"Wini, if our mothers find out, we'll get in trouble. Demonic beasts are very strong and dangerous. Also, we haven't even started cultivating yet. This is too risky." Leylin tried to dissuade Leywini, shaking his head while the parrot on his shoulder copied the movement.
The twins nodded in agreement. They were almost always on Leylin's side.
"Come on, Brother. Don't be a chicken. We grew up surrounded by the Spiritual Vein, didn't we? Even if we haven't started cultivating yet, our bodies are already very strong because of it. Aunt Ava even said we can beat Qi Refining Realm cultivators if we fight properly. Not to mention, we have all the inventions Aunt Sawi made to keep us safe. You know the outskirts of Bara Forest are only home to low-level demonic beasts. With the four of us working together, there's nothing to worry about. Let's do it, Brother." Leywini persuaded him eloquently.
She knew her two older sisters would follow whatever their eldest brother decided, so she only needed to convince him.
Leylin felt slightly challenged when his little sister called him a chicken. His mother had always told him that, as the eldest, he had to be braver than any of his siblings. Backing down now felt wrong.
"We'll help you tame a flying demonic beast in secret, and when we return, you can surprise Aunt Hana with your very first spirit beast. What do you think? I'm sure she'll be so proud of you." Leywini added, this time tempting him with the thought of earning Hana's praise.
"Ugh... Fine." Leylin finally relented. "But even if I agree, how are we supposed to get past the city gate? There's no way they'll just let us leave. We're still just a bunch of kids. And are we supposed to walk all the way there? It's pretty far."
"Hihihi. Big Brother Leylin, just leave that to me. I've already thought of everything. We just have to be careful not to expose our plan." Leywini smiled mischievously. Her persuasion had worked exactly as planned.
While the four children secretly plotted their dangerous trip to Bara Forest, Leyvi, who was cultivating in his cultivation room, heard every word through his spiritual hearing.
"This daughter of mine is too troublesome. She's only nine, yet she's already scheming like this." Leyvi chuckled as he bathed in the miraculous glow of the Spiritual Vein. "Whose personality did she inherit?"
His children were not raised solely by their birth mothers. All of his wives played a part in looking after them, so it would not be surprising if they picked up different traits from each of them as they grew.
Leywini, in particular, seemed to have inherited Anda's manipulative nature.
Watching his youngest daughter skillfully coax her older brother into doing something dangerous amused Leyvi.
"Senior Lapin, please keep an eye on the children. They're planning to do something reckless. Let them do what they want, but only step in if they are truly in danger," Leyvi requested.
During Leyvi's seclusion, Lapin naturally did not remain by his side. That would have been a complete waste of time.
Instead, he had taken control of the skies above Bara Territory. Most of the clouds across the land had been transformed into Celestial Clouds, allowing him to control and observe them freely.
In other words, he had a clear view of everything happening below.
Most of the time, Lapin stayed hidden among the clouds, quietly cultivating his bloodline while keeping watch over the territory and, more importantly, the children.
Unless a Soul Transformation Realm cultivator deliberately inspected the clouds where he resided, Lapin was confident that no one would ever discover his presence.
That said, while he remained hidden from the rest of the world, he was not a stranger to Leyvi's children.
They knew him as the carrot-loving uncle who frequently visited the Leyan Family Mansion to "buy" Aunt Lilian's world-best carrots, as he proclaimed. Over the years, they had become quite familiar with him.
"Kekeke. Leave it to me." Lapin chuckled through their mental connection.
After that, Leyvi continued with his training.
THUM!
With a single thought, an enormous force descended upon his body, pulling him toward the ground and making every part of him feel incredibly heavy.
It was the supergravity training he had been doing almost every day for years now as part of his warm-up.
Under the crushing gravity, even the simplest movements became a challenge. A single squat demanded immense effort, his muscles straining against the invisible force pressing down on him. He performed slow, deliberate push-ups, his arms trembling with every repetition as the floor beneath him cracked slightly under the combined pressure of his body and the gravity.
He followed with lunges across the cultivation room, each step leaving deep impressions in the reinforced floor, as though he were trudging through an endless swamp.
