With Zhou Yang's assurance, Zhou Xuanjing and Zhou Xuankun finally returned to the lineage with Old Ancestor Chen's invitation in peace.
Although Zhou Xuanjing and Zhou Xuankun had left, the other Zhou cultivators who had traveled with him to the Yellow Sand Sect remained in the market to rest, planning to return to the lineage after a month or two.
Among those Zhou cultivators were Zhou Yang's second brother Zhou Bao and third brother Zhou Qi, who had visited Qingping Mountain Oasis while Zhou Yang had been stationed there.
Because of Elder Zhou Quan's past care and instructions, after Uncle Eleven Zhou Xuankun departed, Zhou Yang went to the rear courtyard to visit his second brother Zhou Bao, who was resting there.
"Second Brother, I heard Uncle Eleven say that once you return home this time, you plan to start a family?"
In the courtyard, Zhou Yang looked at his second brother Zhou Bao, whom he had not seen for nearly ten years. After a decade apart, this second brother of his looked increasingly aged; white hair had even appeared on his head.
"Yes. I'm not young anymore, so it's time for me to carry on the Zhou family line. Grandfather was right back then—my temperament simply isn't suited to muddling through the Cultivation World. Returning to the lineage to farm suits me better."
Perhaps it truly was because he had grown older, but Zhou Bao was now much more at ease when facing Zhou Yang, the most dazzling among his peers. At the very least, he was no longer like before, lacking even the courage to meet Zhou Yang's eyes.
Yet when Zhou Yang looked at Zhou Bao as he was now, he instead somewhat missed the dull, introverted second brother he had once known.
The reason Zhou Bao now dared to meet his gaze was because he had completely given up pursuing greater cultivation and utterly lost the will to advance.
But since this was Zhou Bao's own choice, Zhou Yang could not say much more. He could only nod and say, "Since you've already decided, Second Brother, apply to go to Haoyang Cave. I'll explain the situation to the Old Clan Leader and have you serve as the city lord of the mortal city there. That way, you won't need to leave the lineage to carry out missions in the future!"
Elder Zhou Quan had repeatedly asked him to look after this second brother. Zhou Yang had originally planned to wait until he achieved Foundation Establishment and gained authority before finding an opportunity to arrange an easy and safe job for him, such as serving long-term as a clerk at Jade Spring Tower or teaching the next generation of cultivators their foundations.
But now that Zhou Bao had decided to abandon cultivation, all Zhou Yang could do was send him to serve as the lord of a mortal city.
"Thank you, Ninth Brother. Thank you!"
Zhou Bao also knew that this was already the greatest help Zhou Yang could offer within his abilities. After all, the lineage belonged to every member of the Zhou family, not to any one person. Zhou Yang could not simply say a word and have the lineage support him for nothing without requiring him to do anything. What would the other clansmen think?
He had merely given up his pursuit of cultivation, not truly abandoned his status as a cultivator or the lineage stipend he received.
"Ah! Then rest well, Second Brother. I won't disturb you any longer."
Zhou Yang let out a long sigh and shook his head. He had nothing more to say, so he rose and left the courtyard.
Even after returning to the third floor of Jade Spring Tower and picking up the Record of Strange Items he had only half finished reading earlier, his mind was still replaying what Third Grandfather Zhou Quan had said to him the day before his death.
At that time, Elder Zhou Quan had already foreseen the day of his end. He had specially called Zhou Yang to his side and instructed him, "Little Nine, the greatest regret of Third Grandfather's life is that when I was young, I failed to live up to expectations and did not summon the courage to attempt Foundation Establishment!"
"I can no longer do it. The Zhou family will have to rely on you juniors from now on. Even if you achieve Foundation Establishment in the future, you must never slacken in cultivation!"
"Let this old man say something selfish. Why do we cultivators establish sects and lineages? Is it not to gather the strength of many so as to make our own cultivation easier? Little Nine, your talent is extraordinary. So long as you are willing to cultivate diligently, it may not be impossible for you to surpass every predecessor of our Zhou family someday. You must never be like Third Grandfather, only regretting in old age that I never gave my all in this life, leaving nothing but regret behind!"
"I am leaving. I entrust your second brother to your care for Third Grandfather's sake. Third Grandfather does not ask that he accomplish anything in cultivation. I only hope that he may one day, like this old man, live out his full lifespan and die naturally!"
When Zhou Yang recalled Elder Zhou Quan's imposing might as he had hammered a Tier 2 High-grade Gold-Eating Rat to death, then compared it with the weak, fading state he had been in before his death, Zhou Yang could not help but let out another long sigh.
Alas!
He was now at Qi Refining Layer Nine. In terms of strength, he was likely even somewhat stronger than Elder Zhou Quan had been back then. And if nothing unexpected happened, before long he would be able to consume a Foundation Establishment Pill and attempt Foundation Establishment.
But what then, even if he achieved Foundation Establishment?
Although Foundation Establishment Cultivators lived twice as long as Qi Refining Cultivators, if they could not open a Purple Mansion, their lives would still end after a little over two hundred years.
Even a Purple Mansion Stage Cultivator like Old Ancestor Chen Yaohui merely doubled his lifespan once more. Without achieving Core Formation, after five hundred years, he would still become a heap of yellow earth.
Even if one luckily, incredibly luckily, formed a golden core and borrowed another five hundred years from heaven, extending one's lifespan to a thousand years, what then?
The Nascent Soul Realm?
In the Cultivation World of the Boundless Sea of Sand, not a single Nascent Soul Realm cultivator had appeared in nearly two thousand years!
