Everlasting Protection Life Insurance

As the sky darkened, Big Fat Fish hurried to finish using spiritual sense to pack all the county gazetteers on these floors into the database before the library closed.

The library director had received a call from the city early that morning and, without another word, had summoned the entire staff to work.

At first, the director had considered closing the library for the day, but decided that would be too deliberate and merely limited the flow of visitors. When it came to the person visiting the library today, the director was treading with the utmost care.

The city's attitude went without saying. The visitor had entered Lüyu at fourteen, was a Spirit Aperture cultivator, reportedly had an exceptionally esteemed Dao lineage, and was a native with local household registration.

Now the city was counting on this person to achieve great things someday and give their hometown a hand. The director also knew that in the past two years, fewer and fewer Embryonic Breathing students had managed to pass the exams and leave, while pitifully few students at the library could even reach the middle floors.

It was all because nearby Wancheng drew people away too effectively.

Only after all the lights on the top floors went out did the director spot a glazed jade bottle left on the reception desk, with a note tucked beneath it: "Thanks for your hard work!"

The director naturally recognized the style of the glazed jade bottle. It contained Origin-Nourishing Pills, used to build a foundation for Fetal Breathing Realm cultivators. The director hurriedly put it away. Though the pills were not of a high grade, they were hard to buy on the open market; every bottle in the city's allotment already had a name on it.

There were also several cultivators from poor families working their way through school at the library, copying Cultivation Methods while holding down jobs. The director had been keeping an eye on a few promising youths of good character for some time.

If the director handed over the Origin-Nourishing Pills, there would be little benefit in it personally. It would be better to keep them to cultivate a few promising youths and build up some goodwill for the family.

Over the next two days, the city officials were all scratching their heads. The person from Yantai District came back only once every few years, yet this time, after returning unexpectedly, had paid a visit to the city library and then begun leaving early and returning late. No one knew what the visitor was busy with.

The city's chief officials, on the other hand, were all tight-lipped. But the three heavyweights-the Luzhou prefect, assistant prefect, and military commissioner-had all issued an ironclad order to their subordinates: anyone who stirred up trouble at a time like this would get a reserved seat in the great river to the north.

Luzhou might still have two Foundation Establishment cultivators holding down the fort, but looking twenty years ahead, it was entirely possible that Luzhou would bear the Jiang name. That was the consensus among the chief officials.

The last person from Luzhou to enter Xuantian had done so over a century ago. Unfortunately, that person had entered the Xuantian to the north and, after achieving success in cultivation, had moved the whole family away.

One could well imagine the sordid dealings behind it. The three officials had no wish to see it happen again, especially when Luzhou lay within Lüyu's usual sphere of influence.

It was not until the third day that the Jiang Household made a move. When they asked, they learned that the person from Lüyu wanted a Spirit Root implanted in his own younger brother and was asking about appointments with Huaqi in the city.

There was an opening-as long as they came, there would be an opening! Assistant Prefect Tan, who oversaw Huaqi, cleared his schedule for the entire day on the spot. He was just about to ask when the Jiang Household's young master would return from Wancheng so he could arrange for Huaqi to pass on the technique.

Then he heard news that struck like a bolt from the blue: the person from Lüyu intended to perform the operation himself, and at home.

Within half an hour, the news had spread throughout Luzhou's entire cultivation circle. If it was true, it meant he was already in the late Qi Refining Stage. He was only twenty!

At the Jiang Household, Dezhao floated in the bedroom, his mind perfectly clear. Across from him, Jiang Wangxuan had already taken out the Qi Refining Stage Spirit Root, a finger-length emerald vine whose full name was the Jade Gourd Inch Vine Root.

Spirit Roots were Immortal Lord Dongchun's great masterpiece, the immortal achievement of the Eternal Preservation Attainment. Back then, the True Lords' confidence in building a utopia where everyone was like a dragon had come from the birth of artificial Spirit Roots.

After Qingheng Great Luo had purged the universe, fewer than one in ten cultivators remained throughout heaven and earth, and the various Dao lineages were nearly extinct. It was Immortal Lord Dongchun's Spirit Roots that created a new generation of cultivators.

At the time, the grade of Spirit Roots was only enough to let ordinary people form a Spirit Wheel. The Law Power they cultivated was exceedingly insubstantial, and casting a single Law Technique required them to rest for two or three days.

Yet it was with these incomplete versions of Spirit Root cultivators that Sovereign Dongyuan repaired the earth veins, sowed spirit fields, and cultivated Spirit Plants.

