Great Yu Immortal Dynasty, Yangzhou, Qinghe Commandery, Qingyang County.
As the ancients once said, "May I ask where the wine shop is? The shepherd boy points toward Xinghua Village."
The "Xinghua Village" in that verse referred to the Meng Family, on the back mountain of Xinghua Village.
Three hundred years ago, the Meng Family's ancestors had moved their entire clan to Xinghua Village. Using a secret family recipe, they developed a kind of wine,
and it was precisely this "Meng Family Wine" that laid the foundation for the Meng Family's cultivation lineage.
With their "Meng Family Wine," the Xinghua Village Meng Family had established a firm foothold in Xinghua Village and even in Qingyang County, accumulating considerable cultivation resources.
Only then had they risen step by step to become one of the dominant cultivation families in Xinghua Village.
Between Qingyang County Town and Xinghua Village lay a vast stretch of Spirit Plant Fields. Most of them were ancestral estates passed down for generations by the Ninth-Rank Cultivation Families in the county town, while only a small part belonged to the Xinghua Village Meng Family.
In the Meng Family's Spirit Plant Field, the young Meng Family member Meng Haoran was casting the Daoist Magic "Minor Cloud Rain Art" to irrigate the land.
Faint spiritual energy from heaven and earth mingled with the rain as it fell. When it reached this Spirit Plant Field of the Meng Family, wisps of mist rose.
Meng Haoran glanced around and, seeing no one nearby, extended his right hand. A small bronze cauldron, covered in mysterious and intricate patterns, suddenly appeared in his palm.
"Heavenly Cauldron!"
Meng Haoran had happened upon this mysterious little bronze cauldron by the roadside and purchased it just before embarking on the path of cultivation.
One day, while practicing the Meng Family's ancestral technique, the "Forging Yin Refining Yang Method," he was astonished to discover that through his cultivation, the "Heavenly Cauldron" could produce a mysterious liquid.
Driven by curiosity, Meng Haoran used the mysterious liquid on the Spirit Plants in the Meng Family's Spirit Plant Field, as well as on some Spirit Beasts raised by the clan.
After carefully observing them, Meng Haoran found that in just ten days, the Spirit Plants and Spirit Beasts that had consumed the "Cauldron Liquid" had grown a little faster than those that had not.
This surprised Meng Haoran quite a bit.
He had never imagined that the little bronze cauldron he had happened upon by the roadside could have such remarkable effects.
It was also thanks to the covert help of the "Heavenly Cauldron" that Meng Haoran took excellent care of the Spirit Plants and Spirit Beasts under his charge in the Xinghua Village Meng Family. Even some senior members of the clan had words of praise for him.
A month ago, Meng Haoran, one of the current third-generation disciples of the Xinghua Village Meng Family, had found that when he used Daoist Magic to tend the Spirit Plants and Spirit Beasts, it came far more naturally to him—though he did not know whether this was thanks to the "Cauldron Liquid" in the "Heavenly Cauldron." His cultivation had also taken advantage of the momentum to break through to the Third Layer of Qi Refining.
A cultivation level like Meng Haoran's Third Layer of Qi Refining made him one of the best among the Meng Family's younger generation,
and because his cultivation was fairly good, as well as his skill in caring for Spirit Plants and Spirit Beasts, the clan had agreed to send him out for some practical experience.
"Go!"
With a sharp shout from Meng Haoran, some mysterious liquid suddenly formed inside the "Heavenly Cauldron." Following his will, it surged outward and mingled with the "Minor Cloud Rain Art," turning into rain that drifted down over the Meng Family's Spirit Plant Field.
When the rain, infused with faint spiritual energy from heaven and earth, finally stopped, Meng Haoran looked closely and saw that the Three-Pattern Wheat in the Meng Family's Spirit Plant Field had grown even greener.
Seeing this, Meng Haoran couldn't help but smile. "At this rate, this First-Tier Spirit Plant, the Three-Pattern Wheat, will be ripe and ready to harvest in less than ten days!"
A month ago, when Meng Haoran had just arrived in Qingyang County Town, he had first tried using the mysterious liquid from the "Heavenly Cauldron" to water the Three-Pattern Wheat while cultivating it with the "Minor Cloud Rain Art." Who would have thought that, just like the Three-Pattern Wheat he usually grew for the Xinghua Village Meng Family, it was extremely responsive to the "Cauldron Liquid" and grew faster?
Meng Haoran had been overjoyed then.
The Xinghua Village Meng Family was a low-ranking lineage with no official rank. The clan had no other profitable businesses, and its many members needed cultivation resources to improve their cultivation, so it could only rely on backbreaking work like growing crops in this Spirit Plant Field to cover its daily expenses.
Ever since the Meng Family had come to Xinghua Village, it had followed a rule: any junior whose cultivation reached the Third Layer of Qi Refining had to go beyond the clan's territory and serve at one of its outposts in the mortal world, gaining experience.
So, following the advice of the clan's senior members, Meng Haoran had come to Qingyang County Town to gain experience.
There were two reasons he had come to the Meng Family's Spirit Plant Field in Qingyang County.
First, he had just broken through to the Third Layer of Qi Refining and needed to venture out to temper the foundation of his cultivation.
Whether in the way one carried oneself or in the way one did things, one had to proceed on solid ground. This was all the more true of cultivation, a path where nine out of ten died. The "foundation" mattered most of all. Only by building a firm foundation could Meng Haoran go farther on the path of cultivation.
Since ancient times, countless cultivators had reached too far beyond their grasp and seen all their efforts come to nothing at the moment of breakthrough because their "foundation" was unstable.
