Chương 4: A Mother's Farewell

When two cultivators married and had children, the odds that their offspring would possess a Spirit Root were exceptionally high. Sun Xueqi, however, had managed about a fifty percent success rate. This made Zhang Chongwen very happy. He treated his daughter-in-law with genuine respect. Sun Xueqi was a cultivator with a Four-Element Spirit Root, the same age as her husband, Zhang Lixian. But her own cultivation had only barely reached the fifth layer of the Qi Refining Realm.

Having too many children had drained her vital energy severely. And the Zhang family's resources were meager. They hadn't been able to replenish her energy in time. As a result, her cultivation progress had become painfully slow. Yet Sun Xueqi never complained. She poured her entire heart into raising her children. Her other four children, the ones without Spirit Roots, had already grown up, married, and started families of their own in Green Bamboo Town. Sun Xueqi still visited them often.

But the divide between mortals and immortals was real. As the years passed, even the closest bonds began to fade. In the cultivation world, the Spirit Root mattered above all else. ——"Mother, I have to leave now." Zhang Huaijin looked at Sun Xueqi and spoke softly. Sun Xueqi sat quietly in simple white robes, her bearing graceful, her features striking.

"I made your favorite, stir-fried pork with chili peppers. Eat before you go." Her voice was calm. But the reluctance flickering in her eyes betrayed everything. This was exactly how it had been when Zhang Huaijin's eldest brother left. Back then, for the sake of the family, he'd walked away from Green Bamboo Mountain. Years would pass before he came home again. And now, it was Zhang Huaijin's turn. The Zhang family had too few cultivators. But securing resources required manpower, lots of it.

Still, more and more of the third-generation descendants were being born with Spirit Roots. Once they grew up, the family would finally have enough hands.

"All right. Thank you, Mother." Zhang Huaijin sat down and began to eat with genuine appetite. Sun Xueqi had grown the chili peppers herself. They carried faint traces of spiritual energy. The meat came from a first-grade, mid-tier Spirit Beast. The rice was steaming hot spiritual rice. A mother's cooking tasted like home. Zhang Huaijin felt a tightness in his chest, his nose prickling, but he forced the feeling down and kept eating. Soon, he had cleared every dish.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Only then did Sun Xueqi bring out a small pile of items.

"Here, ten first-grade, low-tier talismans and three first-grade, mid-tier ones."

"I bought the mid-tier ones from your Second Uncle. The low-tier ones were his gift."

"Twenty sacks of Red Sun spiritual rice. Eat it sparingly, don't waste it."

"And twenty bottles of Red Sun spiritual wine. I had to ask your grandfather for that." She placed everything in front of him, one item after another.

"If you run into danger, don't be a fool. Don't fight recklessly. Remember, as long as the green hills remain, you'll never lack for firewood. Your life comes first. Nothing else matters." She paused, her voice softening.

"And come back to see me when you can. Don't stay away too long." She spoke each word carefully, as if she could stuff every last thing she owned into his arms and send it all with him. Zhang Huaijin's throat tightened.

"Thank you, Mother." That was all he could manage. After a long pause, he tried to lighten the mood by changing the subject.

"Where's my little sister?"

"Who knows? Off causing trouble somewhere, I'm sure. You'd better leave now, if she sees you go, she'll start crying, and my eardrums simply can't take it." Sun Xueqi's face twisted into a look of mock anger. Zhang Huaijin laughed.

"Mother, I'm going." He turned and walked away. Sun Xueqi stood there, watching, until his figure had vanished completely. ——"Come out already." Zhang Lixian emerged from where he'd been hiding, his face sheepish, his smile awkward.

"Look at yourself," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Would it kill you to say one word to your son?"

"You don't understand," he mumbled.

"Between us, everything goes unspoken."

"Get lost and go cultivate. Seeing you just annoys me." She wasn't wrong. The Old Patriarch was getting older by the day. The Zhang family desperately needed someone at the ninth layer of the Qi Refining Realm. And Zhang Lixian was forty-eight years old. If he could just break through to the ninth layer, he might still have a chance, a slim one, to attempt Foundation Establishment. For cultivators in the Qi Refining Realm, sixty was the line in the sand.

Reach Perfection before sixty, and your body and bloodline were still at their peak. You still had a shot at Foundation Establishment. Of course, attempting Foundation Establishment was no joke. One wrong move and your meridians would shatter, your cultivation path would end, and you could even die. But it was still a hope. Zhang Chongwen's greatest wish, his lifelong obsession, was to turn his son into the Zhang family's very first Foundation Establishment cultivator.

"You heard me," Sun Xueqi added.

"Don't come back until you've broken through to the ninth layer." Zhang Lixian didn't argue. He shrank his neck and slunk away. —— Zhang Huaijin traveled fast. He left Green Bamboo Mountain behind him in no time. Heavenly Yang Mountain was only about a hundred km away. Aside from Heavenly Yang Mountain, the Zhang family owned two other peaks. But spiritual veins only produced so much energy, reclaiming too many spiritual fields would drain the vein dry.

Heavenly Yang Mountain could support at most forty acres of spiritual fields. The Eastern Wasteland stretched endlessly, a vast expanse of mountains and rivers. Spirit Beasts roamed everywhere, constantly clashing with human cultivators over territory. Most of the beasts between Heavenly Yang Mountain and Green Bamboo Mountain had already been cleared out by the Zhang family. But a few scattered ones still lurked in the deeper ridges. But luck was on Zhang Huaijin's side. The journey passed without incident.

An hour later, he arrived. Heavenly Yang Mountain rose more than three hundred meters into the sky, its slopes a deep, burning red. A shimmering energy barrier, the mountain's protective formation, shrouded the mountainside. The moment Zhang Huaijin stepped inside, he felt the temperature rise by several degrees. Somewhere in the distance, a beast's roar echoed through the peaks. ——"Blue Bamboo Sword. Nether Iron Shield." A smile spread across Zhang Huaijin's face.

"I finally refined them." Originally, he'd only owned one low-tier, first-grade Spirit Artifact, the Blue Bamboo Sword. But before he left the mountain, Zhang Chongwen had given him two more. Both were mid-tier, first-grade. One was another Blue Bamboo Sword, a better one this time, for attacking. Green Bamboo Mountain was surrounded by blue bamboo. Some of it, fed by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, had transformed into first-grade spiritual wood. Perfect material for crafting Spirit Artifacts.

The other was a defensive Spirit Artifact, forged from Nether Iron with the scales of a Nether Serpent smelted into it. Sturdy. Reliable. As long as Zhang Huaijin had enough spiritual energy to fuel it, it could withstand a full-force strike from a sixth-layer Qi Refining Realm cultivator. Defensive Spirit Artifacts were always more valuable than attack ones. When he'd first received them, they'd already been partially refined, enough for basic control. Now, he'd finished the job. Mastery would take practice.

Lots of it. But once he settled in, he planned to use the Breakthrough Pearl and advance to the middle stage of the Qi Refining Realm. Zhang Chongwen had also given him a bottle of Essence Cultivation Pills. They would speed things up considerably. After taking them, he might even touch the threshold of the fifth layer. A period of consolidation after that, and he would officially break through.