156: Deep in water and scorching hot

Chen Yuanhai felt his temples throbbing...

In the past, although he had many wives, everyone still respected the "first come, first served" rule to some extent, and he could barely maintain a balance relying on his "emotional intelligence" and "equal distribution of affection" theory.

Occasionally, he could even enjoy the vanity of being fought over.

But ever since the news of the "guaranteed Innate Martial Body" and "Innate Nurturing Feedback" was confirmed, the balance had been completely shattered!

Previously, the wives competed for favor, perhaps only for more resources, higher status, or simply because of being love-struck.

Now?

This was a "battle of the Dao" directly related to their own Aptitude Breakthroughs and the rise and fall of the Family!

Every woman had red eyes!

Any restraint, any grace, any sisterly affection—in the face of "guaranteed Innate Martial Body" and "Innate Nurturing Feedback," it was all bullshit!

Now, the daily routine at Yuanhai Mountain Villa was:

Three "collective greetings from the wives" every morning, noon, and evening, which were actually checks on his status and sales pitches for their own "golden time slots";

Various "accidental encounters," "chance meetings," and "sending warmth" emerged one after another, with such devious methods and unimaginable creativity that even Chen Yuanhai, who prided himself on being a Casanova, was amazed...

There even appeared a professional "ovulation period prediction and strategy team," led by several wives from the Academy of Sciences, who used big data to analyze his behavioral patterns and formulate optimal "encounter" plans...

What was even more outrageous was that the wives began to form various "strategic alliances," sharing information, providing cover for each other, and even... conspiring to drug him???

Chen Yuanhai felt that he hadn't married eight hundred wives, but had hired eight hundred ace salespeople who would stop at nothing, and the product they were pushing was only one — their own ovulation periods!

"Husband~" A petite and cute "cat-ear girl" squeezed to the very front, blinking her big eyes, her "tail" fawningly rubbing against his leg, "Look, this is a sachet I specially made with 'Affectionate Grass', smell it, do you like it?"

Chen Yuanhai subconsciously sniffed, and a strange fragrance entered his nose, immediately making him feel his blood surging, with a certain part showing signs of rising.

He was so scared that he quickly held his breath, cursing inwardly:

Again?!

This is the 158th time you've used this this week!

"Brother Yuan Hai!" Another tall and cold-tempered wife pushed through the crowd, holding a scroll of parchment that exuded an ancient aura.

"This is a treasured 'ancient tree of life contract'. As long as you drip a drop of blood on it and form a life link with me, the chance of conception will increase by fifty percent the next time I ovulate!"

Chen Yuanhai's mouth twitched...

A life link?

This thing sounded just like a contract of indenture!

"Move aside! Move aside!" A voluptuous wife wearing very little clothing directly brandished an energy cannon on her arm... No, wait, was that some kind of precision syringe?

"Husband! The latest 'nano-grade gene fertility promoter', painless and with no side effects, works with one shot! Let me give you a shot, I guarantee you'll be as strong as a Dragon and hit the target every time!"

Chen Yuanhai looked at the cold, gleaming needle, his scalp tingling as he retreated repeatedly:

"Don't! Don't come over! I... I'm not feeling well today! I need to rest!"

"Rest?" A wife in a white coat, wearing glasses and looking like a doctor, pushed up her glasses, a flash of wisdom? appearing on the lenses.

"Husband, according to my professional diagnosis, you just have some kidney Yin deficiency and excessive fire. I have an ancestral 'Yin and Yang Harmonizing Great Tonic Soup' here. Drink it and I guarantee you'll be as vigorous as a dragon, 998 times a night is not a dream!"

As she spoke, she pulled out a bowl larger than a washbasin from who knows where, filled with a pitch-black, bubbling, eerie liquid.

Chen Yuanhai: "!!!"

Help me!!!

This isn't a tonic soup, this is clearly corpse-dissolving water, right?!

Just as he was about to be drowned by the ocean of wives and was at a loss, his communicator on his wrist vibrated frantically. It was an emergency distress message from his father, Chen Zhaojing!

【My son Yuan Hai, save me! Father is in danger! Come to the secret cultivation room in Bai Xi Palace immediately! It concerns life and death! — Your loving, about-to-be-squeezed-dry father.】

Chen Yuanhai saw the message, was stunned for a moment, and then immediately grasped it like a life-saving straw!

Father!

His great, heroic father who had made great contributions to the Family by spreading his branches and leaves!

He must have a way!

He had experienced even more cruel times!

He must understand my pain!

...

"My dear wives!" Chen Yuanhai straightened his back abruptly, forcing a calm expression onto his face.

"My father has summoned me for an extremely urgent matter concerning the future of the Family! I must go to Bai Xi Palace immediately! Tonight... let's have a truce tonight! There will be plenty of time in the future! Plenty of time!"

After speaking, he didn't wait for the wives to react, his War God Peak energy erupted, turning into a stream of light, and at the fastest speed of his life, he wretchedly rushed out of the Star-Plucking Tower and fled frantically towards Bai Xi Palace!

