The next days Pef remained asleep, focusing his energy on self repair, and circulating qi in a trance meditation.

His nurses fed him honeyed tea and waited, while thinking about the Lord Ignited's words. There was an offer there, probably like the Lady Ignited had received. And they both wore his rings now, and hang at the peak of Tyrant rank but unable to cross, even if they refined qi by the gallon. Well, they would ascend eventually, in thousands of years, but who had so much time to wait?

Then one day, Yuan entered the room, smiling thinly. "Wake up already! These women are burning to talk to you." she demanded in an official voice, and sent a fire pellet towards her husband. His right hand moved in a blur and intercepted the incendiary bullet.

"Okay, okay. I'm up. Gee! These spells are dangerous..." Pef exclaimed while feeding his fire sprite the delicious spell.

The women sweat dropped and blinked at his irregular use of the Holy Fire. Not that this cute sprite had any connection to Volcanis anymore, since Pef wasn't using a Volcanic method and the sprite had been partially refined and indoctrinated anyway.

He looked around the room, taking note of Yuan even higher qi level, due to recent combat and an extra meridian getting open by the Orange pill.

"Make us some lunch, husband, and then reassure my sisters." the Fire Monarch commanded while the Tyrant Disciples looked at her with awe and admiration.

An hour later, Mengue and Lucia flew up and sat on a cloud next to the young Sovereign, and digested the near immortal meal, while drinking wine and being surrounded by a water vapor sphere.

"Ask me. What is troubling you, my fiery ladies?" Pef said while sitting down with his legs crossed.

"If you proposed to me, while missing half your organs, including your heart..." Mengue whispered while holding up her palm and admiring her ring.

"Me too. I mean, your brave and strong and... I will accept, if you did..." Lucia said with a trembling voice, while blushing fiercely.

"To be truthful, at that time I thought I was dead and speaking with two otherworldly angels. It seemed appropriate to fluster and confuse such beautiful angels. But now..." the young man explained in a serious tone, glancing from one woman to the other.

Mengue sighed and bit her finger. "Makes sense. You were kinda delirious, Lord Pef. And you did die. I thank you for the pill...and I should offer a hug, right?" she asked softly, then flew closer and hugged the hero, while tears fell on her face.

"Then again. Two beauties who actually want to put up with me? I'd have to be stupid to refuse. Mmm, millions of years of hot and arduous cultivation...and by that I mean sex..." he mused while his hands roamed a bit impolitely over the Tyrants soft parts.

Lucia yelled in joy and rushed in to be hugged and kissed as well. And so, our womanizing Sovereign got to enjoy a few hours of hot bliss aboard Anaconda One, while sealing the deal with his newest wives. The weddings and the new feelings.

One after the other the peak Tyrants benefited from the qi injections and the extra perk of Legion method, the growth through love.

When they rested for a bit and Pef began cooking dinner, the other four wives entered the nacelle, and smiled prettily at their husband. Especially Lady Lin, who had only wanted a smile life, a husband to provide bones and help her raise a few children. Now she had a large family, and still no children, instead having to share the husband with 15 women.

"So, the Yellow Continent?" he asked with a pleasant smile while stirring and frying meat over his stoves.

"Clear of spiders now. And breeding camps." Lia said in a perfectly level voice.

"Great! Also, I'm not dead. So there's that, too." Pef noticed after a minute of awkward silence.

"You need to love our new sisters more, hubby. They're really close of becoming Sovereigns." Lara commented unfazed, and hugged Pef from the back, just happy to see him, alive and well.

"Lucia and Mengue, don't bother getting dressed. We'll be cultivating hard, after we eat." the shameless husband explained while filling a few trays with porridge and kangaroo steak. He just discovered some mint and rosemary in his inventory and the meat smelled amazing.

'How long for the new wives?' he asked inward while portioning and dicing the meat.

'Mengue perhaps 5 days. Lucia will take more. She's introvert and has trouble accepting her own feelings. Maybe a month of daily cultivation.' the glove estimated a bit hesitant.

Pef nodded. Shy woman, check. He'll focus on Mengue first, on the way back home.

Lady Lucia will need some alone time, and meeting the kids. That would give her a hint of why they got married.

The return home was pretty much as expected, only with small disturbances, as the Empire was guarded by two Sovereigns and a few Tyrants.

