Devouring the Heavens (ATG)

Chapter 35: Strawberries, Swords and Pissing Off a Princess

It took less than a quarter of an hour for Qingyue and Dongling to arrive in the courtyard with the first round of celebratory dishes.

Qingyue herself came towards Shane and carefully placed down a dish of something in front of him that was giving off a tantalising smell.

He could tell from her slight flush and the way she was glancing repeatedly between the floor and his face that it was prepared personally by her.

Deciding to both tease and praise her a little he grabbed exaggeratedly at his chest. "Oof my poor heart can't take anymore! Good with a sword, good in the kitchen." 'great in the bedroom!' He added through a small spirit transmission

"My Qingyue is so perfect, I'm falling in love all over again~"

It was a credit to her budding shamelessness that instead of backing away or stammering a reply she instead approached him, almost straddling his lap and ran her hands across his exposed chest, checking for any 'damage'.

Her blush was still quite evident though...

The rather bold and intimate move, well intimate for an outdoors family dinner in an ancient cultivation society, shocked little Lingxi out of her daze and she hurriedly tried to stand up and help the girls.

Before this, she had been in a world of her own, riding the high of breaking through and subsequently kissing her 'nephew'. Touching her lips and giggling to herself from time to time, it wasn't hard to imagine where the little perverts' thoughts had been.

Shane waved his hand and kept her in her seat. "Stay there little Lingxi, tonight is a celebration for you and Brother Che!"

Exposed to the full power of his charming smile, she lowered her head and mumbled "Thank you big brother Long"

Shane had to give the kid credit, because Xiao Che chose that perfect timing when her guard was down, to casually grab her hand and squeeze it while also nodding towards his brother.

"Here here!" Xiao Lie laughed heartily with rosy cheeks as he waved his half-empty cup of wine in the air. At that moment their excellent maid arrived with the rest of the dishes, kicking off a rather lively dinner.

Of course, Shane ate mostly from Qingyue's specially prepared chicken and vegetable dish, making sure to compliment her generously. Being rather good at cooking himself, the compliments hit a lot closer to home and ensured that the comparatively dazzling smile never left her face.

When the meal had ended, he decided to do a test run and make something special for the occasion.

So, he began withdrawing various items from his storage that he had found over the last weeks in the city and at the market.

Strawberries, peaches, milk, butter, sugarcane and the final ingredient, which had been sitting in the kitchen in a jar of strong spirit for a few weeks, vanilla.

Requesting Dongling to fetch one of the sealed porcelain jars from inside, Shane rolled up his sleeves and went to work.

A pair of bowls appeared and having the mind to make this as flashy as possible, he drew a T shape in the air above them with a glowing finger, forming two shimmering lines of incredibly sharp Wind Energy.

The strawberries began to float up, in a uniform fashion, towards the stationary energy blades, passing across them and landing in one of the bowls, sliced perfectly in half with their tops removed. Milk was poured into a deeper bowl while the butter was levitated next to his shoulder in a metal dish.

"Coral, if you would." With an excited *Phi* The chibi bird blew a thin jet of flame towards the metal dish and Shane wrapped it with his profound energy, evenly melting the butter in mere seconds.

The flame dissipated as Shane cooed. "There's a good girl"

The butter was added to the milk and the bowl covered as he conjured a small tornado on a finger and pushed it inside, needing only the slightest of his ever-growing mental capacity to keep it stable.

As he peeled back the skin of the sugarcane, revealing the pure white centre of what was usually a brown plant, Shane couldn't help but marvel at this world again. Everything grown here was without impurities.

He sliced the core into sections and levitated them in the air as a ball of Water Energy formed around them.

Motioning for Coral to use flamethrower again, it was super effective by the way, the water began boiling and before long the ball was a lot smaller and thicker in consistency.

Shane used a burst of profound energy to remove the rest of the moisture from the syrupy mixture and form it into a block before dropping it into a small bowl and separated into a pile of tiny white crystals.

Taking the bottle from his maid, he uncorked it and dispelled the small tornado within the mixing bowl. Opening the lid a crack, he then poured a little of the brown liquid and a generous amount of sugar inside.

Re-conjuring the tiny twister, he pushed it into the bowl and resealed it once more, leaving it to whip up nicely while he arranged six plates in front of him, each with a flat and sweet biscuit the size of his palm on them.

These actions took no more than five minutes total and opened up a whole new possibility for the applications of Profound energy, although he was beset with waves of irony and nostalgia at the thought. 'It's like I'm an Isekai Protagonist with OP powers yet I'm using them to cook my way into people's hearts.'

