Quantitative Change Leads to Qualitative Change! Foundation Establishment Successful!

[Ding~]

[Congratulations on successfully investing Enlightenment Tea Leaves in Li Yuanhua; investment progress has reached 30%!]

[You will receive a 30% return on Li Yuanhua's subsequent Cultivation Effect gains!]

The difficulty of system investments was determined by a comprehensive combination of the target's strength, potential, background, and other factors.

Little Nannan was still weak in strength yet possessed astonishing potential, holding immense room for future development. This essentially meant a massive rate of return.

Therefore, the investment difficulty was naturally much greater as well.

It consumed a full catty and more of Wang Mu's Enlightenment Tea Leaves.

In truth, all Children of Luck were like this.

With Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures of the same tier, investing in ordinary people might instantly max out the progress, but investing in them yielded a much smaller effect.

Take Lin Yan from before, for instance—a single Sea Spirit Flame had only pushed the progress to 30%.

That was a rare treasure from the Spirit Flame Ranking.

To a certain extent, it was even scarcer than Enlightenment Tea Leaves.

Because there were only a few Enlightenment Tea Trees; although controlled by major powers, they yielded stable outputs, albeit in small quantities.

Yet wanting to acquire a treasure like the Sea Spirit Flame truly required extraordinary fortuitous encounters.

If the timing and location were unsuitable, failing to give birth to a single one for several hundred or a thousand years was a common occurrence.

As for Li Yuanhua, though his cultivation base was formidable, he was advanced in years, and his potential had already been largely exhausted. Without massive fortuitous encounters in the future, the probability of him breaking through again was minuscule.

This implied a low rate of return.

Thus, Wang Mu used less than an ounce of the Enlightenment Tea Leaves to push his investment progress straight to 30%!

Through this comparison.

Wang Mu grew increasingly convinced that his strategy of casting a wide net was correct.

After all, even if he were genuinely given a pile of Children of Luck, relying on the foundation of the Langya Merchant Association, Wang Mu had no idea whether he could fully invest in all of them.

Whoosh—

The crowd suddenly broke into an uproar.

This snapped Wang Mu out of his thoughts.

His gaze fell toward the testing grounds where the commotion came from.

As it turned out, a genius with a Supreme-Grade Fire Spiritual Root had been discovered over there.

A Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root meant possessing the potential to successfully cultivate into a Nascent Soul Realm venerable.

This was already extraordinary!

One had to know that even the Li Liang Royal House, backed by a Spirit Transformation ancestor, did not dare guarantee that every single King of Liang possessed a cultivation base in the Nascent Soul Realm.

"How many people have been tested in total these past few days?" Wang Mu suddenly asked.

"Reporting to Young Master, over the past seven days, a total of five hundred thousand and eight thousand-plus people have been tested!" Li Yuanhua responded without the slightest hesitation.

"A full half a million people, and this is only the first Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root?" Wang Mu touched his chin, feeling that this ratio seemed a bit too exaggerated.

Yet Li Yuanhua was quite optimistic. "It's already very good! In past years, even if one searched the entire Heavenly Severing Island, decades might pass without a single Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root appearing! This is all thanks to your boundless good fortune, Young Master!"

Wang Mu chuckled softly, noncommittal.

He knew that the "searching the entire Heavenly Severing Island" Li Yuanhua spoke of certainly could not compare to his own method of testing door-to-door.

The probability of omissions was still quite high!

At best, they could only tally those Supreme-Grade Spiritual Roots that had entered immortal sects through coincidence and displayed their innate talent.

However, Li Yuanhua hadn't been wrong about one thing.

If not for Wang Mu sparing no expense to test everyone for spiritual roots.

Nine out of ten of those immortal seedlings below would never have been discovered, mostly destined to live out their lives in mediocrity as mere mortals.

Immortal cultivation depended not only on talent; luck was equally important.

Wang Mu was the luck for those impoverished immortal seedlings!

Strangely enough.

Earlier, when Upper-Grade Spiritual Roots were discovered, major sects fought over them until their heads bled.

Yet right now, upon discovering a heaven-gifted prodigy with a Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root.

These factions grew still instead.

"What's going on? Why aren't they fighting for him?"

