With a thought, Lu Changsheng retrieved the Golden Light Brick Talisman Treasure from the system space.
Immediately, a talisman depicting a long golden brick appeared out of thin air in his hand.
The talisman felt much smoother and thicker than the ones he usually drew.
The image of the Golden Light Long Brick upon it shimmered with golden light, so vivid it seemed alive.
With the knowledge and expertise of a Second-Rank Talisman Master, Lu Changsheng could tell at a glance that this talisman treasure had been made from the hide of a high-rank Demon Beast.
Ordinary talisman paper, like the kind he currently used, was mostly made from low-grade spiritual materials.
The green spirit bamboo covering Green Bamboo Mountain, for instance, was one such low-grade spiritual material.
Advanced and top-grade talisman paper, however, required ranked spiritual materials or Demon Beast hides.
The same applied to the materials used to draw second-tier talismans.
First- or second-tier spiritual materials were needed as raw ingredients for making talisman paper and spirit ink.
This was one reason why the path of a Talisman Master grew increasingly difficult the further one progressed.
Not only was improving difficult, but the materials were expensive as well.
To improve one's craft, one had to keep pouring money into this bottomless pit.
"With this talisman treasure, I finally have a trump card. From now on, I'll have a means of saving my life against anyone below Foundation Establishment."
Lu Changsheng carefully put the talisman treasure away.
Even if someone at the Chain Qi Stage could only unleash part of its power, that was enough for him at present.
Just as one or two tenths of the power of a Core Formation True Person's magic treasure was enough to crush Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators.
Even if he could only unleash part of the talisman treasure's power at the Chain Qi Stage, it would still be enough to crush other Chain Qi cultivators.
"Tomorrow, I'll tell Uncle Fu that I can craft First-Tier Lower-Grade Talismans."
Lu Changsheng glanced out the window at the darkness that had already fallen.
A year and a half had passed since his first visit to the Myriad Treasures Pavilion to buy talisman-making materials.
Over that year and a half, he had bought four or five hundred sheets of talisman paper and drawn just as many talismans.
The timing was about right.
He had already been planning to reveal his status as a Ranked Talisman Master around this time.
Since the matter involving his son Lu Xianzhi had led him to tell his wives and concubines about it today, there was no need to wait any longer.
Thinking of his son Lu Xianzhi suddenly reminded Lu Changsheng of his own spiritual root.
At the very instant his son had been born, a mysterious tremor had stirred within his spiritual root.
But he had felt nothing since then.
I wonder what grade my son's spiritual root is.
And how much my own spiritual root has changed thanks to the boost from his talent.
Lu Changsheng wondered to himself.
A spiritual root was an abstract designation for one's aptitude for cultivation.
It was not some additional, visible organ inside the body.
According to the books he had read, the Heaven Gate Acupoint and dantian of Immortal Cultivators with spiritual roots differed from those of ordinary people.
Thus, even though Lu Changsheng was an Immortal Cultivator, he had no way to see exactly how his spiritual root had changed, or by how much.
He could only examine it using a treasure specifically intended to test spiritual roots, or a spell or divine ability such as the Spirit Eye Technique.
At present, however, Lu Changsheng had access to none of those.
So he chose the simplest, most direct method.
He would see how much faster he absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth during cultivation than before.
After all, the most direct and obvious sign of an improved spiritual root was a change in one's ability to sense and absorb spiritual energy.
The better one's spiritual root, the greater one's sensitivity and affinity to spiritual energy, the faster one's cultivation, and the fewer one's bottlenecks.
Several hours passed.
Lu Changsheng could confirm that his cultivation speed had indeed increased.
But the improvement was tiny.
It was not even ten percent.
Such a small boost led Lu Changsheng to a conclusion.
His son's spiritual root was not particularly good, either.
Even though the boy was newborn and his spiritual root had yet to settle, with room to develop until he was five or six, its eventual grade probably would not be very high.
Barring any surprises, it would be a low-grade spiritual root of the eighth or ninth grade.
"My seventh child already has a spiritual root. That's lucky enough as it is. How could I expect it to be especially good, too?"
