Chapter 4: Exchange
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
[Spiritual Root Enhancement]
He should be able to solve the problem of the conflict between Lu Weiwen’s metal and fire Spiritual Roots if he made her use this. Little Weiwen’s talent might even be more powerful than Little Wenen’s after her talents were optimized.
However, Lu Qing thought about it for a moment. He decided not to use it now.
The price of “Spiritual Root Enhancement” was extremely high. It required 50 Karma. He only had a total of 100 Karma.
The value of this option was decent if he used it to pull the talent of a child with four Spiritual Roots up to having three Spiritual Roots.
However, it was even more valuable if he could use it to modify and optimize Double Spiritual Roots like the ones Lu Weiwen had, especially if the Double Spiritual Roots conflicted with each other.
Lu Qing would definitely get this option for Lu Weiwen after this. However, now was not the right time.
He did not wish to let Lu Weiwen train in the sect.
The clan had to nurture cultivators of their own.
If she were not going to be taken away, then so be it. Lu Qing was confident that the child’s future would be even brighter if she continued to stay in the clan.
Even if he were already dead, he still had the “Clan Development System.”
The situation was resolved, while Lu Qing was still contemplating on what he should do.
Zhang Shiman seemed to have thought it through. She looked toward Lu Chaohe apologetically and said, “Senior Brother Chaohe, I can only accept one person.”
“It’s all right.” Lu Chaohe smiled bitterly and shook his head.
It was all right if Lu Weiwen was rejected the status of being an outer-sect disciple. Outer-sect disciples were typically made up of a messy mix of people. The sect would not spend much effort to nurture these disciples. However, that was different for inner-sect disciples and personal disciples.
The number of inner-sect disciples and personal disciples was strictly controlled. This was especially so for personal disciples. They had to advance from within the inner-sect disciples.
The Lu Clan did not expect the people they sent to become personal disciples that were most favored by the sect when they sent them there. However, they wanted them to at least become an inner-sect disciple training under a mentor who was at least a Foundation Building cultivator. If they merely sent them there to become an outer-sect disciple, they might as well leave them in the clan.
Out of the five cultivators the Qingfeng Sect sent over today, only Zhang Shiman was at the Foundation Building Stage. At her age, coupled with the fact that she had a good teacher, she must have considerable status within the sect. She had the right to accept inner-sect disciples personally.
However, in this period, there was only a limited number of inner-sect disciples she could accept. When one thought about it clearly, it was normal that she did not accept Lu Wenwei.
However, Lu Chaohe still glanced fiercely at Zhao Pinggu. He desperately wanted to drink his blood and feast on his flesh.
Zhao Pinggu returned a faint mocking gaze. He was clearly unafraid.
******
The disciple selection in the main hall had ended this way. The cultivators of the Qingfeng Sect would leave Yuyan Mountain with Little Wenen tomorrow and return to their sect.
As for Lu Qing, he felt extremely tired after he finished observing the scene.
This feeling of fatigue scared him. Would a dead man feel tired?
He couldn’t sleep in his condition!
A thought occurred to him. So he controlled his spirit form and headed to the back side of Yuyan Mountain. He returned to his sealed abode.
The feeling of fatigue rapidly vanished after he returned.
“It looks like my spirit form cannot truly move around freely. I’ll feel tired if I leave the sealed abode for too long. I am still not sure about what would happen if I reach the limit of my fatigue, but it would definitely be nothing good.”
“However, I feel extremely good in this sealed abode... I’ll try to activate my abilities.”
He experimented for a moment but was ultimately unable to activate his abilities. Lu Qing finally gave up.
He could not activate any of his abilities as a cultivator. All he could do was study the “Clan Development System” that had just appeared.
He had already given the system a cursory glance just now. It was now time for him to examine the system closely.
The system interface displayed the statistics that summarize the current situation. He could pull out and examine the details of most of the major sections.
He opened up the “Income” tab. There were several new pieces of information listed under this tab.
[Total Yearly Income: 750 Spirit Stones (Year). Elixir Room: 75. Forging Room: 122. Medicinal Garden: 62. Energy Stone Mine: 211. Taxes from Pingyao County: 284]
[Total Yearly Expenditure: 1,010 Spirit Stones (Year). Food and clothes for clansmen: 790. Defending resources: 120. Defending territory: 100]
This interface displayed the main income and main expenditure of the clan in various major areas.
According to his calculations, the clan’s finances were experiencing a yearly deficit. There was also the pathetic combined savings of 347 Spirit Stones.
The Lu Clan was in peril.
He also closely examined the other sections.
