[Litian Secret Canon] [It records twelve kinds of martial arts and techniques of the Litian Sect's inner disciples: Blood Explosion Technique, Qingdao Wind-Assisting Method, <Thunder-Inducing Heavenly Scripture Human-Character Formula>...]
Looking at the various martial arts and techniques in the Litian Sect's secret canon, Li Xiang stared wide-eyed.
Even in the real world, martial arts and techniques remained highly valuable. To many powers, martial arts were still secrets never passed down to outsiders.
Even the Li Family had been like that in the past.
Family descendants had to spend contribution points before they could study within the family. Everything Li Xiang had learned had come from school.
As for the Li Family in the game world,
what they learned was basically common trash. They had obtained three or four Yellow-rank martial arts and techniques from the Hu Family and Wang Family, but their power could only be considered mediocre.
Yet within the Litian Sect's secret canon,
these martial arts and techniques were all remarkably powerful!
Li Xiang had taken a liking to three of them.
Blood Explosion Technique, a technique that stimulated the body's potential and raised one's cultivation by a minor realm for a short time.
Thunder-Inducing Heavenly Scripture Human-Character Formula, which drew lightning into one's body before borrowing the power of Heavenly Thunder to attack enemies.
Phantom Heavenly Cluster Steps
Li Xiang especially coveted this technique. It was the only Profound-rank technique in the secret canon!
It could use footwork to form an array. Not only could one move like a ghost, but one could also create phantoms, each possessing ten percent of the original body's strength. Once mastered to perfection, it might even summon a thousand phantoms!
"Even among Profound-rank techniques, this is an extremely powerful one."
Li Xiang suddenly smiled. "You may not be doing well, Yunlin, but you truly went to the right place!"
[You have selected your descendant Li Yunlin's martial arts and technique Litian Secret Canon!] [Detecting restrictions on the martial arts and technique. If the learner verbally explains it or teaches it to others, and speaks fewer than one hundred words of the secret canon, they shall suffer the punishment of soul destruction!] [Do you wish to break the restriction?] [Incense required: 5000!] [Current Incense: 7650]
Li Xiang had roughly calculated it before. As the Li Family's descendants increased, even without special events, he could gain more than a thousand Incense. Over these years, he had already accumulated this much.
He took a deep breath.
He took out a black stone containing martial arts and techniques from his Storage Ring!
"Hehehe, it's all mine now!"
[The Li Family's grand sacrifice, held once every ten years, has begun!] [Your descendants have presented you with sacrificial offerings!]
At last, the Li Family's fortieth year had arrived!
Other than Li Yunlin, everyone in the Li Family had gathered in the Ancestral Hall.
Time flew like an arrow. Li Dalong and his wife were now nearing sixty, yet they still looked middle-aged. The second generation had likewise become increasingly mature beneath the washing currents of Years.
The third generation stood in a row from tallest to shortest, five in total. Youthful vigor and innocence could be seen in their eyes, yet without exception, they all stared reverently at the Ancestral Tablet. Since childhood, they had known that the ancestor's spirit watched over them from heaven, protecting every member of the Li Family as they grew up. He was also the Li Family's guardian deity.
"Twenty years have passed in the blink of an eye. Back then, this child came here alone and put down roots!"
Li Dalong's eyes were red.
"It was the ancestor who gave this child the foundation to stand upon, and gave the entire Li Family a place to thrive."
"The Li Family has encountered droughts and natural calamities, and bandits have broken into our homes. It was the ancestor who time and again helped us descendants escape calamity and hardship."
"Back then, the Wang Family and Hu Family of Tailin bullied and humiliated us, calling the Li Family wild villagers from the mountains. It was the ancestor who let us know that we descendants were never inferior to anyone."
"Now, the Li Family is flourishing."
"This child has brought his descendants to pay respects to you, ancestor!"
The Li Family members kowtowed repeatedly.
Li Xiang was also filled with emotion. Though forty years had passed in the game world, only two or three days had gone by in reality.
Yet it seemed that he, too, had gradually poured his feelings into the Li Family.
[Your descendants have presented you with sacrificial offerings!] [You have obtained 100 Beast Blood Fruits!] [You have obtained 10 portions of Black Jade Intermittent Ointment.] [You have obtained 30 portions of Golden Spirit Powder!] [You have obtained...] [Do you wish to withdraw them?]
Looking at the bronze furnace beside him, steeped in the aura of bygone days,
Li Xiang chose "Yes" without hesitation!
Very soon,
the entire room was filled with the offerings sent by the Li Family.
These were all things Li Xiang wanted. He intended to sell every last one of them for more Spirit Stones. He had even prepared to buy Demon King Blood Pills from Boss Qi to strengthen the Li Family!
[For this grand sacrifice, do you wish to bestow something upon your descendants?]
Li Xiang did not hesitate.
A pitch-black stone appeared in his hand.
This jade stone recorded every part of the Litian Secret Canon he had seen after breaking the restriction on Li Yunlin's technique!
He had not learned the Litian Secret Canon from Li Yunlin, because learning a Profound-rank technique alone would cost him no fewer than a hundred thousand Incense. But merely copying it did not require any Incense at all.
And this was his bestowal for this occasion.
With the Litian Secret Canon, the Li Family would rise another level!
[You have bestowed Litian Secret Canon upon your descendants!]
A moment later,
the grand sacrifice ended.
A jade stone appeared atop the altar in the ancestral hall.
"The ancestor has bestowed something upon us!"
Li Dalong saw the jade stone, but instead of joy, guilt filled his eyes. He hurriedly said to his children and grandchildren, "Quick, bring the Death-Stilling Heavenly Coffin over and offer it to the ancestor!"
