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Chapter 7: Two Years
Three days later, Li Ergou got married.
There was no such thing as three hires and six gifts, just a simple ceremony.
On the wedding day, only a few relatives from the bride's side attended.
The groom's side had even fewer people.
Li Ergou only had one friend, Lan Chang'an, to help usher him in.
The other five immortal seedlings came along to help make up the numbers.
As a gesture of goodwill, Lan Chang'an and a few immortal seedlings also gave gifts.
These immortal seedlings were so poor that they could only afford some mundane gold and silver, or small personal items.
Lan Chang'an gave a handwritten booklet.
It was titled Secrets of Locking the Dragon.
It was not a cultivation technique, but a bedroom secret technique.
Apart from enhancing that aspect of ability, it could also lock up more Yang Qi, preventing it from being depleted by beauties.
"I probably won't need Secrets of Locking the Dragon in this life."
Lan Chang'an was certain of it in his heart.
In his previous life, born into a cultivation family, he had no choice but to have multiple wives and concubines, leaving behind many offspring.
In the early stages, the support from a cultivation family was indeed significant.
But at a certain level, the family and offspring would become a burden.
For the sake of his family and children, his energy was stretched thin, and at certain times he had no choice but to fall into a whirlpool of conflicts to fight for benefits.
...
Li Ergou made swift moves.
Two months after getting married, his wife Mu Qing became pregnant.
When the head of the family, Mu Maode, learnt of this, he immediately offered them a generous reward.
They were given a low-grade magical weapon, a set of magic robes, thirty low-grade spirit stones, two bottles of qi nourishing pills, and sixty pounds of spiritual rice.
.....
Such generous rewards made other immortal seedlings envious.
Even Lan Chang'an was a bit moved.
He currently only had three and a half spirit stones and an inferior-grade magical weapon.
"Family head Mu is setting an example, wanting us to follow suit."
Lan Chang'an's heart was like a clear mirror.
The Mu family head gave his word that the first to give birth to a heir and the first to give birth to a heir with spiritual roots would receive additional rewards.
At once, the immortal seedlings who were still hesitant couldn't sit still and scrambled to take wives and have children!
Only, the rewards for the latter were less than a third of Li Ergou's.
After Li Ergou made a visit to another family, Lan Chang'an got to learn that Li Ergou's wife was the granddaughter of the family head, Mu Maode.
So, the generous rewards for being the first to have a child were due to Li Ergou's connection to Mu Maode's family.
"This kid, a simple man with a simple blessing."
Lan Chang'an lamented in his heart.
The family head must have quite a few children and grandchildren, so a granddaughter didn't carry much weight.
Lan Changan surmised that because Li Ergou had no background, no education, and a pure heart, this kind of person was easy to take in.
The Mu family is considering taking this son-in-law and really absorbing him as a part of the family.
As for Lan Chang'an...
With a firm mind and experience in the martial world, it was difficult to truly bring him under control.
Even if he was as active in having babies as Li Ergou, he wouldn't receive any special care.
...
A year and a half later.
All the immortal seedlings who came to the Mu family all married and had children, integrating into the Mu family of Feiyue Lake as clansmen with foreign surnames.
Except for Lan Chang'an.
So far, he hadn't budged, and had been immersed in closed-door cultivation.
Although he rarely went out, the young women of the Mu family knew about his rumours.
Some people claimed that Lan Chang'an possessed a medium-grade spiritual root. He held himself in high regard, refusing to marry into the family and looking down upon the mortal women of the Mu family.
In the courtyard, inside the practice room.
Dressed in white robes, Lan Chang'an sat cross-legged, practicing the Ancient Trees Evergreen Technique.
He was like a wooden sculpture, seemingly silent on the outside, but within his body flowed continuous mana rich in vitality.
Through the wood spiritual root, he operated the cultivation method, pulling in the spiritual qi from the outside world and eventually forming his own evergreen mana.
The difference between heaven and earth aura and mana was:
Heaven and earth aura is wild.
It is chaotic and uncontrollable, and cannot be directly used by low-level cultivators.
Mana, on the other hand, is the cultivator's ability to "domesticate" the outside world's aura into a form that belongs to him or her through the absorption of the spiritual root and the transformation of the cultivation method.
"I never thought that the progress of the Ancient Trees Evergreen Technique would be so 'steady'."
Lan Chang'an opened his eyes, his face unsightly.
It took him a year and a half to cultivate to the peak of the first layer.
Having spent his last three and a half spirit stones, his cultivation could barely reach the peak of the first layer of Qi Refining.
A month earlier, Li Ergou had already advanced to the second level of Qi Refining.
One of the other four immortal seedlings had also made a breakthrough..
Instead, Lan Chang'an, the middle-grade spirit root, had became a hangman
There were three reasons for this result:
The first point was that the cultivation speed of the Ancient Trees Evergreen Technique was particularly flat, and Lan Chang'an's cultivation insights from his first two reincarnations didn't help increase it too much.
Quite literally, it cancelled out Lan Chang'an's advantage of re-cultivation.
Second, he used his wood spiritual root to cultivate this technique, with a sensing degree of only seventeen, equivalent to a low-grade spiritual root.
Lan Chang'an's medium-grade spiritual root was a fire spiritual root, with a sensibility of twenty, which was left unutilized. f𝐫𝗲eweb𝗻o𝐯el.𝚌o𝗺
Third, because Lan Chang'an refused to marry and have children with Mu family women, the resources provided by the Mu family for his cultivation were kept at a minimum.
"The only resources provided are the spiritual vein cultivation site, the most basic cultivation technique, and three catties of spiritual rice per month."