He could view the specific situation of the various buildings in the clan under the “Buildings” tab. For example, the Level Two Forging Room was built when Lu Qing was still around. It drew out the underground fire of the spirit vein and was explicitly used to forge weapons.
He could also see how many people were in his main family, how many people had married into the family, their age distribution, etc., under the “Population” tab.
Among those statistics, the most important one was the population of cultivators. Out of the 106 people in the Lu Clan, only 52 of them were cultivators. There were three Foundation Building cultivators, while the rest of them were in the Qi Refining Stage.
Lu Qing could even see the specific information of a member of his clan in greater depth.
He tapped and opened the specific information of his eldest son, Lu Chaoxi.
[Name: Lu Chaoxi]
[Parents: Lu Qing, Ye Xincheng]
[Age: 109]
[Status: Plagued by an ailment, Core Lifespan severely injured]
[Level: Eighth-tier Foundation Building]
[Talent: Double Spiritual Roots, Strange (Lightning-Wood)] ...
[Techniques]
[Spells]
[Treasures]
******
Lu Qing’s expression darkened-if he still had a face-after reading Lu Chaoxi’s specific information.
What did “plagued by an ailment, Core Lifespan severely injured” mean?
Lu Qing had decent talents. He had Fire-Wood Double Spiritual Roots. He had discovered a Foundation Building Elixir when he was at the Foundation Building Stage and managed to pass a tough challenge without much difficulty. After that, he had a relatively smooth-sailing cultivation journey because of his luck and determination.
His first son, Lu Chaoxi, was born with special Strange Double Spiritual Roots. His son’s talent was even greater than his!
Double Spiritual Roots were already regarded as a decent talent, merely paling in comparison to Heavenly Spiritual Roots and Strange Spiritual Roots, which were Single Spiritual Roots. Coupled with the fact that one of his Spiritual Roots was a Strange Spiritual Root with the lightning element, Lu Chaoxi’s potential became even greater.
Lu Qing regarded his eldest son highly. Lu Qing had nurtured him from a young age. Lu Chaoxi also displayed exceptional talent. He entered the Qi Refining Stage when he was 15 and improved at a rate of one level every two years. He reached the ninth tier of the Qi Refining Stage just after 30 years old. Lu Qing spent a great deal of effort and made use of his reputation to obtain a Foundation Building Elixir from the Qingfeng Sect. That allowed Lu Chaoxi to break through to the Foundation Building Stage at the age of 37.
He advanced even faster than Lu Qing back in the day. When Lu Qing had just started his closed-door training, 50 years ago, Lu Chaoxi had already reached the fifth tier of the Foundation Building Stage.
...
He had thought that Lu Chaoxi had a bright future ahead of him. The Core Lifespan of a Foundation Building cultivator allowed him to last three revolutions, up to the age of around 180. He had a long time ahead of him to train.
He had immense potential. There should not have been much of a problem for him to reach the Initial Enlightenment Stage. There was even a chance that he would reach the Golden Core Stage.
But why was it that Lu Chaoxi was still an eighth-tier Foundation Building cultivator after 50 years?
Lu Qing temporarily suppressed the shock and anger in his heart and continued to explore the other functions of the system.
He explored the “Map” tab, which displayed all of the territories the Lu Clan currently controlled. Lu Qing recognized the most evident area to be Yuyan Mountain at a glance. He then noticed that the hazy, gray section of the map was Pingyao Country. There was also a foggy area in the middle. That should be the area that the Lu Clan controlled in name only, but had never set up an outpost there. Farther out was a field of black.
Lu Qing turned off the “Map” tab and looked at the tab at the lowest portion of the interface. It was the “Exchange” tab.
Currently, there were seven to eight items. Among these items, the things he paid attention to the most were [Level One Status type: Injury Treatment], [Level Two Talent type: Spiritual Root Enhancement], and [Level One Map type: Resource Scouting].
“Injury Treatment” could be used on his eldest son Lu Chaoxi. It might eliminate the negative effect of the ailment plaguing his body. He was going to use “Spiritual Root Enhancement” on Lu Weiwen. Lu Weiwen should be his great-great-granddaughter, so he had to nurture her well since she was staying within the clan. It was not difficult for a cultivator with Double Spiritual Roots to break through to the Foundation Building Stage. As for “Resource Scouting,” the instructions said that he could pick out a specific area within the clan’s territory and search for any hidden resources.
However, there was no rush to use all of these options.
The clan was currently in shambles. However, he had to first determine why the clan became like that so he could better tackle the root cause of the problem.
Lu Qing thought for a moment and then activated the “Voice Transmission” function. He selected his eldest son as the target. Lu Chaoxi was the current head of the Lu Clan.
“Chaoxi, come to my abode for a moment.”