A Heart-to-Heart and Future Development!

The night wind blew through Hongtian City.

Inside the Sun Clan's council hall, lamplight flickered, illuminating a solitary figure.

Sun Bo'an sat in the seat of honor, a thick account book laid out before him. He stared blankly at the final string of numbers.

Three thousand one hundred and twenty low-grade Spirit Stones.

That was all the available money in the Sun Clan's treasury, including the reserves saved over the past few years and the spoils Shi Jian had previously given him.

It was a lot. Truly a lot.

In the past, the Sun Clan could not have saved so many Spirit Stones in several years.

But it was not enough. Nowhere near enough.

Yunsong's words from the day kept circling in his head: the White Cloud Minor Gathering, the Foundation Establishment Pill.

One Foundation Establishment Pill had a base market price of ten thousand low-grade Spirit Stones. At auction, the price was often driven up to twelve thousand, or even thirteen thousand.

Sun Bo'an was forty-eight this year, at the Qi Refining Eighth Layer, with four Spirit Roots.

Even that was thanks to the rebellion. Otherwise, he would probably still have been stuck at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer. Without a Foundation Establishment Pill, he would never even touch the threshold of Foundation Establishment in this lifetime!

But even if he smashed pots and sold iron, sold all the Sun Clan's existing spirit fields, and skinned and stripped the sinews from the eight vassal clans, he still would not have enough to buy half a Foundation Establishment Pill.

"Clan leader."

A voice came from outside the door. Sun Bo'an came back to his senses and saw an enormous black rat squatting on the threshold...

"The old ancestor wants you to go to the rear mountain."

Lord Rat flicked his tail and turned, melting into the night. It was Sun Bo'an's first time seeing him. Though startled, he quickly regained his composure.

Shi Jian was too mysterious, so mysterious that Sun Bo'an had not the slightest thought of resisting him.

So he did not dwell on it. He took a deep breath, rose, and went out.

The rear mountain-

Spiritual Qi wreathed the entrance to the Spirit Vein.

Shi Jian lay sprawled atop a boulder, several freshly roasted spirit beast legs before him. He did not use Fire Element Law Techniques, relying entirely on the two little ones, Sun Mao and Sun Yao, to build the fire and turn the meat beside him.

Both children had now reached the Qi Refining First Layer and were highly skilled at using the Fire Control Technique.

"Old ancestor, it's ready!"

Sun Mao wiped the sweat from his forehead and held out a beast leg with both hands.

Shi Jian opened his mouth and bit off a large chunk of meat. He chewed a few times and swallowed. The scene looked for all the world like one of a doting father and filial children.

Sun Bo'an approached and bowed. "Greetings, old ancestor."

"You two go on ahead. I'm going to have a chat with your clan leader grandpa."

Shi Jian waved a paw. Sun Mao and Sun Yao acknowledged him and obediently withdrew with their black guardian dog...

Silence settled over the surroundings.

Shi Jian swallowed the meat in his mouth and looked at Sun Bo'an.

"Want to buy a Foundation Establishment Pill?"

Those words laid Sun Bo'an's thoughts bare. His knees went weak, and he fell to the ground. Not daring to hide anything, he said hoarsely,

"I... have indeed had that thought."

"I've already reached the Qi Refining Eighth Layer. In a few more years, I can break through to the ninth layer and reach Perfection before sixty. Without the help of a Foundation Establishment Pill..."

"I'm afraid I have no hope of Foundation Establishment in this lifetime."

Shi Jian scoffed.

"Can you afford one?"

Sun Bo'an pressed his forehead to the ground. "I can't. Even if I used everything the entire Sun Clan has, I couldn't scrape together ten thousand Spirit Stones."

"All right, let's say you did."

Shi Jian shifted his position and rested his forepaws on the edge of the boulder. "You're forty-eight. With the aptitude of your four Spirit Roots, what chance would you have of succeeding, even if you used a Foundation Establishment Pill?"

Sun Bo'an trembled all over, unable to answer.

"I'm afraid your chance of breaking through would be less than thirty percent."

Shi Jian answered for him. "There's more than a seventy percent chance you'd fail and eventually break through to the Qi Refining Tenth Layer, the so-called Qi Refining Great Perfection."

Hearing this, Sun Bo'an gritted his teeth, his eyes full of unwillingness, but that was roughly the truth.

"The cultivation world doesn't care about sentiment. It cares about costs and benefits."

Shi Jian's tone was flat, without the slightest fluctuation of emotion, as he continued, "You know what sort of foundation the Sun Clan has right now."

"Those three thousand Spirit Stones are the clan's life-saving funds, to be kept for the clan members' monthly allowances, their training, and the upkeep of the clan-protecting formation."

"For a fleeting hope with less than a twenty or thirty percent chance, you're prepared to throw the entire Sun Clan's future into it?"

Sun Bo'an knelt on the ground, cold sweat pouring down his cheeks.

Shi Jian raised a paw and pointed in the direction Sun Mao and Sun Yao had gone.

"Those two little ones are five and four."

"They've only cultivated for a month or two, and they've already drawn Qi into their bodies and stabilized their cultivation. In another six months, they'll reach the Qi Refining Second Layer."

"They have three Spirit Roots and remarkable bone structure. I personally widened their meridians with Demon Power."

