Volume 2, Chapter 69: Five Days of Dust
The walk from the grand council room to my private quarters usually took about ten minutes if I didn't cheat and fold space. Today I chose to walk the long way. My knees needed the reminder of what normal movement felt like after sitting through hours of god-level arguments.
Up here, five days was just a long weekend. Down on the Douluo Planet, five full years would slide by. Yuhao would be older, harder, and hopefully stronger. That was his problem for now. Mine was simpler: five days of being something close to a regular person.
I shrugged off my heavy outer robe and hung it on a low branch of a golden pine. The fabric would stay there until I came back. Nobody in this realm was foolish enough to touch the Supreme God King's laundry.
The air grew warmer as I reached the southern valley. I had built my parents a house that looked exactly like the old timber farmhouses from our mortal days. Dark oak porch, stone chimney pushing out thick white smoke, and a small patch of dirt that my father insisted on calling a garden.
My father, Huo Tian, sat on a low wooden stool near the porch steps. He wore an old canvas shirt with the sleeves rolled up past his elbows. A small pocketknife worked steadily at a clump of dried mud stuck to the heel of his boot.
Ten thousand years ago he had been a Wildfire Hawk soul master. When I brought him and my mother back, I gave their bodies stronger foundations. They refused every shortcut I offered and climbed all the way to Level 99 the hard way. When they finally ascended, I gave them Third Class seats, but their own hard-earned potential pushed them higher. Now he was the God of the Eternal Hearth — the quiet, steady fire that kept homes warm and food cooking.
Right now he just looked like an old man who hated dirty shoes.
"You're late for dinner," he said without looking up.
"The council ran long, Dad. Destruction wanted to argue about borders again."
"A lot of talking for people who are supposed to know everything." He finally got the mud off and snapped the knife shut. "Your mother made pork stew. Real pork. None of that glowing fruit the palace servants keep bringing. I told them if I see another shiny pear I'm throwing it into the sun."
I laughed and sat on the empty stool beside him. "Where did you even get real pork up here?"
"I raised it." He jerked a thick thumb toward the back of the house. "A man needs something to do with his hands. If I sit around watching the stars spin for another century my brain will turn to jelly."
The screen door creaked open. A soft humming drifted out, and the grass near my boots greened up a shade brighter. My mother, Melody, stepped onto the porch carrying a large ceramic bowl that smelled of wild onions and rich broth. A light dusting of flour sat on the tip of her nose.
Her old Songbird spirit had grown into the Astral Harmony. As a Second Class Goddess she could smooth the rough edges of an entire star realm with a single verse. Right now she just looked like a mother who had decided her son needed feeding.
"Stop grumbling, old hawk," she said, setting the bowl on the small wooden table. Then she reached over and tugged my ear, not hard, but enough to make me lean toward her. "And you. You look like you haven't slept in three centuries. Sit down and eat."
"I'm a god, Mom. I don't actually need sleep."
"I don't care if you're the emperor of the sky. You look thin. Eat the potatoes."
We sat together while the twilight deepened into soft pink. We talked about the garden, about the birds that kept trying to nest in the chimney, and about how the mountain spring water tasted a little sweeter this season. No one mentioned Chen Feng. No one spoke of the Abyss or the Holy Ghost Church. Those things belonged to the dirt below. Up here the only question that mattered was whether the pork was tender enough.
By the third day the quiet had settled deep into my bones.
I spent the afternoon helping my father fix a gap in the wooden fence behind the pigpen. It was a completely pointless job. The pigs were divine beasts. They couldn't break the wood even if they tried, and even if they did escape there was nowhere for them to go on a floating island inside a five-dimensional realm.
My father still liked the feel of a hammer, so I held the nails.
"Your mother says the girls have been quiet lately," he said between steady swings.
"They're always quiet when I'm away. Zhuqing handles the night sector. Renxue spends half her time checking the western temples."
