That Works Too

Therefore, for the three of them, what they needed most now was to temper their state of mind and train their □□, so they could match their soaring cultivation.

Originally, Wen Xu had thought, Was reaching Foundation Establishment at twenty-five really that difficult in the cultivation world? At my current pace, I'll reach it next year. But now, he no longer thought so.

The Seventh Layer of Qi Refining was merely because of his sudden enlightenment; the Qi Sea within his body that could hold spiritual energy had expanded. His state of mind and body had not reached that level.

"Perhaps we should go to Founding Peak and take on a few tasks."

Bian Chunchou spoke first. "Yonglu Mountain does indeed stipulate that disciples below Foundation Establishment may not travel far, but we can take small tasks in the surrounding cities. Many outer disciples are in the Qi Refining Stage. Their monthly allowances are meager, so they do tasks in exchange for cultivation resources."

Though inner disciples had elders and masters to support them, many also chose to descend the mountain for short-term tasks to consolidate their cultivation.

Wen Xu considered it for a moment. "I think it's feasible. What about you, Chen Zui?"

"Fine." Chen Zui nodded. "But I prefer tasks where I can get straight to fighting." Thinking was forget it—it was annoying.

The three quickly reached an agreement. Since Wen Xu's identity was too conspicuous, Bian Chunchou and Chen Zui went to Founding Peak to accept the tasks. To be honest, there were countless tasks aimed at Qi Refining cultivators, and most were exceedingly tedious—tasks that took time to complete, such as feeding spirit beasts, reclaiming spirit fields, gathering low-grade spiritual plants, or simply running errands.

There was little difficulty to them, so the sect contribution points offered were also very low.

After picking for ages, Bian Chunchou chose three tasks. The first was to dig up second-grade Moonlight Grass in Yueyu Forest to the east. Moonlight Grass was not hard to dig up, but it only matured at midnight, so they had to race against time to gather it. The task required ten jin, so with three people, they could barely manage it.

The second task was to deliver pills for an elder from Pill Peak to Listening Crane Manor. Listening Crane Manor was southeast of Langyuan City. After delivering the pills, they could go dig up the grass—it was perfectly on the way.

As for the final task, a certain village had people falling unexpectedly pregnant one after another. Qi Refining disciples were needed to investigate first. If the circumstances proved unusual, they were to report back to the sect immediately.

None of the tasks were difficult, so Bian Chunchou accepted them in all three of their names.

That Works Too

"Look at this task. People are getting pregnant one after another—what's so strange about that?" In ancient times, people valued descendants, and men and women did not deliberately avoid pregnancy. There was nothing strange about getting pregnant, was there? Bian Chunchou had to admit that it was precisely this damned curiosity of his that had made him accept the task.

Besides, the deadline for this investigation task was quite generous. They could complete the other two tasks first, then go do this one. If they failed to finish it, they could simply hang it back on the task wall at Founding Peak.

"Come to think of it, does the cultivation world have pills like Birth Pills?"

This question had clearly struck a blind spot in Wen Xu's knowledge. Recently, he had dabbled a little in artifact refinement and formations, but as for pills—aside from the basic pills Pill Peak had given him because he had picked the Fragrant Elixir King Grass—he had scarcely had any dealings with them. For the time being, he had no interest in alchemy either.

"Yes." Chen Zui suddenly spoke.

Bian Chunchou: ...Why did the answer sound so wrong coming from this dumb big dog's mouth?

Yet Chen Zui did not notice his friend's shift in mood at all. "My mother said she gave birth to me only after taking a Birth Pill."

Well, damn! Was that true or not?

"Your mother must have been fooling you! If cultivators could get pregnant by taking Birth Pills, then why the hell would having descendants be so difficult?"

Cultivators having difficulty producing offspring was no secret. The reasons were simple. First, cultivators fought Heaven for their lives, seizing the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth to cultivate. What they focused on was their own Dao, and few formed Dao partnerships. After all, mortal couples spent at most a hundred years together, and even then many could not make it work. But in the cultivation world, lifespans stretched into the hundreds or thousands. Once a relationship went wrong, separation was the lesser issue—damage to one's state of mind was the real trouble. Thus, whether male or female cultivators, unless reproductive cancer and love-struck brains had gone to their heads, they chose to remain single.

Even cultivators who enjoyed carnal pleasures usually let their bodies indulge without letting their hearts get involved.

Second was the restraint imposed by the Heavenly Dao. When cultivators coupled with cultivators, having children was simply difficult. But once they did conceive, they were highly likely to give birth to children with Spiritual Roots. That was how certain cultivation lineages came to be. Talented descendants focused on their own cultivation, and once they grew strong, they sheltered the lineage. Those with little talent but Spiritual Roots, meanwhile, forged marriage alliances far and wide. So long as the base was large enough, descendants would eventually be born.

"Come to think of it, you're always talking about your mother. Is your mother a cultivator too?"

Chen Zui nodded. "Mm. My mother is amazing. She can catch my blade with one finger." Unfortunately, his mother had not been willing to teach him cultivation. She had even driven him out of the house. Chen Zui felt a little sad; he had not seen his mother in a long time.

"Wow, that amazing? Then she definitely was fooling you."

"I knew it!" Chen Zui cried indignantly. "I'm going to cultivate diligently. Once I achieve success in my studies, I'll be able to defeat my mother."

Bian Chunchou encouraged him. "What lofty ambition! I'm rooting for you, Chen Zui-zui. Come to think of it, you're the only one among the three of us who has family elders."

Chen Zui looked at his two friends. "You don't have mothers?"

"Nope. In my memories, there's only my biological father. I've never even seen what my mother looks like." Bian Chunchou searched through his memories and confirmed that there was no trace of such a person as a mother. He had not even seen a grave. Perhaps once he reached the Golden Core stage and could travel to cultivate, he could take a detour to the Rogue Cultivator Alliance to ask around—and pay respects at his cheap father's grave while he was at it.

Chen Zui looked toward Wen Xu. Wen Xu hesitated for a moment before speaking. "My adoptive father passed away three years ago. I was adopted." But his master had told him last time that his blood relatives should still be alive.

Hearing this, Chen Zui immediately declared generously, "If you want mothers, I can introduce my mother to you."

"...You brat, I'm truly speechless." How could a mother be given away just like that? No wonder his mother always wanted to beat him black and blue.