Cultivation Family

"Dad, have you noticed that this tree in our courtyard seems to have grown a little since yesterday? And its leaves don't look as sickly as before. They look as if they've been rubbed with a layer of oil."

Early in the morning, the sun had just risen, and a trace of dampness still lingered in the air.

Even Yu Xiaoshan, who had only managed to fall asleep in the middle of the night, had gotten up early.

Though he was only twelve, he already did nearly half the work for the family. Sleeping until the sun was high in the sky simply wasn't an option for him.

There was a school in the settlement, but it only taught basic reading and writing. Children started at seven or eight, studied for two or three years, and could generally graduate after that.

It wasn't easy to truly master a skill. More often than not, skills were passed from father to son, then from son to grandson, generation after generation.

Take Spirit Planter Masters, for example. One had to become a cultivator first, and the relationship had to be especially close—either the skill was passed down within the family, or it was taught by a master to a disciple.

There was no way to learn it at school.

Other similar professions included alchemists, Formation Masters, and Artifact Refiners.

For ordinary people, all of these were far beyond reach. Even if they had a chance to become cultivators, it was still difficult to receive such instruction.

The professions available to ordinary cultivators were usually settlement guards or caravan escorts. Otherwise, they could join the Insect Hunter Team. Most of these jobs required no particular skill or were dangerous.

As for having heaven-defying talent and relying on one's own strength to become a Foundation Establishment cultivator, or even a Golden Core True Person, that was nothing more than a beautiful dream.

Ever since the great cataclysm three thousand years ago, not only had the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster appeared between heaven and earth, but humanity's path of cultivation had also been severed in two.

In the past, once someone reached Perfection of Fetal Movement, they could draw a mysterious aura from heaven and earth. After refining it, they could use it to break the first shackle within their body and successfully enter the Qi Refining Realm.

But now, because of the great cataclysm, even those at lower cultivation realms—not to mention people in Fetal Movement—could hardly sense that mysterious aura.

It was simply impossible to enter the Qi Refining Realm through one's own efforts after reaching Perfection of Fetal Movement.

And so, Immortal Destiny came into being.

Cultivators of higher realms could extract that mysterious aura from heaven and earth and bestow it upon ordinary people.

Heaven and earth had also left a glimmer of hope. Under the ravages of the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster, certain spiritual objects containing the mysterious aura had come into being. They could be a stone, a blade of grass, a cloud, or a spring.

They came in every imaginable form.

But no matter what they were, as long as they could help a person enter the Qi Refining Realm, they were considered Immortal Destiny.

For ordinary people to seek Immortal Destiny was as hard as ascending to heaven.

This one threshold alone stopped ninety-nine percent of ordinary people.

Strictly speaking, Fetal Movement was the first step on the path of cultivation, so it should rightfully have been counted among the ranks of cultivators.

Three thousand years ago, that had indeed been the case.

But because of Immortal Destiny, and because those great figures deliberately promoted the idea that the Immortal Dao was supremely noble, Fetal Movement was directly excluded from the ranks of cultivators.

They even issued an edict declaring that those in Fetal Movement still belonged among the ordinary people. Only upon entering the Qi Refining Realm could one be considered to have truly crossed the threshold of cultivation and be given the title of cultivator.

Moreover, ever since the great cataclysm, when the surviving cultivators had found ways to create Blessed Lands, this world had no so-called sects anymore. There were only Blessed Lands, each containing families that carried on through bloodlines. Even when these families needed servants and guards, they rarely recruited from outside.

A Blessed Land usually had many families living and multiplying within it. Only these families had enough resources to support cultivators at Foundation Establishment and above.

Without resources or cultivation methods firmly controlled by cultivation families, no matter how gifted you were, you could only struggle desperately.

Of course, some families seeking to grow stronger would also recruit cultivators with decent talent by taking them in as sons-in-law. After a few generations, they would generally be completely assimilated, becoming deeply rooted members of the family.

With nearly all resources controlled by families, even if ordinary people were lucky enough to obtain Immortal Destiny and enter the Qi Refining Realm, the road ahead was still full of obstacles.

Unless they happened upon the opening of a Blessed Land for development and had a bit of luck besides, they would have to struggle desperately for generations before they had even the slightest chance of joining its ranks, slowly growing stronger and supporting a Foundation Establishment cultivator of their own.

That was the broad, sunlit road to rising in this world.

That was why the strength of a family's unity in this world was beyond anything outsiders could imagine.

