Farewell!

Zhou Yang certainly had no appetite for a beauty warming his bed. Beauty was a knife that scraped the bones; in the Cultivation World, who knew how many geniuses had failed to resist the lure of female charms, lost their virginity too early, and found their Dao Paths obstructed, only to fade into the crowd in the end.

To cut oneself off from the Great Dao for a night of pleasure—there was nothing more foolish than that. Compared to the temptation of "longevity," what did the mere temptation of women amount to?

Besides, the people Zhou Yang dealt with every day were all cultivators. The female cultivators of the Zhou Lineage—even women like his mother, Lin Yuting, and Zhou Xuanyu, who were nearly a hundred years old—possessed beauty and grace beyond anything mortal women could match due to the nourishment of spiritual power. Having seen so many "fairies" of the Cultivation World, how could he possibly take a liking to the common rouge-and-powder girls the Chen Lineage had arranged to serve his bed?

However, Zhou Yang did know that some elderly cultivators who had already lost their virginity, as well as Rogue Cultivators with abysmal spiritual root aptitude who knew they had no hope of Foundation Establishment in this life, frequently visited the Pleasure Houses established by the various Lineages of White Sand Continent, enjoying emperor-like treatment within for free.

The women in those Pleasure Houses were all Secular Family Members of the various Cultivation Families. Their purpose in serving guests there was to borrow seed and bear children with spiritual roots.

According to the statistics gathered by senior figures of the Cultivation World, when mortal women bore children with ordinary Qi Refining Cultivators, the chance of the offspring possessing spiritual roots exceeded one percent. This was far higher than the mere few-in-ten-thousand chance when mortals had children with mortals.

Mortals had always said that a mother rose in status through her son. If the women in those Pleasure Houses bore offspring with spiritual roots, even the lowest-grade Low-grade Spiritual Root, they would receive rewards from the Lineage.

Such rewards might not be worth mentioning to cultivators, but to mortals, they were a vast fortune that could sustain them for a lifetime.

As for the Cultivation Families behind them, they merely had to spend a tiny amount of resources useless to cultivators to gain a new member for the Lineage. It was simply a business with ten thousand profits for one investment.

The customers enjoyed the pleasures of life, the attendants earned generous rewards from their Lineages, and the owners expanded their businesses. It was a three-way victory!

The first Lineage to establish Pleasure Houses had been the Chen Lineage. Of the Chen Lineage's more than one thousand Qi Refining Cultivators today, at least thirty percent were descendants born to women in Pleasure Houses. Even among its dozen or so Foundation Establishment Cultivators, two had been born to women from Pleasure Houses.

With the Chen Lineage's gleaming pearl and fine jade before them, the other Cultivation Families of White Sand River Oasis later followed suit and established Pleasure Houses of their own. Sometimes, to compete for customers, the major Lineages even took the initiative to subsidize cultivators with spirit stones to visit their own Pleasure Houses.

Many young Rogue Cultivators who did not understand the value of primordial yang had, under the double temptation of beauties and spirit stones, muddleheadedly given away their precious primordial yang.

It was said that by now, the Pleasure House model had spread beyond White Sand River Oasis and successfully opened branches in several large oases throughout the Boundless Sea of Sand that possessed cultivator markets, inspiring imitation from numerous Cultivation Families.

Yet this model had its limitations. It could only survive in open oases like White Sand River Oasis, where cultivators flowed in great numbers.

At the Zhou Lineage's Jade Spring Lake Oasis, even if they copied this model and established a Pleasure House, no other cultivators would travel such a great distance to patronize it. Moreover, given the Zhou Lineage's strength, they would not dare allow large numbers of cultivators of unknown backgrounds into Jade Spring Lake Oasis.

To be honest, when Zhou Yang had first heard of the Pleasure House model from an elder, he had been greatly astonished, and for a time, he had deeply envied the cultivators who visited such places.

Not only did one not have to pay to visit a place of pleasure, one could even earn money. It was something he would not have dared dream of in his previous life!

What was more, it was said that in order to raise the customer reception rate of their Pleasure Houses, some Lineages had specially trained those mortal women.

This training covered many areas, including etiquette, dance, vocal music, and bedroom techniques. It was said that the standards had been formulated according to those for the imperial consorts of mortal emperors in the Cultivation World of the Flowing Cloud Continent, ensuring that every cultivator who entered a Pleasure House received treatment fit for an emperor.

Still, he had merely envied them. Though the Zhou Lineage did not have many family rules, the prohibition against Family Cultivators entering Pleasure Houses stood prominently among them, and near the very top at that.

In fact, it was not only the Zhou Lineage. Essentially every moderately sized Cultivation Family around White Sand River Oasis included a strict ban on patronizing Pleasure Houses in its family rules.

The reason for doing so was not merely the fear that the Lineage's young cultivators, ignorant of the value of primordial yang, would be dazzled senseless by beauty. It was also to prevent the Lineage's bloodline from spreading outside, and to guard against those carrying the Lineage's bloodline growing up and being used by enemies against the Lineage.

One had to know that the Cultivation World possessed an array restriction called the Bloodline Divine Restriction. When many Cultivation Families established their treasure vaults and Mountain Protection Arrays, they incorporated the Bloodline Divine Restriction into them.

Thus, even if outsiders obtained artifacts or tokens granting access to the arrays and treasure vaults through murder and theft, if their bloodlines did not meet the entry requirements, they would trigger the array upon entering its range and be exterminated.

The treasure vaults of some great Lineages would even automatically trigger self-destruction arrays within the vault after outsiders forcibly broke through the outer arrays, destroying the vault rather than letting it benefit the enemy.

