“Father has agreed to make adjustments to the guest room. It will accommodate all of us.” Marin said as Tundra gathered his wives for their nightly cultivation sessions. He presumed that was because the message dove arrived just early that day. It took a few days for messages to reach each other through the messaging birds.

“That is great, Marin.” Tundra said, and smiled at his wife. He felt his wife seemingly recoil in suspicion. 

Marin was the most defensive of his three wives. Her reaction to his attempts for intimacy was most pronounced, and he decided to just let it go. In his mind, Marin needed time, and hoped that the trip back to her hometown would allow her the space needed to gain acceptance to her new situation. 

He hoped to share a life with his wives, something he didn’t manage to do in his earlier life. But suspicion is expected, especially when the change is so radical. 

At first, Tundra thought of trying harder, but then again, he already had success with Celestia and Elly, to some degree. So, he decided it wasn’t necessary to keep ‘pressuring’ Marin. He would leave the door open, and let her decide for herself whether she would want to join him.

There was a saying among mortals, happiness can’t be forced. Of course, there’s also a saying that happiness and love needs hard work. 

None of the elders would join the trip to the Dragon Earthspine Mountains in the next few weeks, as someone needed to stay back in the Sect, just in case someone attempted to rescue the hostage. 

Anna, Larian and Edison had to stay back as well, because they were tasked with handling the Blackshore family. 

Tundra would take four core disciples and about fifteen disciples with him on this trip, and quite a few family members. 

***

The Fox family home was located in a standalone building within the Verdant Snow Sect’s main quarters. There were many buildings, each built at a different time, and the Fox family’s wealth, at least to mere mortals, seemed endless.  

Unlike mortals who tended to use coinage as their regular form of currency, cultivators traded in objects of power. Cultivators traded in resources, materials. The concept of currency in the form of spirit stones or crystals is just one of the means of exchange, though it is the most common one.

An alchemist’s pill can be a form of payment. A formation master’s formation is a form of payment. A crafter’s weapon is a form of payment. Trade of services, and matching of skills is such a necessity that it supports the existence of focused trading guilds, such as the Silverhalls Company.

The  world with cultivators has a sort of ‘two-tier’ economy. A market for mortals, which transacted in coins, and is fairly uniform throughout the world, and a market for cultivators which is significantly fragmented due to the relatively lower volume of transactions, intermediated by the guilds. Mortals occasionally required the assistance of cultivators, and vice versa, though cultivators often extract a tax, a glorified protection fee, from the mortals living in its lands, as a means to fund it’s mortal needs. 

The Verdant Snow Sect, accordingly, collects taxes from the Verdant Leaf Town, as its de facto owner and controller. A nominal sum, based on the number of heads, is then paid to the Imperial Family far away. It’s a token sum, since the Imperial Family doesn’t really want to offend or oppress it’s supporter sects. From the collected coinage, the Verdant Snow sect pays its employees, its servants, the Fox Family, its disciples. The amount given to each of them is a massive sum, in mortal terms, which is why many mortal families wish that their children could be a disciple of a sect. 

Cultivators, then, need a space to store the coinage and resources they extracted. Most families store it in a safe of some kind. 

In the case of the Verdant Snow Sect, there was a Treasure Room, secured with formations. Treasure rooms were one of the formations most cultivators actually learned, since protecting one’s own treasures was a highly useful skill. 

Edison, the young master, looked at a set of reports on the Blackshore family’s purchases in Verdant Leaf Town. 

“Do you think father’s setting us up to fail?” Edison asked, as he then passed the report to Anna. Larian didn’t look interested, but Anna took the booklet and quickly skimmed through the report. 

“I don’t think so.” Anna said. “This is father’s attempt to give us duties, and he’ll see how we grow.”

“Then why give it to the three of us? He wants us to fight each other?”

Anna thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. “Yes. I think he wants to see whether we can work together. I heard of such methods, used in Sects where their elders would pair disciples that don’t get along together.”

“So he’s testing us.” Edison frowned.

Anna thought about it for a moment, and decided to just agree. “Yes. This is also a test. It was obvious, was it not?”

“The question then, is do we want to pass the test, or do we want to fail it?”

The eldest daughter looked at her half-brother. Larian, the other half-brother and the actual oldest male son of Tundra Fox, didn’t look too interested, and answered bluntly. “We pass, naturally.”

Edison shook his head. “That’s too simple! If we pass, we are going along with our father's plan. Do we want that?”

