Finalised

“So… What is your answer now, Chengjie? Even as an ancient spectre, you have much room for growth. Do you know why, old one? It is because you have the occasion to become mine–The occasion to become property of a member of a great clan, and not just any member… I don’t mean to brag, but I am part of the main descent and am currently quite well-placed”

“I can make you better than you ever were, Chengjie. Do you not wish to see what lies outside this room? Do you not wish to see the progress Xiaolie has made? She has not been slacking on her training, you know?”

“I know you fear death more than anything. Why turn yourself into a ghostly entity trapped inside a piece of emerald otherwise? You are afraid that there is nothing waiting for you on the other side, or perhaps you are fearful of ending somewhere in particular, mmh? Regardless, I am the one in charge of your destiny, and I am magnanimous enough to offer you a better existence. More power. A greater purpose”

“Now is the last time you can make a choice, Chengjie, but I feel like I already know your answer…”

Edrick smiled as he looked down upon the emerald wraith. To begin with, Anoteros had never expected that the old one would be turned into a woman due to Xiaolie’s consumption of an Everlasting Elixir Of Inversion. Therefore, what he was setting his eyes upon was purely a bonus he hadn’t even accounted for in the first place.

The original two ideas that had popped into his mind were to grind down the emerald to make it into a special resource, or to turn the ghost into a teacher for his future progeny... But now, Chengjie could be so much more. The first idea was to be forgotten, but the second one was still on the table, whilst now accompanied by the possibility of turning the spectre into a loyal, obedient maid. She could be turned into the very first Protector Maid: A special category of the Guardian Maids.

…Having a ghost protecting his residence would be a great security boon, on top of having access to the knowledge of this ancient individual and the accumulated power in Chengjie’s possession.

Right now, the wraith was far weaker than she used to be, but that problem could be fixed. Anoteros had the means to get the assistance of specialists in the matter.

Edrick had left Chengjie in isolation for longer than the spectre would have been led to believe based on their last conversation, and isolation was an excellent way to fragilise one’s willpower, not to mention that his earlier statements were absolutely correct. Chengjie had no intention of actually allowing herself to die to maintain her ego or show defiance. She had been hoping for a stroke of fortune or something of the like, but now that it was clear that such a thing would not come…

“Fine. I agree… You'd better keep your promises”

“I don’t think you are in any position to negotiate, Chengjie. I will keep my word to you, though. Why wouldn’t I? It benefits me as well... Anyway, you made the right choice, Chengjie. I will be having talks with the Sect Of The Old Decay, and have their best experts on ghosts and spectres on your case. Be joyful”

Anoteros once again left the room.

Some time had passed since his lovely interaction with Baiju. The Simis were now two months old. They weren’t doing anything impressive for now. Even with their apparent and obvious accelerated growth and superior health, they weren’t talking or walking just yet at all.

Nonetheless, they were showing impressive thinking capabilities for their age. They could quickly pick up on the games and activities the Nursery Maids were presenting to them, and were rather dexterous–The latter of which seemed to be quite the headache for the Nursery Maids and Fanqia, as they were also very curious and wanted to grab whatever was within their reach.

When something was taken away from them, or quickly removed before they could reach it, their curiosity only seemed to grow stronger… Thankfully, they weren’t very focused and could easily be distracted and made to completely forget what they were up to a few moments ago, with what Anoteros would call: A sizable amount of key-jingling.

Still, they were overall normal little ones–If one ignored the industrial quantities of milk they were gulping down every day, directly from their mother… Even with one on each rich mound, Fanqia never seemed to even come close to running out.

She was filling bottles upon bottles of her milk every day so that the maids could feed the Simis even if she wasn’t directly around, and even that wasn’t enough to put a dent in it. Fanqia seemed a little obsessed with unloading milk for some reason, though... As whenever the Simis were fed, and no more bottles could be filled, she would do her best to convince her husband to come drink at the source as well.

…Edrick didn’t use to find this particularly interesting, but Fanqia had definitely given him the interest. Her milk was enhanced with Velvet Pixie blessing and was astonishingly nourishing in general.

Still, she seemed to be the one to take the most pleasure out of it all. The matriarch was definitely quite satisfied with her husband’s seemingly bottomless pit for a stomach. He could drink and drink from her without stop for hours. Not that it put a dent in reserves anyway.

It seemed like she produced milk faster than it could be drained…

‘Mmh… Is this a sign that she could handle bearing and birthing even more than two…?

Probably. She popped those two out with mind-numbing ease. Any woman who had to go through the regular stuff would kill to be able to do it as easily as she could'

Edrick couldn’t help but look at her stomach in thought and wonder just how many he could knock her up with at once…

Although he felt tempted to try it immediately, he wanted to mark a bit of a pause before impregnating one of his wives again. The Nursery Wing was still too small to handle a large quantity of offspring.

Anyway, if he were to impregnate someone, it would be another one of his wives. They weren’t saying it aloud, but it was pretty damn clear that they wouldn’t mind being made into mothers.

Naturally, they were also interacting with the Simis, and even the tomboyish Yin couldn’t help but gush over them.

“I guess motherly instincts win over tomboy tendencies”

Though Hui and Yin probably didn’t quite realise that being made into mothers meant that rough activities would be paused for the duration of the pregnancy... He wasn’t going to be careless about things like this. If those two were pregnant, then it went without saying that they would have to move to gentle activities for a while…

‘Anyway… Now is not the time to wonder about this. I have other things to occupy myself with’

It was time to work.