Chapter 53: I Was Born with a Pure and Gentle Nature

[The Li Family - Year 58]
[Li Yunbing comes out of seclusion and breaks through to the Foundation Establishment stage!]
[Because Li Yundou of the Seven Iron Gates had, during his tenure, hoodwinked the entire Zhien Village into becoming a militarized society where all four thousand villagers practiced martial arts and clamored daily to take up arms to dominate Taiqing County, the place had descended into chaos.]
[Seeing Li Yunbing emerge from seclusion, Xu Cuihua seized the opportunity to drag her seven grandchildren to the ancestral hall and give them a thorough thrashing to vent three years of pent-up frustration. Afterward, the temporary head-of-household position was handed over to Li Yunbing.]

"Finally, a normal person has come out of seclusion!"
Seeing Li Yunbing emerge and realizing he possessed dual spiritual roots, Li Xiang actually felt a wave of relief.
During the days when all the experts of the Li Family were in seclusion, Li Yaotie and his seven children had driven both him and Xu Cuihua to the brink of despair.
While it was true that these fellows weren't stupid, they were utterly unsuited to be heads of household—at least not during this era!
Their brain structure was probably indistinguishable from their muscles. The total militarization of the village was something Li Yundou had dreamed up, but everyone else had their own wild schemes as well, all boiling down to expanding the Li family's military might!
Just look at the previous event logs...

[Your descendant Li Yunzhe recruited a large number of retainers, only for Xu Cuihua to discover that most of them had ulterior motives. She had them all executed.]
[Your descendant Li Yunjie took a fancy to a treasure belonging to another clan and attempted to emulate her fourth aunt's plan to launch a night raid, almost plunging the Li family's peaceful days back into chaos amidst troubled times. Dragged to the ancestral hall by Xu Cuihua for a sound thrashing, she finally quieted down.]
[Your descendant Li Yunzhen, while wandering the jianghu, saved a young woman, won her favor, and sent betrothal gifts...]
Hmph... Zhen'er truly lives up to being a descendant of the Li family!

"As expected, reckless brawlers make terrible heads of household," Li Xiang muttered, gazing at Li Yunbing who was already seated in the patriarch's chair, feeling his spirits lift immensely. "With all the experts in seclusion, this is precisely a blank period for the family's development, waiting only for the experts to soar into the sky upon emerging from seclusion. Those few little brutes kept wanting to flex their muscles; it's much better to have the simple-minded Yunbing holding down the fort. He won't stir up trouble."

Turning his attention back to the screen.
Li Yunbing and Xu Cuihua sat in the primary and secondary seats, while the Seven Iron Gates sat in the auxiliary seats. Among them, Li Yundou's wife, Chen Lin, was applying healing ointment to the cuts and bruises of Li Yundou—who had just been beaten back from the ancestral hall—along with the other younger uncles and aunts.
Five-year-old Li Tianyi, unlike the heavily built Seven Iron Gates, resembled his mother Chen Lin much more. Though young, he already possessed the refined, jade-like demeanor of a young gentleman, and he suddenly hopped into Li Yundou's lap.

"If I'm not to be the head of household, so be it."
Li Yundou stroked Li Tianyi's head while airing his grievances with a wronged expression. "Was there any need to hit us that hard? Even Grandfather never beat the few of us like that."
"It was your grandfather spoiling you that turned you into reckless bears!"
Mentioning this made Xu Cuihua's blood boil.
Among all the children, sons, and daughters of the Li family, the rest of them gave her peace of mind. Those in seclusion were in seclusion, those forging iron were forging iron, the Lei Huo Demon Abyss brought one piece of good news after another regarding Yaoqing, and even the non-cultivator Yaowen had managed to have people deliver a million spiritual stones from afar just days ago.
Look at Yaozu's two children: Yunlin was promising, a true darling of the heavens in the Litian Sect. Yunbing was incomparably well-behaved and possessed great wisdom wrapped in apparent simplicity, bearing a striking resemblance to Li Dalong.
And then look at these seven...
The amount of worry she had experienced in this lifetime didn't even match what she had suffered in the past two or three years. Clearly possessing a millennium of lifespan, she had sprouted over a dozen white hairs during these few days alone.

