Love from the Ancestor

"Shocking news: according to inside sources, the Human Race Spiritual Energy Revival History Research and Excavation Center has uncovered a vast ruin. The site may well have once been home to an unprecedentedly powerful lineage!"

"Beyond the eight planets, the Magic Civilization has continued to provoke our nation, hoping to return to Earth and take control of our civilization. War between the two civilizations may be imminent."

"The Li Pharmaceutical Company in California went bankrupt overnight, and all Li family members have withdrawn. Rumor has it they found their family's ancestral grounds on an alien planet. Galaxy Corporation will take over from the Li Group and become California's richest company."

"..."

Before he knew it, he had spent several days playing the game. Taking Tailin Town, in particular, had taken Li Xiang most of the day.

Now he was eating lunch while scrolling through the news on his phone.

"They found another ruin?"

Li Xiang watched the first news story with interest. It was nothing unusual anymore. As humanity explored Earth and other planets, it had already discovered that human civilization had passed through many eras.

The other stories didn't interest him much.

As humanity advanced, it had formed both alliances and rivalries with alien civilizations. The neighboring Magic Civilization had apparently left Earth after its spiritual energy dried up. Now, seeing Earth's experts expanding to worlds who knew how many light-years away, they had come back to make a racket.

As for Li Pharmaceutical Company... he was currently the only surviving member of the Li Family on Earth.

"Master, your teacher called. He asked you to return to school. Uncle Chen at the gate said your teacher even came to Jixian Manor, but was turned away." Yuexian's voice interrupted Li Xiang's thoughts.

Only then did Li Xiang remember the call from the school.

He must have been so busy fighting that he'd temporarily blocked his teacher.

"If you don't go back to school soon, your teacher will start worrying," Yuexian said with a smile. "The California Inter-School Alliance competition is only a week away, and the strongest False Core Stage expert at the school has already been defeated outside the competition. I hear the other person is a dark horse from the Second Academy, with a mutated Thunder Heavenly Spirit Root. You could call her heaven's favorite."

"So what if she lost?"

Li Xiang shrugged. "Besides, what good would it do me to help them win? I honestly don't care for anything the school could offer me. Tell him to go play somewhere else."

Seeing Yuexian's hesitant expression, Li Xiang smiled. "And don't worry about Spirit Stones. Boss Qi owes the family some money, and he'll pay it back. All right, I'm going to play."

Yuexian finally relaxed. Watching Li Xiang's retreating figure, she murmured,

"Well, as long as Master doesn't starve, I suppose it's fine."

[Li Family, Year 37.]

[Bai Rourou carried twins for ten months and gave birth to a boy and a girl, named Li Yunzhe and Li Yunjie!]

[Incense +20!]

"Ancestor, my wife had another baby! Hahaha, twins!"

The moment he sat down, Li Xiang stared wide-eyed.

In the Ancestral Hall, Li Yaotie was holding one baby in each arm. Both were big and sturdy.

"Ancestor, thank you for blessing Great Dragon with a house full of descendants. I've lived a full life. Ancestor, take a look at these two babies. Aren't they strong? They'll surely make fine hunters one day."

"Husband, listen to yourself. Our family's thriving now. We don't need to hunt anymore."

"Of course we're hunting! My Li family children can't let my craft go to waste!"

Everyone in the family had a little label floating above their heads.

Li Xiang could see how happy they all were, and he felt just as delighted.

Without him even noticing, the family that had once consisted of Li Dalong alone had grown into a big household!

He smiled and gave every member a collective dose of 'Love from the Ancestor.'

Amid the rejoicing,

Li Xiang looked at Zhien Village, which was growing more prosperous by the day.

"Let's see how far the Li Family has come while I was away."

He quickly opened the member list.

Li Yaozu was still in seclusion, searching for a chance to break through to Foundation Establishment Realm. Li Xiang even hoped he would stay in seclusion a little longer. The saying that Foundation Establishment took a hundred days meant that the longer it took, the better the transformation might be.

Of course, there were also exceptionally gifted people who established their foundation in an instant and still transformed well, but such cases were rare.

Li Yaoqing and Li Yaotie had both reached the ninth level of Qi Refining, but they planned to teach the disciples they'd taken on over the years before entering seclusion.

At the same time,

Li Xiang noticed something different in the member list. Their personal profiles now included an additional item: their positions!

[After years of development, your family has established special family forces under Li Yaowen's plans.]

Li Dalong, family head.

Xu Cuihua, Spirit Beast Pavilion director, 30 animal keepers.

Li Yaozu, Black Blood Hall leader, 150 family guards under his command.

Li Yaoqing, Spirit Herb Garden keeper, 15 apprentices.

Li Yaotie, Forging Pavilion, 20 apprentices.

Li Yaowen, Internal Affairs Bureau, 3 assistants, maids... grooms... carriage drivers...

"It's getting more and more organized."

Some families in the real world were no more than small merchants and hawkers, without any defined positions. Once a family had a proper structure, it meant that it had climbed to another level.

