Chapter 1
Jiang Fengmian admittedly never had much thought about the future of his family.
He had grown up to be a leader of the Jiang Sect and thought his life would continue with getting married and having an heir or two to nurture as the next leader. As for who his wife would be, Fengmian did once considered Cangse Sanren, the wild and beautiful rogue cultivator, to be a candidate up until she eloped with his best friend Wei Changze. While he was sadden with her choice, he never begrudge either of his friends for finding happiness.
Thus, he found himself a different wife in the form of Yu Ziyuan. While Ziyuan's sharp and dangerous beauty differed greatly from Cangse Sanren's soft and lively looks; she was still within the top five beauties of the cultivation world. While Fengmian did not love Ziyuan at the start of their courtship, he found that he respected her greatly as a partner. He could easily see her by his side supporting their sect and their children in the future.
Which was why when their first child was born, he felt his heart soften at the prospect of their future together. While their first child was a girl, she was the sweetest temper baby in the whole world. After the initial sharp cry into the world, the baby girl gave a yawn and slept in the embrace of her father as he silently cried tears of joy at the new life. He named her Jiang Yanli in hopes that her future would never part her from those she loves.
As the months continue, he found himself growing closer to his wife as Yanli grew from a sweet quite baby to a sweet tempered toddler. Fengmian had seen children from other sect families and was proud that his child was the best. Ziyuan agreed to this and bragged constantly to her sworn sister in letters and visits to Koi Tower. He even wrote a letter to Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren about his good fortune which made the couple jealous enough to visit Lotus Pier to see this little princess. Surprisingly enough, the Lady of Lotus Pier did not mind his old friends visiting even though Fengmian was pretty sure she had heard the rumors of their relationship.
Wei Changze congratulated on their good fortune of a sweet child and hoped they would be lucky enough to have half their blessing. Fengmian found himself delighted at his lady making a dry joke that they would be lucky if Cangse Sanren's first child did not go off running to shave some old goat's beard. This made the three old friends laugh while Ziyuan rolled her eyes at their reaction.
As a couple years pass by, Fengmian received news that his friends were blessed with their own child and informed his wife with their three year old daughter of the good news. Ziyuan told him to give them her congratulations and informed him to send them an invitation to Lotus Pier. He felt his heart grew at the idea of his friends visiting with their newborn child and Fengmian began to dream of the future of his family and of his friends becoming part of that family. When he finally met little Wei Ying, his dreams would include many children from Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren running wild with his children and Jiang Sect growing prosperous; retaining their title as one of the Great Five Sects.
Even Ziyuan smiled softly as Jiang Yanli carefully held little baby Wei Ying and told him that she was his big sister which made Wei Ying giggle and wave his arms in delight. Their daughter stayed by Wei Ying side as much as possible that Cangse Sanren joked that little Yanli was going to steal her son because she wanted a baby brother. Fengmian thought it was amusing until he found his daughter trying to hide Wei Ying in her room on the day his friends were leaving.
It was the first time Yanli threw a terrible tantrum. His daughter had punch and kicked at his and Wei Changze's shins while they were trying to separate the crying baby Wei Ying from her. For a three year old, Yanli's blows surprisingly hurt and the bruises had lasted for days. Fengmian did not know if he should be proud or horrified at his little girl's strength. It must be from Ziyuan side of the family.
Luckily, Ziyuan became pregnant with child and that distracted Yanli from her sadness at the loss of Wei Ying. However she always asked Fengmian for news of Wei Ying that he wrote and begged his friends to keep in touch for the sake of his legs. Wei Changze, who understood perfectly well what he meant, was a good friend and kept in touch.
Ironically enough, Ziyuan's second pregnancy was more volatile compared to the first one. When she had Yanli, there was no morning sickness, her cultivation was uninterrupted, and there were few episodes of hormonal mood swings. However it seems that karma was coming to bite his wife in the ass and it came back as a total bitch.
For the first three months, his lady suffered terrible morning sickness. She was unable to keep anything down and the oddest smells set her off. It made her temper so terrible that only their daughter was safe enough to be near her. Fengmian sent for healers and midwives to help Ziyuan with these symptoms but it only set off her cultivation when a stranger came near her. There were even a few times where her qi attacked him and it horrified his lady so badly that she sequestered herself into her chambers for days.
Everyone was on eggshells for the duration of the pregnancy except for Yanli who only shook her head and said that her little brother was being naughty. In fact, the only reprise that Ziyuan had was when their daughter was nearby to touch her belly and murmur to the child in the womb not to make trouble. This would only last for a shi chen or two before the whole process starts again.
By the time Ziyuan gave birth to their second child, she fainted not in exhaustion but in relief that the child was no longer in her womb.
Fengmian stared in horror as his son screamed angrily into the world and kept on screaming as the midwives and maids struggled to clean the wriggling baby. There was a small part of his brain that was vaguely impressed at how long his son was keeping his tirade however the rest of his mind was worried that someone was going to drop the baby. Even when they finally swaddled the baby, he kept on fighting and screaming. The baby even managed to wriggle one arm free by the time he was placed in Fengmian arms.
The sect leader stared down in shock as his son kept screaming and flapping his free arm at his father face. Later when the baby tired himself to sleep, Fengmian would think to himself that it was possible that his son was trying to punch him in the face. However he shook that thought out of his head and told his wife they would call their son Jiang Cheng in hopes that his future would be clear as the waters of Lotus Pier.
Weeks later, Ziyuan commented that they should have called their son Xiao Bendan (Little Fucker) and Fengmian with his hands full of a screaming baby with a very foul smelling diaper agreed wholeheartedly.