Wiping away a nonexistent tear his delusions continued. 'Satou would be so proud of how far I've come hehe.'

Shane finally started to feel some resistance from the small tornado, pulling him out of his thoughts and onto more important matters. The whipped cream was done!

Removing the lid, he used his profound energy to scoop out six generous dollops and a more gentle wind to shape them into swirls atop the biscuits.

Sticking strawberries and peach slices into each of them and sprinkling a little sugar on top, the masterpieces were finally completed!

All of the bowls and ingredients disappeared and Shane pushed the completed plates in front of everyone at the same time only to look up for the first time in ten minutes and freeze.

Everyone was gawking at him like he was some kind of Alien "What? ...Ohhh"

Something Shane had discovered early on from Qingyue was that his remarkable control over Profound Energy was anything but normal. People could use it outside their bodies to perform attacks and such but the fine control that he had over it was practically unheard of.

He had deduced that since he had no preconceptions about what was and wasn't possible in the beginning, he had just constantly pushed for more control in the early stages and ended up with something extraordinary.

He had also never stopped practising and improving on his control and manipulation of energy. His profound energy was a part of him, an extension of his body in a way and it just made sense to Shane that he should have full control of it.

The casual way he had manipulated his Profound Energy and even two elements at the same time, had stupefied Xiao Lie, and Qingyue, while in a better situation still had her little mouth open wide.

The maid and the two younger Xiaos were looking at him with fanatical worship which, to be honest, was freaking him out a little. Although whether it was his manipulation of energy or the delicious looking dessert he had created that evoked it was up for debate.

Shane was more inclined to bet on it being the latter. If that was the case, how would they react when they actually tasted it? Would their clothes explode?

Well, the stares were becoming a little uncomfortable so he went with the route of shameless narcissism. "Have you stared enough? Aiya being too handsome is sometimes not a good thing."

Dongling nodded absentmindedly, Lingxi had already homed in on the sweet smell and was swallowing mouthfuls of saliva, Xiao Lie and Xiao Che sneered at him while Qingyue exaggeratedly rolled her eyes.

*Cough* "...Don't you want to try it?" Shane scratched his nose and asked awkwardly while waving towards the desserts.

They all nodded hurriedly and a few seconds later... three loud girly squeals rocked the courtyard.

Shane had to admit it was hard to resist making a similar noise, the effect of the vanilla was worth the effort of maturing it with profound energy every day for weeks.

There was obviously another reason why he had spent so much time and effort in preparing this dessert. The crimson-haired murder Loli...

If reading fanfics in his previous life had taught him anything, it was that Jasmine would surely be extremely receptive to sweet and tasty things.

That and the fact that she was obviously a sheltered young girl who lacked the care and attention of others, should make her extremely weak to delicious foods that were cooked especially for her.

Basically, he would try and bribe one of the Eastern Divine Region's most feared inheritors with sugary food...

Also, she deserved to experience all the nice things he could and would give to her, she was worth it after all.

If Shane was asked to give a reason why he felt so strongly towards the little star god princess, then a few months ago he would have said he sympathised with her character from the novel.

Now, after meeting her, however, he wasn't so sure. He felt a sort of pull towards her that resonated with his very being.

Similar to how he had felt with Qingyue but not in a romantic way, she was just a kid after all but in a way that brought forward intense feelings of wanting to protect her. Maybe he was just soft to damsels in distress.

Now that the future of this universe had already irreparably altered with his interference, perhaps the feeling of connection to some of the important characters was being influenced by fate...

-----------------------------------

After the desert disappeared from everyone's plates one by one and everyone was relaxed and happy, Shane decided it would be the best time to lay something else on them.

He swiftly withdrew the pair of sister wind swords he had forged for his little students and handed them over without much fanfare, as if they were just some things he had lying around and taking up space.

The sheathes covered most of the blade's splendour and he was hoping for it to be kept that way until he had a chance to slip away.

Unluckily for him, it didn't seem like it would be that easy and Lingxi, within all of two seconds, had unsheathed the sword

What followed was a bit of 'overexaggerated cultivator being surprised' noises coming from Xiao Lie. Not that he was the strange one, Perhaps the entire Xiao Clan only had one or two True Profound weapons and those were absolutely in the hands of the late Spirit Profound elders.

Showing that a random bandit group was actually more wealthy than the top clan in one of this empire's cities. Sure, it was a city out in the arse end of nowhere, but come the fuck on...

