People are like flowers in that they live and die on a cycle. And like some flowers, people can be poisonous, helpful, beautiful, or just a weed that needs to be pulled up by its roots to eradicate it completely.

~Blodeuwedd, Goddess of Flowers and Wisdom

Weeks passed since Crow rescued Ahote. They spent a few days in the Awen Shrine, but he didn’t feel it was safe to stay there long. During that time, he reset Ahote’s broken bones and gave him medicine to speed up the healing. Crow also helped Ahote’s beasts, but two of them were already dead.

The one thing Crow couldn’t heal was Ahote’s damaged Soul. A Beastlord losing a Soulbound pet was harmful to every aspect of their Soul. So his Body, Mind, and Spirit were affected. The only thing that could help him was time and care.

Ahote lost two of his smaller beasts, and the only redeeming factor was that he hadn’t formed a strong bond with them yet. If it had been Nuk that died, Ahote might not survive the damage to his Soul.

Aine was unharmed; other than blaming herself, she was fine after a day of rest. Crow wasn’t satisfied. He still felt the burn of rage inside but had no way to quench it. Either way, despite his unhappiness, after two days, he told them they had to leave. They needed to leave this floor fast because he was sure the Murmurs wouldn’t let him off so easily. It wouldn’t take much for them to figure out he’d killed their brother previously.

Not even a week later, they arrived at the ascension point, but not before they crossed something astounding. The tower lost a landmark that had existed for thousands of years. The temples near the end of the fourth floor were around for so long that Crow had heard of them before he’d even entered the tower. All of them were now rubble. There were still people there, and they were busy moving stones to rebuild, but it wasn’t the same.

It took them some time to piece together what had happened, and based on the events, Crow was curious. Curious enough that he stopped to investigate when he knew they should leave. After a few hours, he felt stunned because he wouldn’t have recognized Kafe’s actions if he didn’t realize that the woman by his side was Nadia. She was easy to identify.

The locals described everything that happened, and all three were shocked. What the hell has Kafe become?

After figuring that out, he sensed Death Mana infused in the soil, which explained how they could keep the jungle from overtaking the city. The paved land was to hide the corrupted soil. Kafe and Nadia exposed a dark secret that left most of the locals stunned. The thing Crow was most worried about was how Kafe had managed all this. The amount of power needed to destroy all those temples was something he couldn’t comprehend.

It didn’t matter for now. Crow didn’t intend to stay here because he had to catch up to his wives. It was only after he reached the fifth floor did he finally relax. Crow doubted they escaped the notice of the Unholde sect and wanted to know why they were related to the Murmurs. However, his instincts told him that, for now, he had some breathing room.

Reaching the fifth floor, they entered Bluebell town, the farming community where Mara and the others had hatched out their plans previously. The three overheard the crowd talking, and Crow felt a bit weird. Ahote and Aine turned to stare at Crow, whose face went through several emotions until Aine couldn’t take it anymore and burst out laughing.

“Darkstar Farms? Pfft—hahaha,” Aine hadn’t really let loose since Ahote’s abduction. That event weighed on all of them. Ahote wasn’t as impacted as Aine and was more conflicted about his wife’s mood than anything else. A Beastlord was a complicated role because they couldn’t take any of their relationships lightly, or it’d mess with their path. Hearing her laugh, Ahote’s eyes finally brightened, and he chuckled along with her.

“Those women need to be punished,” Crow sighed, making Aine laugh even harder. People around them stopped to see the commotion, and more than a dozen people were laughing along with her. Not because they knew why she was laughing, but happiness like that was infectious.

“I’m curious. What is Darkstar Farms?” Ahote asked some people in the crowd. Once he heard what they had to say, even Crow felt he had lost his mind. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe them, but Crow found it amazing that they turned a trash crop into a gold mine.

“I’m a little envious,” Ahote said.

“Why?” Aine asked.

“You think just one of his women built those farms? Knowing them, Song Lin came up with the plant, and Mara or Song Xue recognized the issue and came up with a solution. Finally, Nin is the goddess of money. How many men do you think could take in multiple wives and have them work so harmoniously together?”

“Oh? So you envy his multiple wives?” Aine asked and grasped Ahote’s ear, pulling his face down to her level.

“No. No. No. Dear, you misunderstand. My wife is more outstanding than ten wives,” Ahote said, trying to placate her, and Crow chuckled.

“You think I won’t hurt you, too?” Aine asked, glaring at Crow.

“Hey, that store looks good. You two talk!” Crow stepped into the closest store and could hear Ahote begging for him to come back. “Sorry, friend,” he mumbled. “I have my own wives. I’m not borrowing trouble from yours.”

“Oh, this customer has many wives? Then you came to the right store,” the store owner said. Crow heard her sweet voice and turned to look around. It was a place that sold female undergarments, and the grin froze on his face. He hadn’t even noticed Aine giving him a weird look when he entered the store, and now he could hear the two of them outside laughing.

