Chapter 64 Growing Together with Descendants!

"Oh~"

He was back in!

Entering the gaming world once more, a flash of nostalgia crossed Li Xiang's face. It had clearly been less than an hour since he last left, yet he inexplicably felt as though a lifetime had passed.

Moreover, this time was completely different from before.

Last time, he had been a ball of black mist, and even he could only perceive a ball of black mist; but now... he had a physical form!

He finally felt the fresh air of this world, spiritual energy countless times more majestic than that of Earth, and truly corporeal people.

Even... the big guy right in front of him.

This fellow was two meters tall, built like an ox, and the crisp, echoing clatter of his dark red armor rubbing together was so distinct. Seemingly with nothing better to do, he was striding along, digging for boogers as he strolled!

He recognized this rascal: Li Yundou, a fool who spoke without thinking.

Just as he was about to swing his fist to beat him up, Li Xiang froze.

Li Yundou's body passed right through his own.

"Unable to be selected, unable to be attacked. Li Yundou is at the Foundation Establishment stage; at the very least, he should be able to sense the presence of ghosts and spirits. That means I don't even count as a spirit body. Can I only exist within a specific range in this world and then absorb spiritual energy to break through?"

Li Xiang suddenly understood. No wonder entering the world to fight cost so many Incense Value points every five minutes, while existing in this world cost only 1,000 for a whole year.

Furthermore.

Li Xiang looked into the distance. Within a ten-thousand-meter radius of the ancestral hall, a boundary had formed, and he felt that he could not step outside of it.

"Cheap things come with their own reasons."

Li Xiang did not mind.

He let out a long breath and simply walked over to the Blood Spirit Fruit Tree to cross his legs in meditation, which further confirmed his hypothesis. When his mist-form had descended previously, the most excited thing had been the Blood Spirit Fruit Tree; that object had originally possessed some sort of contract with his spirit tablet, but now the Blood Spirit Fruit Tree showed not even a shred of response.

"Existing in this world for a year while only an hour passes in the outside world is already a heaven-defying ability. There's no need to dwell on the rest."

Li Xiang stopped overthinking.

Immediately, he closed his eyes and began his breakthrough.

......

Breaking through from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment was the easiest step.

As long as one's spiritual roots reached 60 points or higher, one could accommodate enough worldly spiritual energy, forcefully open up the body's acupuncture points, transform the Dantian into a Dantian Qi Sea, and obtain Dan fire. This would also begin cleansing the body of impurities, transforming one's aptitude, and even casting off fragile and redundant spiritual roots.

The reason previous members of the Li family possessed mediocre aptitudes yet were still able to break through to Foundation Establishment one by one was because they had consumed Li Xiang's 'Heavenly Mystery Spirit-Replenishing Pill,' an item that essentially served as an admission ticket to Foundation Establishment.

Otherwise, it would never have been called a divine medicine in the real world.

The reason their breakthroughs took a long time was because they had to condense sufficient spiritual energy within their spiritual roots in order to break through to the optimal state. The process was intricate and even required repeated deductions.

Subsequent realms, however, were like crossing a heavenly chasm!

Going from the early Foundation Establishment stage to the Foundation Establishment peak was the process of condensing the Dantian Qi Sea into a pellet, while making the spiritual power denser and more powerful.

Once it became a pellet, it was refined using Dan fire, and the period during which it was refined was known as the Pseudo-Pellet stage.

At the same time, the Golden Cores tempered during this period were also divided into strong and weak.

The process required engraving one's own spell or martial art onto the Golden Core. The more completely it was engraved and the more powerful the spell or martial art, the higher the quality of the formed Golden Core. They were categorized into Heaven, Earth, and Human grade pills. These different grades of pills determined innate conditions such as how much magical power the Golden Cores could store in the future, the speed at which they absorbed worldly spiritual energy, and the speed of casting spells, among other things.

The more powerful the Dan fire formed by the spiritual roots, the easier it was to forge a Golden Core.

Li Xiang had also heard that during the smelting of the Golden Core, if one attained enlightenment of heaven and earth, the Golden Core could even transcend the three grades and advance further!

Just like Elder Qiuli before him, whose Golden Core was an Earth-grade pill, allowing him to effortlessly fight three Golden Core cultivators single-handedly.

At this moment, Li Xiang was forging his Pseudo-Pellet!

Within his Dantian, roaring flames were visible, and the Yin-Yang Fish Diagram had become his meditation cushion.

The Yin-Yang Diagram was his strongest technique, far, far more powerful than the Shadow-Tracking Heavenly Piercing Steps, and it was also the technique he intended to engrave upon his Pseudo-Pellet.

Li Xiang's ambition was not small. He was still young; if he could not engrave the Yin-Yang Diagram technique before the end of his life, he might as well waste another year engraving some trash technique and let himself rot for the rest of his days.