Behind him were the wives' unwilling shouts and... a new round of heated discussion about whether "Father's summons was just an excuse."

...

Bai Xi Palace, inside the secret cultivation room.

Chen Zhaojing and Chen Yuanhai, father and son, sat cross-legged, separated by an energy barrier.

The room was dimly lit, and the atmosphere was heavy enough to drip water.

The two looked at each other.

Chen Zhaojing looked at his son's slightly pale face with heavy eye bags, still handsome but unable to hide the haggardness, as if he saw his younger self...

No! It was himself, but even more miserable than he had been!!!

After all, he didn't have so many wives back then, and he hadn't encountered such an outrageous buff as "guaranteed Innate Martial Body" and "guaranteed Innate Nurturing Feedback"!

Chen Yuanhai looked at his father, who, although powerful, revealed deep fatigue and... a trace of fear in the depths of his eyes... his heart sank even further.

Even his father, at the Stellar Level Peak, couldn't hold on?

Then wouldn't I, at the War God Peak, be dead for sure?

Silence spread in the secret room...

In the end, it was Chen Yuanhai who spoke first, his voice carrying a trace of hoarseness and grievance: "Dad... how... how did you survive it back then?"

Chen Zhaojing sighed long and hard, a sigh filled with over a decade of bitterness and blood and tears.

"Survive?" He smiled bitterly and shook his head, "For Father, that wasn't surviving, that was... being carried along by fate, moving forward numbly."

His eyes unfocused, falling into memories: "Back then, your Great-Grandfather found me and said, 'Zhao Jing, the future of the Family depends on you.' At that time, I was young and naive, only feeling the weight of responsibility, my blood boiling, thinking it was just as simple as marrying a few more wives and having a few more children..."

"And then?" Chen Yuanhai asked eagerly.

"And then?" A smile uglier than crying appeared on Chen Zhaojing's face, "Then it was endless 'cooperation', like a machine with a set program. Today it was Lady Cui Hua, tomorrow it was the daughter of the Wang Family... I even developed 'face blindness' at one point, looking at a room full of wives but unable to call them by name..."

"Later, you all came along... the number grew more and more. Grandfather let me rest and shift my attention to teaching the core values of the Family, and life was easier for a few years. But... ever since the arrival of the mandatory Innate Martial Body situation, your mother and the concubines... they established a 'Fertility Management Committee'... everything became 'scientific' and 'institutionalized'..." Chen Zhaojing's voice carried a trace of trembling...

"Ovulation schedule, nutritional supplements, guidance on the best conception positions... I don't feel like a person, more like a... breeding dragon that is carefully raised and whose only value is mating?"

Chen Yuanhai listened, feeling the same, and nodded vigorously: "Yes, yes, yes! That's exactly how it feels! Dad, I'm even worse off than you were back then! At least you had Lady Cui Hua managing things uniformly, and it was orderly. The concubines plus my mother only amounted to a hundred. On my side... it's completely anarchic! Over eight hundred! Over eight hundred! They fight on their own, with endless methods! Drugging, hypnosis, creating accidental encounters... I can't defend against it all!"

The more he spoke, the more agitated he became, almost crying: "Yesterday, Lady Xixi pretended to be kidnapped by a star beast to trick me into saving her, only to lure me into a cave set up like a bridal chamber! The day before yesterday, Lady Lili got a 'Charm Witch Set' from somewhere that amplifies mental suggestion, almost making me... in front of all the wives... sigh! And the day before that..."

Chen Yuanhai poured out his bitterness endlessly, recounting the "inhuman torture" he had suffered during this period one by one.

Chen Zhaojing listened to his son's bloody accusation, not only feeling no sympathy but actually... wanting to laugh a little?

Of course, he held it back.

He patted his son's shoulder and said in a tone of "you are still too young": "Son, what is this little setback? Back then, I was crushed by your Lady Cui Hua using 'Family righteousness' and 'Grandfather's expectations'. You can at least run now, but I had nowhere to run back then! Your Great-Grandfather said I was the number one hero, where could I hide? In the whole Federation, who dared not listen to your Great-Grandfather?"

Chen Yuanhai was stunned, and upon thinking about it carefully, it seemed... that was the logic?

His father was the target on the surface back then, bearing the greatest pressure.

Although he had a large number and chaos, he could at least use his "Casanova" persona to maneuver, and occasionally slack off.

"But Dad!" Chen Yuanhai said with a bitter face, "The situation is different now! 'Innate Nurturing Feedback'! If they get pregnant, they can Breakthrough! This temptation is too great! They are not competing for favor now, they are competing for the Dao! They are risking their lives! How can I, with my cultivation, withstand this?"

Chen Zhaojing nodded deeply, pointing at himself: "You think I can withstand it at the Stellar Level Peak? The higher the cultivation, the lower the fertility rate! This is the Law of the Universe! My efforts for a year now might not be as effective as your one day! But what about the expectations of those concubines of yours? They've been pulled to the sky! They think that because I am at the Stellar Level Peak, I am vigorous and should be more likely to get them pregnant! Who can I reason with about this?!"

