Wei, Qin, Chu, and Zhao, a Heavy Rain is Coming!

The news of Zhao submitting to Qin could naturally not be kept from the several lineages in the town.

Where some rejoiced, others naturally worried.

Han had fallen, Zhao had surrendered, and two of the seven lineages had already been eliminated. The rising momentum of the Qin Family was beginning to show!

Yan and Qi were not in a hurry, and the Chu Household was not in a hurry, but the Wei Family was anxious.

Toward the olive branch thrown out by the Wei Family, the Qi Household chose to ignore it. The frequency of the Qi family members' appearances was even much lower than usual...

This was their plan to completely play the shrinking tortoise.

As for the Yan Family-

Though initially interested, for reasons unknown, they ultimately declined.

The Yan Family Head.

On the surface, he was still a local official appointed by the imperial court. As Bayi Town local official, the Yan Family needed to maintain neutrality.

He regularly collected taxes and maintained local stability.

Naturally, he did not wish to make a big fuss over matters, lest he lose his official hat...

As for the affairs of the Qin Family, the Yan Family Head naturally understood them.

Though only a sesame-sized local official, he had served in office for many years and knew well the imperial court's high regard for special talents.

Someone like Qin Lu, a healer who could refine precious pills.

Strictly speaking-

He should be called a Rank-1 Alchemist!

The so-called alchemist was not something everyone could become; it required extremely high innate talent, and anyone whose innate soul was not strong could not practice it.

Together with weapon refining, talisman making, and array formation, they were collectively known as the Four Arts of the Immortals.

And if one wished to strengthen the soul...

Generally, only Dao Foundation cultivators could give birth to a wisp of Divine Sense.

Using this, they hammered the divine soul, tempered the soul, and subsequently practiced the four arts.

And Dao Foundation cultivators, how scarce they were!

The Dao Foundation cultivators in the entire Great Zhou State probably did not exceed the number of twenty.

From this, one could see-

How precious cultivators proficient in the four arts were, and naturally, they received immense attention wherever they went!

Such a person, if they served as an official.

At worst, they would be transferred to a prefecture or county to serve as a local official alchemist, and their status was equivalent to a County Defender, County Assistant, or Chief Registrar.

If they did not wish to serve as officials.

Many immortal lineages would also woo them, either becoming guest elders or being recruited as matrilocal sons-in-law.

Though the Yan Family Head had the heart, he did not have the guts.

If the matter came to light, his whole family of old and young would not be enough for the imperial court to behead!

At the same time, he did not hope to make a commotion about it.

As for the current status quo-

His Yan Family could still occasionally beg a few Muxuan Precious Pills from Qin Lu. Over the years, his cultivation had even broken through to the True Martial Fourth Realm.

In days to come.

He might not be unable to use this to secure a promotion or two and advance into the county prefecture.

Should the news leak out...

By then, it would undoubtedly be another storm!

Not to mention whether it would attract all sorts of ghosts and monsters, just the people begging for medicine would be endless, and underhanded dealings would inevitably exist.

By that time.

How many precious pills could his Yan Family split?

Rather than that, maintaining the status quo, suppressing the news, and slowly developing his own lineage was better.

As for that Wei Family...

If they were destroyed, they were destroyed; what did it have to do with his Yan Family?

It would be best if the Wei Family killed Qin Lu. Perhaps his Yan Family could seize the pill formula from it and add a heritage to the lineage!

And this crime would not fall on the head of his Yan Family.

Thinking of this-

The Yan Family Head gazed northward with a cold sneer on his face.

"Fight, then, fight!"

"A bunch of wild, mountain-dwelling plebeians, it would be best if they beat each other's dog brains out. Only then can my Yan Family sit back and reap the fisherman's profits..."

"If they don't fight..."

"Then this old man can also sit securely on the Diaoyutai and peacefully develop for a few more years..."

A few days later-

The Yan Family, just like the Qi Household, gathered their men and closed their doors to outsiders...

It blatantly made their attitude clear, which was to watch the Qin and Wei fight, sitting on a mountain to watch the tigers tear each other apart!

His Yan Family was simply going to be the one to pluck the peaches!

"Hmph!"

"Old dog, he certainly calculates well."

