Farewell!

Zhou Yang would certainly not enjoy a beauty warming his bed. Lust is a sharp knife; countless geniuses in the Cultivation World have had their paths blocked prematurely due to succumbing to temptation, only to fade into obscurity.

To ruin one's Great Dao for a single night of pleasure—nothing could be more foolish. Compared to the allure of Immortality, mere feminine temptation is insignificant.

Besides, Zhou Yang's usual companions are cultivators. Even the female cultivators of the Zhou Family, like his mother Lin Yuting and Zhou Xuanyu, who are nearly a hundred years old, are still beautiful and possess an aura far beyond ordinary mortal women due to the nourishment of mana. Having seen so many "fairies" of the Cultivation World, how could he possibly be interested in the common beauties arranged by the Chen Family to serve him?

However, Zhou Yang knew that some older cultivators who had already broken their chastity, or rogue cultivators with extremely poor Spiritual Root aptitude who knew they had no hope of Foundation Establishment in this life, would frequently visit the "Pleasure Houses" run by various families in the White Sand River Oasis, enjoying the treatment of an emperor for free.

The women in these "Pleasure Houses" were all secular members of various cultivation families. Their purpose in serving guests at the "Pleasure Houses" was to conceive children with Spiritual Roots.

According to the statistics of seniors in the Cultivation World, the chance of offspring inheriting Spiritual Roots from the union of mortal women and ordinary Qi Refining Stage cultivators is over one percent, which is much higher than the probability of a few in ten thousand for the union of mortals.

There has always been the saying among mortals, "mother honored by son." If these women from the "Pleasure Houses" gave birth to offspring with Spiritual Roots, even the lowest-grade Low-grade Spiritual Root, they would receive rewards from the family.

These rewards might be insignificant to cultivators, but for mortals, they represent a fortune that would last a lifetime.

For the cultivation families behind them, it was a highly profitable venture, merely expending a small amount of resources useless to cultivators to add a new member to the family.

Thus, the customer enjoyed life's pleasures, the service staff earned generous family rewards, and the boss expanded the company's scale—a true win-win-win!

The first family to establish a "Pleasure House" was the Chen Family. Currently, at least thirty percent of the Chen Family's thousands of Qi Refining cultivators are descendants born to women from the "Pleasure Houses." Even among the more than a dozen Foundation Establishment Cultivators, two were born to women from the "Pleasure Houses."

With the Chen Family setting such a precedent, other cultivation families in the White Sand River Oasis also followed suit and established "Pleasure Houses." Sometimes, to compete for "customers," various families would even proactively offer Spirit Stones to subsidize cultivators patronizing their "Pleasure Houses."

Many young rogue cultivators, unaware of the preciousness of primal yang, unknowingly gave up their valuable primal yang under the dual temptation of beauty and Spirit Stones.

It is said that by now, the "Pleasure House" model has spread beyond the White Sand River Oasis, successfully branching out into several large oases within the Boundless Sea of Sand that have cultivator markets, and being emulated by many cultivation families.

However, this model also has its limitations, as it can only survive in open oases with high cultivator traffic, like the White Sand River Oasis.

For example, if the Zhou Family's Jade Spring Lake Oasis were to establish a "Pleasure House" following this model, no other cultivators would travel great distances to patronize it. Moreover, with the Zhou Family's strength, they would not dare to allow a large number of cultivators of unknown backgrounds to enter the Jade Spring Lake Oasis.

To be honest, when Zhou Yang first heard about the "Pleasure House" model from an elder, he was quite surprised and even envied the cultivators who patronized them.

Not only did they not have to pay to visit such establishments, but they could also earn money—something he wouldn't have dared to dream of in his previous life!

Especially since, to increase the occupancy rate of their "Pleasure Houses," some families even provided special training for those mortal women.

This training was comprehensive, covering etiquette, dance, music, and bedroom skills, among other aspects. It was reportedly conducted according to the standards of imperial concubines in mortal countries on the Flowing Cloud Continent, ensuring that every cultivator entering a "Pleasure House" would receive imperial treatment.

However, he could only envy them. Although the Zhou Family's rules were not numerous, the prohibition against family cultivators entering "Pleasure Houses" was clearly listed, and it was ranked quite high.

In fact, not just the Zhou Family; almost every cultivation family of significant size around the White Sand River Oasis included strict prohibition of patronizing "Pleasure Houses" in their family rules.

The purpose of this was not only to prevent young family cultivators from being blinded by lust and losing track of the preciousness of their primal yang but also to prevent the family bloodline from spreading outside. More importantly, it was to prevent individuals with the family bloodline from being used against the family once they grew up.

After all, there is a type of formation Restriction in the Cultivation World called "Bloodline Divine Restriction." Many cultivation families incorporate "Bloodline Divine Restriction" when establishing their family vaults and Mountain Protection Arrays.

This way, even if an outsider obtained a token Artifact to enter the vault or formation through means like killing and looting, if their bloodline did not meet the entry requirements, they would trigger the formation and be annihilated upon entering its range.

Some large families' vaults would even automatically trigger self-destruct formations within the vault after an outsider forcefully broke through the outer formations, ensuring the vault would not benefit the enemy.

Under such circumstances, how could major cultivation families allow their family bloodline to fall into the hands of outsiders? How could they dare to let their family bloodline fall into the hands of outsiders!

