Courtship

[What really left you at a loss was that, besides Tang San and Ah Yin coming for their daily Ming's Fatherly Headpat, Xiao Wu had joined the queue too. You were utterly hopeless. Every day, you were either patting heads or on your way to pat heads, all while three old geezers called you Dad. Your life had suddenly turned bleak.]

[Never mind how long Ah Yin and Xiao Wu had lived—even Tang San alone was several years older than you. Physically, you might have been six years older than him, but mentally, you really were the youngest in the family.]

[For someone who wanted a leisurely life, this was undoubtedly torture. Sure, Ah Yin's head felt nice, Tang San's hair was silky smooth, and Xiao Wu's was fluffy, each with its own appeal. Patting them even put you at ease, but after doing it long enough, you inevitably started to resent it.]

[So you packed up and made a run for it again. It wasn't that Ah Yin lacked appeal, that Xiao Wu wasn't nice, or that Tang San wasn't well-behaved. Mostly, you just couldn't accept having three old geezers call you Dad.]

[Whenever you thought about Ah Yin and Xiao Wu calling you Dad, despite being who knew how many tens of thousands of years older than you, you felt uncomfortable all over. You could just about accept it from Tang San, but those other two were really too much.]

["No! Ming Father, you can't go! How am I supposed to live without you?!" Tang San clung to your thigh and begged. He had become utterly addicted to Ming's Fatherly Headpat. Without it, he felt he would lose most of life's joy and meaning.]

["Godfather, you can't go! What will Godmother and I do without you?! Do you want to leave Godmother a widow with a living husband?" Xiao Wu hugged your other thigh and pleaded.]

["Husband, if you must leave, take me with you. I really can't live without you." Ah Yin hadn't grown much taller over the past few years and still looked like a little girl. She clung to you like an octopus.]

["Children! You must learn to be independent and strong. Your father is leaving. Don't worry about me!" Your mind was made up. Even Ah Yin's attempts to seduce you failed to sway you.]

[You made your escape, leaving Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Ah Yin at home, sobbing their hearts out.]

[After leaving, you headed north toward the Far North. Sensing something, you glanced up at the sky. "Original, we're fucking bros. What's wrong with me having some fun first? Besides, aren't I helping Su Laoliu finish his unfinished mission?"]

[As you spoke, your face suddenly went rigid. You were afraid that if you kept going, you would picture your original self's furious expression.]

[Ten minutes later, after traveling at full speed, you reached the outskirts of the Far North.]

[Upon entering the Far North, you released your wind spirit aura and merged it with the region. The process went smoothly, and you became part of it. No, rather, the winds of the Far North became part of your body.]

[Without the slightest attempt at concealment, your aura spread throughout the Far North, quickly drawing the attention of its Three Great Heavenly Kings.]

[The first to arrive wasn't the Ice Empress or the Snow Empress, but the Titan Snow Demon King. He immediately challenged you, the outsider.]

[At this point, the Titan Snow Demon King had yet to pass the two-hundred-thousand-year mark. Calling the fight easy wouldn't do it justice—you beat him like a drowning fish.]

[Just as your battle with the Titan Snow Demon King ended, the Ice Empress and the Snow Empress arrived together.]

[The two of them looked at you with neither obvious hostility nor goodwill, as though regarding a stranger.]

[Their gazes confirmed that neither had any memories of the Simulator. You then fully unleashed your aura, bringing the suppressive force of your superior bloodline down upon the Titan Snow Demon King, the Ice Empress, and the Snow Empress.]

[The first two weren't particularly affected. The Snow Empress seemed somewhat suppressed, but perhaps it was your imagination—you felt that the way she looked at you had changed, though you couldn't quite put your finger on how.]

[The wind spirit's bloodline suppression wasn't as powerful as you had expected. All it really did was mislead the soul beasts about your identity, making them mistake you for a soul beast that had taken human form.]

["You little brat! Get down here right now! Don't think I'll go easy on you just because you're a soul beast too!" The Ice Empress was haughty, challenging you to a fight the moment she spoke.]

[You had intended to surrender, but what the Snow Empress did next went beyond your expectations.]

[The Snow Empress brought a chopping hand down on the Ice Empress's head. She gave you a curious look, then said, "Hello, I'm the Snow Empress." She had fallen for you at first sight, though you still had no idea what had happened.]

["Ming." You didn't give your full name, mostly because you felt there was something odd about the Snow Empress's attitude.]

[Unbeknownst to you, among spirits, your earlier actions were equivalent to courting one of your own kind.]

[Spirits were born from the energies of heaven and earth, each embodying an ultimate element. To send a courtship signal, they extended their own presence into the aura field of another of their kind.]

[Your act of making the Far North's winds part of yourself to attract the Ice Empress and the Snow Empress had been mistaken by the Snow Empress for a courtship signal.]

["That's a lovely name," the Snow Empress said, looking at you bashfully. The sight left you, the Ice Empress, and the Titan Snow Demon King dumbstruck, unable to understand what madness had come over her.]

["Xue'er, what's wrong with you?! How can you make that face?! You're the leader of the Far North's Three Great Heavenly Kings!" In human form, the Ice Empress was so short that she only reached the Snow Empress's thigh. She hugged the Snow Empress's leg and shook it as she questioned her.

[The Snow Empress's legs alone were over a meter and a half long. With her upper body included, she stood nearly three meters tall. Looking a little embarrassed, she whispered a few words into the Ice Empress's ear.]

[After hearing the whole story, the Ice Empress stood rooted to the spot, looking as though she had suffered a tremendous shock.]

[A moment later, the Ice Empress's eyes turned bloodshot, and she panted like a bull. She glared at you as though you had stolen her wife. "You pathetic small fry! How dare you?! Xue'er is mine! Get down here! We'll have a fair fight! Whoever wins gets Xue'er!"]