More Children, More Fortune in Troubled Times

After settling a few trivial matters with the scholar brothers, Chen Qiu returned to Area 8 of Heaven-Question Market, the "Demonic Beast District." He once again bought a large batch of demonic beasts and, just as before, instructed the shopkeeper to severely wound them before delivering them to an inn room.

Although his strength was already more than enough to handle Qi Refining Realm demonic beasts like these.

If something could trouble others, he tried to trouble himself as little as possible.

For less than 200 Spirit Stones, Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon watched from an inn room as the demonic beast shopkeeper, his face piled high with irrepressible smiles, continuously came and went, delivering batch after batch of demonic beasts.

They filled three entire guest rooms.

"There."

Chen Qiu sat in a wooden chair, poured himself a cup of cold tea, and casually glanced at Fat Dragon. "What are you standing around for? Helping you break through only cost less than 200 Spirit Stones. That's a bargain."

That was right.

Breaking through in the Qi Refining Realm was just that simple. As long as one could find a large gathering of Qi Refining Realm demonic beasts and had the strength to kill them—or had enough Spirit Stones to buy heavily wounded beasts—reaching Foundation Establishment in a single day was an easy matter.

But neither of those options had anything to do with ordinary people.

Forget the 200 Spirit Stones Fat Dragon needed to break through from the Seventh Level of the Qi Refining Realm to Foundation Establishment—even the thirty Spirit Stones Chen Qiu had spent to advance from the Third Level of the Qi Refining Realm to the Seventh Level were beyond what most Qi Refining Realm cultivators could afford.

Many Qi Refining Realm cultivators were very poor.

Or rather, the logic should have been reversed.

It was not that the Qi Refining Realm was poor; rather, cultivators who remained in the Qi Refining Realm were all poor. Anyone with even a little savings in their pocket would have long since reached Foundation Establishment. After all, only Foundation Establishment counted as truly stepping across the threshold of cultivation.

As long as one had 300 Spirit Stones, one could go from the First Level of the Qi Refining Realm to the First Level of the Foundation Establishment Realm in a single day.

Breaking through in the Qi Refining Realm was just that simple.

But after reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm, cultivation progress became extremely slow. At that point, killing Qi Refining Realm demonic beasts no longer increased cultivation progress, while adult Foundation Establishment Realm demonic beasts were basically never sold. Demonic beasts at that level could not be bred in batches through manpower and could only be found in the wilderness.

Not only were they hard to kill, but even after killing one, cultivation progress would not rise by much. That was what truly gave people headaches.

At this stage, there were basically two mainstream methods of raising one's cultivation.

The first was to possess a sufficiently good cultivation art, find a place with dense enough spiritual energy, and circulate the art every day while entering a death-seclusion retreat in search of a breakthrough.

The second was to stubbornly rely on pills.

For example, his Heavenly Dao Foundation had automatically revolved for most of the day since last night, yet his cultivation progress had not increased in the slightest. It had not even filled the spiritual energy within his body.

After reaching Foundation Establishment, the spiritual energy in his dantian had remained half-empty. It had yet to be filled.

"Alright, alright."

Chen Qiu could not be bothered to watch Fat Dragon put on that grateful expression. He waved his hand. "Get started already. Don't waste time."

Very soon—

The inn room entered a noisy sort of silence.

Fat Dragon held a butcher's cleaver, one in each hand, going crack, crack.

Chen Qiu sat cross-legged on the bed, Spirit Stones in hand, absorbing the spiritual energy within them.

Finally.

An hour later.

When Chen Qiu opened his eyes again, the inn room was already a complete mess, with no sign of Fat Dragon anywhere. He lowered his head with a frown toward the several shattered Spirit Stones on the bed. Just now, he had used three whole Spirit Stones merely to refill the spiritual energy in his dantian.

It was not that the expenditure had been too great.

It was that the absorption speed was too slow.

He had spent an entire hour just absorbing all the spiritual energy from those three Spirit Stones into his body.

His Foundation Establishment was a Heavenly Dao Foundation measuring one hundred and ten li in width and one hundred li in height. Even with the support of the Heavenly Dao Foundation, his absorption speed was still this slow. That was because his current Foundation Establishment could not hold too much spiritual energy yet.

After attending the auction tonight, he would go out hunting demonic beasts tomorrow and increase the width of his Foundation Establishment to several hundred li, perhaps even a thousand li.

Did that mean that every time he replenished the spiritual energy in his dantian, it would take nearly ten hours?

What about ten thousand li or a hundred thousand li in the future?

Would it take a whole month to fill his dantian's spiritual energy to the brim?

In that much time, even a mortal enemy could plow through his entire nine generations three or four times!

"This won't do."

Chen Qiu shook his head and muttered, "I need to find a better cultivation art."

The strength of a Heavenly Dao Foundation was tied to one's cultivation art. If the cultivation art was too poor, the Heavenly Dao Foundation would not be able to display much of its power either. His current cultivation art was merely Yellow Grade, Middle Class. It was no longer enough for him.