He stopped mid-swing and looked at me with those heavy dark eyes. "You might be the king of this whole place, Lakan, but you can be thick when it comes to women. They aren't thinking about temples."
"Then what are they thinking about?"
He just chuckled, a dry sound that ended in a small cough. "Go find out yourself. I'm done with this post. Get out of my yard."
On the fifth day I returned to the central palace.
The morning air carried a faint chill that drifted over from Shui Bing'er's gardens. The inner courtyard was a wide circle of white stone surrounded by tall trees that dropped soft orange leaves into a clear pool.
All five of my wives were already there, sitting around a long stone table near the water. It was rare to see them together without armor or formal robes.
Bibi Dong sat at the head of the table in a simple dark gown, reading a small ledger. Zhu Zhuqing leaned back with her legs crossed, peeling an orange with sharp, neat movements. Gu Yuena's silver hair was braided down her back while she watched the water. Shui Bing'er poured cold berry juice into six glass cups. Qian Renxue rested her chin on one hand, looking quietly amused.
"You look like you survived the fence," Bibi Dong said without looking up.
"My dad is a tough boss." I dropped into the empty chair beside her and took a long drink of the cold juice. It tasted like winter and sugar. "He thinks I don't know how to hold a hammer."
"You don't," Zhuqing said, popping an orange slice into her mouth. "You usually just break the handle."
"That was one time."
The table went quiet for a moment. Not an uncomfortable silence, just the kind that comes right before someone changes the subject.
Bibi Dong closed her ledger with a soft thud and turned to face me. Her expression was completely flat, like she was reading a grocery list.
"I'm pregnant, by the way."
The berry juice went down the wrong way. I choked hard, eyes watering, hand flying to my mouth.
"What?" My voice came out higher than it had any right to.
Bibi Dong reached over and thumped my back once, hard enough to rattle my ribs. "I said I'm pregnant. It's normal, Lakan. We've been doing it enough since we were mortals. Did you think it wouldn't happen?"
Before I could form a proper sentence, Zhu Zhuqing shifted in her chair. The tight silk of her dress stretched across her chest as she straightened.
"Me too," she said, giving me a small, slow smile.
I sprayed a thin line of red juice across the table. It missed Qian Renxue's cheek by less than an inch. She closed her eyes and sighed.
"Are you finished?" she asked quietly.
I stared at Zhuqing, mouth open. "You too? How—"
"Don't look so surprised." Gu Yuena laughed, violet eyes sparkling. She patted my limp hand. "You might want to take a bigger breath, Lakan. Because I'm carrying one as well."
My brain felt like it had been hit by one of my father's hammers. Three?
Shui Bing'er set the pitcher down. A thin layer of frost formed around the rim of the glass. Her cheeks were slightly pink, but her smile was warm.
"I went to see your mother yesterday. She helped me check the pulse. It's a boy. Or at least he has your energy."
Four.
I slowly turned toward Qian Renxue. She was calmly wiping a speck of juice from her sleeve.
"Don't look at me like that," she said. Her golden wings flared just a little behind the chair. "You think I was going to let them have all the fun? Number five is right here."
The courtyard went completely still except for the soft sound of the fountain.
I looked from Bibi Dong to Zhuqing, then to Yuena, Bing'er, and Renxue. All five of them watched me with that quiet, satisfied look women get when they have completely cornered a man. They had known for days. They had probably planned the entire sequence while I was out fixing a pointless fence with my father.
"Five," I whispered.
"Five," Bibi Dong confirmed. Her flat tone finally cracked into a real smile. She reached out, took my chin, and made me look her in the eyes. "So you better make sure that world down there stays in one piece. You have a lot of mouths to feed pretty soon."
I let out a long, shaky breath. Then, for the first time in five days, I laughed — not the loud laugh of a god, just the slightly terrified, completely human chuckle of a man who had just realized his quiet days were officially over.
The five days were up.
Five years had already passed on the ground below.
It was time to go back to work.
End of Volume 2, Chapter 69