Young Seed

Luzhou could be considered one of Qinghuan's old hands. When Immortal Lord Dongyuan founded a nation in Jiangnan, Luzhou was among the first places incorporated into Qinghuan.

Apart from a Purple Mansion Divine Ability cultivator who had briefly stayed there in the recent ancient era, Luzhou had not produced a single Purple Mansion Divine Ability cultivator in the thousand years since.

As the saying went, things got done more easily when you had someone above. Why else could Wancheng run a Heaven-and-Earth high-speed rail line straight to Luyu Station? It was because the city had always produced Purple Mansion Divine Ability cultivators in succession.

When the big shots above divvied up the pork, they would also grant a little extra funding out of respect for the Purple Mansion cultivators. As the years went by, the strong grew stronger and the weak grew weaker.

However, urban planning in this world was unlike that of Jiang Wangxuan's previous life, where the focus was on building megacities. Too many people in one city would inevitably produce an excess of turbid Qi.

With too much turbid Qi, there would be fewer people with spirit apertures, and the city's Spiritual Qi would also be heavily diluted by it, hindering cultivation.

According to the experience gained from modernization over the past century, a population of one million was a fairly middle-of-the-road choice for a city. At present, only Jixia and Qingdu were megacities built with the combined efforts of all Qinghuan.

And because the population was spread across so many cities, even if a city like Wancheng, which produced Purple Mansion cultivators one after another, got a larger share of the "pork," it couldn't outstrip the other cities by several times.

The big shots above still cared about appearances.

Outside the high-speed rail station was the light rail connecting Luzhou's new city and old district. Jiang Wangxuan would have liked to step into the air and fly downtown, but if he actually did that, he could expect a summons from the Air Traffic Control Bureau.

After modern cities arose, flight bans followed. If you dared walk through the air in a city, the Great Qian Central Bank would happily freeze your accounts at every major bank. This was one of the few services the central bank carried out directly, bypassing the banks below it.

Without heavy penalties, there would be no warning to the world.

Unfortunately, because spiritual conditions varied from place to place, the airplane, a means of transport the immortal lords had once envisioned, never made it into civilian use. Instead, it became another masterwork of war by the [Rare Metal] great powers.

Although Luzhou's old district was called old, it too had changed with each passing day over the past few years. The area around his home in particular had once been a place neither father nor mother cared for, but had now managed to become a commercial development zone for the new era.

Jiang Wangxuan had only been home four times in the past six years. Every time, he couldn't find his way home, until his mother finally told him.

"Next time you come back to our Yantai District, just head for the middle. You're sure to find our residential complex."

His mother had said meaningfully, "The development plans for this whole area were designed and built around our complex."

Looking at the entrance to his residential complex, which had been redone yet again, and at the formerly old-fashioned buildings, every one of them gleaming anew with no trace of their former appearance, Jiang Wangxuan felt it was a bit much.

The complex now bore no resemblance to the one he remembered from childhood, all because his parents didn't want to move.

And so they renovated the whole of Yantai District.

"Well, well, Jiang Dezhao, you're getting bolder by the day! You're only fourteen and you dare touch a girl's body? Do you think she was interested in you?"

With a bang, a boy in his early teens burst through the door. He was about to bolt when he ran headlong into his older brother, who was coming up the stairs.

"Brother!" The boy immediately stood at attention.

When the furious Ms. Wang heard her younger son still daring to talk back outside the door by invoking his brother, she grabbed a stick and started after him.

Jiang Wangxuan looked at the lively scene of a loving mother and filial son, unsure what to say.

The three of them stared at one another on the landing. After quite a while, Ms. Wang finally put down the stick, looking a little ill at ease. "Wangxuan, why did you suddenly come home? Didn't Jinyi only just leave for school? Did something happen to that girl?"

"Mom, Jinyi's fine. She's about to enter Qi Refinement. My master sent me to Wancheng on an errand, so I stopped by to see you. It's been a long time since I came home."

