Gradually Going Deeper, Five Years Passed in a Flash!

Time was the best disguise. Shi Jian had spent five years proving it.

Over those five years, Hongtian City remained peaceful. There were no foreign invasions or internal rebellions, and even the tax-collecting stewards from the White Cloud Temple had been replaced twice.

Sun Bo'an had done well.

The spirit fields yielded more each year, the spirit tax was paid on time every year, and Shi Jian's offerings had never been a day late.

With strong support for childbirth as well, the Sun Clan's mortal population had swollen from just over thirty thousand to more than fifty thousand in a few short years.

The childbirth policy had produced immediate results. After all, for mortals...

Having children was no problem at all. As long as a family could afford to raise them, having several children was normal, and some families even had more than a dozen.

Among those fifty thousand people, eleven children with Spirit Roots had been found.

Eleven.

In the past, the Sun, Ye, and Lin Clans combined might not have produced that many in five years.

But once the mortal population grew large enough, probability became reliable. Shi Jian had foreseen this: the Human Race reproduced quickly and was numerous, an advantage the Demon Race could never match.

Since they couldn't match it, he would put it to use.

"Ancestor, these are the results of this year's Spirit Root testing."

Sun Bo'an knelt on the rear mountain, offering a thin register with both hands. Five years had passed, and his cultivation had stabilized at the Qi Refining Eighth Layer, but more than half his hair had turned white.

Though he was only forty-eight, he looked to be in his fifties or sixties.

It was all from worrying.

Shi Jian opened the register with a claw and skimmed through it.

The eleven children with Spirit Roots ranged from three to seven years old. Nine had Four Spirit Roots or Five Spirit Roots and poor aptitude.

In the cultivation world as a whole, they wouldn't even be considered mediocre, but the last two names made Shi Jian take a second look...

Sun Mao, male, five years old, earth, wood, and fire Three Spirit Roots, average aptitude.

Sun Yao, female, four years old, water, wood, and earth Three Spirit Roots, also average aptitude.

"What's the background of these two?"

"Sun Mao is from a collateral branch of my lineage. There were cultivators among his ancestors, though the line went two generations without one. His background is clean..."

"As for Sun Yao... she's my granddaughter."

Sun Bo'an lowered his voice for those last few words, as if afraid Shi Jian might read too much into it.

Shi Jian didn't.

What mattered to him wasn't blood ties, but aptitude.

Three Spirit Roots meant middling aptitude. Given enough resources, Foundation Establishment was no pipe dream for someone with such aptitude. Paired with the Sun Clan's Azure Wood Everlasting Spring Art or Shi Jian's improved Thick Earth Essence Cultivation Instruction...

Both had a slim chance of reaching Foundation Establishment!

"Teach these two separately." Shi Jian closed the register. "Give them ample resources. Don't let them mix with the other children."

"Yes!"

"Don't waste the other nine, either." Shi Jian thought for a moment. "Have them learn some skills."

Sun Bo'an was taken aback. "Skills?"

"The spirit farming is handled by those immortal slaves. It would be a shame to send them to till the fields." Shi Jian yawned. "If these nine children are properly nurtured, they might yet have a future."

Sun Bo'an opened his mouth but ultimately raised no objection, simply nodding his agreement.

He found this bear increasingly hard to understand. Though a Demon Beast, he was better at managing things than most Human Race cultivators.

"By the way," Shi Jian said suddenly, "it's time to organize your Sun Clan's legacy."

Sun Bo'an was taken aback again.

"Those Cultivation Method Jade Slips in the library are piled together in a mess. Duplicates, incomplete ones, outdated ones-they're all jumbled up."

"What can the youngsters hope to find by rummaging through them on their own?"

"And the legacies of the Lin and Ye Clans haven't been sorted out yet, either."

Shi Jian hadn't wasted the past five years.

He had gone through nearly all the Jade Slips on the library's three floors-not just once, but studying them over and over, dozens of times...

The intricacy of the Human Race Cultivation Method system far exceeded his initial expectations.

The Qi Refining Realm was divided into nine layers. Each group of three layers had its own corresponding breathing methods and spiritual power circulation paths, progressing step by step from coarse to fine and simple to complex.

The Foundation Establishment Realm, meanwhile, was a great chasm.

The Human Race divided the breakthrough to Foundation Establishment into three stages: "gathering spirit, condensing liquid, and solidifying the foundation." Each stage had strict requirements and corresponding pills to assist with it.

By comparison, the Demon Race's Foundation Establishment was much more brutal. They simply devoured heavenly materials and earthly treasures. If they withstood it, they broke through; if they couldn't, they exploded on the spot. The death rate was outrageously high, and there were bloodline limitations on top of that...

Shi Jian's greatest gain over these five years wasn't the advancement of his cultivation.

Rather, he had tried to integrate the theoretical system of Human Race Cultivation Methods into his own Demon Race cultivation, so as to glimpse higher realms.

