[Ding~] [Congratulations, you have successfully invested Enlightenment Tea Leaves in Li Yuanhua. Investment progress has reached 30%!] [You will receive returns equal to 30% of Li Yuanhua's subsequent Cultivation Effect!]
The difficulty of a system investment was determined by a combination of factors, such as the target's strength, potential, and wealth.
Little Nannan was still weak, but her potential was astonishing. She had enormous room for future growth, which meant an enormous rate of return.
Thus, investing in her was relatively more difficult.
It had consumed more than a whole jin of Wang Mu's Enlightenment Tea Leaves.
In fact, all Children of Luck were like this.
Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures of the same grade might fill the progress bar if invested in someone else, but when invested in them, the effect would be much weaker.
Take Lin Yan from before, for example. A Sea Spirit Flame had only raised the progress to 30%.
That was a rare wonder listed on the Spirit Flame Ranking.
In some respects, it was even rarer than Enlightenment Tea Leaves.
There were only a few Enlightenment Tea Trees. Though they were controlled by major powers, they could produce steadily, even if the quantity was small.
But to obtain a treasure like the Sea Spirit Flame truly required tremendous fortune.
If the time and place were unsuitable, it was common for not a single flame to be born for hundreds or even thousands of years.
As for Li Yuanhua, although his cultivation was powerful, he was already advanced in years. Seven or eight tenths of his potential had been exhausted. Unless he encountered some tremendous opportunity in the future, the odds of him breaking through again were very low.
That meant the rate of return was not high.
So Wang Mu had used less than one or two liang of Enlightenment Tea Leaves to bring the investment progress to 30%!
After comparing them.
Wang Mu felt more and more that his strategy of casting a wide net was correct.
After all, even if he were truly given a whole group of Children of Luck, Wang Mu had no idea whether the Langya Merchant Association's reserves would be enough to fully invest in every one of them.
Whoosh—
The crowd suddenly erupted in an uproar.
It pulled Wang Mu from his thoughts.
His gaze fell upon the testing grounds where the commotion had arisen.
So it was that a genius with a Supreme-Grade Fire Spiritual Root had been discovered over there.
A Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root meant one possessed the potential to become a Nascent Soul Realm venerable.
That was already extraordinary!
One had to know that even the Li Liang Royal House, with a Spirit Transformation ancestor overseeing it, could not guarantee that every King of Liang would possess Nascent Soul Realm cultivation.
"How many people have been tested altogether these past few days?" Wang Mu suddenly asked.
"Reporting to Young Master, over the past seven days, more than five hundred and eight thousand people have been tested in total!" Li Yuanhua answered without hesitation.
"A full five hundred thousand people, and this is only the first Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root, right?" Wang Mu stroked his chin, feeling that this ratio seemed a little too exaggerated.
But Li Yuanhua was very optimistic. "This is already quite good. In previous years, even if one searched all of Heavenly Severing Island, a Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root might not appear in decades! This is all thanks to Young Master's great fortune!"
Wang Mu smiled faintly but neither confirmed nor denied it.
He knew that Li Yuanhua's "searching all of Heavenly Severing Island" certainly could not mean testing every household one by one as he had done.
The chances of omissions were still rather high!
At most, they could count those Supreme-Grade Spiritual Roots who had stumbled into immortal sects by chance and displayed their talent.
However, Li Yuanhua had not been wrong about one thing.
If not for Wang Mu's all-out, regardless-of-cost spiritual root testing for everyone.
Nine out of ten of the Immortal Seeds below would never have been discovered and would likely spend their lives as ordinary mortals, muddling through in obscurity.
Cultivation did not depend only on talent; fortune was also very important.
Wang Mu was the fortune of those Immortal Seeds born into poor families!
Strangely enough.
When High-Grade Spiritual Roots had been discovered before, the major sects had fought until their heads were bloodied.
But now that a peerless genius with a Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root had appeared.
These factions instead stopped moving.
"What is going on? Why aren't they fighting for them?"
Among the crowd, some curious onlookers were astonished and confused.