"Ancestor, please accept it. Otherwise, you have always been the one contributing to the family, while we unfilial descendants have nothing worthy of your attention. How can we possibly bear such shame?"
"..."
Li Xiang scratched his head. Though he was deeply moved by his descendants' filial devotion,
the Death-Stilling Heavenly Coffin was truly useless to him. He did not go out and fight. Although the Death-Stilling Heavenly Coffin could cultivate techniques, it was still inferior to directly spending Incense to copy them from his descendants.
As for the Heavenly Coffin Corpse-Driving Technique, he could copy that as well.
But if he used such a technique in reality...
he did not dare. If he dared to kill people and refine corpses, the National Crisis Management Bureau would come knocking on his door.
"His..."
After entering words into the Purple Thunder Heavenly Sun Python's avatar, the Li Family finally understood Li Xiang's meaning. Still, the Death-Stilling Heavenly Coffin remained in the ancestral hall. In Li Dalong's words, the ancestral hall was the most important place, so the Death-Stilling Heavenly Coffin would be kept there from now on.
Everyone quickly opened the jade stone.
"Father, they're techniques—the Litian Secret Canon!" Seeing the twelve martial arts and techniques recorded within the jade stone, Li Yaozu's eyes widened as he cried out one after another, "Eleven Yellow-rank techniques, and even a Profound-rank one!"
"Litian Secret Canon?"
Li Yaowen said in surprise, "Yunlin went to the Litian Sect. I used connections to investigate it before. The Litian Sect has menial disciples, outer disciples, inner disciples, and true disciples. His master is an elder, and Yunlin is an inner disciple too. What they cultivate is precisely the Litian Secret Canon! But after their disciples cultivate those techniques, restrictions are placed upon their souls. How did the ancestor get his hands on it?"
"I understand now!"
Li Yaoqing's eyes lit up.
Xu Cuihua froze for a moment. "What do you understand?"
"When Yunlin went to the Litian Sect, I wanted to break his legs. It was the ancestor who stopped me, and it was also the ancestor who supported Yunlin in going to the Litian Sect!"
Li Yaoqing slapped his thigh. "So the ancestor had planned it all along! He deliberately let Yunlin go to the Litian Sect, all to get his hands on their martial arts and techniques! Years ago, the ancestor had already laid out the game to obtain the Litian Sect's techniques!"
"Hiss—"
Everyone sucked in a breath of cold air.
Li Yaowen looked at Li Xiang's ancestral tablet with worship in her eyes. "As expected of the ancestor."
"..."
Watching his clansmen's imaginations run increasingly wild, Li Xiang was dumbfounded. Only after a long while did he cough. "This praise is so outrageous it's making my face turn red."
He hurriedly sped up time, not daring to listen to his descendants praise him any further. This had merely been an unexpected windfall, yet they had nearly made him float up into the clouds.
[Li Family, Year 40.]
This was a peaceful year. The Li Family had essentially dominated all of Tailin Town, and they had no troubles at all.
Li Dalong and Li Yaozu spent more of their time in the Heaven Coffin, cultivating their martial arts.
[Your descendants have opened shops selling various goods in towns around Tailin Town, naming them "Tianli Hall."]
As the family grew,
Li Yaowen was no longer content with Tailin Town's resources.
The reason for opening shops was simply to expand the family's trade channels. Many families did the same. In truth, it was merely exchanging what one had for what others lacked with other towns, thereby developing the family.
Every Tianli Hall manager was selected from Zhien Village—someone with a head for business and loyalty to the Li Family.
[Li Family, Year 41. Your descendant Li Yaotie emerged from seclusion and broke through to Foundation Establishment Early Stage!] [His spiritual roots have transformed. His earth spiritual root has faded away, leaving only metal, fire, and wood spiritual roots!]
Compared to Li Dalong and Li Yaozu's transformations,
Li Yaotie's could only be considered ordinary.
Li Dalong had emerged from seclusion with four feet of vital energy, while Li Yaozu's had reached as high as eight feet. Li Yaotie, meanwhile, had only a measly two feet.
But in Li Xiang's eyes, this was nothing.
Li Yaotie was an artificer. Whenever this fellow gained an insight while forging artifacts, he would make a breakthrough.
This was also one of the advantages brought by a profession.
And less than two months after he emerged, Bai Rourou's belly began to show again...
[Your descendant Li Yaowen received an invitation from the Wu Family while attending the two-hundredth birthday celebration of the Wu Family's ancestor in Lantian Town. She will join seven major families from various towns in a campaign against Silver Iron Forest.]
"A special event?"
Seeing this special event appear, Li Xiang frowned.
He still remembered that a Demon King lived in Silver Iron Forest. The Li Family had been developing Silver Iron Forest before, but the Demon King inside had clearly shown the Purple Thunder Heavenly Sun Python some respect and had merely discouraged Li Family members from entering.
If the other party had refused to show respect and directly charged in to slaughter the Li Family members... Li Xiang did not dare imagine what kind of disaster that would cause.
Thus, over the years, the Li Family had never ventured deeper into Silver Iron Forest. They only occasionally hunted along the outskirts, always knowing when to stop.
Just as Li Xiang was pondering this,
Bai Rourou arrived at the ancestral hall.
What surprised Li Xiang was that Bai Rourou, this strong-willed woman who had not cried even while giving birth, now had reddened eyes. Her voice choked with sobs.
"Ancestor, I have no other way. You are the only one I could think of."
"I truly don't want Old Pig to be killed..."
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