The hardest decisions. fell onto Paul and Xiao Su, since they had to decide about their future, and the future of their reincarnation souls.
Paul started by discussing the matter with his ladies, and every one of them agreed to accept Su into the family if she decided that was what she wanted.
Additionally, in case she didn't want to join Paul's family, they also agreed to allow her to cultivate, if for no other reason than the benefits it would bring them.
Su, on the other hand, was consulting her parents on what she should do.
By now, she was certain that she had feelings for Paul, and she also had no problem with sharing her man.
Her main problem was the lack of time, as Paul was fast approaching the supreme Magus stage, at which the fiery ginseng pills would not be as effective, and he would lose a lot of their effects if he missed the chance.
-Su, I can't decide this for you, but seeing that you have feelings for Payl already, and don't even try to deny it.
Liu Lili smiled, seeing shock on her daughter's face as she said that.
-You also plan to follow him to the upper realms, so why not become his partner?
-The only problem I see is whether his ladies will agree, and if you can convince him to agree.
Xiao Han chimed in.
-But we're cousins now.
Su protested weakly, knowing well that it didn't matter, and from her reincarnation soul, she had already learned that in the higher realms, even siblings can become partners.
-Which does not matter, and you know it.
Xiao Han shook his head.
Truth be told, he would prefer it if Su became Paul's woman; at least then, he would know she was in good hands and she was protected when they left for the higher realms.
These discussions lasted quite long and were finally ended when everyone agreed to get some rest and continue discussing the matter in the morning.
That night, Su drank one of the vials and used the cultivation technique to see its effects.
The great thing about it was that she didn't need to reset her cultivation and could switch techniques without losing anything for some reason.
The results were greater than she could ever imagine.
In only a single night, she reached the peak of the Lesser Mage stage and was now only a step away from regaining her former cultivation stage, which she lost after being abducted.
The next morning, after another debate, it was agreed that Su would move to Paul's mansion to enter seclusion and decide if she wanted to become Paul's woman or not.
-Alright, ladies, since we are returning to seclusion, we need to restock our supplies.
Paul said when they left the province lord's mansion.
This statement made all the ladies happy, since it meant a shopping trip.
Xiao Su was a bit baffled about their enthusiasm for shopping until she saw that they were not only buying the supplies but also many other things, most of which had little to do with their planned seclusion.
This made her also enthusiastic, and she joined in on the fun.
Another surprise was that Paul paid for everything despite her protests.
She had a hard time understanding this until the ladies explained to her that it was just the way Paul was, and she should get used to it if she wanted to stick around.
In the end, they spent most of the day shopping and having fun in town, visiting the Dancing
Flames restaurant for their meal, which once again shocked Su since she was certain that they could easily afford more luxurious restaurants.
However, after a brief explanation and tasting the food, Su agreed that this was a far superior choice.
Returning to his mansion in the evening, Paul assigned Anna to show Su around.
The room was not a problem at all since there were still many rooms available in the mansion despite over a dozen people living there.
-Get some rest, from tomorrow morning, we will begin the seclusion.
Anna said, after taking Su to her room.
-I was wondering, what exactly do you do during the seclusion?
Su asked before Anna left.
-We cultivate, of course, but other than that, we are also training and learning new things.
You'll see tomorrow.
Anna smiled and left.
Su had to admit that she had a lot of fun today, but she could not stop thinking about the advice given by her reincarnation soul.
-Am I really going to do it?
She asked herself.
-Am I even ready to try cultivating with him?
She asked in her thoughts, which was an even better question since, till now, her only experience with sex was being raped, and she was worried that she might panic if she tried to cultivate with Paul, and she would not even have a choice in the matter if she took the potion, which terrified her a little.
Thinking about it, she had a hard time falling asleep, but eventually she did.
The next morning, right after breakfast, she witnessed another card lottery and blushed when the ladies explained why they did it.
-This is one way to decide on the order, but why n ot just discuss it among yourselves to decide?
Su asked, a bit surprised by the situation.
-We tried that already, and the result was that we almost argued over it, with no consensus in sight, which is why we use this method now.
Wu Yin explained.
-Do you also want to draw a card?
Natalie asked before the ladies took their cards.
-No, thank you, I don't think I'm ready for this yet.
Su rejected the idea, while blushing, which made everyone laugh a bit.
As soon as the cards were drawn, it was clear who went first or last, so Irine, who won this time, went with Paul to cultivate while the other ladies took another few boxes of vials and went to the garden, which was their favorite place to cultivate.
Su wanted to join them at first, but was stopped by Wei Lan and Anna.
-You need to get to the next stage, so focus on that, and we will guard your door.
Wei Lan said, giving her a vial.
They knew by now that it would most likely take a day or two for Su to break through, and they volunteered to keep guard mostly because they were the last ones in order this time, so they had a lot of time on their hands.
They were surprised, to say the least, when they felt Xiao Su's breakthrough just three hours later.
-What's going on?
Anna asked, opening the door to Su's bedroom, to see if she was alright.
-I have no idea.
Su was also shocked at this development.
-I started cultivating as usual, preparing for a breakthrough, but I just advanced like there was no bottleneck.
What's more, if I'm right, I just got a perfect breakthrough.
She added.
-This tends to happen when you're using the perfect technique for your physique and have a high aptitude for dual cultivation.
Suddenly, Su's reincarnation soul appeared with a smile on her ghost-like face.
-You are saying that this happened because I used your technique?
Su asked, not believing that things could be so easy.
-Exactly, and the same can happen to anyone who finds a cultivation technique that is best suited for their physique.
-But Yin and I have our clan's technique, and we still needed to drop below the second stage before we could use it.
Wei Lan said.
-That's because it's your clan's technique, which allows you to control yourselves, is not the best technique for your physiques.
The soul explained.
-What you are using is called a calm lily cultivation technique, which is the best technique for you right now, since it lets you advance and control yourself.
However, it is only a temporary technique, and as soon as you reach high enough levels, you won't need it anymore, at which time you can switch to the stargazer lily technique, which is the best one for the two of you.
-Are you saying that we are all cultivating sub-optimal techniques?
Anna asked, shocked at the reincarnation soul's words.
-Yes and no.
The soul answered/
-The techniques you received are suited best for your current situation.
For example, you and the elf girl need to become strong as fast as possible, so the techniques you got are best suited for that purpose.
The two fox ladies need to awaken their bloodline and have the technique best suited for that.
The same could be said about everyone else in this mansion.
Even that man of yours is using a technique that is best suited to build a solid foundation while also increasing his cultivation at quite a fast pace, while at the same time complementing all the techniques you received, allowing all of you to become much stronger in a short amount of time.
-But Paul's technique is the slowest one.
Wei Lan said, while thinking about what she had just heard.
-Of course it is, otherwise he would grow way too fast for any of you to catch up.
Additionally, I think that his reincarnation soul wants to teach him a few lessons by slowing down his progress.
The soul said with a mysterious smile.