Yang Linghu's Breakthrough

The three members of the Yang family were at a loss, not knowing what to say.

He Shenglai looked at the young face of Yang Lingrui.

"You've drunk quite a bit of that spirit liquid, a drop a month, haven't you?"

Yang Lingrui's expression tensed. He glanced at his two elders before nodding fearfully.

"Alas~ It's true that small families in remote areas would do this. A single Qi Gathering spirit plant can be treated like a family heirloom."

He Shenglai continued, "It's a pity that no one in your family knows alchemy. Directly consuming spirit liquid causes more than half of its effects to dissipate from the body. If it could be refined into a Spirit-Nesting Pill, the effect would be even better."

With that, He Shenglai showed a satisfied expression.

His curiosity and sense of superiority had both been satisfied by the Yang family, so he was in a good mood.

"Alright, alright, today's matter ends here. The Town Chief and I won't spread anything around, so you can rest assured."

He patted his waist and scattered a handful of spirit crystals, a full thirty of them.

"I won't bully your family. I'll compensate you with these spirit crystals in my personal capacity."

Yang Guanfeng immediately showed joy and stepped forward, picking them up one by one.

With the matter settled, He Shenglai and Gao Hui left the Yang family and headed for Willow Leaf Town.

Once the two of them departed, the Yang family's forbidden area returned to peace.

Yang Lingrui wiped the tear stains from his face and then asked impatiently.

"Old Ancestors, how was my performance this time?"

Yang Guanfeng and Elder Yu also dropped their pretense and chuckled.

"Hahaha, more than just okay, it was excellent!" Elder Yu praised.

Since they didn't know when Lingrui would come out of seclusion, this play was originally only for him and Yang Guanfeng.

But since Yang Lingrui happened to come out of seclusion today, they added him at the last minute.

Who knew this child would be so talented? Not only did he get into character quickly, but he could even shed real tears later, making He Shenglai believe him completely without any suspicion from beginning to end.

"After this, in another six months, Linghu and Lingqing won't have to hide from people anymore," Yang Guanfeng said with a smile.

He was incredibly cunning. When he heard Gao Hui mention that the dynasty was sending people to purchase demonic beast corpses, he had already formed a general plan in his mind.

He guessed that the dynasty's cultivator would likely become suspicious when they came to the Yang family.

Since hiding was impossible, he decided to play along and let them see the "secret" hidden in the Yang family's forbidden area.

This way, it would not only explain the reason for his and Yang Lingrui's rapid cultivation progress, but it would also not be strange for two more cultivators to emerge from the Yang family in the future.

Although the Four-leaf Spirit-Nesting Grass was precious, it was just as He Shenglai had said.

It was, after all, just a Qi Gathering spirit plant. While it was of great significance to the Yang family, it was nothing special to other, slightly stronger forces. It was far from reaching the point of attracting disaster by possessing it.

Therefore, he had instructed Yang Linghu and Yang Lingqing to take spirit stones and hide in the depths of Little Pine Mountain in advance.

He, Elder Yu, and Yang Lingrui put on a good show together, deceiving both He Shenglai and Gao Hui.

Moreover, this operation also yielded an extra thirty spirit crystals, which was an unexpected bonus.

When Linghu and Lingqing returned from the mountain, the five of them began to discuss how to distribute the one hundred and sixty spirit crystals.

Yang Guanfeng never ruled his three children with an iron fist. Instead, he encouraged them to think more and express their own opinions.

This way, if he and Elder Yu were no longer around one day, they would still be able to support the Yang family.

"Old Ancestors, I believe the guardian formation of the forbidden area should still be the family's top priority. This money should be allocated first."

Yang Lingrui spoke first.

After him, Yang Linghu also said, "Then there are the spatial items! We now have five cultivators in our family, but not a single storage bag. It's really inconvenient to go out."

He still remembered the incident where he couldn't carry the demonic beast corpses before.

If the Yang family had enough storage bags, he could have taken the demonic beast corpses to the market himself to sell and earned more spirit crystals.

Finally, everyone looked at Yang Lingqing, anticipating her answer.