Wherever they fought alongside the Sovereign, they planted, combining farming and warfare. In less than a century, they had occupied the core territories north and south of the great river. Once a Spirit Root cultivator's lifespan ran out, the Spirit Root would rapidly wither inside the body and form a new seed.

The new seeds would be reclaimed by Everlasting Protection Life Insurance, then carefully cultivated into new Spirit Plants. These newly born Spirit Plants would become the "main ingredients" for the next batch of artificial Spirit Roots.

It was another three hundred years before the first Spirit Root cultivator broke through to Foundation Establishment. That cultivator's surname was Xu, and an entire sixty-year cycle was added to his lifespan out of nowhere.

People across Qinghuan wept for joy. Hundreds of years and generations of cultivation had finally borne fruit. Roughly four hundred years later, in the 847th year of the Qinghuan calendar, a Spirit Root cultivator obtained a Divine Ability in the East Sea, gaining 200 years for a total mortal lifespan of 360 years, and entered Xuantian as a disciple.

Both Emperors offered sacrifices, and the Six Realms trembled in fear. Thus, every child in Qinghuan learned the following prophecy in the Three Hundred Questions of the Daoist Texts.

The day a Spirit Root attained the Golden Core position would be the time Chun attained the Great Luo Dao Fruit.

As the Dao lineage left behind for Chun, Everlasting Protection Life Insurance naturally held authority over Qinghuan's Spirit Roots. With a thousand years of cultivation, the growing of Spirit Roots had become ever more refined.

Implanting an Embryonic Breathing-grade Spirit Root could enable a person to form a Spirit Wheel, but forming one in the Rising Yang Mansion was relatively difficult, requiring the Spirit Root cultivator to possess a certain talent for cultivation.

A Qi Refinement-grade Spirit Root contained a strand of Hengbao Essence that could help its bearer refine Spiritual Qi more efficiently and condense True Essence when breaking through to Foundation Establishment.

A Foundation Establishment Realm Spirit Root not only contained Hengbao Essence but also came with a strand of high-grade Spiritual Qi from a particular Dao lineage. Its bearer faced no realm bottleneck when breaking through from Embryonic Breathing to Qi Refinement, and their cultivation speed in the Qi Refinement Stage was in no way inferior to that of a Spirit Aperture cultivator with large-cup aptitude.

Every Foundation Establishment Realm Spirit Root qualified as a Purple Mansion-level spiritual object. Not only were they produced in small numbers, but each was also designated for a particular Dao lineage. And once a Spirit Root cultivator broke through to Foundation Establishment, it was possible to seek a Divine Ability before their 160-year lifespan ran out.

Jiang Wangxuan remembered that a Foundation Establishment Realm Spirit Root of the Kan Water Dao Lineage had been sold at Luyu Port three years ago for 45 million tongbao.

Only great clans with a Purple Mansion Divine Ability in the family were qualified to lay hands on one. Although Foundation Establishment Realm Spirit Roots were Purple Mansion spiritual objects, they were of no help whatsoever to cultivators with Purple Mansion Divine Abilities, making them one of Qinghuan's foremost luxury goods.

Most were purchased by Purple Mansion True Persons whose lifespans were running out, for younger members of their clans, in hopes of ensuring the Lineage's continuation. As for Purple Mansion-level Spirit Roots, there was still a complete blank in the information available to the public.

For Spirit Aperture cultivators, the aptitude of their Spirit Apertures and their own Dao wisdom were the two measures of their potential. For Spirit Root cultivators, Dao wisdom determined the heights they could eventually reach.

Sometimes, being ordinary was not necessarily a bad thing. Cultivation resources had grown more abundant over the years, yet fewer and fewer Spirit Root cultivators could reach Foundation Establishment.

People's hearts drifted like clouds. A Spirit Root cultivator who reached Qi Refinement could secure a fairly good position. The chief officials of the various cities were all Qi Refinement cultivators, and virtually every one of them was a Spirit Root cultivator.

Whether one was a Spirit Root cultivator or a Spirit Aperture cultivator, reaching Foundation Establishment by sixty was a threshold. Those who had not succeeded by sixty had an even smaller chance afterward: the human body was already in decline, its Essence Blood waning.

What was more, the casualty rate for breaking through to Foundation Establishment now exceeded that of the great immortal sects of the near-ancient era. Even Lüyu, with its powerful teaching staff and the full financial support of Yuanhuai Heaven behind it, had an eighty-percent casualty rate.