"In ten years, when they're fifteen or sixteen, they'll reach at least the Qi Refining Fifth or Sixth Layer. Before twenty, they'll surely enter the Qi Refining Seventh Layer. At thirty, they can hope to reach Qi Refining Perfection and attempt Foundation Establishment!"

"By then, their Qi and Blood will be at their peak, and their foundations will be solid."

"Even without a Foundation Establishment Pill, they'll have a twenty to thirty percent chance of reaching Foundation Establishment on their own. With a pill to help them, their chances will be fifty to sixty percent."

Shi Jian stared into Sun Bo'an's eyes. "Spend three thousand Spirit Stones on you, and all we'd get is a splash. Leave them for those two, and they'll become one or two Foundation Establishment cultivators for the Sun Clan in the future."

"Can't you work out those numbers?"

Sun Bo'an's head roared.

He had been so absorbed in his yearning for longevity that he had overlooked the most basic reality. He was old, after all, and the Sun Clan's future did not lie with him...

He raised his head. The unwillingness in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by a glimmer of clarity.

After all, of Sun Mao and Sun Yao, one was his own granddaughter and the other a nephew of his branch. It would be excellent if they succeeded.

At the very least, his bloodline would continue to be passed down!

"I nearly made a muddle of things and caused harm."

Sun Bo'an kowtowed heavily. "Thank you, old ancestor, for that blow to the head. I'll put aside my hopes of Foundation Establishment at once. For the rest of my life, I'll do everything I can to pave the way for the Sun Clan's younger generation."

Hearing this, Shi Jian nodded in satisfaction.

This old fellow was not completely stupid. He knew when to advance and when to retreat. If he had remained stubbornly blind, the clan leader would probably have had to be replaced yet again.

"Get up."

Shi Jian tilted his chin up slightly. Sun Bo'an rose and wiped the cold sweat from his face.

Then he saw Shi Jian open his mouth and spit out five Jade Slips, which fell at Sun Bo'an's feet. "Earlier, I had you sort through the inheritances, but I found there were still gaps."

"I spent more than half a month sorting through all the books of your Sun Clan, the Lin Clan, the Ye Clan, and the eight vassal clans, and reorganized them into these inheritances."

Sun Bo'an was startled. He hurriedly picked up the Jade Slips and sent his Divine Sense into them.

After just one look, he sucked in a breath of cold air.

They were incredibly detailed.

In the past, the Cultivation Method Jade Slips in the Sun Clan's library had been piled up in disorder. When the younger disciples went in to choose a Cultivation Method, they had relied entirely on luck...

Now, Shi Jian had sorted all the Cultivation Methods into categories and laid out an exceptionally clear cultivation path.

The first Jade Slip contained a completely new basic breathing technique!

It combined the strengths of the various clans' methods and was designed specifically to build the foundations of children below the Qi Refining Third Layer. The circulation route for Spiritual Qi had been optimized, making it thirty percent more efficient than before.

The second Jade Slip contained the main Cultivation Methods.

They were divided into the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, to be cultivated according to the corresponding Spirit Root attributes. The Thick Earth Essence Cultivation Instruction and the Azure Wood Everlasting Spring Art were listed as the core methods, with detailed insights on breakthroughs and annotations on bottlenecks.

The third Jade Slip contained the Techniques.

From low-level ones such as the Fire Bullet Technique and Water Shield Technique to mid-level ones such as the Earth Escape Technique and Wind Blade Consecutive Strike, they were divided into three grades by difficulty.

The fourth Jade Slip covered the hundred arts.

It contained basic knowledge of pill refinement, talisman making, formations, artifact refinement, and Spirit Plant cultivation, distilled from the miscellaneous studies of the eight vassal clans.

The first-tier inheritances of each craft had all been compiled and standardized.

Of these, the paths of pills, artifacts, and talismans extended to the second tier. Though they were not especially complete, they were enough to train practitioners in second-tier skills.

The fifth Jade Slip contained the rules and contribution-point system.

When Sun Bo'an saw the fifth Jade Slip, his breathing quickened.

"Old ancestor, these contribution points..."

"Without rules, nothing can be made square or round."

"Before, your Sun Clan relied entirely on blood ties to hold it together. But considering that the clan will grow in the future, this needs to be put into effect to prevent internal conflicts."

Sun Bo'an gripped the Jade Slip tightly, both hands trembling slightly.

With these five Jade Slips, the Sun Clan was no longer a cultivation clan tucked away in one corner, but a cultivation Aristocratic Clan with an orderly inheritance!

As long as its descendants continued without end, the Sun Clan would surely endure for hundreds or thousands of years.

Given time, once the new generation grew up, the Sun Clan would surely soar into the sky in a single flight, with a broader future ahead.

"Old ancestor, your foresight is profound. I prostrate myself in admiration!"

Sun Bo'an knelt again. This time, his admiration was heartfelt, without the slightest trace of insincerity. He was even keenly aware of how right a choice the rebellion had been.

"All right, spare me that."

"Put these rules into effect. Do your work well and don't make foolish mistakes. Stand firm and advance steadily, and you'll win at every step. The Sun Clan will rise in the end."

"Oh, right, the demonic threat has been dealt with."

"Have the eight clans return to their respective territories and work on their livelihoods. Tell them, too, that from now on, the various spiritual items they produce can only be bought and sold in Hongtian City."

"As for your own loosely run marketplace, you'll need to put more thought into managing it from now on."