Under such circumstances, how could the major Cultivation Families allow their bloodlines to fall into outsiders' hands? How could they dare let their bloodlines slip away?

The Zhou Lineage was no great Lineage. Perhaps it did not currently need to worry about anyone exploiting this against it, but if it did not seal off the source now, who knew whether, should the Zhou Lineage flourish someday, someone might use this method against it?

Therefore, to guard against every eventuality, no Cultivation Family with even a little foresight wished to see its bloodline spread outside. Even when female cultivators within the Lineage sought Dao companions, they usually had their companions marry into the Lineage, or made them swear a Nether Blood Oath never to bear offspring.

In short, whether because of the restraints of family rules or in pursuit of the Great Dao of Longevity, Zhou Yang had resolved not to release his primordial yang before reaching the Golden Core stage.

After declining the maid Chen Fangping had arranged to serve his bed, he shut the door directly and fell onto the bed to sleep.

Zhou Yang slept very comfortably, not waking until more than a dozen hours had passed.

After waking, all his previous mental exhaustion had been swept away, and he was brimming with energy.

He then tidied up his appearance slightly before leaving his room and heading toward the front hall of the Reception Hall, preparing to bid farewell to Chen Fangping there before departing for Golden Sand Market.

Inside the Reception Hall, when Chen Fangping saw Zhou Yang enter in flowing white robes, his eyes immediately narrowed. With a broad smile, he stepped forward and laughed. "Haha, little brother, you're finally awake! How was it? Shall this old brother arrange another farewell banquet to see you off?"

The instant Zhou Yang heard that, his face darkened. He nearly turned around and left in anger.

Rolling his eyes, he glared irritably at the black-hearted, round-faced fat man and complained, "Brother Chen, do I really look so easy to fleece? You are the descendant of a dignified Foundation Establishment Cultivator. Could you really be short of the few spirit stones on me?"

"Oh my, what are you saying, little brother? We conduct fair business and cheat neither old nor young—how can you call it fleecing customers? Besides, who says descendants of Foundation Establishment Cultivators do not lack spirit stones? Look at these gleaming spirit stones: bright and round. Who wouldn't like them?"

Chen Fangping repeatedly shook his head, strongly disagreeing with Zhou Yang's complaint.

He, Chen Fangping, might like spirit stones, but that was merely a gentleman loving wealth and acquiring it by proper means. Everything was clearly priced. How could someone use an insulting term like "fleecing customers" to describe him? It was an insult to his character! An insult to his father, Chen Pingan!

With a solemn expression, he looked at Zhou Yang and said, "Little brother, are you truly not going to reconsider? Let this old brother tell you, if I did not feel such an affinity with you, this old brother would not even bother with ordinary people who wanted to drink my farewell wine!"

Keep making it up. I'll just stand here and watch you show off!

Zhou Yang looked at the solemn-faced Chen Fangping without the slightest ripple in his heart. He was utterly unmoved.

Of course ordinary people could not afford the farewell wine of a black-hearted fat man like you. A table of food and drink costing over a hundred spirit stones—Foundation Establishment Cultivators were not even that extravagant, were they?

Whenever Zhou Yang recalled the experience of being fleeced yesterday, his heart ached. That had been over a hundred spirit stones. His annual Attendant stipend was only eighty low-grade spirit stones!

To spend more than a year's stipend on a single meal was painfully extravagant, even given his current wealth.

One had to know that a Tier 2 High-grade Artifact on the market cost only between five hundred and one thousand low-grade spirit stones. That single meal had been equivalent to eating a Tier 2 low-grade artifact, or four Tier 2 High-grade spirit talismans!

After they faced one another like that for a long while, Chen Fangping saw that Zhou Yang remained entirely unmoved. The tension left his round face, and he shrugged helplessly. "Fine. Since you insist, little brother, then this old brother wishes you a smooth journey!"

"Farewell, Brother Chen!"

Zhou Yang cupped his hands and turned to leave the hall without looking back.

Within the Reception Hall, Chen Fangping watched Zhou Yang's gradually receding figure. The smile on his face slowly vanished, replaced by a thoughtful expression as he murmured, "Qi Refining Layer Eight at such a young age, and his temperament is steady as well. He is good material. After this Foundation Establishment Assembly, it seems the Zhou Lineage will gain another Foundation Establishment Cultivator!"

The purpose of their being dispatched by their respective Lineages to receive and send off cultivators entering and leaving White Sand River Oasis was naturally not merely the stated purpose of preventing cultivators from barging into the oasis and disturbing mortals. They also had the hidden task of observing the potential of cultivators passing through.

If they encountered Rogue Cultivators they deemed promising, they would notify their Lineages to secretly investigate their personal histories. If the investigation confirmed that a Rogue Cultivator's character was sound, they would extend an olive branch, either recruiting them as guest elders of the Lineage or having them marry into it and become related by marriage.

And if they encountered cultivators from other Cultivation Families, like Zhou Yang, they would not recruit them, but they would still gather and compile intelligence on them before submitting it to their Lineages. If the Lineage later wished to deal with or win over that cultivator, this intelligence, which currently appeared to be of little use, might prove immensely valuable.

Thank you to the reader Villager Selling Homegrown Vegetables for the reward of 500 Qidian coins, and to Qing Feng Fu Luo Ye and I Have a Dream: Daydream for their rewards of 100 Qidian coins each. Just like what was written in this chapter, many suggestions raised by readers were actually things I had already written about earlier. Could it be that heroes see alike... haha. Of course, there are also suggestions readers have made that I had not considered. Everyone is welcome to keep offering useful suggestions; useful or not, they can help open new avenues of thought for me. Well then, finally, please vote with recommendation tickets, add this to your favorites, join the new book investment group, and add it to your book lists!