Chongming City

"Father, Senior Brother Han said we would reach Chongming City in another half hour."

Jin Shilun rode up from the middle of the procession and caught up to Jin Huohua's horse at its head.

"Mm, I know. Go attend to the Immortal Master. You don't need to trouble yourself too much over these things." Jin Huohua nodded.

Having witnessed Zhang Gouneng's abilities, he now placed even greater importance on whether Jin Shilun could set foot on the immortal path. Generations of hard work by the Jin Household had been reduced to ashes in an instant.

Worldly wealth and honor were merely passing clouds. Nothing mattered more than having a cultivator in the family.

"Master is resting, and my two senior brothers were considerate enough to let me come back and see you, Father."

"What is there to see? With the younger members of the clan helping, what need is there for you? Eh, what's that up ahead?"

Jin Huohua suddenly spotted several warriors clad in animal skins riding enormous beetles in front of the procession.

The giant insects were as tall as a single-story house, their mouthparts large enough to snap a fat pig in two with one bite. Their pitch-black shells shone like mirrors. The mortals who saw them could not help panicking, and an uproar erupted through the procession.

"Stop the procession! Shilun, hurry and ask the three Immortal Masters what to do. Be quick." After giving his son those instructions, Jin Huohua rushed to the very front.

"I'll go at once!" Jin Shilun could also see how urgent the situation was and galloped away.

"Whose procession is this?" The warrior in animal skins at the front was haughty, and the expression on his ugly face was exceptionally arrogant. He patted his beetle mount to signal it to stop, then called out the question to Jin Huohua.

"We are a procession from the Chongming Sect, on our way to Chongming City," Jin Huohua replied, neither servile nor overbearing.

"The Chongming Sect, huh?" The leading warrior's expression turned somewhat ugly.

"Whose spirit slaves are you?! Why have you trespassed on Chongming Sect territory?" The two boys, Han Yundao and Duan Anle, had already come upon hearing the news. Sharing a fine horse, they rode to the front of the procession like a pair of little adults, and demanded an answer from the leading warrior.

"We are clansmen of Immortal Master Lu of Fangshi Mountain. We wandered into your esteemed territory by mistake and will leave at once."

"You wandered in by mistake from that far away? Do you people of the Lu Household use your asses to watch the road?!" Han Yundao would have none of it and rebuked him.

"We're leaving, we're leaving." The leading warrior did not dare talk back even after being cursed. He gestured to the men behind him, and they hurriedly cleared the main road, withdrawing to the foothills on either side and leaving only the deep pits their beetles' jointed limbs had stamped into the road.

"Chief Jin, let's continue on our way," Duan Anle said to Jin Huohua.

"Yes, yes," Jin Huohua replied at once. With a few words, the two children had driven off warriors whose depths even a Martial Ancestor like him could not fathom. The Chongming Sect rose another notch in his estimation, and he suddenly felt that the Jin Household's future was even brighter.

"The Lu Household of Fangshi Mountain is quite well known around here," Han Yundao said, turning his horse and leading Jin Shilun's mount by the reins as they returned to the middle of the procession. "The Lu Household alone has seven Qi Refinement cultivators: four at the middle stage and three at the early stage."

"It sounds as though the Lu Household is no weaker than us, but..." Along the way, Jin Shilun had learned quite a bit about the Chongming Sect from Han Yundao and Duan Anle.

"Hmph, they're nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs. Last time, the Lu Household head's son was bullying decent people when Third Martial Uncle happened upon him and gave him a lesson. Later, the whole Lu Household came to attack us."

"Then the three elders must have won a great victory," Jin Shilun said, following his lead.

"At the time, Master was away visiting a friend, and Second Martial Uncle was in Xuanwei City and couldn't get back in time. Only Third Martial Uncle was at the sect." Han Yundao drew out his words again.

Knowing the boy was childish at heart, Jin Shilun played along. "Then wasn't the sect in great danger?"