Amidst the crowd, a busybody asked in puzzlement and surprise.

"Fight for what? Ordinary Upper-Grade Spiritual Roots and Mid-Grade Spiritual Roots are worth fighting over... But a heaven-gifted prodigy with a Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root can secure a foothold even among Sacred Ground Disciples!"

"The Young Master of the Wang family spent so much manpower and resources to organize such an Ascension Convention; it couldn't possibly end up with him coming away empty-handed, right? That would make the rest of us look far too clueless, wouldn't it?"

"True, true. My sect has already taken in a heaven-gifted prodigy with an Upper-Grade Spiritual Root; that's enough..."

"A Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root is far too dazzling; this person ought to belong to the Wang family!"

"..."

The crowd discussed animatedly.

One gaze after another turned simultaneously toward the high platform where Wang Mu was seated.

Wang Mu took in those fragmented whispers, unable to help a chuckle. "Spread the word—let them compete to their hearts' content! My word is my bond, Wang Mu. This Ascension Convention is held solely so that every talented individual with a spiritual root under the heavens may obtain the opportunity to practice cultivation!

It is by no means for the personal gain of my Wang family!"

Li Yuanhua blinked. "Really... are you really spreading it?"

Wang Mu said calmly, "Spread it!"

Li Yuanhua acknowledged the order, feeling somewhat surprised.

Could the Young Master's standards actually be this high?

Even a genius with a Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root didn't catch his eye?

Then why on earth did he take a fancy to a little beggar girl?

The Young Master was truly worthy of being the Young Master; his mind was as deep as an abyss, impossible to fathom!

The news was spread.

The scene instantly boiled over.

"Is it true? Did the Young Master of the Wang family really say that?"

"The Li Clan Ancestor personally passed down the message, how could it be false?"

"A good man! The Young Master of the Wang family is truly a top-tier, wonderful person!"

"Damn it, this is seriously bloody bizarre. Did the Young Master of the Wang family actually turn over a new leaf?"

"My Thunder Extremity Sect is willing to invite the Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root immortal seedling into our immortal sect with the position of Young Sect Master!"

"What is a Young Sect Master worth? The Nascent Soul ancestor of my Taihua Sect can take him in as a True Disciple and impart everything without reservation..."

The major sects began competing, offering their respective conditions, which made the heaven-gifted prodigies with Upper-Grade and Mid-Grade Spiritual Roots turn exceptionally red with envy.

In the cultivation world, a single grade difference in aptitude meant an insurmountable gap.

Those words truly proved to be no falsehood!

"What is it? Could your Li family have no interest in this immortal seedling with a Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root?"

Wang Mu looked at Li Yuanhua, who had remained on guard beside him, and smiled.

"Interest... naturally I have some! But since the Young Master has already spoken, allowing the major sects to let go and compete, naturally the Young Master has his own considerations..."

Li Yuanhua deliberated. "This old servant is only worried that messing up the Young Master's grand plans would be bad!"

How could he not be interested in a heaven-gifted prodigy with a Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root?

One had to know that the younger generation of the Li family currently lacked even a single Supreme-Grade Spiritual Root.

The successor to the throne remained unknown.

Fortunately, cultivators enjoyed long lifespans.

King of Liang Li Changhe still had a few hundred years left to live and had opportunities to sire more offspring.

Moreover, the true pillar of the Li family lay in Li Yuanhua.

If not for this.

The Li family would have long since failed to contain themselves!

Wang Mu smiled without a word.

Actually, he wouldn't mind if the Li family went to compete; to him, it was all the same with no difference.

However, in the eyes of outsiders.

The current Li family took orders entirely from the Wang family.

If the Li family were to take the person away, people would inevitably suspect that this was Wang Mu's intention, and crying foul about him saying one thing to your face and doing another behind your back would lead to losses outweighing the gains.

Right now was a critical moment for Wang Mu to rebuild his reputation.

Minor details still could not be handled carelessly.

Although Li Yuanhua did not know Wang Mu's exact intentions, he was meticulous, and Wang Mu remained quite satisfied with him.

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 a wave of heat in his dantian.

A majestic surge of qi flow violently erupted from within his body.

It startled Li Yuanhua and Zixia, who were by his side.