At the gathering place for Heavenly Pillar Mountain's First Grade Elites, in Wang Chen's manor.
A banquet was being held there to welcome Lu Qingshan and Terrance. By the time Lu Qingshan arrived, over a hundred of Heavenly Pillar Mountain's First Grade Elites had already gathered.
As one of the banquet's guests of honor, Lu Qingshan was greeted enthusiastically by everyone the moment he appeared.
In the end, the banquet's host, Wang Chen, came over and finally extricated Lu Qingshan.
"Brother Qingshan!"
Wang Chen raised a glass of fine wine and invited Lu Qingshan to drink with him, then asked with a smile, "How do you like the atmosphere here?"
"The atmosphere is great!"
Lu Qingshan likewise raised his glass and drained the wine, then answered with a smile, "Thank you for your hospitality, Brother Wang. The atmosphere here is great, and the dishes taste excellent too. I never encountered a scene like this back in the Scorpio Galaxy!"
"Hahaha!"
Hearing this, Wang Chen quickly replied with a smile, "A little place like the Scorpio Galaxy doesn't even have many Universe Level experts. Naturally, it can't compare to our place!"
"Brother Qingshan, I know your teacher is a Universe Level warrior from the Purple River Empire, but with your talent, there's absolutely no need for you to return to a little place like the Purple River Empire in the future!"
"The Wang Family is very interested in you. Would you be interested in joining us?"
"Join the Wang Family?"
Lu Qingshan was not at all surprised by Wang Chen's words.
After all, Wang Chen naturally had his own purpose in holding a welcoming banquet like this: to recruit newly joined First Grade Elites like them.
In fact, many factions within Heavenly Pillar Mountain tried to recruit newly joined First Grade Elites like Lu Qingshan. The Wang Family to which Wang Chen belonged had merely gained a head start because Wang Chen was a First Grade Elite himself.
"That's right!"
Wang Chen reached out and filled Lu Qingshan's glass with fine wine, then continued with a smile, "Brother Qingshan, rest assured. Our Wang Family is completely different from those so-called eight great families of the Golden Lion Starfield. We're never stingy with true geniuses!"
"The treatment you enjoy in the Wang Family in the future will be determined entirely by your own strength. The stronger you are, the better your treatment will naturally be! As for now, as long as you're willing to join our Wang Family, you'll immediately be granted a life planet!"
"A life planet?"
After hearing Wang Chen's words, Lu Qingshan was quite surprised.
A life planet was extremely precious. Even a First Grade Elite within Heavenly Pillar Mountain had to take first place in the overall rankings for twenty consecutive years to receive a life planet as a reward.
Yet now, merely by joining the Wang Family, he could obtain a life planet as his own territory. For an ordinary Star Level genius, these were already extremely generous terms.
However, Lu Qingshan also understood very clearly that if he accepted the Wang Family's life planet, he would be deeply bound to the Wang Family from then on;
when that happened, not only would he have to complete Heavenly Pillar Mountain's various missions, he would also have to safeguard the Wang Family's interests!
And if he perished in the future, the Wang Family had all manner of means to take back the life planet they had given him.
He had already joined Heavenly Pillar Mountain and could enjoy the many resources it provided. What he needed most was to focus on cultivating. There was no need at all to take part in the competition between these factions within Heavenly Pillar Mountain.
With this thought, Lu Qingshan soon said, "Brother Wang, I've only just joined Heavenly Pillar Mountain. For now, I only want to cultivate in peace. Why don't we discuss these things after some time has passed?"
"Very well!"
Wang Chen showed no displeasure at Lu Qingshan's refusal. Instead, he continued with a smile, "Junior Brother Qingshan, you've only just joined our Heavenly Pillar Mountain, so your strength is sure to undergo a period of rapid improvement. But if you change your mind in the future, be sure to consider our Wang Family first!"
"No problem!" Lu Qingshan promptly nodded.
After chatting with Lu Qingshan for a little longer, Wang Chen went off to speak with the others.
