“We should visit my family,” said Miya. As she sat in bed applying a bit of lotion to her skin before sleeping. Even though their immortal cultivations kept their bodies in perfect condition, there were occasionally new solutions and serums that could push things to higher peaks, and beyond that, some pre-bedtime routines just tended to stick with you, even after you became an undying ancient being.

“Hm, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. It’s been a while. We can swing by my folks’ place too, since it's nearby. Wait, are we talking about your family in the Heavens or in the mortal world?” said Wen Chen.

“I think we could visit our kin in the mortal world just for funsies, but pretty much everyone we know personally is already in the heavens,” said Miya. Sighing wistfully.

The dramatic changes in the Shattered World’s society after the spread of the Empty-Dream had resulted in changes to the natural law. There was no reason for the will of the world to be so strict about restricting the movements of immortals back and forth between the heavens when it was now all but set in stone that a large portion of the mortal population would be ascending to the heavens in due time.

“Ah, in that case, we definitely should visit Trefor’s family too. I mean, all of our clans are neighbors up here, anyway, so it’d be odd not to say hi, if we’re in that part of the Prism Spine,” said Wen Chen.

“Ugh….” sighed Trefor, who lay between the two women and had been sitting quietly, pretending to be invisible, just to avoid this exact outcome.

“Do we really have to go say hi to the other Pradhans? They’re always such a pain…” said Trefor. Sighing.

“Trefor!” said Miya.

“That’s not nice...Besides, it’s important to keep up one’s ties with one’s kin. Do you think I want to go home to my obnoxious family to get nagged by my mother despite already being nearly 10,000 years old...while my crappy cousins try to push their kids on me as disciples?...” said Wen Chen. Grumbling to herself. No longer seeming as enthusiastic about the prospect of visiting the Wen Clan’s estate within the Shattered Heavens.

“Fine, fine…” said Trefor. Giving in quickly because he could barely win against one of his two wives, never mind both of them working together.

“I guess….It’s important to remind Vayne, Nila, and the other kids that they have people outside of the sect and the Empty-Society that can be relied on,” said Trefor. Sighing.

“Speaking of Vayne and Nila, they’re getting up there in age, any idea of when those kids intend to settle down,” said Miya.

“Hey, let’s the kids do their own thing, shall we?” said Trefor. Speaking a little more firmly. More willing to fight on the matter of their children.

Wen Chen chuckled as he saw her husband’s hackles rise for his two not-so-little little girls.

“Yes, yes...We won’t push too hard...Besides, they’re immortal and their careers are going fairly well, there’s no need to rush them in regards to building their own families,” said Wen Chen.

“Though...It would be nice to hold my grandchildren sometime in the next 1000 years or so,” mumbled Miya. Her words drew a grudging agreement from her two spouses, who also were in the part of their lives where it wouldn’t be too bad to see their children’s children.

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Elsewhere, Vayne Pradhan shivered as she felt a chill drift across the nape of her neck. Tall and slender with light caramel skin, a narrow face, with a broad nose, and puffy lips. Vayne Pradhan took after her mother then she took after her father. A thing that any who knew the two women would see now, if they witnessed the frown she was currently wearing.

“Oh...I didn’t like ‘that’ feeling...I didn’t like ‘that’ at all,” muttered Vayne.

“Huh?” said Yoshino Yuki. Looking over his shoulder at his subordinate, who’d halted her flight.

“Oh, nothing, senior….S-, Sorry,” said Vayne. Blushing faintly within her spacesuit.

“Okay, all. This should just be a routine tour of Sector-53-G of the Empty-Bell Complex. We’ll fly over a couple of universes to scan if there’s anything troublesome going on, and if we sense anything…”

“We engage!” said another young core-disciple of the Forest of Life and Death.

“What?! No!...No, we’re a group of sixty mid-level, fairly ‘new’, immortals patrolling multiple universes...Are you mad? No, we mark down the area and anything we’re able to observe at a distance, and report it to Empty-Society HQ, and then ‘they’ send in a response unit, if needed” said Yuki. Shaking his head.

After several centuries working for the Empty-Society, Yoshino Yuki had naturally risen up the ranks of both the Forest of Life and Death, and the Empty-Society that had somehow managed to subordinate the sect. Now he was a High-Elder in the Sect, and part of the management, within the Empty-Society.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad outcome, for the prospectless youth he’d once been. However, Yoshino Yuki found that he wasn’t entirely sure where to take things from there. He was living in the part of most stories, where the story would normally end, or drift off with an “and the adventure continues”. In the end, he found himself spending more and more time, in the time-dilated regions of the Empty-Dream, so he could figure out who exactly he was supposed to be, now that he no longer felt driven by the pursuits of powers, status, and wealth.

He also found himself spending more and more time with Hong Soomin, Yin Qing, and Zhou Weifen, his closest peers within the sect and the Empty-Society. He spent more time with Yin Qing and Zhou Weifen, and things in that direction seemed to be building up to something. Exactly what they were building up to, Yuki didn’t exactly know, but maybe it could turn into something serious. Maybe it was about time, he considered building up a clan of his own, or joining one of their clans. Since things were going well for him career-wise and he wasn’t sure where to go from there, maybe he could start thinking more about his personal life.

“Uh...S-, Sir?” said a voice. Interrupting Yuki’s inner-monologue.

“Huh? What?” said Yuki.

“There’s a…”

“Oh, that? I see it...No need to worry about that. The fellow on top are already aware of ‘that’...Still, for the sake of posterity, and preparing a properly documented casus belli, I’d like you all to remember to note it in your reports,” said Yuki. Smiling faintly as he realized that it was probably a bit too early for him to be worrying about his life getting boring. Especially, considering who his seniors were, and the group that he was a part of.

Thus the group of sixty immortal flew past the nebulous pulsating mass of living music that was gathering in a distant corner of the Empty-Bell Complex. Pretending not to see, the dark entities that were slowly gestating inside the mass of living music, and the immortal-beings that were stealthily gathered around the living music.

*************************************************************************************************************

Elsewhere, a tall, dark-haired man met a petite, brown-haired, woman at a bowling alley, where solidified clouds were rolled into the bottles of frozen lightning. They met awkwardly, they greeted each other uncomfortably, they both looked entirely out-of-sorts at the onset of their meeting. An outside observer witnessing them wouldn’t have been wrong to expect that any moment things between the two might burst into a scene of violence.

Yet, in the end, by some strange miracle, the two would end up having a good time. Ending their little play-date with an awkward hand-shake, that maybe was supposed to become a kind of hug, but didn’t turn into that because neither of the two were quite there yet.

“Er...Later. I had a good time...Maybe we can do it again sometime?” said a blushing Hong Mirae.

“Uh, yeah...Definitely,” said Jilbert. Wondering why in the nine hells, he still wasn’t good at this, when he’d already somehow managed to get married twice.