Little Game?
After deliberation, Edrick decided that adding maid-born offspring to the mix this early on could be a recipe for disaster. With how many he was going to have in the long run with his wives, maids, servants, with random women, or with women like Ku Xing or Ting Zhenniao… There would be pretty dire competition between them to be in his good grace and favour.
Naturally, there would be an innate hierarchy amongst them. Children born to his wives would instantly have higher favourability than others, especially since it was likely that his wives would be quite fond of their kids. Also, Edrick wasn’t one to ignore any offspring they gave birth to who happened not to be that talented, or just average…
In any case, there would definitely be tensions and conflicts between offspring, and especially those of differing status. As such, introducing a descendant who would most likely be extremely talented, but born to a maid, would absolutely result in problems–Problems Anoteros did not want to be dealing with early on.
His career wouldn’t be made overnight. It would surely take years to fully manifest into something capable of bearing tangible rewards. Problematic spawnlings would have to wait until then.
The noble thought about all of this as he was cleaning himself up following his successful integration of the Chen bloodline. Safe to say that the expulsion of excessive amounts of impurities, the bleeding, sweating, and other secretions of foul bodily fluids through his skin had caused him to take on a vile odour... Especially since he had been stuck in place for several hours.
Right now, however, he felt stronger than ever before.
The pure boost in brute force was not incredible, but Edrick had–Without question–Progressed as a warrior by simply gaining this bloodline. He could tell that he would soon be able to make massive progress with Twisted Weapon Encyclopedia.
The usage of weapon intent was just at the tip of his fingertips.
In general, he could now perceive the world around him far more clearly. The motion of people and objects had never been clearer. It almost felt like he could ‘see’ the muscles of other people even through their clothes and skin, allowing him to gauge with extreme accuracy what their next move might be.
Of course, it wasn’t perfect, but it was still an incredible boon. He also could not help but notice that his body felt… Like a weapon, almost. More accurately, it felt like it had the potential to become a weapon. The impression was odd.
What was clear was that his internal energies had not just improved in quality and quantity, but had also gained a certain quality to them... They had become more specialised toward being used for weapon-related purposes.
It felt somewhat odd at first, but Edrick quickly adapted.
Naturally, one of the first things he did once he was done cleaning himself was to go see his Valra. Yueyao was very happy when she saw him. She didn’t even need to hear a single word, sensing everything from a distance.
From her perspective, the bloodline had been absorbed perfectly. It had not simply been added like most bloodlines would be, but dominated and placed under the strict control of the original bloodline. This was the absolute best-case scenario.
The Elt clan now had one of its members–A direct scion of the main line–Who was not only a great talent loyal to the clan, but who now possessed the full bloodline of another great clan flowing through his veins. This was tremendous news. They would definitely be able to walk around like peacocks flashing their tails for a while with this.
“This is excellent news–Even better that it only took you a couple of hours to accomplish. It shows that you not only have full control over the bloodline, but that it deemed you worthy. A noble bloodline should have fought tooth and nail for much longer, doing everything in its power to give as little as possible to someone trying to devour it… You have it in full, however”
“You not only have the strengths of the bloodlines that everyone expects, but you can also spread the bloodline as you see fit. This is usually the one thing noble bloodlines never allow, even if they end up submitting… The fact that it wasn’t the case with you not only projects an image of incredible strength to others, but will also make you a… Particularly desirable breeding bull, if you will”
“Do not be surprised if many women of all sorts of backgrounds try approaching you or start sending you letters. Many will want your seed. You can do whatever you want on that front, just make sure to report which of those women you end up sleeping with, alright? We have a branch of the clan dedicated to tracking offspring, making their job easier. There are rewards to breeding a lot, and rewards to producing talented offspring”
His Valra directly encouraged him to start impregnating women without restraint. She even told him to engage in Kindredomolie–Or, in other words, to breed with women within the clan as well.
Anoteros was going to wait until the word spread around to see just how many women would attempt to collect his seed for them to grow. Yueyao did warn him that most of the women would be women of lesser status, and possibly some older noble ladies who believed that he might have the ‘potency’ to put something in their oven.
Edrick would see at a later date.
He then paid a visit to Lui. His Jhila had been keeping a close eye on Yechen. The alchemy hero seemed a little bit freaked out about something, but he was otherwise fine. Lui had not yet ‘tried’ anything with him.
The poor fool was being kept inside her residence, in the heart of the Elt territory. He had zero chances of escaping even if he wanted to–Though he would be stupid to even try. Lui had provided him with an excellent working space to train his alchemy skills as much as he could desire.
To be safe, though, he was constantly watched over by several of Lui’s personal manservants.
When Edrick arrived at her residence, he had to wait a little while until his Jhila appeared, seemingly coming out of a bath.
“Who… Sorry for the wait, Zixu! I was fucking one of my handmaidens, and that shit is just as tight as when I pounded it for the first time! Which is impressive, because my cock grew way larger since back then… Ahh, the good old days of youth, am I right?”
“Anyway. Did you eat some new bloodline?”
He explained exactly what had happened.
“Ohoh~ That’s glorious, Zixu! We should celebrate this! I would like to say that we could double-team Yechen, but he isn’t ready for that just yet… But I have a better idea. How about we play a little game in Invefno?”
Edrick shrugged.
“I am always open to suggestions”