He took the auction item list from his robes and carefully scanned it a few more times. Sure enough, he spotted a cultivation art among the items on the final page.

A Foundation Establishment Realm, Supreme Class cultivation art—"Seven Lamps Descend."

In truth, it was simply a Yellow Grade, Supreme Class cultivation art. Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow were the jianghu classifications for cultivation arts and spiritual treasures, a sort of semi-coded jargon. The official terminology, meanwhile, uniformly classified cultivation arts, spiritual treasures, and pills as—

Qi Refining Realm, Foundation Establishment Realm, Golden Core Realm, and so on.

A Foundation Establishment Realm, Supreme Class cultivation art was the most suitable kind of cultivation art for Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators. Supreme Class meant it stood among the strongest of all Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation arts. A supreme Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation art could even be used through the Golden Core Realm without issue.

Besides that.

There was another item on the auction list that he was determined to obtain.

The Foundation Establishment Realm, Middle Class spell "Lightning-Channeling Art" was a perfect match for his trait, "Focus Power." This spell suited him extremely well.

Spells like this were actually fairly common goods. The shops of the Zhao Clan Merchant Association sold them, and they were not expensive.

Two Spirit Stones would buy one, and after some haggling, perhaps even one Spirit Stone would do. After all, they were replicas and truly cost almost nothing to produce. If one had a few friends, they could probably ask a friend who cultivated this spell to replicate it once for free.

But this "Lightning-Channeling Art" at the auction came from the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm. Once learned, it would immediately reach Major Accomplishment. Naturally, it was far from an ordinary item.

Besides that, the auction list also contained two Middle Class Heavenly Dao Retrospection Talismans suitable for Foundation Establishment Realm use. He needed those as well. There were quite a few things in this auction that he wanted badly, all of them good items.

Only through the shopkeeper did he learn that a person could use only two Heavenly Dao Retrospection Talismans per major realm. He had already used two lower-class Heavenly Dao Retrospection Talismans in the Qi Refining Realm. After acquiring these middle-class Heavenly Dao Retrospection Talismans, if he broke through a minor realm in the Foundation Establishment Realm and all three randomly drawn traits were good, he could keep every one of them.

Just as Chen Qiu sat cross-legged on the bed studying the auction list and pondering how to arrange the next few days, he saw Fat Dragon push open the door with an ugly expression.

The Foundation Establishment Realm aura that uncontrollably seeped from Fat Dragon's body was precisely the sign of someone whose newly broken-through realm had yet to stabilize.

"Congratulations."

Chen Qiu put away the auction list in his robes, rose, walked to the table, and refilled his cup of cold tea. He looked at Fat Dragon with a chuckle. "How does Foundation Establishment feel? Why are you pulling such a long face? Don't tell me all three traits you randomly got upon breaking through to Foundation Establishment were trash?"

"Mm."

Fat Dragon dropped onto a wooden chair with a bitter expression. He picked up the cold tea pot and fiercely poured it straight into his mouth. His initial trait had already been so terrible that it had caused him great pain. He had only just accepted that fact and placed all his hopes on the one-out-of-three trait selection after breaking through to Foundation Establishment.

However.

It was as though the heavens had played a joke on him.

Just recalling the three traits he had randomly received upon reaching Foundation Establishment made him want to smash his head against a wall and die!!!

"Cultivation has risen greatly. You have officially entered the First Level of the Foundation Establishment Realm."

"Please choose one of the three random traits below within ten breaths."

1:

"Trait Name": Yama's Personal Edict.

"Trait Grade": Gray.

"Trait Effect": You will definitely die one year from now, but you absolutely will not die within the next year.

2:

"Trait Name": Early Greatness.

"Trait Grade": Gray.

"Trait Effect": Cultivation progress gained through any method will be ten times faster, and you will have no breakthrough bottlenecks. However, you can live only until the age of twenty-five and cannot extend your lifespan through any method.

3:

"Trait Name": Never Misses.

"Trait Grade": White.

"Trait Effect": Any opposite-sex member of your species who shares a bed with you will definitely become pregnant afterward.

"I'm twenty-four this year. My birthday is in thirty days, when I'll officially turn twenty-five."

Fat Dragon's face was nearly despairing as he said in a trembling, tearful voice, "If I choose the first trait, I die next year. If I choose the second, I'll die thirty days from now as winter comes. Does this fucking three-out-of-one trait selection even give me a choice?"

"Only the third trait won't kill me, but what fucking use is the third trait!!!"

"I came here to cultivate immortality!!!"

"Not to make babies!!!"

"Take it easy."

Chen Qiu patted Fat Dragon's shoulder with a complicated expression. He wanted to comfort him but did not know where to begin. After a long while, he finally forced himself to say, "Maybe there's some pink trait where the more children you have, the stronger you become?"

"I've even thought of a name for that pink trait. It'll be called 'More Children, More Fortune.'"

"And there are other ways to obtain traits too, like the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm and auctions. There's still hope in the future."

"This time, just treat it as getting a trait for free. Take it easy, don't panic."

"It'll get better."