Chapter 1:

Chapter 1



Softness is a concept that transcends the physical and many are the ways one can describe it.

"Tai Su."​

it is a warm blanket on one's soul, a feeling of safety and companionship that can bring one to bliss.

"Tai Su!"​

It is a feeling all men long for and one that I am currently feeling. It is the sweet embrace of a mother, the companionship of one's siblings…

"Tai Su"

It's the embrace of one's wife, her sweet kisses, peaceful nights and kind moment.

Why is it then that my future wife proceeds to act the exact opposite of what one would call Soft?

The sound of a palm hitting one's face echoed in the air and I was intimately familiar with it now as it was my hand, under the control of my future wife, using it to smack my face into wakefulness.

"Bao Xiaoli, please cease that." I pleaded with the woman that refused to stop hitting me.

She continued to use my own hand to smack my face and I continued to allow the very violent woman to continue hitting her future husband

"No, not until you open your eyes and greet your wife-to-be properly you big lug of a lazy man." Said women replied cheerfully as she continued to use my own hand to smack me.

I proceeded to do what I always do in such situations and used the same had to grab her and pull her into my bed.

"Now that's better." I said back and proceeded to go back to sleep.

"Knave, monster, lustful beast, how am I going to get married if a beast takes my honor like this, unhand me! Unhand me or my husband will come rip your your hide and make it into a book!" The woman in my hands cried as she ineffectually tried to escape.

But my grip was absolute and I would not be denied my sleep by her cries.

"I am to be your husband, and I made you a book yesterday from bamboo paper, you don't need more of them yet. How are you going to get married if a beast keeps you locked in" I grumbled.

Said woman continued to squirm in my hands, for my grip was iron, my arms as strong as the mountain and my muscles mightier still!

"Liar, I am not married yet yes but you won't keep it in your claws for long! You leave me no choice but deploy my secret technique you beast. Suffer, suffer for one thousand years!" She shouted

My eyes opened in fear as my mind realized that it was in danger and I tried to react, but the enemy was already inside the gates of my heart and what I believed was my prisoner turned to be an Assassin in disguise.

The only thing I could see before my eyes were forced to close were the green eyes of the woman that subjected me to the most horrific torture imaginable.

"Bao… Bao please mercy!" I tried to cry as the evil woman started tickling me.

"Never!" The cruel creature said as she continued her relentless campaign against my dignity.

It is a campaign I have already lost, but it does not mean I have to be the only one to lose, or that the situation cannot be turned back into victory, for I am Tai Su, son of Long Su and the son of a dragon never accepts defeat!

The tickling went through phases, one where the evil assassin would increase intensity and another where she would lower it and I picked the right moment where I had the most control of my limbs and caught her hands in a flash with my right hand, then in the next moment picked her up by her leg with my left hand.

My legs have never move so fast as the speed with which I used them to get our of the bed and put the assassin on my back as she was a sack of rice.

"Unhand me barbarian, let me down, let me down!" The poor thing cried.

"I am Tai Su, and you are my conquest, I will use you however I like and parade you in front of my realm for all to see my Might." I proclaimed as I started walking.

I gave the rice sack a good firm pat on the ass and proceeded to walk out of my small room into the living room. She was lucky her green dress was covering said ass as I had no intention of saving her dignity if I could make her back cheeks as red as her front cheeks were probably right now.

"At least put a shirt on!" Said rice sack shouted as it ineffectively tried to hit my back to let her down.

I looked down, I was clean, my pants were still there and I was topless and barefoot.

'Good enough for staying in doors.' I thought with a shrug.

I took a whiff and I didn't smell bad either.

"No, barbarians don't wear shirts." I declared and gave her a more firm smack.

She stopped her attempts at freedom for now as I walked into the living room and saw that it was empty and proceeded to go outside.

'It seems mother decided she wants us to have breakfast outside before going to work on the fields.'

Sliding the door was a bit awkward with miss rice sack on my back but it was done and I headed towards the family table where both my family and Bao's waited for both of us.

"Mothers, fathers. Brother, sisters." I greeted.

