I sat in my chamber, at my desk, drawing out plans for the future. The hours in the day were no longer enough, and each passing moment I grew more tempted to learn how to split myself up into multiple fragments again just to be able to keep up with work.That was likely a worthwhile technique to learn, but unfortunately, the time that would take was something I simply didn’t have at the moment. There was infrastructure to set up for all the plans I’d made, logistics to be handled, people to be trained. The demand for craftsmen was going to rapidly rise, and their prices would rise accordingly. I needed to work to make sure I didn’t inadvertently collapse the economy by trying to do too many things at once.Somehow, having money resulted in more money being spent. I was spending thousands of gold pieces every day, and the amount sometimes horrified me to look at. But I knew all of it was necessary, and I didn’t hold any actual ties to the money itself. Money was merely untapped potenti

I stood in front of the Lord, watching him look at the invitation with a frown on his face. Apparently getting an invitation from a Divinity directly was an even bigger deal than I’d anticipated, despite being told as much by Zhi Zhu.“We knew the day would come soon with how you have been progressing, but it is still hard to believe it when seeing it in front of our eyes,” the Lord said, looking up at me. “Just to explain, we ourselves have never been invited by any of the Divinities, and getting an invitation like that would be a great honor even for us,” the Lord said.I bowed my head. “I understand my lord. And I’ll appreciate all the help I can get regarding etiquette. I’m afraid I do not know the customs of the court.”“I doubt any of that matters, especially with the Shie. Divinities are not the Jade court. Customs… such things depend on who you are meeting entirely, and the Shie have never been known for being too worried about such things, or the customs of the jade court and

“Shen… Ming?” The divinity spoke, in a surprised voice.I kept my bowed head, watching the old man look at the divinity. “It is indeed me, Zhuihu. I’m glad to see you are doing well.”My eyes widened in surprise as the old man referred to the woman with her name… and I looked at Liuxiang who similarly looked to be shocked.Just what was going on?The Shie matriarch stood up, walking closer and I could feel her immense aura even while she kept it mostly under control and away from me. Her eyes were stuck on the old man.“You’ve returned?” She asked, glancing sideways at me. “So he’s your doing then?”Just the brief glance the woman gave me felt like someone had thrown a boulder on my back. “You can raise your head,” she added, and I finally stood straight, hiding a sigh of relief.“No, we’re not. Merely here to finish what we couldn’t last time,” old man replied, before glancing at me. “And this boy has done everything himself. We merely gave him some guidance onto a new Path.”The Shi

My hands clutched its scales, fingers digging in as Chi channeled to all my limbs for every ounce of strength. I could feel my bones creaking under the pressure. Letting fires rise at my hands, I began to burn the snake’s body as it thrashed around, eventually flinging me off. I flew across the domain, crashing into branches before falling down. I got up swiftly, dodging the angered snake’s strike, before turning back around.Calling upon the first law, I let Chi split into Qi and Gu in two balls of energy that formed around my two fists. Bringing them together, I let the energies collide with one another.“First Law: Duality” I echoed with all the power of my spirit, as the two halves met and destruction manifested into the world.The beam of energy flew across the space, piercing the serpent and injuring it as the giant snake shrieked. Its scales sizzled and charred, a chunk of its body burned. The space around my fists cracked for a moment, light peeking through, but before I could

I sat in the carriage as we made our way back to the Lord’s manner. That has certainly been one hell of a meeting, with despite the rough nature of it the practice had gotten with a Divinity’s domain had certainly been useful. But I no longer had an excuse left to not talk about the things that I had been meaning to talk about with the old man. I sat there for a long moment hesitating over how I should ask about his past, the really was just trying to delay having to bring it up as much as I could. Taking a breath, I looked up at him and decided to just go for it.“How do you know the Shie matriarch?” I asked the old man, who looked back at me with mild surprise.“I used to know her mother,” the old man replied.“The previous matriarch and Divinity?” I asked, raising my eyebrow. “Wasn’t she super important and also really really old?”“She was, this old man was much younger back then when he had first met the woman. She had been amused by my youthful arrogance and had tested me. I had