"Don't mourn for me, Mrs. Mei'er. I'll eventually come back to see you, I promise."
Hugging the shivering Xie Mei and patting her back to keep her from bawling her eyes out, Li Shuying had a helpless smile on her lips. Originally, she had planned to be born again and embark on her voyage into the unknown close to a century ago. Yet when she had shared this news, it was Xie Mei who had desperately begged her to stay with them for a while longer.
Her reasoning wasn't even flawed–in the great scheme of things, a mere 100 years were nothing, therefore whether she set off now or a bit later wouldn't make much of a perceivable difference. Obviously, the main reason as to why she tried to keep her from shedding her mortal body was that Xie Mei had grown quite attached to her and didn't want to be separated from her.
Compared to Theodore, his lovers spent significantly more time with Li Shuying, so they also had become a lot closer with her. Due to this, amongst all of the Subordinates, she was quite highly regarded. Still, her own constant hard work and professional attitude helped a lot with reinforcing her position as well.
She got along fine with everybody, and nobody could dislike her. Even Theodore's Followers were polite to her, never lording their exalted status over her. This caused the new hires who joined the guards and maids to be on their best behaviour around her.
In all honesty, the last century had been smooth sailing for Li Shuying. Although her cultivation didn't improve by too much, and her body had already visibly aged by about a decade, it had been a wonderful experience. The only thing that she found a bit of a pity was that everyone else's training sessions tended to last a very long time, which made her encounters with them progressively more scarce–yet not to the point where she genuinely got lonely.
"I-I know! But still... I'll miss you!"
Holding back her tears, Xie Mei sniffled a little, her usually cheerful smile nowhere to be seen. Despite realizing that Li Shuying wanted her to let go, she felt very reluctant. Sure, they would reunite one day, but who knew how long that would take?!
"Instead of being sad, why not look forward to my glorious return? You'd best not slack off in the meantime, else I'll surpass you before you know it."
Narrowing her eyes a little with a minute but mischievous smirk on her lips, she attempted a different approach. If coddling her didn't work, then why not stoke her competitive spirit? Having lived this long alongside geniuses aplenty, picking up a few tricks here and there was to be expected–and this manipulative tactic was one of them.
"Hmph, don't be too sure of yourself! I'll have you chasing after my shadow, just you wait!"
Fully aware of what Li Shuying was doing, Xie Mei nonetheless went along with it, mostly because she didn't want to hold her up for too long. After all, hadn't she already 'wasted' a century of her friend's time? She might act immature and needy occasionally, yet in truth, she was anything but.
Cultivators like her often spent many years or even decades in seclusion, leading to a somewhat stinted development in regard to mental maturity. Still, time would inevitably leave its marks, and a certain minimum of growth would take place nonetheless.
Shooting Xie Mei one more smile, Li Shuying let go of her and walked in front of Theodore, who had been silently waiting at the side. In fact, nearly everyone that she knew was present for her 'funeral'–or rather, her liberation from less than even mediocrity.
"I'm ready, my Lord!"
Nodding in acknowledgement, he stepped forward and placed a hand on her forehead. Then, he carefully began to manipulate her fragile soul with his. Being as weak as she was, she was of course completely unable to resist–but his overwhelming power also meant that he had to be extra careful to prevent accidentally injuring her.
At her soul's innermost part, where her Coreflame would be emerging one day, he gently engraved the seal of the Winter Family, alongside his personal one. This pretty much served as his signature, and would let the cycle of reincarnation know how strongly he valued this particular person.
Just like quite a few other Supreme Pillars, his family held a lot of sway not only over the Heavenly Court, but also the mechanism responsible for handling the souls of the dead. Having been officially acknowledged as the main heir–the one who would one day inherit the position of Patriarch from his father, Theoderick–this gave him a lot of influence, even in matters such as this.
Whilst he shouldn't overuse these privileges, occasionally asking for a tiny favour wasn't much of an issue. His signature alone would ensure that Li Shuying would keep being his Retainer, even after being reborn.
And exactly like he had told her, her Special Attributes would stay at least the same–heck, they might actually improve. This depended on the part which he hadn't said out loud: That his influence would guarantee her a successful new life. He couldn't really know how well off in terms of Talents, natural aptitude and background she would be, but the cycle of reincarnation would have his back and pick out something it deemed to be fitting.
After the seals had been put in place, Theodore separated a tiny strand of his soul, wiping it clean and thereby turning it into a blank slate. He then let it remain next to Li Shuying's soul, copying her memories unto itself. Only after she was dead for good would its task come to an end.
"It is done."
Taking a step back, he patiently gave her some more time. Understanding that her life was coming to a close, no matter how prepared she had been, a hint of nostalgia still clouded Li Shuying's mind for a while. A minute or two of reminiscence later, she let her gaze wander across all those who had come here today.
