Chapter 24 Alt POV at the start

After sending Jake and Keqing back to Jake's original home here in Liyue which was actually haunted by a powerful spirit, so he would certainly be safe there from any clan/sect Cultivators or martial artists trying to steal his treasures. Ningguang was sitting on her throne on the balcony of the flying palace she had made during her life.

The Jade Chamber was her masterwork armed with dozens of spiritual canons, hundreds of defensive and offensive arrays and was... An utterly massive resource sink, as the Jade Chamber acted as the bulwark for keeping the less intelligent and spiritual monsters away from invading the city of Liyue. And running all those arrays and fueling the spiritual cannons weren't cheap.

On average it slaughtered thousands of monsters every night via its passive defenses, but on the other end the Jade Chamber went through a thousand middle-tier Spirit Stones every single day... And the costs involved in keeping the city safe from monsters was why Ningguang was the cutthroat business empress of the world.

Whereas the other kingdoms in Mondstadt and Inazuma had their gods directly protecting their major and lesser cities. Liyue's clans and sects were too decentralized across Liyue's massive land along with Liyue's gods and immortals being locked into staying to guard the true horrors that was the Depths and the Chasm that led to the abyss.

A shudder ran through Ningguang's body as memories of serving in the Immortal Mountain Sect to get immortal cultivation tier methods and the spells to make her Jade Chamber resurfaced and the screams of tidal waves of abyssal monsters, eldritch fiends, twisted spirits rejected from actual reincarnation after being so evil. And of course the endless demon beasts.

She was lucky to have survived the decade she served besides Rex Lapis in guarding the Chasm... And even though she took up the mantle of defending humanity here in the city of Liyue in the name of nurturing talents to send to the Sects to push back the evils residing within and under their land. She knew that in reality... The void was winning, the abyss was stopped only by true divines taking to the field with their divinity pushing back the mad darkness.

And the divines although almost inexhaustible did have the simple reality of not being able to be in multiple places at once.

She raised a hand and within the smooth hand was a gently glowing white stone that she rolled between her fingers. A medium-tier spirit stone that she got from Jake, one of ten thousand that he was able to have his newfangled machines produce that no one could understand even as they watched him make the damned things.

"With just one of these production facilities he has made, he can pull up enough spirit stones to completely negate the costs of running the Jade Chamber... No he can run up to five more of my Jade Chambers!" Ningguang spoke to herself as she clenched the spirit stone so hard inside of her hands that it shattered into dust.

Alreadly the Li clan was wiped out from their very roots via herself and Yelan cleaning them up after Yelan confirmed and brought these spirit stones in to be checked to make sure they weren't only a temporary thing and were real spirit stones. Now she just had to make sure the Dark Sect's didn't send an old Nascent Soul monster to kill Jake out of some fear that he would hurt their interests.

"Wow... You look like a constipated mortal there Ningguang haha!" Ningguang's face twitched as her eyes opened up as she naturally lowered the wards for an old friend.

"Ah Captain Beidou... And how is the Crux Fleet handling itself." Ningguang asked naturally as she took a breath and then she stilled as Beidou asked bluntly.

"So I heard you got yourself a new little wonderboy who can make ships that fly... What's it going to take for little old me to get an upgrade to my Crux?"

Beidou was a beautiful woman with her long dark hair and curvaceous form was well outlined in her tight-fitting leather outfit. But that wild beauty was well earned by her being an entry-level tier four Innate Martial Artist who was well known and feared as a monster who regularly killed centuries and millennia-old sea monsters for their precious materials.

But Ningguang looked at Beidou with a frown as she asked. "How did you know he made it? No one knows Jake was the one who actually made it." 

Beidou gave a wry smile and then took a swig from a bottle of booze that hung from her lips making Ningguang roll her eyes but after taking her drink Beidou answered bluntly. "No clue honestly! But the whole city and beyond is abuzz with Mondstadt and Inazuma already getting the news apparently according to my sources as some clans sent long-distance jade slips and spells to pass along the record images of Jake and Keqing getting out of the plane along with an explanation everything Jake has built so far."

Beidou gave a hum as she ignored Ningguang's murderous expression as that meant only one thing... The guards that Jake had around his facility had traitors!

Ningguang slowly took out a jade slip and then after a moment of thought as she considered things... She thought. 'Jake cannot die by my inaction, he needs time to make more facilities before I can relax my guard at all.' Taking a breath she spoke to the Jade Slip that recorded her voice.

"Yelan. There is there is traitors in Jake's production facility... Clean it out, leave no stone unturned and if needed kill them all." 

Beidou wolf whistled with a raised eyebrow as she muttered. "Damn that's cold Ningguang... That's not your style whats going on? Is that Jake, Rex Lapis's son with Cloud Retainer who can make the flying stuff?"

A shudder ran through Ningguang at the thought of a child being born between the two immortals and having to be responsible for said child but she shook her head and said flatly. "Jake is a monstrous genius that... Just cannot be stated, he actually makes Cloud Retainer look like a child playing with small building blocks with his artifact refining. And now knowing of his genius I need to keep him alive and well while his cultivation progress is damn near nonexistent due to him having an Inverse Yang Spirit Body so his best way to cultivate is through Dual Cultivation!"

Beidou's face twitched at that monologue from her normally so unflappable friend so she asked blankly. "What is the issue then? Is he gay? Does he have a little crush on someone... Wait is he already helplessly in love with you or Yelan haha?" 

A long silence ensued as Ningguang blankly stared ahead as her Golden Path cultivation technique twinged as such a thought... Did come across her mind. As she knew that should they come together in union and combine their 'assets' both of their cultivations would be greatly sped up.

But knowing Beidou was going to go wild with accusations if she didn't respond Ningguang coughed and said humouredly. "Hmph you know very well I am too busy for a lover. No, the issue is my little spitfire Keqing has a crush on the young man, and none of the guards, martial artists, and cultivators who know Jake can get close to him with her 'protecting' him." 

-

"Why do you keep walking in on me naked Keqing!" I yelled out seeing the flushed face of the purple-haired beauty walk into my bath with her yelping out.

"I thought you went to bed already! You always go to bed super early in the day!" She yelled back through the cracked open door.

I rolled my eyes and said flatly. "I work more than twelve hours a day welding, and making sure my machines are running at full capacity when no one else can help me. Of course, I am exhausted and go to bed super early every day!"

A silence was my answer and then the door clicked shut making me sigh as I palmed some of the treated healing water I was taking a bath in. As I was actually pushing myself a lot, and the only reason I was still awake at this point was the fact that I didn't do anything besides just flying across Liyue on my Pelican.

No more welding together giant blocks of steelcrete and plasteel. No more putting together massive assembly lines of machinery. No more working on the assembly line that would take the materials to make the ground mechs and the airship designs I had.

I was free for the moment and after saying hello to the odd sight of 'big titty' Qiqi and giving her some pork dumplings, I was just resting in my bath filled with some kind of Martial Artist medicine that helped repair the body.

After relaxing for a long while I heard the door crack open again. But instead of Keqing it was Qiqi whose deadpan dull voice spoke out. "Keqing made you dinner... If you don't want Qiqi to eat it all, I would recommend you get out of the bath."