Hye Won's mood shifted like a storm front—one moment she was listening, the next her fingers were twisted in his collar, yanking him closer. "You re-engineered us? Without asking?" Her voice cracked, not with anger but something raw. "This isn't evolution, it's... it's an invasion. Who the hell gave you the right to just—to make these choices for our bodies?"
But even as she said it, her grip was loosening. Her emotions weren't really anger, were they?
Instead of pulling away from her cultivation-strengthened hold—strong enough to tear the fabric—he drew her closer.
"Well," he said quietly, "considering your lifespan... did you want to stay fertile for just the next forty years? Live by cultivating while losing the ability to have children? Because I can revert you back to your previous template if that's what you want."
The fight went out of her completely. She awkwardly smoothed his crumpled collar, avoiding his eyes like a kid caught breaking something.
"You could have told us..." Hye Won mumbled.
"You're just upset because you found out you're not pregnant, aren't you?" His voice was so calm it was almost infuriating.
"I told you before—you're about to step beyond mortal, and there's no going back. This is what's best for you. I could've taught you Qi methods to freeze your cycles, but that involves way more control and makes having children harder as you age. It's... it's too complex to explain exactly how I did this."
"Then why do we feel more..." Yue Lan's voice got softer, uncertain. "More attached to you lately?"
"That means your sexual interest is guided by your spirit now. Your emotions, your actual connection with someone—rather than just... you know, hormonal fluctuations or biological urges. These changes, they're integrated into your genetic code. An evolutionary leap that gives you biological autonomy and freedom from all those previous constraints."
They sat with that for a while, letting it sink in. Their husband really was mysterious in ways they were still discovering. After letting them in and offering drinks, he settled into the comfort of a lounge chair.
Hye Won glanced between them, her voice tentative. "Now that you mention it... what about children? Do you, um, do you plan to marry us?"
Yue Lan's gaze was steady when she added, "Yeah. We've both told you how we feel. And you... you feel the same way. But what about marriage? Like, an actual ceremony. What do you think?"
"...." He paused.
Han Chen then smiled faintly, almost sad. "Children... not now. Not yet. Honestly? I find them annoying." He paused, seeing their expressions.
"Look, if you don't shed the mentality of raising children and building a family this early on, then you're not suitable for eternal life. You'd lose physical essence and yin yuan with each birth, slowing your cultivation. But more importantly..."
Another pause. Longer this time.
"In the span of my life, I'm still an infant. I can't bring children onto this path. One day—and it's coming—this peaceful life will end. We'll leave this city, this world, and we've barely even begun."
"Can't you take them with us? Like you're taking us?" they pressed.
"Everything has a price." His voice got sharp, cutting through their hope. "I could've cultivated alone, but for love and happiness, I chose you both. Now I divide my energy between cultivation and protecting you. Children require more—time, money, patience, and a major detour from cultivation."
He locked eyes with them, one then the other. "If you're truly willing to leave a child behind when we ascend, then fine. But can you actually do that?"
...
Hye Won recoiled like he'd slapped her. "How can you say that so coldly? Abandon our own child?"
"I meant as adults," Han Chen said more gently. "Look, suppose we stop prioritizing cultivation and raise a child. That's twenty years, minimum. Then they find a partner, start their own life. We'd still look twenty while I have three thousand years ahead of me. What then?"
"Can't they cultivate too?" Yue Lan asked, though she was starting to sound less sure.
Han Chen's annoyance was only growing—you could hear it. "You'd have them cultivate? Who's going to provide the internal essence for refinement? This world can't support more cultivators at our level. If they stop at martial arts, they'll still grow old and die while we stay the same. Should I support every generation just to keep up with our level? What about their children? Their grandchildren? Don't they have the same situation we do? I don't have enough to give endlessly."
He let out a heavy breath. "What if I ascend in sixty years? Do I just... leave them behind? The process of ascension—you might remember it from the memories—it's not a family trip. You don't bring an entourage. It's a trial of self. I'm already risking everything trying to bring you both with me. I can't afford to carry more."
Yue Lan persisted: " Come on, leave them. As adults they could build up in this world as our legacy right if we could hide our true selves from them?"
He turned to her, and something in his expression made her stomach drop. "You say that now. Legacy is for people with limited lives. Even if you raised them as mortals, lived simply, passed down our wealth—could you really let them go when they age and die? Your body stays young, but so does your mind. Your heart will love that child even on their deathbed. Can you live with that? Can you just... walk away?"
His voice got quieter, more final. "Because ascension won't wait. You either rise alone with regrets, or you die. And I don't want to die—I already have, more than once. I don't think there's another chance after this."