"The mere Qin, Chu, and Zhao families combined cannot even scrape together a single Fourth Realm martial artist. Do they really think they can contend against my Wei Family?"

"I truly do not believe that Qin Lu, having practiced for a few years, can break through to the Fourth Realm!"

Wei Cheng smiled disdainfully.

He tore the letter from the Yan Family into pieces.

He possessed nine-tenths spiritual light and was the person with the strongest innate talent in the lineage.

Could he not know the hardship of cultivation?

Now thirty-six years old, he had practiced for over twenty years, yet he was only at the True Martial Third Realm perfection, stuck at a small bottleneck.

This kind of small bottleneck-

Only required time to slowly polish before he could break through on his own.

Had it not been for a lack of cultivation resources, he could have broken through realms at any time!

Calculating it simply.

His Wei Family possessed a full seven martial artists. How many could the Qin, Chu, and Zhao families scrape together?

A bunch of stinky fish and rotten shrimp, not worth fearing!

Right now-

What truly needed to be done was to digest the territory snatched from the Zhao Family and continue to grow the lineage.

On the contrary, Yan and Qi had become the side that required attention!

Let it not be that when he and the Qin fought, they let Yan and Qi pick up the bargains. These two fellows clearly wanted to pluck the peaches, dog-like things.

His Wei Family would naturally not do as they wished.

"Just wait, Yan dog."

"In a few more years, when I break through to the Fourth Realm, by then, my Wei Family will have two Fourth Realm martial artists in a single household, and the first thing I do will be to destroy your Yan Family!"

"No matter how you unite, or what underhanded schemes you use."

"In the face of absolute martial might, all resistance is futile..."

North of Bayi-within Muxuan Mountain.

Ever since his breakthrough, Qin Lu had concentrated on teaching his descendants cultivation.

As clever as he was, how could he fail to see the current situation?

It was unrealistic for Qin Lu to want to improve further in the short term, so he placed his focus on nurturing the younger generation. For every fraction stronger they grew,

they would be that much safer in the future.

Among them-

His eldest son Qin Xiao had a healthy body. After taking the Bone-Strengthening Powder, he smoothly stepped into the True Martial Second Realm, and a set of palm techniques and fist techniques were already showing initial mastery.

Such rapid improvement was naturally inseparable from Qin Lu's support and assistance.

Almost every month, Qin Xiao could take a Muxuan Pill, as well as several kinds of body-strengthening auxiliary pills, coupled with Qin Lu's meticulous guidance.

Even with the poorest aptitude, under the accumulation of such massive resources,

his cultivation speed was naturally not slow!

His second son, Qin Hui, was a step inferior.

Because his main study was medical arts, his cultivation lagged far behind and still remained at the True Martial First Realm.

However, it was a pity-

Though he had learned medical arts and could hand-craft some inferior pills,

he was unable, no matter what, to draw purple qi into the pills like Qin Lu and transform it into a wisp of pill pattern and purple charm.

Without this step.

The Muxuan Pills he refined could never be called precious pills!

They could only be considered inferior mortal pills with some slight effect.

Their efficacy was only one or two out of ten, and it also wasted fine medicinal materials.

Regarding this problem, Qin Lu was also baffled. When he drew the purple qi, it felt like an instinctual reaction, which could be called smooth and uninterrupted.

Yet when it came to Qin Hui.

The latter instead did not know how to be taught. He also did not know how to articulate such a thing driven by instinct, as though Qin Hui was naturally missing something...

Ultimately, the matter was left unsettled.

As for Wang Jian of North Village-

Under his support, the youth had also stepped into the True Martial First Realm and now became the manager of North Village.

That kid had decent natural talent and the talent of a great general.

He heard that not long ago, the youth had even spontaneously formed a mountain-patrolling team, wandering the surrounding wilderness every day to protect the smooth development of agricultural work under his rule.

As for East Village-

Ever since the Zhao Family settled there, it had already taken on quite a scale.

Under Zhao Zhen's rallying call, East Village opened up wasteland, repaired earth roads, and dug ditches. A few months passed, and East Village took on a completely new look.

It also absorbed quite a few scattered households living in the mountains to settle down, already reaching over forty households and a population nearing two hundred...