Deep inside the basement of my Tower, a large stone room was prepared as an assassin den, with thousands of vials, jars and other recipients of deadly poisons. There was even a dried gourd and some large nuts drilled out as containers.

  And in the middle of this room, Amelia Silvermane was sitting cross-legged, and drinking one poison after another, with a small break between them to refine the new poison into her Myriad Toxin Body. Her temples were sweating, and her grey eyes were closed, radiating pain. Anyone else would be melted and dead long before feeling all that pain.

  "Level 5 Saint Body." she muttered after a few minutes.

  Already outmatched most of the Tower members, excluding me and Lin Fei.

  Should be enough to withstand any kind of Saint Tribulation.

  I stored the precious toxins into my spatial ring, then took out a bowl filled with Essence Pills. "Eat them one by one, until the Heavens admit your worth." I offered with a kind voice.

  Amelia glanced at the tall ceiling, then towards me. "Wouldn't it be safer outside?" she asked, quite reasonably.

  I nodded in agreement. "Safer for you, yes. Not for the other Tower members." I said while energizing the containement array.

  When she discharged a ton of deadly toxins, they should remain locked inside the array.

  Amelia sighed and started eating and refining my Perfect Xiantian Pills. It took more than a dozen pills until she crossed the threshold towards Saint Realm, and a small black could appeared beneath the ceiling.

  Theory proven by experiment. The Heavens will find you, even if deep underground. Not that I had much hope to avoid the Heavenly Tribulation by hiding underground. It would have been too easy.

  The first lightining bolt was blue, giving me some false hope, since the next bolt was red, then orange, then purple, and finally golden, with the cloud above rolling and thundering in heavenly anger.

  Again, as expected the underground cavern filled with deadly toxins of a hundred kinds, bursting out from Amelia's skin pores and other orifices. My containment array lit up and started draining my spirit stones very rapidly, so I could only add more and more precious stones to keep the calamity contained.

  Just ten minutes of constant drain consumed about 500 million stones, and Amelia was still emitting poisons at a deadly rate.

  'Grandpa, this is getting dangerous...' I muttered inward.

  'Next time, use your bigger brain to think. Keep adding more spirit stones." my ghostly grandpa answered with a light voice.

  He wasn't worried at all, which calmed down my own worries. I could make more spirit stones.

  It took over 1 billion stones fueling the array, until Amelia opened her eyes and started drawing the toxic cloud inside her.

  "Thank you, husband. You were right to be cautious." she spoke in a grateful voice, after restoring her body with a few healing pills.

  "Of course. Now the Nether Venom." I continued in a kind voice. She wasn't guilty for being born this way, plus I had a guarantee of loyalty with her special body. Other men will simply fall dead, if they touched my concubine.

  Amelia nodded and drank her lucky gift from the Buddhist fortune box. A dark cloud of screaming spirits formed around her, straining the containment array again. I kept shovelling more spirit stones from my spatial ring, as the cloud expanded and pushed against the array.

  'I guess she can condense her Godhead easily with so much soul energy. Right?' I wondered inward.

  'The Soul Altar first, but yes. You were quite lucky to discover that Soul cultivation sutra.' Grandpa answered with a casual tone.

  I just waited and burned spirit stones by the truckload. Special physiques might be powerful, but they also cost a lot to maintain or upgrade. With Amelia upgrading her Soul cultivation to Divine Realm, I could make an educated guess for the costs of other special physiques in the Tower, like Feng and Bai.

  It was quite certain that Bai would erupt with cold energy, trying to freeze my entire Tower into a block of ice. Less certain what the Dark Phoenix would do, but flames were quite likely.

  My wealth diminished rapidly, with Amelia reaching 10 billion spirit stones until her Soul stabilized as Divine realm, and the Nether Venom cloud drew back inside her. Being a Sect Master was so expensive...

