Heart As Firm As Iron, Second-Generation Qin!

And the realm where Qin Lu lived.

Named: the Great Zhou State.

The Immortal Clan behind it was none other than the Qingxuan Zhou Clan. It was a Golden Core Immortal Clan, and even though several millennia had already passed, it remained an undisputed overlord.

Ruling under its dominion were hundreds of millions of people, sitting proudly over tens of millions of miles of mountains and rivers!

Beneath the state were further divided nine provinces and one hundred and eight prefectures.

In every single province, there sat a Dao Foundation Immortal Clan or an immortal sect academy.

They were known as: the Four Clans, the Three Sects, One Valley, and One Academy.

Aside from the Zhou Imperial Family, these were the Great Zhou State's.

Nine most flourishing factions, every single one of which possessed a heritage spanning over a thousand years!

Further down-

There lay the territories of the one hundred and eight prefectures.

In every prefecture, several Qi Condensation factions jointly wielded the authority of the prefecture, keeping each other in check while acting on behalf of the imperial court to guard the four directions and deter local petty scoundrels...

As for the last, the thousands of commanderies and counties.

There were Qi Condensation Immortal Clans that occupied the territory of a single county, standing alone in supremacy.

Yet such cases were few-

More common were the vast and sparsely populated lands.

Wilderness county seats where Spiritual Qi was sparse were mostly carved up by prominent aristocratic families among the mortals, and few Qi Condensation Immortal Clans were willing to go and sink roots in county seats.

The Spiritual Qi there was far too sparse, entirely insufficient to support cultivators in their cultivation.

Of course-

If a household possessed a Spirit-Nurturing Method, or a Unique Secret Method for increasing Spiritual Qi, and monopolized a territory, that of course was for the best; only, such techniques were not plentiful.

And wanting to gain a foothold in a county-

Ordinary aristocratic families, without an expert at or above the True Martial Seventh Layer holding down the fort.

Feared they did not even possess the qualifications to sit at the poker table, let alone meddle in the affairs; only with the High True Martial Realm could one be called a powerful local clan!

And within the imperial court.

The official government had always broadly recruited brilliant talents from all under heaven to serve its bidding, and rewarded them with high official posts and generous stipends.

Any warrior who joined the official military camp could be conferred the post of a Squad Leader, and if they were a Fourth-Realm warrior, they were then conferred the post of a Century Commander.

Though it was merely a sesame-sized official post, it also came with a sliver of real power.

If they were a Seventh-Realm warrior-

Then they could be directly appointed as a Millennium Commander, commanding an army, equivalent to a local Deputy General. Although not recorded in the official registers, they could hold posts of the County Defender grade within the county.

This was the hierarchical system of the mortal realm.

Like a pyramid.

One layer nested inside another, and only by continuously crossing strata could one become a maker of the rules!

After roughly understanding it all.

Qin Lu felt both joy and sorrow, yet did not know how to express it.

What brought him joy was that he possessed talent, and his future life would definitely not be bad. It could be called exceptionally wealthy and noble, and to say he was idling away his days in the mortal world would hardly be an exaggeration.

As long as he did not court death, he could enjoy a lifetime of peace.

If things went smoothly, who was to say he might not possess the opportunity to touch the True Martial Peak!

Yet what brought him sorrow was-

His spiritual light was merely of nine-tenths, and if he lacked some heaven-shaking fortuitous opportunity in this lifetime.

He feared he could only remain an ordinary mortal for the rest of his days!

Once a hundred years had passed, he could only turn into a handful of foul earth, ultimately aging and dying at the True Martial Realm, unable to touch Xianxuan throughout his life. In the end, it was lamentable and pitiful...

No wonder those beneath one inch of spiritual light were called: Heaven-Forsaken.

It was just like a blind person.

If I had never beheld the beauty of the world, I would not feel longing.

Yet I had happened to see it, and therefore I was living in agony worse than death!

Either let me be born ordinary, but you let me see clearly the longevity of the Immortal Dao-how could you expect me not to yearn for it, not to go mad for it?!

The name Heaven-Forsaken was truly venomous!

In the blink of an eye-several months passed.

The festive joy of the grand wedding gradually faded. Another New Year had passed, and the days slowly grew ordinary.

Over the past few months-

Qin Lu accompanied his cherished wives every single day until both wives had successively fallen pregnant, and only then did he have free time, spending every day either cultivating or refining pills.

Even though the immortal path was ethereal.

He at least possessed a spiritual light of nine-tenths, which was just a hair away from an inch, after all.

Who was to say that once he cultivated to True Martial Completion, he might still be able to attempt a breakthrough or two; if all else failed, heading out to seek fortuitous opportunities once his cultivation was higher would also be fine.

Having the strength to try was better than empty rejoicing.