Just as Li Xiang was feeling pleased that the Li Family was on the right track,

he saw Li Yaowen reporting on the family's progress in the Ancestral Hall.

"Ancestor, in the year you didn't manifest, Yaowen didn't fail you. We've completely taken control of Tailin Town!"

Li Xiang tapped his head.

With the game's time acceleration at its fastest, one real-world hour equaled one year in the game. His descendants had grown used to him disappearing now and then and manifesting now and then.

"Do they think I'm some kind of mystery?"

Li Xiang thought mischievously.

Then he listened patiently to Li Yaowen's report.

It turned out that after that incident, Li Xiang had had a long talk with Li Yaowen. After Li Yaowen displayed such exceptional intelligence, Li Dalong had essentially handed over the family's affairs to him.

Over the past few years, after seizing the foundations of Tailin Town's two great families, Li Yaowen had begun making plans in town.

The Li Family hadn't taken the dozen or so mines in Tailin Town.

Li Xiang's plan was to remain firmly based in Zhien Village and quietly develop through Tailin Town, staying behind the scenes the whole time.

The mines were all entrusted to the Chen and Su Families to manage and develop, while the Li Family received fifty percent of the profits.

The Li Family had also become secret allies with Tailin Town's other families, keeping watch over one another and coming to each other's aid.

But in truth,

the Su and Chen Families both understood that the Li Family was the real ruler of Tailin Town.

At present, the Li Family could earn twenty to fifty thousand low-grade Spirit Stones every year, even after covering its internal needs.

"Ancestor, we've also recruited a talisman master and an alchemist."

When Li Yaowen said this, however, he didn't look happy. Instead, he furrowed his brow. "They're both ninth-grade, but they saw that our family was only just rising and demanded an exorbitant price. I agreed to it. I'd planned to have our apprentices learn their crafts from them, but they're both old foxes. Our apprentices haven't learned a thing from them!"

"I'm planning to capture them. If they won't train alchemists and talisman masters for us, I'll kill them!"

"..."

Looking at the words above Li Yaowen's head, Li Xiang pressed a hand to his forehead.

If the Li Family really did that, what would it become? If even a whisper of it got out, the Li Family would never be able to recruit another retainer.

In the end, he had the Purple Thunder Heavenly Sun Python speak on his behalf.

"The ancestor has finally answered me!"

The Purple Thunder Heavenly Sun Python opened its eyes, its injuries healed after all these years. It let out a hiss, and Li Yaowen exclaimed, "The ancestor truly sees the whole board! I'll go look for the apprentices they brought. They can't all be old foxes. Someone is bound to be tempted and agree to work for us!"

Li Xiang gave a slight nod.

As things stood, as long as they had a spiritual root, the Li Family could raise them to Qi Refining Realm in three to five years with Beast Blood Fruit and the medicine Li Yaoqing brewed.

As for weapons and armor, the Forging Pavilion had seven 'Blood Altars' made by Li Yaotie. Once the conditions for 'enchanting' were met over forty-nine days, a few more days of hammering would be enough to forge a set of low-grade magical equipment.

That was already enough to meet their equipment needs.

But if they wanted to advance further, an alchemist was essential.

Especially for those at Foundation Establishment Realm. As they absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, they also needed to compress it. Li Dalong had been at Foundation Establishment Realm for several years, but his progress was slow.

Every year, the Li Family bought pills from the outside to help Li Dalong compress his true energy, and those pills were expensive. In the future, the Li Family would have more people at Foundation Establishment Realm, so having someone who could refine pills would be extremely important.

Besides,

Li Xiang knew that if the Li Family wanted to go further, there were still many matters to deal with.

Xu Cuihua in particular.

When she came to bow before the Ancestral Hall, Li Xiang had asked her how she could advance, since she was the strongest member of the Li Family.

He learned that Xu Cuihua, as a beast tamer, needed to grow stronger in a way that differed from ordinary people. Besides abundant spiritual energy, she also needed to evolve her bloodline.

[From the bloodline of the Heavenly Moon Fox, Li Dalong's wife learned the conditions for the Heavenly Moon Fox's evolution.]

[Condition One: Demon King Blood Pill]

[Condition Two: Ten Thousand Fox Worship]

[Condition Three:...]

The various conditions made Li Xiang's eyes swim. A Demon King Blood Pill was the source of power within a Demon King, equivalent to a Golden Core Realm expert.

As for Ten Thousand Fox Worship...

Li Xiang had no idea what that entailed.

There were other spirit beasts seeking breakthroughs, too.

One was the Purple Thunder Heavenly Sun Python, the Temple Guardian Beast.

It also needed a Demon King Blood Pill, as well as the tempering of Heavenly Thunder and Earthly Fire.

"Ah, what a headache. Who knew developing a family would be this hard?"

Li Xiang scratched his head.

But he had no good solution for now. All he could do was wait and see if any good opportunities came along.

As he watched the family develop and considered how to help it advance further,

[Your descendant Li Yaoqing was planting new Beast Blood Fruit Trees and clearing land for the Spirit Herb Garden when he pried open an old boulder and discovered an empty coffin...]