“Why not?” Larian asked.

Anna added. “Actually, I do agree with Larian. Why not? Now’s not the time to pull a trick, Edison. What do you prove by doing so?”

“That I’m not going to go with whatever schemes he has?”

“You’re just cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.” Anna added. “I don’t think father cares that much if we fail, but that we try. It’s a test, naturally he has considered the likelihood of failure and considered it within his tolerance.”

Edison frowned.

Anna sighed.

Edison was hateful. Angry. His response to Tundra’s attempts to help was suspicion. 

“You would have preferred that he ignored you as he always had?” Anna said.

“Yes. It’ll make it easier for me to hate him.”

“You’re hating him for the sake of it.”

“No. I hate him because he is playing with us. He just goes about and does his sect stuff-”

“I don’t count what he did as abandoning us, though.” Larian suddenly said. “Father is a high ranked cultivator. Cultivators are like that. They go off on a whim, go on century long missions and assignments, cultivate in seclusion for decades. Father’s- well, father’s doing what cultivators do.”

Anna looked at the eldest son, and chuckled. “You really don’t mind?”

“It’s expected? Maybe you’ve grown up under a different environment-” Larian spoke as if it’s the most normal thing in the world.

“Grandfather doesn’t do that.” Edison countered. “I don’t do that to my children.”

Larian shrugged. “I’m going to rest. You do what you want, Edison.”

Anna watched as the eldest male son left. Larian wasn’t very strong, only in the high 2nd realms, and like Anna and Edison, married. Anna looked back at Edison. “What kind of father do you think you are?”

Edison had two kids of his own, just like how Anna has a daughter. 

Edison looked at Anna. “What are you getting at?”

“You say father’s abandoned us. Do your kids think you’ve abandoned them?”

“No.”

“But do you think your kids would rather be in your place, or where they are now?” Anna countered. Power, resources, or time? There was ultimately a trade off somewhere. A parent with limited resources had to prioritize. 

Edison glared at Anna. “Are you saying I’m incompetent?”

“No. That’s not-” Anna countered, but realized arguing wasn’t going to help. “Eh. This is going nowhere. I’ll leave and get some rest too.”

Edison fumed alone. 

***

Clarissa Blackshore found Verdant Snow Sect’s hometown to be underwhelming. It was a fact that Verdant Leaf Town was just a town, and not a city. There were some luxuries designed to meet the demands of Verdant Snow Sect’s disciples, and the few smaller cultivation families that made their home in the Verdant Leaf Town.

Most of these families have children that were disciples of the Verdant Snow Sect. 

Lakeshore wasn’t that much better, but Clarissa and Clara both felt it was like going from one backwater town to another. Partly, she thought a sect like the Verdant Snow, with a 6th realm sect master, would have a vibrant city at its doorstep. 

Father seems to think that the Verdant Snow Sect is a sect that’s in ascendance, and so it is in their best interest to curry favor. Father was rarely wrong. 

“I’m bored.” Clara said, as she adjusted her dress. They were both fairly young as cultivators go, but less than fifty years old, and already in the mid 2nd realms. This, according to their father, was their prime age.  

Being in the mid 2nd realms were respectable for someone that came from small, city level families. There were hired servants that started to decorate their new home, and it would be their new home for a while. Courtship was not an overnight affair, and both their parents were shrewd enough to teach them a thing or two. 

The Blackshore family survived the centuries by having many, many daughters, and the daughters themselves were then often married to promising cultivators or potential allies, to shore up their position.

“Bored?” Clarissa frowned. The servants placed a simple painting on the freshly repainted wall. The furniture was new, and the bed was new as well. 

Father intended that this home be a branch office of sorts, for the Blackshore family to conduct its dealings with the Verdant Snow Sect. It would create opportunities for them, and strangely, the Sect didn’t seem to oppose. 

“I don’t like any of the guys we met.” Clara frowned. “They’re all boring and they all remind me of Caden.”

“Why are you talking about me?” Caden Blackshore walked into the room, and frowned. 

Clara rolled her eyes, but not before she somehow adjusted her posture and bowed respectfully. “Elder brother.”

Caden stared at Clara. “What did you just say?”

Clarissa chucked, and followed with a similarly respectful bow. “Elder brother, I believe Clara just said that the descendants of Sect Master Fox reminded her of you.”

Clara stared at her sister murderously. She didn’t say anything more, but Clarissa merely smirked, pleased with herself. 

