Class (6000 Recommendation Votes Bonus)

This world—

At the bottom layer of the Cultivation World, large and small families were scattered across the land like countless grains of sand in a galaxy, and that was not without reason.

Only cultivators

had more opportunities to provide their Descendants with Spirit Items that would help them cross the threshold of the first step into cultivation, making it easier to nurture cultivators who had entered the cultivation class.

Through generation after generation of inheritance, countless family powers, great and small, took shape.

For these Cultivation Family powers,

a core resource capable of sustaining their inheritance was of paramount importance.

Just as the Spirit Fields opened up by the tiny Spirit Spring in Azure Mountain Town were to the Hu Family, and the Spirit Fruit Grove in River Pond Town was to the alliance of several Cultivation Families,

they were the most precious core of a family's inheritance.

Whether it was the Hu Family or the Zheng Family, the reason their Cultivation Families had endured for over a hundred years was inseparably tied to the Spirit Items they produced.

Only because they had a steady stream of cultivation Spirit Items could they nurture Clan Cultivators generation after generation.

However,

such inheritance was not without its drawbacks.

Because the Cloud Water Sect took fifty percent of the Harvest as taxes, the Spirit Items produced by these Spirit Lands had to supply the cultivation of the family's high-level cultivators while also providing Spirit Items for the family's children to comprehend Qi Sense. Their consumption and expenditures could only barely match the output of their Spirit Fields.

There was simply no way for them to Grow Stronger.

This was why, even after a hundred years of inheritance, these Cultivation Families had not grown overly large.

It was not that they did not want to,

but that they could not.

To produce more junior Clan Cultivators, they could only consume more Spirit Items and cast a wide net, nurturing cultivators from within the family.

But after the core resources of these small families paid their taxes to the Cloud Water Sect, their own various expenditures took up another large portion. Where would they find surplus Spirit Item resources to expand the scale of their Clan Cultivators?

Being able to maintain the number of Clan Cultivators was already quite good.

Moreover,

although this method of maintaining a Cultivation Family's inheritance was stable, for these small family powers, once any great upheaval occurred, it could easily cause the inheritance to break.

Once the inheritance broke,

it meant falling completely down the social ladder and becoming a power of the mortal class.

To climb back up again,

the danger and hardship involved could not be fully summed up by A Sentence such as "difficult."

Even Cultivation Families that had entered the Cultivation World found it so difficult.

For the vast mass of ordinary mortals,

it was even harder!

Spirit Items were precious treasures even to cultivators,

Not to Mention mortals.

The mortal class,

if they wanted to step through the threshold of cultivation, they had to either stumble upon some immense opportunity—

for instance, when entering the mountains, they might luckily encounter a cultivation Spirit Item such as a stalk of Spirit Grass, swallow it, and then, with extraordinary fortune, succeed in Qi Sensing on their very first attempt.

Or perhaps some other unexpected event might occur, allowing them to fight for and obtain a Spirit Item that served as their first pot of gold.

After the first person luckily succeeded in Qi Sensing and entered the cultivation class,

if his opportunities were sufficient and he could make a name for himself in the Cultivation World, earning Spirit Items such as Spirit Rice and Spirit Grain, then he could more smoothly raise his Descendants to become cultivators.

Step by step, they would slowly evolve into a Cultivation Family.

Of course,

this was difficult.

Most cultivators at this bottom layer lacked opportunities and could only rely on absorbing the thin spiritual energy in the air and refining it for their own use. Raising their cultivation was difficult enough; Let Alone having spare cultivation Spirit Items to open the path of cultivation for their Descendants.

And even more bottom-layer rogue cultivators,

unless they reached their twilight years and wished to return to their roots like fallen leaves returning to the soil,

otherwise,

hardly any of them spent much effort raising their own juniors.

The crowd in the square clamored noisily.

Zhang Qingyuan remained silent.

Though he had only been here for three years,

he could already sense the generational inheritance that sustained this cultivation world, the foundation upon which the Cultivation World was built.

From ancient history until now,

Cultivation Families had constantly suffered disasters and fallen into mortal powers, while mortals had continually risen through good fortune, establishing new Cultivation Family inheritances.