After that came shadow boxing.
His punches were slow but unimaginably heavy, each swing carving through the air with a deep, muffled thud as the compressed atmosphere resisted his movements. Every kick felt as though he were trying to split apart an invisible mountain. His breathing remained deep and controlled while sweat poured from his body despite the cool temperature inside the cultivation room.
Only after finishing the entire routine did he release the gravity.
The overwhelming pressure vanished instantly, making his body feel almost weightless. In the beginning, the sudden change would always throw off his balance, but after years of training, his body had long since adapted.
This method of training almost felt tailor-made for him.
Not only did he possess overwhelmingly powerful spiritual pressure to create such extreme gravity, but his body was already durable enough to endure the punishment without collapsing under its own weight.
During these ten years, although his Qi Cultivation had not advanced much aside from mastering Bardan's high-pressure water beam technique, both his Spiritual Cultivation and Body Cultivation had progressed tremendously.
His body was no longer merely tough.
It had become tremendously strong, fast, and explosive as well.
The greatest proof of his progress in body cultivation was that, just last year, he had finally managed to defeat Ava Clover in a purely physical battle.
Of course, Ava wasn't allowed to use her Vision talent. That would have been cheating. With her eye ability assisting her, Leyvi simply couldn't do anything to her. She always seemed to know what he was about to do before he even did it and would counter him immediately.
Defeating her in a purely physical fight also meant he had finally fulfilled the promise he made to her.
At long last, they consummated their marriage.
Ava Clover was no longer his wife in name only. She officially joined Anda's night battle campaign squad, becoming yet another member who would gang up against him during their nightly "campaigns."
Under Anda's persistent persuasion, Leyvi also finally took Dorin Homun as his wife.
Dorin had already been living with the Leyan Family for many years, helping Anda produce alchemy products. The public had long regarded her as one of Leyvi's wives anyway, so making it official felt perfectly justified.
She was no longer the strange, arrogant girl she used to be.
Well... the strange and arrogant parts were still there, but they were no longer annoying. She now possessed the ability to back up her confidence, and those moments had become much less frequent over the years.
What left Leyvi speechless, however, was that Dorin turned out to be just as lucky as Caterina.
Not long after they consummated their marriage, she became pregnant with his fifth child, who would also be his second son. She was now about halfway through her pregnancy.
The thing Leyvi worried about most was that Dorin might unknowingly raise their son into the same kind of arrogant person she used to be. Just imagining his son acting the same as her past self would be quite terrifying.
He had to make sure that never happened.
...
The next day, the four children asked their respective mothers for permission to play outside the Leyan Family estate as usual.
They said they wanted to ride around Bara City on Scarlet's three daughters, Rosy, Ruby, and Revy.
This was nothing unusual. The children had done it many times before, so none of the ladies suspected anything and readily agreed.
Thus, Leylin, Leyana, Leyina, and Leywini happily left the estate.
To their surprise, they were also allowed to pass through the city gate and leave Bara City without any trouble.
Mounted on the three beautiful demonic red foxes, with Leyana and Leyina sharing one mount, the four children headed straight toward Bara Forest.
"That's amazing, Little Wini! How did you do that? They actually let us out just like that!" Leyana and Leyina exclaimed in perfect unison, as always.
"What did you do?" they asked together.
"Hihihi! That's my trade secret. How can I tell everyone?" Leywini replied proudly, patting her chest. "Just remember this. From now on, you can always rely on me."
Hearing her older sisters praise her made her beam with satisfaction.
"Boo! Boo! Little Wini is stingy!"
The adorable twins pouted together, giving her matching thumbs-down gestures.
Meanwhile, Leylin remained unusually quiet.
He had only gathered the courage to come because he did not want his younger sisters to think he was a coward. But now that they were actually outside the city, everything suddenly felt much scarier than he had imagined.
What if something really happened?
The young boy couldn't help feeling nervous.
Unbeknownst to the four children, a lone cloud drifted quietly high above them, following their every move.
"Kekeke. That little girl is far too fearless." Lapin commented with amusement.