"Fight for what? Ordinary High-Grade Spiritual Roots and Mid-Grade Spiritual Roots are one thing... but a genius with a Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root could claim a place even among Sacred Ground Disciples!"
"Young Master Wang spent such immense manpower and resources to organize an Ascension Convention like this. Could we really let him end up with nothing, like drawing water with a bamboo basket? Wouldn't that make us seem terribly tactless?"
"Exactly, exactly. Our sect has already recruited one genius with a High-Grade Spiritual Root. That is enough..."
"A Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root is simply too dazzling. This person should belong to the Wang Family!"
"..."
The crowd discussed fervently.
One by one, their gazes turned in unspoken agreement toward the High Platform where Wang Mu stood.
Wang Mu took those scattered words into his ears and could not help but laugh. "Spread the word. Tell them to compete for them as they please! I, Wang Mu, keep my word. This Ascension Convention is only meant to ensure that all talented people in the world with Spiritual Roots receive the opportunity to cultivate!
It is absolutely not for my Wang Family to seek private gain!"
Li Yuanhua blinked. "Really... really spread it?"
Wang Mu said indifferently, "Spread it!"
Li Yuanhua accepted the order, somewhat surprised as well.
Young Master's standards were truly this high?
He did not even care for a genius with a Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root?
Then why had he set his sights on a little beggar instead?
Young Master truly was Young Master. His thoughts were as deep as an abyss, impossible to fathom!
The news spread.
The scene instantly boiled over.
"Really? Young Master Wang truly said that?"
"The Li Clan Ancestor personally passed on the message. How could it be false?"
"What a good man! Young Master Wang is truly the greatest good man under heaven!"
"Damn it, this is really strange. Young Master Wang really changed his nature?"
"My Thunder Extremity Sect is willing to offer the position of Young Sect Master and invite the Immortal Seed with the Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root into our immortal sect!"
"What is a Young Sect Master worth? The Nascent Soul ancestor of my Taihua Sect can take them as a True Disciple and teach them everything without reserve..."
"..."
The major sects began competing, announcing their respective terms. The High-Grade and Mid-Grade Spiritual Root geniuses watched with envy burning in their eyes.
In the Cultivation World, being one grade lower in aptitude meant being worlds apart.
Those words were indeed true!
"What? Your Li Family has no interest in this Immortal Seed with a Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root?"
Wang Mu looked at Li Yuanhua, who had remained by his side the entire time, and smiled.
"Interest... naturally, we have it! But since Young Master has said that the major sects should be allowed to compete freely, Young Master must have his own considerations..."
Li Yuanhua chose his words carefully. "This old servant fears that if we were to ruin Young Master's grand plans, that would be bad!"
How could he possibly have no interest in a genius with a Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root?
One had to know that no Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root had yet appeared among the Li Family's younger generation.
No one knew where the next heir to the throne was.
Fortunately, cultivators had long Lifespans.
King of Liang Li Changhe could still live for several hundred more years, and he still had the chance to continue having children.
Moreover, the true pillar of the Li Family was Li Yuanhua.
If not for that.
The Li Family would have long been unable to hold back!
Wang Mu smiled without speaking.
In truth, he did not mind if the Li Family competed for them. To him, it was all the same, with no difference.
But in the eyes of outsiders.
The current Li Family was entirely following the Wang Family's orders.
If the Li Family took the person away, people would inevitably suspect that it had been Wang Mu's intention. Then they would say he acted one way to their faces and another behind their backs, and the loss would outweigh the gain.
This was precisely the crucial moment for Wang Mu to rebuild his reputation.
He could not afford to be careless over such small details.
Although Li Yuanhua did not know Wang Mu's exact intentions, he was meticulous in his thinking, which left Wang Mu fairly satisfied.
Finally.
The seventh day of the Ascension Convention came to an end.
Wang Mu returned to the depths of the Imperial Palace.
Suddenly, he felt heat in his Dantian.
A vast qi flow violently burst forth from within him.
It gave Li Yuanhua and Zixia beside him quite a fright.
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