Immortal Kingdoms

Was this really the case of me being too tender? Leonardo thought to himself in a daze as he mechanically wiped the trace of blood that trickled down his cheek. Then, he pulled out some medicinal ointment from his robes to treat his torn skin. By the time the other two came over, Leonardo's skin was already in the process of healing from the woman's touch.

The other woman swung the saber on her shoulder and chuckled, "Big sis, don't tell me you're interested in this little man. He probably can't even pierce your hymen."

The girl grinned as she looked Leonardo up and down as well. After a moment, she hesitated, "Forget that, can he even push his way through, to begin with?"

The man to the side coughed, blushing. As for Leonardo, his eyes truly opened to the world today.

Looking at these bodies of compact muscles, he subconsciously muttered, "I'd probably have higher chances with a piece of stone…"

Both women were stunned, but the man suddenly laughed out loud, his laughter shaking the earth and sky, almost blasting Leonardo's eardrums open. Noticing Leonardo's discomfort, he quickly shut his mouth with an apologetic smile, but his face kept twitching violently.

"Brat, are you saying you'd rather fuck a stone over me?" The woman with a domineering saber stance barked, feeling funny and made at the same time.

The first woman waved her hand and said, "Enough! Perhaps he's not your equal physically, but what if he used his cultivation? Who can tell by then?"

She then looked over at Leonardo, "Are you from behind the Sky Mountains?"

Leonardo was surprised that this side referred to these mountains as the Sky Mountains as well, but he didn't think much of it and said, "I'm actually from the higher realms, but you can say I crossed over from the other side of these mountains, technically…"

"The higher realms? What is that?" The three of them eyed Leonardo with evident confusion in their eyes.

Leonardo was inwardly surprised, but he merely smiled faintly at them in response, not elaborating.

"That doesn't matter," said the first woman, her eyes seriously meeting Leonardo's, "Your method to conceal your energy from the outside world, can you offer it to my clan? You can name your conditions, anything will do."

"Anything will do?" Leonardo's eyes flashed with interest as he looked this woman up and down, clearly inspecting her body.

Although her physique was powerful, the muscles weren't growing disproportionately, maintaining her lithe hourglass figure despite the monstrous strength hidden deep within every fiber of her being. Furthermore, Leonardo could see that the constant tempering allowed her innate potential to inflate to the extreme of forming a natural meridian and strong bones.

If she could cultivate, she could definitely reach divinity within a short one hundred years at a minimum. As for her companions, although divinity is impossible, half-divinity should not be a problem.

This must be a compensation offered to them after enduring this harsh environment for so long.

"Brat, don't have any weird ideas!" The second woman hurriedly spoke up anxiously.

The first woman waved it off, "It's fine! If you want me in exchange for the technique, I'm sure the Patriarch can have it arranged."

"What bullshit 'have it arranged'?!-!…"

"Calm down! I'm merely interested in your technique to temper the body. Moreover… The technique I'm using is something I created myself after over 120 days of bitter, self-harming cultivation, and I can't really transmit it or find the correct method to replicate its effects yet…"

Leonardo smiled bitterly. He wasn't even sure if he could have survived that experience if it weren't for Aria's timely assistance, let alone teaching this technique to others.

He quickly added, "However, if I can't pass it on to you, I can at least bring you outside with me when I leave, would that be alright?"

"What?!" All three of them reacted. Then, thinking about something and observing their surroundings, the woman spoke in a hushed tone, "This isn't the place to discuss this, let us head back to the tribe first."

The other two seemed to agree. The man took off to bring back Little John, while the two women waited patiently. The man made sure to travel a safe distance away before blasting through the sound barrier, out of consideration for Leonardo's weak physique.

"My name is Wendy, and she is Lihua. As for that man, his name is Rubin, and the younger one is Johnathan or Little John. We come from the Ye Tribe, what is your name?"?

The woman who offered herself in exchange for the technique remembered to introduce herself and the others, then turned to Leonardo.

