168: Many children

At the very moment Chen Jun was experiencing the shock of the System upgrade deep within his Soul and beginning to calmly analyze the uses for his new skill points—

Inside the side hall where he was located, the space rippled like a water surface disturbed by a thrown stone, sending out circles of soft, profound undulations.

A figure in a white dress emerged silently.

It was none other than Yun Qinglan.

Unlike before, the invisible pressure around her—which had previously been restrained to the extreme yet still capable of making Star Arm Level powerhouses feel suffocated—had now completely vanished.

No, it hadn't vanished, but rather... merged!

She stood there as if she were the space itself, a natural extension of the Law of this Star Domain.

There was no longer any oppressive Aura, but it gave people a sense of being even more unfathomable, akin to facing the vastness of the entire Universe and feeling insignificant.

She had stabilized at the Elementary Galaxy Level Realm! She had come specially to share the good news...

"Father." Qinglan spoke. Her voice was still cold and clear, but it seemed to possess an extra touch of indescribable etherealness and charm, like the whisper of a nebula.

Chen Jun's thoughts were instantly pulled back to reality.

He looked at his daughter. Even with his current "seen it all" mentality of winning while lying down, he couldn't help but let a flash of fatherly gratification and pride—and a hint of... envy?—cross his eyes.

Although his daughter was awesome, his own strength was still that of a weakling...

"Qinglan, you... have you had a Breakthrough?" Although Chen Jun had made some guesses through the beneficial state fluctuation sensing function of the 【Multiple Benefits】 effect, he still confirmed it.

"Mm." Qinglan nodded slightly. Her stunning face still lacked expression, but deep in her eyes, the eternal ice seemed to have melted a little, reflecting specks of starlight. "I just stabilized my Realm."

"Good! That's good!" Chen Jun clapped his hands and laughed, overjoyed. "I knew my daughter was a natural-born genius! What is a Galaxy Level? Before you, it's like walking on flat ground!"

He feigned a sigh. "Sigh, look at you, being so outstanding, it puts a lot of pressure on me as a father. In the future, when I go out, people will have to introduce me as 'This is Her Highness Qinglan's father.' My title of 'Ancestor Chen' is about to be overshadowed by you!"

Qinglan listened quietly to her father's "complaints," her gaze calm, as if saying, "Father, you are acting too exaggeratedly."

Chen Jun laughed and stopped teasing his daughter, refocusing his attention on the System choices within his mind.

He directly ignored 【Longevity Multiplier】 and 【Multiple Benefits】.

【Longevity Multiplier】? A chicken rib! It's purely icing on the cake, I don't want it!

【Multiple Benefits】? A late-game passive, I don't want it!

So, what remained was the 【Multifortune】 enhancement and 【Awakening New Function】.

His gaze lingered on 【Multifortune】.

"The guaranteed Aptitude increases from Innate Martial Body to Innate Star Body..." Chen Jun stroked his chin, his eyes flickering.

This was undoubtedly a highly tempting option.

If activated now, it meant that from now on, any child born into his Chen Clan would start as an Innate Star Body!

The improvement to his Family's overall strength would be visible to the naked eye!

The Reverse-Feed effect obtained by those wives who married into the Chen Clan would be even more terrifying!

The starting point for the heirs of those civilizations possessing the chen clan bloodline would be even higher!

But... Chen Jun frowned slightly, thinking of deeper issues.

"Aptitude that is too high might not be a good thing..." He muttered internally: The next level of the System requires one sextillion (one hundred million trillion) descendants!

Although this was an astronomical figure! Another one-hundred-million-fold increase! But with exponential population growth, as long as the level of technological growth could keep up, and there was sufficient living space and resources, a one-hundred-million-fold population increase would only take a few generations!

If 【Multifortune】 was added. First, the pregnancy period would be prolonged, which would directly slow down reproductive efficiency, affect the Family population growth rate, and subsequently... slow down my System upgrade speed!

Secondly, the stronger the strength, the weaker the reproductive ability. If it were upgraded to Innate Star Body now, the reproductive efficiency would drop, so wouldn't the System upgrade have to wait until who knows when?!

Finally, and most importantly! The higher the descendant's Aptitude, the longer their lifespan. With an Innate Star Body in today's great era, breaking through to the Stellar Level would be incredibly easy! Breaking through to the Star Arm Level would not be impossible either!

Then when would 【Multiple Benefits】 be activated? One hundred thousand years later?! One million years later?!

