Cultivation Begins From The Desert

Although he knew that Zhou Yuanyao still harbored some resentment towards him and his Dao companion Xiao Ying, Zhouyang went to see his sworn sister's family first thing upon arriving at Red Tiger Mountain, offering them early blessings.

When they met, he sized up his brother-in-law Pang River.

Due to his success in Foundation Establishment, Pang River looked youthful once more. While not as handsome and dashing as Zhouyang, he was still dignified and impressive in appearance.

On the other hand, Zhou Yuanyao, while still beautiful, had transformed from a pure and lovely girl into a magnificent and dignified middle-aged woman through the polishing of time, no longer young.

Zhouyang spent half a day at Zhou Yuanyao's abode, having a conversation with Pang River, mainly advising him as an elder to treat his sister well, and subtly assessing whether Pang River's character was as good as Zhou Guangxiang had said.

Overall, after their conversation, Zhouyang had a favorable impression of this "young" brother-in-law, feeling that Zhou Yuanyao would be happy and secure with him for the rest of her life.

Therefore, upon leaving, he casually gifted Pang River a Tier Four Lower-Grade Spirit Talisman he had drawn himself as a meeting gift, also informing Zhou Yuanyao and her husband of his arrangement for them to guard the Yuquan Lake Oasis.

Afterwards, Zhouyang went to visit his pregnant disciple Liu Xuanxuan, gifting her a Tier Three Spirit Elixir "Bone Marrow Cleansing Flower" as a present.

The "Bone Marrow Cleansing Flower" was an unusually useful Tier Three Spirit Elixir, only effective on children who had not yet begun cultivation.

Upon consuming the "Bone Marrow Cleansing Flower," a child not yet exposed to cultivation can cleanse and refine their body through the power of the elixir, indirectly enhancing their cultivation aptitude and even allowing them to step directly into the first realm of cultivation, the Innate Realm.

The "Bone Marrow Cleansing Flower" Zhouyang held on to was acquired during a raid outside the Purple Cloud Pavilion at the "Cloud Mist Marsh."

Because the child of Zhou Guangxiang and Liu Xuanxuan played a crucial role in an upcoming reform for the Zhou Family, he decided to gift them this spirit elixir; otherwise, he would have previously given it to Zhou Yuanyao's daughter as a gift.

"Master's kindness is overwhelming; Xuanxuan on behalf of the unborn child thanks Master for the boon!"

Liu Xuanxuan, about to become a mother, like all mothers, was full of love for her unborn child.

Receiving the "Bone Marrow Cleansing Flower" from Zhouyang filled her heart with joy, and she quickly bowed in gratitude.

On the path of cultivation, being one step ahead often means being steps ahead at every turn.

If, after birth, their child is not found to have a Spiritual Root, so be it. But if a Spiritual Root is detected, even if it's of lower-grade talent, with the help of this "Bone Marrow Cleansing Flower," the child's cultivation speed will naturally surpass those of similar age and talent once they begin cultivation.

Coupled with the fact that Zhou Guangxiang and she have a substantial amount of clan contribution points, they can readily exchange these points for the Zhou family's own "Golden Rock Sheep" milk for their child's long-term consumption.

Thus, even through resource accumulation, they could elevate their child to the Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation by the age of sixty, and then use the Foundation Establishment Pill to establish a foundation.

Despite the fact that for a clan or a faction, expending such resources to nurture a cultivator destined to be disconnected from the Grand Dao is a significant waste of resources, and it's unjust to other cultivators of humble origins.

Yet in this world, how much fairness can truly be found?

As a High-Tier Cultivator, if one wishes to expend their own private property to nurture their descendants without stealing or robbing, no one can really criticize that.

Next, according to the rules, Zhouyang met with another newly established Foundation Establishment Cultivator of the Zhou family, Zhou Tonghua, and after offering words of encouragement, he rewarded him with a Tier Three High-Grade Spirit Talisman as a reward for achieving Foundation Establishment.

Zhou Tonghua, having just exhausted all his clan contribution points to exchange for the Foundation Establishment Pill and succeeding in establishing a foundation, was penniless at the moment. Receiving Zhouyang's reward of a Tier Three High-Grade Spirit Talisman naturally filled him with joy.

Compared to those unsupported loose cultivators and members of small clans, the Zhou family truly left nothing to be desired in their treatment of Foundation Establishment stage cultivators.

As long as one succeeded in Foundation Establishment, Zhouyang, the clan's ancestor, would bestow a talisman or magical artifact for protection and also allow free selection from the clan's treasure vault of a cultivation technique, including high-level techniques such as "Golden Radiance Shining Technique" and "One Qi Qianyuan Technique."

Moreover, when encountering doubts in cultivation, they can seek advice from the Purple Mansion Stage elders in the clan at any time.

Additionally, Zhou family cultivators who succeed in Foundation Establishment will receive a loan of 30,000 clan contribution points, earmarked for the exchange of artifacts, spirit talismans, spirit pills, and other treasures from the clan's treasure vault.

With these security measures in place, essentially any Zhou family cultivator who successfully establishes a foundation can immediately gather a set of Tier Three artifacts for offense and defense, reaching the standard combat capability of a typical Foundation Establishment stage cultivator.