"Heh, at that moment, Third Martial Uncle faced danger without fear and went out to fight alone. He didn't even use the sect's grand formation. Four of the Lu Household's seven cultivators were gravely injured, and if the remaining three hadn't begged for mercy quickly, they would certainly have ended up gravely injured too." At this point, Han Yundao shook his head and bobbed it, immensely pleased with himself.

"He was actually that formidable!" Jin Shilun said in genuine admiration.

"Junior Brother, don't imitate Third Martial Uncle. Though he's the best at fighting with techniques, he also gets scolded by Master the most. Still, it really is strange. Why would the Lu Household's servants come around Chongming City?" Duan Anle asked, puzzled.

"I don't know. We just need to report it to Master and let him decide." Han Yundao also found it strange, but he did not take it to heart.

"Oh? People from the Lu Household? Flower-Limbed Black Armor beetles? The Grass Witch Cult sells six of those for fifteen Spirit Stones. They're actually willing to spend Spirit Stones on mortals? The Lu Household seems even richer than the rumors say!"

Kang Dabao also found it strange. Even if the Lu Household were willing to equip some mortals with pseudo-spirit beasts like the Flower-Limbed Black Armor beetles that the Grass Witch Cult bred and sold, they would only provide a few to people close to them.

What are people like that doing in our territory? Forget it, I can't be bothered to think about it. If it were really something important, they wouldn't send a group of mortals to handle it.

As he spoke with his disciples, they arrived at the foot of Chongming City.

The city had first been built during the fifth sect master's tenure, only a little over seventy years ago. But after renovations by successive generations, its size and population were already in no way inferior to those of the town-cities under Pingrong County.

Cities like this likewise received no protection from the Great Wei Immortal Dynasty and were governed solely by the Chongming Sect. Of course, they paid no taxes either.

Still, things were much the same now. Even Pingrong County was protected by people sent by Hemu Dao. What did the Great Wei Immortal Dynasty have to protect it with? A county magistrate at the Qi Refining Second Layer?!

The current city lord of Chongming City was a clansman of Kang Dabao. This was also an unwritten rule in Chongming City.

The He Household had held the city lord's position for many decades, until Kang Dabao's older clan brother, Kang Dahou, smoothly took over fifteen years ago.

At that moment, Kang Dahou was leading the various officials of the city, holding ceremonial objects and standing in formation at the city gates to respectfully await Kang Dabao's carriage.

The Kang Household's first cultivator ancestor dated back nearly a hundred years.

That man had been no more than an ordinary Qi Refinement cultivator in the Chongming Sect. He had never reached Middle Qi Refinement in his entire life, and when he died, there was not even a single cultivator among the younger generation of his clan.

The clan's cultivator was the mortals' sky.

After the sky collapsed, life under the Chongming Sect became increasingly difficult for the Kang Household, especially since the clan had so few members.

Even if they were not constantly bullied, they had endured more than enough contemptuous looks from others.

From then on, the greatest wish of each generation of clansmen was for another cultivator to emerge among them and restore their family's already modest standing.

They had never imagined the wait would last nearly a hundred years. Only when Kang Dabao became a disciple of the previous sect master did the Kang Household finally have its second cultivator.

Then Kang Dabao took the position of Chongming Sect master, and that changed everything. Their family's standing had done far more than recover—it had never been so prosperous in any previous generation!

With few clansmen, they had few relatives, and the Kang men had never had such an easy time finding wives. As soon as the great clans heard, they sent three or four women at a time to the household!

It could be said that Kang Dahou had truly caught a giant meat pie falling from the sky when he succeeded to the position of city lord.

Even so, Kang Dahou's unease had not diminished in the least.

For one thing, Chongming City governed more than seventy thousand mortals, fewer than five hundred of whom belonged to the Kang clan.

How few was that? Put it this way: the previous city lord had slept with more women than that.

For another, although he and Kang Dabao were clan brothers, they were not actually close. They had barely even met a few times.

Kang Dabao was merely a descendant of that cultivator ancestor's cousin and belonged to the junior branch. Kang Dahou, however, was a direct descendant of that ancestor and belonged to the senior branch.