"I'm Leonardo."

"Oh, Little Leo it is then," Lihua said with a grin while hugging her massive bone saber.

Leonardo shrugged, not in any position to deny or decline.

Not too long later, Rubin and Little John made it back. Of course, Little John was shocked to see such a frail guy running around, but he was happy to not be the weakest man of the group anymore.

When everyone got accustomed, they rushed out of the thunderstorm region, and only then did Leonardo release his cultivation freely as the group tore through the sound barrier collectively and rushed in a certain direction.

The group was pleasantly surprised that the chaotic energies didn't erode into Leonardo's worldly energy as they were accustomed to, as this meant they could travel much faster. If they had to travel at the speed of ordinary humans, the journey would take days if not weeks.

However, with their current speed, it wouldn't take too long.

Leonardo was also shocked to see them easily keeping up with his speed. If it was any ordinary human, without the protective membrane of worldly energy, their bodies would be blasted to bits from the pressure of traveling at such high speed. He was even more determined to learn their methods of tempering the body now.

…

Very quickly, the group made it to the entrance of a vast stone forest.

"Alright, make sure to conceal your cultivation now, we don't want the energies to invade our underground shelter," Wendy said to Leonardo after the group landed.

Leonardo nodded obediently and retracted his energy to the soul pearl. Then, the gap in the black gate shut closed, and his energy could no longer be found by the will in the environment.

When the energies stopped being drawn into Leonardo's body, Wendy nodded and began leading everyone through the complex terrain of the stone forest. Then, they arrived at a huge rock the size of a small hill.

Rubin and Little John pushed the rock away to reveal an entrance leading underground, and everyone went in. On their way here, Rubin explained to Leonardo a few things about the hidden tribes and their taboos.

For example, the reason why Lihua got mad earlier was the low fertility rates of the hidden tribes.

To maintain the high quality and potential of the tribesmen, marriage is only allowed between those who reached the peak of their potential, and women are permitted to give birth only once during their lifetime as they would invest all of their potential and talents into that one newborn.

If there was a lack of men, they would pay other tribes to have their women impregnated by a powerful man from another tribe. If there was a lack of women, they could also pay for a powerful woman from another tribe.

However, women are of course expensive because the female body is innately weaker than a male's, making strong women in high demand but short supply.

Wendy is actually the woman with the greatest potential of this generation and the former generation when taking the entire Ye Tribe in mind, meaning that she's an invaluable asset to the tribe.

She could even marry the strongest male of another tribe and form a marriage alliance, becoming the Matriarch of an alliance between two powerful hidden tribes. However, that is something for the future when and if she reached her potential.

For now, Wendy was planning to keep increasing her strength to the max before viewing her future options. If this was all tossed away for the sake of one cultivation method that might not even work, forget Lihua, the entire Ye Tribe might aim for Leonardo's head.

Leonardo finally understood why Lihua overreacted.

Luckily, he wasn't aiming for Wendy's virginity. Anyway, he doubted he could take it even if she laid there defenseless for him to act as he pleased.

However, he was really curious about how tight it would feel inside such a woman. Then, he had a frightening thought that she might clamp it off by simply squeezing her walls, making the young businessman shiver involuntarily.

No thank you, he made his determination to keep the little guy in check for this journey.

Very quickly, they made it into a vast underground space with a few stone houses sporadically spread across the ground, their numbers in the dozens and no more.

At the epicenter of this spacious underground structure was a pool of clear liquid that looked like water but obviously wasn't water.

Leonardo's eyes shrank.

That was an entire pool of liquified worldly energy, with pale blue streaks of lightning flashing through the depths of the water.

Currently, twenty pregnant women were seated in the pool undergoing some sort of baptism. Witnessing this scene, Leonardo seemed to comprehend something.

"Big sister Wendy! The Patriarch said to bring our guest over to his house!" A cute fourteen-year-old child came running over, her cheeks deep with dimples from her sweet smile.