Patrick, Athena, and Anastasia stayed on the Shi family estate for a couple of days while the empire outside went on shouting about treasures and seclusion, and in that time nobody dared disturb them as they truly indulged in their desires, moving between the Infinite Realm and the mortal courtyards as if both belonged to them, which they did.
Anastasia sent a message to her family, alerting them that she would be leaving for good, and although Shi Meng wept when she received it she did not try to chain her daughter down, because she had already seen enough in a handful of days to understand that arguing with such beings was only a way to look small. Patrick granted the Shi household the same protection he had once laid over the Watson family, and then he added weapons and artifacts that would last them for generations to come, things that did not rust, did not dull, and did not care what rank a sect elder liked to announce at a banquet.
Shi Meng received the most gifts from her daughter, and among them was a fox-slaying beast whose presence made the guards take a step back without knowing why, for it had the power to defeat its enemies when faced with adversity and it could also devour almost anything set before it, cores, steel, and ill luck alike. Shi Long was the most respectful of all, and if one could gauge that respect it would be one hundred out of one hundred, because although he was now a full Immortal he still acted toward Anastasia's group as a man acts toward the reason he is still breathing, standing a little to the side, speaking only when spoken to, and never quite letting his eyes rise as high as Patrick's.
Patrick gave him a bell that he had created using the least amount of his power, a small thing to look at, infinite in durability, and only Patrick or those who belonged to him could break through it. Shi Long turned it in his fingers and was confused at first as to why a man who could unmake courtyards would hand him a bell, but then he realized, as he had been realizing every hour since they arrived, that this person was not ordinary and that things from his hand would not be ordinary either, so he bowed and closed his fist around the metal as if it might hum.
When the hour came to leave, Patrick and his wives stood before the Shi family while the entire household stood in salute, respecting their miss and her new family, Shi Long in front with Shi Meng beside him, and Shi Meng had tears on her face because it would be long before she saw her daughter again, perhaps longer than a mortal mind liked to count. The next moment the members bowed as one, because the two people beside their miss did not resemble travelers so much as gods who had agreed, for a little while, to use the front steps.
Patrick nodded in acknowledgment, and then he turned around and vanished with his wives, leaving behind a sentence that would remain in the heads of those people for the rest of their lives.
"You will be unkillable for ten thousand years as a gift of our presence."
That sentence left the entire Shi household in a stupor, and even Shi Long was surprised, because although he knew this person had powers beyond Immortal he had never expected that such a being would grant a feat that sounded like a joke until you tried to disprove it. He sighed and almost smiled at his own smallness.
"It is an insult to evaluate such beings with my comprehension."
Shi Long walked to a guard without releasing even a thread of killing intent and slashed, and the guard was a little afraid that he would die, as any man would be when an Immortal's hand comes down, but the next scene shocked everyone watching. The guard that an Immortal realm cultivator had slashed was completely fine, the cut never reaching an inch of him as it instantly dissipated in the air like mist that had remembered it was never supposed to be a blade. Many finally realized the words were true, and they all bowed to the Shi patriarch with even more vigor, understanding at last that they had only received such a benefit because of their connection with the Shi family, and that standing near Anastasia's people was the kind of luck other cities would go to war to steal.
Patrick and the two ladies vanished from the Shi household as they appeared above the Ju Capital, and they sat on thrones that had not been there a breath before while they observed the many people flooding into the city for the entrance exam. They were insensible to the so-called powerful cultivators packed along the walls, and Patrick watched the arrogant Kang Mu and the way he rode and spoke as if the capital were a courtyard built for him. Anastasia spoke while leaning on Patrick's left arm, her gaze lazy and fond.
"Judging from his attitude, he must be from an influential family."
"Power only amplifies a person's original behaviors, so it is only natural that he acts like that," Patrick replied, and then he asked if they would like to participate, but Athena and Anastasia rejected the idea with the easy smiles of people who had already won games this continent had not named yet.
"Well then, I will only register my name."
He waved his hands, and his name appeared on the register list as if the fat man at the gate had always intended to write it, Alex King, a name this eastern continent had never tasted and would not know how to spit out.
The competition continued as events unfolded, including Lou Yan's recruitment into the Moonflower Sect, and after a couple of minutes Patrick's group descended as the thrones dissipated behind them, appearing behind the last person in line undetected, their cultivation set at the sixth stage of the Qi Condensation realm, barely passing the requirements so that no elder could throw them out on a technicality. Patrick walked to the stone platform while leaving Athena and Anastasia behind as they sat on empty air, and the crowd burst into discussion the way crowds do when they see something their gossip has no shelf for.
"Are my eyes deceiving me, who are these people, and why do they all have unparalleled beauty?"
"Look, how are they even sitting down?"
"Who are they, I have never seen people this beautiful in the eastern continent, maybe they are from another continent?"
"Forget about their looks, even if they are beautiful they are still weak, that boy will soon lose his beauties and he will also face death."
Many had questions and doubts as they tried to figure out who these three were and where they had crawled from, while the Ju Emperor and many other influential families noticed the change in atmosphere, because the sudden arrival of these three caused a great shift in the surrounding qi, as if the air itself had decided to stand up straighter. Ju Han asked in a contemplating tone, one hand still near the arm of his high seat.
"Who is that boy, and what are his origins?"