As Lu Qingshan chatted with the other geniuses, he also learned that Wang Chen had approached Terrance before approaching him. However, like him, Terrance had chosen not to join the Wang Family.
Cultivation was still the most important matter for First Grade Elites, so the banquet did not last very long. Lu Qingshan had merely gotten acquainted with the other geniuses before the banquet ended.
Over the following period, Lu Qingshan received further recruitment offers from many factions within Heavenly Pillar Mountain. These included families with World Lord Level experts, as well as small cliques formed by several Domain Lord Level experts banding together...
However, the terms offered by these factions were all much the same as those of Wang Chen's Wang Family, with some even being harsher. Naturally, Lu Qingshan was unwilling to join them.
In fact, if a World Lord Level expert had been willing to take Lu Qingshan as a disciple, he certainly would not have hesitated.
Unfortunately, the talent he had displayed so far was nowhere near enough to draw a World Lord Level expert out to accept him as a disciple.
Thus, after declining these factions' offers, Lu Qingshan soon devoted himself wholeheartedly to cultivation.
During this period of cultivation, he spent almost all his time cultivating his Earth Domain. He paid no attention whatsoever to accumulating energy and completed only the bare minimum of adventure missions.
A year soon passed, and Heavenly Pillar Mountain's First Grade Elites began having their rankings reassessed.
Because Lu Qingshan had completed only the most basic cultivation missions, he ultimately ranked 131st among the 138 elites. His performance could be described as utterly ordinary;
Terrance, on the other hand, who had become a First Grade Elite of Heavenly Pillar Mountain at the same time as him, charged straight up to 88th place!
However, this was perfectly normal!
Terrance was a spirit reader, after all. Whether challenging the Trial Tower or completing those adventure missions, he enjoyed a considerable advantage.
If he had not been only at Stellar Level Six, his ranking might have been even higher!
Once these rankings were finalized, Lu Qingshan and Terrance held entirely different standings among the First Grade Elites.
When other First Grade Elites encountered Lu Qingshan, they generally paid him little attention, but when they encountered Terrance, they were often extremely enthusiastic.
Everyone knew that with Terrance's potential, he would definitely be able to break into the top ten in the overall rankings in the future.
Over the period that followed, Terrance's performance indeed bore this out. Each year, when the rankings were reassessed, his ranking always improved somewhat. He could be said to be a truly outstanding performer.
By contrast, Lu Qingshan's ranking kept hovering around 130th place, with almost no improvement.
In truth, after raising his Trial Tower score to 8.3, Lu Qingshan's Trial Tower performance was not particularly poor among the First Grade Elites. If he could complete more adventure missions, his overall ranking should have risen to around 110th place.
But to Lu Qingshan, there was no great difference between the points he could earn at 110th and 130th in the overall rankings. Completing those adventure missions would instead waste more time. Weighing the two, the gains simply would not make up for the losses, so he was better off devoting himself entirely to improving his Earth Domain.
After all, when determining the rankings, Trial Tower results carried far more weight than adventure missions.
Among all the First Grade Elites, there were definitely no more than thirty who could reach the Domain Second Layer. Once he reached the Earth Domain Second Level, his ranking would soon soar into the top fifty overall.
However, the others knew nothing of Lu Qingshan's thinking. Seeing his ranking remain stagnant, naturally, few people paid him much attention anymore.
One thing worth mentioning, however, was that Wang Chen of the Wang Family truly lived up to being an elite from a great family. Even though Lu Qingshan's ranking remained around 130th place, his attitude toward Lu Qingshan never changed at all. He could be said to have treated him very well.
Wang Chen even promised Lu Qingshan that if he was willing to join the Wang Family, the previous terms would still stand.
If Lu Qingshan truly had no particular plans for his future, he might really have joined the Wang Family because of this.
Fortunately, he still had a plan in mind, so he once again politely declined Wang Chen.
And so, time continued to flow, and in the blink of an eye, another thirty years passed.