Borrowing Money

Time flew, and another year passed in the blink of an eye!

The mountain behind the Xiao Clan!

After cultivating all day, Xiao Yan lay on the huge rock where he had trained for years, gazing up at the stars scattered across the vast heavens.

Over the past year, he had long since grown accustomed to the pain of violent elements scouring his body during cultivation. His cultivation had even reached the seventeenth stage of Dou Qi.

In just one year, he had gained five stages of Dou Qi!

It was nothing short of heaven-defying.

Moreover, Xiao Yan could feel that as his body grew stronger, his meridians were also becoming capable of bearing greater strain.

This change made cultivation increasingly effortless for him, and even his cultivation speed rose another notch.

From the looks of it, continuing to cultivate this way seemed like a viable choice.

Just then, Yao Lao's voice suddenly rang out in his mind.

"Little Yanzi, your father is here!"

Xiao Yan sat up on the huge rock. With his keen hearing, he had also heard the rustling coming from the distant woods.

He simply had not guessed that the visitor was his father, Xiao Zhan!

As Xiao Zhan emerged from the dark woods, Xiao Yan jumped down from the rock and called out with a smile, "Father!"

Xiao Zhan walked out of the woods, dressed in gray robes, his figure tall and his bearing imposing.

His expression softened as he looked at the increasingly mature young man in the distance.

"I went to your room just now and couldn't find you, so I guessed you must have come here.

"You still like cultivating on the mountain behind the clan, just as you always did."

Xiao Yan paused briefly, then asked, "It's so late, Father. Why did you come looking for me instead of getting some rest?"

Xiao Zhan rolled his eyes at Xiao Yan. "Can't a father show some concern for his own son?"

"Of course you can."

Xiao Yan scratched his head. As a father, Xiao Zhan was unquestionably a good one.

Over the years, he had given Xiao Yan plenty of special treatment, preferring to cut back on his own cultivation resources to ensure his son had enough. He had even diverted a considerable amount of the clan's resources to him.

What could Xiao Yan feel about that except gratitude?

However, because he had failed to break through to Dou Zhe over the past two years, several elders in the clan had begun grumbling about Xiao Zhan's leadership.

"Yan'er, if I remember correctly, you reached the Ninth Stage of Dou Qi two years ago, didn't you?" Xiao Zhan asked with a smile.

Xiao Yan nodded.

"Breaking through from Dou Qi to Dou Zhe is fraught with danger. If you encounter any problems in your cultivation, don't force yourself.

"Even if you fail a breakthrough once, don't let it weigh on your mind. Do you understand?"

Xiao Zhan rested a hand on Xiao Yan's shoulder, his expression utterly serious.

He knew his son's talent and diligence very well, so he absolutely refused to believe that Xiao Yan's cultivation had made no progress whatsoever in the past two years.

There was only one possible reason he had yet to become a Dou Zhe.

Xiao Yan had failed in his attempt to break through!

As both a father and someone who had walked that path before, Xiao Zhan believed that what Xiao Yan needed most right now was his encouragement and affirmation.

He only regretted that the Xiao Clan had declined so far that he could not prepare a dose of Qi Gathering Powder for Xiao Yan.

Otherwise, with Xiao Yan's talent, he should have had a far brighter future.

The Xiao Clan had dragged him down!

Yet Xiao Yan merely waved a hand. For the past two years, he had devoted himself to cultivation, rarely appearing before others and never displaying his strength in front of them. Thus, everyone assumed he was still stuck at the Ninth Stage of Dou Qi.

Even the clan's Magic Stone Tablet could not detect his current realm.

"Father, you can rest easy. I actually surpassed the Ninth Stage of Dou Qi long ago. It's just that, for certain special reasons, none of you can see my realm."

Xiao Yan smiled reassuringly, unwilling to let Xiao Zhan worry over his affairs.

"What? Yan'er, you... you've already broken through?"

"When did this happen?"

At those words, wild joy spread across Xiao Zhan's face.

Xiao Yan raised his foot and lightly stamped the ground.

The next moment, he stopped concealing his aura and let it reveal itself.

Dou Qi, seventeenth stage!

