52: Chapter 52 A Year of Growth

Wang Shouyi bit his teeth to hold back his laughter, his shoulders twitching continuously, causing even the white cloth in his hands to tremble along with him.

Wang Chongyang still stood in front of the mountain gate, the crimson flames on his body slowly withdrawing as he looked at Family Head Ning with a half-smile: "Family Head Ning, your helper doesn't seem very reliable."

Ning Shengli's face had flushed into a liver-like purple, the veins on his forehead bulging, and his lips trembling several times before he finally swallowed that foul breath back down alive.

As a Foundation Establishment Cultivator facing Wang Chongyang, he couldn't gain the upper hand to begin with; now that Head of the Yan Family Yan Bosong had deserted right before the battle, if he were still to stubbornly hold on, it would only be bringing humiliation upon himself.

He turned around, stepped onto his Flying Sword, and gave Wang Chongyang a vicious glare before leaving.

"Wang Chongyang, you can live for at most another year or two. After you die, let's see for how much longer your Family can still be so arrogant!"

A crimson escape light soared up into the sky, vanishing into the horizon in the blink of an eye.

On the stone platform in front of the mountain gate, silence reigned for several breaths before a long-suppressed cheer erupted.

Old Daoist Chen laughed until old tears streamed down his face, patting the shoulder of a young Loose Cultivator beside him and repeating only one sentence over and over: "We won, we actually won."

Wang Yaowu slammed his sword down onto the ground and laughed towards the sky.

——————

Time flowed, spring departed and autumn came.

A full year had passed since that day when the Ning Family and Yan Family joined forces to press upon the borders and the Loose Cultivators fought to the death to protect the mountain gate.

Throughout this past year, there had constantly been people sitting cross-legged in meditation on the stone platform at the southern foot of Wogui Mountain.

The lingering charm of Wang Chongyang's Dao discourse did not dissipate with time; instead, like a jar of aged wine, it grew more mellow the longer it brewed.

The Loose Cultivators spontaneously built thatched huts to live here, with the number of thatched huts increasing from a few dozen to over a hundred, spreading along the mountainside. Cooking smoke intertwined with morning mist, and the sound of reading intertwined with the ringing of swords, suddenly forming a small Cultivator settlement.

The Family spent this past year exceptionally securely.

Ever since their secret stakes were uprooted, the Ning Family made no further major moves, while the Yan Family shrank back into Funiu Mountain to make a fortune in silence, even taking the initiative to move their borders back by half a li.

The Three Counties welcomed a long-lost peace, and peaceful days were precisely what the Family needed the most.

The children of the Shou generation shot upward like they were racing each other during this past year.

First was Wang Shouyi, the son of Wang Yaowu; with Wang Shouren in closed-door seclusion and unable to come out, he had naturally become the new leader of the Family's younger generation.

Only after truly stepping into this position did Wang Shouyi understand Wang Shouren's pressure.

The focus of the entire Family converged on you, and your every word and action played a leading role.

On ordinary days he could slack off, but now, every day he either practiced swords or sat in meditation, spoke to no one, did not leave the mountain gate, and even had his meals delivered to the doorway of the practice room.

On the evening of the forty-ninth day, he walked out from the practice room, the aura surrounding his body completely different.

Wang Chongyang personally tested his cultivation: Qi Refining Seventh Stage, spiritual power condensed and solid, Foundation firmly established.

"He walks the path of borrowing the momentum of the earth with overwhelming power; his Foundation is solid, and among the same Realm there should be few opponents, and he even has certainty in fighting opponents of a higher Realm. Good!"

Wang Chongyang patted his grandnephew's shoulder, his voice filled with a hint of emotion.

...

Wang Shouyi was not the only one among the Shou generation who made a Breakthrough.

Half a year later, Wang Qingyan also stepped into the Qi Refining Seventh Stage, becoming the second Qi Refining Late Stage among the Shou generation.

Wang Qingyan was a collateral clansman of the Family, originally the daughter of a mountain peasant surnamed Wang, who was later tested by the Family to have a Spiritual Root and brought up the mountain to cultivate.

Her personality had always been cold and detached, disliking conversation. Because of her beauty, there were always some Cultivators trying various methods to get close to her, so aside from the tasks assigned by the Family, she rarely went out on ordinary days.

