Chapter 85

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Two days later.

It was still dark.

Wang Shouzhe opened his eyes from the bed, feeling his cultivation progress slowly climbing. After reaching the seventh layer of the Qi Refinement stage, the difficulty of cultivation had clearly increased significantly.

If it weren't for his abundant spiritual food and the occasional consumption of small Pei Yuan Pills, along with the assistance of spirit stones for cultivation, he probably wouldn't even be able to perceive his cultivation progress.

However, the path of cultivation and advancement is valuable in its persistence. This is a long-term process, like water wearing away stone.

If it were easy to level up by just taking some pills, the world would be full of supreme experts, and noble families wouldn't have to go to great lengths to cultivate a Lingtai Elder, using all their clan's resources.

The Xuanwu Clan, with its family assets and ancestral heritage, finds cultivation so difficult, let alone those wandering cultivators.

Recently, Wang Shouzhe had read a few internal family booklets.

One of them was specifically about wandering cultivators. The protagonist had a golden finger, with endless adventures, picking up ancient holy beast pups while walking on the road, and falling off cliffs to obtain high-quality cultivation techniques. He then went around killing and humiliating the heirs of various noble families, and even had countless noble family daughters falling for him, vowing to marry no one else.

It was truly absurd, probably written by some wandering cultivator for self-entertainment.

The path of a wandering cultivator is often ten times or more difficult than that of a noble family's heir.

Even if a wandering cultivator occasionally appears with excellent conditions and has the opportunity to marry into a noble family, they can usually only marry a relatively excellent woman from a collateral line, and very few can marry a direct-line woman.

A noble daughter? That's something not even worth thinking about.

It's not to say that there are no wandering cultivators with extremely good luck, experiencing bloodline mutations and strong innate talents, or achieving the peak of life through adventures, but that is always a low-probability event. Under the same conditions, noble family heirs will inevitably go higher and further.

Furthermore, if a wandering cultivator does achieve the peak of life, the next step would be to establish a family so that their descendants don't have to walk the same path as wandering cultivators.

To put it in Wang Shouzhe's words from his previous life on Earth, the social hierarchy in this world is basically solidified, and it is extremely difficult to move up even one step.

Putting aside these杂念 for now.

Under the service of the servant Wang Gui, Wang Shouzhe washed up and had breakfast.

Now, his breakfast has basically become a standard of white jade spirit rice porridge and some pickled fish and meat.

Breakfast is the foundation of the day, and these delicious spiritual foods make him feel more spirited. In a short while, he can feel the qi and blood that were depleted from cultivation gradually recovering.

After a brief rest to digest, it's time for Wang Shouzhe's daily Xuanwu cultivation.

As a Xuanwu cultivator clearly aiming for the Lingtai path, practicing Xuanwu combat techniques is a must. Otherwise, if he exhausts resources to cultivate to the level of an Elder, only to be a hollow shell, it would be a laughingstock.

There are no shortcuts in practicing Xuanwu combat techniques. Every day, he must work diligently, following the path of water wearing away stone. This is another advantage of noble family heirs over wandering cultivators, as they don't have to constantly travel and endure hardships, but can focus on cultivation.

After finishing his cultivation, he washed up and went to visit Longyan Elder.

At this time, Longyan's residence was much busier than usual. Not only had Mang Elder come early to pay respects, but even the Liu siblings were there.

They all greeted each other.

"Grandma," Mang Elder said respectfully, "Thanks to your guidance the other day, the bottleneck that has troubled me for years seems to have loosened. I believe it won't be long before I can break through to the third layer."

He was also deeply moved. Gong Sun Mang, with his good talent, had achieved the Lingtai stage in his forties. At the time, he was young and ambitious, hoping to reach the Tianren stage in his lifetime.

However, after another thirty or forty years, his cultivation was still stuck at the peak of the second layer of the Lingtai stage. With such slow progress, let alone reaching the Tianren stage, even reaching the later stages of Lingtai would depend on luck.

"Xiao Mang, there's no need to be polite. Your talent is not bad. With a few more years of hard work, you will likely break through smoothly," Longyan Elder said calmly. "For our lower-level noble families, the hardest part of the Lingtai stage is the lack of resources and the lack of guidance from seniors, making every step particularly difficult."

"Grandma, you are right. I thought that once I reached the Lingtai stage, the path would be smooth. But it turns out that the path to Tianren is like an insurmountable chasm," Mang Elder said with a sigh. "If I were to consume resources to cultivate, it would probably take up most of the Gong Sun family's resources. If that were the case, what about the future generations?"

"Indeed, it's normal to think that. How easy is it to become a Tianren noble family? In our Changning Guard, there are dozens of noble families, but only two are Tianren families," Mang Elder continued.

Wang Shouzhe and the younger generation listened to the elders chatting and naturally did not interrupt.

However, Wang Shouzhe was thinking about what the Elder said about the difficulty of the Tianren path, one of which is the lack of cultivation resources.

