54 Reserve Force (1/2)

Han De opened his eyes and looked at the still trembling woman. Who knows what horrors she went through to get reduced to such a state. Just thinking about it was giving him a headache.

While this situation was in line with his mother's way of doing things, it still seemed too much even for her.

'Perhaps she is getting influenced by the current events. Could it be that the situation is worse than I thought?'

Han De shook his head. Ultimately he had no control over his mother. He had no influence over her either. She might listen for one second and do something else the next.

'...What will happen when she finds out that father is missing?'

He inadvertently looked over Yao Qing. His blood went cold when he thought of the possibility of his mother actually going insane. If that really happened, he had no confidence in containing her.

Previously he didn't think it was a realistic scenario since he was already alive and well. The Zhao rebellion was crushed, and the readily apparent internal issues were dealt with. The only foreseeable danger was Xiao Ping. He was an MC that inexplicably became a prince of the Ming Empire. A time bomb waiting to blow up at random. But that was a Han De sized bomb, not a Han Wei sized bomb.

His mother's instability was potentially a much worse problem than an MC, at least for him. The worst part was that he couldn't do anything about it. Han De took a very deep breath in and gave out a really long sigh.

'One thing at a time…'

He gave instructions to Yao Qing to get the woman with pink-colored eyes to one of the side houses and call servants over to take care of her. This woman that was physically trembling at the sight of him clearly knew who he was. It was better to keep her out of sight so he could be out of her mind.

Next, he needed to make preparations. The appearance of the quest was too sudden, and the possible instability of his mother was giving him a bad feeling.

Han De thought for a while, this wasn't enough.

Bunkers wouldn't help against 3 or 4 of the highest realms, but Han De wasn't worried about that. His mother was also coming with them. Worrisome part was someone sneaking from behind and attacking them while his mother was busy fighting higher realms. Of course, this was all assuming that they would get attacked.

'Surely no one would be stupid enough to attack us while we're traveling with my mother. This is just a precaution. Yes… A precaution...'

Han De did not raise a flag. He refused to believe it. That wasn't a flag. No one was going to attack them.

Under the puzzled stares of Jin Shu and Ning Bi, he sat down. All of his attention was on regulating his breathing so that he wouldn't start hyperventilating in front of Ning Bi. He tried to calm down but he couldn't. He was too weak and all his efforts felt useless. Memories of the cultivation idiot's final moments started coming back. The helplessness, the regret, the feeling of slowly being eroded into nothingness.

Han De opened his eyes to find something, anything to distract him. Ning Bi and Jin Shu had started cultivating again. Treebeard was keeping a watchful eye from the shadows. Yao Qing was slowly walking towards the courtyard. Merry and Pippin were focused on a spiritual plant. They kept glancing at one another as if deliberating something. Pippin nodded his head as if he was enlightened by something and pulled the spiritual herb from the ground.

Han De frowned, he recognized the herb immediately. Most people considered it a weed, and it was true in some sense. However, in this case, this weed was quite beneficial for the growth of the surrounding spiritual herbs. Han De's face started twitching as he went over the other herbs with his spiritual sense.

'In what world would anyone plant long-rooted filtering species with long-rooted distributers?! The excess spiritual energy is causing them to grow smaller! F#$%! This is just basic herbology 101! Why would you even plant them in close proximity, just calculate the radius from soil's spiritual energy conductivity and- Ah shit, this soil mixture is all wrong. No wonder there is too much Wood Qi in it.'

Han De made a mental note to 'discuss' this with his servants. No, he needed to 'discuss' it right now. He stood up and retrieved his sword from his storage ring.

”Master.”

Yao Qing respectfully bowed and subtly looked over her fellow disciples and Treebeard. Han De slightly nodded to make her continue. This wasn't a spiritual herb garden, it was just a courtyard, but that didn't excuse this level of negligence. It was as if they used salt instead of sugar for the desert.

”The immortal chef Meng Xue has settled into her chambers.”

Yao Qing looked at everyone else and continued with a voice transmission.

'Green Pavilion? Ah, one of the side buildings. I nearly forgot they had names. Wait, half-blood?'