The silence that followed was... profound. Heavy. The stark reality he'd painted,~~ watching their children wither while they remained untouched by time ~ hung in the air like smoke. Hye Won and Yue Lan exchanged a look, the crushing weight of immortality's true price settling between them. All those dreams of family, of legacy, of having something normal to anchor them to a mortal life... dissolving like mist.
Han Chen broke the silence, his gaze dropping for a moment. When he looked up, the fierce pragmatist was gone, replaced by something quieter, more vulnerable.
"Sorry," he said, and the apology sounded raw. "The anger... it wasn't meant for you. But if there ever comes a time when we're not running, not fighting, not preparing to leave everything behind... maybe I'll think differently. Not today. Not yet. But I won't pretend to know who I'll be in a thousand years."
He looked between them, his voice lower now. "As for marriage... in my heart, we already are." He touched his chest. "Our souls are knotted together. Thoughts, feelings, the very rise and fall of our breath—all synced. That bond... it goes beyond any earthly ceremony."
He paused, considering. "But if you want a ceremony, then yes. I know one—the Heaven-Binding Vow. You bow to the heavens, and the Dao itself bears witness. Not just symbolic... a real contract. Something sacred."
His tone expressed disdain. "Problem is doing it in society. A ceremony between the three of us, openly? There'd be outrage. Authorities called, scandal cried. Polygamy's illegal. Anything outside their neat little boxes is wrong, dangerous."
Hye Won hesitated. "What about... what about our parents?"
Han Chen's face went serious ~ like, really serious. "I'm .... not telling them. About us, about cultivation, any of it. Same reasons I just mentioned. " He ran a hand through his hair. "Look, our path... it's gonna get weird. Weirder than it already is. And they've spent most of their lives in this world, you know? I want them to stay peaceful in it. You saw how much work I put into just getting you two to understand this stuff."
He paused, looking almost... tired? "I don't want to drag them into something that'll just confuse them. Or worse—burden them with knowing their kids won't grow old alongside them."
He was quiet for a second, then just dropped it casually: "Besides, my mother's decided to give me a sibling."
Both women just... stared.
Hye Won blinked hard. "Wait. What?"
Yue Lan's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean 'decided'? Your mother is—?"
Han Chen gave this helpless little smile. "Pregnant. Yeah. Apparently she and dad, after everything that happened—their near-death experience and all that—plus the fact that mother was complaining about entering her... second spring, they felt like they got a second chance at parenting."
He shrugged. "I didn't ask for details. She just told me it was happening, quite a few months at it. I think she thought it'd make me happy or something. This never happened in my previous life, so..."
Long pause. Like, really long.
Hye Won let out this breath she'd been holding. "So we're not even married yet and you're gonna be a big brother?"
Yue Lan actually laughed—soft, but surprised. "That's... weirdly perfect, isn't it? A mortal sibling born right as we're planning on leaving the mortal world behind."
Han Chen's voice got softer, almost wistful. "Exactly. That's exactly why I can't tell them. Not about the cultivation, not about us being together like this. Let them live in peace, grow old happy. For the little gal, I'll be a big brother as long as I can. They deserve that much. Now imagine dragging them on an immortal journey. They don't have a lifetime of experience to anchor them like I do. How long before they burn through all that favor and devotion? A hundred years? A thousand?"
A bitter smirk crossed his face. "And that's assuming they even survive the journey. I can't babysit them forever."
He looked down at his hands. "I was born into their world, but I won't ask them to follow me out of it. I'll leave every bit of my wealth and protection for them. In my past life, they died under others designs not seeing how their son was successful or not. My regret before was about not letting them have a life as they have now. I fulfilled that."
Hye Won's expression softened and she reached for his hand. "We get it. Just... promise us we'll still visit? Even if we can't tell them the truth. Let them know we're still, you know, part of their lives somehow."
Han Chen nodded. "Of course. I'll be there for every milestone."
Yue Lan pressed her fingers to her chest. "Then when we do our vows... we'll carry all this with us. Our families, this world. In our hearts, even if we can't take them along."
"Yeah... it might hurt them. Parents often carry dreams for us—marriage, grandchildren, a future they can understand. And what we're choosing... it's not that." His voice got quieter. "I'm being selfish asking you to do the same. Both of you were raised by strong women—mothers who probably imagined something simpler, safer, more... explainable. If you truly can't bear to let that go..."
A flicker of a smile crossed his lips, faint but deliberate.
He clasped his hands, his gaze taking on this serene, almost pious quality. "In that case, I'll have to lie to my mother. I'll explain that advanced cultivation extinguished my mortal desires, changed my body's focus beyond such urges entirely. I became, for all intents and purposes, impotent and spiritually celibate in my transcendence."
Yue Lan gave him the flattest look imaginable. "You wish."