Jiang Yanli watched contently as her parents tried to calm her fussy baby brother as he screamed and cried. It was amusing to see her parents trying their best to calm Jiang Cheng and failing like all the nurse maids and servants before them. She should help her parents out with her brother however with no television, streaming programs, or decent books; watching her parents struggle was the only thing to entertain her.
Poor A-Cheng. He was instinctively doing his best to fight off what he perceives to be a threat, however without physical strength and his proper cultivation, A-Cheng could only scream and wail. She briefly wondered how long it would be until he would be conscious enough to regain his memories and hoped that it would be until after he finishes breast feeding. It was obvious to see that poor A-Ying had awoken and is embarrassed to be sucking his mother's breast for food.
Yanli thought back to her first life with her brothers.
It was good life despite the tragedy that took place in the beginning. The Jiang family was part of the Great Five Sects in China before a secret war took place over the ownership of a couple pieces of pure Yin Iron and pure Yang Steel. Her parents had sent Yanli and A-Cheng to the Wei family who were traveling in Europe before the war got worse. There was very little news on what actually happen, but from what Uncle Wei could find, someone had been desperate enough to destroy both mystical elements and it caused such destruction that it destroyed all five sects. Many lives were taken before their time and it was sadly covered up as a devastating earthquake which launched a nuclear explosion in the middle of China.
The destruction obliterated everything that there was nothing left of the Jiang Sect other than a crater and a large bank account to use in the mortal world. It took a few years for the Jiang children to accept the tragedy and to move on in life with the Wei family, but with Aunty Wei and A-Ying it was easier to accept a future with just a family of five.
The children were kept busy with mortal school work and cultivation. Yanli had took an interest in the culinary arts quickly which A-Cheng claims to be out of self preservation. She tried to protest that it was not true but Uncle Wei simply clasps her shoulders and said that it was okay to tell the truth. He even admit that it was nice to eat a home cook meal that did not consists of instant noodles.
Uncle and Aunty Wei were amazing cultivators, scholars, and at times entertainers, but they both were terrible cooks.
As the years passed, she, A-Cheng, and A-Ying grew as cultivators however without a sect with connections, artifacts, or texts it was difficult to gain any real presence in the cultivation world. The only thing they had was money in the mortal world. Luckily, the mortal world had YouTube and that was what gave A-Ying a crazy idea.
They created a YouTube channel full of silly videos of her brothers singing and dancing covers of popular Asian pop songs which always ended with the boys fighting once A-Cheng could no longer handle his embarrassment. It became popular because of the boys fighting and soon A-Ying expanded the channel to include her with some cooking videos which also ended with the boys fighting and with Yanli stopping them with her fists.
The Pod of Lotus Pier became popular even when they went to college. A-Ying took classes in film and digital editing on top of his degree in engineering just to help improve the channel, while A-Cheng change majors, became a jack-of-all-trades, and took the longest out of the three to graduate with a major in business with several minors in marketing, psychology, law, architecture, and even dance. Yanli was afraid he was going to burn out because he did all of those classes on top of his cultivation training but her little brother was stubborn and A-Ying did not make things better because he was just as competitive as their younger brother.
Her two idiots burned themselves out but manage to graduate even though their diplomas were sent in the mail while they recovered in their beds.
While they all received several job offers, Yanli, A-Cheng, and A-Ying took their YouTube channel to the next level and gained sponsors. They created a mobile home that A-Ying and A-Cheng filmed with her doing the commentary. She loved that mobile home of theirs. Especially with A-Ying creating unique talismans and arrays which made the mobile more comfortable than a normal one with never ending hot water, spacial arrays for more room, and making heavy appliances feather light.
In between episodes of their show, they took on cultivation jobs, trading favors, and even hunting demonic beasts to gain materials and medicines for their growth. It took years before A-Ying had enough materials to create cultivation weapons that matched them.
Yanli had the Celestial Earth Root which allows her to gain physical strength from the Earth and the power from its core. It was one of the few powerful cultivation of the five elements and she became a Level Nine Immortal before her death. Since she preferred defense over offense, A-Ying with A-Cheng's help created a large and wide ribbon out of the silk of Yin Silkworms and the webbing of Fire Iron Spiders. It gave her the option to protect as well as a mid range attack.
A-Ying had the Spatial Void Root - an unique spiritual root that allows her brother to control the qi of the spirits and the dead as well as spatial energy which means he could travel through distances with portals. He had been at the peak of becoming a True Immortal before they died. He had created a weapon consisting of multiple blades made out of Void Polar Steel. The blades allowed him to attack multiple targets, but with a bit of his qi, they would form together to become a single sword.
Their little brother A-Cheng had the fortune to possess the Heavenly Wrath Lightening Root, a spiritual root that was rare but difficult to successfully nurture. It gave A-Cheng the ability to weaponize Heavenly Lightening. He could also use it to cover himself as a type of armor, but it was mostly an offensive power. A-Ying created a nine section whip out of a mixture of Lightening Crystal and impure Yang Steel. Her A-Chang died just being a step away from being on the same level of his older brother.
They had perished after saving the world from an army of demonic beasts and their master. The wounds they had suffered were too great for them to heal much less being able to find a hospital to treat them. If there was a single weakness out of the siblings, it was their lack of medical training beyond first aid.
"A-Li, please help your mother and father with A-Cheng."
Yanli blinked as she looked over to her parents with pleading in their eyes for her ability to calm A-Cheng down. She gave a smile and steadily walked over to help the adults with the screaming baby.
The moment A-Cheng was able to see her, his screams tapered down to sobs as he waved and reached for her. Yanli smiled and held her little brother's hand as Fengmian bent down so the siblings could touch.
"Be good A-Chang. Let Father change your diaper and your jie will tell you a story."