Lu Changsheng sighed softly, knowing this was perfectly normal.
His wives and concubines were all ordinary people, and his own spiritual root was only ninth-grade. The chance of a child having a spiritual root was probably around one or two percent.
Having a spiritual root appear in his seventh child was already extremely fortunate.
As for how good that spiritual root might be, expecting a middle-grade or high-grade root was truly asking too much.
Aside from a tiny number of exceptions, most children's spiritual roots were similar to their parents', and would not be much better.
Besides, ninety-nine percent of people with spiritual roots had low-grade ones.
Every Immortal Seedling in their group who had come to the Lu Lineage had a low-grade spiritual root. Not one had a middle-grade root.
If I want more children with spiritual roots, I'll still need to have them with women who possess spiritual roots.
If both parents have spiritual roots and are Immortal Cultivators, the chance of their children having spiritual roots is as high as ten or twenty percent.
Lu Changsheng thought to himself.
If he kept having children with ordinary women like this, ninety-nine percent of his children would be ordinary people.
He did indeed have many self-serving motives for marrying and having children.
But he did not want to keep having children so recklessly.
When the time came, he would only be able to watch his children without spiritual roots grow old, fall ill, and die.
As for letting them grow up happily and live fulfilling lives...
With only a few children, that naturally posed no problem. He could hold the bowl of water level and treat them all well.
But what if their number grew beyond a certain point?
Lu Changsheng knew that, when that happened, he would never be able to keep that bowl level. He could not treat them all equally.
One only had to look at emperors killing their own sons in the history of his previous world.
If he had too many children, he would surely become like that as well, unable to muster even an interest in those without spiritual roots.
Besides, marrying wives, taking concubines, and having children also required a certain amount of his time and energy.
"Phew, it's still a little early to be thinking about this."
"I'll certainly keep having children, but if circumstances permit, I should try to give them the best possible start and upbringing."
Lu Changsheng took a deep breath, shook his head, and stopped dwelling on the matter.
He also felt that he was overthinking things, becoming somewhat indecisive and letting his emotions rule him.
Cultivation was an act of defying heaven to begin with. If he became too entangled in emotional matters, he would struggle to go far, and might even give rise to an inner demon.
"I wonder whether becoming a Talisman Master will let me marry a woman of the Lu Lineage who has a spiritual root."
Seeing that dawn had already broken, Lu Changsheng rose and headed out, intending to tell Uncle Fu that he could draw First-Tier Lower-Grade Talismans.
Suddenly, he wondered whether becoming
being a First-Rank Talisman Master would allow him to marry a woman of the Lu Lineage who possessed a spiritual root.
In the past, that would have been utterly impossible.
It would have been nothing but a fool's dream.
A mere live-in son-in-law dared to be a toad lusting after swan flesh?!
But now...
With the talent he had demonstrated in Talisman Making and his status as a Ranked Talisman Master, it was not impossible.
As long as he did not ask to marry the eldest young lady, Lu Miaoge, or another woman at the core of the Lu Lineage, there should be some hope.
"If I could marry a few women with spiritual roots, that would be ideal. The children we have would be much more likely to possess spiritual roots."
"It would be good for both me and the children."
"But there's no rush for now, and it isn't something I can hurry along anyway."
Lu Changsheng thought to himself.
Naturally, it would be good if he could marry women with spiritual roots.
But he was currently only at the Chain Qi Second Layer, and his sole asset was his ability in Talisman Making, enough to craft first-tier lower-grade talismans.
Even if he married a wife with a spiritual root, he might struggle to uphold his authority as her husband, and his harem might no longer be as harmonious and peaceful as it was now.
Moreover, making such a request of the Lu Lineage would certainly not be as simple as taking an ordinary woman of the lineage as a concubine. He would have to pay a price.
Thus, Lu Changsheng felt there was no need to consider this just yet. He could revisit it once his circumstances improved.
If nothing else, with his second-rank Talisman Making expertise, marrying a few "fairies" with spiritual roots in the future would not be difficult.
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