An astonishing aura surged from Xiao Yan in every direction, stirring waves of invisible ripples.

Feeling the aura erupting from Xiao Yan at such close range, Xiao Zhan's face immediately flushed with excitement.

A moment later, he burst into a long, hearty laugh.

"I knew it! I knew that my son was a true, peerless genius!"

"Yan'er, you've done well. I was right about you all along."

Laughing loudly, Xiao Zhan kept patting Xiao Yan's shoulder.

In truth, he had not discerned Xiao Yan's precise realm, but judging by the aura he had unleashed, he was probably no weaker than an ordinary two- or three-star Dou Zhe.

Xiao Yan himself felt rather helpless about this.

Despite being at the seventeenth stage of Dou Qi, according to Yao Lao, his current strength fell well short of a Seven-Star Dou Zhe's level.

In fact, once he reached the levels corresponding to Dou Shi and Da Dou Shi, that gap would only grow wider.

By then, he might well need to advance a hundred or two hundred stages of Dou Qi just to match someone else's one-star breakthrough.

Still, he was not entirely without advantages.

As his body grew stronger, the speed of his breakthroughs would also increase.

Perhaps one day, he might even perform the world-shaking feat of breaking through a realm in a single day.

Of course, all of these were conclusions Yao Lao had drawn from his cultivation over the past two years.

When it came to teaching students, Xiao Yan could give Yao Lao ninety-nine points as a teacher.

He withheld the final point for fear of making him conceited!

"Hahahaha! Now let's see what those old fellows in the clan have left to say!"

Xiao Zhan laughed heartily.

At that moment, he finally relaxed completely, and his worries about Xiao Yan faded away.

"Yan'er, if there's anything you need from now on, just tell me."

"Our Xiao Clan may have declined, but we're not without reserves."

After all, the Xiao Clan had once been one of the Jia Ma Empire's greatest clans. How could it not have anything left from its former wealth?

Xiao Yan scratched his head and said sheepishly, "Father, there really is a small matter I need your help with."

Xiao Zhan swept his hand grandly. "Just say the word, Yan'er."

"Uh..."

"Actually, I'd like to borrow some gold coins from you."

Xiao Yan rubbed his nose.

As his cultivation gradually increased, cultivating alone was no longer enough to satisfy his appetite.

Thus, Yao Lao was preparing to help Xiao Yan refine some pills to aid his cultivation.

But even the cleverest cook could not make a meal without rice. Even if Xiao Yan emptied his little treasury, he still could not scrape together enough money for the medicinal ingredients.

Naturally, he had set his sights on his father, the clan leader.

Of course, besides his father, he had another option...

That little rich girl, Xun'er!

Xiao Zhan laughed, unconcerned. "Tell me, then. How much do you want?"

Xiao Yan considered briefly before tentatively naming a sum.

"How about..."

"A hundred thousand?"

"H-how much? A hundred thousand!" Xiao Zhan's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

That was probably as much as the clan's entire annual profit.

Xiao Yan also realized that this might be a little too much, so he added another sentence.

"Fifty thousand would do, too."

If the money was not enough, he could always swallow his pride and ask Xun'er for a loan.

In the original novel, refining Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid had not actually cost many gold coins. But his present situation differed from the original story: he could withstand other pills besides Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid.

Naturally, the more gold coins, the better.

Beside him, Xiao Zhan frowned and fell silent for a moment before saying, "Give me a few days. I'll find a way to get those hundred thousand gold coins."

He did not ask what Xiao Yan intended to do with the hundred thousand gold coins. He was already thinking about how to deal with those old fellows in the clan.

After all, the clan was not a place where his word alone was law.

"All right, I'll be going now. Get some rest soon, too. Even when cultivating, you need to balance work and rest."

With that, Xiao Zhan turned and left.

As he walked, he continued muttering to himself.

"A hundred thousand gold coins is no small sum!"

"How can I get those old fellows to shut up?"

Watching his father's retreating figure, Xiao Yan felt both amused and warmed to the heart.

Reality was not a novel. He could feel Xiao Zhan's concern far more personally.

No wonder he had moved the Xiao Yan of the original story.

Hadn't he himself been moved as well?