He had broken down and reassembled the Sun Clan's Azure Wood Everlasting Spring Art, taking the essence of its spiritual power circulation and combining it with his own Demon Race instinct for breathing cultivation. Through painstaking exploration, he had worked out a cultivation method suited to Demon Beasts.

His cultivation had reached the Foundation Establishment Early Stage Peak.

He was only one step away from the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage. Once he broke through, he would become what the Human Race called a level-three Demon Beast, and his strength would increase further.

Five years ago, facing Yunsong at the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, he had needed to bluff. If they met again now, he would kill him within thirty moves!

"Organize the legacy... what do you mean, Ancestor?"

"Grade the Cultivation Methods and make a list, from easy to difficult, from basic to advanced. Write everything clearly: what to study, what to practice, and which Cultivation Method to use at each stage."

"Which breathing method should the youngsters practice when they start? Which primary Cultivation Method should they switch to after the Qi Refining Third Layer? What spells should they learn above the sixth layer? Haven't you ever set standards for any of this?"

Sun Bo'an's face reddened.

They really hadn't.

Back when the Sun Clan was one of three powers in a standoff, resources were scarce. The youngsters were lucky to have a single Cultivation Method to practice, so how could they afford to pick and choose?

"We'll do as you say, Ancestor!"

"One more thing."

Shi Jian spat out a Jade Slip, which landed in front of Sun Bo'an.

"This is the Qi Refining section of the Thick Earth Essence Cultivation Instruction I improved. It's more complete than the version I gave you five years ago. Have Sun Mao and Sun Yao start practicing with this."

Sun Bo'an took the Jade Slip, his hands trembling.

He knew what this meant.

Shi Jian's willingness to personally choose a Cultivation Method for the Sun Clan's younger generation showed that the bear's control over the clan had seeped from external deterrence into its internal legacy.

Once these children grew up practicing the Cultivation Method Shi Jian had given them, they would belong to him to the bone and regard him as an elder.

When that time came, what need would there be for a heart-demon oath?

"Go on." Shi Jian waved a claw.

After Sun Bo'an withdrew, the gray-furred rat demon emerged from the grass.

Five years had passed, and this fellow was no longer what he had been.

His fur had turned from gray to black, his body was a size larger than an ordinary rat's, and the gleam in his eyes was restrained. Though his presence was faint, he had already condensed a demon core and officially joined the ranks of level-one Demon Beasts.

Demon Beasts were different from humans. Level-one Demon Beasts had no clear divisions between realms, their level being equivalent to the first through ninth layers of Human Race Qi Refining.

Their precise strength could only be judged by their presence.

This rat demon's cultivation was roughly equivalent to the Qi Refining Third Layer...

It didn't sound like much, but in Hongtian City's gutters and dark alleys, it was enough for him to lord it over the rest. He had even given himself a title.

He called himself Lord Rat!

"Ancestor, the latest news from the city!"

"Speak."

"Over these five years, I've recruited more than three thousand rat pups. Six of them have awakened intelligence, though they're still a long way from becoming demons. The rest are still ordinary rats, but they can already understand simple commands..."

"The six pups with awakened intelligence have been placed at the Sun Clan's ancestral hall, the spirit field warehouse, the medicine shop's backyard, the city gate guardroom, and the Rogue Cultivator gathering places in the east and west of the city..."

"Anywhere in Hongtian City, if someone's wife gets into a quarrel with someone, I hear about it that very day."

Shi Jian narrowed his eyes in satisfaction.

More than three thousand rat pups that followed orders wasn't a huge number, but it was enough. Hongtian City was only so big, and that density was enough to cover it without a blind spot.

"What about outside the city?"

Lord Rat paused. "Outside the city... I can't spread out there yet. There are too many Demon Beasts in the wild. Those pups under me wouldn't survive three days outside the city."

"There's no rush."

"Once you have a few more rat demons at the Qi Refining level under you, expand outward."

"One step at a time."

Lord Rat nodded emphatically, then vanished from sight.

The night breeze swept across the rear mountain. At the entrance to the Spirit Vein, wisps of Spiritual Qi streamed into Shi Jian's body as he continually drew them in. Every day, he could feel his strength growing.

Five years.

In five years, he had molded Hongtian City from a tray of loose sand into a solid sheet of iron.

The Sun Clan was his puppet in the open, the rat demons his hidden tendrils, the spirit fields his constant supply, and the new generation the foundation of his future.

Everything was advancing at his pace.

But Shi Jian knew that Hongtian City was too small in the end...

A single low-grade second-tier Spirit Vein was enough to support two or three Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivators, but nowhere near enough for a breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, much less Golden Core.

He needed more resources, more territory, and a stronger force.

And the prerequisites for all of that were...

He first had to enter the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, and the Sun Clan needed to grow stronger.

Shi Jian closed his eyes, spiritual power circulating slowly within him. Deep in his Dantian, that faintly discernible bottleneck had loosened a little more than it had been three months ago.

Soon. Very soon!