It can be frankly said that even in major sects like the Profound Sun Immortal Sect, Foundation Establishment cultivators without background do not receive treatment that matches that of the Zhou family's cultivators.

So don't be fooled by the Zhou Family's Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators often tirelessly accumulating clan contribution points, thinking that the Zhou Family is exploiting these low-tier cultivators. In truth, those cultivators willing to toil are all dream chasers with aspirations.

If they don't dream of reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage, Zhou Family's Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators could simply marry a dozen or twenty daughters and concubines. By fathering thirty or fifty descendants, and among them, two or three with spiritual roots, the birth subsidy fund provided by the clan could allow them to live comfortably all their lives and enjoy their twilight years.

After meeting Zhou Tonghua, Zhouyang personally went to pay respects to the descendants of Zhou Guangtai, who sacrificed for the clan.

Over the next two months, while Zhouyang awaited Liu Xuanxuan's childbirth at Red Tiger Mountain, he casually reviewed the status of various halls in the Zhou Family. He discovered that the Zhou Family now had over seven hundred clansmen cultivators, and even had over four hundred foreign relative cultivators.

Even in terms of the number of clan cultivators, the Zhou Family is now indisputably the largest clan in the Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm.

"It's almost sufficient. The Yellow Sand Sect has only three to four thousand Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators now. My Zhou Family has far fewer various resource points than they do, yet we still have to issue a significant amount of birth subsidies, so we can't support as many cultivators as they do."

Zhouyang recalled the financial revenue and expenditure report he had just reviewed, slowly coming up with a plan.

Immediately, he summoned Zhou Guangxiang, the Clan Leader, and convened a small family meeting with the elders and deacon elders within the clan, where he proposed two suggestions.

The first was to continue encouraging clan cultivators to have more children and to extend the duration of birth subsidy fund from twenty years to thirty years.

The second was to officially cancel "Fengyue Tower."

The first suggestion was well accepted. Extending the duration of birth subsidy fund indeed benefits all cultivators of the clan, so naturally, there was no objection.

However, regarding the proposal to cancel "Fengyue Tower," several deacon elders from the "Fengyue Tower" lineage expressed dissatisfaction.

These individuals argued that canceling "Fengyue Tower" would cause a significant drop in the birth numbers of Zhou Family cultivators. They presented data on the birth rates of Zhou Family cultivators in recent years to prove that the annual birth numbers from "Fengyue Tower" still constitute a substantial portion of the recently born cultivators in the Zhou Family.

Yet they did not know, or pretended not to know, that Zhouyang decided to cancel "Fengyue Tower" precisely after discovering that over half of the current seven hundred clan cultivators' ancestors originated from "Fengyue Tower."

For Zhouyang and the Zhou Family, the initial establishment of "Fengyue Tower" primarily stemmed from the slow population growth brought about by offspring of Zhou Family cultivators. Hence, the idea of using such a method to increase the clan cultivator population came to fruition.

Now, after over a hundred years, the original purpose of establishing "Fengyue Tower" has been fulfilled. Coincidentally, he is now planning to control the population growth of the clan, so naturally, the first thing to cancel is "Fengyue Tower."

There's also another reason that cannot be spoken aloud; Zhouyang has realized the existence of "Fengyue Tower" has become an impediment and hidden danger to the now massive Zhou Family.

To prevent this hidden danger from continuing to expand, he naturally wanted to nip it in the bud.

With the demise of Zhou Guangtai, among the current Foundation Establishment Stage elders in Zhou Family, none were from "Fengyue Tower," so the few dissenting voices from the deacon elders couldn't sway or overturn Zhouyang's decision.

Thus, these two proposals became officially implemented policies.

From a personal standpoint, the closure of "Fengyue Tower" doesn't actually impact the real interests of any Zhou Family cultivators. It simply means that some cultivators originally stationed at "Fengyue Tower" were reassigned elsewhere due to the cancellation of tasks.

Therefore, although this matter sparked some discussions, it didn't cause much impact. People were more focused on the extension of the birth subsidy fund to thirty years, as this is a tangible benefit they could actually receive.

Though Zhouyang, who has been closely monitoring the situation, felt quietly relieved.

Luckily, the situation he worried about the most did not occur.

More than two months quickly passed.

On this day, after three hundred days of pregnancy, Liu Xuanxuan successfully gave birth to a baby boy.

The physique of Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators is far superior to mortals. After giving birth, Liu Xuanxuan cleaned herself from impurities with a single magic spell and ingested a spirit pill to replenish Qi and blood. She then, holding the baby boy, walked out of the room and met Zhouyang and Zhou Guangxiang, who had been waiting.

She held the baby with both hands towards Zhouyang and said with a face full of respect, "Master, please name this child."

Zhouyang waved his hand and said, "I was the one who named Guangxiang back then. Now that his child is born, it's not for me to interfere again. Let him, as the father, name his child personally!"

Beside him, Zhou Guangxiang heard this, and quickly reached out to receive the child from his Dao Companion, with a beaming face, he said, "Indeed, I had long thought of a name for this child. Since Ninth Uncle said so, I won't be modest anymore. This child's name will be Tongxuan!"