From Xie Mei and Han Junqiao, who she treasured deeply, to Vigdis and Cheong Suhyeon, who she genuinely respected. Then, there was Navya, who had been responsible for too many headaches to count, and Satoru, who constantly left bloody messes behind whenever her cultivated.
Conrad and the rest of the guards silently saluted her, with tears shimmering in the corners of Annis' eyes. As for Corinna and the maids, they didn't fare too much better either. Still, they all mostly had kind smiles on their lips whenever their gazes met.
"This isn't a goodbye. Everyone, our paths will cross again!"
Steeling herself, she at last locked eyes with her Lord and gave him a resolute nod. In response, he shot her a warm, reassuring smile, then waved his hand and encased her in Eternal Ice.
She didn't have any time to slowly take in her demise–it was instant. From one moment to the next, she turned into an ice sculpture, which then shattered and dissipated into nothingness. All that was left behind was her soul, but it didn't stay for long. Almost immediately, it got claimed by the cycle of reincarnation.
Everything that needed to be said, all of the instructions that had to be given, and all of the heartfelt, emotional moments which should be exchanged had already taken place over the course of the last century. Today was just the culmination of them all, and the beginning of Li Shuying's lengthy journey.
'Best of luck, Ying'er. I hope you'll surprise me.'
Silently gazing at the spot where she had disappeared, Theodore recollected the strand of his soul which had fully replicated her memories. He put it away carefully, letting his Coreflame protect it. He truly hoped that his investment in her would pay off, but even if it didn't, then it still would have been worth the try.
"See you soon, Ying'er!"
Still suppressing her tears, Xie Mei squeezed out this sentence, then she bolted away, shutting herself in her room. For many days after, the maids occasionally passing by swore that they could hear her mournful cries resounding–even though her chamber had long been soundproofed.
Maybe this loss had served as the final impetus, but when she re-emerged again, Xie Mei had managed to make it to the Divine Will Realm. Previously, she had been stuck at the Deific Ordinance Realm for multiple decades, always being just a little bit short from going further. But this blessing in disguise managed to push her over the threshold once she came to terms with it all.
This still left her lagging behind Han Junqiao quite significantly, as her sister had managed to make it to the Dawning Numen Stage's pinnacle almost half a century ago. Her progress throughout the Divine Will Realm had been extremely slow, though, therefore she wasn't yet ready to take another step further.
Almost all guards and maids were in the same shoes as the two of them, except for Conrad, who had somehow arrived at the Holos Acclimation Stage a decade ago. This made him the sole one amongst the Subordinates who had achieved this milestone, other than Satoru and the Named Family descendants.
Needless to say, Cheong Suhyeon, Vigdis, Navya, Kjartan and Satoru had made it to the Holos Acclimation Stage's extreme peak a long time ago–although in the resident Martial God's Incarnation's case, it was of course the Faux version of the cultivation stage.
The only thing that separated them was how fast they had made it to the very limit which the current round allowed. Relying on her lead in the earlier stages, Vigdis was the first one at the finish line, with Cheong Suhyeon coming in second. The fledgling goddess had managed to ever so slightly overtake Theodore's stalker at the Divine Will Realm, leaving Navya to chase after her.
Second to last had been Kjartan, whose best efforts still had him trailing behind the others by a couple of years. Finally, bringing up the rear was Satoru. Finding it increasingly difficult to further improve the efficiency of his self-harming, even with help from the others, it took him nearly half of the first round to become blocked from any further progress.
His case was quite peculiar, as he didn't really rely on Energy at all. Yet, the Faux Holos Acclimation Stage's pinnacle was still where he had to stop. This exposed the fact that the restrictions had a lot less loopholes than originally expected–but it also served to make him feel extremely bored.
Everyone else could further refine parts of themselves to see continuous gains, whereas he was unable to do so. With nothing to do, he reluctantly focused on practising his actual combat skills, achieving remarkable results. But still, he was deeply unsatisfied, as there was an ever-present masochistic itch that he had been unable to properly scratch all this while.
As for the head of the household, Theodore's Golden Cores and Coreflame were currently undergoing their 100th Refinement. His Divine Will was now at Rare Grade, and his Proficiency with it had risen all the way to Intermediate–yet on both of these fronts, progress had begun to slow down significantly. That was completely normal, though, as anything related to 'the divine' was not yet something which he could easily master at his current stage.
His Array Formation and Alchemy Proficiencies had seen major improvements, both being now at Master-level. Yet, the time was too short for either of them to even exceed ten percent of progress.
'It should be today...'
Narrowing his eyes a little, Theodore checked the date, then rose to his feet. Bidding his people a quick, temporary farewell, he arrived next to the nearest Teleportation Array.
Decades ago, Eleanora had invited him to welcome the results of the first round–as well as the rules for the second one–together when the time came. Seeing no reason to refuse, he had accepted her proposal. Now, he intended to make good on this agreement.