"If one does not attain immortality, one will remain an ant."
These eight words suddenly surfaced in Zhou Yang's mind. In those few brief words lay the True Meaning of why cultivators cultivated.
"An ant? Even if I am an ant, then I must be a larger, stronger ant. One must know that even ants can defy heaven!"
He muttered to himself, then suddenly smiled, revealing an exceptionally joyful grin.
At that very instant, Zhou Yang felt that his cultivation of the heart had suddenly improved by a great deal.
Cultivation of the heart differed from cultivation of spiritual power. Once a Qi Refining Cultivator reached Qi Refining Layer Nine, their spiritual power would not improve another inch unless they attempted Foundation Establishment, but cultivation of the heart was not subject to such restrictions.
Cultivation of the heart was a very vague concept. It referred to a cultivator's degree of comprehension and understanding toward cultivation and the Great Dao, and it had no divisions of rank like Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment.
However, according to the conclusions drawn by cultivators of earlier generations, the higher a cultivator's cultivation of the heart, the lower the chance of suffering Qi Deviation during cultivation. They would also be somewhat less likely to encounter bottlenecks in their future cultivation than those with weaker cultivation of the heart.
Those with weak cultivation of the heart were not necessarily unable to achieve Foundation Establishment or form a golden core.
But under equal conditions, those with stronger cultivation of the heart would certainly have a higher success rate in Foundation Establishment and Core Formation than those with weaker cultivation of the heart.
Only the cultivator themself could know whether their cultivation of the heart had improved. No outsider, no matter how high their cultivation, could possibly discern it. Moreover, improving one's cultivation of the heart depended entirely on a cultivator's own aptitude and fortune; external forces could affect it only negligibly.
Thus, although everyone knew the benefits of improving one's cultivation of the heart, no one deliberately pursued it, nor could it be forced.
After all, no matter how high one's cultivation of the heart was, it could not directly increase a cultivator's chance of achieving Foundation Establishment by several tenths like a Foundation Establishment Pill. For Qi Refining Cultivators, rather than spend time pondering how to improve their cultivation of the heart, it was better to spend that time earning spirit stones.
Zhou Yang did not pay any special attention to the improvement in his cultivation of the heart. After smiling, he picked up the Record of Strange Items again and continued reading.
Zhou Yang had always felt that the pitch-black ore he had obtained from the burly middle-aged man Zhong Quan that day was no ordinary thing. Thus, whenever he had free time these days, he had been consulting all kinds of texts in search of information, hoping to find some record concerning this unknown strange item.
Unfortunately, he had searched through every text available on the market and still had not found the slightest trace of relevant information.
No matter the world, knowledge was the most precious wealth. Zhou Yang knew that the reason he had not found the information he sought was absolutely not because the Cultivation World truly had no records concerning that pitch-black ore. Rather, it was because the texts recording its origins were comparatively precious, collected only by major powers with long inheritances. They would not be widely circulated for others to collect like the Record of Heavenly Treasures in his hands.
It was like the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation techniques stored by the Zhou family, as well as the inheritance of a Fourth-Rank Artifact Forger obtained by the Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan. Unless a Zhou cultivator reached the Foundation Establishment Realm, they simply could not access such high-level knowledge.
Perhaps some news had spread, for over the next several months, the number of cultivators in Golden Sand Market began to noticeably increase. Even Foundation Establishment Cultivators, rarely seen in ordinary times, were spotted appearing within the market.
Naturally, the increased number of cultivators was a good thing for the shops in the market. Every shop seized the opportunity to roll out all sorts of discounts and measures to attract customers.
Jade Spring Tower was an exception. Thanks to the immense popularity Zhou Yang had gained from his previous large-scale artifact forging, more than half of the various spiritual items accumulated in Jade Spring Tower had been sold, and there had not yet been time to replenish them. Even if Zhou Yang wanted to join the bustle, he lacked the capital.
Amid this air of gathering wind and rain, three or four months after Sixth Uncle Zhou Xuanjing and Uncle Eleven Zhou Xuankun departed, Zhou Yang finally received the lineage's reinforcements.
The Zhou family had prepared for this Foundation Establishment Assembly for decades. Therefore, after Zhou Xuanjing and Zhou Xuankun returned to the lineage with Old Ancestor Chen's invitation and the good news that Zhou Yang had broken through to Qi Refining Layer Nine, the Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan immediately gathered personnel and set out according to plan.
To ensure they could successfully seize a Foundation Establishment Pill at this Foundation Establishment Assembly, the Zhou family had not only sent the Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan, at Foundation Establishment Layer Seven, personally into the field, but had also dispatched five Qi Refining Layer Nine elders: Zhou Yun, Zhou Qi, Zhou Xuan Tai, Zhou Xuanjing, and Zhou Xuanbin.
In addition, Zhou Xuanyu, the Zhou family's Steward Elder, had also come to the market. Once the Foundation Establishment Assembly ended, she would take over from Zhou Yang in managing both Jade Spring Tower and Drunken Immortal Restaurant.
The lowest cultivation among their group was Qi Refining Layer Nine, and with the experienced Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan leading the way, they spent far less time reaching White Sand River Oasis than Zhou Yang had back then.
After arriving at White Sand River Oasis, Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan went directly to the White Camel Ridge Chen Family to meet Old Ancestor Chen and discuss the details of the Foundation Establishment Assembly. The others came to the market to await news, while also replenishing the Jade Spring Tower shelves with spiritual items brought from the lineage treasury.
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