Molting the Mortal Coil

For the time being, Sage took the position of the Clan head.

The family was just too happy at this point that he didn’t want to mess it up with politics to create an environment of siblings competing so directly with each other for such a tangible benefit. Instead, he let them continue to do their own thing with the clan rules merely a way for them to earn special resources.

Before he realized it, many years had passed and he became a grandfather. Sage spent much of his time checking up on his children’s martial progress, and had figured they would all be quite old before pursuing children just like himself. For those dedicated to cultivation it was quite common for children to come only after the cultivator reached a plateau. Since a stronger person had stronger children, it made sense for most to want to prepare the best conditions for their descendants.

Yet, that was only from a rational standpoint. Sage had forgotten that not everything or everyone approached things with the same logical perspective that he took. Even on Earth he’d always been a person that prized reason over emotion, and that stance was further exacerbated by his constant dabbling with his own body. The long time he’d spent with the full conscious control over his facial features had made him hyper aware of when to show and hide emotion for his own benefit, which also meant the spontaneous expression of emotion was now quite different than the norm.

He had not expected some of his children to start having kids of their own in their thirties. For a cultivator that could live for five thousand years, why would they be in any hurry? Why rush to have children when you still have so much room for improvement? Didn’t they realize that their first children might end up extremely jealous of later children that are born more powerful than they were?

Sage was still undecided on how he wanted to handle the diversification of their bloodline. While the Insect Immortal Index could ensure they wouldn’t suffer from birth defects, he was definitely not going to encourage any inbreeding. The next option he entertained was similar to what his wives did. Finding outside talents and then having them merge with mantids and setting up ideal arranged marriages. There was also the idea of just putting human seals on a few thousand mantis children and creating their own branch clan to give the children lots of options to choose from. Yet, before Sage could put any of these plans into action, he was already delivered the news that he would be a grandfather.

What was even more unbelievable was that a day later the second youngest of his children, Yahui, confessed that he already had a half-dozen children. When his first son, Juxing, had broken the news that he’d eloped and had a son on the way, it was already a big deal. Sage had been surprised that his oldest son had already gone out and gotten so involved when Juxing was always so focused on his advancement, but Juxing had corrected him.

“Father, I wasn’t focused on my advancement. I was focused on rebuilding the clan. My own strength reaching a certain level is just a requirement for that goal.”

Sage couldn’t hold himself back and he hugged his son. It was then he realized that this son of his had based his whole life on trying to accomplish his father’s goal. It was also quite amusing that the Son had a similar idea as the father. The best way to rebuild the clan is with numbers, right?

Yahui, on the other hand, did not put nearly as much thought into it, but he also fulfilled the conditions of Juxing’s plan. In fact, when Juxing heard about it, he was delighted.

“Even if you aren’t pleased with his choices, Yahui is making a great contribution to the clan. Our greatest weakness is our lacking numbers and he will quickly make up for that problem.”

Then, like rubbing salt in his wounds, within the next decade most of his children began to reproduce. Only his second daughter, Bingqing, promised to follow his arrangements and not pursue random people. Then, his fourth daughter, Yujie, also announced she would do the same. Yujie was always in constant competition with her sister, and she dumped her current boyfriend out of competitive desire. Sage was consoled by this declaration, but he didn’t want them to remain single while all of their siblings had already entered relationships so he quickly put his plans into play.

Ling and Jiao helped him decide not to create a new branch clan to muddy the water and they instead just assembled the most promising young men from the Inner World and arranged social events with them and his two daughters. With a crop of dozens that were talented and of good disposition, that had also consented to join the clan and transform their bodies, the two women were allowed to take their pick.

Yahui couldn’t help himself and somehow managed to seduce three of the promising young men. He was only there to make trouble and try to disrupt his half sisters, but Sage just kicked the four of them out.

Then, when Bingqing and Yujie had made their decision, Sage brought them on a ‘vacation’ and fed them Storytime Elixir to not only do a thorough background check upon their character, but also to get some dirt on them. Thankfully, his children had chosen wisely and neither man had any insidious plans. Then Sage taught them the Insect Immortal Index and got them to merge with Jade Sky Mantids. He also told them what to be aware of when they were conducting certain bedroom activities and the ‘quirks’ of their family.

On that topic, each of the children had also been informed of their family’s ‘special quirks’ when it came to bedroom activities. The talk about the ‘birds and the bees’ was far more unusual than that of other families. Sage’s near death experience had forced him to make it into serious business for their clan members. Part of the clan rules included a mandatory Memory Sphere training course that covered basic sexual education and also specific education to make sure they didn’t kill people accidentally in the future. It was also scheduled for them to learn as soon as they became teenagers.

Sage wasn’t sure how quickly or slowly his children would mature or need such knowledge so he erred on the side of caution and chose a somewhat young age that was mainly informed by his upbringing on Earth. He felt the dangers of not knowing were greater than the danger of knowing too early. For the most part he seemed to be vindicated, but there was a chance he’d set Yahui loose a bit too early. This thought bothered him for a while until he thought of the example the other children set and became confident that Yahui was just Yahui. Even if he delayed things a few years, that kid would still be doing the same stuff.

Well, at least he’s not a daughter or there might have been some missing village boys.