Indeed, it is already difficult to cultivate one Elder, and the family must save money to cultivate the next generation of Elders.

Most importantly, maintaining a Lingtai Elder is a huge resource expenditure. If the Elder wants to pursue the Tianren path, then a large amount of resources will be needed.

Supporting one Elder is already a strain, and supporting two Elders, or even three Lingtai Elders, would be an enormous expenditure.

Therefore, every additional Lingtai stage in the family is a bigger expense. The family must expand its assets, increase its business scale, and acquire more resources.

This is why many families can afford to cultivate Lingtai, but cannot maintain Lingtai. So, most families cultivate Lingtai in a controlled manner, neither increasing the number of Lingtai Elders too much nor breaking the Lingtai lineage.

This is the current situation of most lower-level noble families.

However, when it comes to resources...

For Wang Shouzhe, it is a relatively easy problem to solve. If he can bring the entire Ping'an Town under his control, he can support three Lingtai Elders.

"Shouzhe," Mang Elder, after his sigh, turned his attention to Wang Shouzhe, "Regarding the girl you asked about the other day..."

He hesitated, looking at the Liu siblings.

"Go ahead, Mang Elder," Wang Shouzhe smiled. "Yuanrui and Ruolei are our own people, and there's no secret that can't be shared."

Of course, this was Wang Shouzhe's way of showing goodwill. If it involved the core secrets of the Wang family, would he let them know so easily? However, Liu Ruolan was to become the future matriarch of the Wang family, so it was normal for the two families to build a close alliance.

This casual remark made Liu Yuanrui and Liu Ruolei even more favorable towards Wang Shouzhe, both promising that they wouldn't reveal any secrets they heard.

Especially Liu Ruolei, who had come with the intention of disciplining her future brother-in-law, but had already been won over by the good food and entertainment at the Wang family, not wanting to go home.

"If I am wrong, please correct me, Grandma," Mang Elder said, organizing his thoughts. "Since I also follow the path of physical tempering, I have studied combat body lineages more. However, no matter what lineage it is, they are all the bloodlines of our ancestors. The ancestors I refer to are not the Lingtai Elders of each family, but the true ancestors, those who once stood at the peak of humanity."

"According to legends, the ancient human ancestors had various powerful and magical combat body lineages, such as immense strength, invincibility, immortality, or the ability to boil lakes and seas with a wave of their hand. These ancestors passed down their bloodlines generation by generation, and the mixing of various bloodlines gave rise to even more. Over countless years, the bloodlines of our ancestors have almost completely disappeared. Only a few lucky individuals can awaken a part of the ancestral bloodline due to chance or luck."

"Of course, if one cultivates to the Lingtai stage, the body's functions will be further enhanced, and they will inevitably awaken a part of the ancestral bloodline," Mang Elder continued. "Like me, after reaching the Lingtai stage, I awakened a thin layer of Metal Bloodline. Your grandma, on the other hand, was born with medium-grade talent. What is medium-grade? It means that she has already awakened a bloodline, which is why she is considered medium-grade. I remember that Grandma Longyan should have awakened the Water Bloodline."

"That's correct. In my youth, I had the Water Bloodline, and after reaching the Lingtai stage, it evolved into the Mystic Ice Bloodline, which is thicker than the Water Bloodline," Longyan Elder added calmly. "The Water Bloodline is the main bloodline of the Liu family. Cultivating the 'Yuan Shui Heart Sutra' makes it easier to awaken the Water Bloodline when breaking through to the Lingtai stage. My mother was a direct-line daughter of the Liu family, so it's normal for me to have awakened a thin layer of the Water Bloodline."

After saying this, Longyan Elder looked at Liu Ruolei with a slight smile and satisfaction.

Wang Shouzhe's mind raced, and he also looked at Liu Ruolei. This future sister-in-law was using some kind of concealment technique, and she might have awakened a thin layer of the Water Bloodline.

The conversation with the Elders gave Wang Shouzhe a deeper understanding of the bloodline awakening in the Xuanwu Clan.

Unfortunately, he, Wang Shouzhe, had not yet awakened any ancestral bloodline. Could it be that he would have to wait until he advanced to the Lingtai stage to awaken a random ancient bloodline through the transformation of his body's functions?

He was truly unwilling. Just as he was about to ask more questions...

No.

The voice of the family guard, Wang Wu, came from outside: "Lord, I dare to disturb you."

"Speak, what is it?" Wang Shouzhe had a hunch. If it wasn't the event he had anticipated, Wang Wu wouldn't dare to disturb Longyan's residence.

"Scouts have reported back," Wang Wu said from outside. "The Liu and Zhao families have sent out their elite members, escorting two Elders, heading towards our Wang family in a grand procession."

Indeed!

Wang Shouzhe's eyes narrowed. His series of plans, especially the work-for-relief plan, had already threatened the survival of the Liu and Zhao families.

Those two old men couldn't sit still anymore.

Liu Yuanrui and Liu Ruolei, however, turned pale and became extremely nervous.

...