Lan Chang'an sighed.
This was obviously Mu Maode's tactic, in order to force him into submission.
On the contrary, Li Ergou was provided with elixirs to refine his cultivation every month, and was issued a whopping thirty jin of spirit rice.
In the immortal cultivation path, among "wealth, companionship, techniques, and land", "wealth"ranked first.
Without wealth, even if one had a top-grade spiritual root, one would never be able to advance to the Foundation Establishment Realm in one's lifetime.
Facing this "unfair" treatment, Lan Chang'an did not hold any grudges.
As the old saying goes, one meal feeds a benefactor, but a thousand meals feed an enemy.
Lan Chang'an hadn't forgotten his original intention; he came to freeload off the Mu family's spiritual vein.
Whether it was voluntary or not, the Mu family had at least shown him favour.
...
Another half a year passed.
It had been two years since Lan Chang'an had come to the Mu family.
On this day, inside the practice room.
"Second layer of Qi Refining."
The fluctuations of mana on Lan Chang'an's body rose by a notch.
A trace of the mysterious aura of years flowing by briefly flashed.
"This aura..."
For the first time in this life, Lan Chang'an's face revealed shock!
A year ago, he had also felt this peculiar feeling.
It was a profound implication of the cycle of the ancient trees throughout the four seasons, which he thought was a characteristic of the technique.
This time, after crossing the second year, during the moment of advancement, he once again captured this mysterious aura.
If it weren't for his keen soul perception, he might have missed it.
"Could it be that the Ancient Trees Evergreen Technique absorbs the aura of time during cultivation?"
"If that's the case, then the slow progress of cultivation can be completely understood..."
Lan Chang'an suppressed the shock and excitement in his heart.
The rotation of the years, this was the rule of the heavens and earth.
It was said that some ancient true spirits or mythical beasts from antiquity fed on the passage of time.
That level of power was beyond reach, even for those in the Nascent Soul Realm.
"No wonder the Ancient Trees Evergreen Technique can prolong life..."
Lan Chang'an realized that this ancient longevity technique was definitely not simple.
If there was a opportunity, he must get his hands on the rest of the Evergreen Technique!
In his previous life, in the cave of the Nascent Soul Cultivatior Yan Donglai, he fought over it and obtained half of the "Ancient Evergreen Technique" during the chaos.
The other half was obtained by a great master of a major sect.
Information about that person could be found in the depth of his memories.
however, Lan Chang'an couldn't be sure whether these two lives were in the same side of the immortal cultivation world.
...
After advancing to the second layer of Qi Refining, Lan Chang'an came out to relax.
After all, the Evergreen Technique needed to draw on the Qi of the ages, so there was no rush.
No wonder this technique could cultivate one's temperament.
He first went to the neighboring courtyard.
Li Ergou was playing with his children. Seeing Lan Chang'an approaching, he was very happy.
"Come, call Big Brother Lan Uncle Lan."
Li Ergou held his eldest son, Mu Yifan.
Unfortunately, the child was only a year old and not very smart, making babbling noises.
The reason he was called the eldest son was that a month ago, Li Ergou's wife Mu Qing became pregnant again.
It was important to know that it's not easy for cultivators to conceive, and the higher the cultivation level, the more difficult it becomes.
Lan Chang'an suspected that his gift of the Secrets of Locking the Dragon might have provided a helping hand.
Lan Chang'an gently touched the child's forehead, finding him unusually quiet and obedient.
A child's cultivation aptitude would only be revealed when he or she was six years old or older, and it was not visible at the moment..
"Hmm, it's strange. My Fan'er is very shy." Li Ergou said playfully.
Usually, the child was handed over to the Mu family's nanny to take care of because Li Ergou, as a father, didn't have much time to spend with him due to his cultivation, thus the child was sometimes shy when meeting Li Ergou.
"Huh! Big Brother Lan has already advanced to the second layer of Qi Refining, congratulations."
Li Ergou congratulated.
"Not as fast as you."
Lan Chang'an's mood was slightly complicated.
Both of them started at the same starting line.
In his third reincarnation, his cultivation speed was actually lagging behind a peasant boy.
Li Ergou was even two years younger than him.
"Big Brother Lan, I think there's nothing wrong with marrying into the Mu family. Why don't you consider it?"
Li Ergou didn't know how prosperous his current life was.
Using the Mu family's spiritual vein, enjoying the spiritual rice, pills, and techniques provided by the Mu family. Having a child without having to raise it yourself, there were also rewards.
"People have different aspirations. You don't have to persuade me."
Lan Chang'an shook his head, refusing Li Ergou's offer of pills and spirit stones once again.
"Oh right! Big Brother Lan, I received a letter from Lin Yi a few days ago."
Li Ergou's face straightened as he handed the child over to the nanny.
"Lin Yi?"
Lan Chang'an thought of the once somewhat arrogant young marquis.
"Does big brother still remember the agreement we made on the way to the sect's assessment back then?"
"We, the immortal seedlings from Hengshui Prefecture, made a pact: regardless of whether we could enter the immortal sect in the future, we would meet again at the Immortal Gathering Building in Hengshui Prefecture after three years."
"The agreement back then? It's hard to believe whether the disciples who entered the sect would take it seriously!"
Lan Chang'an wasn't optimistic.
He couldn't help but recall Zhao Siyao, the graceful and beautiful young lady of the house.
Entering the sect was already put them on a different level.
"Haha! Big Brother Lan is being too harsh. Lin Yi said in his letter that Zhao Siyao promised to attend the gathering and hasn't broken her promise."
Li Ergou grinned widely, very pleased.