Father and son fell into silence again, a bleak atmosphere of "both are miserable people at the ends of the earth" permeated the secret room...

After a long while, Chen Yuanhai asked weakly: "Dad... then... what should we do? We can't keep hiding here, right? That group of women outside... will break in sooner or later."

Chen Zhaojing's eyes flickered, and he lowered his voice: "I asked you to come here precisely to discuss countermeasures! We must unite! Share information! Formulate a strategy!"

"Strategy?" Chen Yuanhai's eyes lit up.

"Exactly!" A flash of light crossed Chen Zhaojing's eyes, "First, we must establish a 'Father-Son Anti-Coercion United Front'! Share intelligence! For example, whose wife has gotten a new formula, whose wife's ovulation period has arrived, we must warn each other in advance and cover for each other!"

"This is good!" Chen Yuanhai nodded vigorously, "I can share my 'Big Data on Ovulation Prediction' with Dad!"

"Secondly, we must learn 'strategic relocation'!" Chen Zhaojing continued to impart experience, "For example, make excuses to inspect the peripheral Star Domains, go to the Academy of Sciences to assist Dean Mo Heng with research, or even... go to your Great-Grandfather's place to pay respects! Stay for a whole day! They wouldn't dare act recklessly at your Great-Grandfather's place!"

Chen Yuanhai suddenly realized: "Brilliant! Truly brilliant! Dad, ginger is still the older one, the spicier one!"

"Finally, and most importantly!" Chen Zhaojing said seriously, "We must solve the problem at the source!"

"The source?"

"Exactly! It's to let your Great-Grandfather..." A light of hope shone in Chen Zhaojing's eyes, "Let the Old Ancestor know about our 'suffering'! Let him understand that the pressure on us, the direct executors, is too great! See if he can... introduce some policy to restrict the overly 'active' behavior of the wives?"

Chen Yuanhai was dumbfounded: "Dad... you... you dare to mention this to Great-Grandfather? Aren't you afraid that Great-Grandfather will think we are not capable of heavy responsibilities?"

Chen Zhaojing shrank his neck, obviously a bit cowardly, but still bit the bullet and said: "We have to try! At worst, let your Great-Aunt Qinglan, or Administrator Chu Yueyao help pass a word? His Old Ancestor... should... probably... maybe... be able to understand our difficulties, right?"

Father and son looked at each other, seeing uncertainty and... deep fear in each other's eyes.

Complain to that grandfather (Great-Grandfather) who seems lazy but actually controls everything?

This risk... seems to be no less than facing eight hundred wives who are like wolves and tigers!

"How about... we endure it a bit longer?" Chen Yuanhai asked tentatively.

"Endure?! How to endure?!" Chen Zhaojing said with a mournful face, "My kidneys are already roaring! If I endure any longer, I'm afraid my Dao foundation will be damaged!"

Just as the father and son were speechless and looking at each other, only tears flowing... —

"Knock, knock, knock!"

The door of the secret room was knocked!

Immediately after, Cui Hua's voice, which was gentle but brooked no argument, came in: "Zhao Jing~ Yuan Hai~ what secrets are you two whispering about inside? The sisters are all waiting anxiously. The Academy of Sciences just sent the latest batch of 'Potent Fertility-Promoting Spiritual Qi', it is said that Dean Mo Heng improved it according to ancient books of the Dragonborn Empire, and the effect is three times better than before~ Hurry up and come out to try it!"

Chen Zhaojing, Chen Yuanhai: "!!!"

The father and son were as if struck by lightning, instantly stiffened!

Chen Zhaojing's face was ashen, muttering: "It's over... it's over... even here is not safe..."

Chen Yuanhai looked at his father in despair, his eyes seemingly saying: "Dad, your strategy... seems to have failed at the first step?"

Finally, under the "gentle" urging of Cui Hua and more and more wives gathering outside the door, the third and fourth generations of the Chen Clan's "seeding core" had to mournfully... open the door of the secret room and return to that "battlefield" that they both loved and hated...

Chen Zhaojing looked at his son's tragic back, and a strange sense of "comfort" surged in his heart???

"Fortunately... there is a son to suffer with me..."

And Chen Yuanhai was screaming wildly in his heart: "Great-Grandfather! Help me!!! Your cute great-grandson is about to be worked to death!!!"

...

Pillar of Leaders, Chen Jun Manor.

Chen Jun had just easily broken his virtual Family population to the "one trillion" mark in the "Old Ancestor Simulator," achieving the ultimate achievement of "Family Eternal Prosperity," and was feeling very satisfied.

Suddenly, he sneezed twice for no reason.

"Achoo! Achoo!"

Rubbing his nose, Chen Jun was a little puzzled: "Hmm? Who is talking about me?"

He slumped back into his chair contentedly and picked up a piece of black hole chocolate.

"Hmm? It must be my grandsons and great-grandsons thinking of me. It seems they are very satisfied with their current fulfilling and happy lives."

"Not bad, not bad, the Family is harmonious, and the younger generation is working hard..."

He thought happily, completely unaware of what kind of "deep water and scorching fire" his most satisfied precious grandson and great-grandson were currently trapped in...