Either be the head of a dragon or the tail of a turtle—this was his philosophy of life.

Otherwise, he would have broken through to the Golden Core stage long ago.

......

As Li Xiang forged, the worldly spiritual energy summoned by the Yin-Yang Fish Diagram gathered around the Blood Spirit Fruit Tree, resonating with his Golden Core breakthrough.

In the span of a mere year.

Spiritual energy grew increasingly majestic.

And this matter could by no means escape the eyes of the Li family. Eleven-year-old Li Tianyi, carrying yet another child of the sixth uncle, ran all the way to the place where Li Yunbing was handling family affairs, his face brimming with joy as he shouted, "Second Uncle, the Patriarch has manifested his spirit!"

"What?!!"

Li Yunbing was instantly overjoyed. Whenever he had faced difficult decisions in the past, he would consult the Patriarch, but the Patriarch hadn't responded to him for a whole year. "Quick, quickly take me to see!"

Before long, Li Yunbing followed Li Tianyi to the foot of the Blood Spirit Fruit Tree.

The canopy of the Blood Spirit Fruit Tree reached the heavens. The members of the Li family who had originally been in seclusion had actually broken through their seclusion long ago and gathered together, every single one of them gazing forward with surprised and delighted expressions.

Because...

The fluorescent specks of spiritual energy around the Blood Spirit Fruit Tree had almost condensed into a physical substance!

They remembered the Yin-Yang Fish Diagram the Patriarch had used previously; that aura was extremely contradictory, with ultimate Yin on the left and ultimate Yang on the right, forming a world of its own.

And at this moment.

The five-element spiritual energy of heaven and earth had gathered together. If one's Foundation Establishment vision was subtle, one could see columns of five-element light forming a pentagram that enshrouded the Blood Spirit Fruit Tree, and the state of mutual generation and restraint among the five-element genuine qi was becoming increasingly obvious.

Every single member of the Li family could feel it.

Cultivating here would yield twice the result with half the effort!

"I understand!"

Li Dalong let out a startled cry that nearly frightened everyone. Beside himself with joy, he grabbed Li Yunbing by the shoulders. "Yunbing, you came to find me a few months ago, saying you couldn't contact the Patriarch, is that so?"

"Yes, it's been a year," Li Yunbing replied blankly, nodding.

"The Patriarch is right here!"

Li Dalong stared upward at the pillar of light, his eye sockets turning red. "I understand. That place up there must be the legendary Immortal Realm. The Patriarch is an immortal; the last time he descended with a wisp of his divine soul, he simply couldn't exist for very long."

"He saw that we couldn't defeat the Su family with our own strength, and that none of us had reached the Golden Core stage. Therefore, he deliberately found a location to communicate with us from the Immortal Realm, transmitting his insights of the five elements to us to aid our cultivation!"

"That's why we couldn't sense the Patriarch's presence from the ancestral hall."

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire assembly of the Li family fell silent.

Everyone in the Li family had reddened eye sockets. So that was how it was! No wonder the Li family was experiencing such worldly anomalies; once it was explained this way, it all made sense.

"Patriarch!"

"Your unworthy descendants caused you to worry. This child will definitely not disappoint your expectations and will cultivate diligently!"

In an instant, Li Dalong led the members of the Li family in pulling spirit tablets from their bosoms, sitting down to cultivate in the directions that matched their respective spiritual roots.

......

Li Xiang drooped his eyelids.

He watched as the members of the Li family sat down in meditation around him one by one, and then each placed his spirit tablet before them, everyone displaying an irrepressible piety.

When the family members had arrived, they had disturbed him long ago.

He had even been startled when Li Dalong shouted that sentence: "The Patriarch is right here!"

So...

"What kind of wild theories are you making up in your head?" Li Xiang laughed despite himself; he almost admired Li Dalong's train of thought.

However, Li Xiang was also somewhat pleased. When he came, he would occasionally go and check on his descendants, and now that everyone was gathered together, it gave him a sense of familial warmth.

Although having so many people accompany him in seclusion felt a bit novel, it was not entirely unacceptable. Memorial tablets stood in rows upon the ground, and a crowd of people sat meditating with their eyes closed—the operation looked somewhat eerie, but no harm was done.

Especially since transparent light-blue prompts were appearing before his eyes, resembling popup windows in a game.

[Your descendants have felt the grace you brought from the upper realm. They can sense your efforts and are moved to tears.]

[Congratulations, you have gained +2,000 Incense Value!]

[The Li family has gained the group trait: Grace of the Patriarch]

[In order not to disappoint your expectations, your kinsmen's cultivation speed has increased by 20% and their comprehension has increased by 10% within the spiritual energy gathering ground you attracted!]