At the mention of coming home, Ms. Wang's eyes immediately reddened. "Quick, quick, what are you standing at the door for? Come in! Jiang Dezhao, don't stand there blocking your brother's way."

Jiang Dezhao glanced at his brother, who looked like an immortal banished to the mortal world, then immediately drew back his head and said in a muffled voice, "Brother, let's go home!"

Jiang Wangxuan's heart softened. He had left home at fourteen, when Dezhao was only eight and still a child. Back then, he had also been busy cultivating and hadn't had as much time as when he used to look after Jinyi, so by rights, Dezhao wasn't particularly close to him.

But when the child had just stolen a glance at him, his eyes had held grievance, admiration, nervousness, and unease.

The older brother raised a hand and stroked the back of the younger one's head. "Dezhao, come on. Let's talk inside."

The furnishings at home hadn't changed much. The ceiling had been repainted, and while the furniture was all the same, a few small items had been added.

Pork rib soup was still simmering in the kitchen, filling the living room with its aroma. It seemed as though little had changed.

Jiang Wangxuan naturally drew Ms. Wang down to sit. "Mom, what made you so angry that you picked up a stick?"

Ms. Wang looked at her eldest son's face: those peach-blossom eyes, that straight little nose, and his otherworldly bearing. Mm, one look and you could tell he was her son. He was looking more and more like an immortal.

Then she turned to Jiang Dezhao, who was like a mischievous monkey, and said irritably, "Jiang Dezhao, if you had the nerve to do it, you should have the nerve to say it."

"I didn't do it! I was set up, but you just won't believe me." Jiang Dezhao's voice rose an octave.

"Set up? An Embryonic Breathing cultivator with an implanted Spirit Root set up a dumb boy like you who can't even understand the Dao Scripture? She'd give up her future because she'd taken a fancy to a fourteen-year-old boy like you?"

Ms. Wang had a fiery temper too. She raised her hand to strike him, only for her eldest son to stop her with a light touch.

"Mom, Dezhao isn't lying."

Ms. Wang froze, then lowered her raised hand of her own accord. "Wangxuan, really? This boy isn't lying?"

Jiang Wangxuan nodded and beckoned his younger brother to sit beside him. "Tell me about the girl."

"She's three grades above me, in Spirit Root Class Two. She used to spend a lot of time with Sister and often asked her for cultivation advice. That's how I met her. After Sister went to university, she often asked me about her too. Yesterday, she invited me to a KTV."

As for what happened afterward, Dezhao's face turned beet red, and he said no more.

"Your first time?" Jiang Wangxuan asked with interest.

Jiang Dezhao's face grew even redder, right to the tips of his ears. "I-I don't know. She did everything. She has Law Power, and I had no strength."

Having said that, he lowered his head and didn't dare lift it.

By now, Ms. Wang's face had gone completely dark. How could she dare? Dezhao was so young. What if it damaged his body?

What was she after?

"All right, lift your head. Take this pill." Jiang Wangxuan flicked out a white jade bottle the size of a ping-pong ball.

"There's an Origin Returning Pill inside. If she gets what she wants, give her this pill. Let Dad handle what comes afterward."

Jiang Dezhao cupped the white jade bottle floating in the air with both hands and nodded. He didn't know what the Origin Returning Pill inside was, but his brother was always right.

Jiang Wangxuan sighed. He hadn't expected to encounter something like this as soon as he came home.

On second thought, it made sense. Who knew how many people in Luzhou were watching his family of five? Before, the family had Jinyi, a Spirit Aperture bearer, so those people hadn't dared make a move openly.

Now there were no cultivators at home, and his parents didn't understand the ins and outs of many things. That was how Dezhao had been set up.

His older brother and sister both had Spirit Apertures. Though he didn't, what about his children? Once there was one, there could be two; once there were two, there could be three. If he really did have a child, shouldn't the Jiang Household cough up some resources?

And if the child happened to develop a Spirit Aperture, wouldn't that be a good thing for the Jiang Household?