Like the tides rising and falling,

like vegetation withering and flourishing,

the growth and decline of families occurred endlessly within the Cultivation World,

just like the cycle of history.

Zhang Qingyuan swept his gaze across the crowd.

Their faces were filled with excitement,

but also tension and unease.

The people who had come knew in their hearts

that this journey would probably not be as easy as they had imagined. They might even encounter danger to life and death, but such a fine opportunity was rare indeed.

It was something they were unwilling to give up.

Within the crowd,

Zhang Qingyuan also saw several Jianghu Rangers gripping their weapons tightly.

Their expressions were resolute.

All of them had joined this action in hopes of seeking a sliver of Immortal Destiny that might allow them to transcend their current station.

In the mortal world,

there existed the Jianghu and Martial Arts.

It was simply that most Jianghu Rangers treated Martial Arts as a springboard into the immortal gates.

They learned skills to protect themselves,

then traveled across the land, or entered the Deep Mountains and Old Forests in search of Spirit Items, hunted Demonic Beasts, and so on. All for the sake of obtaining a Spirit Item, developing Qi Sense, and finally stepping into the Cultivation World.

Jianghu martial artists—

they were the transitional class between immortals and mortals.

Compared to ordinary mortals, these Jianghu martial artists naturally had a far greater chance of obtaining Spirit Items.

However,

compared with cultivation power,

mortal Martial Arts truly differed by a vast distance.

Even after cultivating to the Innate Realm, True Qi could only barely break through the Demonic Qi defenses of Demonic Creatures at the First and Second Levels of Spirit Essence. Let Alone the fact that Demonic Creatures also possessed innate spells.

Forget about hunting them; being able to preserve one's life before a Demonic Creature at the First and Second Levels of Spirit Essence was already quite good.

Even with power that surpassed mortals,

it was still incomparably difficult for mortal martial artists to enter the Cultivation World.

Ever since word spread of the monkey disaster in River Pond Town,

quite a few nearby martial artists and Jianghu Rangers had come and gathered in River Pond Town, hoping for a chance to participate in this affair and gain a sliver of opportunity.

After what happened last night,

the Jianghu Rangers still within River Pond Town had all joined the Zheng Family and several other Cultivation Families,

taking part in this battle.

"Hah!"

Zhang Qingyuan was stirred within.

A hundred flavors churned in his heart.

He did not know what he felt.

At last, he understood somewhat

what it meant for plucking a single hair to benefit all under heaven.

Those low-level humanoid Monkey Demons were Chicken Rib trash that Zhang Qingyuan did not think much of, something he could toss aside at will.

Yet in the eyes of All Beings struggling in the mortal world,

they were a sliver of opportunity that could change their fates,

worth staking their entire fortunes and lives upon!

Thinking back on the past,

Zhang Qingyuan could not help sighing at his own good fortune.

He had been born into a Cultivation Family.

Though his parents had merely been bottom-layer Spirit Planters from the Zhang Family's Branch Lineage, and both had died early, his starting point had at least already surpassed that of countless mortals.

Under the care of his parents in this life and the nurturing provided by Spirit Grain,

he had successfully sensed Qi before the age of ten,

becoming a member of the quasi-Cultivation World.

Moreover,

after his parents died, those few portions of Spirit Fields had remained under the name of a child like him. There had been no messy, distressing matters such as vicious relatives or Family Elders seizing his property.

Of course,

this was not unrelated to the fact that Zhang Qingyuan had already developed Qi Sense before then, had already become a prospective quasi-cultivator and a member among the Zhang Family cultivators,

as well as the fairness of those Old Men holding power within the Zhang Family.

But that in itself

was his good fortune!

Countless thoughts flickered through his mind.

At this moment,

Patriarch Zheng and the leaders of several Cultivation Families had already organized the party.

Not long after,

without too much empty ceremony,

the group set out in a mighty procession toward the deep mountains near the Spirit Fruit Grove.

P.S.

The bonus chapter was a little late. I was mainly filling in some of the setting, and the revisions took quite a bit of time. Otherwise, it would have been posted long ago.