The young girl thought for a moment before speaking, "Since the Old Ancestors have already expanded the forbidden area, there will definitely be outside cultivators in the family in the future. My suggestion is that the remaining money can be used to buy a set of basic cultivation techniques and spells. The quality doesn't need to be too high, just suitable for the middle to late stages of Qi Gathering. We can also learn from those sects and establish a Yang Family Library."

As her words fell, Yang Lingrui, who was beside her, realized, "Indeed, that's how it should be. Sister Qing really thinks things through."

Outside cultivators naturally could not enjoy the same treatment as the Yang family's direct disciples.

With the library, the Yang family could control the realm and strength of outside cultivators, preventing situations where outsiders might betray the family.

"Lingqing's method is good."

Elder Yu nodded and praised, "In the future, our direct disciples will be like personal disciples in the main courtyard, while outside cultivators will be in the branch courtyard, seeking cultivation techniques from the library, like ordinary disciples."

Listening to the three children express their opinions, Yang Guanfeng nodded repeatedly.

"Then these three matters are settled. Elder Yu, you can set off in the next couple of days and invite Liu Zihao first."

Yang Guanfeng said, "The three of you should continue to diligently cultivate under Immortal Venerable Spirit Stone. Although the beast tide has passed, the family will still face many challenges in the future, so do not slack off."

"We obey the Old Ancestor's decree and will remember it!"

Early the next morning, Elder Yu set off for Yuling River Market with one hundred spirit crystals.

After several days of quiet cultivation, Chen Yang, in the forbidden area, sensed a fluctuation of spiritual energy and emerged from a semi-conscious state.

"Yo~ it's finally Tiger's turn."

The source of the spiritual energy fluctuation was Yang Linghu.

He had been stuck at the peak of First Level of Qi Gathering for some time, and the dangerous battles during the beast tide had given him an opportunity to break through.

After a month of quiet cultivation and digestion, he finally had an epiphany today and began to break through the bottleneck on the spot.

In this regard, Yang Linghu was most like Yang Guanfeng; both needed to advance through fighting to fight.

The other two children, also meditating, felt Yang Linghu's change and withdrew from their meditative states.

They knew how rare a breakthrough opportunity was and, without a word, silently watched Yang Linghu's breakthrough.

Although Yang Linghu's aptitude was a bit weaker and his cultivation progressed slowly, his talent in other areas was quite good.

For example, in spell cultivation, he had already cultivated the Brute Force Art to the second level without even breaking through to the Second Level of Qi Gathering realm.

His current realm breakthrough was also like this.

When Yang Lingrui and Yang Lingqing broke through to the second level, they basically had to go into seclusion for several days, but he only took two hours to complete the breakthrough, without any delay.

"Hoo--"

Yang Linghu, having broken through the realm, let out a long sigh: "After more than a year, the Second Level of Qi Gathering is finally achieved."

"Congratulations, Brother Hu!"

"You worked hard, Tiger!"

The two stepped forward to congratulate him, and Yang Linghu accepted with a laugh.

At the same time, a new treasure bead appeared within Chen Yang's body, and he began to slowly digest and absorb it.

After fully digesting the treasure bead that Yang Lingrui had fed back to him upon breaking through his realm, he gained a year's worth of spiritual power.

This time, the treasure bead from Yang Linghu's breakthrough to the second level was smaller, and Chen Yang estimated it contained about half a year's worth of spiritual power.

After fully digesting all the spiritual power and insights, Chen Yang became even more certain that Tiger had extraordinary talent in spell cultivation.

He had previously thought it was just cultivating the first level to the second, but now it seemed he had already touched the edge of the third level of the Brute Force Art, just a step away from completion.

After a brief exchange, the three children resumed their meditation.

After the beast tide incident, they increasingly felt the difficulty of their family's survival.

Although Immortal Venerable Spirit Stone was guarding them, they still had to be strong themselves. They couldn't rely on Immortal Venerable Spirit Stone to act in every situation.

Otherwise, their existence would likely be exposed before long.

At that time, the Yang Family would be in grave danger.

Therefore, the three children were now cultivating with all their might every day, striving to gain the strength to stand on their own as soon as possible.