Today's affair was only the beginning. It was a test of Jiang Wangxuan and his sister. With both siblings in Lüyu, when had such a good opportunity ever arisen in Luzhou?

In the world of Attainment-Status Immortal Cultivation, a surname determined far, far too much. No matter how the authorities of Qinghuan tried to suppress it, that was the underlying logic of this world.

It was something even the Clear Ring Convention couldn't change. The authorities could only channel it, not block it.

"Dezhao, do you know why that girl did such a thing?"

"I... I think I know a little." Jiang Dezhao puffed out his cheeks and answered hesitantly.

"Oh? Then tell me."

"They... they wanted my body. They wanted it even when Sister was still here. Sometimes I'd hear some gossip in class."

Having said that, the boy buried his head again. It was far too awkward for a boy his age to say such things in front of his mother and brother.

Hearing her younger son's words, Ms. Wang rubbed her forehead helplessly. She simply hadn't understood the ins and outs, but with the matter right before her eyes, she'd managed to figure it out.

"Mom, our family has two spirit-aperture bearers. Though Dezhao doesn't have a spirit aperture, to some people he's even better than one. He's only fourteen, just starting to develop, and they were already so eager to take his seed. People's hearts aren't what they used to be."

Jiang Wangxuan had been hesitating over what to arrange for Dezhao, wanting to wait until their father came back and hear his opinion. Now that this had happened, he had made his decision.

He and Jinyi couldn't stay in Luzhou all the time, and as things stood, even the immediate family of Purple Mansion Divine Ability cultivators had only temporary residence rights in the Central Palace Blessed Land, not permanent residence. Collateral relatives couldn't even get visas.

Unless, of course, you actually entered Yuanhuai Heaven and earned the favor of the authorities. Then it would be a different story.

"Call Dad back. I have something to discuss with the family."

His mother nodded and went out to make the call. Dezhao stared blankly at his brother. He knew he'd been set up, and had spent the whole day since it happened on tenterhooks, afraid he would hold up his brother and sister's cultivation.

He really hadn't expected his brother to descend from the sky and ask him only a couple of simple questions, without even asking that woman's name.

"Dezhao, have you ever thought about what kind of life you want to live in the future?"

His younger brother shook his head, then nodded. "I have thought about it. You and Sister can be big shots up in Xuantian, and I'll stay at home and keep to my place. With you and Sister around, I should have no trouble living a life of leisure and wealth."

Jiang Wangxuan raised an eyebrow. As expected, there was something to the Jiang bloodline. His own younger brother wasn't stupid either; he simply hadn't experienced much and wasn't yet old enough to shoulder such things.

Dezhao was only fourteen. To have thought of this himself and be able to say it so openly showed that, among ordinary people, he had a fairly good temperament.

"Mom and Dad always said you couldn't get into the Dao Scripture?" Jiang Wangxuan asked.

His younger brother shook his head. "I can't get into it. I don't have the talent. I'm pretty good at math and language, but I'm no good with Daoist books. They're like heavenly scriptures to me."

"Starting now, begin with 300 Questions on the Dao Scripture. Set aside all your other subjects and put your mind to the Dao Scripture."

Ms. Wang, who had just finished her call, spoke up for her younger son. "Dezhao does fairly well in his academic subjects, but he really doesn't have a talent for Daoist books. Your father and I tried long ago. He's not cut out for it."

"Mom, if Dezhao doesn't want to die on a woman's belly someday, he has to study the Dao Scripture whether he wants to or not. He has to read it even if he doesn't want to."

Jiang Wangxuan sighed helplessly. He really hadn't wanted to push his own younger brother onto this path too. "When I came back today, I brought a Spirit Root with me."

"It's a Qi Refinement-level Spirit Root. When Dad gets back from work, we'll settle the matter!"

At those words, Ms. Wang's phone fell to the floor. The sound of it shattering struck Jiang Dezhao's heart hard.

"A Spirit Root. Brother brought me a Spirit Root. I'm going to cultivate immortality?"