After the year has passed, and the Emperor One airship was forged and operational, Pef drew a long breath and sighed.

Still not over the peak, even if the last step was a only millimeters away. The Tyrant rank was not easily attained, even with all the Practice and love he experienced.

'What I am doing wrong, my glove?' Pef asked himself, folding the completed airship back into the glove.

'What you wanted, Aspirant. You made an Emperor airship.' the glove said with smirk.

It was more of a battleship in truth, as sturdy and durable as the Anaconda Emperor had been, although he compartmented the interior with two inner levels and two vertical sections, to avoid a crash if one section was punctured.

Though a small crash wouldn't really damage the ship, the passengers were still fragile.

The vertebrae and most ribs were discarded, to keep the airship buoyant, and to provide bones for the growing war industry.

With a lot of effort and qi expenditure, the Sky ranks were slowly assembling a full set of Emperor ranked plate armor, training their own soul in the process and becoming stronger.

Weapons were harder to make, so Pef used his neo knife to slice finger wide polearms and sharpen them to near perfection.

They would still need to be forged and molded to their users balance and height, but that was much easier than sharpening an Emperor ranked bone.

Beast waves became more frequent, but the new polearm weapons had no problem killing a low ranked beast in one swipe or lunge. In truth, such powerful weapons were overkill, but better to have them than not.

And the Guardians grew and grew, their constant combat, and even frequent marriages assured they will gain rank as soon as they reached the peak.

Everyone except Pef, who was at his wits end.

Then Lara came out of her Awakening, also to the brink of her Emperor rank, but unable to cross it.

Pef kissed her as a congratulation and offered the lady a polearm of Tyrant rank, if poorly made and balanced, just very sharp and durable.

"I tried my best, dear Lara. But those bones, are just too hard to forge..." Pef whispered as Lara held the new weapon and strained to wave it around.

"Silly Pef. Only you would gift such precious treasure, and say sorry for not being perfect." Lara said with new found courage. She loved it! And she would have to gift him something of equal value.

"Ah, I am a bit silly, right? Just need to get stronger, and all will be solved!" the Emperor proclaimed while examining the golden aura wife. So close, and yet. She was stuck, just like he was.

Lara came close, and grabbed his face, into a sweet kiss. "I should make it up to you, hubby. But, I don't know how..."

Pef blinked and then shrugged. "Another kiss would be great!" he said pushing his luck. He was kinda lucky.

"No, damn idiot! I mean, making love. I never..." Lara said with a fierce blush, and high climbing voice, hiding her face in Pef's neck.

He hugged his wife and patted her back. "Well...if you're really, really convinced about this, we can take the airship and sail above the clouds, and we'll figure it out. And we'll have only the moon as witness." he said gently and crossing his fingers.

"Yeah, that sounds really nice. You have some crazy ideas, my husband, but this one...can't wait!" Lara exclaimed in a bit of horny voice.

She had had enough pain, it was time to get her reward, and not be the odd one out.

Plus she had heard things, and was curious to try them. Remi had plenty of stories.

And so they did, although the glove made Pef wait, till they sailed way above the ocean.

'She can't compress qi here, Aspirant. You're competing with a higher rank.' it said, creating a flight corridor for a far away destination, which took like 2 hours of straight flying to reach, Pef holding Lara in a tight hug and boosting his speed to Mach 1.

Then Pef took out his airship and laid some furs on the nacelle floor, and slowly taught his wife about the joys of duo cultivation.

A dozen hours later, Lara did cross into an early Emperor rank, her eyes wide with adoration and amazement.

"I'm so stupid...I should have jumped your bones the first day! Well, the second day!" Lara complained feeling sorry for all the pleasure time she had lost.

"I'm glad you liked it, my love. Now let me rest a bit." the poor Emperor asked meekly. Maybe that's why they never made Empresses on Blue Xi. They could drain a man like a sponge.

'You should stay here for a month, Aspirant. You will cross to the next rank.' the glove said with an obvious ulterior purpose.

Here, in the middle of the skies, and out over the ocean? Pef wasn't that stupid.

'Just say where, my glove. No point wasting time for a passing beast.' the Aspirant answered in a defeated sigh.

The glove was actually not playing jokes this time. The idiot user just needed to compress qi, and fuel his core to the limit. But if Pef wanted to fight...

'Move a thousand kilometers north-east. And leave some for your wife.' the glove answered with a flat tone.

An hour later, Lara and Pef got to see a huge migrating flock of birds, most of them mere animals, but scattered inside the thousand kilometers long flock, there were Sky and Emperors and even a Tyrant ranked bird.

"Ready for a real wave, my love?" Pef asked while tying the Emperor ranked helmet under Lara's chin.

"They look delicious, my husband. Follow meeeeee!" she yelled and dove bravely into the flying maelstrom of beaks and claws and armored feathers.

Pef chuckled and followed, dodging the harmless animals and collecting meat, simply by swiping his hand, breaking necks and storing the dead bird.

Lara instead made a mess, getting bathed in blood and guts and feathers, while whirling her Tyrant polearm with not so good aim.

After the fifth Tyrant ranked Yellow Sky Goose that he killed, Pef felt himself cross the peak and explode with new powers. He made of dense water mist around them, obscuring everything with water qi, and plucked the battle crazed maniac out of the bird stream.

"Calm down Lara! We're going home..." he said in a bit of horrified manner.

The seas below were covered for a dozen kilometers in feathers and animals bits.

"Yeah...hehe. Got taken a bit by battle rush. I'm good now...But...by the General! Why did you butcher so many of these poor birds?" Lara yelled observing the still disintegrating flock of birds.

"It wasn't me! Some crazy blood thirsty woman did it." Pef explained with a chuckle and started flying away.

Lara scanned around for whoever that woman was, but she must have left. Soon, she caught up with Pef and started asking about the strange woman.

It took Lara some time, before she figured it out.

She had thought Xie or Erin were exceptions, but seemingly all of them were fierce warriors, happier to chop enemies than slice bread. Not that anyone had invented bread, yet.

The next week, Pef had to organize a circuit, and take the other wives for a moonlight romance, and then catch up with the bird stream for another rank up.

Mia and Qin took a week off and had to endure being used as extendable handles for their polearms, while Pef dove inside the bird stream and sliced around holding the wife by a leg.

It wasn't pretty or decent or even humane, but getting a rank for a few hours of dizziness inducing carousel was so worth it!

Without Pef's knowledge, his uncle Lithos was doing much the same with his smith wife, butchering thousands of beasts and then having wild sex in the skies. Sometimes both things at once.