The Zhou Family is not a major family, and perhaps they do not worry about someone using this against them now. But if they do not block this source now, who knows if someone will use such methods against the Zhou Family if they prosper in the future?

Therefore, as a precaution, any cultivation family with foresight would not want to see their family bloodline fall into the wrong hands. Even if female cultivators in the family wanted to find a Dao companion, they would usually do so through adoption or by having their Dao companions take a "Nether Blood Oath" never to have offspring.

In short, whether it was family rules or the pursuit of the Great Dao of Immortality, Zhou Yang was determined not to spill his primal yang before reaching the Golden Core stage.

After declining the maidservant arranged by Chen Fangping to serve him, he closed the door and went straight to sleep.

Zhou Yang slept soundly, waking up after more than ten hours.

Upon waking, he felt completely refreshed, his previous fatigue gone, and his entire being filled with vigor and strength.

Then, after tidying his appearance, he left his room and headed to the front hall of the Reception Hall, preparing to bid farewell to Chen Fangping there and head to the "Golden Sand Market."

In the Reception Hall, Chen Fangping's eyes narrowed as he saw Zhou Yang, dressed in flowing white robes, enter. He greeted him with a wide smile and a hearty laugh, "Haha, little brother, you're finally awake. How about it, shall I arrange another farewell banquet for you, brother?"

Hearing this, Zhou Yang's face instantly darkened, almost making him turn and leave in anger.

He rolled his eyes and looked at the dark-hearted, plump man with a round face, complaining indignantly, "Brother Chen, do I look like such an easy mark? As a descendant of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, are you really lacking this little bit of Spirit Stones from me?"

"Oh, oh, little brother, what are you saying? We have fair trade, honest dealings, how can you describe it as ripping off customers? Besides, who says descendants of Foundation Establishment Cultivators don't lack Spirit Stones? Look at these shiny Spirit Stones, they're bright and round, who doesn't like them!"

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

While Chen Fangping loved Spirit Stones, it was all about a gentleman's love for wealth, obtained through proper means, with clear pricing. How could he be described as "ripping off customers"? That would be an insult to his character! It would be an insult to his father, Chen Pingan!

He looked at Zhou Yang with a serious expression and said, "Little brother, are you really not going to reconsider? Brother tells you, if it weren't for my affinity with you, I wouldn't even bother with most people who want to have a farewell drink with me!"

Go on, keep talking. I'll just watch you pretend.

Zhou Yang gazed at the earnest Chen Fangping, his heart unmoved, completely unaffected.

Of course, most people couldn't afford this dark-hearted fatty's farewell banquet. A table of food and drink costing over a hundred Spirit Stones was not even something a Foundation Establishment Cultivator could afford so extravagantly.

The thought of being ripped off yesterday made Zhou Yang's heart ache. That was over a hundred Spirit Stones, and his annual stipend was only 80 low-grade spirit stones!

Eating a meal that cost more than his annual stipend, even with his current wealth, caused him immense pain.

After all, a Tier 2 High-grade Artifact on the market cost only between five hundred and a thousand low-grade spirit stones. This meal of his was equivalent to eating a Tier 2 Low-grade Artifact, or four Tier 2 High-grade Talismans!

After staring at each other for a long time, seeing that Zhou Yang was completely unmoved, Chen Fangping's round face relaxed, and he shrugged helplessly, "Alright, since you insist, little brother, then brother wishes you a smooth journey!"

"Farewell, Brother Chen!"

Zhou Yang cupped his hands, turned, and left the hall without looking back.

In the Reception Hall, Chen Fangping watched Zhou Yang's receding figure, the smile on his face gradually fading. He then revealed a thoughtful expression and murmured to himself, "At such a young age, he already has a cultivation level of Qi Refining Layer Eight, and his disposition is very steady. He's a promising talent. It seems after this Foundation Establishment Assembly, the Zhou Family will have another Foundation Establishment Cultivator!"

They were sent by their respective families to welcome and see off cultivators entering and exiting the White Sand River Oasis. Their purpose was not only to prevent cultivators from disturbing the mortals in the oasis, as stated on the surface, but also to secretly observe the potential of the cultivators who came and went.

If they encountered any Rogue Cultivators who they felt had good potential, they would notify their families to secretly investigate their personal history. If, after investigation, it was confirmed that the Rogue Cultivator's character was without issue, they would extend an olive branch, either by recruiting them as guest elders for the family or by having them marry into the family to become in-laws.

As for cultivators like Zhou Yang from other Cultivation Families, while they wouldn't recruit them, they would still collect information about them, compile it into a dossier, and submit it to the family. This way, if the family wanted to deal with or win over that cultivator in the future, this information, which might seem insignificant now, could prove very useful.

Thanks to the villagers for selling their self-grown vegetables for a 500 Qidian coin reward, and to Qingfeng Fuluoye and Woyouyige Meng for their 100 Qidian coin rewards. As written in this chapter, many of the suggestions from readers are things I had already planned to write (perhaps great minds think alike... chuckles). Of course, there are also some suggestions from readers that I hadn't considered, and I welcome everyone to continue offering useful opinions. Whether they are useful or not, they can help me open up new avenues of thought. Lastly, I ask for recommendation tickets, favorites, investment group additions, and book list recommendations!