181: Chapter 181 A New Look for the Family

Ten days later, Chen Changqing quietly left the Yuxu Sect.

This time, he headed straight for Qingyang Mountain. There was no need to worry about Wuyue Mountain, but Qingyang Mountain had quite a few problems.

No one knew whether the Purple Palace Cultivator investigating Zhao Tiangang's death was still around.

When he was taken to the Yuxu Sect that time, he had already informed Master Yuyuan of this news, though he did not know whether Master Yuyuan cared.

Upon returning to Qingyang Mountain, Chen Changqing's first order of business was to step up the cultivation of his subordinates and discuss with Foundation Establishment Cultivators like Chen Yuanwen to establish new rules for the Family.

Besides this, he was planning to upgrade the Spiritual Vein of Qingyang Mountain.

Fortunately, some resources from the Wanta Sect were left over from back then. Relying on these resources and the Spirit Stones in his own hands, it was enough to upgrade the Spiritual Vein of the entire Qingyang Mountain to a Tier 3 Spiritual Vein.

After finishing all this, several months had already passed.

...

A new year was about to arrive.

Inside the ancestral hall, the Elder Council and the hall masters of various halls had all arrived.

As Clan Chief, Chen Yuanqing was not in the primary seat this time.

Because Chen Yuanwen was in charge this time.

Everyone was puzzled; only Clan Chief Chen Yuanqing and the Family's Foundation Establishment Cultivators knew about the Family's changes.

However, the Family did not plan to let them know. Mainly because the Family's current situation was not very good, and the Anti-Immortal Alliance was still in the shadows. Naturally, Chen Changqing wished to hide their strength in case of emergency.

Chen Yuanqing stood up first to report on the Family's condition over the past year.

"Currently, the Family has a total of eleven large and small Spiritual Veins in Qinghe County, among which Qingyang Mountain is a Tier 2 Top-Grade Spiritual Vein, and the rest are Tier 1."

To the vast majority of the Family's Cultivators, Qingyang Mountain was still a Tier 2 Top-Grade Spiritual Vein, and Chen Yuanqing did not make a fuss about it. Moreover, most of the Spiritual Qi of the Tier 3 Spiritual Vein was locked in the back mountain, so the Spiritual Qi of Qingyang Mountain was only slightly richer than before.

"In addition, a total of 4,300 mu of spiritual fields have been reclaimed, including 300 mu of Tier 2 spiritual fields, yielding nearly 1,500 catties of Tier 2 spiritual rice."

"The remaining 4,000 mu of Tier 1 spiritual fields produced a total of 40,000 catties of Tier 1 spiritual rice."

"This year, we sold 20,000 catties of Tier 1 spiritual rice and 1,000 catties of Tier 2 spiritual rice. The profit obtained solely from selling spiritual rice is 5,700 Spirit Stones." After finishing his report, Chen Yuanji returned to his seat.

Chen Yuanwen looked at the ledger and nodded slightly.

Back when he was Clan Chief, the Family's income was not even half of what it was now.

Immediately after, the remaining Elders and hall masters reported one by one.

"Among them, the Artifact Refining Hall made a profit of a full 1,300 Spirit Stones last year, and there are a total of eleven Tier 1 Artifact Refiners within the Family," said Chen Yuanjin, the master of the Artifact Refining Hall.

...

Next was the Talisman Refining Hall.

"Currently, aside from Uncle Yuanwen, who is a Low Grade Tier 2 Talisman Master, the remaining eight Talisman Masters in the Family's Talisman Refining Hall are all Tier 1. Last year's total profit from Talismans was 1,500 Spirit Stones."

...

Next was the Alchemy Hall.

"There are five Alchemists in the Alchemy Hall, including one Top-Grade Tier 1 Alchemist, two High Grade Tier 1 Alchemists, one Medium Grade Tier 1 Alchemist, and one Low Grade Tier 1 Alchemist. Currently, the Alchemy Hall has no profits."

...

"The Beast Taming Hall currently has a total of eight Black Bear Demons, including one Tier 2 Black Bear Demon, while the rest are all of Tier 1 quality..." reported Chen Changtian right after. As the eldest of the 'Chang' generation, he frequently had to handle various matters over the years, constantly traveling back and forth between Qingyang Mountain and Wuyue Mountain.

However, for his convenience, the Family proactively provided him with two High Grade Tier 1 Yao Beasts for protection.

Nowadays, the Chen Family naturally had more than just Spirit Beasts like the Black Bear Demon; they also had clan-protecting Spirit Beasts like the Unicorn and Ash-feathered Hawk.

...

