North of Qingtian County stood Mount Qingtian, where Zhong Ang had first cultivated. Only after completing his training and emerging to spread his teachings had he begun acquiring property in the mortal world and established his headquarters in the county town.
Life in the mountains had been austere, so Zhong Ang built his headquarters in magnificent splendor, like an imperial palace, and took many wives and concubines.
When cultivators had intercourse, they could ensure that their own primal essence did not escape, instead drawing out their partner's primordial yin or Primordial Yang to replenish themselves. This would not produce children. To conceive offspring, they had to allow their own primordial yin or Primordial Yang to mingle with their partner's.
Over the past two or three thousand years, Lady Baoxiang had slept with countless men, yet her primordial yin had never escaped. She had only harvested their Primordial Yang to nourish her primal core and increase her power, bearing no offspring. Only when she met Zhuge Jingwo, when desire stirred and passion flared beyond her control, did her Primordial Spirit lose command. Her primordial yin slipped its defenses and mingled with Zhuge Jingwo's Primordial Yang, and only then did she conceive and bear children.
Primordial yin and Primordial Yang were supremely precious. The Emei Sect, for instance, specifically emphasized entering the Dao with one's virginity intact. Once that was lost, one had to undergo corpse-release ascension, reincarnate, and cultivate anew. That spark of innate vital energy had to remain undiminished. By cultivating the Primordial Spirit within and accumulating good deeds without, achieving merit in the Dao and virtuous conduct in the mortal world, one could perfect one's attainment and enjoy a smooth path all the way to ascension, without even a heavenly tribulation. This was also the easiest way to attain