Second, the spiritual energy in Xinghua Village was far less pure than that in Qingyang County.
Cultivators could not practice without spiritual energy from heaven and earth. Within the Great Yu Immortal Dynasty, this energy was impure and chaotic. Cultivators of almost any realm could not directly absorb and refine it, given its extremely low purity. The more they absorbed, the more impurities and waste accumulated in their bodies, often leaving their cultivation stagnant and even shortening their lives.
Thus, cultivators could only rely on the "Heaven and Earth Great Array" established by the founding ancestor of the Yu Dynasty. Combined with their Cultivation Methods and the mysterious "Human Path Spirituality," it tempered the spiritual energy from heaven and earth so that cultivators throughout the realm could absorb and refine it.
The Great Yu Immortal Dynasty had stood for a hundred thousand years. To govern its vast territory in orderly fashion, the founding ancestor of the Yu Dynasty had divided its lands into three administrative levels—provinces, commanderies, and counties—laying the groundwork for the dynasty's enduring rule.
Qingyang County was the jurisdiction above Xinghua Village, and naturally far more prosperous.
Qingyang County Town had a population dozens of times larger than Xinghua Village's. Its "Human Path Spirituality" was naturally much stronger, and the spiritual energy tempered by that "Human Path Spirituality" was, of course, far more suitable for cultivators like Meng Haoran to absorb and refine.
After finishing the day's task of tending the Three-Pattern Wheat, Meng Haoran swung himself onto the back of a Twin-Horned Moon Sheep, preparing to head toward Qingyang County Town.
"Nowadays, the immortal clans of the Great Yu Immortal Dynasty are governed by the Nine-Rank Zhongzheng System. Nearly every clan force has an official rank, with First Rank the highest and Ninth Rank the lowest. A cultivation family like ours, the Meng Family, doesn't even have a rank. We can only live on the scraps tossed our way by the seven Ninth-Rank Cultivation Families in the county town."
As he passed the Meng Family's own Spirit Plant Field, Meng Haoran suddenly said in a low voice, "What's more, every kind of cultivation resource our Meng Family needs is tightly controlled by the Ninth-Rank Cultivation Families in the county town. If the Meng Family wants to rise from the ranks of low-ranking lineages and become a Ninth-Rank Cultivation Family, someone in the clan must break through Qi Refining and become a Foundation Establishment cultivator."
Thinking of this, Meng Haoran sighed softly. "Alas, our Meng Family has struggled for three hundred years on the strength of our ancestors' efforts, and three generations have devoted their entire lives, yet we still haven't obtained the spiritual elixirs and medicines needed to support a clan member in reaching Foundation Establishment. We can't even get out of Xinghua Village. Even my father, a Half-step Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator, died tragically outside the county in the Qingyang Mountain Range while helping the Meng Family rise. That shows how difficult it is to become a Ninth-Rank Cultivation Family and stand as an equal with those other families!"
Now that Meng Haoran was at the Third Layer of Qi Refining, if he wanted to break through to Foundation Establishment, he first had to raise his cultivation by seven layers and reach the Tenth-Layer Qi Refining Peak. Then, by consuming Foundation Establishment Level cultivation resources, he would gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within his dantian and build a Dao Foundation. Only then could he become a Foundation Establishment cultivator!
"But now, our clan leader is already at the Half-step Foundation Establishment Realm. With half a foot in the grave, he still hasn't managed to build a Dao Foundation in his dantian because the clan lacks Foundation Establishment Level cultivation resources. So he can't become a true Foundation Establishment cultivator. And as long as he can't become one, the Meng Family will never qualify to move its entire clan into Qingyang County Town."
Meng Haoran said quietly, "By the usual reckoning, Qi Refining cultivators live for a hundred years, Foundation Establishment cultivators for three hundred, and Golden Core cultivators for five hundred. Our clan leader is already a hundred and fifty years old. If another twenty or thirty years pass without the appearance of Foundation Establishment Level cultivation resources, and he still has no hope of breaking through to Foundation Establishment, he'll pass away in Xinghua Village. By then, our Meng Family will be in grave danger!"
At this thought, Meng Haoran stopped and looked back toward Xinghua Village.
With worry etched across his face, he said sorrowfully, "If my fears come true, and the clan leader grows old and passes away without anyone in the clan successfully reaching Foundation Establishment, the Meng Family won't even need the Ninth-Rank families in Qingyang County Town to make a move. The Lin and Chen Families in Xinghua Village alone will tear us to pieces. Our Meng Family will be left broken and scattered, its members dead or driven from their home!"
"Whew!"
Meng Haoran gave his head a light shake, then lowered his gaze to his right palm and smiled. "Fortunately, I have this Heavenly Cauldron now. It'll surely be a great help, both on my own path to Foundation Establishment and on the Meng Family's road to rising again!"
Just as all sorts of thoughts stirred in Meng Haoran's heart, the corner of his eye caught a faint glimmer in the Meng Family's Spirit Plant Field not far away.
Curious, Meng Haoran furrowed his brow.
In recent days, hoping to take better care of the Three-Pattern Wheat and earn more cultivation resources from the clan, Meng Haoran had walked through nearly every part of this Spirit Plant Field. He had never noticed anything unusual.
So he walked over and crouched down to take a look. The glimmer he had just seen was coming from a stalk of Three-Pattern Wheat.
He reached out and pinched the stalk of Three-Pattern Wheat between his fingers. But when he saw its markings clearly, he was astonished.
"This is Six-Pattern Wheat!"
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