Over the past hundred years, some unpleasantness between the senior and junior branches had been unavoidable. There was a distinction between legitimate and secondary lines, so naturally, most of the time it was the senior branch making trouble for the junior branch.

Although Kang Dabao had lost his father young and left home early, and was not close to his relatives in the junior branch either, he had therefore not interfered when the clan jointly nominated Kang Dahou as city lord.

But Kang Dabao did have his own first cousins. Kang Dahou's position as city lord might well become yesterday's flower overnight, so he could hardly help worrying.

He had only just thought of this when he heard a voice. "Eleventh Brother, it's been a long time. Have you been well?"

"Welcome, Sect Master," Kang Dahou said, hastily bowing.

"Welcome, Sect Master." The assembled officials of the city followed suit and bowed.

"Haha, we're brothers. Let's dispense with these empty formalities." Ignoring everyone else, Kang Dabao took Kang Dahou by the hand and boarded the donkey cart.

"I've brought a great deal of trouble back for you this time, Eleventh Brother. Thank you for the effort it'll take."

"It is my utmost honor to serve the sect."

"I told you not to bother with formalities. Let's put official business aside and catch up first, just the two of us. The clan..."

Early the next morning

"There are approximately eleven hundred children turning six this year. They can attend the sect's Spirit Testing Ceremony in the seventh month. The number of newborns has increased by one hundred over last year, reaching sixteen hundred..."

Inside the Chongming City lord's residence, Kang Dahou was giving Kang Dabao a meticulous report.

Kang Dabao frowned. Mortals were the foundation of cultivators.

The proportion of mortal couples who produced offspring with Spirit Roots was already low. Even though there were some cultivators' descendants in Chongming City, the proportion was not much higher.

Now the sect had only three cultivators, and Yuan Jin was the only one of them with descendants. The Chongming Sect needed mortals to bear even more children.

According to the headcounts reported in previous years, there were currently more than twenty thousand women of childbearing age, between sixteen and thirty-five, under Chongming City's jurisdiction.

In Chongming Sect territory, where there was no shortage of land for the population, fewer than one in ten women had borne children. That was far too few. Generally, a mortal child's Spirit Root and spirit bones would not appear until the age of six, making the wait even longer.

This was not his previous life. What other entertainment could couples who were reluctant even to light candles at night have?

Turning his head, Kang Dabao saw the hall packed with pretty maids, and fell into thought.

He interrupted Kang Dahou. "Eleventh Brother, send some of the maids at the city lord's residence home. You're nearly seventy. How could you possibly make use of them all?"

Kang Dahou's face reddened, and he agreed.

"How many children in the clan are attending the Spirit Testing Ceremony this year?" Kang Dabao actually cared quite a bit about his own clan. This, too, counted as following local customs.

"Seventeen: nine boys and eight girls. Nine from the junior branch and eight from the senior branch." Kang Dahou was clearly much more familiar with this matter.

"We're all one family. Why divide us into senior and junior branches?" Kang Dabao shook his head. He had never taken the conflicts between the two branches to heart. Even teeth bit the tongue sometimes; what family had no unpleasant business?

"Yes, yes, yes, we're all one family." Kang Dahou looked as though he had eaten honey, his face lighting up with joy.

"The people Kou Yunsheng and Jin Huohua brought must be properly settled. Now that they're here, they're all family, so don't favor one over another. If you do your job well and win everyone's respect, how could we of the Kang Household fail to hold the city lord's position?"

Kang Dabao patiently gave him a few more instructions, then sent him out.

This older brother of his was always looking for chances to show his face before him, but how did he have time to concern himself with those little schemes? Mortal affairs could be left to mortals. Cultivators should interfere less.

Eleventh Brother doesn't know much better either. Why didn't he say anything to me about hurrying to produce offspring? There are so few cultivators in the clan. Isn't he worried?! Kang Dabao thought resentfully as he looked at the maids in the hall, some plump and some slender.

"Forget it, forget it. Recite the Daoist scriptures, recite the Daoist scriptures. Within books, there are beauties with faces like jade..."