Awakening Soul Tea Tree, Paving the Dao Path!

"Hoo~"

Zhao Zhen let out a long breath, touched his back soaked with sweat, and his heart remained unsettled for a long time, kicking up wave after wave.

Come to think of it, since Qin Lu's rise, the Qin Family had existed for only a dozen years or so...

A dozen years!

From a mere clinic physician, Qin Lu had in one stroke established such a mighty lineage; it was truly terrifying beyond measure!

"To work for Qin is to be what one is."

"Take rules as the compass and square, and legal system as the benchmark..."

"Qin values legal systems and regulations; those who comply prosper, those who defy perish..."

Muxuan Mountain-

The changes on the mountain had not been all that great over these past few years.

Nothing more than the tea garden being slightly larger and the medicine fields more sprawling; halfway up the mountain, the tea garden and medicine fields each occupied half, appearing somewhat lush...

Tea trees grew in clusters-

One-third of the tea trees among them were stained with a trace of blood red, ordinarily irrigated with medicinal liquid brewed from countless beast bloods.

Through this transmutation, they possessed a slight spirit-gathering utility, and the tea leaves had a marginal mind-refreshing effect.

They could barely be counted as: First-Tier Inferior-Grade Spirit Plants!

Only the largest tea tree in the tea garden-

Its leaves had completely turned blood red, resembling crimson maples, and Qi vortexes surged around it, revealing a hint of spirituality...

It was merely a hair's breadth away from shedding mortality and attaining spirit.

If it could completely cast off its mortal plant foundation, it would be a true spirit plant, rather than a vulgar object that had merely birthed a sliver of spirit momentum. If classified by grades...

It could be counted as: First-Tier Superior-Grade Spirit Plant!

If one wished to complete this final transmutation, either let it grow for another hundred years or so.

Using time as its foundation to completely replace its mortal plant foundation...

Or nurture it with all manner of treasures, and perhaps it could be catalyzed into a Second-Tier Spirit Plant, becoming the foundational heritage guarding the Qin Family!

By that time-

With this tree's spirit-gathering efficacy, after some years, it might just transform Muxuan Mountain into an immortal blessed land!

Beneath the tree-

Qin Hui, the second son of Qin Lu, resided here long-term to cultivate.

Draped in a black-trimmed azure robe, solemn, refined, with his hair coiled up and secured by a crown, a gentle and modest young master of shifting moods-such was a description of him...

His cultivation had likewise reached the True Martial Fourth Realm!

Outsiders only knew the Young Patriarch as the backbone of the second generation of the Qin Family and a heaven-gifted prodigy!

Little did they know...

His younger brother Qin Hui's talent was not the least bit inferior to that of his eldest brother Qin Xiao!

Over these years-

Following Qin Lu's words, he had abandoned the Dao of Alchemy to focus on the art of medicine and poison. Not only had he achieved success in both, but he had also attained profound accomplishments in the Dao of Spirit Plants...

These tea trees were painstakingly cultivated by him over several years of time and effort.

And he bestowed upon them the name: Awakening Soul Tea Tree!

Through years of practice, he compiled the tree's various efficacies and the auxiliary cultivation items crafted from their secondary processing into volumes.

Formulating a set of complete inheritance systems.

First: Frying them into tea. If consumed over a long period, it possessed the miraculous effect of waking the mind, aided cultivation, and smoothed away fierce Qi...

Second: Using defective tea leaves from the superior-grade tea trees as raw material to craft incense. When breaking through a realm, igniting this incense could calm the spirit and steady the Qi, adding a few points to the probability of breaking through realms...

Named: Calm-Spirit Incense.

Third: Sun-drying inferior-grade tea leaves, binding them into tea rolls, igniting one end with fire, and inhaling their smoke...

It could make a person euphoric, bearing some similarity to mortal dried tobacco.

Thus named: Tea Smoke.

Ever since these items were launched last year, they had become the signature brand of the Qin Family!

Only ten sticks were produced each year: Calm-Spirit Incense!

It could assist in breaking through the True Martial Seventh Realm and aid high-realm warriors in their cultivation. Considered a: First-Tier Superior-Grade Spirit Object, a single stick was worth one Spirit Stone!