The real problem stemmed from the fact that the effects on the weapons actually made them much more valuable than the average Spirit Profound weapon and there absolutely wasn't one of those in the entire Floating Cloud City.

The value of those swords was without a doubt above thousands of purple profound coins and Shane, well he literally couldn't give a shit about the value.

The creator himself only had an uninterested expression on his face while picking his ear as the old man almost had a brain aneurysm while he murmured about how 'even the clan leader's weapon was inferior and how you could buy half the city with one of those swords'.

Shane couldn't help but think that the people of Floating Cloud really were frogs at the bottom of the well. A True Profound weapon was valuable, yes but it wasn't that valuable once you travelled inland a bit.

The obligatory back and forth of not wanting to accept something of such value or attempting to pay for them had then threatened to rear its head and luckily Shane had caught it early on with the cheap counter of...

Puppy dog eyes and saddened words. "Are you not treating me as family? now, after everything..." Oof. Shane: 1 Sentimental old grandpa: 0.

That was pretty effective at keeping everyone's face while also slapping them at the same time, leaving an incomparably smug blacksmith/chef/soon-to-be doctor who was also slapping the sneaky little hands of his wife away from his own unfinished dessert.

"*Tsk* Stingy." Apparently, Qingyue found it easy to be dishonest when desserts were involved. Something to note for later.

The tassels had come out next and Shane swiftly explained what they were to Lingxi and Xiao Che, who looked as if they were still racking their brains to find a way to either thank or repay him. "These tassels are actually 'primitive' devices used for hiding your true cultivation level from others"

*Pffft* Qingyue, still not reconciled with her foiled stealing attempt, started snickering next to him. What primitive? They can hide your cultivation realm from anyone in the Tyrant realm and below, a realm never before seen in The Blue Wind Empire...

"...like so" Shane said while shooting his wife a strong look that promised punishment. He absolutely did not want to deal with the troublesome things that would undoubtedly come up after that reveal.

One of the tassels activated and Shane's cultivation lowered to the peak of Elementary Profound. "We don't yet have storage rings for you two and so I want to attach them to your swords to hide their True Profound aura.

This will both avoid unwanted attention from strong profound beasts, confuse enemies into underestimating you and allow you both to get used to carrying the swords around without everyone losing their shit."

Xiao Lie's eyebrows shot up, he couldn't even distinguish between Shane's actual cultivation and what he was projecting. It was as if an actual peak Elementary Profound was sitting right in front of him and again the old man looked as if wanted to mention the value of the items.

To others, these items might be unordinary and invaluable but to Shane, it was not the case. There was really no need for the kids to know the worth of these items, or they might be afraid to use them which would, in turn, make them pointless.

Shane just directly gave his best impression of the disapproving hobbit guy from Lord of The Rings. The old man, clearly not cultured enough, didn't understand how good the impression was and still wanted to refute.

Unfortunately, Shane wasn't having any of it so he sneered and said mockingly. "Grandpa Lie, wouldn't I be embarrassed if I went outside with my brother and he looked so poor.

Where would I put my face if he looked like he couldn't even afford a good sword?" Xiao Che gave him the finger.

Shane, unperturbed, casually returned it and waved towards Lingxi. "Also, look at this cute little creature! How can you bear to take things away from her? Don't you just want to spoil her!"

"En!" Qingyue nodded and somehow she had already appeared next to the girl, patting her head and squishing her cheeks, while Lingxi herself deployed a puppy dog eyes technique that put Shane's to shame and made it look disgusting in comparison.

Xiao Che just played up the small 'innocent' smile that made people think he was a nice lad.

Shane narrowed his eyes, this kid was clearly enjoying how awkward he had looked tonight. Maybe he should give Lingxi some more ideas...

Having both his grandkids used against him, the old man was beaten and instead his eyes got a little wet around the edges.

Shane sent him a Spirit sound Transmission. 'I gave them those swords for three reasons beyond the obvious one that they both needed a good weapon. Let's be realistic here, would the clan provide anything good for them if I didn't?

Xiao Lie was silent, they both knew the answer to that. 'The first reason was the same as my earlier words, he really is too poor and I actually would be embarrassed.' Xiao Lie actually choked on thin air at that.

'The second reason is that I had no use for the original weapons and reforging them wasn't much of a bother.

The third reason is to protect them.' Shane's eyes narrowed dangerously. 'When I leave, there may be many greedy eyes upon those two from both within the clan and outside of it, you know for a fact that not a lot of them are good people here.'

