I’ve obtained a lot of information from these two captives, most of it pertaining to the immortal realm. Much to Lucia’s relief, it seems like immortals won’t be dispatched to kill her despite all the atrocities she’s committed. Admittedly, I’m relieved as well. No higher powers are going to stop me from uniting the whole Immortal Continent. It’s simply not worth the price, and if I take away the methods the people here use to contact immortals—which I already have—immortals won’t come down here of their own volition to check on them.

There are some things that these captives weren’t able to provide me. Their maps of the immortal realm are incomplete. The Immortal Continent is thousands upon thousands of times larger than the small plane I was born in. And the immortal realm is supposedly thousands upon thousands of times larger than the Immortal Continent. It makes one wonder, will there be an immortal super realm that’s thousands upon thousands of times larger than the immortal realm? When does the cycle end?

According to Fairy Lin’s memories, the immortal realm was split during a massive war against the demons. Fragments split off of it, creating millions of lower realms similar in size to the Immortal Continent. I compared it to taking a bite out of a cookie, with the fragments falling off being crumbs, but as expected, neither Fairy Lin nor Demonic Lord Bloodmoon understood the analogy because the immortal realm doesn’t have cookies. Why don’t they have cookies? They have spiritual crops, but no one thought to make them into snacks or something?

Anyway, Fairy Lin’s memories and Bloodmoon’s memories conflict. According to Fairy Lin, the demons were the aggressors that started the war. According to Bloodmoon, the demons were the victims. Of course, the details really don’t matter. If the demons win and wipe out the humans, obviously the humans would be the bad guys in the story since history is written by the victors. Perhaps the beastkin would have an unbiased view. According to my captives’ memories, the beastkin are a neutral faction who have their own territory. They’re very biased against outsiders, much like the beastkin I knew back home.

That’s enough about informative-yet-impractical things. Now that I know I can grow my influence unchecked, I can implement all the plans I was holding back on. I’ve already started a few of them that wouldn’t be too problematic if an immortal found out: creating schools, forcing elders of sects to teach in said schools, forcing the children of said elders to attend said schools, nothing drastic, really. Now—

“Auntie, my mom said you have to take me to school today.”

“Not now, squirt. I’m busy. Get Mirta to take you.” Ah, Lucia and Softie’s love child, she’s much easier to get along with than Lucia. She calls me Auntie because hearing Ms. Pentorn makes me feel old, and hearing Ilya from a kid makes me feel weird. Softie wanted Sophia to call me senior sister, but that would make Lucia my mother, so I denied that outright. Auntie is a nice balance. Is Sophia still here? What’s she standing around for? She usually listens to me.

“Big Sis Mirta can’t take me to school today.”

“Why not?”

“A plant ate her legs.”

I suppose that’s a fair reason. Wait. “When did this happen?”

“Three minutes ago,” Sophia said, looking at me with an innocent expression. “She was taking care of a plant, and I went up to ask her if she would take me to school, but she didn’t see me and tripped over my tail, and then a plant took advantage of her weakness and ate her legs.”

“Her legs were eaten because you tripped her with your tail. That’s what you’re telling me, right?”

Sophia shook her head. “No. I didn’t trip her. She tripped herself. On my tail.” Sophia nodded twice. “Will you take me to school?”

Maybe my legs will be destroyed in an explosion if I say no. Well, I was going to go to the school anyway to further my expansion plan. “Yeah, I’ll take you.” I took a flying boat out of my interspacial ring. “Come, get on.”

“You’re not supposed to fly in the capital. It’s against the rules.”

Do I set a bad example for Sophia, or do I sit in the traffic of ground transportation? Is this even a question? Sophia’s not my child. Why does it matter to me how she grows up? “I make the rules, and I’ve created an exception for myself. Now get on.”

Sophia climbed onto the flying boat. “Why do you make the rules, Auntie?”

“Because your mom supports me, and your mom’s the strongest person in the world. If they don’t listen to me, your mom will beat them up.”

Sophia tilted her head. “Why is Mommy the strongest person in the world?”

“Because the heavens are blind.”

“Why—”

“Here, have a cookie.”

Sophia didn’t take the cookie. Instead, she stared at me. “Yesterday, my teacher said cookies were bad for me. They contain impurities, and impurities are bad.” Sophia blinked. “But he didn’t say how come. Why are impurities bad, Auntie?”

“Have you asked your mom?”

“She told me to ask you.”

Thanks, Lucia. “Have you asked your other mom?”

“She told me to ask you.”

Really, Softie? You too? I thought you were going to be a responsible parent. “Alright, so impurities are basically poison.”

Sophia’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. “You, you want to feed me poison?”

Child, you were literally born from poison. “Isn’t it tasty though?”

“But, but it’s poison!” Sophia looks so cute when she’s flustered. Her ears and tail are so reactive. After I told her impurities were poison, her tail completely stiffened like Lucia’s does when she’s in danger.

“Don’t worry. My cookies don’t have any impurities. In fact, they’re made completely of spiritual food. If I really fed you poison, your mom would kill me.”

“Mm, that’s true,” Sophia said, her tail lowering. She seemed to be deep in thought, but that state didn’t last very long. Before I knew it, the cookie was already out of my hand and inside her mouth.