The Stepping Stones

16th Generation Saintess(2)

As soon as the matter of her marriage was brought up, most of the elders present revealed miserable and dissatisfied expressions, fighting for the 'freedom of choice' of women in the sect or the noble name of 'equality'.

After hundreds of arguments and debates over a few days, like whether traditions should hold when no one was satisfied with them, or whether old dead rules could bind the spirited and lively lives of the people running the machine.

Imagining the wronged expression on the charming face of 'our' Saintess, we looked at each other and guessed the thoughts going on.

Soon, we came to a uniform conclusion, we would ask the 'maiden' herself. If she wanted to marry, then so be it, even at cost of our hearts, but if she wasn't then the sect today would defy the rules of the past and advance forth into a brand new era.

Few days were enough to redden the faces of this group, and so after a small fight over who would go over to ask her, we decided to go in... together.

3 hours later, after some back and forth, she told us her decision. Our old hearts almost came out of our bodies! She wasn't willing to marry for now!

And so our happy little sect closed its doors to the rest of the world and ushered into an era of prosperity. This was the longest time, a single Saint or Saintess held the commands of the sect.

One day, in an attempt to break through, the sect leader died an untimely death, leaving us with our beautiful matriarch, but there was a crucial problem yet to be solved.

A Saintess couldn't become a Matriarch unless she was married. If it was only a sect rule, tore it off and used it to wipe off our 'Matriarch's face' but it was something jointly agreed with a multitude of other sects within our region.

We thought whether one of us could become her 'husband' in name and for the first time, everyone started showing reluctance. They gave a lot of reasons, some said reputation, some said name, some said goodwill, some said fame but I noticed... these were all the same f*cking reason.

And so in anger and disgust, I agreed to marry her, but before we could even announce it to the rest of the world, an accident happened.

During this time, Saintess was touring the outside world, having fun. In one massive capital city, she was invited to one of the three ruling clans. 

During the banquet, she noticed that almost all the food on her table contained aphrodisiac. She shook her head and took out some of her own, sprinkling it like salt. She loved this sort of play. Now after consuming all of it, she was only waiting to devour them dry but just as she was about to have her fun, a 'young hero' barged into the clan, slaughtering their guards left and right. He was someone even stronger than our Saintess or the previous Sect Leader.

Saintess held her breath with a red face and showed a 'wronged' expression when it happened. The young man had ruined her fun.

Suddenly, her mood brightened up when she thought of an incredible idea. She scattered her make-up and made her eyes seem glazed due to the effects of the 'poison', but it was very difficult for her since she had built up a complete immunity to any such pills due to the sheer practice and experience she had.

Anger continued to flare up from the young man as he beheaded and slaughtered people left and right with his sword.

Looking at the 'miserable' state of the 'kind naive maiden' in front of him, he lifted his sword and massacred the rest of the clan members.

After that, amidst a ground soaked with 'blood' and covered in bones and stench, he gritted his teeth, strengthened his resolve, apologized to the 'half fainted' maiden, and took her... virginity.

Of course, when our Saintess woke up, she threw a tantrum and asked him to take responsibility for his 'rogue' behavior. The young man didn't even hesitate before agreeing with her conditions.

This was because, although our Saintess was weaker than him, she still was very young compared to peers of her cultivation realm, therefore she maintained her looks.

Of course, what made her seem 'pure' was in fact, one of the treasures the Elder who had given her his life-savings had given her.

Before she came back to the sect with the young man, we learned of her plan from the 'sound transmission talisman'. 

According to Saintess, marrying this idiot would lead to our sect finally gaining a protector, and with his talent, he would soon ascend to higher realms.

By that time, even if he wanted to take her along with him, she would refuse with 'teary-eyed and finally regain her freedom when he left.

Although we felt odd, we agreed with her plan but the accident I mentioned earlier happened during this time.

The young man our Saintess bringing to the sect came to know of my existence from the disciples of the sect. It was because the talks of our marriage had already been going on for the past few days.

Therefore, since the outer disciples and most inner disciples remained unaware of the 'truth' about their Saintess, they felt indignant when they heard about the marriage too.

It was at this time that I realized the old coots who have been refusing to marry her weren't just thinking about pride... but I didn't consider such aspects.

It was my fault and now the young man knew me as a 'perverted-old man using insidious means to ruin the life of a young maiden'... and so he was out for my blood.

Reassessing my choices and feeling shifty peeks of the elders trying to avoid me, I knew I had little hope.

But my life was precious... and my pride wasn't.

So I knelt on my knees and gave the 'holy maiden' a kowtow to apologize for my 'wrongdoings'. That crazy bastard was still about to kill me but thankfully the Saintess managed to stop him in time.

His gaze towards her turned even kinder and full of love, giving me a chance to crawl away to hide in a hole somewhere for the next few years.

The other Elders though missed no chance to cozy up to the young man, and he began to treat them like 'family' too.

Surprisingly, in a very short period of time, we managed to crush our rivals and make a golden name for ourselves. 

Everyone's favorite boy also kept touring the world in the meantime, fighting wars, pillaging sects, massacring people, warding off the demon realm's invasion, and... winning the hearts of countless girls.

When he came back to the sect, he had two more wives along with him. Both of them seemed to be content with their state, something along the lines of a man as talented as him could have more women surrounding him' but worse.

He had a guilty look, for leaving our Saintess 'alone' for so long. Saintess naturally berated him and shed tears, telling him that this was the worst she had expected of him.

Not knowing that our Saintess usually has more fun in a single night as he probably had in all those years of his travels, he continued apologizing, telling her that both of the women he brought back with him were only his concubines and even if he has more, she would always be his first love and first wife.

After that, the hero began trying his best to please her, giving her various gifts and cultivation resources, even sharing a very secretive immortal skill that he had learned in an Ancient Ruin.

How do I know all this you ask? Hehe, of course, my future 'wife' shared it with me when I managed to outlive all the Elders and Sect Leader of our generation, becoming the closest link to her past and a Supreme Elder.

That was the most prosperous time for our sect, we defined that era, we had supreme power, and that power solidified us to the top of the food chain within our realm.

We were happy and content with our progress, it was already something beyond our wildest imagination, but Saintess and her 'groom' weren't, for entirely different reasons though.

While the 'Hero' was frustrated that he was about to break through soon and would be leaving his friends and 'family' behind in this barren region, the Saintess kept gritting her teeth, only waiting for him to leave sooner.

The day he left was very sad, there were grand congratulations, millions of people cheering for his 'Immortal Ascension', his wife and concubine crying, spending the final moments with him before he left on his grand journey, alone and without them.

The next day, I crawled out of my supposed house arrest and we had a grand celebration. The concubines and other wives of the Hero stayed behind in our sect as well, slowly finding out the true colors of the 'Main Wife'. Those that could be tainted accompanied us for a long time, those that didn't. Well, surprisingly there was no one that didn't.

It's not like none of them were loyal, it's just that the chance of him returning in time before their death was too minuscule, there was nothing else they could do.

Long-distance just didn't work, for all of them.

The happiest of everyone was perhaps, Saintess and me, we were finally free of all restrictions. Now, we had all that resources, all the fame that we could've ever expected, and the nightly 'meet-up' and cultivation session of our extended family(with all the tainted wives and concubines) helped us improve our cultivation together.

Still, the tread of time isn't something possible to overcome by mortals, and our family withered and fell apart after 3 to 4 generations.

By the time I had personally appointed the 24th generation Saintess, only the two of us were left.