“Oh, really? Do enlighten me on the ways we are similar, my dearest younger sister.”

Clara bowed, rolled her eyes again, and then merely smiled. “They are as charming as my elder brother.”

“Really?” Caden chuckled. “Then you do not oppose marrying them?”

Clara continued to bow and answered. “Oh, it is because they are as charming as my elder brother that I find them lacking. When I see them, I cannot help but think of you. Lesser versions of you.”

Caden’s laughter turned into a guffaw, as he found that genuinely amusing. “Words you better not speak beyond our new home, young sister.” 

“I wouldn’t dare be so impolite.” Clara countered. 

Clarissa sneered. 

“I hear that a delegation will be visiting the Dragon Earthspine Mountains. That may be our chance to catch our targets without the watchful eye of the Patriarch.”

Clara and Clarissa glanced at each other. Clara was quick to bow. “Elder Brother’s network is indeed incredible. This one will try her best.”

The young master laughed. “Have you not met any of them at the drinking parlors in this city?”

Clara frowned. “I have. Once.”

“And?” 

“They already have their favorites.” 

“Are you telling me you can’t compete with parlor whores?” Caden frowned.

Clarissa chuckled. “Well, someone like our dear Clara surely can’t compete.”

“I’ll get the servants to look out for any visits by the Fox family descendants. If there is, I want the two of you to rush there and make yourself useful!”

Caden couldn’t see Clara and Clarissa both frown, but they answered obediently. “As you command, elder brother.”

***

Four months after regression

A few weeks passed, as Tundra focused on consolidating the cultivation of his elders and his wives. He made pills, hunted spirit beasts in the nearby area, and provided guidance to his children. 

The three children of the Blackshore family didn’t attempt anything unusual during this time, partly because both his children and the three visitors did their best to behave when he was around.

They were new in town, and Caden Blackshore was at least smart enough to learn the lay of the land before attempting anything beyond friendly, normal meetups.  His children met them, and guided them to settle in one of the many privately owned dwellings in Verdant Leaf Town. They bought a place, and from what he heard from his Core Disciples, began to study the family members, just as his family members studied them.

The daughters of the Blackshore family were slowly setting the groundwork for a seduction. Despite their less than good intentions, Tundra was fairly amused with the two daughters, and thought that the daughters themselves would be rather good additions to his extended family. They seemed to know their role, and for a bit, reminded him of both Elly and Marin.

He wondered what it’ll be like to have a father in law like the Patriarch Blackshore.  

For now, it was an interesting dance between the descendants of the two families, and his three children, the three half-siblings, seemed able to work together. He wasn’t sure whether they’d be able to cooperate when it mattered, or whether their current teamwork was because it’s not yet under stress, no matter. 

He’d let them handle it, and deal with the consequences, whatever they may be. His children should be given opportunities to grow, and he can’t be dictating their every action. That was not the kind of parent he wished to be. 

So, it was time to make a trip to Marin’s home town.

***

It was a convoy just a little bit bigger than the one that went to the Mistburn’s lands. 

The Eastheart lands were not far, and they were located in what was pretty much the Verdant Snow’s regional neighborhood. North of the Dragon Earthspine mountains would be the lower regions of the Lakeshore Barrens. 

Marin sat next to Tundra, but he could feel she seemed reserved. He detected an undercurrent of nervousness. 

He looked at Elly, seated opposite him, and Celestia who was next to Elly. They were both quietly resting, as the wagon took them ever closer to the mountains. 

“Marin.” Tundra decided to break the facts. “Everything alright?”

He told her that he made a pill for her father, just like he did for Elly’s father. Tundra did it to appear fair. He did not want Marin to think he was being unfair to her by not giving her father a pill. 

But from what Marin explained, her father’s problems were something that a pill couldn’t really fix. There was a long-standing deviation in her father’s cultivation since his youth, and that forever doomed him to the peak of the 4th realm. 

The pill should help paper over some of the struggles of his deviation, but it wouldn’t be enough to push him to the 5th. He’d have to redo his cultivation. If the deviation originated at the 2nd realm, he would have to drop himself down to the 1st realm, and then start over. 

But that was a risk, because his aging will resume if he did so. A young man can retry many times before time catches up. An older man fights against the weight of time and fate. 

Marin feigned toughness. “Yes. Everything is fine.”

Tundra nodded. He’d like to meet her parents, and understand them a little bit better. Perhaps, through her family, he’d be able to understand Marin’s reluctance a lot more.