  Grandpa turned off the array and vanished, just as Amelia flew into my arms. "Husband, I feel so powerful." she whispered before capturing my lips in a deep kiss.

  Even her casual soul pressure was making my soul defenses activate, so I tapped her temple with a finger. "Keep the soul pressure low, outside combat. You might kill Xiantian members by accident."

  "...Oh. Still too strong?" she asked after compressing her soul a bit more.

  "Good enough for the Tower. Mortals outside will still die like flies around you." I concluded after retracting my soul armor.

  "I see. Perhaps I should train in the Soul array some more. I only want to kill one person, not millions" Amelia answered while nesting her face between my neck and shoulder.

  Yeah, that could work. More training was always the answer.

  "Remember, the target is 128 Demons." I urged her and called a floating platform to take us up.

  Amelia nodded and kissed my cheek, then jumped off and flew into the Soul Array. I waited for a second, but she wasn't ejected instantly. Very good. Now we only had to wait for...

  Amelia was thrown out, puking her guts out and bleeding from her eyes and ears. "Damn it! Only 16 Demons?" she groaned in pain, then sat down to heal herself.

  I frowned as well. I could do 32 Demons already, and I didn't have a Divine Soul. What was missing?

  Thinking for a minute, I nodded. Of course, the Soul combat techniques also had to be Mastered, and then enhanced towards Transcendence. A strong lumberjack would lose misserably against a Black Belt martial artist. Skill mattered a lot.

  "Practice makes perfect, dear Amelia. I mean your soul techniques." I said in a gentle voice, then entered the Soul array myself.

  Time to put my own words into practice. Breezing past the first Demon waves, I fought my way through the 32 Demon corporals, then entered the 64 Demon wave. I took a few shots with my soul rifle before getting close, then shifted the rifle into a pistol and drew out a longsword.

  Slice and dice, shoot the farther ones, pivot and repeat on the other side. I kept a good rhythm until the first 32 Demons died and blew up like confetti, but things became harder from here onwards.

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  The constant soul-shouts shook my soul armor apart, and my pistol shots started to miss, so I changed the pistol into another sword and rushed in closer melee, cutting into wings and claws, even kicking behind me when a Demon got too close.

  My kills mounted too, 35, 37, 40, 44...I managed to kill 48 before I fell and got thrown out.

  Damn Soul array was a bit similar with the Sword training array, since I also encountered the same type of block in there.

  Grandpa appeared beside me, and measured me from head to toe with a frown. I struggled to keep my bitter bile inside, and just grimaced. "Already 48 kills? Did I make these Demons too weak?" he wondered in a curious voice.

  Amelia groaned and looked up at the old ghost. "What weak? My soul is Divine and I got trashed so bad."

  Grandpa glanced at her for a second, and then ignored her. "I'll give them weapons. Demons always carry weapons. Best not get used to disarmed Demons, you would regret that outside."

  Well, that made a bit of sense, too. If all real Demons carried weapons, and you got used to Demons without weapons, that could be a problem later. "Do it, Grandpa." I agreed at once.

  Then I turned towards Amelia. "Construct a sword and shield for now, my dear. Best not get hit by demonic weapons too soon."

  She just nodded with a tired face, then jumped back inside the Soul array.

  I walked away, and stopped beside the Combat array were Miss Xia was training. She reached 3 kills, and got kicked out. Then she noticed me and stopped before entering again. "Tower Master..." she said in a polite voice.

  Hmmm. I knew what my wives got, but Xia was still keeping apart. "Your box, what did it give?" I asked curious.

  Xia frowned, then took out her box and opened the lid so I could see inside. 'Origin True Qi pill. The user can obtain True Qi even before Ascending to Divine Origin Realm. Worth: 54 million Divine Crystals.'

  Another Divine tier gift. Kinda redundant, giving something that everyone will get anyway once they reached the required cultivation realm. But not bad either. It would be powerful for now.