"Grandmother..."
Li Yundou wanted to say more, but little Tianyi raised his head and said in a milky, childish voice, "Daddy, stop talking. If you don't behave, not only will Great-Grandmother beat you, but if Tianyi whispers to Great-Grandfather, Great-Grandfather will beat you too."
"Ah, my dear great-grandson is still the most sensible. Come, let Great-Grandmother pat you." Xu Cuihua beamed with joy.
"Tianyi is not a puppy."
Li Tianyi pouted, yet still walked over to his great-grandmother.
Li Yundou instantly grew displeased. Gritting his teeth, the swelling on his face causing a sharp pain that made him gasp, he nevertheless said fiercely, "Fine! You little brat, you dare threaten your father..."
"Why are you snapping at the child?" Chen Lin immediately grew indignant. "If you snap at Tianyi again, don't even think about getting into bed tonight!"
"Nyah, nyah, nyah."
Sitting in Xu Cuihua's lap, Li Tianyi stuck his tongue out at his father, making Li Yundou's face turn pitch black with anger.
With these seven giant bears and this little heavenly prodigy, the Li household was certainly a lively place.

When everyone had finished their commotion.
[The Li Family - Year 58]

[Part 2/3]
Li Yunbing gave a light cough, glanced at the assembly, and casually said, "Now then, it is time to attend to Yunzhen's wedding preparations. I've checked the auspicious times, and they can marry the month after next. Yun斗 has also reached the ninth layer of Qi Refinement; I will have someone ask Yunshu to purchase medicinal pills from Wanghai Tower so you can also enter seclusion and break through."

As soon as Li Yunbing spoke, everyone looked toward him and nodded repeatedly.
Having just assumed the position of head of household, Li Yunbing still wore a thoroughly innocent expression.
"Actually, our family really shouldn't run amok outside anymore. Father, uncles, and aunts are either in seclusion or away on travels. Our family has very few Foundation Establishment experts, and coupled with the chaos under heaven, we should rely on Yunshu's connections with Wanghai Tower and the Litian Sect to properly recuperate and build up our strength in these troubled times."

As soon as Li Yunbing said this, everyone cast sideways glances at him.
Especially Li Yundou, who had even swiped candy from Li Yunbing when they were children!
Li Yunbing paid no mind to their gazes, maintaining his delightfully clueless expression as he continued:
"Then there is the Black Blood Hall. Yundou expanded the Black Blood Hall to five hundred members, nearly all of whom have reached above the third layer of Qi Refinement; we cannot leave them idle either. Have them head to Tailin Town and seize its mineral veins to let the new town mayor know that Tailin Town now belongs to our family."
"Grandmother, and your Spirit Beast Pavilion. Aren't there Wind-Soughing Giant Eagles in the Silver-Iron Forest? Could we trouble you to procure five hundred of them—the kind Second Aunt used to ride? That way, when the Black Blood Hall coordinates with the Spear Forest Formation from high altitudes, their power will be even greater."
"Lately, the ties between Yunshu's Wanghai Tower and ourselves have grown increasingly close. Senior Huang Xiujin is trustworthy; if our Li family wishes to take advantage of the chaos to dominate Taiqing, our intelligence network is already woefully inadequate. Therefore, I would like to invite Senior Huang Xiujin to visit. I hope he can send someone to guide us."
"......"

Every single word completely stunned the members of the Li family!
Li Yundou stood up in disbelief, walked up to Li Yunbing, grabbed his head, and roughly ruffled his hair. "Speak! Who are you? Who possessed our family's Second Brother?!!"
"Stop messing around."
Li Yunbing unceremoniously brushed Li Yundou's hand away and continued:
"In truth, our family is already qualified to become a Golden Core clan, we merely lack the foundational heritage. Once Grandfather emerges from the Death-Directing Heavenly Coffin, and Father, uncles, and aunts all return, I believe we will possess sufficient upper-tier strength."
"Right now, what we need to do is enrich the family's heritage and make preparations to face the future."