It was still not urgent to upgrade 【Multifortune】... Chen Jun made his final decision. "It won't be too late to add points later when skill points are abundant, or when there is an urgent need to increase the upper limit of descendants' Aptitude."

Then, there was only one answer! "I choose... Awakening New Function!" Chen Jun made the selection with his mind, carrying a hint of anticipation like opening a blind box...

【Command confirmed. Skill points consumed x 1.】

【Randomly Awakening a new function for the host...】

【Function Awakening...】

【Congratulations to the host, you have awakened a brand-new core function—【Numerous Offspring】!】

【Numerous Offspring】: Descendants continue, the Family line thrives.

Effect 1: Rule Override. The hidden rule 【No Kun】 has been erased and replaced by the new rule 【Only Kun】: When the host reproduces, the offspring's gender is fixed as male. (This rule only applies to the host himself and does not affect the natural gender probability of the host's descendants.)

Effect 2: Bloodline Optimization. All of the host's direct Bloodline descendants (regardless of generation) have their reproductive ability implicitly enhanced. Specifically: weakening of the reproductive isolation of powerhouses. Current effect: weakened by one-fold. (Note: Reproductive isolation is a dimensional Law intended to maintain the stability of life forms and the balance of energy levels. The stronger the life form, the lower the probability of natural reproduction between each other and with lower-level life forms. The 【Numerous Offspring】 effect can effectively counter this Law restriction.)

【Skill Point Enhancement】: For every 1 skill point invested in this function, the weakening of the reproductive isolation of powerhouses increases by ten-fold.

Chen Jun: "???!!!"

【Only Kun】?! Only giving birth to sons?!

【Weakening of reproductive isolation of powerhouses】?! And it's upgradable?!

This... this new function... the expression on Chen Jun's face went from anticipation to astonishment, and then to... a look of speechlessness?!

"Just this?!" He mentally ranted crazily. "I had already taken off my pants... no, I mean, my expectations were maxed out, and this is what you show me?!"

【Only Kun】?! Only giving birth to sons?! It sounds awesome, as if from now on, everyone Chen Jun births will be "equipped," all "sowers" capable of spreading the Family tree!

But the problem is—does he still need to give birth himself?! He had long passed that Elementary stage where he needed to personally step onto the field and work hard to give birth to daughters!

He is now an Old Ancestor! A winner who lies down! The heavy responsibility of reproduction had long been handed over to his grandchildren and descendants!

This function, for him now, was simply... the dragon-slaying technique was mastered, but the dragon was gone?!!

"Chicken rib! Too much of a chicken rib!" Chen Jun was heartbroken. "If this had awakened right when I first had my Transmigration, I would have woken up laughing! Relying on 【One-Shot Soul Penetration】 and 【Absolute Guarantee】, I would have crazily birthed sons, and the Family scale would at least be able to multiply many more times! But now... sigh!"

He felt like he had lost one hundred million! However, Weiwei had always wanted a son, so it wasn't completely useless; there would definitely be an opportunity in the future!

When he cast his gaze toward 【Effect 2】, his mood was finally comforted a little, and... the more he looked, the better he felt!

"Weakening of reproductive isolation of powerhouses... this... seems to have some use?" He immediately realized the huge potential behind this effect!

Reproductive isolation, this is a dimensional Law! Why did his descendants, especially those powerful ones, see their reproductive efficiency begin to decline significantly?

After Chen Zhaojing reached the Stellar Level, his efforts for a year were not as effective as one day before? It was because the stronger the strength and the higher the life level, the stronger the reproductive isolation between them and their spouses (especially those with lower strength)!

This was a natural shackle set by the Universe to maintain the stability of life forms and the balance of energy levels!

And now, the 【Numerous Offspring】 function was directly starting to pry at this shackle! Weakening it ten-fold!

If he added a point later, it would mean that his Stellar Level descendants could see their reproductive efficiency increase by nearly ten-fold! This was undoubtedly a huge boon for the exponential growth of his Family's population!

"Although it's not as immediate as directly increasing the guaranteed Aptitude to enhance the Family's strength, this is fundamentally increasing 'productivity'!" Chen Jun's eyes lit up.

He thought further ahead. "The next level of the System requires one sextillion descendants, one hundred million trillion! That is one hundred million times the current one trillion!"

"A one-hundred-million-fold increase in one hundred years is still too optimistic. With the massive base of descendants and the overall improvement in strength, the effect of popularizing core values will inevitably be diluted and discounted. Just like brainwashing ten thousand people versus one trillion people, the difficulty is completely not on the same order of magnitude!"