  I walked on, and entered a free Combat Array. The silly ghost Saints moved in slow motion, and I could massacre them almost like they were mortals. Only the last Saint tried to fight a little, but didn't stand a chance. I came out bored, and quite unhappy. My fun training days were already over.

  "Master Pef? What is this pill?" Xia asked, having waited for me to finish the 50 kills.

  "It's a useless thing. Still, it's worth about 50 billion spirit stones, so you could sell it, I guess." I explained with a careless tone.

  "Why is it useless, if it's worth so much?" Xia insisted, while cautiously storing the box inside her ring.

  "Imagine it is an Origin Realm sword. It is worth a lot, right? But, of no use to you." I asked a bit rhetorical, and started walking away.

  "So I should sell it?" Xia yelled after me.

  Hmmm. This could cause quite a storm if sold outside. Sects would fight in open war for it. Kingdoms would fall, and millions would die. Best to get rid of it.

  I turned around and sat down at the wooden table, and motioned Miss Xia to sit with me.

  "Eat the pill, Miss Xia. It won't harm you at all." I said in a calm voice.

  "Eat the useless pill that's worth more than a kingdom?" she hesitated for a minute.

  "You'll understand after you do." I added with a shrug.

  Xia frowned, then extracted her pill and ate it. I just watched as her normal Qi transformed into True Qi, becoming a bit more potent and pure. "I kinda expected it to hurt. The other girls are always suffering from something." Xia wondered while cycling through a few spells and stopping on a small fireball in her palm.

  "When a cultivator obtains their Divine Origin realm, their Qi changes a bit and it's called True Qi. I guess you could make a living by disguising yourself and pretending to be at Origin Realm. Or something like that." I mused in a thoughtful voice.

  "But everyone gets this new Qi for free at Origin Realm anyway, so it's no use. Wait, only the Wind Emperor and my Sect Master are known to have reached Origin!" Xia exclaimed after a minute of thinking.

  "See? We could use your True Qi to gain more renown, if we're smart about it. Or cheat at auctions, by scaring people off." I proposed with a sneaky smile.

  Xia closed her eyes to think, most likely of ways to abuse this True Qi to gain some advantage. "I should have sold it anyway. It would take a thousand auctions to gain 50 billions by buying things a bit cheaper."

  "Eh. You'd think so, but sects and kingdoms would go to war over that pill, and millions would die. No wonder that Buddhist monk sold it to me so cheap. A greedy man would have sold it instantly, and caused a calamity." I pointed out with a sad voice.

  "Causing a massive war over an useless thing? How could they do that?" Xia asked in outrage.

  "Grandpa Heavengaze thinks that Heaven acts this way too. It would be easy to incinerate all criminals when their Tribulation comes, but villains abound among the higher realms. They cause calamities, and heroes rise to oppose them, creating a cycle of renewal. I think the Buddhists try to help or maybe divert Heavenly plans. Which brings it all back to you, Miss Xia." I spoke in a warning voice.

  "Either by greed or resentment, I would cause a calamity?" Xia exclaimed in fear.

  That was quite self-conscious of her. Then again, Saints were a few steps up on the stairs to enlightnement. Even a Spirit Beast like Meadows could discern where her instincts became detrimental.

  "Both greed and resentment are normal human emotions. You feel what you feel, and it's fine and natural. How we act is what matters, Miss Xia." I said in a wise voice, then stood up and walked away, while Xia stared at my back as I entered the Tower.

  Upon reaching my room, Xia was already waiting at my window, flying on her Divine Sword.

  "..." she didn't say anything, but blushed sligthly.

  I just nodded and held my hand for her to climb inside. "I suppose you learned about soul cultivation from Bai?" I asked to make sure.

  Xia nodded and just looked down, not letting go of my hand. Hmmm. Should I say something wise, or act funny?

  She just drew closer and kissed me instead, sealing the deal. Oh well, that worked too.

  Who even needs words when a jade beauty kisses him?