Let alone in Yingchuan County...

Even within Longchuan Prefecture, it belonged among the most sought-after commodities!

Tea Smoke was an auxiliary spirit object-

Yet its efficacy could generate a sense of crystal-clear transparency in a person, and thus it spread far and wide, deeply pursued and adored by the immortal clan youths of the prefecture...

A single box of Tea Smoke was worth half a Spirit Stone!

Every month, the Qin Family would let three or four boxes trickle out through the hands of the Black Dragon Chamber of Commerce...

Using this to expand the renown of the Black Dragon Chamber of Commerce.

Later on, the Black Dragon Auction held an auction last year for an entire carton of Tea Smoke-ten boxes to a carton-starting at a base price of five Spirit Stones, and it unexpectedly fetched a high price of eight Spirit Stones!

This price-

Surpassed by far even some ordinary second-tier spirit objects!

The immortal clan youths of the prefecture.

If anyone happened to possess a box of Black Dragon Brand Tea Smoke in their hands, they could boast about it for half a year!

A mere single stick-

Could cause a crowd of immortal clan youths to chase after one calling him father!

As for the superior-grade tea leaves-

Serving as the most refined essence, they were never sold externally and were reserved exclusively for the self-use of the Qin family members.

These were treasures that aided cultivation and calmed and nurtured the mind, forming the highest-valued treasures currently possessed by the Qin Family apart from medicinal pills!

To the west of Muxuan Mountain-

Towering mountains and precipitous ridges formed a natural pasture for grazing deer-kind.

The Chu Household had herded deer for generations, taking deer as their heritage.

Ever since Chu Shan led the Chu Household to soar upwards, they had become the second-greatest lineage in Bayi Town in name and in fact, second only to the superior clan, the Qin Family!

There were nearly ten warriors within the lineage, and even fourth-realm warriors numbered two.

Chu Shan had moreover cultivated to the True Martial Fifth Realm!

At this moment-

Chu Shan, leading a young child, traversed among the mountain ranges.

The child was barely over five years old, yet had already attained the True Martial First Realm, nimble in his movements and unlike a mortal!

"Uncle, slower!"

"I... can't... can't walk anymore..."

The child cried out, then collapsed to sit on the ground, panting heavily, an expression of grievance surfacing on his still-childish face...

Hearing this-

Chu Shan stopped in his tracks, wearing a stern expression, and said:

"Little fellow, your father entrusted you to me."

"Then naturally I must properly discipline you. Zhuang'er, your temperament is far too weak."

"Look at your eldest brother and second brother; which of them hasn't propped up half the sky of the Qin Family and stood as the backbone of your Qin Family!"

"Now look at your third brother Qin Wu. Just half a year older than you, he daily mingles in the military camp. A few days ago, I heard what Wang Jian said..."

"Qin Wu's valor is no less than that of your eldest brother!"

"At six years old, with the body of a mere child, he could single-handedly slaughter jackwolves and wolves, fearing neither tigers nor leopards."

"Your fourth brother Qin Wen, though possessing the poorest natural talent."

"Yet he is overflowing with intelligence, and having gone to the county government office, he studies the Dao of governance so that he may one day independently command a region and govern your Qin Family's foundation..."

"Even your fifth brother Qin Zhao, though unremarkable."

"His intelligence and natural talent cannot be counted as superior either, yet he possesses an unyielding, persistent ruthlessness of hidden endurance and supreme disposition!"

"Every day, through day-and-night cultivation, his degree of diligence even far surpasses that of your third and fourth brothers."

"And look at you..."

"As one blessed with good natural talent among the second generation of the Qin Family, you spend every day catching birds and fighting insects, wasting time on eating, drinking, and merrymaking, amounting to nothing great."

"How can you expect your uncle here to simply abandon you and let it be?"

"Bringing you here today is precisely to pave your Dao path, and to strive for a fleeting chance of breaking through to Qi Condensation for you in days to come!"

Chu Shan finished speaking with a cold face.

The severity at this moment was nothing less than a manifestation of expectations for the younger generation!

Putting aside familial sentiments, the higher Qin Zhuang's future achievements, the more it would help his Chu Household firmly secure their status...