"Your Majesty, it seems they just appeared out of thin air, their presence was not even detected while they were supposedly in line for the test, so they must be skilled cultivators hiding their qi," a man in black said as he appeared behind the Emperor and whispered into his ear, and the words shocked Ju Han even though he sat on the highest stand in the capital, after which he began plotting how to turn this situation toward his own interest, because an emperor who had recently been told to retreat from the Shi family was always hunting for a mystery he could own.
Patrick approached the man who was testing on the platform, that man wearing a serious face as if the stone were a throne, and he gazed upon Patrick for a full minute before asking him to place his hand on the stone, not expecting much, because in his eyes this youth was only Qi Condensation and the world was full of such youths. A moment later the result came out strange, and the tester had a suspicious look while trying to say the name shown on the stone, as if the characters themselves were a foreign country.
"Alex King, this is my first time hearing such a name, are you from another continent?"
"I do not think we are talking about our origins right now, are we?" Patrick asked in a cold tone, and that coldness made the man shiver, because the feeling that crawled up his spine was not the pressure of a Spirit King or even a Divine Spirit, it was the feeling of standing in front of a boy he could not comprehend. He tried to avoid Patrick's gaze as he announced the rest of the result, swallowing once.
"Alex King, origins unknown, age twenty, cultivation, sixth stage of Qi Condensation."
The crowd burst into laughter as they mocked Patrick and his cultivation base despite him being twenty years old, some of them even stopping their credit of him entirely as they paid no attention to the stone anymore and laid their eyes on Athena and Anastasia instead, as if beauty were a prize that could be claimed by commentary. Kang Mu was the first to act as he jumped from his seat and came to a stop fifty feet from Athena and Anastasia, wearing that wealthy-kid look as he came closer to the two beauties while disregarding Patrick as if the man who had just touched the stone were already a corpse. He reached ten feet and spoke with power and authority, the kind of authority that is only loud because it has never been answered.
"Beautiful goddesses, I am Kang Mu from the Kang family, one of the most powerful families of the Ju Empire, and I see you are accompanying this weak man who cannot even cross the Qi Condensation realm. It would be a waste of beauty to stay with such a weak and poor man, and although his origins are unknown he might even be a spy from the demon gateways. If you two beauties become mine, I will give you the best of resources, and I can make sure you never worry a day in your lives."
This scene disgusted many people, especially Lou Yan, who was pursued by Kang Mu and now looked at him as if looking at something stuck to a shoe, while the crowd went into silence as they waited for the beauties to speak, because humiliation and romance were both better than another number on a stone. But to everyone's disappointment Athena and Anastasia were not paying attention to Kang Mu, who stood ten feet away from them with his speech still hanging in the air, their attention fixated on the moments they had spent with Patrick over the past few days, expressionless faces turned toward their husband as if the Kang heir were weather. Patrick was interested in where this little drama would lead, so he nodded to his wives, giving them control of the situation.
Kang Mu was about to burst into anger because they had ignored him in front of half the eastern continent, but before he could even act a strong, sharp voice penetrated his mind, a person from the Kang family warning him to be patient, saying they would use this opportunity to accomplish some of their goals if he did not ruin the board by shouting. Kang Mu calmed himself while looking at the two beauties with anger and hatred for humiliating him in public, and he slowly returned to his seat, no one daring to say a thing out loud as they were afraid of the consequences, though some other influential family members mocked the Kang family under their breath for acting weak in public after talking so tall.
"Since most of you passed the first analysis test, we shall move to phase two," the tester called, and his voice had recovered some of its borrowed pride. "The second phase is a test of strength, the passing mark is that your punch must make the punching gauge rise to the thousandth mark, and you do not have to hold your strength, because this gauge was forged in our commerce chambers to withstand attacks even from Spirit Kings, let alone weak cultivators like you."
He continued speaking as his attention focused more on Patrick when he mentioned those weak cultivators, and the second test was indeed a test of strength, the highest mark ten thousand, a number the gilded children liked to dream about. As always Kang Mu and the other influential youths were the first to test, their results impressive as they represented their families, Yang and Dong standing close enough to Kang that the stands had to pretend there was a contest. The people, however, did not focus only on the powerful kids, they focused on the weak twenty-year-old cultivator Alex King of unknown origins, and some became even more excited when they saw a new face participating, because a nobody made the geniuses look taller when they crushed him.
"Kang Mu, five thousand six hundred and nine."
As expected Kang Mu scored one of the highest, with Lou Yan scoring two thousand one hundred and placing fourth, while second and third came from the Yang and Dong families, houses as strong as the Kang, their strength not far from Kang Mu's. Then the last person finally came, and he drew more attention than Kang Mu had, which the Kang seats did not enjoy.
"Do not waste our time, hurry up and punch before I disqualify you," the tester said as he disrespected Patrick, looking down from a height he had not earned. Patrick did not mind, because he knew this was just part of the adventure, but then Grace's voice rang in him, asking something in that mild way she had when the universe was about to be unlucky.
"Master, you have been disrespected, shall I initiate universe destruction and open the Infinite Punishment Gate?"
Patrick looked at the man, whose face was held high as if he were looking down on a peasant, and he shook his head as he sighed in a weak tone, the kind of weakness that is only a costume.
"It is really hard to control oneself when one is not in the habit of playing mortal among ants like these, I guess we have to continue our adventure as gods among ants."