At somewhat lesser key universities, breaking through to Foundation Establishment was little different from a narrow escape from death. In the more remote parts of the Two Emperors' territories and Six Realms, a Qi Refinement cultivator attempting the breakthrough was almost tantamount to suicide.

In such an environment, the resolve of Spirit Root cultivators as a whole to pursue the Dao naturally weakened. Let the Spirit Aperture cultivators throw themselves at the Foundation Establishment threshold. We Spirit Root cultivators never had an immortal affinity to begin with. Relying on our Lineages to support us, we have advanced to Qi Refinement—a blessing others seek but cannot obtain.

We should repay our Lineages in the mortal world. Holding positions of power and continuing our Lineages' wealth and honor is the proper path.

"Dezhao, focus and feel the changes in your Qi Sea carefully. This will help a Spirit Root cultivator sense the presence of Spiritual Qi in heaven and earth."

Jiang Wangxuan's fingers became a blade, smoothly cutting open his younger brother's middle Dantian. A strand of Lunar Essence driven by the silvery-white moon disc wrapped around the Jade Gourd Inch Vine Root and slowly sank into Jiang Dezhao's Qi Sea.

Traditional Spirit Root implantation required the aid of various medicines and spiritual liquids at this stage. On one hand, they nourished the Spirit Root; on the other, they maintained the vitality of the "recipient's" middle Dantian.

The middle Dantian was the cavity where Qi was stored. If the incision was made in the wrong place or at the wrong depth, it was common for the "recipient" to die briefly on the operating table.

For children who had not yet embarked on cultivation, the middle Dantian was extremely fragile.

The next step was the truly risky one. Once the Spirit Root entered the middle Dantian, it would grow tendrils on its own and take root inside the child's Dantian. The tendrils would also pierce through the Dantian and connect to the recipient's meridians to draw nutrients from the recipient.

If all went well, the Spirit Root would become active at this point and begin involuntarily absorbing Spiritual Qi from its surroundings to sustain itself, nourishing the "recipient" in the process.

But there was still an age-old problem at this step: rejection. Not every child's body could accept a Spirit Root. More precisely, getting the body to accept a Spirit Root went against what was natural; the human body was certain to produce some degree of rejection.

At this point, however, the various pills and spiritual liquids administered to the body would reduce the rejection to a minimum. Then, as the Spirit Root took hold and the body began breathing in and expelling Spiritual Qi, the body would gradually adapt to its presence.

But there was a constitution known as the Spirit-Severing Physique, which was inherently intolerant of Spirit Roots. In that case, one should give up thoughts of cultivation and concentrate on academic studies.

As the Jade Gourd Inch Vine Root settled safely into Jiang Dezhao's Qi Sea, a little Spiritual Qi had already passed through it into the "recipient's" body. Jiang Wangxuan took a quick look. There was no serious rejection.

It all looked very simple: cut him open and put it in.

Jiang Wangxuan felt that things had gone a little too smoothly. He was just about to withdraw his hand and close the Dantian when he was astonished to find that the Jade Gourd Inch Vine Root was sucking the moon essence from his hand like a baby's little mouth.

"Dezhao, do you feel anything?"

"Brother, I can feel it moving. It seems to be 'breathing.'"

Jiang Wangxuan did not know whether to laugh or cry. So things had gone this smoothly because the Spirit Root was feasting on something good. Wrapped in Lunar Essence the entire time, of course it had received a tremendous tonic. Even Big Fat Fish clamored for "mooncakes" day after day.

No wonder Spirit Root implantation generally required a Wood Virtue Qi Refinement cultivator to perform the operation. A Water Virtue cultivator who had practiced a nourishing and restorative Cultivation Method could also take the lead.

As for himself, a Grand Yin cultivator performing the operation with Lunar Essence driven by the silvery-white moon disc, he was using a cannon to swat a mosquito—an extravagant waste of talent.

Fortunately, the Jade Gourd Inch Vine Root was only a Qi Refining Stage Spirit Root, and it soon stuffed itself on Lunar Essence. Jiang Wangxuan could sense the little thing's state: it was in a daze, as if it had eaten itself into a carb coma.

Only then did Jiang Wangxuan withdraw his hand. He sent another strand of Lunar Essence into Jiang Dezhao to nourish his younger brother's body, then closed the Dantian and finished putting everything in order.

He glanced at the time. Yes, less than an hour. Quite smooth.