Molting the Mortal Coil

The story of the Chong Clan’s past ended there and the old fossil moved on to talking about other things. Some of the questions that Sage had always harbored about his old ancestor down in the Lang Clan Tomb were answered, while many more appeared. The limitations of the Storytime Elixir also became very apparent. While it could garner them a large amount of information, it was also unfocused and uncontrollable. There were many things that Sage wished to ask of this ancient being, but the Storytime Elixir only compelled them to tell stories of their past, not to answer any questions.

At times there was the voice of the lone audience member chiming in to ask a question about the story. Jinxi Po would shush them or tell them to keep listening to find the answer. Only a few times did the prompting work, and it seemed to only be when the events of the story weren’t clear. Requests for more elaboration weren’t fulfilled, nor did he respond when asked more about related events or the happenings of the time. They truly became like a weathered storyteller, only sharing the details they felt were important for the understanding of their story and didn’t tolerate many interruptions. If the interviewer asked too many questions or made too many comments, Jinxi Po would get grumpy and say ‘Are you telling this story, or am I?’. He could even refuse to keep telling the story for a while and just sit in silence until he felt the interviewer was properly apologetic for his outburst.

While Jinxi Po’s story explained the strange relationship between the Lang Clan, Chong Clan, and Zhu Clan to an extent, it also raised other questions. Where did the Insect Immortal Index come from? Before the Chong Clan formed in the story, Jinxi Po was from a smaller clan that had the Insect Immortal Index, but was also not subordinate to the others. How were all these clans related, but also unrelated? The Lang member in the story rose to a great height and then left along with someone from the Zhu Clan, but where did they go and what were their previous relationships? The events in the story were from thousands of years ago, but there were almost more mysteries left unanswered.

After hearing this very enlightening story, Sage was compelled to continue listening to the rest of the long stories told by his former enemy. There was no telling what other gems might be hidden. He also had a few others listening to the stories, a couple from the Purple Mist Sect as well as a few of the humans who had followed the Three Kings from the outside world. He was just hoping they might notice things from a different perspective than himself and his wives. It was also a good distraction from the growing nervousness he felt with the approach of his first real children.

Strangely the viciousness of this fellow spurred the three of them to start their new family line. The fellow had hundreds of descendants over his many thousands of years, living multiple lives in new bodies. There were many stories relating to the joys of raising children, the difficulties in passing down proper values to them, and also the pride he felt about their accomplishments. In different lives he had to adopt different personality traits to keep from raising suspicion. He raised children with drastically different types of wives and tried out many different parenting styles. Some children needed a firm hand, others needed calm nurturing, but even after raising dozens of different children he was still constantly surprised. He had many failures and many successes. Some of his children went on to become great cultivators, upstanding people with resounding reputations and a pride to the clan. Others were complete wastrels who didn’t know how to do anything other than waste money and cause trouble.

With so many examples of what to do and not to do, Ling, Jiao and Sage were influenced to do what they were already planning on doing. They’d been preparing to rebuild the clan for years now and despite how much they despised the viciousness present in the man, they’d grown to be familiar with the Jinxi Ancestor after listening to his stories for hundreds of hours. Sage knew of this phenomenon from Earth, where people would become utterly infatuated and adoring of people they’d never met, merely by virtue of listening to many interviews and watching them in films or their excellent performance on a field.

This inspiration to start a family ended up being far more dangerous than he had assumed. Mainly because he forgot one of the more well known traits of mantids. They all had human seals and went into the bedroom in their human forms, but that first night with Jiao after they’d decided to have children became much different than every other time. A cultivator had great control over their own bodies. At their current level their cores automatically drew in energy from the ambient universe and converted it into Qi. They no longer required sleep, food, water, or even the breathing of air. Of course, none of these activities were detrimental as they helped them remain in touch with their humanity and were also enjoyable, but they were no longer strictly required for survival. They could also benefit from such practices if done correctly or using certain techniques. There were breathing techniques that could enhance the performance of the Inner Core, or the whole profession of chefs that turned Demonic Beasts and Spirit Plants into cultivation tonics. So, with how great the control over their bodies were, cultivators had a pretty easy time controlling their own fertility and bodily functions.

For some reason, once Jiao decided to make herself viable, something unusual came over her. When the two of them were locked in the throes of passion, Sage suddenly felt danger and he expanded his Spirit Sense to his surroundings. Then he threw himself backwards, shattering the bed into splinters and propelling his body through a half dozen walls and skidding across a field of grass. Blood was spilling from his throat, mixing with the mud and grass clippings sticking to his naked skin. In the bedroom he’d just vacated, Jiao let out a howl and collapsed the adjacent rooms of the building on top of herself.

He brought out a healing pill from the ring on his finger, and then wrapped a Blood Drinking Silk bandage around his throat. For a normal human this level of wound would likely lead to almost instant death, but even with a gallon of blood seeping into the grass it was pretty trivial for him. He had alchemical pills to restore his blood, a magic device to stop the bleeding, and an innate regeneration power to heal his wound. Even so, he had been quite close to losing this body a moment ago. He had no desire to lose so many years recovering from such a loss and he was also not eager to see if his Soul Clone’s Nascent Soul would also suffer the same fate.

That was a close one! An instant later and my head would have been rolling on the floor.