At least-

He still possessed the craft of pill refinement, and hereafter who could say what miraculous pills he might acquire that could aid him in breaking through to the Qi Condensation Realm!

Qin Lu had ambition, and he had desires.

Though he wished to live an ordinary life and fulfill a lifetime, he also hoped to live long.

Even if he cultivated to the True Martial Realm Completion, he could still live a few more years. Humans feared death, and Qin Lu was also a human, so naturally he could not be exempt from convention.

Especially because he had died once.

Therefore, he wanted to live more than anyone else-to live until the seas ran dry and the rocks crumbled, sharing the same longevity as heaven and earth!

Since he was practicing cultivation, if it were not for longevity.

Then what on earth was there to cultivate about this immortal dao!

At this moment-

As the furnace fire died down, Qin Lu began to make records, resembling a scholar writing a research report.

"Refined with underage medicinal herbs, although pills can be formed, they lack a wisp of spiritual essence. Yet they can cure ordinary mortal illnesses, or dispel toxins... or drive away the cold... strengthen the blood..."

"Portion of ten-year-old herbs: when reaching maturity at ten years, there is a probability of giving birth to a trace of spiritual essence. This spiritual essence is the core for refining precious pills..."

"The Wood Essence Pill harbors flaws; its medicinal potency relies primarily on aged mountain ginseng, resulting in uneven medicinal principles. Through minute adjustment, newly adding ten-year-old notoginseng and ten-year-old Solomon's seal to neutralize them."

"The principal medicine of twenty-year-old mountain ginseng can be replaced with ten-year-old ginseng, additionally supplemented by thirty-six kinds of underage auxiliary medicines, allowing a new pill to be refined."

"The new Wood Essence Pill yields an average of three to five formed pills per furnace; its efficacy is already indistinguishable from the Yang-Strengthening Pill, and it is even somewhat more formidable..."

"Due to the change in the pill formula used, this is accordingly renamed..."

"Called: the Muxuan Pill!"

Upon finishing everything.

Qin Lu put away his records, intending to compile them into a volume once his pill refinement achieved mastery later on, serving as a foundational heritage for the family.

And in front of him stood five bottles of pills.

One bottle was named the Tiger Bone Pill, primarily used for increasing muscle and strengthening bones; another bottle was the Blood-Strengthening Pill refined primarily with velvet antlers, numbering a single pill alone.

It possessed the effect of breaking through realms!

Sharing effects of wondrously similar design with that Yang-Strengthening Pill.

The other three bottles were the newly versioned Muxuan Pills, used exclusively for elevating cultivation.

"Although the pills have been refined, the dowries of my two beloved wives can also be considered completely squandered by me..."

"The four Wood Essence Pills remaining from before will be sent one to the Zhao family as a slight token of expression, and the remaining three will be sent to Chu Shan to aid him in breaking through his realm."

"In this way, it can also be considered making waste useful."

"As for these new pills, this Qin shall enjoy them by himself..."

Three years passed in the blink of an eye.

Over the past few years, the Qin family grew increasingly low-profile.

It was as though they stood completely aloof, harboring not the slightest thought of contending for profit with the other six families, wholly minding only their own business and guarding a single patch of Muxuan Mountain.

This allowed the six families to feel quite at ease as well.

Since the Qin family was well-behaved, this was naturally a good thing for them.

And so they relaxed their spying on the Qin family.

The Qin Estate-

Two half-grown boys were currently chasing and frolicking in the courtyard, one looking utterly adorable, while the other, despite his tender age, already revealed a trace of intelligent light.

The two sons were naturally no outsiders.

They were precisely the sons born to the primary wife, Co-wife Qin Chu, and the secondary wife, Co-wife Qin Chu.

The eldest son was named: Qin Xiao.

He was born sturdy and strong, half a head taller than ordinary children, and now at two years of age, he could already lift a ten-jin stone lock!

Born to Co-wife Qin Chu, he was moreover tested and found to possess eight-tenths spiritual light!

The second son-

Was born to Co-wife Qin Chu, and named: Qin Hui.

Though not as valiant and martial as his elder brother Qin Xiao, he was born intelligent; he could walk at half a year old and speak at one year.

He likewise possessed spiritual light, standing high at seven-tenths!

Although the two sons possessed low aptitude falling short of an inch, merely ordinary false immortal seedlings, for the Qin family, that represented heaven-shaking fortuitous opportunities!

Second-generation Qins-both possessed aptitude.

That meant two warrior seedlings. One household with three warriors, this was truly the rhythm of a great rise!

(PS: Qin Lu possessed talent, and his wives also belonged to lineages that had produced people with aptitude; thus, their union carried a high probability of begetting offspring with aptitude.)

(The higher the cultivation realm, the greater the probability that progeny would possess talent.)