"Son, leave Bao down and get to eating, the rice won't look after itself and I need two pairs of hands for it." My father ordered with a grin.

"Yes father." I replied with a shit-eating grin that matched that of the man that raised me

There was a lot of things that matched between the two of us, the broad shoulders, the brown eyes, the same sun-kissed skin that is rare this far east and the same sharp features that told to all that I, Tai Su am the son of Long Su.

I did as the dragon commanded and let the red faced woman down and joined our families to eating.

Bao put herself to my left as I stood to the left of my father and proceeded to dig into the rice.

"I'll need you to look over the fence and fix it if its broken. The Ma's said that there's a fox in the area and the last thing I want is for the creature to steal the chicken." Father said

"I heard of it, but it's a two-legged one, I don't think they're the type to hunt chicken when they can buy them. Heard they're good merchants and good merchants don't tend to live long if they kill our chicken." I replied.

I did not tell him no, for one does not say no to a request from one's father, but making small talk was acceptable.

"It does not matter if they have a human face son, a fox is a fox and they steal and kill all they can. Also all merchants are thieves, I remember when one of them tried to sell me my own lost bracelet after I lost it on the road back to my parent's home. The man had the gall to say it belonged to his mother and asked seven taels for it! Seven! I could buy its weight in gold for it!" My mother declared.

"Yes mother." I said simply as I nodded.

That seemed to be the common wisdom in my new life. In my old one fox men and women were considered powerful mages or demonic entities in the stories, but in this one everyone calls them killers and thieves.

Merchants are about as shameless which was a pleasant thing to hear, as some things seem to be truly universal.

"Once I am done, do you want me to look over the fox to make sure it's not getting up to some mischief?" I offered.

I was perfectly willing to help with the rice fields, but keeping the farm safe from intruders is also the job of a man.

"No Tai Su, my little Bai will be looking after the creature to make sure it doesn't hunt what is shouldn't, but I'll need you to help with looking after my sheep today, my knee is acting up and I can't today." Mu Xiaoli asked.

Mu Xiaoli was an old man with gray hair. One would think him Bao's grandfather, but my wife-to-be is simply the youngest of many siblings while I am the only son of my father, albeit that might change soon judging by my mother's slowly filling belly.

Bai just nodded at that, he was a man of few words and I liked that.

"I will do so after I look over the fence. I looked it over the last week so it shouldn't be broken." I said with a nod.

"Thank you young man, I am glad to see my little Bao is in good hands. These old bones aren't what they were twenty years ago" My future father-in-law declared.

"We all have bad days Mu Xiaoli, I am sure that in a week you'll be just as spry as the man a few years back that was chasing me with a stick for trying to ride a sheep." I boastfully declared.

"That's true I guess, you're too large to ride sheep now, but if you were to try it doesn't matter how large you get you'll get a beating!" He replied seriously before a second later breaking his scowl.

The old man chuckled and so did the rest of the table, but we all knew that the sixty year old shepherd wasn't long for the world.

I finished my bowl and took a second serving and looked into Bao's plate to make sure the woman ate once the bowl was full. She kept talking nonsense of not getting fat when she constantly works in the fields

'She only ate half.' I thought with annoyance.

This woman will be the death of me.

"Eat all of it Bao, a thin figure won't let you work the fields or prepare you for when we go take the sect's tests." I ordered and took her half empty bowl and filled it back in.

"Tai, what will my children say if their mother is fat?" The tiresome woman asked.

"They'll say that their father is a mighty man that does not leave his wife to starve, now eat." I declared as I gave her the bowl back.

We are training to be cultivators, we burn a lot of calories and need to eat more than most as our Meridians burn through our energy far faster than normal.

Bao took the food and did like I asked, the last thing I needed was her to fall down tired during work again because she did not want to eat. We're making enough food, and her family are shepherds, food and clothing are not an issue.


I made sure that the woman ate everything in her bowl, much to the amused looks of our families. If the woman thinks that she'll scare me like she did last year then she doesn't know me well.

I've already been separated from one family with my early death, I am not losing another this easily, not in a cultivation world where one can reach Immortality.