It was also why Old Man Yu would rather sacrifice himself than let his three sons die.

In his eyes, he was already old. Rather than waste resources on himself, it was better to make the road a little easier for his descendants.

As long as his eldest son, Yu Dashan, could obtain Immortal Destiny, succeed in Qi Refining, and become a true cultivator, he would have a sliver of a chance to establish a family of his own.

In this world, the word "family" represented inheritance. It was a way of defining the divisions between powers, and such a family was also called a cultivation family.

No matter how many as-yet-unawakened people your household had—even a hundred at Perfection of Fetal Movement—without a cultivator in the Qi Refining Realm, you couldn't be called a cultivation family.

Once a family worked together to support a cultivator at Foundation Establishment, it would be qualified to use a Heaven and Earth Spiritual Root to open up a small Blessed Land.

But that was only in theory.

Heaven and Earth Spiritual Roots were far too scarce. They could be called the most important resource in this world.

Almost every appearance of a Heaven and Earth Spiritual Root sparked a bloody storm. After an unimaginably brutal struggle, the victor would earn the right to open a Blessed Land of their own.

From then on, they would make a name for themselves in the region and rule as its master.

Above Foundation Establishment Families were Golden Core Families and Nascent Soul Families. Even in those large Blessed Lands, they were the most preeminent of all.

For the Yu Family, all this was far too distant.

Even if Old Man Yu had a hundred times the courage, he wouldn't dare dream of such things. To support a cultivator in the Qi Refining Realm, establish a family within a Blessed Land, and secure the right to live there permanently—that was already the limit of what he could imagine.

He was exercising in the courtyard when he heard his youngest son's words. He glanced at the Elm Tree Yu An had transformed into and said calmly, "All the trees on Ox Ridge look more or less like this in the morning. That sheen is dew from dawn, reflecting the sunlight. That's why they look so lively."

After speaking, Old Man Yu gave him another instruction. "Hurry and wash your face. Then cook two jin of Spirit Rice, and go call your eldest and second brother back to eat."

"Cook Spirit Rice?"

Yu Xiaoshan had only said it in passing, but as soon as he heard that they were having Spirit Rice, he grew excited.

The Yu Family might have ten mu of Spirit Rice fields, but that didn't mean they ate it every day.

Unlike ordinary rice, even Spirit Rice grown in Spirit Fields didn't yield much. Under normal conditions, a harvest of one hundred and seventy or eighty jin per mu was considered good.

This year, they might harvest a little more, a bit over two hundred jin.

At the purchase price, one Spirit Stone could be exchanged for thirty jin of Spirit Rice. Someone at Fetal Movement Major Accomplishment could eat a jin in one sitting if he stuffed himself.

After all, Spirit Rice contained spiritual energy and was highly nutritious. It filled the stomach easily, and eating too much made it hard to digest and only wasted the food.

The Yu Family had four people: two at Fetal Movement Major Accomplishment, one at Fetal Movement Minor Accomplishment, and one half-grown boy still growing. A single meal took three jin of Spirit Rice, which came to nine jin a day and two hundred and seventy jin a month—the equivalent of nine Spirit Stones.

In past years, the Yu Family had at most forty Spirit Stones left over for the year. After subtracting twenty for the four of them to enter the Blessed Land, that left the equivalent of twenty Spirit Stones.

Even if they ate nothing but Spirit Rice, at most it would last them two months.

Besides, Yu Ershan needed to recuperate, which meant a fixed annual expense of three Spirit Stones.

The seeds for Spirit Rice were included in the rent, but did that mean they didn't need Spirit Stones for all the other expenses of daily life?

Even though the Yu Family set aside some Spirit Rice to eat every year, it amounted to no more than one or two hundred jin—and that was for the entire year.

So being able to eat Spirit Rice once in a while was already pretty good.

Yu Xiaoshan's greatest wish was to eat Spirit Rice every day, at every meal.

Whether someone was still growing, like him, or had already entered Fetal Movement, eating Spirit Rice brought enormous benefits.

If Yu Ershan had been able to eat more Spirit Rice when he was young, he wouldn't have suffered lasting harm when he entered Fetal Movement at fourteen.

To put it simply, they were poor.

For an ordinary household, just meeting the needs of daily life was difficult enough. Cultivation was out of the question.

Only after Yu Xiaoshan hurried inside to cook the Spirit Rice did Old Man Yu turn his gaze back to the Elm Tree beside him. His eyes now shone as brightly as the newly risen sun, and a flush of excitement had even appeared on his face.