Dual Cultivation: Gathering SSS-Rank Wives in the Cultivation World-Chapter 326 - Sabrina’s Husband and A Child?!
The air in Eldoria’s fifth inner circle reeked of spilled wine and rotting vegetables. Cobblestone streets twisted between cramped buildings, their shadows stretching long under the fading afternoon sun.
"Get back here, you thieving rat!"
Kai’s lungs burned as he sprinted through the narrow alley, his white cat ears flat against his skull. The glass potion bottle pressed against his chest, its azure liquid sloshing with each desperate stride. Behind him, two women in flowing jade robes gave chase, their footsteps impossibly light despite their speed.
"It’s mine! I won it fair!" Kai shouted over his shoulder, vaulting over a stack of crates. "You’re just pissed I beat your rigged game!"
"Fair?" The taller woman—the senior sister—laughed, her voice dripping venom. "You call hiding in the shadows like a coward fair? You cheated, beast-boy!"
Her companion, the junior sister, snarled as they rounded another corner. "The competition was supposed to weed out your kind! Not crown some flea-bitten stray!"
Kai’s jaw clenched. His tribe had sent him as their representative, their hope. The Blossom Sect had dangled that Essence Recovery Potion like bait—claiming it was a prize for the strongest. But he’d seen through their game. Every other competitor from the smaller tribes had left on stretchers. Crippled. Broken.
He’d survived by playing weak. By letting them underestimate him until the final round.
And now they wanted blood.
"Senior Sister!" the junior sister called out. "Block the east exit!"
Kai skidded around a fruit vendor’s stall, his heart dropping. Dead end. A high stone wall loomed ahead, too smooth to climb. He spun, chest heaving, backing against the cold stone.
The two women slowed their approach, predatory smiles spreading across their faces.
"Nowhere to run now," the senior sister purred, cracking her knuckles. Her eyes flicked to the terrified vendor. "Move."
"Please, I’m just—"
The senior sister’s leg snapped up in a graceful arc. Her heel connected with the wooden stall, and the entire structure exploded toward Kai in a shower of splinters and fruit. The vendor screamed, tumbling backward.
Kai threw his arms up, but the impact launched him off his feet. He crashed into the wall, wood and apples hammering into his ribs. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he crumpled to the ground, clutching his chest. The potion bottle rolled from his grasp.
"No... no..." he gasped, reaching weakly toward it.
The junior sister stepped forward, metal gauntlets sliding over her delicate fingers with soft clicks. The brass knuckles gleamed, etched with cultivation runes that hummed with lethal intent.
"I’ll make this quick," she said coldly, flexing her armored hand. "Master Shen wants that potion back. And your death will send a message to the rest of your filthy tribes."
Kai’s vision blurred. He looked up at them, blood dribbling down his chin. "You’re... monsters..."
The senior sister threw her head back and laughed. "Monsters? Oh, sweet kitten. You don’t know what we ’could’ do to you. We could make you wish—"
Reality tore.
A black portal ripped open behind Kai, hovering three feet off the ground. The air itself screamed. Darkness poured out like living ink, and from within that void came a voice—sharp, feminine, and utterly devoid of mercy.
"Now this is... just random."
The world exploded into black butterflies.
Thousands—’tens’ of thousands—burst from the portal in a single synchronized wave. Their wings were obsidian glass, edges sharp enough to slice moonlight. They filled the alley, a hurricane of shadow and death.
The senior sister threw her arms up. "What the—!"
The butterflies descended, wings beating in perfect unison. Their synchronized motion created a sound like a thousand whispers overlapping, drowning out everything. The women stumbled back, hands raised uselessly as the swarm enveloped the space where Kai had been.
Then—silence.
The butterflies vanished as suddenly as they’d appeared. The portal collapsed inward with a sound like breaking glass, leaving nothing but empty air.
The junior sister lowered her gauntlets slowly, eyes wide. "What... what the hell just happened?"
The senior sister spun in a circle, her jade robes swirling. The alley was empty. No boy. No blood trail. Even the potion bottle had vanished.
"Where did he go?!" Her voice cracked with something that might’ve been fear. "Where’s the beast-boy?!"
The vendor whimpered from where he’d fallen, hands over his head, until rubbing it looked up towards the high arcitecture building.
5 shadows of people stood there.
And for Kai?
Darkness. Absolute and suffocating. Kai felt like he was floating in a cold, silent void.
The alley, the pain, the screech of the Blossom Sect women—it all vanished, replaced by a strange, humming pressure against his eardrums.
It was wind.
Kai stared, his breath caught in his throat. He tried to push himself up, but what he saw made his stomach drop—he was dangling twenty feet in the air, perched precariously on the broken arm of an old windmill.
The rusted metal creaked ominously beneath him.
Panic seized him. He looked down at the man in black who stood balanced on the crumbling structure, and without thinking, Kai lunged forward and wrapped himself around the man’s arm like a terrified koala, clinging with every ounce of strength he had.
The man in black glanced at the two Blossom Sect women, who were frozen in a state of shock, and then his gaze landed on Kai.
A faint, almost lazy smile touched his lips. "Now that’s a mysterious hero entry, isn’t it?" he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
Kai’s eyes widened. He tried to scramble higher up the man’s arm, his grip tightening. "Who—who are you?" he stammered, his voice trembling.
