Chapter 339

Chapter 339: A Decade Passed

Ten years later.

Due to the breakthrough in his spiritual roots, Zhou Luo successfully advanced to mid-level Foundation Establishment through dual cultivation with Yao Wu.

This speed was already remarkably fast.

It was primarily thanks to the enhancement of his spiritual roots, combined with the rich spiritual energy of the Immortal City’s core district and the aid of second-level potions, that he achieved this current accomplishment.

During these ten years, he lived a life of seclusion, rarely venturing out. Even the time it took him to refine Foundation Establishment Dan changed from once every six months to once per year.

In the eyes of outside cultivators, he had become a man who indulged himself and was utterly engrossed in sensual pleasures.

Because within this decade, Zhou Luo had fathered six more children. To onlookers, this clearly indicated a daily obsession with matters between men and women, hence the astonishing fertility.

Of these six children, except for one with a low-grade spiritual root, the rest all possessed mid-grade spiritual roots.

Altogether, they provided Zhou Luo with one hundred and three talent points. Added to the seven points from ten years earlier, the total became one hundred and ten talent points.

This was still vastly far from the five thousand talent points needed for Sixth Grade spiritual roots.

Yet this was just the result of ten years.

Given his current lifespan, living through a hundred more such decades would be effortless.

Therefore, advancing to Sixth Grade spiritual roots was merely a matter of time.

Besides obtaining so many talent points, Zhou Luo also simultaneously received six lottery chances.

These six draws resulted in four skill-related items, though they were all relatively useless, like chicken ribs.

For example, the first-order divination skill, the first-order astronomy skill, the first-order calculation skill, and the first-order tailoring skill.

These skills could be said to be more useless than the last, utterly impractical, amounting to little more than a token consolation.

Aside from these four skills, the remaining two draws earned him things needed for his descendants.

Such as Qi of Innate Origins, and a special physique.

These two items were also completely irrelevant to himself personally.

So much so that Zhou Luo felt these ten years of drawing lots had yielded almost meaningless results.

But at least he managed to draw some things useful for his descendants.

Within this decade, Zhou Chang Lun remained an outer disciple, but he was enrolled as a disciple by Zhou Chang Le’s master. Zhou Luo believed that after a dozen more years, he too would have a chance to enter the Inner Sect.

Besides Zhou Chang Lun, Lin Xi’s fifth son, Zhou Chang Lang, who possessed a Fourth Grade spiritual root, was also sent to the Immortal Sect.

He had once received Qi of Innate Origins bestowed by Zhou Luo, so his progress in cultivation was swift.

As for the offspring with mid-grade spiritual roots, though they also had the chance to enter the Qinyuan Sect’s Outer Sect.

Zhou Luo preferred them to remain within the family, gradually rising to become Senior Members of the Family.

Because cultivators like them, lacking great immortal fate, would merely blend into the masses within the Qinyuan Sect, destined to be cannon fodder.

Over these ten years, Zhou Luo had gradually gained a clear understanding of the Qinyuan Sect’s specific circumstances.

He understood very well that within it, only bloodline determined everything.

Most disciples who entered the Immortal Sect from long-life families could only end up as menial laborers within the sect, or at best, as entry-level disciples.

Only children like Zhou Changle, blessed with numerous opportunities by Zhou Luo and possessing unique constitutions, had even a remote chance to become disciples under a Golden Core master.

Thus, instead of letting his children waste their years in the Immortal Sect, it was far better to have them shine within the clan, striving to expand and strengthen the Zhou family.

Moreover, Zhou Changle and others hadn’t managed to establish themselves securely within the Immortal Sect yet, so they wouldn’t be able to look after these siblings.

Apart from the two mentioned above, the child who brought Zhou Luo the greatest surprise was Zhou Changqing.

With his Second Grade Spiritual Roots, he had now entered the Inner Sect and became a disciple under another Golden Core master.

Coupled with blessings like a Companion Spirit Beast and a special physique, he had surged far ahead of his elder brothers.

His cultivation had now reached the ninth level of Qi Refinement, not far from Foundation Establishment.