"Especially, the stronger the descendants, the more severe the reproductive isolation; this is an objective Law. Even if they try hard subjectively, limited by the Law, reproductive efficiency will drop significantly."

"But now with the 【Numerous Offspring】 function, I can directly counter this Law!"

"Weakening by ten-fold means that with the same effort, the output can increase by nearly ten-fold! If skill points are abundant in the future, invest two points, weaken by one hundred-fold! Invest three points, weaken by one thousand-fold! ...The picture is too beautiful! Upgrade in a few years?!"

Chen Jun seemed to see that, under the blessing of the 【Numerous Offspring】 function, his massive number of descendants had broken the curse of low fertility among powerhouses, continuing to spread their branches and leaves at a terrifying speed, sprinkling the chen clan bloodline into the even wider Star Domain! The speed of the System upgrade would surely be greatly accelerated!

"Mm... looking at it this way, although the 【Numerous Offspring】 function doesn't look as flashy as 【Multifortune】, it is 'infrastructure' that Guarantees my path to winning while lying down and accelerates the System upgrade!" Chen Jun nodded with satisfaction. "It belongs to the category of providing charcoal in snowy weather, not adding flowers to brocade! Its priority for adding points is even above 【Longevity Multiplier】, 【Multiple Benefits】, and 【Multifortune】!"

"As for that 【Only Kun】... I'll just treat it as an extra, it's currently of no use at all... Forget it, I won't think about it."

With his mindset adjusted, Chen Jun felt his thoughts become clear again. He looked at Qinglan, who was waiting quietly in front of him, and a signature smile, carrying a hint of laziness and profound meaning, appeared on his face.

"Qinglan, you had your Breakthrough at just the right time." Chen Jun said with a smile. "I have just had some realizations, and I feel that our Chen Clan's future population growth can still be accelerated by 'a little bit'."

Qinglan's clear eyes looked at her father. Although she couldn't perceive any changes or fluctuations in energy or Law, she still nodded slightly, following her father's words: "Father's words are absolutely correct. The prosperity of the Family is the Foundation."

"Exactly! The Foundation!" Chen Jun slapped his thigh. "Therefore, I have decided to further deepen the core value of 'strive to reproduce, strengthen the Family'! I want everyone to understand that this is not a task, it is an honor! It is a magnificent feat of breaking the shackles of life!"

The more he spoke, the more enthusiastic he became, and he began to improvise: "We must set examples! Commend the advanced! For those descendants who have made outstanding contributions to the cause of reproduction, we must vigorously publicize them! Reward them heavily! Let everyone be proud of having many children!"

"Later, I will have Chu Yueyao set up a 'Family Reproductive Hero List', to be evaluated every year! Those on the list will be rewarded with source marrow! Rewarded with resource stars! Rewarded... rewarded with a personal pointer from you!"

Qinglan: "...Father, they might not be able to withstand my guidance."

Chen Jun: "...Ahem, then let's change the reward. In short, we must mobilize everyone's enthusiasm!"

"Yes, Father." Qinglan agreed.

"Alright, you've just had a Breakthrough, go back and experience your new Realm well." Chen Jun waved his hand. "I will ponder further on how to implement this little bit of acceleration."

Qinglan bowed slightly, and her figure merged into the space again, disappearing.

Inside the side hall, only Chen Jun remained. He comfortably slumped back onto the lounge chair, feeling the "sense of presence" in his body that had become increasingly profound due to the System upgrade, as well as the implicit changes brought about by the newly awakened 【Numerous Offspring】 function.

"Mm, not bad, not bad." Chen Jun happily picked up a piece of "singularity bubble gum" and threw it into his mouth.

"Although I didn't open anything very cool from the blind box this time, I opened something very practical! It's suitable for a pragmatic long-lived person like me who wins while lying down!"

He seemed to have already seen the beautiful scene of the future, where under the blessing of the 【Numerous Offspring】 function, the Family population would grow explosively, and the System experience bar would advance rapidly.

"One sextillion? Just a small goal!"

"Just wait, it won't be long before I can lie down and win my way to System Level 4!"

"At that time, I'll see what new blind box I can open!"

Chen Jun was full of confidence, feeling that his life had reached another small climax... He adjusted to the most comfortable position, closed his eyes, and began to plan his next big plan for winning while lying down.

Lying flat is a mentality, winning while lying down is a wisdom! Thinking about this, the corners of his mouth turned up...