The man chuckled, ruffling Kai’s white hair as if he were a stray cat. The casual intimacy of the gesture was more startling than the show of power. "Easy there, kitten."
Without warning, the man adjusted his grip on Kai, lifting him slightly. Kai yelped, his arms and legs tightening around the man’s arm, clinging on for dear life like a terrified cat. "Wait, wait, wait! I’ll fall!"
The man, Tianlong, merely smirked. "Settle down. Who are you?"
"I-I’m Kai! I’m the representative for the Mini Cat tribal group!" he blurted out, the words tumbling over each other.
Tianlong’s gaze narrowed slightly. He turned to the tattooed woman. "Sabrina, isn’t this city supposed to be the domain of the Tiger Clan?" he asked, his voice low. He scanned the cramped, grimy buildings. "This looks less like a noble clan’s capital and more like a forgotten backwater slum."
The woman, Sabrina, crossed her arms, her expression sour. "It’s my hometown. The ’branch’ tribe is here," she corrected, her mouth twitching in irritation. She shot a glare at the butterfly on Tianlong’s shoulder. "So you really ’did’ read my mind, you little pest."
Tianlong ignored her, closing his eyes for a moment. His senses expanded, sweeping over the town.
He could hear the clang of hammers on anvils, the rasp of chisels on stone, the roar of forges.
He smelled smoke, cooking food, and the mixed scent of humans and beastkin living side-by-side. It was ragged, but it was alive.
"So," he said, opening his eyes. "Where’s this clan’s mansion?"
Sabrina scoffed. "What mansion? And why in the hells would I bring you there?" she snapped, clearly still pissed off.
Before she could continue, the black butterfly on Tianlong’s shoulder took flight. It fluttered silently through the air and landed gently on top of Sabrina’s head.
She froze, her eyes darting upwards. Her mouth twitched. "Don’t you dare..."
Her words were cut short as another black portal ripped open beside them. A silent, irresistible force pulled at them, and in a blink, the windmill was empty once more.
They reappeared in a barren, dusty clearing at the edge of town. Before them stood a massive, dilapidated wooden gate, large enough for a giant to pass through, but now sagging and splintered.
It looked less like an entrance and more like the door to a forgotten shed.
Kai, still wrapped around Tianlong’s arm, blinked in the sudden sunlight. He looked from the crumbling gate to the ruined walls beyond, a flicker of horrified recognition in his eyes.
"This is... the edge of town," he muttered, his voice barely a whisper. "The ruined estate of the Tiger Clan’s branch family..."
Tianlong folded his other arm, bringing Kai’s face closer to his own. "Hey, kid," he began, his voice low and serious. "What do you mean by ’ruined’—"
He was cut off as Sabrina lunged forward. She ripped Kai from his arm with surprising strength, holding the boy up by the scruff of his neck so he dangled in the air like a kitten.
A cold dread filled her voice as she glared at him. "You... I was thinking why you smelled familiar... So, vomit kid, what is relation of yours with that bastard Aide of mind?"
Kai’s body went rigid, his cat ears flattening against his skull. He stared at her, his eyes wide with a dawning, terrified realization.
"Lady... I pissed my pants."
The warmth spreading down Kai’s legs was impossible to ignore. Sabrina’s eyes widened as she felt the wetness seeping through her sleeve, the liquid trickling down her arm in warm rivulets.
Tianlong, Akane, and Sylvea all stared at the growing dark patch on the boy’s pants, watching the liquid drip steadily onto the dusty ground below.
The butterfly on Tianlong’s shoulder seemed to flutter its wings in what could only be described as amusement.
Sabrina’s nose twitched violently, her face contorting in disgust. "HOW DARE YOU—"
She swung her arm back, ready to hurl the boy away from her like a piece of contaminated trash. Kai let out a terrified scream, his white cat ears pressed flat against his skull.
In that split second, Tianlong moved.
"He is just a kid." His hand shot out, catching Sabrina’s wrist mid-swing. With his other arm, he twisted the screaming boy away from her grip while simultaneously kicking at Sabrina’s leg.
Despite her strength—and gods, she was strong—the unexpected angle threw her off balance.
Sabrina stumbled forward, her momentum carrying her straight into Tianlong. Kai ended up cradled safely in Tianlong’s arms, whimpering and trembling.
At the exact same moment, the massive wooden gates behind them exploded inward with a deafening CRASH.
"YOUNG MISS!"
"LADY SABRINA!"
A dozen servants in worn but clean robes poured through the gates, led by an elderly woman whose grey hair was pulled back in a severe bun. They all froze mid-step, their collective gasps filling the clearing.
The scene before them painted a very different picture than reality.
Sabrina’s mouth was pressed against Tianlong’s chest, her body leaning heavily into him. Tianlong held a child—a beastkin child—protectively in his arms.
The other two women stood nearby, one with silver hair and cold eyes, the other with dark hair and an impassive expression.
Sabrina pulled back, her pupils sliding sideways to catch sight of her servants. Her lips parted to speak. "You bast—"
"TELL MISTRESS!" the head servant shrieked, her weathered face splitting into a smile of pure joy. "YOUNG LADY HAS ARRIVED WITH HER HUSBAND AND CHILD!"
