a reason why they were always 2nd in Lakeshore. They are greedy, manipulative, and cruel. They are here to advance their interests.” Tundra chuckled a little as he said that, and felt those words would work for him, too. He was known as being fairly manipulative and cruel to his enemies. 

He looked at his children.

“Their target is our family.” Tundra said to his children and wives.

They immediately looked at him, suspicious. “Why?”

Tundra immediately narrated his position, and wondered how his children would react. In truth, tolerating a continuing alliance with the Blackshore family was unpleasant, but would not affect things in the larger scale of things. 

So, he decided internally this was a good chance to get a measure of what his children were made of. “The Blackshore family worries that our alliance with them will erode over time, because we will build up our branch office in Lakeshore, and with our sect’s resources, we would be able to take over as the main force in Lakeshore. When that happens, we no longer need them, and they will have no bargaining power. In the past, the old Blackshore and Amberblade families agreed never to let outsiders establish a foothold in their city, for this very reason.”

The regressor observed his children, paying special attention to their reaction. Some of them seemed to get it, some looked lost. Knowledge is one, what they would do with it, is another. 

“They are here now, because their patriarch clearly realized the dangers of this alliance, and now wants to tie themselves to our family, making them a part of the extended family. It’s for that reason the two daughters are here.”

He noticed some of the sons looked greedy and lustful. To some extent, he suspected that part came from him. He after all had six wives, who was he to talk about self-control when it came to wives? 

“Edison. Larian. Anna. The three of you, as the eldest of the Fox family, will be responsible for managing our guests from far away.” Both Edison and Larian already have one wife, so Tundra believed they would be less likely to fall for their feminine charms. “As the eldest of your generation, it is appropriate for you to deal with your peers. I task the three of you to be the hosts.”

All three of them frowned. The idea of working with their half-siblings didn’t really appeal to them. 

Anna immediately asked. “Father, what is your intention? Do you want them to leave? What is a successful outcome?”

Tundra rubbed his chin, and smiled. It was a good question. “If they leave happy, without successfully seducing any of our family, that is the best outcome, because we want to usurp control over Lakeshore.”

Anna frowned. “Father, if they know this, won’t they kick us out?”

“They can. But they have seriously offended the Yellow Cloud and Blood Blade Sect over the past few years. Their fates are tied to us, even if they don’t want to. Without us supporting them, only death awaits them, and Amberblade will regain it’s prime position.” Tundra explained. 

In terms of political issues, this was really easy. Inconsequential. All they need to do is play the good host, and not fall for their trap. 

Edison looked at his father, struggling to understand why it was even necessary to accommodate these guests. “Why don’t we just wipe out the Blackshore family?”

Tundra was genuinely pleased at Edison’s question. He also noticed some of the other members of the family surprised at the cruelty of Edison’s question. “Good question, Edison. I thought about it. With both Blackshore and Amberblade out of the way, we’d be able to walk in unfettered. We can destroy them easily, but administering a city and rebuilding it from scratch is harder than taking it. Both families are deeply intertwined with the businesses of Lakeshore, and we’d spent decades in loss before Lakeshore became economically productive again.”

“Why don’t we?” Edison countered. “Isn’t it better in the long term?”

“If we are rich and powerful, certainly. At the moment, our resources are limited. If we were a bigger sect, with more people, we could deploy 20 disciples in Lakeshore to maintain a strong presence. For now, there is historical legitimacy for the Blackshore to remain in charge.”

As it is, Agnia was only supported by a small group of servants, and three outer disciples. 

Tundra continued to observe the reactions of his family. It was clear some of them were thinking about it. 

“Alright, that is all. Edison, Anna, Larian, I leave the matter of the Blackshore family in your hands.”