Unfortunately for me, once I arrived at the family residence, it was clear that while my brothers were present, their wives clearly weren't. Moreover, they all had that look in their eyes, that look of competition. Like the days we once spent together, training. I had played the part of their instructor and overwhelming opponent. Now, well…
"Brother!" Yang Liang raised his hands and saluted, then pointed directly at me. "Today, let's spar! Show us how much stronger you've become brother."
All of a sudden I was staring down a little under 120 rather powerful cultivators. Each of my brothers minus, Yang Liang, was at high 7th rank cultivation and peak great dragon realm. Yang Liang, was the sole exception in this group, sitting on the cusp of breaking through to the 9th rank open heaven realm, and was comfortably in the Ancient Dragon realm.
"I see, it seems like you all took my advice. Not too slow, and not too fast. Each of you are comparable to a peak 8th rank, or better. But, let's see if you can utilize it properly." I smirked, preparing for a spar.
Now, our brotherly spars all end up with them ganging up on me, for what should be obvious reasons. We also know that I will be restricting myself to purely martial arts, while my brothers can use whatever means they have. This allows me to practice control, while giving them a huge handicap and practice using their abilities to the fullest.
The sparring match was quite a bit more fun this time around, whenever my brothers got close, they'd quickly get reminded why I am the Elder Brother. I never once lazed around, opening myself up to any issues of my brothers surpassing me. Instead I decided to continue regardless.
Eventually, my brothers began dropping out of the sparring match one by one. Each having exhausted themselves below the point of continuing combat. And then finally, among them all remained Yang Liang.
"I figured this would be how it ended up. You've done well to hone your endurance baby brother."
"Ever since you disappeared, I've been training even harder than my elder sisters. I caught up to them and then we had a three way tie going on between us for the last hundred years… I wanted to avenge you. But mother and father told me I was banned from the battlefield this time."
"I see, I can understand their reluctance. Seeing one son die like that… Only to have their other son want to return and fight. It couldn't have been easy on Mother's heart. Then again, she probably did it for selfish reasons." I chuckled.
"You're right, even so, I still hitched a ride to the containment battlelines and gained a lot of experience. Hence the endurance… So stop with the baby brother stuff!"
"But, you'll always be my baby brother. All of you are. That's how I remembered you all this time." I chuckled, trying to get a slight rise out of Yang Liang. "But, if you want to change that, then prove to me that you've earned an enhancement on that title."
Thus a one on one match began again. However, Yang Liang wasn't dumb enough to not understand the meaning behind my words. This was now meant to be purely martial arts. A competition of pure skill, not power. A sentiment he confirmed once we began in earnest. Each exchange one explaining the feeling of brotherhood, family, and the loss felt by all. By the end of it, Yang Liang was crying as he fell into a hug.
"Brother, I missed you… "
"I missed you too. I love you, my little brother."
"Don't go dying on us again. Mother, she… She shed so many tears… Our sisters… If you can promise not to go die on us again, I can accept the little, even baby brother. Just don't-"
"I won't die again. I'd promise that even if I wasn't unkillable now."
"Wait? You can't be killed now? How's that work?"
"Well, it's a bit complicated, but something changes once you reach the realm I've achieved. At this point, under normal circumstances it would take a handful of similarly powerful opponents to take someone of this realm down. However, in my case, it's different, do you remember why?"
"Because, you… No amount of extras can change the situation for you, whether it's one, ten, or a thousand." … "Does that mean you'd be able to handle thousands of Ink's?"
"It wouldn't have changed the outcome of the fight. It may have been a bit more annoying. But that's all. And now… The only reason I'm using so much power to seal him away, is simply because I'm making sure he suffers as much punishment as possible." I paused. "Unfortunately, I can't perform a power strong enough to truly rid him of existence just yet. I will eventually reach that level, but Father, Mu and Mother Ruo Xi will reach the world creation realm long before I can do it on my own."
"I see… Yep, you're right, I don't understand it. Yet…"
"Now then, I'm curious. Let's catch up. And introduce me to all my sister in-laws."
From there we did exactly that. I got the chance to meet my brother's wives, and my sister's husbands. The latter of which I took careful effort to scrutinize, their well, everything. And it seemed like they knew to not, well a, to not fuck it up. After greetings, the preparations had finished. Not a soul wanted to wait a moment longer, I certainly didn't. I may have been married to my wives already, but we had never once held a proper ceremony.
I could go into detail… But well, it was a celebration for months on end. It began with the official wedding, followed by a proper behind closed doors moment with my wives and I. A month later, my wives were, without a doubt, pregnant. But we didn't leave seclusion just yet, opting instead to use this time to bond more closely. It was truly a wonderful time, enjoying each other's company again, especially after so long. But that wasn't all…
"Husband, thank you. We've finally started to build our family."
"I made a promise to each of you, when I married you, that I'd give you as many children as you want. I intend on keeping that promise. And though it wasn't how I envisioned it… I held true to my word, that I'd even break out of Hell just to hold that promise."