“Ah, this was a mistake!”

“Relax. Many men come into this place. You can call me Madam Ara, and I own this place.”

“You get a lot of business selling stuff like this in a farming community?”

“It does alright. The people here are more honest than in other places, which is why I’m here. I don’t have to worry about arrogant practitioners, especially the young masters and the like.”

“Are you a cultivator?” Crow asked.

“I can be considered as such, but I don’t really like to cultivate.”

“You’ve taken up Scholarly Talents then?”

“I have.”

“Madam Ara, I have a deal for you, but not sure if you’d be interested.”

Crow pulled out some undergarments he made while at Wistman’s Woods. Madam Ara’s eyes lit up seeing the stretchy material, and she felt Crow might be a bit of a pervert.

After she saw the goods, he explained what he wanted to do and how they could keep in touch. However, if she was interested in opening up a fancy women’s boutique, he didn’t want to attempt it on this floor. In fact, he was thinking of trying to open one in Rosdoe.

“Not Rosdoe,” Madam Ara shook her head. “I can consider this, but in that town, most new cultivators are still too arrogant. The ninth floor has a Moonlight Market that is open three days a month. It’d be a better place to launch your boutique. At least for now. I’ve heard rumors of a mercantile city on the eighteenth floor, which would also be a better place to open a shop.”

Crow paused at her words and browsed through his memories. The eighteenth floor was where the Stone Breaker people lived. The ones he met in Rosdoe invited him to visit, so he should visit them when he reached that place. He wasn’t hurrying to open a place like this and even felt a little embarrassed asking a stranger about it.

“Does that mean you’ll consider it?” Crow asked.

“I’m really interested in tailoring. You will teach me this technique?”

“I will, and it’s even more magical than this. I’ve only reached this level of attainment, but the talent is still much more mysterious. Here, I’ll pass some of the knowledge on to you now. You can attempt to learn this, and we’ll meet again on the ninth floor at this Moonlight Market.”

Crow’s finger touched the madam’s forehead and passed on the method of infusing threads with mana. It was the most straightforward part of the talent, and beyond that was something she’d have to take time to learn. Especially if she wanted to imbue clothes with elemental affinities.

He had to admit that even though she was probably two or three times older than him, she was still a mature beauty. Based on how she reacted to his touch, he felt her story was tragic, but he didn’t try to comfort her. The life of cultivation and ascending came with certain acceptances. Power was the ultimate truth.

After talking for another thirty minutes, they confirmed how they’d meet up, and Crow left shortly after. The problem with meeting her again was that he didn’t know how long it’d take for him to reach the ninth floor, so he agreed to find her at her camp on the night of the full moon. Since Madam Ara went to the Moonlight Market every month to sell her wares, it was an easy location to arrange a meeting.

Crow originally wanted to use the Adventurer’s Guild, but for some reason, she adamantly refused. It was enough to rouse his curiosity, but he wouldn’t violate basic manners. She clearly didn’t want to talk about it; therefore, he didn’t ask.

“What was that about?” Aine asked when Crow finally came out.

“Business deal. She might be the future owner of Darkstar Boutique,” Crow laughed. “We’ll see how those girls react to that, hehe. Oh… right, you don’t know. We picked up a technique for creating mana-infused clothes.”

Aine burst out laughing again, and this time even Ahote gave her a quizzical look.

“He learned how to sew because he can’t keep his clothes on!” Aine laughed again, and Crow’s face flushed, not expecting his silly cousin to figure out his secret so fast. Seeing his look, she laughed even harder, and Ahote joined.

“Traitor,” Crow said, punching Ahote lightly on the shoulder. “All right, let’s go. This place is relatively easy to cross since it’s mostly those gigantic oaks and farmland. We can fly—”

“No flying,” Ahote shook his head. “We did some asking around, and the tops of those oaks have some powerful bird-type beasts. If it was one-on-one, we might be able to fight them in the air, but they’ll swarm us.”

“Ah, dammit.”

“It’s fine,” Aine said. “Nuk can take us almost as quickly as flying, provided the ground is as flat as rumored.”

“Most land-bound beasts on this floor are prey,” Ahote explained. “The only beasts you should never estimate are the domesticated livestock. It might sound like a joke, but they are impossibly strong for most people on this floor. I’ve seen the ones getting butchered; they are easily Wood-9 strength or higher.”

“What the hell?” Crow nearly shouted. “How…?”

“It isn’t anything surprising,” Ahote explained. “Beasts get stronger by eating, and these domesticated ones are fed daily. They are also non-threatening unless you attack them, which is why this floor is relatively peaceful.”

They spent that day stocking up on goods and replacing clothes, bedding, and other camping gear. The next day, after a hearty breakfast, they left the farming community riding on Nuk. Crow’s research didn’t find anything worth exploring on this floor, so they planned to ride straight through. The only stop he wanted to make was to visit Darkstar Farms to see what kind of empire his women created.