Pef got to see the kids, and introduce the new wives, then run around for a week in a tour of the Empire to see what needed fixing or improving.

A bit north of Sandyport, he decided to start another naval base, with large protected anchorages and dockyard, and begin another section of the Continental Canal to protect that corner of civilization.

Most of the Guardians of Earth rank were sent there to work, supervised by Lady Aria and Emperor Zhong, who would get this new province as his domain when it was finished.

The eastern side of the continent was growing fast, and the children subsidies helped support the ever larger families.

In Port Li, Pef found his apprentice Wong had taken two new wives and was busy cultivating them, making his primary wife, Chen, a bit unhappy.

So he took Wong aside and gave him a White and an Orange pill, as he was still just a Sky ranker and making him look a bad teacher. "Young Wong! You have the guts to indulge in two new wives?"

"Boss...it just happened! We met at his party and had a good time, and then at another party and, before I knew it, they were living in my house. Lei Ling is the sister of..." the young apprentice justified with a meek voice.

"Good! You should have guts Wong. As my apprentice, you have the sky open for you. But, are you really that strong and competent to train these young Practitioners into Tyrants or Sovereigns?" Pef asked with some ulterior purpose, while pointing at his own new wives, Mengue a Sovereign and Lucia a Tyrant.

They were swimming and relaxing in Wong's pool, and chatting with his five wives about mysterious and profound matters like double stitching and waist lines.

The Wong Leader hesitated, as he felt there was no good answer.

He instead poured more wine and enchanted his palate with alcohol and his eyes with these radiant beauties warming his pool. "Boss...I fought in ten beast waves, and I lost three fingers to a crab monster. Chen lost a toe...we're lucky to be alive." he murmured in a more subdued manner.

Pef sighed and poured himself more wine as well. How did this idiot lose fingers to the earth ranked crabs that attacked Port Li?

"You panicked and cut them off yourself, didn't you?" the Sovereign asked at random.

Wong nodded in shame, and gulped his wine as a penance.

"Master Xi, you are indeed all knowing! I should have been like a god, with my Tyrant ranked pole arm.

Instead, I saw Chen get knocked over, and was afraid for her life. I took the fastest way out, and rushed to her side..."

"It's good you know the problem then. To protect the ones you love, you need to be strong, my apprentice. You will take my Python airship, and go to the Black continent and help around Myrrth for one year. Then, once you reach your Emperor rank, you will go to the Yellow continent, and help the Fire Disciples civilize the continent for another year. And when you return as a Tyrant, you may find a few Tyrant ranked beauties at your side. There's a hundred of pretty women, just like Lucia, lonely and scared, but still fighting monsters." Pef explained in an enticing voice, while preparing a Sovereign armor set and supplies for two years of roaming in a Sovereign ring, along with two rings more filled with highly pressured water.

In time, he would obtain digital weapons like in his memories, but for now these will have to do.

Wong glanced at the Tyrant wife of his boss with the eyes of a toad drooling at swan meat. The wine in his mouth felt stale all of a sudden, compared to what else he could feast on.

Then Pef swiped his hand over the table, depositing the rings he had prepared in his glove.

As the Sky ranked noble picked them gently one by one, he scanned the interior with amazed eyes.

"I won't let you down, Master. Even if it costs me my arms and legs, I will return with a Tyrant wife like Lady Lucia. So the water rings, just point and release?" he asked pointing his ringed hand toward Pef.

"They are weapons and tools, Wong. Stopping fires, killing low ranked beasts, cutting through mountains, even digging and filling irrigation canals or storing water for your water qi spirit to use in combat. Wear one ring on each hand, and try not to lose them both." Pef answered with a sly smile.

The next week, just as Pef arrived from his tour back at the Xi Palace, Wong departed on his own adventure, with his soul three times stronger, due to the meridian pills.

Madam Wong Chen found herself in charge of the throng of lazy nobles who were hiding under her husbands coattails, along with a pair of crying sister wives in the basement. She licked her whip in a bit of excited manner, thinking of all the serious training she would impose on those sniveling nobles.

At first, she'd been a bit jealous on Kira, for lucking out with the Emperor. But now her red-haired friend was dead, and her own weepy husband would soon be a Tyrant. She had to practice how to act tyrannical, and be a model wife when Wong returned.