Her path was completely different from Wang Shouyi's; Wang Shouyi walked the fierce and domineering heavy sword path, whereas she walked the nimble and swift Spell Cultivator path.

In addition, seven other children of the Shou generation broke through to the Qi Refining Sixth Stage, and nineteen people stepped from the Qi Refining Early Stage into the Qi Refining Middle Stage.

Although it was merely a crossing of minor Realms, for them with mediocre Aptitude, every step felt like pulling their legs out from the mud.

When Wang Yaowu read out the Breakthrough list of the Shou generation one by one at the clan meeting, Wang Yaozu sat in the main seat with little expression on his face, only his hand holding the tea cup trembling slightly.

"Shouren, just as you said about the Family's cup of water, I'm afraid in less than two years, the Shou generation will be able to surpass my generation."

Night.

"Mother!"

Wang Qingcheng burst open the door headfirst, holding a crooked tin Puppet Rat in her hands. Her small face was smeared with several streaks of dark ash, yet her eyes were as bright as if she had just picked up a basket of Spirit Stones.

"I've refined a First Rank Puppet beast! First Rank! It's not that kind of semi-finished product from my brother's residual manual, I modified it myself! It can really run now, look, look!"

Wang Yaozu coughed twice and imperceptibly shifted half a body's length to the side.

Chen Yirou blushed and quickly tucked a stray lock of hair from her temples behind her ear, smoothing down her collar as well, but a few creases made just moments earlier remained on the hem of her skirt, refusing to flatten no matter how she stroked them.

"You girl," Chen Yirou steadied her mind, her voice still carrying an imperceptible slight huskiness, "didn't you know to knock before entering the room? You're already eight years old, yet you're still so reckless."

Wang Qingcheng blinked, looked at her mother's slightly red cheeks, and then looked at her father's rare unnatural expression, asking doubtfully: "Mother, why is your face so red? Are you feeling unwell?"

"Ahem." Wang Yaozu coughed once more, raised his tea cup to block in front of his face, and discovering that the tea was empty, silently put it back down.

Chen Yirou took a deep breath and forcibly twisted the topic back: "What did you say just now? You refined a First Rank Puppet beast? Are you telling the truth?"

"Mn!"

The two exchanged glances, clearly disbelieving. Didn't they know what kind of temper their daughter had? She loved dabbling in weird and eccentric gadgets, and whenever something interested her, she would get a rush of blood to her head, making it hard for her to persist for long.

Moreover, Puppet beasts were not so easy to refine; otherwise, ever since the Family obtained the Jade Slip, they had privately trained over a dozen people, yet only one person could manufacture a First Rank Puppet beast.

The crucial part was that what they manufactured were just laborers lacking Formation carvings, capable only of being driven by thought to do some physical labor.

Wang Qingcheng let out a proud, heavy grunt and raised her smooth little chin: "Of course it's true."

She placed the tin Puppet Rat onto the ground, and the rat ran a crooked circle. Its legs were still a bit shaky, but it ran quite steadily.

Seeing this, Chen Yirou let out a giggle: "Alright, alright, alright, it can run. It seems Qingcheng really put her heart into it this time."

"Mud Swamp Spell!" Wang Qingcheng cried out crisply, a strip of earth-yellow spiritual light from her fingertips striking into the Spirit-Gathering Formation at the belly center of the Puppet Rat.

That tin Puppet Rat squeaked twice, opened its mouth, and actually spat out a fist-sized mud-yellow light sphere.

The light sphere fell onto the tabletop and instantly turned into a pool of sticky mud swamp half a foot square.

Wang Yaozu abruptly stood up, not even caring that he had knocked over his tea cup.

He stared at that pool of mud swamp on the table, his pupils slightly contracting.

"That's right, it actually really is the Mud Swamp Spell."

In the span of a single breath, Wang Yaozu had already grabbed this Puppet beast, and after the Puppet Rat struggled twice, he pressed it right back down.

The Spell Formation of the Mud Swamp Spell carved into the belly center of this Puppet Rat was undoubtedly real; although the Formation patterns were crude, they were complete without any flaws.

In other words, that Spell just now was really released by this little thing?!