The moment the popup window appeared.

Li Xiang instantly felt his mind clear, and even the Dan fire he was forging burned more brightly!

"Huh???"

His eyes lit up brightly. "There's such a good thing too?"

Even as a phantom existence in this world, it seemed he could receive judgments—after all, he was the Patriarch of the Li family!

......

[In the 65th year of the Li family, you engraved the first layer of the cultivation technique, 'Yin-Yang Diagram: Heaven, Earth, and Mortal,' onto your Pseudo-Pellet, reaching a progress of 10%.]

[Simultaneously, you are also comprehending the second layer, 'Heaven and Earth Five Elements.' Observing the cultivation of your fourth-generation descendant who possesses miscellaneous five-element spiritual roots, you discover that his spiritual roots are plagued by water and fire conflicting with each other. Gaining insight into the mutual generation of the five elements, progress reaches 5%!]

As his second year of cultivation concluded, Li Xiang opened his eyes once more, a trace of joy flashing across his face.

He discovered that having these descendants cultivate by his side brought far more benefits than he had imagined.

At this center, he could sense the spiritual root cultivation methods of his descendants. As for his Yin-Yang spiritual roots, what he lacked most in cultivating the second layer was comprehension of the five elements!

Now, he was slowly finding the method as well.

He was growing together with his descendants.

[Your descendant Li Dalong observed the mutual generation and restraint of the five elements and achieved a sudden enlightenment. His metal and wood spiritual roots began to generate each other, the spiritual energy in his Dantian Qi Sea condensed, and he broke through to the Foundation Establishment peak!]

"Hahaha, Patriarch, Dalong has succeeded!"

"The Foundation Establishment peak! I thought it would take ten years, but I never expected that in just a short year, I would manage to break through. The Patriarch's divine powers are truly extraordinary!"

Li Xiang opened his eyes slightly, feeling happy for Li Dalong as well.

Soon, he closed his eyes again.

[The 67th year of the Li family]

[You observed your descendants' five elements generating each other... Heaven and Earth Five Elements progress reaches 15%!]

[Your descendants cultivated together, gathering a massive amount of spiritual energy. Attracted by your five-element spiritual energy, their cultivation speed increased by 5%, and the progress of forging the first-layer technique reached 20%.]

The more he forged, the more proficient Li Xiang became.

The members of the Li family also continuously cultivated near him. Li Dalong even moved the True-Death Heavenly Coffin over and simply lay inside the coffin to cultivate.

Coupled with a ground full of spirit tablets set up here... no matter how one looked at it, it felt bizarre.

Li Yunbing had important matters to attend to every day; he would come and leave, then leave and come back.

Most of the others were much the same.

Especially Li Yaotie.

This fellow moved his forging table right over. To avoid disturbing others' cultivation, he had the Blood Spirit Fruit Tree form a soundproof barrier for him. Whenever Li Xiang opened his eyes, he could see him swinging a giant hammer to beat iron, sending sparks flying in all directions.

As time passed.

Li Xiang also witnessed the construction of towering pavilions and palaces across various parts of the Li family.

Rain and snow fell from the sky, the sun rose and set. Although he and the descendants of the Li family seemed to exist in two different dimensions, everyone was enduring the changes of the weather at this moment.

The Blood Spirit Fruit Tree grew taller every year, just like the children of the Li family growing up.

Everything in the Li family came into view, and he actually stopped closing his eyes, simply watching all of it!

[You are observing the five elements of heaven and earth, which are closely related to the operation of all things. You understand that man can establish earth, man can harness metal and fire, man and vegetation grow together, the four seasons apply to man......]

[You are beginning to merge into the five elements of heaven and earth!]

[In the 70th year of the Li family, the Grand Ancestral Sacrifice begins!]

During this year's Grand Ancestral Sacrifice, all members of the Li family directly worshipped in place, offering the exact same sacrifices as before.

He clicked 'Yes' once again.

Simultaneously as the Grand Ancestral Sacrifice concluded.

He closed his eyes.

The speed at which he forged his Golden Core was faster than ever before.

Even 'Heaven and Earth Five Elements,' the second layer of the Yin-Yang Diagram, began to be engraved upon the Golden Core!

[Congratulations, you have achieved a sudden enlightenment!]

[You have comprehended the five elements of heaven and earth. Under the five elements of heaven and earth, man is influenced by them and can also harness the power of the five elements of heaven and earth. You have felt the power of the five elements of heaven and earth!]

[Your 'Heaven, Earth, and Mortal' has finished engraving. Your 'Heaven and Earth Five Elements' is now beginning to be engraved.]

During this Grand Ancestral Sacrifice, what the descendants of the Li family offered was far more than mere sacrifices.

He could feel it—his Golden Core...

Would be unlike anything ever seen before!