"The main issue is how to solve the problem with the ice," Fang Yuan thought to himself once he was done dealing with the mushroommen villages.
He had expected the dream realm to end once the Earthly Calamity was done. However, it continued to go on, meaning there was a bigger threat that he had to handle.
"Actually, Fang Yuan, there's something that I want to tell you," Xie Han Mo said to him later that evening. "I've been waiting until the end of the Earthly Tribulation because I did not want to burden you with this news in case we perished. However..." she paused, trailing off. "Now that I know that we survived and that we will continue to have a future here... Fang Yuan, I'm pregnant."
Time in the dream realm seemed to stop for a moment.
"I've known for about two months now," Xie Han Mo said. "And now that we have some time to take a breather, I feel that we can raise this child in a happy and peaceful environment, so long as we live."
"Why, Xie Han Mo, that's wonderful!" the Fang Yuan within the dream realm said.
It would be safest if they could rear their children outside of the Blessed Land, away from the calamities, but the outside world was not exactly kind to them either. And at the very least, the Blessed Land had the resources to help them defend themselves.
"With that said, though," Xie Han Mo said, with a wide smile on her face, "I don't think one child would be enough. I knew that I couldn't have any heirs before when I was Saintess, but now that I can, I think that I definitely want... ten. No, at minimum, twelve children together with you!"
"Twelve?" Fang Yuan said, a little bit surprised. "Don't you think that's too much? I think that six or seven should be the limit..."
"Why, what's the problem?" Xie Han Mo said. "I think we have more than enough resources to feed them and ensure that they have a bright future, don't we?"
"Well, I guess so," Fang Yuan said. "I guess it can't hurt."
"Yay, Master!" the Seven Rainbows Moth King said. "Soon, we'll have little helpers to help you manage this Blessed Land!"
"There will be some time before they can actually help me," Fang Yuan said. He was currently Rank 4 Middle Stage within the dream realm, which meant that it would be for the best that he work on advancing his cultivation while he had time.
Xie Han Mo spent most of her time resting now that she was pregnant. Fang Yuan had been able to sell the carcass of the Cloud Whale on Yellow Treasure Heaven for 5 Immortal Essence stones.
The question was as to how he intended to invest them.
He could buy more mushroommen, but given the fact that he already had a village of them, he didn't feel that it would yield many dividends before the next calamity struck.
Rather than that, he bought a number of mermen instead.
Variant human slaves were quite commonly sold on Yellow Treasure Heaven. Most of them were adult males, with very few adult females. This was rather to be expected - if one could easily buy females on the market one could easily breed more of them. This would undercut the seller's market, which naturally they did not want.
However, one mermen Immortal had capture an enemy tribe, and was selling all of them - women and children included. He didn't deal with mermen slaves exclusively, which is why they could be bought like this.
Fang Yuan had bought then, not necessarily to keep them as slaves, but rather to keep Xie Han Mo company.
The mermen, coming from a defeated tribe somewhere else in the Eastern Sea, were cowering as they were transported into the Blessed Land, wondering what was going to happen.
Fang Yuan went out to greet them, Xie Han Mo next to him, and the Seven Rainbows Moth King behind him.
Very few Gu Masters were there in this batch, but that was to be expected. If Fang Yuan had wanted a large number of Gu Masters, it would've resulted in the price being much higher.
"It's him - it's the Immortal!"
"He looks so dangerous!"
"No, not Immortal - he's just a Rank 4 Gu Master."
"But that's the Land Spirit behind him - he must be the owner of this Blessed Land!"
"Shh!"
"Who is that beauty next to him though?"
"Likely his concubine. Sigh, if I could also become his concubine I'd at least be guaranteed a good life here..."
"Aren't you a man?"
"Have you heard of the Sunflower Manual?"
"Silence!" Fang Yuan yelled out, and they all stopped talking. "My name is Gu Yue Fang Yuan. I am the lord of this Blessed Land and the one who purchased you all as slaves."
There was a pause. No one spoke up.
"This here is my wife, Xie Han Mo," Fang Yuan said. "My first and only wife."
There was some mild chatter at that. Variant humans were persecuted nearly everywhere - not that trysts between them and regular humans were unheard of, as a matter of fact there were some variant humans who rather liked humans in that regard - but it was odd to see a human openly acknowledging one as his concubine, let alone as his first wife.
"So long as you work for me, I can guarantee your freedom as residents of this Blessed Land," Fang Yuan said. His wife would not be happy keeping large numbers of mermen as slaves, and so Fang Yuan had 'freed' them.
This also made managing them much easier, because of their intelligence, humans and variant humans were both easier and harder to enslave than animals.
There was some grumbling, but at least, some of the merfolk were hopeful that things might not end up being as bad as they had once thought.
Several of them became Xie Han Mo's handmaidens, living within the newly constructed temporary Immortal Palace (the laboratory which Fang Yuan was working on rebuilding would still take time before it was fully functional).
The other merfolk were tasked with trying to purify the lake that had been affected by the poisonous cloud and otherwise involved in irrigation in the fields worked by the mushroommen.
Fang Yuan still needed to find a solution for the fields of snow, however. The cold was affecting other parts of the aperture and negatively influencing their yields.
While he brainstormed of a solution to this, Xie Han Mo gave birth, which was uncomplicated thanks to the benefits of gu worms as well as the Pill Path.
"Look, Fang Yuan, it's our child," Xie Han Mo said, holding up a half-human, half-mermaid boy. Her face was covered in sweat, but that could not hide the wide smile she was wearing. Like most newborns, he appeared not much more than a ball of pink flesh, opening his eyes to stare at Fang Yuan, his father. Was that curiosity in his eyes? Fear? Loving? Longing? A mixture of all of them?
Or maybe, Fang Yuan realized, it was not thinking of anything and these were merely things of projection that he was seeing in his son's eyes.
The Fang Yuan in the dream realm felt a massive sense of joy and pride from seeing his son.
"Mo'er, well done!" Fang Yuan said, taking his son in his arms.
Mo Er was surrounded by her handmaidens, some of whom were crying.
"The boy is nearly as pretty as Mo'er herself!"
"Congratulations lady, you finally have an heir!"
"Truly, this is an auspicious occasion for everyone within this Blessed Land!"
Fang Yuan set off fireworks across the sky in celebration of this moment.
Fang Yuan continued to cultivate and developed the Blessed Land within the dream realm. He reached Rank 5 middle stage soon enough, though he had decided to put off becoming an Immortal himself until he had dealt with the next Earthly Tribulation, which was four more years away.
"As it is, you should hold off on becoming an Immortal," Xie Han Mo said. "What if it becomes harder to conceive after that? We should have our children first!"