This was the sheer difference between spiritual roots and spiritual roots.

Consider Zhou Changlun, who had entered the Immortal Sect so many years earlier than Changqing, yet he still lingered in the Outer Sect, with cultivation only at the Qi Refinement seventh level.

And what truly shook the Qingyuan Sect,

was the extraordinary, innate talent Zhou Changqing displayed in Alchemy.

It was precisely because of this exceptional talent that he was taken as a disciple by a third level Pill Master within the Immortal Sect.

He was now a top-level first-level Pill Master.

This achievement was nothing short of astonishing.

Across the entire Qingyuan Domain, besides the exceptionally unique Zhou Luo, no other Pill Master possessed such lofty talent.

Zhou Changqing’s performance left Zhou Luo utterly satisfied.

Currently, he had five children in the Qingyuan Sect – not a large number, but as long as they could firmly establish themselves, he would continuously send children with great potential into the Immortal Sect.

By that time, perhaps his own descendants would form a significant faction of their own.

Besides this, the businesses Zhou Luo had established in the Immortal City had now matured into a formidable scale, decisively capturing over half the market in the inner city.

The profits this generated for him were impossible to quantify.

This also served as clear proof of just how astute the choice made by Manager Jin of Tian Xia Restaurant had been.

On this particular day, Zhou Luo departed the Immortal City and made straight for the Lin Family.

Over these past ten years, it wasn’t just his children who had made progress.

The head of the Lin Family, his wife Lin Xi, had also advanced to the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refinement, just one step away from Foundation Establishment.

Hence, he traveled specially from the Immortal City, intending to personally escort her to its core area for her breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment realm.

He undertook this move with utmost secrecy; to prevent any news from leaking out, Zhou Luo traveled alone.

Successfully arriving at the Lin residence, he then quietly brought Lin Xi back to Zhou Fu.

Standing within the inner courtyard of Zhou Fu, Lin Xi looked around at her surroundings and couldn’t help but sigh, "Husband, if I weren’t the Lin Family head, I would definitely want to cultivate here too."

Being the family head held both advantages and disadvantages.

The benefit was the control she wielded over the vast majority of the family’s power, commanding supreme authority that allowed her to act largely as she wished.

The drawback was that managing the family affairs constantly interrupted her cultivation, delaying her progress so severely that only now, after so long, did she finally have a chance at Foundation Establishment.

"Once the children grow up, there will naturally be an opportunity," Zhou Luo consoled her.

He had no intention of letting Lin Xi remain family head forever. When a capable figure emerged from among his descendants, he would arrange for that person to become the Lin Family head.

Once the Lin Family head bore the surname Zhou, the gradual assimilation of the Lin Family could begin.

When that time came, the Vermilion Maple Lin Family would cease to exist, replaced instead by the Vermilion Maple Zhou Family.

Lin Xi nodded.

She understood what he was planning. Although born as a direct descendant of the Lin Family, she had a clear recognition: if the Lin Family was to thrive and prosper indefinitely, it must cling to the Zhou family, especially to Zhou Luo himself.

"Stay here for the next few days and prepare properly; I’ll be your Guardian," Zhou Luo instructed.

Immediately, Lin Xi began her Closed-Door Training to make preparations for stepping into the Foundation Establishment realm.

Zhou Luo did not remain idle either.

He took out his formation disks and began setting up a powerful array.

Though presently only a First Level Formation Master, the formations he constructed, combined with those plants imbued with Illusionary Power that he had acquired from the Longfeng Mountain range, possessed formidable lethality.

And to be doubly cautious, he explicitly ordered Little White to keep watch over the surroundings.

With him and Little White, both at the Foundation Establishment level, on guard, he reckoned that unless a Golden Core master intervened, nothing would manage to disturb Lin Xi.

Five days later, Lin Xi felt the moment was ripe and chose to commence her Closed-Door Training for Foundation Establishment breakthrough.

Zhou Luo and Little White stood guard within the isolated section of Zhou Fu’s inner courtyard, prepared to prevent any intrusion.