Shane licked his lips, crimson eyes glowing briefly. 'I would hate to come back, find out my brother had been bullied, and have to destroy them all.'

The casual smile returned and he continued. 'This is not arrogance talking here but not long after I leave, I will likely become a person of renown within The Blue Wind Empire.

It is my hope that my name and thus having a weapon forged by myself will offer another layer of protection for them.'

Shane didn't intend to go making enemies everywhere, in fact, he intended to join the Frozen Cloud publicly and so there shouldn't be any high level outside danger to the pair. The Spirit Incense business would also likely be at the stage of partnership with The Black Moon Merchant Guild by then as well.

If by chance, one of the other major sects had ideas and decided to do something extreme like using these kids against him let's just say it wouldn't end well for them.

This meant that the majority of threats would come from within the clan and not of the direct kind. Shane would help the kids establish a firm foundation while he stayed in Floating Cloud but he could and would not hold their hands forever.

Not long after, the initial excitement over the weapons had died down and they all decided to get an early night in. That way, they could leave at dawn the next day and arrive in Cyan Forest Town in the early morning.

Shane didn't need all that much sleep anymore but he did want to try and contact his little red reading buddy

-------------------------

A pair of crimson eyes met with swirling crimson fog and it smoothly parted with just a single thought.

Shane sighed in satisfaction. "It would seem that crisis and opportunity really do go hand in hand."

Only here and now, where his control was not absolute, could he fully appreciate the strengthening of his Will that had occurred with the repeated use of his new forging technique.

The fog around him receded and as he walked and the blood beneath him began to rise into the air, forming into a multitude of different shapes with just a wave of his hands.

Actions that before would have been impossible or at the very least, given him a severe mental strain, now seemed as easy as breathing. The major tipping point for the growth of his Will was likely to be the overuse when forging his wife's sword.

That begged a question, could he cheat by doing something similar and just be ready to heal himself up before he passed out, effectively increasing the power of his Will in a short time?

Qingyue's tear-stained face flashed across his mind and even in this dreamscape, he flinched at the spike of pain it brought to his chest.

No, he would find another way...

Now instinctually feeling the extent of the control he could exert, Shane wrinkled his nose in distaste. Frankly, this place was awful.

The temperature, neither hot nor cold but both at the same time, the soul-sucking stars above his head and the floor covered in ankle-deep, warm, sticky, blood

The worst part was that there was no variation. It was both unpleasant and monotonous.

'This place is really getting old Hmph, nothing like my beautiful Qingyue's dreamscape.' He thought smugly to himself, conveniently forgetting the frozen wasteland, the freezing cyclone of Ice energy and her hostile attitude. People in love are truly blind

The temptation to grasp the very fabric of the dreamscape and change the whole thing into something less ...revolting was extremely strong but Shane held it in.

He didn't want to startle the other occupant, not when she was allowing him to return after so long...

He had tried to connect here a few times since he had last visited, but either she wasn't sleeping at the time or she didn't want to let him in. Honestly, it could have been either.

A girl's mind, in general, was mysterious enough, without factoring in that this one was a teen girl with an extreme amount of power and major daddy issues.

It also could have been the fact that she was likely looking for the inheritance already.

Well today, he was going to try and shake her up a bit and hopefully get her talking. She may be a monster to some but to him, she was still a little brat and he was banking on her falling for a little trick...

Provoke her enough to irritate her into arguing back but not enough to kick him out. Then engage her in a conversation about something she enjoys, is knowledgeable about, or can easily get interested in.

That will hopefully keep her distracted long enough to become comfortable with his presence. 'En, I'm a genius.'

So, he just needed to be a bit of a dick at first ...what could possibly go wrong?

The crimson fog opened up and a familiar clearing came into view. He idly noted that the cocoon of soul-chilling starlight surrounded by a silent tornado of rippling blood was as creepy as ever.

The recliner, blanket, small table and even his 'reading' glasses were still where he left them, but no book Shane smirked inwardly to himself 'Interesting.'

He ignored the cocoon in favour of swaggering over to the recliner and taking a seat, the spike of anger and killing intent he felt for a second was incomparably dreadful but he did not falter.

Leaning back, one leg over the other and reading glasses firmly on his handsome face, Shane's eyes snapped to the cocoon. His lips curled up in a small playful smile. "I say little Red, this place is disgusting."

And the world became hostile...

------------------------------------

A/N: Sorry for the minor cliff. The chapter was already 3.8k and the scene with Jasmine is another 1800 ish works so I had to separate them.