Construction

The jade slip containing the Bodhidharma Muscle-Tendon Classic, presented by Ning Yongrui, vanished like a stone into the sea, leaving no trace.

Yun Long seemed to have anticipated this and showed no signs of impatience.

He handed over the pill recipes for the Qi Nourishing Pill and the Body Tempering Pill to the Ning Family.

These two recipes were actually of limited use to true cultivation families.

Earning a bit of mundane wealth from mortals held little appeal for cultivators.

The real benefit came from the reputation and connections the Ning Family gradually built among mortal martial artists through the pharmacies established using these two recipes.

Occasionally, they even received rare herbs from these martial artists that were beneficial to Qi Refining Stage cultivators.

The Ning Family, however, was enthusiastic about this, investing far more passion than usual.

The Yun Family's share was extremely low, almost symbolic.

Ning Yongrui then channeled the large sums of silver saved into acquiring various scriptures and cultivation techniques.

He focused particularly on mortal martial arts and swordplay manuals, the sheer variety of which was astonishing.

Meanwhile, the Yun Family developed in a quiet manner that was difficult for outsiders to perceive.

It was rare to even see a member of the Yun Family on the streets of Wanfang Town throughout the year.

They were like slumbering beasts, silently accumulating strength within Evergreen Valley, with every clan member seizing every moment to focus on their cultivation.

Unlike Yun Ji, who desperately yearned for a breakthrough, Li Pinghu and Shi Tie saw almost no hope of breaking through to the Qi Refining Stage while practicing the Wudang Xiantian Gong.

Time had left its mark on them, smoothing away whatever ambitions they might have once had.

Now living in the Yun Family, their children had long become their most important spiritual anchors.

They were not as fixated on the unattainable Qi Refining Stage as Yun Ji.

Precisely because of this, they handled most of the Yun Family's internal and external affairs, managing everything in an orderly fashion.

When they first arrived at Evergreen Valley, the Yun Family's grand mansion was built deep within the valley.

Surrounded by mountains, it appeared quite secluded.

After that earth-shattering battle, Yun Long's style of conduct seemed to undergo a subtle shift.

He no longer pursued ultimate concealment; instead, he boldly relocated the family's entrance directly to the exit of Evergreen Valley.

A brand new, far more magnificent gatehouse than the old residence rose from the ground.

Within Evergreen Valley, a scene of busyness was visible everywhere.

The previously barren land was leveled and designated for medicinal fields, clan training grounds, and even new residential areas.

In the Yun Family's backyard, the old ancestral hall was long gone.

In its place stood a new circular building, which Yun Long personally tore down before overseeing its reconstruction.

Completely different from its previous form, this new ancestral hall exuded an ancient and tranquil charm.

This design was finalized by a renowned architectural master from Wanfang Lake, based on Yun Long's detailed descriptions and insistence.

In the very center of the ancestral hall, Yun Jiang's memorial tablet was quietly enshrined.

The incense burner before the tablet had been emitting fragrant smoke without interruption since the ancestral hall's completion, as if narrating the family's unending legacy.

Twenty meters away from this circular ancestral hall, another, even larger circular building was constructed.

This was the Yun Family's newly completed library, like a solid barrier, firmly protecting the ancestral hall at its core.

Inside the library, rows of new bookshelves extended along the circular walls, neatly displaying the various scriptures and cultivation techniques the family had recently collected.

Among them, all sword-related manuals were meticulously placed on the eastern shelves.

That area was now Yun Hu's exclusive domain.

He practically lived in the library, studying day and night, forgetting to eat and sleep.

Whenever he had an epiphany, he would head to the circular training ground in front of the library, which had also been newly planned, to practice and test his newly learned sword moves over and over.

Through the changing seasons, his swordplay never ceased.

Yun Long continued to choose the courtyard behind the library, near the ancestral hall, for his cultivation.

His gaze swept over the outer wall of the ancestral hall, and he understood.

The reason the family ancestral hall was built in such a unique circular shape was his well-considered decision, making it convenient for him to protect it with the Golden Bell Shield in the future.

The current perfect, seamless structure would undoubtedly maximize the protective power of the Golden Bell Shield.

The miraculous protective effect of the Golden Bell Shield technique made Yun Long ponder deeply.

If he could achieve this now, then when his strength grew even greater in the future, could he truly make an intangible golden bell permanently protect the family's ancestral hall, making it impervious to all harm?

Perhaps he could also draw inspiration from the way the Golden Bell Shield technique was performed and the mysteries of its energy circulation.

He could attempt to forge a true Golden Bell artifact himself.

This would not only greatly enhance his own combat power but also elevate the unique sonic attack effect of the golden bell to an entirely new level.

However, with the family's current small population, there was no one capable of refining magical artifacts.

Did he, Yun Long, have a chance to become an artifact refiner?

Thinking of this, Yun Long's gaze deepened slightly.

Finally, he let out a soft sigh.

In the end, it was the family's foundation that was too shallow.

This was not as simple as the mundane blacksmithing skills Shi Tie possessed.

Regarding the profound and unfathomable path of artifact refining, the entire Yun Family knew almost nothing.

The shallowness of the family's foundation was like an invisible shackle, not only restricting the Yun Family's exploration of artifact refining but also revealing a helpless predicament in the subtle aspects of cultivation inheritance.

Yun Long's gaze unconsciously shifted to his father, Yun Ji, in the nearby training grounds.

His father, Yun Ji, was enthusiastically practicing a newly acquired spell, full of vigor.

That passion almost overflowed Evergreen Valley.

However, a complex emotion that was difficult to articulate welled up in Yun Long's heart.

The spells collected from various families around Wanfang Lake were truly limited in power.

Yun Ji's Six-Inch Mysterious Turtle Sea Suppressing Qi was already considered robust and pure among Mid-Grade Qi Refining practitioners.

But these newly learned spells were like a child wielding a giant hammer, clumsy and slow, unable to fully unleash the power of that condensed and heavy True Qi.

Every time Yun Long saw his father cast a spell, the slightly unskillful circulation of True Qi and the spell effects that fell far short of expectations made him feel a deep sense of powerlessness.

This was not because his father wasn't trying hard enough.

The truth was, what the Yun Family lacked was a profound cultivation inheritance of spells that could truly match the quality of True Qi like "Mysterious Turtle Sea Suppressing Qi."

This predicament was not unique to the Yun Family.