With that, Li Yunbing looked somewhat worriedly at the Seven Iron Gates. "You seven, when you have free time, go check on Third Uncle. He has been forging artifacts for three years this time; if this continues, even his Foundation Establishment foundation won't hold up."
Hearing this, the Seven Iron Gates finally stopped fooling around.
"We understand."
......
"The family has finally gotten back on the right track!"
Li Xiang wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
As Li Yunbing continued to detail the family's development plans in an orderly fashion, Li Xiang wasn't actually surprised!
Though Li Yunbing possessed a pure heart, he had done some rather foolish things in his youth and didn't even understand matters between men and women well.
That didn't mean Li Yunbing was genuinely stupid!
A pure heart signified innocence and kindness, but it also represented formidable comprehension capabilities—otherwise, he wouldn't have cultivated most of the martial arts and techniques of the *Litian Secret Classic* to extremely high realms within the Death-Directing Heavenly Coffin!
Furthermore...
Because Li Yaozhu rarely paid attention to his children, this kid had been raised by Li Yaowen since childhood. With such comprehension skills, even if he only picked up a fraction of Li Yaowen's style, he was bound to be an exceptionally brilliant existence.
It was just that outward appearance, coupled with that perpetually dazed look in his eyes, which possessed immense deceptive power...
He seemed naturally born to play the pig to eat the tiger.
In fact, Li Yunbing was doing an even better and more outstanding job than Li Dalong and Li Yaozhu!
He possessed Li Dalong's steadiness, Li Yaozhu's decisiveness, and Li Yaowen's macro-perspective!

"You're the one. From now on, you're the kid doing this job, don't even think about running away!"
Li Xiang rubbed his hands together and instantly decided on the future candidate for the head of household.
Seeing that the Li family had finally steered the Seven Iron Gates back onto the right path, Li Xiang's mind was set at ease, and he finally had time to consider his own affairs.
Immediately afterward.
He looked at the Incense Value counter in the top right corner of the game—
113,654!

[Part 3/3]
"The Incense Value is enough."
With excitement, Li Xiang clicked on the techniques and martial arts of Li Yaozhu and Li Yunlin.

[You have selected Li Yunlin's technique and martial art, the Mysterious-tier cultivation method: Phantom Heavenly Grove Steps.]
[Detected that the technique progress has reached 90%, consuming 90,000 Incense Value!]
[You have selected Li Yaozhu's Huang-tier sword technique, Hundred Shadows Sword Qi.]
[Detected that the technique progress has reached 100%, consuming 20,000 Incense Value!]
[Do you wish to learn?]

In an instant.
Li Xiang felt his mind clear up, as the memories and insights of these two cultivation methods surged into his brain like a tidal wave!
Dazzling small characters appeared on the screen.
[Congratulations, by consuming 110,000 points of Incense Value, you have learned the techniques *Phantom Heavenly Grove Steps* and *Hundred Shadows Sword Qi*!]

Li Xiang felt an indescribably wondrous sensation; he had heard of 'enlightenment bestowed by divine灌顶', and perhaps this was precisely what it felt like.
Along with his mastery of the techniques.
On the game interface, the avatar of the Patriarch even appeared!
His personal information also came into view.

[Li Xiang]
[Realm: Pseudo-Golden Core Stage]
[Spiritual Roots: Yin-Yang]
[Techniques and Martial Arts: Phantom Heavenly Grove Steps, Hundred Shadows Sword Qi, Yin-Yang Diagram]
[Trait: Yin-Yang Blessing]

Pseudo-Golden Core, this was his current realm!
When all was said and done, he was also of direct descent to the Li family, capable of consuming the heaven-defying 'Heavenly Mystery Replenishing Spirit Pill', and every month the resources he enjoyed belonged to the most precious category. Even a dog could have cultivated to a profound level with that!
Those students at school thought his aptitude was mediocre because they used their heads to hold urine!
Otherwise,
in a place like Xixian Manor, even though his identity was extraordinary, those uncles and aunts would not have looked upon him with special favor.
Nor would he have been worthy of living in the number one residence at the very end!
And the teachers at school wouldn't have begged him to participate in various competitions!
Besides...
Anyway, he had yet to encounter anyone whose aptitude surpassed his own.
Glancing at the pig-playing-the-tiger Li Yunbing in the game, Li Xiang felt a pang of envy. He possessed the ability to play the pig to eat the tiger himself, yet lacked the opportunity to do so...

"I'll break through to the Golden Core stage once I have some free time."
Li Xiang grinned broadly, turning his gaze toward another skill in the game—

[Patroarch's Moment]
[Using this skill, the soul of the Patriarch enters the game world, unable to attack, unable to be targeted, consuming 1,000 points of Incense Value per year, with the ratio of real-world time to game-world time remaining unchanged!]