Han De reentered his Profound Expert mode out of reflex. Extracting information out of a regressor was a risky business. Fortunately, Han De had already told Yao Qing about having incomplete memories of a previous life. This setup was his ticket to the human status checker known as Yao Qing.

'Netherworld hybrid?'

Han De immediately remembered his bloodline.

[Scent of the Progenitor]

[Beings evolved from spiritual animals will pay their respects when they detect the scent. Beings evolved from the netherworld will accept your rule when they detect the scent.]

[Notes: Effects will be extremely limited on lower beings.]

'The effect on her should be minimal, if not non-existent.' Han De sighed. 'Even if it did have an effect, there is no way to tell with her condition.'

Yao Qing nodded and joined her fellow disciples in cultivation. A tiny doubt appeared inside her. Her master sighed after hearing her assessment. Was there something she had missed? Impossible, even with her dull senses she could still recognize the Qi fluctuations of a netherworld demon or their hybrids.

During the second lesson her master had advised Ning Bi and Jin Shu, but he had nearly sighed when it came to her turn. At the time she didn't think much of it. Her fellow disciples didn't have her extensive knowledge and experience. Naturally, they made mistakes and needed frequent guidance.

But now, that tiny doubt made her reevaluate her interpretation. That bitter look wasn't for her fellow disciples, it was for her. She had the experience of tens of thousands of years, but maybe that made her rigid. Her master wasn't a normal person. He had memories of the primordial era. He could tell what scripture she cultivated from just a look. It wasn't surprising that he would consider this a shortcoming of hers.

Yao Qing never trained anything other than her spear. She had forgotten long ago why she had chosen it. It wasn't until she went back in time that she remembered. All the other methods were already taken by other disciples. The Basic Spear method was the one that remained. A martial art method that only she and Geng Shi practiced in the sect. She continued to practice it after regrowing her spiritual roots. Not by choice, she didn't know any other martial art. Whatever the original reason was, she had become a spear cultivator, through and through.

Her mind went back to the immortal chef. The Qi fluctuations, her pale skin, and white hair were all pointing towards a low-level netherworld hybrid. Normally these hybrids would have grey or black eyes. Pink colored eyes were out of the norm, but there were many things that could change the eye color. A technique, a mutation, ancestry, bloodline, body constitutions, poisons, medicines, they could all alter eye color. Perhaps there was more to her than meets the eye. Yao Qing decided to keep an eye on her.

Han De was oblivious to his disciple's thoughts. He wanted to talk to his servants about horticultural practices, but Yao Qing disrupted that train of thought. Now that he calmed down somewhat, he wanted to get his remaining business out of the way so he could concentrate on taking more precautions.

'Right, the fake MCs. I should've done this yesterday when there was no quest, but maybe this is good too.'

Han De informed his disciples of inspection on the outer training grounds. The quest was too finicky, Han De didn't want to risk anything so he decided to rely on Treebeard for flying over. If anything happened on the way, he could still take action without risking a crash landing.

Ning Bi and Yao Qing visibly relaxed once they found out. Jin Shu never flew with her master, but the silence she would get from her fellow disciples whenever she asked about sword flight made her wary. She too was grateful for Senior Treebeard's presence.

Han De took the other disciples because he didn't want to show favoritism. Sticking with only one disciple could start rumors too. Besides, showing these MCs to his disciples now could provide an important excuse down the line.

The outer training ground was simply a large area with hard soil. There were multiple outer training grounds, Han De's fake MCs were staying at a small corner.

Han De heard the voice transmission as soon as his feet landed on the ground. The benign smile, the calm tone, and the relaxed body language of this person were completely normal, yet Han De felt a strong sense of malice when he talked about the rejectors. He made a mental note to find an outlet for his lackeys as soon as possible.

He nodded and walked over to fake MCs that were neatly standing in line. He gave a mental +1 to his lackeys. This was a nice touch that made his status checking much easier.

[Potential Points (Total: 12)]

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[Will: 6]

[Talent: 1]

[Comprehension: 5]