Following that were the Monster Hunting Team, the Formation Hall, and so on, as well as shop rents and profit shares from places like Qinghe Market and Taihe Market.

The entire Qingyang Mountain made a total profit of 21,000 Spirit Stones. A portion of these profitable Spirit Stones was deposited into the Family treasury, and another portion was used to reward clan members and build up the Family.

Therefore, despite earning tens of thousands of Spirit Stones every year, there were also countless places that required Spirit Stones.

Nowadays, the entire Chen Family could be considered a dominant force in Qinghe County. The total number of Cultivators in the Family had reached 276, among whom 183 belonged to the Chen Family's main branch, 62 to branch lineages, and 31 were clan members with foreign surnames.

Over the years, one branch lineage member had also successfully undergone Foundation Establishment; that was Chen Yuan. Her father was not a member of the Chen Family, and her original name was Song Yuan. Later, she was willing to change her surname to Chen, so the Chen Family bestowed the surname Chen upon her.

As for the Cultivators with foreign surnames, no one had achieved Foundation Establishment to this day. Although the Chen Family had once provided Foundation Establishment spiritual objects, that Cultivator ultimately failed.

The contribution required for them to exchange for a foundation establishment pill after joining the Chen Family far exceeded that of the main and branch lineage members. Therefore, they could at most exchange for Foundation Establishment spiritual objects, and these spiritual objects could at best grant them around a ten percent success rate for Foundation Establishment.

Coupled with the fact that most of them lacked talent and were only taken under the Chen Family's wing due to specific talents in certain areas, their Foundation Establishment was much more difficult than for the Chen Family members.

However, no matter how difficult it was, it was still much easier than for Loose Cultivators. After all, it was nearly impossible for Loose Cultivators to obtain a foundation establishment pill, let alone other Foundation Establishment spiritual objects.

Today's Chen Family, aside from the Purple Palace Cultivator Chen Changqing, had ten Foundation Establishment Cultivators, including Chen Lingxi, Chen Lingchuan, and Chen Yuan, who had achieved Foundation Establishment in recent years.

As for Chen Lingtong and Chen Lingyi, the two had disappeared for four years. The Chen Family had also dispatched quite a few Cultivators to search for them, but in the end, they only found locations suspected of being where the two met with misfortune, with no other clues left. Therefore, the Chen Family could not determine whether the two were dead or alive.

Of course, the Chen Family still hoped they were alive. But saying that was one thing; without the slightest bit of clues, if the Chen Family had secret techniques like soul lamps, perhaps they could have known whether they were dead or alive immediately.

But now...

Fortunately, after Chen Changqing returned, he brought back secret techniques like soul lamps. Now, every Foundation Establishment Cultivator and Genius Cultivator of the Chen Family had a soul lamp burning brightly in the Family ancestral hall.

After the reports concluded, several hours had already passed. All the Elders and hall masters hurried away. With less than ten days remaining until the New Year, they had long wanted to go back and spend time with their families.

Chen Yuanwen sat in the primary seat, looking calmly at the ledger.

...

Throughout Qinghe County, the remaining families were also conducting their reporting work for the year.

Among them, the Liu Family's income increased by a large margin. The Chen Family had handed over a portion of their territory for them to manage, allowing them to reap substantial benefits from it. Moreover, their ancestral mountain also received support from the Chen Family, upgrading its Spiritual Vein to a Low Grade Tier 2 Spiritual Vein, which correspondingly increased the resources obtained from the entire ancestral mountain significantly.

In the Li Family, Li Qingying successfully achieved Foundation Establishment, which could be considered having a successor for the Li Family. Upon learning this news, Li Taixuan immediately left the Chen Family and returned to the Li Family. He was less than ten years away from his limit, and compared to before, his hair was now completely white, giving off the stark impression of someone on the verge of passing away.

As for the Wang Family, there had been no changes over the years. Even with the protection of the Chen Family, they still failed to produce any new Foundation Establishment Cultivators. On the other hand, Zhou Ziye of the Zhou Family had once again begun attempting to break through to Foundation Establishment.

At Tianchen Mountain's Zhou Family, many Elders waited outside for Zhou Ziye's Foundation Establishment, among them was Zhou Minghong.

He was now over a hundred years old. Whenever he looked at his own Family, he felt a sense of envy towards the Chen Family. The Chen Family had achieved Foundation Establishment Family status even later than them, yet they were growing stronger and stronger.

In contrast, for the Zhou Family, ever since Zhou Mingsui's death, the Family was leaking from all directions. The families that they used to oppress had also united to resist. Had it not been for the protection of the Chen Family, they might have long been wiped out by their enemies.