He shrugged lightly, still serious beneath the joke. "She might be shocked at first... but relieved I'm not chasing some scandalous harem like the stories say." He glanced at them playfully.
The shared look that passed between the women was immediate—surprise quickly giving way to protest as they recognized what he was really suggesting. Sharing their burden and decisions for them.
Yue Lan met Han Chen's gaze, steel in her voice. "I won't live a lie for her comfort. If we do this, I'll tell her I've chosen a path she won't understand—one that doesn't include tradition. Let her think I'm obsessed with my career, or... or that I'm incapable of love. But I won't let her pity me."
Her voice dropped, dangerous. "And if you dare claim impotence to your mother or ours, we'll personally correct that assumption in front of them."
Hye Won snorted, but when she spoke her voice was raw. "She'd mourn never holding a grandchild, though. She'd blame herself—wonder if pushing me toward you was a mistake." A sharp inhale. "But she'd also be the first to say, 'If he makes you happy, then damn the rest.' So... I'll break her heart gently and spend every mortal year left making sure she never doubts I'm loved."
***
Time passed.
Han Chen's Chaos Bead.
The sky was still when they stepped into his inner world.
Soft twilight spread across a vast landscape untouched by human hands — a sea of silver grass that rippled with their breath, a tranquil lake reflecting bare night sky not seen in any mortal sky. Here, spiritual energy flowed freely.
Time felt... quiet.
Hye Won whispered, "It's beautiful..."
Yue Lan's gaze swept across the open expanse. "This is inside you?"
Han Chen stood a few paces ahead, robes rippling in an unfelt wind. He didn't explain much, just let them think this was his dantian containing a world. He didn't feel guilty about the half-truth—after all, it would become reality given his actual situation. "It's my sustenance. Our backup." He glanced back at them with a faint smile.
They walked in silence to a rise above the lake. At the summit stood three ancient stones, half-sunk in grass. Above them, the heavens opened—not cloud nor sun, but the vast, endless tapestry of spiritual energy itself. Below lay a spiritual vein. Spiraling energy, stars that pulsed with meaning, and above, a presence that watched, patient and eternal. The Heavenly Dao.
Han Chen turned to face them. "Once, my motto was to never be bound again. Never to trust, never to love."
He stepped forward and knelt before the stones, lowering his head. "I was wrong."
Yue Lan's eyes softened. She knelt beside him without hesitation. "Then let this be your second chance—not alone, but with us."
Hye Won knelt on his other side. "Together."
A moment later, they all stood up. After a while of silent understanding, they bowed before heaven. The air shifted. His intent reached the heavens.
Han Chen spoke, voice steady:
"I, Han Chen, swear before Heaven:
To walk my path with Hye Won and Yue Lan, not as obligations, but as chosen companions. To love them. To stand beside them in joy and adversity, so long as our wills remain aligned. And should our paths ever diverge, by mutual accord, to part without resentment, keep our promises, and leave only gratitude for what was shared."
Hye Won closed her eyes. When she spoke, her words trembled with intensity. Yue Lan joined her, her voice calm and strong:
"I, Hye Won... I, Yue Lan, declare before Heaven:
That I choose this bond not out of duty or submission, but for the fire it stirs in my soul. To fight for our connection—not blindly, but so long as it nourishes who I am. To love fiercely, yet never lose myself in devotion. And if the day comes when love fades, I will keep our promises and honor its memory without chains."
A golden light shimmered down, soft and warm—like a blessing from the heavens themselves. Their spirits eased, suffused with quiet warmth. The vow had been accepted. The heavens had heard.
"Bow to ourselves," he said softly. After that, the solemn ceremony was done. Three souls now joined beyond name, beyond mortal law, beyond mortal bounds.
Han Chen let out a quiet chuckle. "No takebacks now."
Both women reached out and gave his head a light knock.
Smiling, Han Chen reached for their hands—one in each of his—and murmured, "In this reality... you are my wives."
Yue Lan lifted her chin, a rare flicker of vulnerability in her eyes. "And you're ours."
Hye Won leaned her head against his shoulder, her voice soft. "Always....well I feel its different without inviting our.. families. "
Then Yue Lan asked, arching a brow, "And also we really have to say it like that for it to work?"
"Vowing to the Dao—or Heaven—is no small thing," Han Chen said calmly. "There's a reason it follows a certain form. It's not just words. It's alignment, intention, and resonance. Standard text or not—it only binds what's true. As for familial presence, this vow is a contract between two parties, and not their relatives. It's your deeply instilled cultural feelings wanting their participation." and thought for a second and added." You can receive their blessing in real life, both of your mothers are indebted to you two. Their blessing comes with it."
Beneath them, the lake rippled gently, reflecting more than their forms. Their spiritual selves shimmered on the surface—luminous, entwined. Three lights, no longer separate.